Adrian Peterson is a monster! I was one of those people who said he should not have been a top pick because his upright running style would make him too easy to bring down in the NFL, where he would not physically outclass opposing defenders like he did in college.
He can outclass the 2008 Green Bay Packers defense as much as those Big 12 defenses he faced. There is no delicate way to put this: The Packers' run defense stinks.
The Minnesota Vikings ran the ball 41 times and gained 220 yards on the ground against them Sunday. Peterson accounted for 192 yards on 30 carries, a 6.4 yard average.
On the bright side, the Packers held a pretty good back in Chester Taylor to 29 yards on 10 carries. They also stopped Peterson on a key fourth-down play.
The pass defense was stellar, exposing Gus Frerotte for the journeyman backup he really is. He was 15-28 for 151 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw three picks, including one returned for a touchdown. Moreover, that 47-yard touchdown came when Taylor broke a tackle on a short pass by backup middle linebacker Desmond Bishop and was gone.
Bishop also had an inexcusable unnecessary-roughness penalty later in the game, and the Packers lost this game as much because of penalties as failure to stop Peterson. When you are playing your ninth game of the season, the reliance on young backups is no longer an excuse: Coach Mike McCarthy needs to shoulder the blame for this frequent problem.
He also channeled Mike McCarthy or Mike Nolan in making his first replay challenge of the year.
Adrian Peterson ran for a 29-yard touchdown to give the Vikings the eventual final margin, 28-27, with 2:22 to play. While it looked like the Packers may have stopped Peterson as much as a foot short (replays were inconclusive), there was no way they would stop him on a first and goal from there.
Winning that challenge would only have allowed the Vikings to run more time the Packers needed to answer with a field goal. Losing it cost the Packers a timeout that might have been useful to drive a bit further. Mason Crosby missed the 52-yard field goal wide right in the closing seconds.
There were a lot of coaching blunders on both sides of the ball.
We'd like to send you the most entertaining Green Bay Packers articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
5 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete