Two Key Viking Offensive Players Have Boo-Boos

You've seen the SBNation general story regarding Adrian Peterson's ankle, and likely by now you've read elsewhere news regarding Jerome Simpson's back.

To begin with, I owe Simpson an apology. I had heard the rumors that he hurt his ankle doing a pre-game showoff leap, and I blasted him for it via a compliment sandwich. Apparently I was quite wrong to believe those rumors, as by all accounts Simpson woke up that morning feeling some soreness and numbness in his leg, well before any ‘look what I can do!' moment.

The interesting thing is that the source of the problem isn't, in fact, in his leg. It's in his back. This has been confirmed via an MRI, and the team is exploring not only what the root cause of that might be, but what they can do about it and how quickly they can have him back up to speed.

As of right now there's no word that he will miss any games, but if it's like it was against the Titans, he might as well be. That's not meant to be a knock on Simpson mind you; kudos to him for at least getting on the field and trying to do something while hurt and in pain. He could have very easily said pregame "coach I can't do this" and sat on the sidelines, but he didn't. But as it was, Simpson was about as much a non-factor as he could have been Sunday afternoon, and while that was all fine and good against an atrocious defense (and, as Chris Johnson himself said, an all-around bad team), the quicker we can get him back to his high-flying ways the better.

In regards to Peterson's ankle, the news is considerably better in the fact that it really shouldn't be an issue going forward. Peterson himself said it made him a bit cautious in the game, as it came very early on, which might account for those two ‘almost gone but not quite' runs he had. It's hard to blame Peterson for being cautious, what with memories of an exploded knee likely still fresh in the microchips that make up his cybernetic brain. But again, it sounds like once that ankle's taped up, Peterson's just fine and should remain so going forward.

As of yet I have not heard of any other significant injuries coming out of the Titans game, but there's of course always the possibility that news could come out this week about another ding taken by a key player. Erin Henderson, after all, didn't even know he had a concussion in a game until I believe the Tuesday after.