I was initially going to do the injury reports this morning, but I was having problems getting the tables to format and stuff. I can't help but notice that the Bears have upgraded a bunch of guys from the report that was listed this morning. This morning's report had NO Bears listed as probable, so they must have shown something in practices today or something to get themselves moved from the questionable or doubtful lists. Here's the current report:
The Bears are a pretty banged-up team at the moment, particularly in the secondary. By the end of their game against the Falcons last week, they were down to exactly two healthy cornerbacks. . .Corey Graham, a second-year player, and Marcus Hamilton, who had been claimed off of Tampa Bay's practice squad just three weeks before. That probably played a big part in the Bears' last-second loss.
But, from looking at the Bears' injury report, both of their starting CBs are listed as questionable (and Tillman was listed as doubtful when I tried to do the report this morning), but they're both expected to play. Their nickel back, Trumaine McBride, is also listed as questionable. One of the big keys to Sunday's game will be whether or not the Vikings can take advantage of those injuries.
Speaking of the Vikings, here is their injury report:
I'm not even going to bother discussing Madieu Williams at this point. Right now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Vikings just decided to wait until after the bye week to (finally) get him into the lineup.
Sidney Rice has said that he "expects to play" this week. Well, some of us have been "expecting him to play" for a few weeks now, and it hasn't happened yet. Bernard Berrian is also listed as questionable again, but that's where he's been the past two weeks, too, and all he's done is catch 11 passes for 241 yards and 2 touchdowns. If you think he's going to miss his first shot against his former team, I think you're pretty sadly mistaken.
All things considered, the Vikings are relatively healthy. Obviously, they're without E.J. Henderson, and with David Herron hobbling around with a hip injury (and he was listed as doubtful on an earlier injury report), I'm not sure what the Beloved Purple are going to do at MLB. I don't know if they can throw Dontarrious Thomas into the fire this soon, and Napoleon Harris sure as heck isn't ready to step in there yet.
That's all for now, folks. . .hopefully there will be more later on tonight, but if there's not, we'll see you back here tomorrow!