With 28 points being scored in the fourth-quarter and two touchdowns posted in the final minute and 11 seconds, the Arizona Cardinals vs the Minnesota Vikings was as close to an “ESPN Classic” as you’ll see for a preseason match.  

The biggest story heading into the night was the amount of playing time coach Zimmer said he would allocate to Matt Cassel and Teddy Bridgewater, saying they would both play close to an entire half of football, and that they did.  

Dating back to the start of training camp not many have been more consistent day in and day out than veteran quarterback Matt Cassel who carried that momentum into last weeks preseason game against the Raiders, while Teddy Bridgewater looked like a rookie, showing flashes of brilliance, followed by the typical rookie mistakes.  

After that game the writing was on the wall for Cassel to be the starter the rest of the way leading up to week one against St. Louis with his veteran presence and digestion of Norv Turner’s playbook.  Against the Cardinals, Cassel showed no sign to point the ship otherwise continuing his solid play going 12-16 for 126 yards and a 51-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Rudolph.  Cassel had a good command of the offense getting into a rhythm early, and finishing the night with zero interceptions and zero sacks taken.  

His counterpart Bridgewater one upped him however, going 16-20 for 177 yards and an 11.6 higher quarterback rating by nights end.  More importantly though was Bridgewater’s ability to drive his team down the field with just 1:11 left and two time outs.  

The Vikings got the ball back after a goofy Cardinals play that went in for a touchdown, after a botched snap that was picked up and ran in for the score.  Bridgewater hooked up with Adam Theilen and Jarius Wright multiple times during the seven-play 83-yard drive.  With seconds left and the ball marked at the three-yard line, Bridgewater floated one up to Rodney Smith on an end zone fade, clamping the ball tight with both hands as he tipped toed into the corner.  

The crowd chanted “Teddy” long after the drive, and continued to do so once the clock hit zeros.  

While coach Zimmer repeated in his post game press conference that he has a date in mind of when he will announce his starting quarterback for the season opener, that decision just got a whole lot tougher after watching Bridgewater lead his team from behind in dramatic fashion.  Still, with his body of work as a whole and his time with the first-team, Cassel remains the odds on favorite to keep that title.  Meanwhile, the team should be more than happy with what they’ve seen from their first-round pick from a progression stand point, and their ability to not rush him into the starting lineup any time soon.  

Harry and Who (Part Three)

A continuous follow up with the safety position, and just who exactly coach Zimmer favors next to incumbent starter Harrison Smith.  

Robert Blanton was the early on favorite after he took all of the first-team reps during off season workouts and OTAs.  It wasn’t until Blanton strained his hamstring during the first week of training camp when things started to get cloudy.  

The team mixed in a handful of players at the position from old to new in hopes of getting an idea of who excelled in what specific areas of Zimmer’s new scheme.  Players like Kurt Coleman, Andrew Sendejo, Jamarca Sanford, Mistral Raymond, and Antone Exum were all shuffled in with the first team, however, no one seemed to step up to Zimmer’s standards which is why the team went out and signed veteran Chris Crocker.  

Since the signing Crocker has stepped in with the first-team almost immediately.  Crocker continued that theme against the Cardinals starting the game next to Harrison Smith, as Coleman and Sanford rotating in after him. 

When asked about Crocker’s play Zimmer said, “ I didn’t notice Crocker all that much.”  Zimmer went on to assess the rest of the safeties as well saying, “Jamarca had some good plays, a couple bad plays.  Sendejo the same thing.  It was a little bit of a mixed bag, so we’ll evaluate more on tape.”

Popping the Bubble

With wide receiver Adam Thielen a stone cold lock to make the roster as the fifth-receiver on the team, his peer Rodney Smith has been doing everything he can to convince the coaches to keep six receivers on the final 53-man roster.  

Smith did everything he could and more catching all four of his targets for a total of 55 yards, including the game winning touchdown with the clock expiring on a fade in the end zone with a tip toe dance.  Smith built upon his solid performance form last week and will make the coaches decision to keep another receiver a difficult one indeed.  

Norv Turner has been all over the map with how many wide receivers he’s kept on his team from just as little as four wide outs all the way up to seven.  So keeping six receivers wouldn’t be anything out of the normal under Turner and could be Smith’s saving grace to turning his bubble man status into a legitimate piece of the offensive game plan. 

Mix and Match 

No one loves Arby’s 5 for 5 mix and match more than head coach Mike Zimmer.  Zimmer loves the concept so much he’s employed the theory into his defensive line where he continues to rotate different personnel into the equation.  

Against the Cardinals Zimmer deployed the most exotic looks he’s tinkered with so far when he tried out different combinations of Everson Griffen, Brian Robison, and Anthony Barr all inside at the defensive tackle position.  

“It creates mismatches sometimes,” Robison said.  The theory of mixing and matching a slew of capable guys confuses teams and offensive lineman because they don’t know who is going to be blitzing and who is going to drop back in coverage.  Even at defensive tackle, any three of the players mentioned could just as easily drop back into coverage giving the offensive line another thing to digest and account for.  

“Whether its myself or Everson or Barr, you’re not going to know where those rushers are coming from,” Robison said.  

Its that type of mentality that Zimmer has tried to entrench into his defensive players mindset in hopes of getting them to buy into the advantage the multiple fronts give the defense in creating one-on-one mismatches.  

Zimmer also said he wanted to rotate Jasper Brinkley and Audie Cole into the middle linebacker spot every two series to get an equal look at both players heading into crunch time.  

Zimmer noted, however, that because of the Cardinals offensive personnel that he wasn't able to do so as much as he intended, and later said he will have to try to rotate both in again next week.