Adrian Peterson rushes for 212 yards in Vikings’ win, needs 294 in last two games to break NFL record
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson runs past a host of St. Louis Rams defenders on his way to a 52-yard touchdown run during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012, in St. Louis. The Vikings won 36-22. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
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ST. LOUIS — Adrian Peterson ran for a season-best 212 yards, including an 82-yard touchdown that fueled the Minnesota Vikings’ big second quarter in a 36-22 victory that spoiled the St. Louis Rams’ home finale Sunday.
Peterson has 1,812 yards rushing, leaving him 294 shy of breaking the NFL’s single-season record of 2,105 by Eric Dickerson of the Los Angeles Rams in 1984. Peterson, less than a year removed from a serious knee injury, has two games left — at Houston and home against Green Bay — to top Dickerson.
The Vikings (8-6) scored 10 of their 23 points in the second quarter off turnovers by Sam Bradford, including a 29-yard interception return by defensive end Everson Griffen.
They were up by 26 before Bradford, whose botched center snap also cost the Rams (6-7-1) a field goal in the second quarter, threw touchdown passes to Danny Amendola and Lance Kendricks in the fourth quarter.
