Monday, November 05, 2007

296

He was anointed. It was done jokingly, but he was anointed. Who the hell calls a rookie "Purple Jesus"? (Kissing Suzy Kolber, actually, but that's not the point here). That's not the question here though. The question is, what kind of football player lives up to that nickname? What kind of player turns in a game that makes everyone stop calling him "Purple Jesus" ironically and starts doing it seriously? And then what kind of player turns in a game that makes "Purple Jesus" seem like it's inadequate?



Adrian Peterson, that's who. 296 yards in one game. 30 carries, each of which gained an average of 9.87 yards. 253 yards in the second half. The only player to crack the 200 yard mark twice in a season. He broke tackles in every way possible, going through, around and over defenders. He slipped through holes that were closed. He found another gear when he saw open field ahead of him. In short, he rushed for TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX YARDS.



I'm not John Updike. I'm not going to be able capture Adrian Peterson's performance with words the way Updike captured Ted Williams. Instead, I'll let his performance speak for itself. 296 yards on 30 carries. An NFL single game record. As a rookie.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What?!?!?! No comments about Favre this week? You really have given up haven't you? I feel bad for you. Do you still even have a reason to live?

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha...Yes, Purple Jesus. Whatever. Less than 50 yards. Oh yes, he's amazing. Wow, i'm so impressed.

How's 34-0, the biggest loss to the Packers in Viqueen history. Nice.

You suck. Close down your blog you big loser.

Anonymous said...

I'm a Packer fan and even I have a man-crush on Adrian Peterson. Latest reports are that his knee injury isn't as disastrous as it might have been. Glad to hear it. He's a great player and it's fun to watch great players, whomever they play for. He will probably torment my beloved Packers for years to come.

Having said that, the Pack had Peterson bottled up even before he got hurt. McCarthy and staff had a great game plan: on offense, run on the Vikings. On defense, stop Adrian Peterson. Worked pretty well.

Sunday's game convinced me that the Vikings may indeed be cursed. There's something supernatural about the many ways that that team can disappoint its fans. My condolences.