Running back Adrian Peterson has scored three touchdowns for the Washington Redskins this season on goal-line carries that have totaled 5 yards. On each of his scoring runs, Peterson has had a fullback help him reach the end zone, even though Washington does not have a fullback on its roster.

"We don't dress a fullback here, so we taught Ryan Anderson four or five plays," Redskins coach Jay Gruden said during his press conference after Washington defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-17 on Sunday. "He does a good job of coming in there and handling that. I don't know if he knows where he's going, but he just runs in there hard, closes his eyes and hits somebody.

"And Adrian's a great one-cut runner downhill. He makes those plays work. It's a good package for us when we get down there."

Anderson is in his second season as an outside linebacker for Washington, but he moonlights as the team's fullback. He's been on the field for three offensive snaps in the 2018 season. Each has ended with Peterson in the end zone.

"Dang, I didn't even know that," Anderson told The Athletic's Rhiannon Walker. "That's all right. That's pretty neat.

"Just get in there quick, give the running back something to read, make a cut off of or something. Just make it fast. Whoever's in the hole, whoever I got to block, it don't matter."

Peterson's first touchdown this season made him the ninth player in NFL history to score 100 on the ground. With 102 now, Peterson passed Marshall Faulk and former Alabama standout Shaun Alexander to reach seventh on the NFL's all-time list for rushing touchdowns.

"I think he's doing an excellent job," Peterson said at a postgame press conference on Sunday. "He's always coming up on the sideline, 'Hey AP, what can I do differently?' 'Hey, just play fast and I'll play off you because things change when that ball is snapped.' But I feel like he's doing a great job of executing what's been coached to him, and whatever happens in front of me, I have to make a play. He's been doing a great job of allowing me to get into the end zone."

Anderson earned All-State honors as a defensive lineman at Daphne High School in 2011. He played on Alabama's CFP national-championship team for the 2015 season and earned All-SEC recognition as a linebacker for the 2016 campaign before entering the NFL as a second-round selection of Washington in the 2017 draft.

Anderson has played a reserve role as an outside linebacker for the Redskins, and he also made his fullback debut as a rookie with six plays for the Washington offense last season.

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The Redskins and the Carolina Panthers are the first NFL teams to reach their bye weeks. They won't play in Week 4. Washington returns to action in the NFL's Monday night game for Week 5 when the Redskins visit the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 8.

Washington Redskins running back Adrian Peterson scores a touchdown during an NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 9, 2018, in Glendale, Ariz.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.