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GREEN BAY, Wis. — His remarkable comeback already has Hollywood written all over it, but Adrian Peterson gets the chance to add another chapter Saturday night.
Considering the opponents are the Vikings’ nemeses, the Packers, and the setting is storied Lambeau Field, what a page-turner it would be.
After defying skeptics, logic and seemingly the bounds of medical science by nearly setting the NFL’s all-time single-season rushing record less than a calendar year after suffering a devastating knee injury, Peterson will try to keep the upstart Vikings alive at the expense of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers.
The Packers, who barely had any time to shake off the nightmare of Peterson romping for 199 yards against them in a 37-34 Minnesota win just six days ago, now have to return the favor in tonight’s prime-time wild-card matchup to avoid the embarrassment of a second consecutive one-and-done postseason.
Rodgers caused some eyebrows to be raised when he vowed, moments after last week’s game, “the [playoff] game will be different,” but his confidence is justified.
After all, Green Bay has won five of the past six regular-season meetings against Minnesota — a team that often tortured the Packers during the Mike Holmgren era — and didn’t exactly play with abandon last week with its playoff position already locked up. But the Vikings have Peterson.
Adjectives and superlatives are already hard to come by in describing Peterson’s incredibly brief journey from horrific knee injury to seriously challenging the Broncos’ Peyton Manning for the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award.
Not only did Peterson finish just 9 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record with 2,097 (second most in league history), but he also had a stunning seven games of 150 or more rushing yards.
And Peterson got better as the season went on — especially against the Packers. He averaged 160 rushing yards over the Vikings’ final 10 games, scoring 10 touchdowns along the way. A whopping 409 of those yards came in two December matchups with Green Bay.
No wonder Minnesota won its final four games and put itself in the playoffs for the first time since the 2009 season despite having the handicap of the maddeningly inconsistent Christian Ponder at quarterback.
Of course, the Packers have a prolific MVP-pedigreed weapon of their own in Rodgers. The Green Bay quarterback riddled Minnesota for 365 yards and four touchdowns last week and finished the season with the NFL’s highest passer rating (108.0) for the second year in a row.
Rodgers also has made a habit of tormenting the Vikings. In 10 career starts against Minnesota, Rodgers has thrown for 24 touchdowns with just four interceptions, giving him a sterling 116.4 rating.
With headliners on a roll on both sides, it has all the makings of another memorable slugfest befitting one of the sport’s best rivalries.
MARQUEE MATCHUP
Packers QB Aaron Rodgers vs. Vikings CB Antoine Winfield: This has the potential to get ugly for the Vikings, considering Winfield will be playing with a cast on the broken hand that forced him to sit out the second half of last week’s game.
Winfield, Minnesota’s best cornerback, will need to play his typically physical game to counteract the Packers’ fleet of dangerous receivers, but that could be difficult with his hand an issue.
If Winfield aggravates the injury and has to exit again, watch out: Rodgers was 17-for-21 for 262 yards and three touchdown passes without an interception in the second half last week after Winfield was relegated to the sidelines.
STAR VS. STINK
If this one comes down to a field goal, the Packers will be in big trouble either way. While Green Bay’s Mason Crosby is lucky to still have a job after converting 21 of his 33 tries (.636) during the regular season, Vikings rookie Blair Walsh was astoundingly good en route to earning a spot in the Pro Bowl.
Not only did the Georgia product convert an NFL single-season record 10 field goals of 50-plus yards, but Walsh also missed just three attempts all season (35 of 38).
Walsh was especially clutch when the Vikings needed it, nailing 11 of his 12 tries in the month of December — including a 29-yarder at the gun last week to finish off the Packers.
Of course, Walsh has the luxury of kicking in a dome for at least half his regular-season games while Crosby must battle the Tundra elements. That could be a bit of an equalizer, considering two of Walsh’s three misses all season came outdoors — including one at Lambeau last month.
PONDER’S ELBOW
Christian Ponder, the Vikings’ enigmatic young quarterback was limited in practice all week by a sore throwing elbow and ended up listed as questionable on the official injury report.
Ponder’s health is something to keep an eye on, because no other quarterback threw a pass for Minnesota this season. Joe Webb, who has also played wide receiver in the NFL, is Ponder’s backup and has just 152 passing attempts in a three-year pro career. Then again, Peterson and the Vikings are used to uncertain production from that position since Brett Favre’s retirement. Ponder wasn’t awful, throwing for 18 TDs and 12 interceptions, but he finished the regular season with a mere 81.2 rating and was sacked 32 times.