Injury Report Getting Alarmingly Long for Vikes

The talk earlier this week was about Kurt Warner possibly missing this Sunday’s game between the Vikings and Cardinals.  But now, the more pressing matter for the Vikings is their own long list of players who could be dinged up for, or even miss, the pivotal NFC showdown.

Per Sean Jensen, the Friday injury report lists the following players as questionable:  Anthony Herrera, Visanthe Shiancoe, Chester Taylor and Antoine Winfield.  Herrera continues to deal with the after-effects of a concussion (I hope Hines Ward isn’t too unsympathetic), while Shiancoe and Taylor nurse rib injuries (Shiancoe’s was suffered on the touchdown pass negated by Bryant McKinnie’s amusing illegal man downfield penalty).  Winfield, of course, is still trying to come back from a bad foot.

The list of probables is even longer:  Steve Hutchinson, Benny Sapp, Bernard Berrian, Eric Frampton, Bryant McKinnie, Adrian Peterson and Naufahu Tahi.  Obviously, “probable” means these guys will almost certainly play, but the fact that we’re talking about them here means they are all running at less than 100%.

Of all the questionable guys, Visanthe Shiancoe would probably be the most damaging to lose, given his red zone presence and big-time ability in third down situations (and the fact that Brett Favre clearly has 100% confidence in him, something I don’t think he has in Jeff Dugan and/or Jim Kleinsasser).

Anthony Herrera we can live without, because we have Artis Hicks, who is no drop-off.  Losing Chester Taylor hurts a little in the passing game, and takes away your contingency plan in the event AD starts going butterfingers all over the field.

And then there’s Antoine Winfield.  We’ve lived without him so far, but this is the week where missing him could really suck, considering the receiver talent the Cardinals line up.  And if Kurt Warner plays…well, our defense could be in real trouble.