The Bengals will be without their top run stopper on the defensive line on Sunday at Minnesota after defensive tackle Domata Peko had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Monday. The fourth-year player injured the knee during the Oct. 22 game at Oakland. He came back the following week to play against Cleveland, but re-tweaked it and it got progressively worse. He missed last Sunday's 23-13 win over Detroit, which ended a string of 59 straight games played.
Said coach Marvin Lewis of Peko's surgery: "Sometimes the different scans show different things, and so they did another scan last week and felt like probably the thing to do was to go in and 'scope it and he would recover quicker."
Lewis would not put a definitive time frame on how long Peko would be out, but he is definitely out for this week's game and probably out for the Dec. 20 contest at San Diego. Lewis also said that Peko would not miss the rest of the season.
The Bengals will also be without running back Bernard Scott for the Vikings game as he continues to recover from the turf toe injury he suffered against the Browns. All indications, however, are that safety Chris Crocker, who injured his ankle during the first quarter of Sunday's game, would be ready to play.
Offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth has felt as if the 9-3 Bengals have been in a playoff stretch mode since the loss to Oakland two weeks ago, but he acknowledged that Sunday's game against the 10-2 Vikings will have a different feel.
"It's like a big division game, and you're going on the road against an elite team, but it doesn't change what we do," he said. "Anytime you're going against a team of that caliber, you get a chance to see how you develop as a team."
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