Vikings not expecting retaliation from Bears for Jared Allen's hit

Jay Cutler says he holds no grudge against Jared Allen for his hit on Lance Louis, which ended the guard's season . (US Presswire)

The Vikings play the Bears for the second time in two weeks. That's soon enough for the Vikings to still be stinging about the 28-10 loss and for the Bears to still be smarting from the loss of G Lance Louis, whose season was ended by a hit from DE Jared Allen on an interception return. The Bears were upset about the hit at the time, but the Vikings aren't concerned that there will be any retaliation from the Bears.

“We have a lot of respect for Lovie and his staff and their football team,” coach Leslie Frazier said. “He's a class guy. No, we don't expect anything of that sort.”

CB Antoine Winfield intercepted QB Jay Cutler and took off down the sidelines. Allen turned to block someone and he hit Louis, who didn't see him coming. Louis fell sideways over his left knee and tore the ACL, ending his season. Many of the Bears decried the hit after the game, and Allen was fined by the league for leaving his feet to make the block.

Allen offered his condolences to Louis and his family several times the following week, saying he never intended to hurt anyone and that it is part of the game. On a conference call with Chicago-area reporters Allen reiterated the same sentiments.

"My integrity in this game to me I don't worry about,” Allen said on the conference call. “The guys around the league who know me know that I play hard, I play to the whistle and I'm not a malicious guy. I've never tried to intentionally hurt a guy on the field."

The message seems to have been received, as Cutler, speaking by phone with Twin Cities-area reporters, appears to have moved on from the incident.

"It was unfortunate that Lance tore his ACL," Cutler said. "I don't think Jared is that type of player. I don't think he was out intentionally to hurt anybody. I played against him when we were in Denver and he was with the Chiefs and obviously now in Minnesota. You don't want those things to happen. We wish he would have hit him a little lower but it didn't happen. We can't worry about it. We've got enough on our plate as is to worry about those types of things."

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