Criticism

Nobody’s above criticism – not even Purple Jesus.  He may be the savior of the team, but Adrian Peterson has a couple habits that need working on.  One is his tendency to not secure the ball, a problem that reared its head during the Lions game (and might’ve cost us the game had it not been the Lions).  The other is his propensity to bounce plays outside and lose bigger chunks of yardage than he needs to.  Brad Childress is all over this second problem.  “There was a great example of a run [Sunday] that appeared as if it were going to be an inside run that he took and bounced to the outside,” Chilly said. “I’m going to say he lost 4 yards. That’s a great example of sometimes you have to push the pile for 1 1/2 or 2 because it’s not blocked to go out where [Peterson went]. When you take that into your own hand and try to force it, you end up with a result like that. Minus-4.”

It’s getting kind of frustrating, watching Peterson try to take plays outside when it’s clear he has no chance.  Then he tries to reverse field or some other crazy thing, and he’s so great he usually manages to break a tackle or two before four more guys swarm him (and even then the play often gets whistled dead before he’s actually been taken down).  It would suck to see Adrian tear a ligament attempting some nutty cut on a play that’s dead and he’s trying his damndest to make something of it.  You do have to like his tenacity though.  The same could be said for most of the team, which keeps shooting itself in the foot, but keeps bandaging up said foot and reloading the gun for yet another shot.