The Vikings, compared to many other NFL teams, haven't had a lot in the way of injuries this season. They dealt with the foot injury to Antoine Winfield for about two months, and had the season-ending injury to linebacker E.J. Henderson, but other than that the Vikings have remained fairly healthy during the 2009 season. On the other hand, some teams have had to deal with numerous injuries to key personnel. Few teams exemplify that like Minnesota's opponents on Sunday, the New York Giants.
Here is the Giants' injury report:
Jacobs is their starting running back, Phillips is one of their starting safeties, Ross is one of their starting CBs, Pierce was their starting middle linebacker. Those four players are all on injured reserve. In addition, NFL.com is showing Corey Webster, the Giants' other starting corner, as out, as well as defensive tackle Chris Canty and starting offensive tackle Kareem McKenzie. All of the other injuries are accurate as shown above when compared to the NFL.com report.
Compare that to Minnesota's injury report:
The only difference between this report and the one from NFL.com is that DT Jimmy Kennedy is listed as being out for Sunday's game. There have been rumors floating around that the Vikings are going to move Antoine Winfield inside and give Benny Sapp the start at corner, as Winfield might not be all the way back from his foot injury yet (as evidenced by his performances against Carolina and Chicago).
The Giants are going to have a lot of back-ups on the field tomorrow afternoon, but as we saw last week, that's no guarantee that the Vikings are simply going to roll them over. The Vikings simply need to perform the way they've performed at the Metrodome all season, where they've yet to be held under 27 points by any opponent. If they can do that, then they'll be in position to sneak back into that #2 seed if things work out the way we want them to.