Vikings notes: Bridgewater gets second start

Norv Turner had to wait one more week than he would have liked, but the Vikings offensive coordinator is eager to see how quarterback Teddy Bridge­water performs in his second career start. The Vikings play Sunday against Detroit at TCF Bank Stadium.

In his first one, two weeks ago against the Atlanta Falcons, Bridgewater threw for 317 yards and rushed for a touchdown before leaving in the fourth quarter because of an ankle injury.

Now, Turner says, the challenge for Bridgewater will be adjusting to the adjustments the Lions make after watching tape of Bridgewater playing in a meaningful game with the offense tailored to his skills.

"He's a young player that, it's going to be fun to watch him play every time he goes out because you learn more about him," Turner said. "Defenses are going to do things differently. We're going to see some things different than we did from Atlanta. They have a full tape on him, on the things we did."

Harrison Smith has come a long way in the past week, tossing aside his crutches, ditching the protective boot on his sprained left ankle and suiting up for practice the past two days.

But while the Vikings safety acknowledged it is "kind of insane" that professional athletes like himself are able to heal so quickly, he still has work left to do to suit up Sunday.

The Vikings listed Smith, their best defensive player this season, as questionable for Sunday's game, though the expectation is he will play.

"Pretty good," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said, not wanting to give the Lions too much intel.

While Zimmer didn't publicly declare Smith will play, the safety believes he is on track to suit up.

"It's getting better every day," Smith said. "Today was the best I felt. I was kind of fatigued yesterday when I was going because it was kind of my first time out there. Today I felt like I could do more. … I think it will feel better tomorrow and get better by Sunday."

The Vikings have been preparing as if Lions All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson and running back Reggie Bush are going to play Sunday even though they missed practice all week because of ankle injuries. Now it appears they will have to sweat out their statuses another day.

The Lions have not ruled out either player. Johnson was listed as doubtful and Bush is questionable.

Zimmer, who Saturday will make the decision to play Greenway or hold him out, said if he is somehow able to suit up, he likely will share snaps with Gerald Hodges.

"It probably wouldn't be a full-time role," Zimmer said. "It would probably be a situation thing."

In other injury news, wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (hip), defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd (elbow), linebacker Michael Mauti (foot) and running backs Matt Asiata (groin) and Jerick McKinnon (ankle) were listed as probable.

• Tight end Kyle Rudolph said his recovery from sports hernia surgery is going well, and he should start doing rehab on the practice field soon.

• Zimmer is ready for his team's 10-day layoff to be over. "It seems like it's been a long time that we've had this bad taste in our mouth from [last] Thursday," he said.