For Peterson and Vikings, ‘reset button has been pressed’

How hard did Adrian Peterson try to push his way out of the Minnesota Vikings organization over the a year ago ? On Monday night, Peterson had only 10 carries for 31 yards in the Vikings’ 20-3 loss on the road to San Francisco. If you’ve been reading my column for a while, you know I’ve said all along this team will only go as far as the offensive line will take it, and the first game has given me lots of reason to worry. “I think he was aggressive trying to get to the hole and maybe trying to get to it a little bit too fast at times”.

Bill Parcells, who kept Zimmer as the Dallas Cowboys’ defensive coordinator when he became head coach in 2003, was one of the NFL’s strictest adherents to the “24-hour rule”, which allows players and coaches to luxuriate over a victory – or sulk over a loss – for no more than a day before moving on to the upcoming game.

It felt good to get out there, play some football, take some hits.

“Still a solid defense“, Peterson said.

Rod Beard, Bob Wojnowski, Josh Katzenstein and John Niyo predict the outcome of Sunday’s Lions-Vikings game. Before their October 25 rematch in Detroit, the Vikings play the Chargers, Broncos and Chiefs, while Detroit has back-to-back national-TV games against Denver and Seattle, then play Arizona before getting the only possible break when they host the Bears.

Bridgewater also had a bad interception against the 49ers Monday, as he looked unsettled behind his makeshift offensive, but the problems go deeper than that. “It starts with, to me … eliminating unforced errors”, Turner said.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be exciting, fun, running out of that tunnel for the first time”, Peterson said. “Games come up different and we all know Adrian is a big part of what we do and we want him to be able to have an impact”. “When I’m mad, you can see wrinkles up here [on my forehead]”. “We’ve got to keep people from coming free at the quarterback”.

“It’s all about the intent and that’s what should be the big thing when they’re handing out fines – what your intent was during the play”, he said.

According to Vikings.com, Minnesota is 38-14-1 (.726) at home all-time against the Lions, which is the best home winning percentage against any NFC North team. “So we’ll see how things flow this weekend”. “But we’re going to go out there and get ’em”. Zimmer was asked about that mindset on Friday and he said one of his mentors, Bill Parcells, utilized that rule well. The game at TCF Bank Stadium featured physical and mental domination.

Peterson carried the ball just 10 times and finished the night with 13 total touches. Rookie running back Ameer Abdullah proved to be a viable threat in Week 1 with 50 yards on seven carries and four catches for 44 yards.

Some of it was probably rust, but Peterson also looked uncomfortable in a shotgun-heavy offense that has been tailored for Teddy Bridgewater.

-Lions WR Calvin Johnson, who had just two catches for 39 yards in Week 1, vs. Vikings CB Xavier Rhodes, who has had success covering Johnson in the past.