Hartman: A lot to consider in Peterson situation

There is no doubt the Vikings missed Adrian Peterson in Sunday's 30-7 loss to the Patriots after he was deactivated for the game following his indictment in Texas for reckless or negligent injury to a child.

But even if the star running back didn't get in legal trouble, fans might have seen his last season in a Vikings uniform this year anyway, because of his giant contract.

You have to expect that Peterson will get some type of suspension if the NFL looks at this situation like they have in the case of other players getting in trouble.

Peterson's contract calls for him to be paid $11.75 million this year and $44.25 million over the next three years. However, none of that is guaranteed, just like most NFL contracts. The Vikings renegotiate contracts all the time; this year, linebacker Chad Greenway took a $1 million pay cut to $5.5 million. With the salary cap currently at $133 million, they would have asked to renegotiate Peterson's contract rather than pay him such a significant portion of the payroll, something the Vikings couldn't afford if they wanted to put a competitive team on the field.

And had Peterson refused to renegotiate, the Vikings might have released him if they needed the salary cap relief.

In the NFL, running backs have a shorter shelf life than players at almost all other positions.

The Wilf family has yet to comment on the Peterson situation. But these are very serious allegations Peterson is facing, and no doubt the Vikings owners are considering all the facts they have before making any sort of announcement regarding their star.

Matt Asiata, who started in place of Peterson on Sunday, caught a touchdown pass on the Vikings' first drive of the game, but he rushed for 13 carries for 36 yards, an average of 2.8 yards per carry, and the Vikings had a total of 54 rushing yards. For comparison's sake, only 12 times in Peterson's 104 career games has he rushed for 36 yards or fewer, his career-worst performance going for 3 yards on 14 carries in a victory over San Francisco in his rookie season of 2007.

In the Vikings' eight seasons with Peterson, they have failed to reach 54 rushing yards four times before Sunday, the worst being last year's 30 yards on 14 carries against the Giants.

A week ago, the Miami Dolphins rushed for 191 yards in defeating the Patriots. But even if Peterson were available and had a decent performance, the Vikings weren't going to win by throwing four interceptions, three of which led to New England points.

Matt Cassel also was sacked six times because of poor protection from his offensive line, and then there was the field goal that was blocked that led to another TD

The Vikings were also whistled for three of the four pass interference calls in the game, including a key offensive interference call against Greg Jennings near the end of the first half, which negated a first down and led to the blocked field goal return for a touchdown.

These were errors coach Mike Zimmer's team didn't make in winning four preseason games and their Week 1 game at St. Louis.

Safety Harrison Smith blamed the loss on a number of factors. "We didn't execute, we didn't create any turnovers on defense and gave the ball up too many times," he said. "That usually doesn't give you a great chance to win.

"It's a team game. We just have to do better on defense, offense, special teams, all across the board."

Smith sang the praises of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, even though he didn't have a particularly big game, completing 15 of 22 passes for 149 yards. The Vikings' pass rush that was very much a presence against the Rams was absent in this game.

"You can tell how much knowledge he has of the game, very smart player, has all the tools. One of the best of all time," Smith said.

"They had the lead, so they just did what they had to do to get the ballgame over with," he said. "We have to keep it closer."

Commenting on how the game changed after the Vikings took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards for a 7-0 lead, Smith said: "Early on [we were good]. We just can't get complacent and have to keep our foot down on the pedal and get up on people when we can."

Asked if the team missed Peterson, Smith said: "He's a great talent. We're really not going to speak on what's going on, just let that play out. That's it."

The Vikings have another tough opponent next week in the Saints, but Smith said: "We're not even worried about [them]. We're worried about us. We're going to correct this. We're going to focus on us and get better."

Vikings center John Sullivan said the offensive line knows it has to protect better to give Cassel a chance.

Sullivan said the outcome came as a surprise.

"Obviously, we wanted to come out and win this football game, but we didn't execute all game long, we didn't care of the football, and it cost us," he said.

The Vikings lost the turnover battle for the first time under Zimmer, including the preseason.

"Taking care of the football is always our priority. Turnovers are correlated very closely to wins and losses in this league, and if you turn it over you're not really giving yourself a chance," Sullivan said.

Still he believes that the Vikings are going to be ready to go down to New Orleans and win.

"We have great respect for our coaching staff. We know they're going to make the corrections, we're going to go out and execute them, and we're going to get this thing righted."