Watch out, Eric Dickerson. Adrian Peterson is right behind you and he's closing in... fast.
Before Minnesota's win over St. Louis on Sunday, Peterson needed to rush for 506 yards in three games to break Dickerson's single-season rushing record set in 1984, something he has never done in his career in the NFL, per ProFootballTalk. Peterson knocked out a big chunk of that 506 with a 212-yard performance on Sunday, proving once again that "freak" is probably the best way to describe him.
By now, even the most casual NFL fan should know how astounding Peterson's season has been, considering he is less than a year removed from reconstructive knee surgery. He has already beat his career-best with 1,812 this season with two games left, and he also has a streak of eight straight games with 100 rushing yards or more.
"The thing that people don't see is how hard I work during the offseason," Peterson said after the Vikings' Week 15 win. "I grind, hard. When you want to be great, and in my mind I want to be the greatest that ever played, you can't talk about it, you've got to go out and work."
Even if he doesn't break Dickerson's record, Peterson has already made plenty of history this season. Just a few weeks ago against Green Bay, he became the sixth fastest player to eclipse 8,000 career rushing yards. With his latest performance against the Rams, he became the sixth player in 50 years with four 200-yard rushing games and the fourth player in NFL history with 8,500 or more rushing yards and 75 or more rushing touchdowns in his first six seasons, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Despite all the accolades and benchmarks, it's the single-season rushing record Peterson wants. He's just 294 yards away from Dickerson's record. He said the former Los Angeles Rams star should be nervous.
How does Dickerson feel about it?
I'm not nervous. I don't want him to break it," Dickerson told Mike Freeman of CBS Sports a few days before the Vikings-Rams game. "I'll be honest. I don't want to see it. If anyone ever broke it, and if my son played football, I'd want my son to break it. But that's it. No one else."
Unfortunately for Dickerson, it's out of his control unless he is going to suit and play defense for the Texans or Packers in the final two weeks of the season.
Here are Eric Dickerson's game stats from his historic 1984 season alongside Peterson's 2012 output through 15 weeks. Will AP get the record?
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