TEMPE, Ariz. -- It has been 10 years since Adrian Peterson ran for an NFL-record 296 yards as a member of the Minnesota Vikings against the San Diego Chargers, and he still thinks about what could have been.

To most, those 296 yards he gained on Nov. 4, 2007, would've been the achievement of a lifetime. Peterson's name still sits atop the list of best single-game rushing performances.

But that hasn't stopped him from imagining how many yards he could've had that chilly fall day under the cover of the Metrodome if only he'd had a better first half.

Peterson ran for 43 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries through two quarters. It put him on pace to better his season average of 83 yards per game. But he still laments the holes he missed and blocks that weren't finished.

"I can't sit here and tell you that I was going to think it was going to be [250]-some yards in the second half, but that's how it ended up happening." Adrian Peterson on his record-breaking rushing performance on Nov. 4, 2007

"That first half could've easily been 150 yards," said Peterson, whose Arizona Cardinals face the 49ers on Sunday. "But I remember coming in at halftime, talking to the guys and telling them, 'Hey, it's almost there. Let's keep pressing, keep pressing, keep pressing. We're going to hit these guys, we're going to hit these guys.'

"I can't sit here and tell you that I was going to think it was going to be [250]-some yards in the second half, but that's how it ended up happening."

While Peterson was reassuring his offensive line that everything was OK and his holes would develop, the Vikings were reeling from the last play of the first half. Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell's 57-yard field goal attempt came up short and was returned by San Diego's Antonio Cromartie 109 yards for a touchdown.

"We were a little bit up in arms as we went in the locker room," former Vikings coach Brad Childress said.

With Minnesota down 14-7 and receiving the second-half kickoff, Peterson primed himself to take the field.

He was given the ball on the second play of the third quarter and gained 6 yards. His next carry, four plays later, began his tear toward history. He took the handoff and went 64 yards, weaving and cutting his way to a touchdown.

The play was called "twin" and had two wide receivers on one side and two tight ends together, Childress said. As Peterson broke the play, Childress remembers watching Peterson "cutting back against the grain, which was his style then."

After that run, Peterson had 113 yards on 15 carries.

And he wasn't close to being done.

That Peterson was having that type of game against that Chargers defense still sticks in Childress' memory. "What was ironic was that LaDainian Tomlinson was standing on the other sideline with Norv Turner as the head coach, who I know has a great appreciation for running the football over the course of his career," Childress said.

What wasn't working in the first half began to work in the second for Peterson. He began chipping away at a Chargers defense that featured three-time Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman and four-time Pro Bowl safety Eric Weddle. Five yards. Six yards. Ten yards. Thirteen yards.

Slowly he broke down the Chargers, who would advance to the AFC Championship Game that season.

"I was having better reads," Peterson said. "The guys were finishing their blocks better. Receivers, too. That was another thing that stuck out. Receivers, they did an excellent job the entire game of blocking down the field and staying on their blocks until the whistle blowed, and that really gave me an opportunity to finish a lot of runs."

"I didn't know until that last series when they came and told me that I had six or seven yards to break the record," Adrian Peterson recalls of that game 10 years ago. AP Photo/Tom Olmscheid

Peterson was up to 150 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries -- which would've stood as the 19th-best performance of his career -- when the third quarter came to a close.

His first carry of the fourth went for 16. His second gained 19. Then he had runs of 5, 3 and 12, before fumbling.

In a matter of five carries, Peterson had reached 205 yards.

"It kind of demoralizes a defense when you're hitting them like that," Peterson said. "That year they had a really good defense, too. We could tell that we were wearing them down."

Then, with 7:54 left in the game, the Vikings regained possession at the Chargers' 46. On the first -- and only -- play of that drive, Peterson took it to the end zone.

He had 251 yards.

He gained seven on Minnesota's next possession to give him 258 with 6:45 left.

By that point, the Vikings' public relations staff was digging through the record book. The NFL single-game rushing record was 295 yards, set by Baltimore's Jamal Lewis on Sept. 14, 2003. But nobody on the Minnesota staff knew that as Peterson closed in on the mark.

Bob Hagen, longtime Vikings executive director of public relations, thought, "Geez, this has gotta be getting closer."

"I think as it got to the 230 mark or 240 mark, we started being like, 'Hey, where does this rank in league history?'" Hagan said. "Then he rattled off a couple 20-yarders, and it was kind of like, 'Oh, where is he at right now?' And we had the little Stats computer right in front of us that was connected to our stats booth. Now ESPN and everything has that right on your phone.

"But before, nobody had that live. It was the stats booth, and the two PR guys had that in front of them."

There was always a concerted effort to get Peterson the ball, Childress recalled. And as Peterson continued to gain steam -- and yards -- in the second half, Childress said the Vikings passed only when absolutely necessary, which turned out to be seven times in the half, including just once in the fourth quarter.

Tom West, Vikings director of public relations, went upstairs to the coaches booth, located above the press box, to inform the coaches that the record was within reach for Peterson. The coaches radioed the information down to the sideline. Peterson, whose day was thought to be done, went back in for the Vikings' final possession.

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On the first play, Peterson ran for 35 yards.

He was two yards away from the record.

"I didn't know until that last series when they came and told me that I had six or seven yards to break the record," Peterson said. "And so I just went out there and continued to play."

He set the record on a 3-yard run up the middle, becoming the first player in NFL history to reach 296 rushing yards in a game.

"We knew he was special," Childress said. "Can I tell you I thought he was going to rush for [almost] 300 yards? I'd be lying if I said that."

With Peterson within four yards of 300, he was taken out. There was less than a minute remaining in the game. The Vikings took a knee, ran out the clock and claimed victory. It wasn't the Vikings' intent to call a timeout or put him back on the field to reach the historic plateau, Childress said. There was the risk of keeping Peterson on the field for one play too long and chancing an injury. How would Childress have explained that?

"I don't know what happened," Peterson added.

What Peterson had just accomplished didn't sink in until that night, when he was back home, lying down and relaxing. That's when he began to take in his historic day.

"I was like, 'Wow, I just set a record,'" Peterson said. "My whole thing was, I could've got 300. Like, 296 was cool but 300 sounds a lot better."

For Hagan, that day was a rarity. He has informed the coaching staff of a pending record only a few times in his 27-year career. "Because there's those times where you'd be, like, it's dangerous in some ways because you don't want to inject into the game when the win's the more important thing," he said.

That game was different.

A decade later, Weddle was still admiring what he witnessed that afternoon.

"All I just member is his patented head bob like a rhinoceros running down the sideline again and again and again," he said. "I just thought it was the twilight zone. Every other play, he was running for like 40 yards through our defense. We had a really good defense that year. We got all the way to the AFC Championship Game. It wasn't like we were some slouch.

"It was crazy. It was one of the games I witnessed greatness. I wasn't on the right side of it, but I still was there and I'm still hanging on, so that's pretty good."

The closest anyone has come to Peterson's record was when Cleveland's Jerome Harrison ran for 286 yards on Dec. 30, 2009.

Even though the record has stood the test of a decade, Peterson still thinks about that first half and how it could've led to a 400-yard game. "There's not many guys that can think like that and not have it be a pipe dream," Childress said. "But, yeah, there's no mountain too high for him. He's a can-do guy all the way."