Marshawn Lynch To Remain Sidelined Against Vikings

When we gave you the final injury reports for this Sunday's game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle running back Marshawn Lynch had been listed as questionable, but everything that had come out of Seattle this week said he was set to return after spending several weeks sidelined with an abdominal injury. As it turns out, a lot of people may have jumped the gun on that.

According to a report from Ben Goessling of ESPN.com, the man known as "Beast Mode" told the Seahawks following Friday's practice that he was not going to be able to go, and did not even make the trip from Seattle to Minneapolis when the team departed on Friday evening.

Lynch was a full participant in practice all week for the Seahawks, so the revelation that he will not be playing on Sunday is a significant surprise. He hadn't been performing at a high level prior to the injury, as he had only been averaging about 3.7 yards/carry, but much of that may have been a result of that injury.

The Seahawks will now be going forward with a rotation of Christine Michael and Bryce Brown at running back. Thomas Rawls, who ran for over 100 yards in the first meeting between these two teams, suffered a serious knee injury a few weeks ago and is on injured reserve.

Once again, Marshawn Lynch will not be making his return in Sunday's Wild Card playoff game. While you hate to see anyone go out with an injury, hopefully this will prove to be an advantage for the Vikings. With Lynch being out and Linval Joseph being back in the middle, you'd have to think the Vikings' defense will be much better against the run on Sunday than they were in Week 13 against the Seahawks.