Adrian Peterson: Why Vikings RB Will Break Eric Dickerson's Rushing Record

He told us.

Adrian Peterson told us all that he was going to come back from his late-season knee injury in time for kickoff weekend. He even went so far as to insist that he was going to be better than ever.

He wasn't lying.

Peterson did hit the field in Week 1 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. His yardage total of 84 yards wasn't all that impressive (at least not for him), but he averaged 4.9 yards per attempt.

We should have listened. 

The scary part is he wasn't done prognosticating. He could feel that his body was still breaking apart scar tissue and knew that he hadn't regained his full range of motion yet.

And as the season has progressed, he has continued improving.

Peterson rushed for over 100 yards only once in his first six games and hasn't been held under the century mark since. That's reason No. 1 why the Minnesota Vikings running back will be the new rushing record-holder at the end of this season.

No one has been able to touch him. Starting with his 153-yard effort against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7, Peterson has averaged 164 yards per game. He failed to reach 150 yards only twice during that span. 

Quite simply, he's just better than everyone right now and has the drive to prove it. It's obvious that he has used every slight—whether real or imagined—to fuel him, and there is little the rest of the league can do about it.

Now, he needs just 294 yards with two games left to play to break Dickerson's NFL single-season record of 2,105. His main concern will be piling up the yards against the Houston Texans. They boast a tough run defense, but it's a unit that has been decimated by injuries and hasn't shut people down as it had earlier this year.

The Green Bay Packers are a mediocre rushing defense, one that Peterson gashed for 210 yards just two weeks ago.

Thus, the opponents are the second reason why Peterson is going to get this done.

Lastly, the fact that the Vikings are in the thick of the playoff race is the final component. They will lean heavily on their All-Pro rusher as Christian Ponder has failed to record more than 159 passing yards in a single game in a month.

It's all there. He knew it all along.