Vikings on Gurley: He's Adrian Peterson all over again

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rking4441

rking4441

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Like our last 4 opponents the Vikes will get to find out live on Sun what Gurley and the Rams are all about! Let go Rams, this might be our ticket into the wild card spot. I know it's early but the Rams need to win these games so they don't have to play the could've, would've, should've game at the end of the year!

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...-on-gurley-hes-adrian-peterson-all-over-again
  • 0ap3000000408080.jpg

  • By Conor Orr
  • Around The NFL Writer
  • Published: Nov. 3, 2015 at 07:41 a.m.
  • Updated: Nov. 3, 2015 at 07:51 a.m.





The Vikings know they're seeing a star player in Todd Gurley this weekend, mostly because he reminds them of one of their teammates.

"This guy, Todd Gurley, he's special," Minnesota cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said Monday, via TwinCities.com. "He's Adrian Peterson all over again. ... People don't realize how big he is. ... He can hit you with the home-run speed. He's a young Adrian Peterson, but I like our Adrian Peterson better."

Pro Bowl ballot

Gurley and Peterson are almost exactly the same size, but the production is likely what Munnerlyn is referring to. Outside of a ho-hum, six-carry debut, Gurley has been the most productive back in football averaging 141.5 yards per game off 22 carries. He's scored three touchdowns and in that span, the Rams are 3-1.

He's exactly the player the Rams hoped he'd be when they selected him at No. 10 this past year, with the only concern being the typical wear and tear associated with an NFL running back. Gurley is also coming off an ACL tear he suffered in college.

Peterson finished his rookie season with more than 1,300 yards rushing, 12 touchdowns and 5.63 yards per carry. Through his first five games, he was well over six yards per touch, which is the current pace Gurley is setting for himself now.

We'll see if both up their game on Sunday in what promises to be an old-fashioned affair. Can the new Adrian Peterson upstage the original?
 
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Athos

Athos

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LazyWinker said:
Comparing Gurley to Peterson is unfair to Peterson.
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Still early for that, but you'd be crazy, health thrown out, to want Peterson over Gurley at this point.

And I think Gurley is gonna be the better pass-catching back when all is said and done than AP ever was.

SJ39 went for 806 on 90/110 receiving way back when....

If we get the right QB and O-Line protection steps it up.....Gurley should get that on fewer receptions.

Gurley is gonna be good for 15 combined TDs/year once this GD passing attack gets fixed.
 
PowayRamFan

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Athos said:
Still early for that, but you'd be crazy, health thrown out, to want Peterson over Gurley at this point.

And I think Gurley is gonna be the better pass-catching back when all is said and done than AP ever was.

SJ39 went for 806 on 90/110 receiving way back when....

If we get the right QB and O-Line protection steps it up.....Gurley should get that on fewer receptions.

Gurley is gonna be good for 15 combined TDs/year once this GD passing attack gets fixed.
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Plus Gurley isn't a fumbler, something Peterson has always struggled with. If I'm correct, Gurley hasn't LOST a fumble since high school....
 
Mojo Ram

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I guess i'm in the minority when i don't really see Gurley as a Peterson clone in terms of running style. To be honest i see more of Marshawn Lynch, but even that comparison isn't fully accurate.
#30 is stronger than AP and runs more violently IMO.
 
TexasRam

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Gurley appears to me to have more power and harder to bring down then Peterson by a little, breaks through arm tackles with ease. I may be wrong but Peterson in his Prime seemed to have a tad more quickness and was able to get to full speed now. Whereas Gurley builds to full speed. But that may be just the deceptive nature of Gurley's running. Both have great vision. Pass receiving may go to Gurley but it's early.

Peterson has done it every year whereas Gurley has not yet.

Gurley hasn't bruised his offspring as of yet either.
 
Josey-Wales

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Being a UGA fan, I've always loved Gurley, and as I stated in another thread, I wanted the Vikings to trade Adrian for a pick that would allow them to get him. Not because I don't like Peterson, but because their was a rift between he and the organization at the time, and trade rumors were swirling.

Regarding the comparisons, Peterson is one of the most violent runners to ever play the position. As a matter of fact, he took the Bears' CB out of the game last week when he laid him out next to the sidelines, as an example. He's always played that way, so to say that "Gurley is a more violent runner", is not an accurate statement. They're both cut from the same cloth, in that respect.

Regarding the "rookie yards comparisons" in terms of production, in Peterson's first year in the league he basically split carries with Chester Taylor for the first 8+ games, because for some inexplicable reason, the team didn't seem to know what they had in him. That was evidenced by Taylor's 850 yards rushing, and 1200 all-purpose yards from scrimmage that year.

As far as pass-catching goes, knowing TG the way I do, I think he will far exceed Adrian in this category. He's just a more natural receiver and is very fluid catching the ball and turning it up field, or catching a wheel route for a big gain. That's one of the MAJOR benefits of his talent, and if the Rams can exploit that, it makes him an invaluable, (and almost unstoppable), weapon.

Now that TG has shown what he can do, get ready to see teams dropping 8 and 9 in the box on a regular basis, the way they've done Adrian's entire career. As a matter of fact, that's one of amazing things about his 2097 yard season. He had, the greatness that is, Christian Ponder as his QB, and still almost broke the single season rushing record.

I honestly expect Gurley to break the rushing record sometime during his career!
 
