When the Vikings and Bears played a couple of weeks ago, the Bears lost guard Lance Louis for the rest of the season after he was on the receiving end of a huge block from Vikings defensive end Jared Allen.
The Bears weren’t happy that Allen left his feet to deliver the blow and the league also took issue with his choice when they issued him a $21,000 fine in the days after the game. Allen has maintained that there was no intent to injure Louis on the play and said that he didn’t think there would be any outcry over the block if it had been made by an offensive player. And he said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect any retaliation from the Bears in this Sunday’s rematch.
They had a chance to retaliate during the game. Like I said, there is nothing to retaliate ... it wasn’t malicious, it wasn’t done out of ill will. We had an interception and a guy was running towards our guy to make a tackle and I threw a block,” Allen said, via ESPNChicago.com “Like I said, my condolences to him. The intent is never to hurt anybody. You never want to hurt anybody. Unfortunately that is part of our game and it happened.”
Bears quarterback Jay Cutler said this week that the best retaliation against Allen would be to stop him from wreaking any havoc in the pocket and we’re inclined to agree. The Bears don’t need to let anything take their eyes off the importance of winning this week’s game on their playoff hopes.