http://schludaskers.blogspot.com/2010/02/adrian-peterson-working-on-ball.html

also polls about vikings

Those poll questions were way too obvious. Why not ask a difficult question like, "Will the Vikings ever win a Super Bowl in your youngest child's lifetime?"

And by the way, can you Minnesotans PLEASE take your weather back. We in your nation's capital are getting sick and tired of all the snow. (24 inches on 12/19 and nearly as much expected today, with multiple other storms in between -- it might work up there but the idiots here get behind the wheel in this stuff, and you know what happens then)

Nope. Sorry. It's yours. Enjoy it.

Besides, maybe Congress will get snowed out and the country will actually get better.

Hey man I will have alot of different polls they were just fitting fo the time being, and yes the weather sux.

If I was HC of the VIkings I would tell peterson this.. "you fumble in any game and you sit
and Chestor takes over." I bet you the problem would get fixed a lot faster that way.

I doubt it. I don't think it happens because Peterson doesn't care about fumbling.

Jim

Peterson Runs upright, they thought this would be a problem with injuries but maybe it is just a bigger problem with fumbling. He doesn't look to get the 4 or 5 yards everytime he looks to get the big play, so he is playing with the go big or go home philosophy and that causes turnovers

oh ya. and fisher should say the same thing to chris johnson. and if manning throws a pick he should get benched. brees too. and belichick chould get on board and do the same thing with brady.

all this over fumbles that weren't even lost! just to set the record straight...fumbles recovered by your own team are not as bad as interceptions. all turnovers are bad. fumbles aren't worse than interceptions. you guys calling for the benching and even trading of peterson are completely clueless on this one.

I agree im not bashing peterson I dont even think playing with the mentallity that he does is bad, I think it has alot to do with how successful he is. I agree that people are making a big deal about the fumbles even tho he recovered them but I also admit that leading the league in fumbles as a RB two years in a row is a problem

obviously i take zero fumbles over any fumbles any day. but he had less fumbles combined the last two years than manning had interceptions this year. are people talking about what a huge issue mannings picks are? no, because they are part of the game, and his upside far outweighs his downside. same goes for AP.

You can't compare fumbles to interceptions.

you can't be serious. you most certainly can compare the two, and coaches, scouts, etc. DO compare the two. a turnover is a turnover. i'm very curious as to what your reasons are for giving the ball to the other team through the air being less harmful than giving the ball to the other team through fumbling. although i will agree with one thing....teams actually giving their opponents the ball via interceptions is far worse than teams not giving the ball to the other team after fumbling, but recovering their fumbles. i'm not calling you out personally, but if you think that interceptions and fumbles lost aren't the same, you've probably never coached, or been on the sideline after doing either of these and listening to your coach rip your head off and #### down your neck.

Just a quick observation: The NFL does keep track of all fumbles (as a 'miscue' if you will) so every time AD makes that 'miscue', regardless of the outcome, there is a stat assigned to the event. One of the stats not collected (and I'm not bashing Favre - I think I have went on the record enough supporting him, that I can make this statement) is the number of risky (or poor) throws made by a QB that could or should result in an interception but are 'broken up' by the receiver to prevent the turnover. IMHO this is roughly the equivalent of a fumble recovered by your own team, but (other than just the incompletion) there are not stats kept on that.

That's the long winded explaination why I tend to look at fumbles lost as equaling interceptions (not the "total number of fumbles")

Excellent post. I do the same, for the same reasons.

