They say that every rose has its thorn, and Sunday’s finale that launched the Vikings into the playoffs still carries a slight sting of disappointment for RB Adrian Peterson, who came up nine yards short of the NFL single-season rushing record.
To his credit, Peterson was basking in the glow of the win over the Packers and didn’t even know he had come up short of the mark until a television reporter told him -- but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t disappointed.
"It wasn't meant to happen," Peterson said in the post-game locker room. "Not to say it doesn't hurt, because it does, but ultimately we came in here and accomplished the ultimate goal and punched our ticket to the playoffs.”
Peterson rushed for 199 yards on a career-high 44 carries. His last carry was a dramatic 26-yard scramble down to the Green Bay 11-yard-line that set up the winning field goal. The Vikings let several seconds tick off the clock to ensure that the field goal would be the final play of regulation, and ultimately the game.
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Coach Leslie Frazier admitted after the game that he was kept abreast of Peterson’s rushes and yardage, but he never called any plays or did anything that was outside the structure of the gameplan. That is sound coaching, and it resulted in the Vikings beating the Packers and making the playoffs for the first time in Frazier’s head coaching career -- but it does leave an empty feeling when it comes to Peterson’s remarkable season.
“As much as he wanted that record, as much as we wanted the record for him, it was more important to him that we won the football game,” Frazier reiterated on Monday. “There aren’t many superstars that are willing to put the team first. And that’s Adrian. To come up nine yards short, but to walk away from it and say, 'You know what? We’re going to the playoffs, we have a chance to do something special here in Minnesota.’ That’s what you need out of your superstars, out of one of the leaders in your team.”
Peterson did hit the 2,000 mark -- becoming the 7th running back in NFL history to do so, and his final total of 2,097 is the second-highest total in the history of the league. After the game, Peterson took it all with a smile and said that he would just try to break the record again next season. And he will have help from some of his teammates who tried to get it this season.
“I haven’t watched the film yet. So maybe when I watch the film, I’ll probably see something. I’ll probably say I missed a block or something and could have got it for him,” FB Jerome Felton said. “But I’m not going to say it’s bittersweet because we’re in the playoffs and that’s the most important thing. I look at it like this: next year he’ll get the record. And I think everybody’s confident in that.”
For more Vikings news and notes, follow Joe Oberle on Twitter @CBSVikings and @joeoberle.