Vikings will do "offseason study" of Peterson's fumbles

Posted by Gregg Rosenthal on January 27, 2010 8:31 AM ET

Minnesota's final two losses of the season had something in common: costly Adrian Peterson fumbles.

 

The annoying tendency turned into a full-blown meltdown in the NFC Championship, and Vikings coach Brad Childress admitting that fixing the issue is an offseason priority.

 

"He needs to hold on to it, but I'm sure he and [running backs coach Eric Bieniemy] and our offensive staff will do a good job of kind of troubleshooting that and seeing what we can come up with," Childress said.

 

Perhaps Childress watched PFT Daily before his presser, because he said the team will look at how Peterson holds the ball.

 

"I think that's probably an offseason study type of thing as well," Childress said. "Everybody's a little different [with] kind of the way their forearms are created -- short forearms, long forearms. You can say, 'Well, everybody can hold it high and tight.' Sometimes that's true, sometimes that's not true. We talk about points of contact with the body, what should be on the ball, where should the body and ball be in relation, but there are also styles, too."

 

Peterson was only credited with two fumbles against the Saints, but also took responsibility for a botched handoff late in the first half. Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune made a great point Wednesday, wondering if crowd noise caused that crucial fumble.

 

Peterson remained frozen well after the ball was snapped on the play, perhaps not hearing Brett Favre's cadence. That caused the timing of the play to fall apart, resulting in one of the biggest turning points of the game.

 

No change in running style would fix that play. But if it wasn't for Peterson's fumble in Chicago, the Vikings may not have had to deal with any crowd noise at all.

Makes me smile! It's easily the best part of last season I think!

 

No change in running style would fix that play. But if it wasn't for Peterson's fumble in Chicago, the Vikings may not have had to deal with any crowd noise at all.