Minnesota’s final two losses of the season had something in common: costly Adrian Peterson fumbles.
The annoying tendency turned into a full-blown meltdown in the NFC Championship, and Vikings coach Brad Childress admitting that fixing the issue is an offseason priority.
“He needs to hold on to it, but I’m sure he and [running backs coach
Eric Bieniemy] and our offensive staff will do a good job of kind of
troubleshooting that and seeing what we can come up with,” Childress said.
Perhaps Childress watched PFT Daily before his presser, because he said the team will look at how Peterson holds the ball.
“I think that’s probably an offseason study type of thing as well,” Childress said. “Everybody’s a little different [with] kind of the way their
forearms are created — short forearms, long forearms. You can say,
‘Well, everybody can hold it high and tight.’ Sometimes that’s true,
sometimes that’s not true. We talk about points of contact with the
body, what should be on the ball, where should the body and ball be in
relation, but there are also styles, too.”
Peterson was only credited with two fumbles against the Saints, but also took responsibility for a botched handoff late in the first half. Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune made a great point Wednesday, wondering if crowd noise caused that crucial fumble.
Peterson remained frozen well after the ball was snapped on the play, perhaps not hearing Brett Favre’s cadence. That caused the timing of the play to fall apart, resulting in one of the biggest turning points of the game.
No change in running style would fix that play. But if it wasn’t for Peterson’s fumble in Chicago, the Vikings may not have had to deal with any crowd noise at all.
Running backs coach Eric Bieniemy needs to be fired.
He was the person responsible to communicate to Tahi that he was not supposed to be in the 12th man huddle.
His other accomplishments are Adrian Peterson’s increasing fumbles and decreasing production. He has Peterson being more patient alright, so patient he is now a worse runner than he was when he came into the league. Great coaching job!
That guys resume is an obvious failure. Please get his ass out of there.
LMAO!! Look at what the Saints did to your offseason!!
Good luck with that Vikings. For as good as AP is he has had a fumble problem since college, maybe if they send him to the Tom Coughlin school of holding onto ball.
Yeah, this is the only thing that they have to do in the off season?
Oh yeah, they have to smooch Favre’s ass all off season too.
Assclowns!
As a Vikings fan I hope they are able to get Chestnuts resigned because he’s a great insurance policy and solid 3rd down back.
What does Brett Farve think about this?
Adrian Peterson is average among the elites.
He ran for a bunch of yards his first few seasons. BTW they had no passing game.
If you look at his YPC (the only thing that matters) he is average among the elite RB’s.
2009 YPC 4.8
2008 YPC 4.4
2007 YPC 5.6 (only had 238 attempts carrying the load)
He has 40 TD’s in 3 seasons. How many of his fumbles do you think turned into TD’s going the other way?
They could do some off season studies on huddles and season crushing picks as well and it won’t change a damn thing.
My favorite fumble of his was when Clay Mathews jr. just grabbed the ball out of his arms and ran for a TD. What kind of RB lets that happen? Is his physique just for show?
So that’s why they call him “All Day.” Because he humbled all day?
After 3 years of fumbles it’s now time to address it? Chilly rules!!!
Maybe instead of hearing about a history of viqueens bad luck we should focus on a bumbling organization.
I read Duncan’s article, and after stating the crown noise was the issue, he went on to list a few more gems. He said the shakiest officiating call was the late hit flag against Hargrove. So either he didn’t watch overtime, or he couldn’t see the 3 horrible OT calls through his black and gold/brown lenses.
Adrian, we still love you buddy. But seriously, pull yr head out of yr a** and hold on to the ball. Thanks. – Viking fans
Its not really the way he grips the ball, its where he keeps the ball while running.
I watched the NFC Championship game. if he has to change direction really fast, he throws his elbow (his arm with the ball) into the air, almost behind his body in order to maintain his ballance.
It looks great when he isnt hit, but if he is, the ball is easily knocked out.
Its almost like hes a DB after an INT. Peterson has to learn how to juke while also protecting the football.
Majik Bullet says:
January 27, 2010 8:59 AM
I read Duncan’s article, and after stating the crown noise was the issue, he went on to list a few more gems. He said the shakiest officiating call was the late hit flag against Hargrove. So either he didn’t watch overtime, or he couldn’t see the 3 horrible OT calls through his black and gold/brown lenses.
an offseason study????
Sounds awfully governmentish to me
Let’s have the experts called in and do a study……..
