RB Adrian Peterson was the only bright spot during Thursday’s loss

The Vikings fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home tonight, losing by the final score of 36-17.

The loss came as a team effort tonight, even Adrian Peterson, who ran for 123 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown had a costly fumble in the third quarter. The only other offensive player to have a decent night was Percy Harvin, who had 7 receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown. Another bright spot of the game was the 51-yard field goal by rookie kicker, Blair Walsh.  He is now 4-4 on the season from beyond 50 yards.

Although he didn’t have a great night, Christian Ponder did have a better week than last, completing 19 of 35 passes for 251 yards with one touchdown and one interception.  His best throw was an 18-yard pass to Percy Harvin in the end zone.

The biggest problem the Vikings had tonight (besides the two fumbles) was keeping the offense on the field.  The team only had possession of the ball for 22 minutes and 15 seconds, while giving the Buccaneers possession of the ball for almost 2/3 of the game. When they did have the ball they only converted 5 out of 13 third downs.

Harrison Smith led the team in solo tackles tonight with 7, along with 6 assists and Chad Greenway had 5 solo tackles and 8 assists. Jared Allen record his sixth sack of the season, it also was the only sack of the game for the Vikings.

To add insult to injury, literally, cornerback Chris Cook was injured in the third quarter while trying to tackle Buccaneers running back, Doug Martin.  Cook left the game after the play and X-rays later showed he fractured his right wrist. According the Leslie Frazier there is no time table for his return.

After the game Leslie Frazier had this to say:

“We didn’t do very many things at all right when it came to stopping the run, whether we were in our eight men fronts or seven men fronts,” Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said. “We were not gap sound. We didn’t tackle well. We just played some very uncharacteristic football.”

The Vikings will head west next Sunday to take on the Seattle Seahawks. Game time starts at 3:05 CST.