Vikings notes: Turner says the cold won't move him to change game plan

Offensive coordinator Norv Turner doesn't expect the extreme cold to largely affect the Vikings' play-calling in Sunday's wild-card game against Seattle at TCF Bank Stadium.

After 31 years of NFL experience and 15 as a head coach, Turner has learned that the best strategy in these conditions often is to stick to your offense. Sunday's forecast high is 5 degrees and sunny with a low of minus-4 and winds up to 8 mph.

"I'll try not to let it affect play-calling," Turner said. "The games I've been in, in this type of situation, we try to keep it the way we [usually] play the game. And I've, through the years, been fortunate to be in games like this where we throw the ball pretty well and have been pretty aggressive.

"We've got to go run our offense."

Though cold-weather games tend to benefit run-first teams, Turner doesn't expect to rely on Adrian Peterson more than usual.

"We need to create a balance against [Seattle]. They're awfully good if you're one-dimensional," Turner said.

The Seahawks defense shut down the Vikings' run game in early December and ran away with a 38-7 victory.

According to HawkBlogger.com, there has been an average of 5.6 turnovers per game when the temperature is below 10 degrees; that compares to 5.1 turnovers when it is below 20 and 3.6 when it is below 50.

"I've stressed it all week long. Any time you get in the elements, it's going to be a big, big factor," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "It's not going to be wet, but it's going to be cold and that is different. Ball security will be huge in this ballgame for both sides."

Peterson was one of two unanimous selections on the Associated Press All-Pro team. It is his fourth All-Pro first-team honor in nine seasons, and he also has two second-team nods.

Peterson won his third NFL rushing title this season with 1,485 yards.

Houston defensive end J.J. Watt was the other unanimous selection. Kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson was a second-team selection.

"Yeah … 2012 [with Carolina]," Munnerlyn confirmed. "He tried to throw to the tight end … and I was at cornerback, actually, and the guy ran an out route and I jumped it and took it to the house."

Munnerlyn knows turnovers tend to go up in cold-weather games but won't force the opportunity to improve on his exclusive stat.

"I got to go for it, but at the same time I'm going to be smart about it," he said. "I'm not going to be crazy and try and make all these guys miss and lose the ball."

Starting nose tackle Linval Joseph fully participated in Friday's practice at Winter Park and was listed as probable for Sunday. He missed last week's regular-season finale at Green Bay and has sat out four of the Vikings' past five games because of an injured big toe.

Peterson returned to practice Friday after sitting out Wednesday and Thursday with an injured low back and is probable heading into his first playoff game since 2012.

Up until Friday night, when the Seahawks declared star running back Marshawn Lynch (abdomen) out for the eighth week in a row, Seattle appeared to be close to full strength. Coach Pete Carroll had said before that news emerged that he expected everyone to play except tight end Luke Willson (concussion).

Pro Bowl safety Kam Chancellor (pelvis) was listed as probable after missing the past three weeks, and former Pro Bowl offensive lineman Russell Okung (calf) will return after missing two games.