Frerotte better but still listed as doubtful

Vikings quarterback Gus Frerotte was listed as doubtful for Sunday's game at Arizona, making it likely Tarvaris Jackson will get his first start since Week 2.

Frerotte, who suffered a fracture in his lower back last week at Detroit, had limited participation Friday after missing the previous two days of practice. Doubtful in the NFL means there is only a 25 percent chance Frerotte will play.

"He's gotten incrementally better," coach Brad Childress said. "It's not a leaps-and-bounds thing, but he settles down. It's more about not how he was today but how he's going to be tomorrow."

Jared Allen tested his left knee for the first time this week in Friday's practice and is listed as questionable. The Pro Bowl defensive end, tied for fourth in the NFL with 12 1/2 sacks, said he "felt pretty good" after doing limited work.

"That's my focus," he said of playing Sunday. "I'm going to try my hardest. Like I said, I have to defer to coach and [trainer Eric Sugarman] on a lot of that. And so I can't speculate too much, but that's obviously the goal is to get there, and it's just now a matter of if I can reach that."

Allen suffered a severe sprain of his right shoulder Nov. 2 and did not miss a game, so it's safe to assume he will give it a go Sunday.

Asked how tough it would be to keep him out of the lineup once his mind was set on playing, Allen said: "It's almost an impossible task. But I've got a lot of respect for those guys and so I do listen to their opinion. Sometimes you have to get an outside view and, for myself, sometimes you have to get out of the way yourself because you'd hate to do further damage."

Ryan Cook lost his job as the starting right tackle to Artis Hicks last month after starting the first 10 games of the season. But Cook stands to start for the second time in three games Sunday as Hicks continues to battle an injury to his right elbow. Hicks did not practice this week and is listed as doubtful on the injury report.

"It was kind of depressing when I got benched, but I just took it like it was, moved forward and swallowed that pill," said Cook, who also started Nov. 30 against Chicago in place of Hicks. "I think my confidence is back up to where it was at the beginning of the season. I'm very confident in what I'm doing right now and go from there."

Detroit rookie tackle Gosder Cherilus was not fined by the NFL for his hit to Allen's knees.

Allen was injured when Cherilus blocked Allen at the knees as he ran down the line in pursuit on a pass play away from his side. Cherilus did not receive a penalty, but Allen was irate and had to be restrained. Safety Darren Sharper was among the Vikings players who felt Cherilus' hit was a cheap shot. Allen called the hit "unnecessary."

On the next play, Vikings linebacker Napoleon Harris and Detroit fullback Moran Norris were called for personal fouls with Norris receiving a disqualification for throwing a punch. Both Harris and Norris received $5,000 fines Friday.

Vikings defensive tackle Fred Evans also was fined $5,000 for his facemask penalty on Kevin Smith.

• Kickoff returner Darius Reynaud has been ruled out Sunday because of a toe injury. Aundrae Allison likely will take his place. Defensive end Brian Robison is listed as questionable after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Dec. 2.