I thought highly of Teddy Bridgewater as a quarterback, leader and all-around good guy when he was in Minnesota. I envisioned him becoming a good starting quarterback in the NFL once he fully recovered from his knee injury. I could still see it. But we didn't see that on Sunday.

Bridgewater started poorly, missed a wide-open receiver for an easy touchdown in the third quarter, and missed a gimme touchdown throw late in the fourth that would have beaten the Vikings and dramatically changed the story of Minnesota's still-inscrutable season.

How's Teddy looking?

Not great right now.

Does that mean Vikings fans should be thankful to have Kirk Cousins instead right now?

Not so fast.

ESPN's QBR - their meaasure of a quarterback's total performance - ranks Bridgewater 12th and Cousins 17th this season.

Both are good enough to keep their jobs and give their teams a chance when they're playing well.

Neither is capable of elevating his franchise, not right now.

Cousins buried the Vikings early in the season and began to dig them out about a month ago. He's been very good in November.

What's different today about this quarterback comparison is that Cousins is simply playing better than Bridgewater right now, and outplayed him on Sunday.

-The Vikings are 5-6 in part because they were able to beat Detroit and Chicago.

Where would they be if Detroit and Chicago had good head coaches?

You may not want to answer that.

You can find my Vikings and other podcasts at TalkNorth.com

@Souhanstrib