GAME THREAD: GAME THREAD: NFL: ATLANTA (0-0) at MINNESOTA (0-0)

NFL: ATLANTA at MINNESOTA

<div class="pre">NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
ATLANTA 0 0 0 3 3
MINNESOTA 7 0 3 14 24 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: MIN - TD, KEVIN WILLIAMS 54 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 7:17.
MINNESOTA 7-0
2ND QUARTER: NONE
3RD QUARTER: MIN - FG, RYAN LONGWELL 49 YD, 13:14. Drive:
10 plays, 60 yards in 4:17. Key
plays: Jackson 28-yard pass to Wade
to Minnesota 49; Jackson 11-yard
pass to Allison to Atlanta 34.
MINNESOTA 10-0
4TH QUARTER: ATL - FG, MATT PRATER 45 YD, 5:37. Drive: 13
plays, 47 yards in 7:23. Key plays:
Harrington 13-yard pass to Robinson
to Atlanta 39; Harrington 7-yard
pass to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Atlanta 49; Harrington 12-yard pass
to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Minnesota 36; Harrington 10-yard
pass to Blakley to Minnesota 26.
MINNESOTA 10-3
MIN - TD, ADRIAN PETERSON 60 YD PASS FROM
TARVARIS JACKSON (RYAN LONGWELL
KICK), 7:41. Drive: 4 plays, 80
yards in 2:04. Key plays: Peterson
15-yard run to Minnesota 35.
MINNESOTA 17-3
MIN - TD, ANTOINE WINFIELD 14 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 12:23.
MINNESOTA 24-3

ATT: 62,815</div>

 

NFL: ATLANTA at MINNESOTA

<div class="pre">NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
ATLANTA 0 0 0 3 3
MINNESOTA 7 0 3 14 24 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: MIN - TD, KEVIN WILLIAMS 54 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 7:17.
MINNESOTA 7-0
2ND QUARTER: NONE
3RD QUARTER: MIN - FG, RYAN LONGWELL 49 YD, 13:14. Drive:
10 plays, 60 yards in 4:17. Key
plays: Jackson 28-yard pass to Wade
to Minnesota 49; Jackson 11-yard
pass to Allison to Atlanta 34.
MINNESOTA 10-0
4TH QUARTER: ATL - FG, MATT PRATER 45 YD, 5:37. Drive: 13
plays, 47 yards in 7:23. Key plays:
Harrington 13-yard pass to Robinson
to Atlanta 39; Harrington 7-yard
pass to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Atlanta 49; Harrington 12-yard pass
to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Minnesota 36; Harrington 10-yard
pass to Blakley to Minnesota 26.
MINNESOTA 10-3
MIN - TD, ADRIAN PETERSON 60 YD PASS FROM
TARVARIS JACKSON (RYAN LONGWELL
KICK), 7:41. Drive: 4 plays, 80
yards in 2:04. Key plays: Peterson
15-yard run to Minnesota 35.
MINNESOTA 17-3
MIN - TD, ANTOINE WINFIELD 14 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 12:23.
MINNESOTA 24-3

ATT: 62,815</div>

 

NFL: ATLANTA at MINNESOTA

<div class="pre">NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
ATLANTA 0 0 0 3 3
MINNESOTA 7 0 3 14 24 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER: MIN - TD, KEVIN WILLIAMS 54 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 7:17.
MINNESOTA 7-0
2ND QUARTER: NONE
3RD QUARTER: MIN - FG, RYAN LONGWELL 49 YD, 13:14. Drive:
10 plays, 60 yards in 4:17. Key
plays: Jackson 28-yard pass to Wade
to Minnesota 49; Jackson 11-yard
pass to Allison to Atlanta 34.
MINNESOTA 10-0
4TH QUARTER: ATL - FG, MATT PRATER 45 YD, 5:37. Drive: 13
plays, 47 yards in 7:23. Key plays:
Harrington 13-yard pass to Robinson
to Atlanta 39; Harrington 7-yard
pass to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Atlanta 49; Harrington 12-yard pass
to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to
Minnesota 36; Harrington 10-yard
pass to Blakley to Minnesota 26.
MINNESOTA 10-3
MIN - TD, ADRIAN PETERSON 60 YD PASS FROM
TARVARIS JACKSON (RYAN LONGWELL
KICK), 7:41. Drive: 4 plays, 80
yards in 2:04. Key plays: Peterson
15-yard run to Minnesota 35.
MINNESOTA 17-3
MIN - TD, ANTOINE WINFIELD 14 YD INTERCEPTION
RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK), 12:23.
MINNESOTA 24-3

