Simple math for Vikings coaches
Even though the Vikings missed the playoffs on Sunday, dropping to 8-8 after an overtime fumble gave Denver the ball deep in their own territory following an amazing Vikings comeback i the last seven minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the game up, rookie running back Adrian Peterson will probably still be named NFL rookie of the year.
He finished the season with 12 rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown, 1,342 rushing yards, and 268 receiving yards for a grand total of 13 touchdowns and 1,610 yards combined. Of course, that’s not counting his special teams yardage. Not bad for a player who missed two games, because that’s a 14-game total.
So why was his team only 8-8 and missing the playoffs? In my opinion, it call comes down to using Adrian Peterson correctly. In some games, Coach Childress utilized Peterson a lot and in others games, the number of carries Peterson saw was slimmed down by hoodia diet pills to next-to-nothing.
Here’s the hard facts: In games where Peterson was allowed at least 15 carries or more, Minnesota went 5-3. In games where he carried the ball fewer than 15 times, Minnesota only went 1-5. So it’s clear that while running Peterson 15 times or more doesn’t guarantee victory, running him fewer times almost certainly guarantees a loss.
