Saftey Will Blackmon fractured his left thumb in London but expects to play with a cast this Sunday vs. the Vikings.

Redskins safety Will Blackmon stood by his locker in good spirits on Monday, expecting to play against the Minnesota Vikings this Sunday despite the cast wrapped around his left wrist. It was protecting his thumb, which he injured against the Bengals and promptly had a few pins placed in it during a procedure last week.

His thumb was fractured and dislocated during a play in which he tried to tackle Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green.

"I remember I tried to smash A.J. Green, then I didn't realize how strong he was, I ended up bouncing off him, and then I came up and my thumb is facing the east and that was it," Blackmon said. "I looked at my hand and I just finished that next play and came out and talked to the trainer about it."

The Boston College product had to leave the field to get an X-Ray and doctors wrapped a black cast around his wrist. He was ruled out of the game but was allowed to return under his discretion if an emergency situation existed.

That occurred early into overtime, when safety Duke Ihenacho was injured on the Bengals' first play from scrimmage. Blackmon entered back into the game and played for the remainder of the overtime quarter in the team's 27-27 tie.

"I was fortunate enough to manage enough pain to go through the game. Obviously would have loved to come out with a win," Blackmon said. "My legs work. That's the important thing, my legs worked. I've dealt with worse. It's all good."

Blackmon will wear a light cast this week in practice to adjust and plans to wear something similar on Sunday. While head coach Jay Gruden hasn't made a decision on Blackmon just yet, the safety has no concerns about his dexterity on the field.

"It won't be an issue," Blackmon said. "I can grab, I can catch, I can hold. So I'm not going to be out there armless."

The Redskins defense is still struggling in various categories – namely total defense, run defense and third down defense, in which the Redskins rank in the last third of the league – and Blackmon stressed returning to fundamentals – namely, tackling – to combat those issues moving forward into the second half of the season.

"Those are the things that we got to evaluate and something that we're definitely going to continue to improve and definitely will help us in the long stretch of the season," Blackmon said. "Because now the weather's going to get cold, teams going to run the ball more, it's harder to tackle when it's cold. Those are the things that we got to emphasize.

"I really believe we are a talented group, it's just a matter of just the little details and just being disciplined, that can truly propel us to into where we want to go. We have the talent, we have the makeup, we have the guys, we have the identity, the personality, just a matter of this is the time of the season where the veterans and the leaders for real just step up and push this thing forward."