SALON

Monday, Oct 1, 2012 10:30 PM UTC

Vikings’ Peterson starting to find 5th gear

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Vikings' Peterson starting to find 5th gearMinnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) drags Detroit Lions middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch (55) as he runs the ball during the second half at Ford Field in Detroit, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)(Credit: AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Even while defying the odds to return from reconstructive knee surgery in time for the season opener, Adrian Peterson was still trying to recapture that last bit of juice and burst that he had before he went down in December.

The Minnesota Vikings star running back spent the first three weeks plowing ahead, taking all the carries given to him to try to shake the rust off, loosen that left knee up and get back to dropping jaws and leaving linebackers in his wake.

From his very first carry on Sunday against the Detroit Lions, Peterson has never looked more like his old electrifying self. He made a razor-sharp cut followed by a burst of speed through the hole for a 12-yard gain, setting the tone for a 102-yard effort in Minnesota’s 20-13 victory.

“He looked more like the Adrian of old than at any point in this young season,” coach Leslie Frazier said on Monday. “He had some runs that showed the strength, the power, the elusiveness that we’ve seen in the past. It was just great to see. There was no hitch anywhere. He looked good.”

It was Peterson’s first 100-yard day since last October, a critical performance for an offense that struggled to move the ball all day long, yet still managed to improve to a surprising 3-1. Four of his 21 carries went for at least 10 yards against a Lions defense that prides itself on being tough against the run.

It also allowed the sluggish offense to hold on to the ball for nearly 30 minutes to help run out the clock after two special teams touchdowns and a couple of field goals gave them enough points to snap an 11-game losing streak against NFC North opponents.

“I felt real good,” Peterson said after the game. “I feel myself just continue to get stronger each week. So, I’m just blessed, thank God.”

When Peterson went down against Washington in December with a significant tear in his ACL, most expected that he would need at least 10 months to recover. But after a successful surgery and a rehab plan developed by Vikings head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman and his staff, Peterson returned to action in 8½ months.

He was back in the starting lineup for the season opener against Jacksonville, rushing for 84 yards and two touchdowns against the Jaguars, rushed for 60 yards in a Week 2 loss at Indianapolis and then churned out 86 tough yards in a win against San Francisco two weeks ago. But he wasn’t really back until last weekend.

Before the game against the Lions, Peterson went up to Percy Harvin and told him he felt “icy.”

“When he tells me icy, that means he’s smooth and ready to go,” Harvin said after the game.

Even though he has been perhaps the best running back in the game ever since he entered the league in 2007, Peterson still caught the Lions off guard.

“He’s a lot better than what everybody thought he was going to be,” Lions defensive back Chris Houston said. “He looks a lot better coming off the injury.”

And Peterson says he’s only going to get better. That will be a big key for the Vikings offense, which is relying more on long, grind-it-out drives and not turning the ball over than it is on making big plays to light up the scoreboard.

“I don’t know what the stats look like, but as long as we’re winning, I’ll keep handing it off to Adrian and Toby (Gerhart) back there and they’re going to keep chugging along,” said quarterback Christian Ponder, who only needed to throw for 111 yards in the victory. “As an offense, we’re going to keep doing what we’re supposed to be doing to win games.”

That doesn’t mean Peterson is content to pound it out methodically for the last 13 weeks of the season. Before he was injured, he was known for his ability to break off a 60-yard touchdown run in a heartbeat, and he feels another one of those coming sooner rather than later.

“It’ll come, you know,” Peterson said. “That’s what I kept telling myself. I’m not focusing on it. I want to get in the end zone every time I touch the ball, but just be patient and it’ll come eventually. We got the W, that’s all that matters to me.”

___

AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Detroit and freelance writer Brian Hall in Eden Prairie, Minn., contributed to this story.

___

Follow Jon Krawczynski on Twitter: http://twitter.com/APkrawczynski

More Jon Krawczynski.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations