Minnesota's Cordarrelle Patterson was one of the juiciest stories coming out of Week 1 after the freakishly athletic wideout tortured the Rams with three carries for 102 yards on the ground.
In the two games since, the Adrian Peterson-free Vikings have handed Patterson the rock only once. With Minnesota averaging just 56.6 yards on the ground in those two tilts, plenty have wondered why play-caller Norv Turner hasn't leaned more on his most dangerous offensive weapon. Patterson, though, isn't among the curious.
"I trust everything coach Turner is doing and the offensive staff," Patterson said ahead of Sunday's meeting with the Falcons, per The Star Tribune. "When my time comes, my time is going to come and I'll be ready for it."
Turner told reporters this week that teams are paying more attention to Patterson. After the Saints lined up top cornerback Keenan Lewis on him, the second-year receiver was held to four catches for 61 yards in the loss to New Orleans.
"Cordarrelle is (in) a different situation (than) he was a year ago," Turner said. "He's growing and teams are matching with him and they're concentrating on him. We've got to continue to work ways to get him the ball."
The Rams were thrown off by Patterson's array of jet sweeps in the opener, but teams are expecting it now. We'd still like to see Turner unleash his young pass-catcher on the ground, but the ultimate goal for Patterson is to grow as Minnesota's X wideout.
After seeing what Turner did with Josh Gordon in Cleveland last season, we continue to hold out hope fo Patterson to fully bloom before winter.
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