Adrian Peterson, the Minnesota Viking running back, picked up right where he left off in the 2012 season. Last year, Peterson won the MVP trophy after rushing for over 2,000 yards on 348 attempts. Peterson is a graduate of Oklahoma and has been in the league for seven years. For much of last season especially, Peterson accounted for much of the Vikings’ offense, and they have struggled against their opponents on a number of occasions.
The Vikings are in the NFC North along with the Packers, Bears and Lions and today marked their first regular season game of the year. They match-up against the Detroit Lions. The Vikings lost the game with a final score of 34-24.
The Lions have had a number of troubles in recent years as well, but seem to be getting their groove back with the help of their star receiver, Calvin Johnson. In Peterson’s season debut against the Lions, he rushed 18 times for 93 yards and 2 touchdowns. He later received a touchdown through the air, which was their final score, coming in the third quarter. He clearly started the game off on a positive note when he took his first run of the game for 78 yards and scored a touchdown, according to SB Nation. Just like last season, quarterback Christian Ponder struggled in week 1 and if that continues, the Vikings will be forced to rely on Peterson for much of their offense again.
The 78 yard rush put Peterson just six yards away from his week 1 total in 2012. He is also off to a much more powerful start this year, since it took him until week 3 to reach 100 yards in a single game, coming only 7 yards shy of that mark during this performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxMm_M1b4WY
Peterson looks to lead the league in rushing once again and has said that his goal is to get 2,500 rushing yards this year, according to the LA Times. In last year’s MVP winning season, he was just nine yards short of setting the NFL single-season rushing record. If he is determined to hit the mark of 2,500 rushing yards, then he needs to rush for about 160.5 yards per game in the remaining games in the season. Although, to break the single-season rushing record held by Eric Dickerson, he only needs to average 134.2 yards per game.
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