ATT: 62,815</div>

 

By Brian Hall
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer


MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Minnesota Vikings rookie Adrian Peterson didnot take long to acclimate himself to the NFL.


Peterson - the seventh pick in this year's draft - set a teamrecord for most yards rushing in a first NFL game, leading theVikings to a 24-3 season-opening victory over the AtlantaFalcons on Sunday.


In his first regular season game, Peterson got a little morework than he expected after starting running back Chester Taylorleft the game in the first quarter with a hip contusion and didnot return.


A rookie from Oklahoma, Peterson rushed for 103 yards on 19carries and showed his big-play ability by taking a swing pass60 yards for his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter togive the Vikings (1-0) a 17-3 lead.


"I kind of got a bobble there for a second, but I was able topull it in," Peterson said. "Sidney Rice opened the lane for mewith a great block on the sideline, and there was nothing butgreen grass.


"(Taylor's injury) was unfortunate, but I was well-prepared tostep in and continue."


The Vikings' defense scored a pair of touchdowns against theFalcons (0-1), who struggled with Joey Harrington atquarterback. Harrington started in place of Michael Vick, who isfacing jail time for his dogfighting charges.


Harrington had a rough debut for the Falcons. He completed23-of-32 passes for 199 yards, but was intercepted twice.Warrick Dunn was held to just 55 yards on 22 carries.

"It isn't like I felt out of whack," Harrington said. " I havenot seen the statistics, but I would guess that we threw theball for a fairly decent percentage. You know, they made the bigplays and we didn't. That was what this game came down to."

Defensive tackle Kevin Williams intercepted Harrington on theFalcons' first drive of the game and returned it 54 yards for atouchdown to give Minnesota a 7-0 lead.


With the help of Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, Atlantaconsistently started deep in its own end. Minnesota's defense -which led the league against the run last year -
held the Falcons to 265 total yards.


The Vikings also sacked Harrington six times, including two fromrookie end Brian Robison.


"When you have six sacks and two takeaways for touchdowns, youare bringing it pretty good," Minnesota coach Brad Childresssaid. "I would say a fair amount of those were four-manpressure. What you saw in training camp - them being able to putpressure on the passer - came to fruition here in game one."

That made it a long afternoon for Atlanta's Bobby Petrino, whowas making his NFL coaching debut after a successful stint atLouisville.


"Anytime you throw the ball a lot, they get the advantage,"Petrino said. "They get to tee off."


Aside from Peterson, there wasn't much offense for either team.Ryan Longwell kicked a 49-yard field goal for the Vikings in thethird quarter.


Atlanta finally got on the board in the fourth on a 45-yardfield goal by new kicker Matt Prater.


Then, the Vikings' defense struck again as corner back AntoineWinfield returned an interception 14 yards for the final score.

"I think we started that in the preseason with the defensescoring touchdowns," Winfield said. "Coach emphasizes that everyweek. Score on defense, not give up big plays, create turnoversand we should win the game."

 

NFL: ATLANTA at MINNESOTA

<div class="pre">NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
ATLANTA 0 0 0 3 3
MINNESOTA 7 0 3 14 24 FINAL

SCORING SUMMARY

1ST QUARTER:

7:17 MIN - TD, KEVIN WILLIAMS 54 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK).
MINNESOTA 7-0.

2ND QUARTER:

NONE

3RD QUARTER:

13:14 MIN - FG, RYAN LONGWELL 49 YD.
Drive: 10 plays, 60 yards in 4:17.
Key plays: Jackson 28-yard pass to Wade to Minnesota 49; Jackson
11-yard pass to Allison to Atlanta 34. MINNESOTA 10-0.

