This week's Minnesota Vikings Power Play of the Week comes from late in the second quarter of their victory over the Carolina Panthers. The Vikings were down 14-7, and it looked like the Panthers might get more, but a Jared Allen sack of Cam Newton set the Vikings up in prime territory at the Carolina 39. The Vikings quickly gained 19 yards on a check down to Adrian Peterson, and since that worked so well, Bill Musgrave decided that he'd go with a designed pass to Peterson on the next play.
A couple of keys to this one. . .the first one is that the Vikings have two receivers and Jim Kleinsasser lined up on the left side of the formation. Those three guys basically run off all the coverage to that side, and Peterson simply slips underneath to where his linemen are and waits for the pass from Christian Ponder.
From there, the offensive line should get every bit the credit that Peterson did for the result of this play. Steve Hutchinson gets a great block on a lineman inside, and Charlie Johnson gets to the second level and neutralizes one of the linebackers. Once Peterson gets going and takes off into the open field, Visanthe Shiancoe puts the cherry on this sundae by getting a nice block on the safety to make sure AP gets into the end zone untouched.
This place took the Vikings from potentially being down two scores going into the locker room to being tied on the road at halftime. For a team that has had the sort of issues the Vikings have had on the road. . .and specifically in this particular venue. . .a tie game at the half was a pretty good scenario, and it turned out to be something that propelled them to a victory.