Adrian Peterson said he has an ideal number of carries he would like every game.
"About 40, 50 carries," he said. "That would be lovely. I would love that." That's also not going to happen. But Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell admitted Thursday that he should have stayed with the run more in the season opener against the New Orleans Saints. Peterson got only six second-half carries after rushing for 57 yards on 13 carries before halftime. The Vikings had only 19 plays total in the second half and were completely out of sync in the passing game. "It got to a point where I think there were four drives in a row where the first play was a run so I said, 'Hey, I need to change that up the first play of the series,'" Bevell said. "I go back and look at it. I critique myself just like I critique these guys and probably could have run the ball more." Peterson said he wants a heavy workload but he didn't criticize the coaching staff for not getting him the ball more. "The game took a different turn," he said. "Kind of got behind so therefore went with the pass game a little more. I don't do any of the playcalling. I just go out and do my job." The Vikings struggled in the passing game, but Peterson was mostly happy with how they ran the ball, particularly in the first half. "I feel real good," he said. "I know with any running game when you're out there, you've got to get a couple of runs in there to get the offensive line going. When you mix it up you can kind of throw it off-balance a little bit. But anytime you're out there and really focused on running the ball, it's like a different mindset. You don't have guys dropping back for pass protection. You've got guys going forward. I have faith in my offensive coordinator that he'll do a good job of balancing out our offense and we'll be productive in the long run." Bevell was asked if it's a bigger priortity to establish the running game or try and get the passing game in sync Sunday against the Miami Dolphins. "I think it's important to continue to establish the run," he said. "I think we started something there last week. But I do think it's important to get everybody on the same page in the passing game. That doesn't mean you have to open it up everywhere."
