Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green didn't practice Thanksgiving and that would indicate it's going to be tough for him to avoid missing his third straight game Sunday (1 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 12) at Paul Brown Stadium against Cleveland.
Also out and probably out Sunday were linebacker Nick Vigil (knee) and cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (shoulder) as well as tackle Adolphus Washington (knee) on a defensive line that lost its third tackle for the season earlier in the day when Josh Tupou went on injured reserve.
And slot cornerback Darqueze Dennard (calf) and special teams captain/back-up safety Clayton Fejedelem (shoulder) surfaced on the injury report as limited.
But the big news, of course, is that Green didn't go again a day after head coach Marvin Lewis expressed optimism that Green would practice this week. But very rarely does Lewis play guys if they don't practice at least limited on Wednesday and Thursday. He had also been hopeful about Vigil returning, but now it looks like he'll miss his fourth straight game, Washington his second and Kirkpatrick his first. That would put the banged-up Dennard in Kirkpatrick's spot and rookie Darius Phillips in the slot.
The heavy injury-report news comes against the back-drop of Cleveland head coach Gregg Williams saying in Wednesday's conference call that his team is the healthiest it's been since training camp.
Without Green the Bengals offense has lost its punch and slid to 26th in the league. When he hurt his toe on the last play from scrimmage before the bye, they were 10th in scoring. But in the two games since they've scored just five touchdowns, they're averaging 270 yards and 17.5 points, and the longest pass is 37 yards.
