So Much For That Idea

In my previous post I discussed the injury to Minnesota's star running back Adrian Peterson. While it was the last thing I wanted to see I attempted to find a silver lining in a dark day; that lining being a better draft pick because without Peterson we surely wouldn't win another game. I'm afraid I'm guilty of falling under the spell of a shiny new toy. Peterson's amazing success made me forget that before he was on the team Chester Taylor was a pretty damn good runner. Sunday's game against the Raiders served as a strong reminder. Taylor went off on the Raiders, putting up 164 rushing yards on just 22 attempts with three touchdown's and 38 receiving yards thrown on for good measure. I love the fact that the Vikings have two high quality running backs, but performances like today's are going to ensure an early departure from Minnesota for Chester Taylor to a team that needs him to be the main guy.

It all came crumbling down

At the beginning of the Vikings' season, I stated repeatedly that I didn't care how many games we won or lost, in fact I was hoping for a bad record to get a good draft pick, but the one thing that could ruin the season for me was an injury to Adrian Peterson. Well, the year started off great. As you know from my previous entry, Peterson was on his way to an unprecedented rookie season. Then came week 10 against the hated Green Bay Packers. The game was horrendous. The Packers' defense held Peterson in check all day, that is up until the third quarter when veteran Packers' defensive back Al Harris made a clean, albeit low, tackle on Peterson that left our favorite running back rolling on the field. At first sight it looked bad, really bad. Peterson was seen dragging himself on the ground with his legs limp behind him. My first thought was, "that's it, he blew out his knee and will never be the same again." Luckily while he does have a ligament tear in his knee it is apparently not that serious and he could even return later this season. At least this should lead to more losses and a better draft pick.

Adrian "All Day" Peterson

Adrian "All Day" Peterson went nuts on Sunday. A day that was supposed to belong to the Patriots and Colts, who played "Super Bowl XLI1/2", was stolen by the rookie phenom. Peterson ran for a single game record 296 yards against a strong, albeit beat up, San Diego run defense. He had touchdown runs of 1, 46 and 64 yards. He averaged around 10 yards per carry, and the whole time everyone knew he was getting the ball.

Peterson has to be considered the best running back in the league so far this season. The Vikings have no passing game. Teams are regularly stacking up against the run, and they still can't stop number 28. This is his second 200+ yard game this season(a rookie record) and it's only week eight. Peterson has racked up 1036 yards (the most in history through eight games) on the season; that's 310 more than the number two running back in the league. He is averaging 6.6 yards per carry, best among starting running backs (2nd: Brandon Jacobs 5.6 yards per carry). He's also number one in rushing touchdowns with eight so far. He has five runs for 40+ yards (most in the league, see a trend?) and nine runs of 20+ yards (tied for first). He is on pace for a 2000 yard season(2072 to be exact), a feat that hasn't been accomplished since 2003 (Jamal Lewis: 2066 yards second all-time, 2105 is the all-time recond: Eric Dickerson 1984). The one blemish has been his three fumbles, which is a somewhat high number for this point in the season.

Web 2.0

Ok, so there's this big wave of so-called web 2.0 sites that have sprung up recently. Sites like youtube, myspace, facebook, twitter, del.icio.us, and digg. These sites have changed the way that we look at the internet. Instead of a giant mass of information ready to be consumed, the internet is now a medium for creativity and contribution. Amateur producers/directors are rapidly producing videos on youtube that become digital phenomenon. Users from opposite sides of the globe are connecting with each other and sharing interests and ideas on sites like myspace and facebook. Del.icio.us is allowing the internet users to categorize all of the sites on the web in a way that they deem fit and digg is allowing the reader to decide which news stories are most important and should receive the most attention.

Is this a brand new form of the internet, or is it just a new way to use the regular internet? My answer is that it doesn't matter. It cannot be denied that these sites have changed the internet, whether they should be considered a whole new internet is insignificant.