Jim

good post, and i agree completely. obviously, everyone of us wants AP to get 1,000 touches and not put the ball on the ground even once. i'd be very happy if that happened! and i've also went on record saying that it's something that he needs to work on. just like fitzgerald needs to work on catching and manning needs to work on throwing. these guys aren't perfect, and i'd be pissed if they stopped working to get better. but the fact remains, you don't want to give the ball to the opposition EVER. i don't care if it's a fumble, interception, blocked kick, or if you put the ball in a heart shaped box and deliver it to them with a card the night before the game! they are all equally destructive. obviously, if given the choice i'd rather my player turn it over in say....the first quarter as opposed to in overtime, but the fact remains that if you give the other team the ball you can't score! whoever made up this rule that fumbles are for whatever reason worse than interceptions wasn't thinking straight. people are failing to see a couple things. one, many of his fumbles were recovered by the vikings, therefore they didn't hurt us. sure, they're still very annoying, and need to be addressed, but we got lucky and they didn't hurt us a lot of the time. in fact, the one that actually hurt the team, in the bears game, wasn't a bad play by him but a great play by the defense. which brings me to this...NOT ALL FUMBLES ARE THE SAME!!! some are boneheaded, others are the results of great defense. the other thing people are not seeing for whatever reason is AP's upside FAR outweighs his occasional fumble. we're not talking about an average back here/ we're talking about one of the best in the game. and one this franchise needs to make it to the superbowl. it's for this same reason that guys like manning and brady can throw 15-20 picks, and they're not going anywhere! ypou think guys like losman, kitna, or alex smith would be allowed to throw that many? no. and if they were they'd be on a short leash because you can find other guys who can play the position just as good as them, and possibly not turn the ball over as often. we're not going to get a guy as expolsive as AP in hopes that he only fumbles 3 or 4 times (like most backs did) instead of peterson's 6! it's all about perspective here, and i'm getting the impression that some are translating their middle school and high school playing experiences and philosophies to how things "should" be handled in the nfl. it's not the same. it's a business, and the best guys are going to be on the field, and mistakes are still going to be made in every series, in every quarter, of every game.

I agree with jackal. I don't think AD is as concerned about his fumbles as he should be. everytime he is asked about his fumbling problem he always says that it isn't a problem and acts nonchalantly about it. The truth is that it is a problem and it can and has costs the vikings victories. But I don't just blame him, I blame the fans for placing him on a pedestal such that he can do no wrong and I blame his coaches for not taking a more active role in fixing the problem.

for those that bring up benching qbs when they throw an int, lets put this into perspective. AD has lead all RBs in fumbles the past three years, the qb that has lead the league in ints over that same span is jay cutler. So AD is the jay cutler of RBs. So when u bring up other QBs ask yourself if u would want jay cutler continuing to play after all his turnovers

that's not a good comparison because i can assure you that cutlers interceptions are about 10 times more than AP's fumbles. I stated i don't like the fumbles. but the real issue is turning the ball over to the other team. if you add up AP's fumbles, compare his numbers to other backs. it's not like his miles ahead of them in turning the ball over. then, take that same munber, and compare it to the quarterbacks interceptions. i bet they are far less. i mean look at it like this. what if some season hardley any backs turn the ball over, with the leader having 3 lost fumbles. are we immidiately going to start comparing him to some rookie qb who threw 25 picks because they both happen to lead the nfl? it doesn't make sense.

Well, I know I don't want Adrian Peterson playing QB for the Vikings or Jay Cutler as our starting RB. That's about as far as I can go with your comparison. Aside from that, I don't care what Cutler is doing in a different position on different teams than Adrian Peterson.

Not to mention, Peterson has run for 4484 yards and scored 40 rushing TDs in just three seasons. Yeah, I'll I'll give the guy another chance at ball security.

EXACTLY!!!!!!

don't know why this is so confusing for some.

Don't tell Peterson SQUAT, just sit him down for the rest of the game when he fumbles put Chester in and let peterson figure it out on his own

i'm really trying to get to the bottom of this so i'll ask you as well. what makes fumbles, especially those recovered by our own team, worse than interceptions? this is baffling to me. we rave about favre and only throwing 7 picks, but people are wanting to bench...and even trade AD for 6 fumbles.

