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MINNEAPOLIS -- In what was likely his final pass of the preseason, Teddy Bridgewater's throw to Kyle Rudolph on Sunday was the kind of play the Minnesota Vikings have been hoping to see from their quarterback for the better part of two years. With the Vikings on the San Diego Chargers' 27-yard line, Bridgewater took a shotgun snap and kept his eyes downfield as a four-man rush closed in on him. A split-second before a defender hit him, Bridgewater let the ball go over the middle of the field for Rudolph, who snatched it out of the air just before his former college teammate Manti Te'o could get there. Rudolph raced the final nine yards into the end zone, motioned like he was about to spike the ball and gripped it in his hand. The throw came at the end of a two-minute drill that served as an avatar of Bridgewater's progress (as Judd Zulgad and I discussed on the latest Purple Podcast at 1500 ESPN). But it also provided a moment of redemption for Rudolph, who'd fumbled on the Vikings' previous drive, setting up a Chargers field goal as he tried to grind out extra yardage after converting a first down. "That’s 100 percent on me fighting for extra yards," Rudolph said. "When there are two guys around you, you can’t afford to try to get one guy off. So, for me to make a big catch on third down, [I’ve] got to get down and move the chains." Bridgewater -- who started to look Rudolph's way more at the end of last season -- came right back to the tight end on the touchdown pass, though, finding the 6-foot-5 Rudolph over the 6-foot-1 Te'o. "I've caught quite a few of those balls over Manti's head in my day," Rudolph cracked. "It felt just like college." As much as the Vikings are counting on Rudolph in the second season of the five-year extension he signed in 2014, throws like the one Bridgewater made on Sunday are a perfect example of how the team can use the tight end. Coach Mike Zimmer told Bridgewater to trust Rudolph late last year, and it's seemed as though the quarterback has heeded those words. If the touchdown to Rudolph was Bridgewater's last in a game before Sept. 11, it served to suggest there could be more coming for his tight end. "I just anticipated the throw and I saw the linebacker coming from the weak side," Bridgewater said. "You know, Kyle is a big target. He makes it easy for a quarterback to be able to throw across the middle of the field. He went up there made a great play and finished it with a touchdown. Here are some other notes and observations from the Vikings' 23-10 win on Sunday. Gordon's TD comes after Rivers beats blitz: Melvin Gordon had a gaping hole to run through on his 39-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, after Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers saw a blitz coming and changed the play to a draw at the line of scrimmage. The quarterback was nearly in the grasp of Audie Cole as he handed off to Gordon, and the second-year running back found plenty of room once Linval Joseph had crept up, too. "We had a free guy and he went and tried to tackle the quarterback instead of tackle the running back," Zimmer said. "I could have made a better call at that time." As the Vikings put linebackers in the A gaps as part of their favorite blitz package, it will be interesting to see if quarterbacks do what Rivers did on Sunday to try and take advantage of it. Safety could be Sendejo: Zimmer said after the game he has an idea of what he wants to do with the safety spot next to Harrison Smith, but didn't want to reveal it until he'd had a chance to talk to the players involved. Given the fact Andrew Sendejo started again on Sunday, however, it'd seem he's on track to hold off Michael Griffin and a number of younger players for the job. Griffin got crossed up on Gordon's touchdown run, to the point where he had to put his hand down while making a sharp turn to correct a bad angle. After the game, Griffin was walking on crutches, after Zimmer said the safety's back locked up. Even if he plays Thursday against the Rams, beating Sendejo out for the starting spot could be difficult. Slippery turf in stadium debut: There were a number of players slipping on the turf at times on Sunday, and several Chargers players hoped the playing surface would improve as the turf is broken in. The Chargers lost running back Branden Oliver to a torn Achilles tendon on Sunday, and appeared to struggle more with cutting on the new turf than the Vikings did.
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