4TH QUARTER:

5:37 ATL - FG, MATT PRATER 45 YD.
Drive: 13 plays, 47 yards in 7:23.
Key plays: Harrington 13-yard pass to Robinson to Atlanta 39;
Harrington 7-yard pass to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to Atlanta 49; Harrington
12-yard pass to Robinson on 3rd-and-7 to Minnesota 36; Harrington 10-yard
pass to Blakley to Minnesota 26. MINNESOTA 10-3.
7:41 MIN - TD, ADRIAN PETERSON 60 YD PASS FROM TARVARIS JACKSON (RYAN LONGWELL KICK).
Drive: 4 plays, 80 yards in 2:04.
Key plays: Peterson 15-yard run to Minnesota 35. MINNESOTA 17-3.
12:23 MIN - TD, ANTOINE WINFIELD 14 YD INTERCEPTION RETURN (RYAN LONGWELL KICK).
MINNESOTA 24-3.

ATLANTA - MINNESOTA Final Statistics

TEAM STATISTICS ATLANTA MINNESOTA

FIRST DOWNS 17 15
Rushing 4 7
Passing 12 8
Penalty 1 0
THIRD DOWN EFFICIENCY 8-16-50% 3-9-33%
FOURTH DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-0-0% 0-0-0%
TOTAL NET YARDS 265 302
Total offensive plays 66 50
Average gain per play 4.0 6.0
NET YARDS RUSHING 96 139
Rushing attempts 28 27
Average gain per rush 3.4 5.1
Tackles for loss-yards 4-9 1-3
NET YARDS PASSING 169 163
Times sacked: Number-Yards 6-30 0-0
Gross passing yards 199 163
PASS ATTEMPTS-COMPLETIONS-HAD INTERCEPTED 32-23-2 23-13-1
Avg gain per pass play 4.4 7.1
KICKOFFS: Number-In End Zone-Touchbacks 2-1-1 5-0-0
PUNTS: Number and Average 5-46.8 5-38.0
Had blocked 0 0
Net punting average 46.6 34.0
TOTAL RETURN YARDAGE (Not including kickoffs) 20 88
Number-Yards: Punt Returns 2-1 3-20
Number-Yards: Kickoff Returns 5-98 1-22
Number-Yards: Interception Returns 1-19 2-68
PENALTIES: Number-Yards 6-40 4-35
FUMBLES: Number-Lost 1-0 1-0
TOUCHDOWNS 0 3
Rushing 0 0
Passing 0 1
Interceptions 0 2
Other (blocked kicks, etc.) 0 0
EXTRA POINTS: Made-Attempts 0-0 3-3
Kicking: Made-Attempts 0-0 3-3
Passing: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
Rushing: Made-Attempts 0-0 0-0
FIELD GOALS: Made-Attempts 1-2 1-1
FGs - PATs had blocked 0-0 0-0
RED ZONE EFFICIENCY 0-0-0% 0-0-0%
GOAL TO GO EFFICIENCY 0-0-0% 0-0-0%
SAFETIES 0 0
TIME OF POSSESSION 33:01 26:59


INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

ATLANTA MINNESOTA

RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD RUSHING ATT YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
W DUNN 22 55 2.5 12 0 A PETERSON 19 103 5.4 15 0
J NORWOOD 5 33 6.6 16 0 C TAYLOR 3 18 6.0 14 0
J HARRINGT 1 8 8.0 8 0 T JACKSON 2 10 5.0 10 0
N TAHI 2 5 2.5 3 0
T WILLIAMS 1 3 3.0 3 0

PASSING CM-AT-YDS IN TD LG PASSING CM-AT-YDS IN TD LG
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
J HARRINGT 23-32-199 2 0 15 T JACKSON 13-23-163 1 1 60

