There is one highly significant name on the injury report for both the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings going into their match-up at Soldier Field on Sunday night. We'll start by taking a look at the injury report for the Minnesota Vikings.
It doesn't look likely that Winfield is going to play in this one, but if we hear differently we'll be sure to update you. As far as Harvin, he has a rib problem that dates back to the pre-season that he aggravated last week against the Arizona Cardinals. He'll be wearing extra padding this evening, but should be good to go. Nobody else on the injury report is really in danger of missing the game for Minnesota.
Now, on to the Chicago injury report.
The big name here, obviously, is defensive end Julius Peppers, who injured his MCL in Chicago's loss to the Detroit Lions last week. Peppers returned to the game, but was clearly slowed by the injury and is listed as "doubtful." The "doubtful" designation means that there's roughly a 25% chance that Peppers will play, and it is still legitimately up in the air as to whether or not he'll play this evening.
Peppers has had a field day against the Vikings the last couple of times he's seen them, whether it was when he was with the Carolina Panthers in 2009 or with the Bears last season, so if he was out of tonight's game it would be a plus for Minnesota. A member of the Chicago media has advanced that the theory that the Bears might be playing a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with Peppers' status in an attempt to throw the Vikings off, but this writer thinks that that's far-fetched at best.