Simply tell Bret not to do what he was taught not to do in Pop Warner (throw across the body)
And tell Adrian Peterson to hold the ball high and tight. Done.
First up, he doesn’t grip the ball at the point. Second, he doesn’t keep it high and tight. And third, he doesn’t wrap it up all the time when he anticipates the hit.
Simple stuff. Treat him like a Pop Warner back… Anyone from anywhere during practice- if you can make Peterson fumble the football from his hands, make him pay. For Adrian- $50 for every dropped ball, given to the player, coach, waterboy, or trainer that causes him to fumble.
Has the “Randy Ratio” written all over it. . . Maybe Tice has some influence with this. Christ, just let the guy run the ball and block for him. Losing Matt Birk was a bigger loss than some realize I think. Sulli did good for 1st year, but having Birk up front could have helped our odds.
Adrian Peterson has great talent, but still has many flaws in his game. Something needs to change.
Eric Bieniemy has apparently taught Adrian Peterson nothing, or the wrong things.
A three-year veteran is supposed to get better than he was as a rookie.
Adrian Peterson is not improving. Eric Bieniemy should be fired.
It’s funny how AD is still living off his rookie season as an elite RB. He’s good, not great. Not even top 5. Too much risk. I wonder how long he can continue to float on that season before people realize he’s nearly average. Kinda like what happened to Devon Hester.
My favorite fumble of his was when Clay Mathews jr. just grabbed the ball out of his arms and ran for a TD. What kind of RB lets that happen? Is his physique just for show?
You mean the one where he had four other players on top of him and the refs should have blown the play dead about two full seconds before it happened???
I can tell you what causes the fumbles. He needs to learn to get down when he has people on him. Most of his fumbles come when he is fighting to get extra yards. He was strong enough in college to shake two or three guys off, but you can’t do that in the pro’s.
Supersuckers says: January 27, 2010 9:14 AM
Game never should have got to overtime. Run Brett. But what occured is what we all said was going to. It may go down as the ugliest most disgustingly disastrous interception in the history of the NFL.
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Imagine that, Super trolling yet another Viking thread. And this one has nothing to do with Favre, and yet you somehow make it about him.
Seriously, what is your deal? You bash on Favre for being indecisive about retiring from the NFL, yet you have unretired from a website that doesn’t pay you about 10 times. Then you come on every Favre thread, and even make non Favre threads about him, even though you claim to be “over Brett.”
And congrats on predicting the Favre meltdown. You’ve said it was going to happen every week for the past 18 games. And now that Favre finally threw a bad pick, you can say how you knew it all along. That’s like someone predicting it’s going to rain in the middle of a drought. You sound like an idiot for weeks, then try to justify your stupidity just like you’re doing now.
Supersuckers says: Game never should have got to overtime. Run Brett. But what occured is what we all said was going to. It may go down as the ugliest most disgustingly disastrous interception in the history of the NFL
————————————————–
I agree for once. Watched the game again last night(glutton for punishment) The game was ours.Longwell is the best kicker in the league. A man of Brett’s experience and past(07) just has to know the ball can’t be thrown like that. I won’t bash him ever like you Packers,but I’m a little mad at him today. We should be in Miami.Many made errors,but we were there at the end.
As far as AD, you all would take him.He is great.Just has to hold the damn ball better.Think he will.
whodaydipshit- We forgive you. Toxic PCB’s from MN end up in New Orleans. They come from factories on the Mississippi.You nurse on them. Yawl retarded by our greed.Sorry!
They could save alot of time with one call to Tiki Barber
Perhaps Childress watched PFT Daily before his presser, because he said the team will look at how Peterson holds the ball.
I’m SURE that’s where he got his info from. Florio you are a clown.
“Vikings will do “offseason study” of Peterson’s fumbles”
So will fantasy owners.
Let the blame game continue. Take one bad day at the office (Saints game) and blow it out of proportion and then firmly establish in AD’s head that he was a huge problem. Geez, that seems like a good way to ruin a beast of a back.
If they were smart (and clearly they are not), the Vikings would not make this a subject of public discussion. Granted the fans will always talk about it but why fuel the fire with your own public pronouncements about what you are going to do or not do about it?
Now let’s see if they can talk Childress out of wearing women’s dresses or bending all the team rules as it pertains to Lord Favre and I will say they are making progress.