RamBill

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Adrian Peterson-Todd Gurley matchup pits NFL's present against its future
By Ben Goessling and Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/minnesota-v...-matchup-pits-nfls-present-against-its-future

MINNEAPOLIS -- They've been compared to one another for reasons beyond their prodigious returns from knee surgery. They both rank in the NFL's top five in rushing despite being at opposite ends of the career spectrum. And on Sunday, Adrian Peterson and Todd Gurley will get a chance to outdo one another on the same field.

The Minnesota Vikings veteran and the St. Louis Rams rookie will face off Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium in a game that could prove pivotal to the playoff chances of two of the NFC's up-and-coming teams. Both Peterson and Gurley have quelled the uncertainty about them with strong first halves; Peterson is third in the league with 633 yards after returning from last year's suspension, while Gurley has averaged a whopping 6.1 yards per carry to post 575 yards on 94 carries after a cautious return from a torn ACL.

To get ready for the matchup between one of the NFL's great backs of the present and a presumptive star of its future, ESPN Vikings reporter Ben Goessling and ESPN Rams reporter Nick Wagoner put together a tale of the tape on Peterson and Gurley.

VITALS

Peterson is 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds, with a muscular frame carved through years of notoriously fierce workouts. It's debatable whether Peterson has the same top-end speed he had in his younger years (he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds at the NFL scouting combine in 2007). But the running back still has a haymaker of a stiff-arm.

Listed at 6-foot-1, 226 pounds, Gurley cuts the shadow of a classic, big physical back but with sprinter's speed. Although he didn't run the 40-yard dash at the combine, Gurley's estimated time is 4.4 seconds, but he believes he can run faster. The 21-year-old rookie is not even a year removed from the torn ACL he suffered last year at Georgia.

RUNNING STYLE

Peterson dropped to seventh in the 2007 draft in part because of concerns that his upright running style would lead to injuries, but he's been relatively durable in the NFL while taking his fair share of contact. Peterson is as likely to go through you as around you, and though he might not be the most disciplined back, he runs with a violence that makes him difficult for defenders to handle when he hits the line of scrimmage at full speed.

Gurley has been compared to everyone from Peterson to Marshawn Lynch to Eric Dickerson but the large cross-section of comparisons makes it hard to nail down a simplistic way of describing his style. Gurley has a unique ability to make himself small and quick through the hole but big and powerful against would-be tacklers.

Todd Gurley
Todd Gurley has gained 6.1 yards per carry in his rookie season, accumulating 575 yards despite being brought along slowly.
WHAT HE DOES BEST

Peterson has some shiftiness, and certainly made much of his living on cutback runs in the Vikings' old zone blocking scheme, but his straight-line speed and power make him difficult to bring down. On his longest run of the season -- a 75-yarder against the Detroit Lions -- he extended the run by about 20 yards after driving his left arm into Glover Quin's chest, knocking the safety to the ground before Ezekiel Ansah dragged Peterson down.

Gurley prides himself on his ability to keep his legs moving and gain yards after contact. Against Cleveland on Oct. 25, Gurley had 97 yards after contact, the most by any back this season. That ability to break tackles leads to a lot of explosive plays, including a league-leading four runs of 45 or more yards this season.

REASON FOR OPTIMISM SUNDAY

Peterson had one of the biggest days of his career against the Rams three years ago, romping for 212 yards in Week 15, and said he was especially fired up to play the Rams because of how much their defenders talk during games. Peterson has surpassed five yards per carry in four of his last five games.

While Minnesota is 15th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed per game, the Vikings are yielding 4.39 yards per carry, which ranks 25th in the league. Interestingly, the Vikings have been among the best in the league at limiting the types of big plays Gurley is used to making, which means that yards per carry average is a product of giving up yards in shorter but still positive bursts. That means Gurley and the Rams could be more consistent in this matchup.

STRONG RETURN FROM KNEE SURGERY

Peterson's return in 2012 is now the stuff of legend. He tore his ACL on Christmas Eve 2011, and by the end of May 2012, Peterson was beating Percy Harvin in a few sprints up the hill at the Vikings' training facility. He started Week 1, and ran for 1,353 yards in the final eight games of 2012 while playing with a sports hernia. He finished just eight yards shy of Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record, ending the season with 2,097 yards.

When Gurley was recovering from his knee injury, he used to go on YouTube to watch anything he could find on how players like Peterson and Kansas City's Jamaal Charles rebounded from the injury. Gurley didn't bounce back in the nine months that Peterson did, taking about a month and a half longer, but he's actually been better in his first five games back. Gurley's 575 yards and three touchdowns are better than Peterson's 420 yards and two touchdowns upon returning.

ONE THING YOU DIDN'T KNOW

Peterson was an elite high school sprinter in Palestine, Texas, and his coach has said he could have competed in the Olympics had he not played football. Peterson told ESPN last December he had considered retirement during his absence from the NFL, contemplating an attempt at a 2016 Olympic bid in the 200- and 400-meter dashes.

Gurley nearly didn't play football in high school because he decided that basketball was his first love. After moving to Tarboro, North Carolina, Gurley was a Duke basketball fan and spent more time watching hoops than football. He only took up football because he walked onto the football field looking for a ride during the 2008 season and the coaches badgered him into it.
 
RamsSince1969

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RamzFanz said:
"Todd Gurley is the manifestation of who Viking fans claim Adrian Peterson is." - Abraham Lincoln
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"The constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. On Nov 8, 2015, the Vikings will be pursing Todd Gurley and finding no happiness."- Benjamin Franklin.
 
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