Have the Vikings reached a tipping point on the national obsession over tailback Adrian Peterson's playing time?
Two days after absorbing criticism from former coaches Mike Ditka and Bill Parcells on the subject, Vikings coach Brad Childress said Peterson's role "will increase as we go through the rest of the football season."
It is unclear whether that means Peterson will replace Chester Taylor as the team's starter; Taylor, however, appeared mysteriously on the Vikings' injury report Wednesday afternoon and was limited in practice because of a groin injury.
Childress did not mention Taylor's injury. But before taking questions in his Wednesday news conference, Childress made a point to address his strategy of rotating the two tailbacks.
"We understand here that we have a great talent in Adrian Peterson," Childress said, "and we are trying to grow him just like we attempt to grow all of our young guys. I am sure his role will increase ... but there will be times and situations where situations will dictate that we have other folks in the football game."
Peterson leads the NFL with 670 rushing yards but ranks 14th with 108 carries. He got 12 carries and was in the game for 21 of the Vikings' 48 plays in their 24-14 loss at Dallas.
"Just like everybody," Childress said, "you want to see somebody have success. There are things that he does better than others and obviously the goal is to get him to do all things well with this offense. Just as most people, they don't know it all after five games."
Shiancoe, Herrera hurting
In addition to Taylor, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe (groin) and right guard Anthony Herrera (knee) also were new additions to the injury report Wednesday. Both players were limited in practice. Herrera took over the starting job from Artis Hicks two games ago at Chicago.
Also limited were fullback Naufahu Tahi (knee) and defensive end Erasmus James (shoulder). Safety Dwight Smith (hamstring) and linebacker Vinny Ciurciu (ankle) did not participate. The latter four all missed last Sunday's game at Dallas.
For the Eagles, safety Brian Dawkins (personal issue), tackle Jon Runyan (tailbone) and linebacker Takeo Spikes (shoulder) did not practice. Cornerback Lito Sheppard (knee) was limited.
No blackout
The 2,000 tickets that remained Monday for the Vikings-Eagles game have been sold, meaning the game will be aired locally on Fox-affiliate KMSP (Ch. 9). That will extend the Vikings' streak of consecutive home sellouts to 99 games, including preseason.
There will be some work to do in order to push that figure to 100. There are 3,500 tickets left for the Vikings-San Diego game on Nov. 4 at the Metrodome. Those must be sold by noon on Nov. 1 to avoid a blackout. Local CBS affiliate WCCO (Ch. 4) is scheduled to air that game.
The Eagles, by the way, returned 400 tickets for this Sunday's game. Those are available for purchase but do not count as unsold tickets by the NFL under its blackout policy.
Etc.
• The Vikings re-signed guard Brian Daniels to their practice squad and released cornerback Chad Johnson from that unit.
• The Vikings-Cowboys game last Sunday on Fox was the most-watched television show of the week (Oct. 15-21), beating out CBS' "CSI" by more than 2 million viewers (23.6 million to 21.2 million). Locally, the Vikings game had a 35.4 rating and 63 share on KMSP. The rating is the percentage watching a program among all television households; share is the percentage tuned in among those homes with TVs in use at the time.
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