Rice, Berrian are held out vs. Steelers

The Vikings were without their two starting wide receivers Saturday in a 12-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Metrodome.

As expected, Sidney Rice did not play after missing four consecutive days of practice because of a stomach virus. Coach Brad Childress said this week that Bernard Berrian might return after missing the Baltimore game because of a toe injury. But Childress decided to hold Berrian out.

"I didn't have a good feeling about where he was," Childress said. "He could do some things, he couldn't do others. He was good on one side, wasn't good on the other side. You've got to be able to play on both sides of the formation. We weren't going to put our arm behind our back with being able to run plays one way."

Rice said he hopes to return to practice on Monday.

The Vikings have contended that Artis Hicks probably will replace Bryant McKinnie in the event the left tackle gets suspended by the NFL, but until Saturday Hicks had gotten little work at that spot.

But Hicks replaced McKinnie in the second quarter and played several series with the starters.

McKinnie faces four charges, including one felony, stemming from a brawl outside a Miami nightclub and has a court date scheduled for Sept. 24. That incident also made McKinnie a repeat offender of the league's conduct policy, meaning he could face a multigame suspension from the NFL.

The Vikings have used several players at backup left tackle throughout training camp, but Hicks, the backup left guard, is a logical choice because he has experience at that position and is a seven-year veteran.

Childress said he wanted to get Hicks some work at left tackle last week at Baltimore, but injuries prevented him from doing that. Hicks has tried to avoid the subject and toyed with reporters when asked about it after the game.

"I didn't even know I played tackle tonight," he said. "Did I? I don't even remember it. It's all the same. It runs together. Guard, tackle, tight end, linebacker, free safety. It all runs together."

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is scheduled to visit the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention and will host a reception with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf for business and political leaders in St. Paul on Sept. 2.

Vikings officials say they wanted to have a presence during an important national event, but it will also give Wilf and Goodell an opportunity to discuss their stadium push with leaders from the local and national level.

Wide receiver Robert Ferguson suffered a right leg injury on a kickoff return in the first half and did not return to action.

"He got kicked in the calf on one of those kickoff returns," Childress said. "He had a pretty good block going. I actually had been watching him and he got kicked down the field. It's just painful and a contusion. He's limping pretty good right now. We'll see how he turns up in the morning."

• Marcus McCauley started in place of Antoine Winfield at left cornerback. Childress said the coaching staff wanted to evaluate McCauley in a different role.

• The Vikings won the coin toss but elected to kick off because of an NFL rule change that might make this decision a common occurrence this season. The NFL has gone to the college rule of enabling teams to decide whether to defer to begin the game and thus receive the kick to begin the second half. Previously, the team that lost the toss was able to elect whether it wanted to kick or receive to start the second half.

• The Vikings' other inactives were quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, tight end Garrett Mills (ankle) and defensive end Brian Robison (leg).