Adrian Peterson was not the “star” of Sunday’s game. He wasn’t the “hero.”
He did not catch the game-saving pass. (Bernard Berrian did.) He did not kick the game-winning field goal. (Robbie Gould did.)
He didn’t run back a kick 75 yards or more for a touchdown. (Devin Hester did — twice.)
He didn’t rush for 200 yards or more, didn’t bust all kinds of amazing moves like The Other Adrian Peterson up in Minnesota.
But sometimes a guy, through the sheer force of willpower and strength, can carry a football team on his back.
Adrian Peterson — not that young Viking whom the NFL has been so impressed with this season — inspired the Bears that way.
Teammates saddled him up at Soldier Field and rode him to a 37-34 overtime victory over the Broncos.
No, what they actually did was pull for him like a team of horses.
No, they plowed for him like mules.
Oh, well. Let’s just say they hitched themselves to his wagon.
There were 5 1/2 minutes remaining and the Bears were behind by a couple of touchdowns. Their primary running back, Cedric Benson, was hurt and no longer in the game.
You talk about bleak. The team’s chances looked and felt as miserable as the weather.
If they couldn’t score a touchdown after Charles Tillman blocked a Denver punt, well, then the Bears would go home with their tails between their legs and with their fourth home-field defeat in a row.
Three plays after the block, from the 4, Rex Grossman took the snap from Olin Kreutz, turned and handed off to Peterson.
Who promptly got stopped cold at the line of scrimmage.
No, that’s wrong. He didn’t stop.
His legs kept churning. His hips kept thrusting. The 28-year-old from Georgia Southern is only 5 feet 10 inches (if that) and a buff 210 pounds, but he continued to go forward while being hit by one Bronco, then another, then more.
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Duly inspired, the Bears’ offensive line kept plowing forward as well. Left tackle John Tait put all 312 of his pounds to the task. So did left guard Terrence Metcalf. So did right guard Roberto Garza. So did the center, Kreutz.
“I think he was dragging us,” Garza said.
“I didn’t want to be left out,” Metcalf added. “I had to pull my load.”
Peterson was practically invisible to the crowd. He was somewhere in the pile.
“He won’t quit,” Grossman said. “He can drive the pile.”
All of a sudden, the ball was at the 3, then the 2, then the 1, then in the end zone. You expected the Broncos to spread their arms in disbelief or to ask the officials when exactly a player’s forward motion is stopped.
Metcalf said, “I’m watching Tait and Garza and them just keep going. The guys on our line squat around 1,600 pounds. They can do some heavy lifting.”
“Adrian always runs hard,” Tait said. “We know there’s no quit in him.”
Peterson’s humility was the only thing that could restrain him.
“It was all them,” the tailback said of his line. “I heard somebody say, ‘Stop!’ Then I heard somebody else say, “No, go!’ So I knew it wasn’t all me.”
The offensive line hadn’t distinguished itself, permitting three sacks of Grossman and committing a number of costly holding penalties.
But on this particular play, they gave it everything they had, putting their shoulders into it like cowboys trying to push a stagecoach out of a ditch.
They knew the game was in jeopardy. The whole season was.
“It’s a big mountain, and it’s hard to get up it,” Garza said. “We’re crawling, fighting, scratching, doing anything we can to try to get back up it.”
Peterson came into the game with only 35 carries this season. His total yardage rushing: 144 yards.
All the Bears’ Peterson needed was 4 yards for this touchdown. But it was the Bears who truly needed it.
“As a tailback,” Peterson explained, “you always say that if you see 4 yards, you should always get 6. So once [the linemen] get me the 4, I just try to grind it out and fall forward for another 2.”
His touchdown didn’t win the game, but it did get the dead-and-buried Bears back into it.
And if you thought Peterson’s 4 yards were tough, Berrian’s 3 yards were tougher.
It took a diving catch and a replay confirmation, but it brought the Bears back to life.
Berrian owned the NFL’s highest average yardage per touchdown catch among active players, 36.7 per grab. So this was quite unusual, him getting a 3-yard score.
“I don’t care,” Berrian said. “If I get a negative-yard catch for a touchdown, I’ll take it.”
That would be a neat trick, a touchdown catch of minus-1. But you get the idea.
Length didn’t matter. Just as it didn’t when Peterson dragged his teammates — or they dragged him — across the goal line for the seventh TD of his six-year career.
He didn’t gain many yards (45). He didn’t even outgain Benson (47).
Yet he was as much a star of this game as The Other Adrian Peterson was in that game a few weeks ago.
Metcalf was asked, “Do you guys ever joke with him about being The Other Adrian Peterson?”
“No, ours is older,” Metcalf said. “It’s the other Adrian Peterson who is The Other Adrian Peterson.”
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