A big reason they're worse is interceptions aren't always the QBs fault. Whether it's a tip, hit arm, pressure, receiver running the wrong route, giving up. It's completely different when a HB fumbles, it's ALWAYS on them. Even if it's knocked out it's there job to secure it when opposing players have that oppurtunity.

demi i guess i could understand that perspective, although it still seems to me as something just made up. i want to know what person made the rule that some interceptions aren't the quarterbacks fault, but ALL fumbles are the runningbacks fault. i just don't agree. just like defenders make great plays on qb's passes, they also make great plays when a rb has the ball. although i will agree that there is certainly more opportunity to make a play on a quarterback, thus a little more room for error. although i think you'd be hard pressed to find a single coach that shares the view that interceptions are less harmful than fumbles. thanks for the response though. at least i can start to see where some of these guys are coming from with some of these claims. appreciate it.

Think about it: if a QB throws the ball to the right spot on a timing route but a receiver runs the route incorrectly and the pass is intercepted, that's not the QB's fault. A well-thrown ball that's bobbled and picked off wouldn't be the QB's fault either.

That said, even though I agree with Demi that it's the ball-carrier's responsibility to protect the ball, I don't agree that a fumble is always on the ball-carrier. Sometimes the ball is just knocked out or stripped by a great defensive play, even if the ball-carrier secured it properly.

I'm with you 100% when it comes to INTs being as harmful as fumbles and although QBs aren't responsible for every INT they throw, they tend to be responsible for the majority of them (I realize there are exceptions to every rule).

Jim

Everyone is missing the big point....

You won't be able to play very well with him in Madden 11!!!!

fire eric bieniemy !
adrians careless running style is a big reason why he's fumbling. he goes for extra yards and takes on tacklers. he needs to go down like emitt smith and out of bounds like LT.

You remember Smith running out a lot because you think that won them games. Incorrect. The massive Oline, great WR and good QB made his job 10 times easier than Peterson has had his first few years. Until the start of week 4 this season AP was the team, in every respect of the word. He carried us on his shoulders each and every week because our QB couldnt get it done, and our soft cover D couldnt hold a lead. That breeds a mentality that you shouldnt go down easy, that every yard could be the one that lets you break loose for 60.

Fumbles by RB, Carries by that back. Average Number of Carries Per Fumble
AP 6 314 52
Forte 5 258 51
Hightower 5 143 28
Slaton 5 131 26
Gore 4 229 57
McFadden 4 104 26
M. Turner 4 138 34

Turner, Slaton, Gore and Forte are supposed to be decent starters, and only one has a better fumbling average.

Also, if you think anyone even Chili is stupid enough to sit AP for an entire game over a fumble I really believe you dont have a grasp on how important he is. Yes, he has problems so does every other player in the NFL. The golden boy Manning just got his #### handed to him by a team he was supposed to walk over.

As a side note, Smith had 19 fumbles his first 3 years... So hes not someone you use to compare.

Hmmmm...topic fooled me.

Thought maybe Peterson took a job at the hall of fame watching the ball vault. Shoulda known better. They'd never hire someone who'd drop his gun as thieves ran off with the NFC title game ball.

He should be "allowed" to fumble every now and again just like a QB is allowed to throw a pick. I think the rule should be if he fumbles twice (regardless of which team recovers) then Chestor should come in and get more carries than him. If he fumbles at least once in consecutive games, then Chestor should be the primary running back the next game.

One undeniable problem is that from the moment AD took his mind off the ball and fumbled near the end of the first half in the NFCC Game, he lost his self-confidence. If a QB had done that -- or a cornerback, for that matter -- his team would fall apart. And, indeed, Chili correctly had to pull AD; that's how badly he was imploding.

Of course, AD did get things back together and showed his incredible skills in the process. But teams don't win the Super Bowl with leaders who are as mentally weak as AD appears to be. I don't mean that he has a low IQ -- his grasp of physics and molecular biology may be strong, for all I know -- but he doesn't have a high FOOTBALL IQ yet. Given how long he's been in the league, this concerns me, to say the least.

And by the way, do you all remember the Steeler game? AD was out of the game during crunch time, when the critical pick was thrown. Why was that? His pass catching skills? His blocking skills? Don't tell me it's because we value Chester Taylor -- if you're a Hall of Famer, you need to be playing the 2 minute drill at the end of the game.

It all comes back to the mental part of the game. AD needs to step up, or his Vikes will be "always the bridesmaid, never the bride."