
The Bears rolled to a 28-10 win over the Vikings on Sunday, but the day wasn’t all smiles.
They have a slew of injuries to deal with, including ones to running back Matt Forte, cornerback Charles Tillman and right guard Lance Louis. Louis hurt his knee when Vikings defensive end Jared Allen obliterated him with a block during an interception return by cornerback Antoine Winfield. Allen wasn’t penalized, although he clearly left his feet and hit Louis in the head and neck area, and Bears coach Lovie Smith said Monday that he thought Allen went too far.
“Jared Allen plays the game a certain way, a good player in our league. But I think there are some plays when you look at them again you say, ‘Hey, we could have done without that.’ I think our game could do without that play,” Smith said, via Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune. “We have an injured player right now based on it. I think you could have gotten a block a little bit differently. That’s about all I should probably say about it. I’m sure the league will look at it and they’ll give an opinion about what they think.”
NBC officiating consultant Jim Daopoulos thought that Allen’s block should have been flagged. Allen said Sunday afternoon that he thought the hit was fine.
“I thought it was a legal hit,” Allen said, via the Pioneer Press. “He’s running to make a tackle, so I just wanted to block him. I never intentionally try to hurt anybody. I turned around, he was running to make a tackle and I threw myself into him to make a block. My condolences to him and his family.”
Allen probably shouldn’t be surprised to find a FedEx from the league at his locker at some point this week. Intent to injure or not, Allen’s block is one that the league’s been trying to eliminate.
UPDATE 2:36 p.m. ET: The Bears announced Monday that Louis has been placed on injured reserve.