Adrian Peterson in Reach of Rushing Record Set Almost 30 Years Ago
Adrian Peterson, widely considered one of the top running backs in the National Football League, came even closer to breaking Eric Dickerson's single season rushing record when he scorched the St. Louis Rams with 212 rushing yards.
Peterson ended the game with 1,812 rushing yards so far this season which surpassed his previous career best of 1,760. With his impressive performance he comes within 294 yards of the NFL's single season rushing record.
Peterson has made his desire to break the record known and will only need to average 147 yards in both of his remaining two games to do so. Peterson is in his sixth year and has his sights squarely on Dickerson's 1984 single season rushing record.
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"The thing that people don't see is how hard I work during the offseason," Peterson told Sports Illustrated. "I grind, hard. When you want to be great, and in my mind I want to be the greatest that ever played, you can't talk about it, you've got to go out and work."
Peterson has been unstoppable in the second half of the season with eight consecutive 100-yard games and has more yards in those games than Houston Texans running back Arian Foster has the entire season- Foster has 1,313.
The Vikings were able to stay in the playoff hunt after they defeated the St. Louis Rams 36-22 on Sunday. They still have a tough two games left as they face the Houston Texans next week and end the regular season playing Green Bay Packers.
Peterson will have to be at his best to break the record, given that the Texans have the league's second best rushing defense by limiting opposing running backs to 90.8 rushing yards per game.
The Packers do not have as good of numbers but still held opponents to a respectable 116.7 yards per game.
