Vikings notes: Greenway ruled out for Falcons, streak of 90 starts in row to end

Chad Greenway stood tall at his locker Friday, looking like the Bionic Man in a backward baseball cap. His chiseled chest was puffed out and a large brace covered his wrist and broken left hand. But the veteran outside linebacker was suffering through a rare bout of mortality.

Greenway, who hasn't missed a game since his rookie season, was officially ruled out for Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons. The busted hand? He could play with that. It was the broken rib that caused him so much pain that he was unable to practice this week.

"It's fairly indescribable, to be honest with you," Greenway said. "Anybody who's had a [broken] rib before, much respect."

Missing Sunday's game will mean that Greenway, who hasn't been forced to watch a Vikings game since a torn ACL wiped out his rookie season in 2006, will see his string of consecutive games played stop at 115. And his streak of 90 consecutive starts, currently the longest for an NFL linebacker, also will end.

"It's been a while," Greenway said. "So it will be difficult. The whole thing is obviously not how you draw it up. But it's part of the game. Guys deal with it all the time."

Second-year linebacker Gerald Hodges will likely take over the majority of the snaps at Greenway's weakside linebacker spot.

"He's done a great job. I think he's had a great week of practice," Greenway said. "He's a gamer. He'll be totally fine. He is going to make a ton of plays and be all over the place."

Ryan leads all NFL quarterbacks at 8.69 yards per pass attempt and has thrown for 965 yards through three weeks. Jones is tops in the league with 365 receiving yards. And White, another wideout, says he will play Sunday after missing last week's game with a hamstring injury.

Throw in Harry Douglas and Devin Hester, and that's a lot of passing options to worry about.

"Julio has been great. Obviously, Ryan can move, get out of the pocket. He's got a great arm and throws the ball down the field very well," Zimmer said. "But then they've got Roddy White, and Hester's playing great. Steven Jackson in the backfield. They've got a lot of weapons, so we're going to have to do a great job of being in the right place. We're going to have to stop the run better than what we did last week. And we've got to make sure we're in the right position in coverage all day."

Blair Walsh, who struggled with long kicks last season as a hamstring injury nagged him, lost about 10 pounds in the offseason in the hopes of increasing his leg strength and staying healthy and fresh throughout the season. So far, so good.

The third-year kicker has made five of his six field-goal attempts, including one from 52 yards in Week 1. The miss was a blocked field goal, which was returned for a touchdown in Week 2. And 11 of his 12 kickoffs have gone for touchbacks.

Cornerback Josh Robinson (hamstring) was listed as questionable on the final injury report, though Zimmer was optimistic about him playing.

Safety Harrison Smith (knee); nose tackle Linval Joseph (shoulder); linebackers Brandon Watts (knee) and Michael Mauti (foot), and wide receiver Rodney Smith (hamstring) are all probable.