Sacked-Yards Lost: J HARRINGT 6-30. Sacked-Yards Lost: None

RECEIVING NO YDS AVG LG TD RECEIVING NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
A CRUMPLER 4 40 10.0 14 0 T WILLIAMS 2 19 9.5 13 0
R WHITE 4 29 7.3 9 0 V SHIANCOE 2 18 9.0 10 0
W DUNN 4 26 6.5 12 0 S RICE 2 10 5.0 6 0
L ROBINSON 3 32 10.7 13 0 T RICHARDS 2 10 5.0 10 0
J NORWOOD 2 24 12.0 15 0 A PETERSON 1 60 60.0 60 1
D BLAKELY 2 18 9.0 10 0 B WADE 1 28 28.0 28 0
M JENKINS 2 13 6.5 7 0 A ALLISON 1 11 11.0 11 0
J HORN 1 14 14.0 14 0 J KLEINSAS 1 4 4.0 4 0
O MUGHELLI 1 3 3.0 3 0 C TAYLOR 1 3 3.0 3 0

INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD INTERCEPTIONS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
D HALL 1 19 19.0 19 0 K WILLIAMS 1 54 54.0 54 1
A WINFIELD 1 14 14.0 14 1

PUNTING NO YDS AVG T I LG PUNTING NO YDS AVG T I LG
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
M KOENEN 5 234 46.8 0 2 53 C KLUWE 5 190 38.0 0 5 52

T = Touchbacks, I = Inside 20

PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD PUNT RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
A JENNINGS 2 1 0.5 2 0 B WADE 3 20 6.7 13 0

KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD KICKOFF RETURNS NO YDS AVG LG TD
-------------------------------------- --------------------------------------
A JENNINGS 5 98 19.6 31 0 A PETERSON 1 22 22.0 22 0

KICKING XP/XPA FG/FGA KICKING XP/XPA FG/FGA
---------------------------------- ----------------------------------
M PRATER 0/0 1/2 R LONGWELL 3/3 1/1
Dist.: (44) 45 Dist.: 49

O-D O-D
FUMBLES NO LOST FF REC FUMBLES NO LOST FF REC
------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
R WHITE 1 0 0 0-0 M BIRK 1 0 0 0-0
C GREENWAY 0 0 1 0-0
A PETERSON 0 0 0 1-0

DEFENSE TK SO AS SK-YD DEFENSE TK SO AS SK-YD
------------------------------------ ------------------------------------
K BROOKING 8 3 5 0-0 C GREENWAY 10 4 6 0-0
L MILLOY 6 5 1 0-0 C GRIFFIN 8 7 1 0-0
M BOLEY 5 4 1 0-0 E HENDERSON 7 6 1 1-5
J WILLIAMS 5 4 1 0-0 D SHARPER 7 5 2 0-0
S NICHOLAS 5 3 2 0-0 A WINFIELD 5 5 0 0-0
L SANDERS 4 4 0 0-0 K WILLIAMS 5 4 1 1-4
G JACKSON 3 2 1 0-0 D SMITH 4 4 0 0-0
J BABINEAUX 2 2 0 0-0 S JOHNSON 3 3 0 1-5
J ABRAHAM 2 1 1 0-0 P WILLIAMS 3 3 0 0-0
J ANDERSON 2 1 1 0-0 M MCCAULEY 3 3 0 0-0
D WILLIAMS 2 1 1 0-0 R EDWARDS 3 3 0 0-0
C DAVIS 1 1 0 0-0 B LEBER 3 3 0 0-0
T LEWIS 1 1 0 0-0 K UDEZE 3 1 2 1-6
M STANLEY 1 1 0 0-0 B ROBISON 2 2 0 2-10
D HALL 1 1 0 0-0 H FARWELL 2 2 0 0-0

Officials: Referee-John Parry, Umpire-Tony Michalek, Head
Linesman-Derick Bowers, Line Judge-John Hussey, Field Judge-Gary
Cavaletto, Side Judge-Laird Hayes, Back Judge-Perry Paganelli.

Att: 62,815 Time of Game: 2:45</div>

 

NFL: ATLANTA at MINNESOTA

<div class="pre">NFL ATLANTA AT MINNESOTA
NOTE: RESENDING TO CORRECT RUSHING FOR TAHI AND
WILLIAMSON AND TO CORRECT SACKS FOR HENDERSON AND
K WILLIAMS.</div>