… Just for kicks , I have to ask … Whats is AP’s carry-turnover ratio compared to Chris Johnson’s ? After you check on that stat, check on YPC… After you check on that stat , check for receptions out of the backfield (compared to AP’s dropped passes)…After you check on that stat , check on the money issue … And yes , Chris Johnson is easily the best running back now – And we dont have to pray for him to hold on to the ball
You would think this would be a high priority for AP since it is what stands between him and a hall of fame career. The guy is a stud. Many an RB have had the same problem, fixed it and come back to post some amazing numbers. It is a solvable problem. Hope that AP is able to man up and admit he has a problem, and work on fixing it. Tiki Barber worked with a conditioning coach in the off season that helped him solve his fumblitis.
Just look at what Tiki Barber did. Saved his career.
well, fixing Peterson’s fumbling could be easier than dealing with the Favre drama, Tiki Barber had fumble problems, then a year later, he couldn’t fumble at all, but in that Saints game, at least one of the fumbles that Peterson has as a stat, i think that was on Favre’s bad handoff, but fixing the problem could be easier than some think because if Tiki can improve on that then so can Peterson.
The problem is easy to fix.
AP trys desperately to take every single run to the house. He needs to put his head down and take his 4-5 instead of flailing around like a fish outta water.
Easy to forget about the ball when your trying to break 7 tackles at once.
Take your 3 and go down…all those long runs don’t matter when your droppin the churches money all over the floor.
Pervy Harvin says:
January 27, 2010 9:49 AM
Supersuckers says: Game never should have got to overtime. Run Brett. But what occured is what we all said was going to. It may go down as the ugliest most disgustingly disastrous interception in the history of the NFL
————————————————–
I agree for once. Watched the game again last night(glutton for punishment) The game was ours.Longwell is the best kicker in the league. A man of Brett’s experience and past(07) just has to know the ball can’t be thrown like that. I won’t bash him ever like you Packers,but I’m a little mad at him today. We should be in Miami.Many made errors,but we were there at the end.
As far as AD, you all would take him.He is great.Just has to hold the damn ball better.Think he will.
whodaydipshit- We forgive you. Toxic PCB’s from MN end up in New Orleans. They come from factories on the Mississippi.You nurse on them. Yawl retarded by our greed.Sorry!
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They had it Pervy. I was watching the game with a bunch of Viking fans and I was cheering along with them. When they got to the 32 I turned to one of them and said “Holy Shit the Minnesota Vikings are going to the Super Bowl” They all had their hands in a prayer position. Fun too watch. The penalty and pick was surreal.
You would think that the Vikes would have “studied” Peterson’s butter-fingers issue DURING the season. Maybe they did and the coaching has quite stuck yet. Who knows.
He has to fix that, however. Otherwise, he may become the running back version of Favre: stunningly good AND bad at times.
Peterson fumbles so much because of his height. With the length of his arms as long as they are, it’s harder to tightly secure the ball unless he wraps both arms around it and carries it in the middle of his body. Running Backs with smaller arm lengths (lengths that match-up with the size of the ball) have a much easier time securing the ball…
Pervy
You should be ashamed, agreeing with someone as foolish as Super. Don’t allow yourself to be goaded into playing the “What if” game, because there are too many.
What if Favre’s first pick was rightfully overturned due to the below the knee hit to Favre? What if that BS interference call isn’t made in OT? What if someone actually tackles Thomas on that first TD? What if Ted Thompson wasn’t the worst GM in the history of the NFL and hadn’t actually traded away one of the best players ever?
Or what if Favre actually made that play at the end instead of throwing the pick? He made a career of throwing those dangerous passes, and had it not been picked, you and everyone else who is “mad” at him would be saying how great of a play it was.
This is why you can’t play the what if game, don’t let an idiot such as Super bring you down to his level.
so should the Colts do “offseason study” on Manning?
i mean he DID throw 16 INTs
that averages to 1 per game.
AP averages about a fumble every 2 games
offseason study? Please, let me save you the time. The guy doesn’t wrap the football up when he runs. Anyone can poke it up and sometimes when he’s tackled it just squirts out.
There’s an old NFL film that shows George Halas teaching Walter how to properly tuck the ball while running… something he did extremely well in his career. I don’t understand how someone as talented at AP can’t figure this out.
Supersuckers says:
January 27, 2010 8:52 AM
They could do some off season studies on huddles and season crushing picks as well and it won’t change a damn thing.
=================================
In other NFC North news, The packers will try to teach rodgers not to hang on to the ball for 5 seconds per pass play, teach him not to kick a loose ball into a defenders hands. They will also be teaching technique to their OL(thats a season long thing), Teach the defense how to not get torched for 500 yards. Teach TT how to not have 10 front line free agents come up for contract at the same time and teach Mumbles McCarthy how to speak moving both lips, not just one.
That is all. Now go make my Big Montana, make sure to put the Horsey sauce on this time, not Super’s “special sauce”, that’s too salty for me, I have blood pressure issues.
Maybe AP should work with Tiki Barber. He used to fumble till he bulked up and changed where he held the ball. High and tight AP. Get it right. He’s just a lazy football player who goes off natural skills. Most fumbles in the league, any other RB would be run out of the city or even benched. But not AP. I’d def. bench him for Chester Taylor if he fumbled and I was the coach.
It’s a shame that Peterson fumbled the game away. That is until Favre threw the game ending interception. And so the Saints beat the Minnesota Favres. And that means the Saints will be going to the Brett Bowl. Still, the Colts will be favored by 7 Favres. Then, Once Manning Favres for 300 Bretts and 4 Favres, the Favres will NOT go Bretting in! Take my Favre for it, Brett Favre is Farving his Bretts all over the place. Brett Favre will Favre Brett Favre Brett Farve. Then, Brett will Favre his Brett until Favre Favre Favre.
Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre. Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre.
Brett Favre!
AP is the poor mans Ahman Green! Will see if AP has the career Ahman Green has had. Both have a bad case of paddle hands.
What’s all the fuss about? Give the poor guy a basket with a lid on it, strap it to his back in the huddle, and let him run from here to Sunday!
I would take Forte over Peterson any day!
I would take Forte over Peterson any day.
Ross’sSweetMinus says:
January 27, 2010 11:14 AM
AP is the poor mans Ahman Green! Will see if AP has the career Ahman Green has had. Both have a bad case of paddle hands.
============================
If I was still allowed to hand out asshat awards, you would hace just got asshat of the month.
You need to quit post on this site. Your football ignorance is showing.
Go peddle your green and gold bias on Packers.com.
You just told the whole PFT world what a football idiot you are.
Boy that 25th ranked defense FORCED a lot of turnovers. That dirty, cheating, Apollo Creed 25th ranked defense that beat up Minnesota’s version of Rocky Balboa. Can you believe that 25th ranked is soooo dirty, they actually tried to hurt Brett. Kill the head & the snake can’t bite you. Damn right, call that 25th ranked defense dirty. Does anybody notice a pattern developing; Warner contemplating retirement, Favre contemplating retirement. Time to write the last chapter. 25th ranked defense, I’ll take them ALL DAY!!!!
what made the chicago fumble excusable was the face mask…
he had an absolute melt down in the big one, though.
Is anybody else tired of hearing how the refs gave the Saints the game. There were three plays reviewed in OT…and none of them were overturned. Do you mean to tell me that it was an official conspiracy to rip a Super Bowl away from the Vikings? I’ll bet they held a meeting and said, “How about this: If the Vikings start to look like they could win we’ll use magic to force AP to fumble consistently and make Brett Favre throw interceptions. How about you get mad because the Vikes beat themselves…fair and square.
eric be enemy?
yes i suspect the topic (ap fumbles) hasnt come up. hell, he’s “the star”…
but let’s be honest. peterson had no role in the final turnover of the vicodins’ season.
Did anyone else besides me notice that AP was retaping that wrist/forearm on the sidelines and wonder, Hmm, maybe it’s sore from repeated attempts to pull his arm off and force a fumble? Just as the Saints made an obvious plan to take Favre down any legal way they could, that was apparently the plan for Peterson and will be for the rest of his pro career.
Peterson must locate a mentor who can help him overcome this problem. He can’t afford NOT to. When the risk/reward ratio gets too off balance a RB gets a rep for fumbling away games and making their coaches nutty. Ross’s… did have it right that fumbling problems were Ahman Green’s ticket out of Seattle but he overcame the problem enough to make a very nice career for himself in GB. I liked the remark I saw someone make that Adrian needs to go around for a week with a football tucked under his arm like a “Baby Think It Over”.
Good to see that the biased emotional discussion spreads to players as well.
I am a Saints fan and will not apologize for a bad call in OT as there were bad calls in the other direction that kept drives alive for Minny (leading to TD’s). We lived with the game changing bad calls during the game so live with the bad call (Pass Int) in OT. The 4th Down and Catch were not bad calls.
In terms of AP, I will trade you any and all of the Saints backs for AP. If you don’t understand or respect what he brings to the table you don’t understand football. I looked at his Regular Season Performance and while his Rushing touches went down his Receiving touches went up. Incidentally he led the league in Rushing TD’s. I took a look at the top 50 RB’s in the league and there are 8 RB’s with a higher % of fumbles to Attempts, e.g. Slaton, Hightower, Greene, Buckhalter, Lynch, Wells, Turner, and Forte. Additionally, Bradhsaw, Gore, and Felix Jones were right in the same range.
Did he have some costly fumbles? Yes. Can they be corrected? Yes. (See Tiki Barber). Adrian Peterson is the 2nd best RB in the league period (behind Chris Johnson).
# bearsfan63 says: January 27, 2010 11:36 AM
I would take Forte over Peterson any day.
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shows how smart you bear’s fans are. you guys also decided that he’s better than cedric benson and thomas jones. now, jay cutler’s gotta sign off on your offensive coordinator.
brilliant!
oh, and forte sucked goat balls on my fantasy team ALL year…
jeffragnarchicken says:
January 27, 2010 11:39 AM
Ross’sSweetMinus says:
January 27, 2010 11:14 AM
AP is the poor mans Ahman Green! Will see if AP has the career Ahman Green has had. Both have a bad case of paddle hands.
============================
If I was still allowed to hand out asshat awards, you would hace just got asshat of the month.
You need to quit post on this site. Your football ignorance is showing.
Go peddle your green and gold bias on Packers.com.
You just told the whole PFT world what a football idiot you are.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Asshat of the month. Quit posting here. Football ignorance. Football idiot.
Wow, it’s funny how one person (jeffragnarchicken) pretends his opinion is that meaningful. Maybe the “whole PFT world” isn’t thinking that Ross’s Sweet Minus is a “football idiot”, but instead, what a passive aggressive weirdo *you* seem to be by going full tilt apeshit on someone who’s *opinion* finds that AP hasn’t yet had the career Ahman Green had. I mean, BFD, dude… You disagree with the statement so vehemently that you need to work 4 or 5 insults into your response? A little overkill maybe?
Someone needs some therapy. Whew…
Majik Bullet says:
January 27, 2010 9:41 AM
Supersuckers says: January 27, 2010 9:14 AM
Game never should have got to overtime. Run Brett. But what occured is what we all said was going to. It may go down as the ugliest most disgustingly disastrous interception in the history of the NFL.
____________
Imagine that, Super trolling yet another Viking thread. And this one has nothing to do with Favre, and yet you somehow make it about him.
Seriously, what is your deal? You bash on Favre for being indecisive about retiring from the NFL, yet you have unretired from a website that doesn’t pay you about 10 times. Then you come on every Favre thread, and even make non Favre threads about him, even though you claim to be “over Brett.”
And congrats on predicting the Favre meltdown. You’ve said it was going to happen every week for the past 18 games. And now that Favre finally threw a bad pick, you can say how you knew it all along. That’s like someone predicting it’s going to rain in the middle of a drought. You sound like an idiot for weeks, then try to justify your stupidity just like you’re doing now.
——
As I posted yesterday and apparently never made it on…I never predicted a favre meltdown every week. I said I knew how it was going to end. Period. I could not have been more accurate. Why are you so worried about me? I can go wherever I want on this site. I don’t give two shits what you think of me. And I know who you are.
i’ll assume that my other post never made it because it has links to another site, so i’ll recap and let you guys look for yourself:
adrian’s got some work to do. i just wish he’d put the ball on the ground in the lesser important games.
in his first 3 regular seasons, he’s put it down 4, 9, and 7(plus 2 in the playoffs) times.
eric dickerson put it down a 13, 14, 10, and 12 times in his first 4 regular seaons.
walter payton was 9, 10, 11 in his first 3.
earl campbell went 9, 8, 4, 10 in his first 4 seasons.
they all cleaned up down the stretch, and i have faith in adrian to at least be able to tone it down a bit… especially in big games. the great just get a little ahead of themselves trying to fight for extra yards.
…and for you geniuses that can’t do simple math, those guys fumbled MORE.