Adrian Peterson has to get a handle on the ball

Adrian Peterson won’t go down without a fight.

Sometimes, that’s his biggest problem.

The Minnesota Vikings star, the NFL’s third-leading rusher, has six fumbles this season -- the most among running backs and one behind the league leader, Kansas City quarterback Matt Cassel.

Peterson lost two fumbles against Chicago last Sunday and will be focused on tightening his grip tonight at Arizona. That means at times he’ll have to embrace the most difficult of concepts: surrender.

“When I’m in a crowd, I know the opponent,” he told reporters last week. “I’m sure the defensive coordinators tell those guys, ‘Hey, when we got him up, forget tackling if he’s not going anywhere. Rip for the ball. Rip for the ball. Rip for the ball.’ So I’m just going to start being more aware of putting two hands on the ball and going down at times.”

Peterson says he can be his biggest enemy in those situations.

Otherwise, though, it’s hard to find fault with a back so integral to the success of one of the best teams in football. He has rushed for 1,084 yards in 230 carries, with 12 touchdowns, and also has 27 catches out of the backfield.

In Arizona, he’ll be up against a defense that surrendered 154 yards rushing to Tennessee’s Chris Johnson a week earlier.

In 11 games, Minnesota’s offense has scored 15 more touchdowns than it did in the 2008 season.

So for the most part, there’s very little to nitpick about the Vikings’ offense. And Coach Brad Childress takes that approach with Peterson: The good he brings vastly outweighs the bad.

“He’s a trustworthy guy,” Childress said. “I don’t have a problem with that. Touch it as many times as he does, somewhere it’s going on the ground.”

-- Sam Farmer