Nagy doesn’t think Hicks’ knee injury is serious

[Staley Da Bear]

Bobby Massie - Vertigo


Massie was a surprise late scratch Monday night when he started experiencing vertigo. Vertigo is a condition linked to the working of the inner ear, that can create intense feelings of dizziness and nausea, not unlike being on a boat in choppy waters. The Alfred Hitchcock movie named after the condition famously achieved the visual sensation of the situation by zooming the camera lens in while simultaneously moving the camera further away.


One can imagine why bouts of dizziness and loss of balance would interfere with Massie's work, which is trying to impede the nation's biggest, strongest and fastest men from running over the top of him.


There are several possible causes for vertigo. However, treatment for vertigo is usually treatment for the cause, so that will be key to when Massie returns.


Nagy mentioned that his brother-in-law once had vertigo, and it took him nearly six weeks to get back to normal. He emphasized that six weeks was not Massie's timetable to return.


"I hope not," said Nagy. "I don't have the exact answer right now. I'm hoping not. But we'll see."


Taylor Gabriel - Concussion


Gabriel suffered a concussion toward the end of the game. At this point, we do not know how severe the concussion was and thus can't speculate too much about his return. It is a positive sign that Gabriel left the field on his own and didn't appear to lose consciousness. Nagy hinted that more news would be forthcoming.


Gabriel will have to go through the five steps of concussion protocol. There is no official timetable; he will have to be cleared from rest to light aerobic exercise and eventually to full football activity.


If Gabriel's concussion was mild, he should be back in a week or two. If it was worse than it looked, it could be much longer.


Eddy Piñeiro - Knee


The announcement that Piñeiro was dealing with a knee injury ignited two days of kicker drama that had been effectively put to rest when the first-year kicker hit the 53-yard game-winner against Denver.


Piñeiro fought through the pain in Monday night’s game, making 1-of-2 field goals and 4-of-4 extra points. Nagy doesn't believe that kicking will aggravate the injury and prefers to see his new kicker play through the pain.


"If he can't go or he can't kick," said Nagy, "then we'll come up with a solution for it, whether it's going for two. It does make it a little bit more challenging if you're in that fourth-and-medium range and you don't know whether to kick a 35-yard field goal based off it. But he came out and felt pretty good. Once I heard that I knew, ok, let's test it out and let's see."


Nagy replaced Piñeiro on kickoffs with punter Pat O'Donnell, believing that kickoffs would put more strain on the knee and carry more risk. If Piñeiro takes the role back soon, we'll know he's somewhere near full strength.