Vikings get Giants, without star receiver Beckham

The Minnesota Vikings can clinch a playoff berth this Sunday night with a win at home as favorites over the New York Giants.

Peterson leads the National Football League in rushing by nine yards over Doug Martin – heading into the final two weeks of the regular season. “So it [will] definitely be a big loss for those guys, but at the same time, they’ve got guys that can step up”. “We didn’t play very good, and we got beat (37) to nothing”. Despite dealing with injuries to his shoulder and ankle, the Giants have to assume that Adrian Peterson will play, and be himself. What about the thriller the Vikings and Packers played in the season finale in 2012 or Minnesota’s win in Philadelphia on a random Tuesday night showdown in 2010? It could be because there aren’t that many (though the great answers of my peers here makes me think otherwise). In the receiving end, Odell Beckham had 76 yards and one touchdown in six catches while Rueben Randle added 47 yards and one touchdown in four catches.

“Outside of Eli Manning, [Beckham] is their best player”, Peterson said.

Though Adrian Peterson had been missing practice earlier this week, there didn’t seem to be much doubt that he would be able to suit up for Sunday night’s game against the Giants.

“He”™s the last of a dying breed “” just how violent he runs, speed, explosiveness, all those things,” Giants middle linebacker Jasper Brinkley said of Peterson.

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: The Vikings are 10-5 at the University of Minnesota since construction began on their new covered downtown stadium. Unfortunately, the Giants have lost a lot of leads in those games, but their most recent loss (38-35 loss to the undefeated Carolina Panthers last Sunday) was a valiant comeback from 28 points down only to come up short. Peterson ran the ball 18 times in the win against the Bears for only 63 yards, making it the third consecutive game for him under 70 yards of rushing.

This game will be on Sunday Night Football and will be broadcast by NBC. The Giants put little stock in those numbers, because they know Peterson is capable of gashing any defense for a big gain – and game – at any time.

“I tried to take him aside from time to time and talk to him about some situational things, things that were going on with the team – ‘When you’re a head coach, I just want to explain to you why I’m doing what I’m doing, ‘” Parcells said. Peterson is nursing a sprained ankle but is probably for Sunday. Since Zimmer was brought on, the Vikings have slowly but surely gone from one of the league’s worst teams to one of the few teams that has a chance to win nearly every game they play in. We may possibly see an excellent game from Minnesota with production in all three facets.

Curt Macysyn has been covering the New York Football Giants for the past four seasons for Examiner.com, and he is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). But it’s not going to be wholesale [resting of players].