Peterson's repeated rushes paid off at end

Adrian Peterson had quite the turnaround in the second half of the Vikings' 28-21 victory over Houston on Sunday at the Metrodome. The second-year running back rushed 10 times for 103 yards after halftime after rushing 15 times for 36 yards in the first half.

No doubt the Vikings would not have won the game had Peterson not delivered runs of 40, 21 and 22 yards in the third and fourth quarters.

Peterson now has rushed 176 times for 823 yards and six touchdowns, a rushing total good for second in the NFL behind Washington's Clinton Portis, who has 944 yards. Though Peterson is not averaging 5.6 yards per carry the way he did as a rookie, the average is still very good at 4.7. He now has surpassed 100 rushing yards in three consecutive games and five of eight overall this season.

"You remember the guy Bud Goode, the statistician from California?" Vikings coach Brad Childress said of Peterson. "It's just run attempts. You know, all of those [running plays] aren't going to run into the back of the end zone and hit their head on the goalpost. But it allows [the offensive] line to take off and beat on those guys a little bit, and they're paying a lot of attention to him, obviously.

"It allows you to start a game like Bernard Berrian started it [with a 55-yard reception]. But, you just have to keep going back to it. You have to be patient with the run game, just like [Peterson] has to be patient with his looks at the run game."

Childress believes that Peterson looked Sunday like he has all season, adding: "It's just a matter of how guys are playing and how we're blocking for him. Then, it's what we can do to offset [the defense], in terms of throwing the football."

Childress said the Vikings work all week to find ways to get Peterson a chance to pile up the rushing numbers, adding: "All the time, it's always a work in progress. In this deal it's always, 'What have you done for me lately?' So, we're 1-0 this week."

Passing D a problem? Childress was asked if he was concerned the Texans passed for 327 yards, which was a season high for a Vikings opponent. This came after Chicago threw for 274 yards in the Vikings' previous game. The coach responded by noting Houston has the NFL's fifth-best passing offense.

"They do a good job of moving it up and down the field, and I thought we did a good job for a while in the first half in holding their run game down," Childress said of the Texans. "I think they popped a couple on us, but that's a good passing attack."

Vikings players and coaches believed this was a key victory, against a Houston team that had won its previous three games. And this victory came the week before the Packers are to visit the Metrodome in what figures to be a key divisional game.

Allen was rested Watching closely on the sidelines, you could see Jared Allen having a discussion with defensive line coach Karl Dunbar regarding Allen not always being in the game when the Vikings defense was on the field.

"I know he wanted to be out there, but we needed to give him a break some, because we knew we needed him in the fourth quarter," defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier said.

"He was a little banged up and we were trying to keep him out sometimes to keep him fresh for the fourth quarter. So we had to take him out sometimes, and it worked out well, because at the end he was fresh and he ended up making some good plays for us."

Allen finished the game with six tackles (three solo, three assists), two sacks, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. He had a critical sack of Sage Rosenfels on third down during Houston's final possession, and when Kevin Williams sacked Rosenfels again on fourth down, it clinched the victory for the Vikings.

Overall, Frazier believed the defense line did a great job, singling out Allen and Williams.

"We've got to always keep working on [our pass defense] and keep trying to improve it, but that rush helped us," Frazier said.

Long pass set tone Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte said he believed his 55-yard pass to Berrian on the first play from scrimmage Sunday set the tone for the game.

Asked about Peterson's big second half, Frerotte said: "We made some adjustments, but when you keep running the ball -- and he was so close on so many plays [earlier] -- you've just got to keep doing it.

"When you've got the lead and they're playing from behind, you can keep running the ball. He was going to eventually break one out. We were going to get the right run; he was going to make a guy miss, and we stuck with it, and that's what can happen."

Frerotte threw one interception, after a pass bounced off Berrian and to Houston cornerback Jacques Reeves, who returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. "Those things can happen, you throw the ball and it hits off [a player's] chest and it bounces up and they get lucky," Frerotte said.

But for those who question Frerotte's ability to lead this team, he had three touchdown passes, went 11-for-18 for 182 yards and had a high quarterback rating of 111.6. The more he plays, the better he will get.

Big day for Greenway Linebacker Chad Greenway not only had nine tackles to tie with Ray Edwards for the team lead Sunday, but he had a sack and forced fumble of Matt Schaub that led to a Vikings touchdown in the second quarter.

"It was fun, a big play," Greenway said. "We scored a touchdown off of it, which is the best outcome you're looking for. But on defense that's what our job is to do, turn the ball over."

Asked if he was concerned about the Texans' success throwing the ball, Greenway said: "They're good; I think the biggest thing is they have good people catching the football. Andre Johnson is leading the league in receptions; they have a tight end that's as good as anybody that we've seen in [Owen] Daniels. I don't think we've seen a better tight end this year, or a better receiver."

Greenway, the Vikings' 2006 first-round draft choice from Iowa, is developing into one of the best linebackers in the league. Asked about his performance this year, he said: "You search for what your weakness is and try to improve it. We just want to win football games. We don't care if we give up 800 yards, if we win, we're fine."

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com