I'll have plenty on the experience I got to have today throughout the week. . .and, believe me, it was plenty awesome. . .but I wanted to take just a brief moment in the wake of the Vikings' first two-game winning streak of the year to focus on the guy that, quite frankly, might be a better football player than any non-quarterback in the National Football League.
Adrian Peterson. . .a guy that we weren't even sure was going to play when I got to the Metrodome about two hours before game time this morning. . .put together another outstanding performance and inched himself closer to what a certain announcer would call "Viking immortality." He only carried the ball 16 times, yet managed to run for over 100 yards once again and average a healthy 6.7 yards per carry. The last of his three touchdowns came on a completely ridiculous. . .or, as we call it when referring to AP, "typical". . .43-yard sprint following a Buffalo turnover to put the final nail in the coffin of the Bills. Peterson started out running to the left, cut all the way back across the formation to his right, and then simply outran everyone wearing a red helmet into the end zone. He certainly didn't look like he was nursing a bad ankle from where I was sitting.
So, to put a capper on Adrian Peterson's performance and today's victory over the Bills. . .and it will be a brief one, because I'm dead tired at this point, since I guess you can only run on adrenaline for so long. . .here are three brief little facts about AP after his performance today. . .
-Adrian Peterson is now just the fourth player in National Football League history to rush for at least 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns in his first four NFL seasons. The other three? Just a few nobodies named Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson, and LaDainian Tomlinson.
-Peterson came into today's game ranked third in Vikings' history in rushing touchdowns, trailing Bill Brown and Chuck Foreman. Well, he's still third in Vikings' history in rushing touchdowns, but now he trails those two gentlemen by only one touchdown, as his three scores today gave him 51 rushing scores in his Minnesota career. Both Brown and Foreman have 52. The difference? Adrian Peterson has required 58 career games to get those 51 rushing touchdowns. Foreman required 93. Brown needed 180.
-And, finally, the one I will continue to hit on every single week. . .276 total touches, 1,455 total yards, 12 total touchdowns. Zero fumbles.