"Evidently, we won't need to keep checking in with Antonio Gates for hourly updates this week.

"This is more of a dire need," Gates said. "Considering how important this game is and what this mean to our whole season I'd like to that, speaking in the third person, Antonio Gates will play."

Gates has ostensibly been a day-of-game decision the past four games and has played the past two with a torn plantar fascia in his right foot. "