Adrian Peterson entered Sunday’s game against the Panthers with a trio of injuries. The good news is that he exited the game with only three injuries.
The bad news is that he spent the entire game dealing with the pain of a dislocated shoulder that he suffered on Monday night against the Saints. It actually affected his performance early in the game.
“It was an outside zone run,” Peterson told PFT by phone on his way home after the team’s 23-17 win. “I did a great job of being patient like they tell me to do. When I made the cut back to the right, I felt myself hesitate twice before getting hit.”
Peterson said that, after three or four carries, he recognized that it wasn’t going to get any better.
“It’s going to be painful,” Peterson told himself. “I just need to fight through it. Every time I got hit I could feel it.”
Peterson felt it all week. He said that the challenge was to prevent blood from building up in the shoulder and making it stiff. The goal was to keep the shoulder moving. Which meant that he couldn’t do much sleeping.
“I was up at 3:00 and 5:00 every night,” Peterson said, adding that the rehab efforts included the very low-tech device of Peterson’s wife digging into the shoulder with his knuckles and elbows.
In the end, it worked. Peterson said he knew that by Saturday he’d be able to play, and he generated 97 rushing yards on 17 carries. He said it was important to show the team that they have a “warrior” who will do whatever it takes to play.
Most importantly, Washington picked up their third win of the year, which keeps them in first place in the NFC East.