Between the Tackles: Eagles defense doesn't rest against Vikings' Peterson
January 5 Philadelphia Daily News Columnist Paul Domowitch
"The night before the Eagles played the Vikings in October 2007, defensive coordinator Jim Johnson showed his unit a tape he had the team's video department put together. It was a collection of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson's longest runs. In between each run, Johnson had the video guysa blood-and-gore clip from the movie "The Gladiator.''The next day, his fired-up defense held Peterson to 70 yards on 20 carries in a 23-16 win.Johnson didn't put together another tape as a prelude to yesterday's NFC wild-card battle between the Eagles and Vikings. He figured his players didn't need anything extra to get them motivated. They knew if they neutralized the NFL rushing king, there was an awfully good chance they would beat the Vikings and move another step closer to Super Bowl XLIII.For the second straight year, that's what they did. They held Peterson, who had rushed for 100-plus yards in eight of the Vikings' previous 11 games, to 83 yards on 20 carries, and the Eagles won, 26-14, setting up a Sunday meeting with the NFC East-champion Giants.Forty of Peterson's 83 yards came on a second-quarter bolt for a touchdown against a blitz, briefly giving the Vikings a 7-6 lead. But he managed just 43 yards on his other 19 carries. Fourteen of Peterson's 20 rushing attempts gained 3 yards or less. That 40-yard scamper was his only gain of more than 6 yards."He's a special back,'' said middle linebacker Stewart Bradley. "The cut he had on that one run, we blitzed the 'B' gap. He burst through [the 'A' gap]. I went a little too fast in the 'A' gap. You give him an inch and he'll bust it. And that's what he did."At halftime, we made some adjustments. We had to slow down on the backside. Stay in our gaps. We were overpursuing a little bit. After we made the adjustments, we were OK.''Peterson had 66 yards on 12 carries in the first half, including the 40-yarder. The Eagles held him to 17 yards on eight carries in the second half. Two of those carries went for 5 yards. The other six went for 3 yards or less."Our front seven, they came together and balled out in the second half,'' strong safety Quintin Mikell said. "It was fun to be out there."Peterson seldom was tackled by one defender. The Eagles swarmed to the ball the entire game."Any time you have a back that talented who runs that hard, you've got to gang-tackle him,'' said linebacker Chris Gocong.The Vikings finished with 148 yards on 34 carries, but had just 39 yards on 12 carries in the second half. Those 148 yards were the most against the Eagles since the Giants rushed for 219 yards in a 36-31 win in early November. "Our objective was just to get them in third-down-and-long situations,'' Johnson said. "In the first half, we got them in some third-and-longs and didn't make the plays. In the second half, we got in some third-and-longs and made the plays. That was the difference.''The Vikings converted six of 10 third-down opportunities in the first half. In the second half, they made just two of ei
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