EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Through nine games this season, no one should be surprised that Minnesota tailback Adrian Peterson’s 917 rushing yards rank second in the NFL. But for the first time since Brad Childress took over as coach, the Vikings have the NFL’s top-rated passer in Brett Favre and a top-five receiver (based on total yards) in Sidney Rice.

Favre has fulfilled the Vikings’ immediate goal of providing unprecedented balance in their offense. The ultimate goal, of course, is to force defenses into neutral positions that eliminate an advantage against either the run or pass. On Wednesday, I asked Favre if he’s noticed defenses at all backing off run-oriented fronts to account for the emergence of the Vikings' passing game.

In essence, Favre said, defenses are still devoting more defenders to the run but added: “How they get there has kind of been the trick.” He also said he’s noticed occasionally increased attention on Rice in recent weeks, most notably in the Nov. 1 rematch with Green Bay.

Beginning with the season opener at Cleveland, Favre said, opponents have changed the personnel they use to defend the run even though the numbers are the same as they might have been in previous seasons. For example, the Browns often brought a safety into the box during pre-snap machinations. At the snap, however, the safety would fall back into coverage and be replaced near the line by a run-blitzing cornerback.

That trend has continued for most of the season. It’s a nuanced shift, but if you’re looking for ways that Favre’s arrival has altered defensive scheming, I think that’s the extent of it: Getting an unexpected player back into coverage after Favre’s pre-snap read.

“It’s not going to be, ‘What you see is what you get,” Favre said. “... They’re not just saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to bump Sidney and we’re going to bump Percy [Harvin] and we’re going to bump Bernard [Berrian] and just say, ‘Hey, beat us.’ We would like to get that. Who wouldn’t? But we’re not really seeing that a whole lot.”