Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Adrian Peterson's two injury- shortened college seasons show why the Minnesota Vikings rookie will fail to break Eric Dickerson's National Football League season rushing record, according to online oddsmakers.

Peterson set an NFL record with 296 rushing yards last week. With 1,036 yards for the season, he's the only running back in the league's 88-year history to top 1,000 in his first eight games. He's challenging Dickerson's rookie and all-time rushing records for a 16-game season.

Peterson has an upright running style, making him more of a target for opposing defenses, and the former Heisman Trophy runner-up missed all or part of 11 games during his final two seasons at the University of Oklahoma because of an ankle sprain and broken collarbone. Online sports book BetUS.com lists Peterson's odds to break Dickerson's all-time record of 2,105 yards at 2-1 as the Vikings visit the Green Bay Packers this weekend.

``He's injury-prone, that's our biggest concern,'' Reed Richards, a spokesman for Costa Rica-based BetUS.com, said in a telephone interview. ``He runs with that chip on his shoulder and you could see him grinding himself down.''

Gambling Web site Bodog.com also lists Peterson's odds of breaking Dickerson's 23-year-old record at 2-1, meaning a winning $100 bet would return $200. Only five running backs have had more than 2,000 rushing yards in a season: Dickerson, Jamal Lewis, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and O.J. Simpson. Peterson, listed by BetUS.com and Bodog.com at 1-2 to break Dickerson's 1,808 rookie record, says he's not thinking ahead.

``I'm just going to take it one week at a time'' Peterson, 22, told reporters. ``We'll see what happens.''

200-Yard Games

Peterson has started five of eight games and topped 100 rushing yards five times. He's the first rookie to rush for more than 200 yards twice in a season, putting him a third of the way to Simpson's NFL record of six 200-yard games in a career.

A week after setting the single-game record with 296 yards on 30 carries against the San Diego Chargers, Peterson faces a Packers' defense that ranks eighth out of 32 NFL teams in rushing yards allowed. The only running back with more than 100 yards against Green Bay this season was Peterson, who had 112 in the Packers' victory in Minneapolis on Sept. 30.

Dickerson, 47, said he thinks Peterson might break the record. Peterson also is making a run at Dickerson's rookie mark of 1,808 yards set in 1983. Dickerson said he wishes Peterson well, and still hopes he won't succeed.

`Great for Him, Me'

``You want those records as long as you can,'' said Dickerson, who was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999. ``That's part of having the record, your name gets brought up, and it's great for him and it's great for me.''

Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson, the NFL's Most Valuable Player in 2006, watched Peterson's record performance last week and said a rematch with the Packers will be instrumental in his development.

``As people start game-planning for you and trying to stop you, you have to take your game to a different level,'' Tomlinson told reporters. ``He's going to learn that, and I don't think he'll have a problem. The key for him now is health. Consistency starts with being healthy every year, playing every game.''

Peterson rushed for 1,925 yards in his first season at Oklahoma in 2004, setting a major-college record for freshmen and finishing second to University of Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart in the Heisman Trophy voting as the nation's top player. Peterson missed all or part of four games the next season with a sprained ankle, and sat out seven games last year with a broken collarbone.

Draft Slide

The durability problems scared some NFL teams. Vikings Vice President of Player Personnel Rick Spielman said before this year's draft that teams were concerned how Peterson would hold up, and the player slipped to the No. 7 pick.

``That is the concern with the high running style, but you don't see people catching him,'' said former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmitt Smith, who holds the NFL record of 18,355 rushing yards and now works as an analyst for ESPN. ``A lot of times, he has a high running style because he's in the open field. When he gets in traffic, he lowers his shoulder and is able to get around people.''

Smith said Peterson will learn how to avoid unnecessary hits and reduce the wear-and-tear on his body as he gets older. Bob Stoops, who coached Peterson for three years at Oklahoma, says his former star will only get better.

``He's going to keep maturing physically, hard as it is to believe,'' Stoops said at a news conference this week. ``He's going to gain more strength and more power. I don't think he's done.''

The meeting between the 3-5 Vikings and 7-1 Packers is one of 10 divisional matchups on this week's NFL schedule.

Cowboys at Giants

The 7-1 Dallas Cowboys visit the 6-2 New York Giants in a clash of the top two teams in the National Football Conference's East Division, while the 6-2 Pittsburgh Steelers, who lead the American Football Conference North, host the second-place Cleveland Browns (5-3).

Also in the AFC, the Chargers host the Indianapolis Colts, and the Jacksonville Jaguars visit the Tennessee Titans.

Elsewhere in Week 10, it's Atlanta at Carolina, Denver at Kansas City, Buffalo at Miami, St. Louis at New Orleans, Philadelphia at Washington, Cincinnati at Baltimore, Detroit at Arizona, Chicago at Oakland, and San Francisco at Seattle.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 9, 2007 13:21 EST