Your Random Vikings Highlight Video Of The Indeterminate Time Period

Hey, all. . .apologies for the lack of posting here today. Still on midnight shifts at the old "day job," and since I spend most of my day sleeping. . .coupled with the fact that there's really not a damn thing to talk about football-wise. . .there hasn't been an update to the site since the Adrian Peterson story from yesterday.

So, as long as we have a bit of an Adrian Peterson thing going with the last few posts, and we could all use a little cheering up thanks to the state of Minnesota sports these days, let's take a moment to remember and celebrate the single greatest rushing performance in the history of the National Football League with the highlights of Adrian Peterson's performance against the San Diego Chargers on November 4, 2007.

Now, the thing to remember about Peterson's performance is this. . .at halftime of this game, Adrian Peterson had 43 yards rushing. He wound up with the single-game NFL record with 296 yards on the ground. The 253 yards he amassed in the second half alone would have constituted the ninth-best single game performance in the history of the National Football League.

Not only that, but this should have been the first 300-yard rushing performance in the history of the NFL, but for the play that you see starting at the 4:03 mark of this video, the play that turned out to be Peterson's second-to-last carry of the afternoon. From the Vikings' 10-yard line, AP took a handoff from Brooks Bollinger, blasted through the left side of the Vikings' offensive line, and had nothing but green in front of him. However, Chargers' safety Marlon McCree pulled Peterson down with a horse-collar tackle at the Minnesota 45, stopping him after a gain of 35 yards, and the subsequent 15-yard penalty put the Vikings on the Chargers' 40.

That carry gave Peterson 293 yards, and after Chester Taylor ran for a gain of six. . .why Chester was getting the ball in that spot, I don't know. . .Peterson got one last carry, gaining three yards. That gave him the 296 necessary to move past Jamal Lewis' mark of 295 yards and set the single-game rushing record.

Another funny thing about this game. . .there was another NFL record set during this one as well, and it's a record that, by the rules of the National Football League, can never be broken. At the end of the first half, Brad Childress sent Ryan Longwell out onto the field to attempt a 57-yard field goal. Now, don't get me wrong. . .we all love Ryan Longwell and everything. . .but that guy's not hitting from 57, even indoors. Realizing this, Chargers coach Norv Turner sent cornerback Antonio Cromartie into the end zone to camp out underneath the goal posts. As a result. . .this happened.

Yes, a 109-yard return from Cromartie. . .a record that can never be broken (unless the NFL does the unthinkable and makes the field longer in the future). But nobody remembers that. . .well, almost nobody. . .because of Peterson's performance that day. That play gave the Chargers a 14-7 halftime lead, but Minnesota dominated the second half to get themselves a 35-17 win.

To connect this to the site a bit to show how far we've come. . .the game thread for this game, the single greatest rushing performance in the history of the NFL, generated a whopping 32 comments. And a whole three of those comments were made by somebody other than myself (thanks for showing up that day, KC Viking). In today's Game Threads, we'd call 32 comments "the reaction to Bernard Berrian dropping another pass."