Vikings' Smith injures ankle in loss to Packers

Harrison Smith slowly moved around the locker room Friday.

The Vikings safety was on crutches with a walking boot on his left foot after injuring his ankle in the 42-10 loss to the Packers on Thursday. Smith had an MRI, which coach Mike Zimmer said did not show any significant damage. The injury occurred on a safety blitz with 2:49 left in the first quarter when an offensive lineman rolled on Smith's ankle.

"Just got rolled up on," Smith said.

The ankle swelled the day after the game, Smith said. Despite the injury, he was one of five defensive players to play all 54 snaps. Smith typically gets his ankles taped underneath his sock, which is common among players. During the game, he was taped up twice — once over his sock and once over his cleats — to stabilize the ankle and keep him playing.

"When you're excited to play, you don't feel much," Smith said.

Both Smith and Zimmer do not believe the injury is significant. The team will have three days off before returning to Winter Park on Tuesday to prepare for the Lions next Sunday.

The Vikings waived quarterback Chandler Harnish, who served as Christian Ponder's backup against the Packers. Harnish signed to the practice squad Monday, the day after rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered an ankle injury against the Falcons.

Harnish said he was still introducing himself to players and coaches during pregame when he was promoted from the practice squad. Ponder played the entire game, but it was the first week Harnish was on either a practice squad or active roster this season, receiving a little more than $29,000 from the Vikings for his services. Harnish was cut by the Colts in late August.

"Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting in Chicago with some friends watching the Bears-Packers game," Harnish said. "Then on my way back to [Indianapolis], I get a phone call about 11 o'clock at night saying, 'Hey, we want you in Minnesota.' It was an absolute whirlwind but incredible opportunity and exciting just to get up off my butt, for lack of a better term, because I'd been unemployed for a few weeks."

Zimmer said wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson will be fine after suffering a hip injury on the opening kickoff return in the second half. He played in just 41 of the offense's 79 snaps, making two receptions for 8 yards.

Patterson was targeted just four times. He hasn't played a significant role in the offense since the season opener against the Rams, and Zimmer was asked whether that was because of Patterson or because the offense didn't use the playmaker properly.

"It's a little of both," Zimmer said. "We need to get him more involved than what we are, but actually I thought he did some good things last night. He didn't obviously catch as many balls as we would've liked or anything like that, but I thought he improved on being a receiver."

Greenway said dealing with broken ribs has made it difficult not only to do his job on the field but also to sneeze, cough and even laugh.

"Time is the only thing that can cure it," Greenway said. "It's not smart for me, knowing how they feel now to not talk too much about injures, but just knowing that I've got to get healthy before I've got to go do more damage to it. We're not going for a walk in the park. We're playing NFL linebacker; you're going to get some collisions."

• Bridgewater got NFL rookie of the week honors for his Week 4 performance against the Falcons..