Adrian Peterson's 8-yard touchdown run, started by a shoulder-shake to fake Brian Urlacher at the line of scrimmage, sent the Minnesota Vikings to their fifth straight victory 20-13 over the Chicago Bears on Monday.
The Vikings (8-6) stayed in control of the National Football Conference's last wild-card spot, despite four turnovers and a missed extra point. Tarvaris Jackson threw three interceptions, his first bad game in more than one month.
Peterson finished with two touchdowns and 78 yards on 20 carries, just enough to keep Minnesota in front of New Orleans (7-7) and Washington (7-7) in the conference race.
Coming off the self-declared worst game of his career, just 3 yards on 14 carries against the San Francisco 49ers, Peterson had more trouble finding room to run for the better part of three quarters.
But he came through when it counted, plunging through the line for a yard out to pull Minnesota within 13-12 before a low snap by Cullen Loeffler preceded a missed extra point by Ryan Longwell.
Then in the fourth quarter, with quarterback Tarvaris Jackson sidelined temporarily by a cramp in his calf muscle, Peterson added another clip to his rookie highlight video.
On third-and-goal, after brushing backup Brooks Bollinger during a bad handoff, Peterson stutter-stepped to freeze Urlacher before darting left and scurrying over the goal line. Urlacher just shook his head, while Peterson hammed it up with teammates in the end zone.
Bollinger's dive forward on a draw play gave the Vikings the 2-point conversion and a 20-13 lead with 10:56 left, plenty of time for Chicago to come back.
Kyle Orton, though, didn't have it in him. In his first start in two years, the Bears quarterback avoided the costly turnovers that Jackson was guilty of, but way too many of his throws were off target. Orton completed 22 of 36 passes for 184 yards, and his long pass to the end zone to Bernard Berrian just after the two-minute warning was intercepted by Darren Sharper to seal it.
The throw that hurt Orton the most came near the end of the third quarter, on fourth-and-1 at the Minnesota 35. On a curious call, Orton lofted a swing pass to fullback Jason McKie that sailed over his head. After the exchange, Peterson got going and led the drive for the winning score.
The New Taipei Kings claimed the inaugural Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) championship on Sunday, defeating the Kaohsiung FamilyMart Aquas 108-89 in the final. Playing at home, the Kings pulled ahead with Jeremy Lin’s (林書豪) clutch three-pointers, securing their victory over the Aquas in the TPBL final. The Kings came out strong in the first quarter, dominating to build a 35-18 lead. By halftime, they had stretched their advantage to 61-38. In the third quarter, the Aquas narrowed the deficit to 12 points, but Lin stepped up, sinking several tough three- pointers to extend the lead. In the final quarter, the Kings pushed the
In an unlikely Ethiopian outpost of one the most French of pastimes, four men are leaning over their petanque balls, arguing over who is winning. Petanque, the bowling game also known as boules, is more readily associated with French village squares where locals launch metal balls at a jack while enjoying an afternoon drink, but for decades, it has also been a beloved pastime for members of a club near the iconic Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It was founded in the early 20th century to cater to French railway workers, who built a line connecting Addis Ababa
Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Australian teenager Maya Joint on Tuesday eased into the Eastbourne Open quarter-finals in England as Hsieh prepares for the Wimbledon Championships next week. Four-time Wimbledon women’s doubles champion Hsieh and 19-year-old Joint fired two aces and converted five of eight break points to defeat Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Poland’s Katarzyna Piter 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes on the grass court. Hsieh and Joint are today to face fourth seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who advanced on Monday with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Quinn Gleason of the US and
BEAT THE HEAT: A brutal heat wave in the US has made cooling breaks standard. Dortmund’s coach said the weather could shape the destiny of the tournament Chelsea on Tuesday beat Esperance of Tunisia 3-0 to set up a FIFA Club World Cup last-16 tie against SL Benfica, who earlier defeated Bayern Munich 1-0, as furnace-link heat and the threat of thunder and lightning wreak havoc at the tournament. Elsewhere, minnows Auckland City claimed a memorable draw against Boca Juniors, while Los Angeles bowed out of the tournament with a stalemate against Flamengo. In Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored the only goal for Benfica in their Group C clash with Bayern in front of 33,287 fans, finishing first-time from a cutback by his fellow Norwegian Fredrik Aursnes in the 13th
RSS