Bear Digest

Bears inactives catch a break by not playing on bad field

Chicago Bears inactives include Kyler Gordon, Jaylon Johnson and T.J. Edwards but at least they don't have to play on a field with new sod that has seams showing.
Gene Chamberlain|
Kyler Gordon won't be coming out of the tunnel Monday night due to an injury but maybe he's luck considering the field condition.
Kyler Gordon won't be coming out of the tunnel Monday night due to an injury but maybe he's luck considering the field condition. | Daniel Bartel-Imagn Images

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Chicago Bears

The Bears will be without three key members of their starting defense Monday night against the Vikings and perhaps it's for the best considering their injuries.

Jaylon Johnson (groin), Kyler Gordon (hamstring) and T. J. Edwards (hamstring) are all out and inactive for the game.

Also inactive due to injury is running back Roschon Johnson (foot).

Third quarterback Case Keenum, defensive tackle Shemar Turner and tackle/guard Kiran Amegadjie are all inactive.

For Minnesota, safety Harrison Smith (illness) and tackle Christian Darrisaw (knee) are the starters who are inactive. Quarterback Max Brosner, running back Zavier Scott, guard Joe Huber and defensive lineman Elijah Williams are also inactive.

The Bears will be relying on Nahshon Wright, Josh Blackwell and possibly Nick McCloud as cornerback replacements.

The other personnel announcement the Bears made was edge rusher Tonah Kpassagnon coming up from the practice squad with linebacker Carl Jones Jr.

It might be best the players with soft tissue injuries don't play considering the field's condition.

On a day when Bears president Kevin Warren inched a little closer to announcing  the beginning of a construction project for a new stadium in Arlington Heights, the reason for never became so clear.

The recently laid turf at Soldier Field looked entirely questionable  three hours before the game.

The turf was placed down a week ago after the old sod was torn up through five  straight days worth of concerts and the plan all along was to put in new sod. They had done this last year a week before the start of the season.

However, this time seams on the sod were visible well before the game and before teams went out for warmups.

The Chicago Park District is responsible for the stadium turf.

The Minnesota Vikings expressed some concern in the last week about playing on a sod field so recently put down.

"This is professional football so our anticipation is the surface is going to be good enough to play on," coach Kevin O'Connell said to Paul Allen on KFAN-FM 100.3. "But I would say this, at some point, the guys in purple and white aren't going to be the only ones playing on the surface so we've gotta do our best to establish, through a lot of different people, once we've arrived, once we've had a chance to step foot, gotta have our players prepared to play on whatever the surface is.

"And truly, Monday Night Football, NFC North, if they want to clear out some space in the parking lot, we can play out there too. At this point, I would say that (turf) is not incredibly high on my priority list."

The parking lot might not be a bad idea.

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Gene Chamberlain
GENE CHAMBERLAIN

Gene Chamberlain has covered the Chicago Bears full time as a beat writer since 1994 and prior to this on a part-time basis for 10 years. He covered the Bears as a beat writer for Suburban Chicago Newspapers, the Daily Southtown, Copley News Service and has been a contributor for the Daily Herald, the Associated Press, Bear Report, CBS Sports.com and The Sporting News. He also has worked a prep sports writer for Tribune Newspapers and Sun-Times newspapers.