Packers-Vikings Recap: Adrian Peterson Runs All Day

The Vikings

Minnesota was running at will and near a score, but Brad Childress elected to pass twice in a row to kill his drive. The fourth-down play came after a timeout, allowing the Packers defense to catch its breath and was on the Vikings' side of the field, making for an easy scoring drive for the Packers.

McCarthy almost did not run the ball at all in the first half (nine times), allowing the formidable pass rush of the Vikings to key on Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers was sacked four times and hit after many of his throws. When the Packers did run the ball, it went quite well: Ryan Grant finished with 75 yards on just 16 carries, a 4.7 yard average.

The Vikings also recorded two safeties, although on one of them, Rodgers was called for an illegal forward pass from the end zone. Someone will have to explain what was illegal about it; I wonder if they realized after throwing the flag for intentional grounding that there was a receiver in the area and just changed the call.

Not having those two points would have forced the Vikings to give the ball to Peterson for the two-point conversion (notice I am not even suggesting he wouldn't have made it) and take the game to overtime.

But then, with the way the Packers were worn down, if they didn't win the toss, they would have lost just like they did last week against the Titans.

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