Adrian Peterson – break it down
November 8, 2007 by James Edwards
Filed under Sports
NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.
Adrian is hot.
He is the favorite for rookie of the year right now.
You wonder, if the Vikes were any good, would he be up for MVP?
Oh, yes, that one game of 296 yards made an incredible impression on everyone.
Now let’s not get carried away. It is what it is, but consider the fact that Edgerrin James was 19th on the all time rushing list coming into this year with 10,385 yards and he is still playing.
Edge has 618 more this year.
Adrian leads the league with 1,036.
San Diego is 22nd in the league in defending the rush giving up 4.7 yards per game. This is not to diminish Adrian’s performance in that one game, only to give it some perspective.
Adrian Peterson had 30 carries in that game averaging 9.9 yards per carry; the third time he has been over 9 yards per carry this year. Pretty impressive stuff.
Do you think San Diego got tired? Peterson had 146 yards in the 4th quarter alone!
Poor Chester Taylor, the Vikings other running back, was averaging 6.7 yards per carry and was not good enough to even get the ball.
Adrian has a lot more to prove. Can he be durable? Will he have longevity?
Why do we ask these questions? Well, consider a pretty good back by the name of Corey Dillon.
Walter Payton retired from the game in 1987, and ten years later Corey Dillon began his NFL career. As a rookie, Dillon broke Jim Brown’s 40-year-old single-game rookie record by rushing for 246 yards against the Tennessee Titans. In each of his first three seasons in the league, he rushed for over 1,100 yards, making him only the eighth player in history to do so.
Through six games of the 2000 season Dillon had rushed for only 323 yards, but he nearly doubled that total when he exploded for 278 yards against what was at that time the league’s second-ranked rushing defense of the Denver Broncos. source
Corey had a great career, but his single game highlight was never really matched by consistent stellar years in the NFL. Many solid years, but no awesome years.
Adrian plans to break that mold and he is only just beginning.
NFL Football Fan Question Will Adrian get 2,000 yards this year?
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I think he can make it to 2,000 yards – but what’s the point ? The Vikes are going to have to look closely at his number of carries son and decide whether to run him into the ground (where he can break these records) and pay the consequences down the line. I know if Herm Edwards was coach there then it would be a no brainer – the man is a RB killer, just ask Curtis “1st down Run, 2nd Down Run” Martin – and now he’s finished off Larry Johnson! Unbelievable – Brad Childress take note!
Wouldn’t hurt to have a real quarterback.