Childress highlights

Coach Brad Childress said he isn't ruling cornerback Antoine Winfield or any of his injured players out for Sunday's regular-season finale at Denver.

Winfield and wide receiver Sidney Rice were held out of Sunday night's 32-21 loss to Washington because of an injured left shoulder and right ankle, respectively.

Rice said he's optimistic he can return and Childress didn't dismiss the possibility of Winfield playing a limited role, even if he's not healthy enough to start.

"The thing that we always kind of stand by is, is this guy going to be able to protect himself?" Childress said. "Antoine wanted to play last week and we kind of held him back, but he's made very good progress."

The Vikings need a win Sunday and a Washington loss to Dallas to make the playoffs, but Childress said he doesn't want his players doing any scoreboard-watching.

"I just think it's important for us at this point to pour all of our energies into the Denver Broncos and forget the what-if game," he said. "For us, it's down to one game. All we can do is control what we can do. We've got nothing to do with the Dallas-Washington game."