ST. LOUIS — Adrian Peterson ran for 212 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown run, and Blair Walsh kicked five field goals as the Vikings overpowered the St. Louis Rams 36-22 Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome.
Minnesota opened the scoring on its first drive with a five-yard Christian Ponder touchdown run. The Rams then tied it in the second quarter with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Sam Bradford to Brian Quick.
After that, it was all Vikings as Minnesota scored 26 unanswered points with the Peterson touchdown, four field goals from Blair Walsh (50, 38, 42 and 53 yards) and a 29-yard interception for a touchdown from Everson Griffen.
After the Rams scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to make it 33-22, Walsh then kicked a 51-yard field goal to give the Vikings a two-touchdown lead with five minutes left.
For the year, Walsh has eight field goals from 50 yards or more.
“It’s kind of surreal to me,” Walsh told KFAN-FM 100.3 after when asked about his efforts. “We’ll take it.”
“It’s huge,” Ponder said of the win. “We are in the playoff hunt.
“We’re playing meaningful ball in December. But if we don’t win next week, this one doesn’t mean anything.”
As for Adrian Peterson’s effort, Ponder called the potential league MVP “unbelievable,” adding: “He means so much to this team, and we love him.”
To see Ponder’s postgame news conference in its entirety, via Vikings.com,CLICK HERE.
“I thought he did a real good job,” coach Leslie Frazier said of Ponder’s play. “He went out and executed extremely well today.”
On the day, Ponder was 17-of-24 for 131 passing yards, with no interceptions.
As for Adrian Peterson, Frazier was just as impressed as anyone else: “He continues to amaze you with some of those runs. If you get one guy to miss, you see the results time and time again. He’s just an amazing athlete. He’s the rare superstar in so many ways.”
To see Frazier’s postgame news conference in its entirety, via Vikings.com, CLICK HERE.
Peterson now has 1,812 rushing yards on the season, 188 yards short of 2,000 yards with two games to play. No. 28 also topped his previous best for a season, when he ran for 1,760 yards in 2007.
“It means a lot, especially coming off the ACL injury,” Peterson said. “But we have more to accomplish.”
As for perhaps breaking Eric Dickerson’s all-time rushing record of 2,105 yards: “It’s in the back of my head, so I’m going to continue to let the chips fall where they may. Today’s game, I could have had 300 — but we got the win.”
To see Peterson’s postgame news conference in its entirety, via Vikings.com, CLICK HERE.
With the win, Minnesota is indeed in the playoff hunt with an 8-6 record. Right now, they’re the sixth seed in the NFC. But the rest of the way isn’t exactly easy. The Vikings travel to Houston next Sunday and will host Green Bay on Dec. 30 to finish the season.
In all likelihood, Peterson, Ponder and crew will need to finish with a 10-6 record for any chance at an NFC postseason berth.
