Adrian Peterson Won't Let Minnesota Vikings Collapse Against Arizona Cardinals

With three touchdowns in the first quarter, Adrian Peterson has quickly become any fantasy football owner's dream this week.

If he's anything like Arian Foster, though, he could care less about your fantasy teams.

Peterson's three scores in the first half are one short of a tie for the most touchdown runs in a single half, a record currently shared by Priest Holmes, Shaun Alexander, Eric Dickerson and others. 

The three touchdowns also equaled his career-high for a single game, which he has now reached five times.

Certainly, Peterson was just unwilling to watch his team melt down in the second half for a fifth straight game. The Vikings have already given up leads of 17 and 20 points this season, but after building a 25-point lead on the strength of Peterson's performance, the Vikings were able to hang on for a 31-10 win.

With their first win of the season in the books, they can now move forward with their season and just worry about adding to that total rather than seeking their first win.

They needed to get it here. With games against the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers next on the docket, who knows when the Vikings will have another opportunity to win quite like the one they had against the struggling Cardinals.

Once again, he put up impressive numbers in spite of the play of Donovan McNabb, who went 10-for-21 for 169 yards and is completing 56.8 percent of his passes this season.

Once considered a premiere quarterback in the NFL, he is a large reason why the Vikings are off to such a slow start. McNabb has just an 80.0 passer rating through five games, and Peterson has a total of 110 carries for 498 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

If that's not carrying a team to victory, I don't know what is.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter  @erikfrenz.