Packers find way to bottle up Vikings' Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson has carried the Vikings so many times during their winning streak, which ended at five games with Sunday's 30-13 loss to the Packers at TCF Bank Stadium.

It's not fair to make him the scapegoat of the loss, because there was a lot of blame to go around. But the star running back lost a fourth-quarter fumble when the Vikings were trying to get back into the game, a play he took full responsibility for.

"It was just a good play by [Green Bay safety Morgan Burnett], a play that I take personal," Peterson said. "We were in good position and I gave them the ball back. That's one I can't have back. I just have to do better next time."

On the play, which came with 13 minutes, 20 seconds left and the Packers up 14 points, Peterson had run for 10 yards to the Packers 22-yard line, and he was working to gain extra yards but got hit from behind and lost the ball. You have to figure that at that point of the game, the Vikings still had an opportunity to make it competitive.

Peterson had done well against the Packers throughout his career, averaging 116.5 rushing yards per game in 15 career meetings. But on Sunday, he was held to 45 rushing yards and carried the ball only three times for 3 yards in the third quarter. The Packers found some formula to stop him, although the Vikings eventually had to go away from him in the fourth quarter when they trailed by double digits.

Peterson, who did have a 6-yard touchdown run, was asked about the Green Bay defense seeming to game plan against him.

"Yes sir, and they have a great opportunity to do that when I get 13 carries in a game," he said. "Game after game and the last four weeks we continued to run the ball, and we just kind of got out of the game plan today."

The NFL's leading rusher with 1,006 yards was then asked if there was anything specific Green Bay did to slow down a Vikings rushing attack that had been so strong of late.

"You know on the 13 carries I had it was sound, they made plays," he said. "We put ourselves in some tough positions with penalties on first down, we switched things up to get us out of sync. They did a good job of being physical upfront and just following and running to the ball."

It's hard to understand a couple of things. How can a team such as the Packers lose at home to the last-place Lions last week — they hadn't lost at home since December 2013 and hadn't lost at Lambeau Field to Detroit since 1991. And how can a running back of Peterson's caliber get shut down for 45 yards on 13 carries by a team he had done well against throughout his career, and after rushing for 203 yards at Oakland last week.

When it comes to the quarterback ratings Sunday, it's difficult to figure out how this formula makes Teddy Bridgewater so much more impressive than winning quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Bridgewater completed 25 of 37 passes for 296 yards and a touchdown for a rating of 100.7. On the other side, Rodgers, who has to rank as one of the two best quarterbacks in the NFL along with Tom Brady of the Patriots, threw for 212 yards, completing 16 of 34 passes with two touchdowns, but his rating was only 86.9 because of the 18 incompletions.

Rest assured, Bridgewater will be plenty stiff Monday. Fox Sports' Joe Buck reported late in the game that the Vikings quarterback was the victim of nine knockdowns, 11 hits and six sacks. And many of the hits were by great Packers pass rusher Julius Peppers, the longtime Bears defensive end who is now a linebacker. Peppers was in Bridgewater's face almost the entire game.

Still, Bridgewater said the Vikings knew the Packers were going to apply pressure the quarterback this week.

"We knew that coming into this game that was going to be one of their points of emphasis," Bridgewater said. "The past three games, I think they hadn't gotten to the quarterback, so we knew that they had heard about how they struggled to get to the quarterback and things like that. We knew that that was going to be one of their focuses and today they applied some pressures."

One of the few bright spots for the Vikings was the play of tight end Kyle Rudolph, who a week after he dropped an easy touchdown pass against the Raiders had the best performance of his career with 106 yards receiving on six receptions, including a 47-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Rudolph said the Vikings' loss wasn't just about the way Green Bay played.

"You know, we just shot ourselves in the foot too many times early, when you play a team like the Packers you can't put yourself in first-and-20," he said about the Vikings' multiple penalties on offense. "We have to stay on schedule, we're a team that likes to run the ball on first down and have positive plays, and unfortunately we didn't do that tonight."

Rudolph said the Vikings were prepared for the fact that the Packers were going to be looking for a big victory after losing three consecutive games and falling out of the NFC North lead.

"You know, they're a good team and any time you get a team that is talented and has a future Hall of Fame quarterback with their backs against the wall, they're going to come out and play well," Rudolph said. "We knew we were going to get their best shot. Unfortunately, like I said, we just shot ourselves in the foot too many times."

When asked about Peterson's play, Rudolph said the offense was kind of forced to give up the ground game, and that Peterson's late fumble was nothing but bad luck.

"We really didn't have a chance to get the run game going, like I said we put ourselves in a lot of long first-down situations, we had to kind of abandon our running game a little early," he said. "[The fumble] is not on Adrian, he's a phenomenal player and he was just trying to do what he does and that's make big plays."

Rudolph was asked about the play of Bridgewater, who posted his third game this season with a QB rating of 100 or better and also rushed for 43 yards.

"Teddy is an absolute warrior, what he was able to do to stand in there and take shots and scramble and pick up big first downs says a lot about the kind of kid he is," he said.

Rudolph believes the Vikings still have a chance to show that they can compete with the best, and they have to be ready for next week at Atlanta. "We do have a tough schedule, but these are all teams we're going to have to beat to get to the playoffs and then we may have to see them again," he said.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on 830-AM at 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. shartman@startribune.com