John Madden has weighed-in (no pun intended – I don’t think) on the subject of Adrian Peterson and how Brad Childress has been using him – or, more to the point, not using him. Said Madden:
"If I had Adrian Peterson on my team any time I started a series I’d have him in there. … You can’t play one running back every down, I know that, but I sure as hell would have him in every first down."
A hand-off to Adrian Peterson at this point is almost a guaranteed four yards (at least). And the threat of him being in there means teams bringing up an extra man – theoretically freeing you up to throw deep. Of course, you need a quarterback who can complete a deep pass even when the receiver’s open – but that’s another issue. Point is that, now, defensive coordinators are going to have to account for Peterson on every play he’s in the game – they can’t just ignore him. But you don’t get the benefit of that if Peterson isn’t in the game. Also, it seems like the whole pattern of arbitrarily subbing in Chester Taylor for a certain number of plays is nothing but a measure of Childress’s lack of game-feel. Let the situation dictate how much one plays and how much the other plays, instead of having some fixed ratio in your mind that you stubbornly adhere to (predetermined stuff like that doesn’t work, as Tice and his “Randy Ratio” proved). Seems like Childress is mostly concerned about sticking to some by-the-book scheme – which is the sign of a coach who’s playing not to lose instead of playing to win.