LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The Bears on Saturday placed cornerback Nate Vasher on injured reserve and promoted fullback Jason Davis from the practice squad to the 53-man roster.

In last Sunday’s win over the St. Louis Rams, Vasher broke his right hand and aggravated a right thumb injury that had forced him to miss three games in October.

Cornerback Nate Vasher has played in just 12 games the past two seasons.

The 2004 fourth-round draft pick, who missed 12 games with a groin injury in 2007, registered 29 tackles and one interception in eight contests this season.

Vasher will be replaced by Corey Graham, who led the Bears with 33 tackles and had one interception and one forced fumble in three games when Vasher was hurt earlier this year.

Davis spent the first eight weeks of the season on the Bears’ practice squad before being signed to the Raiders’ 53-man roster. He was then cut by Oakland last week after appearing in one game.

The 5-10, 245-pounder could replace starter Jason McKie, who is listed as questionable for Sunday night’s game in Minnesota after hurting his quad muscle Friday in practice.

Davis entered the NFL in 2006 as an undrafted free agent with the Eagles. The University of Illinois product spent his rookie season on injured reserve and the 2007 campaign on Philadelphia’s practice squad before being cut at the end of the 2008 preseason.

Special effort: The Bears know that scoring touchdowns on special teams won’t be as easy Sunday night as it was in their 48-41 win over the Vikings Oct. 19 at Soldier Field.

In that game, Garrett Wolfe returned a blocked punt 17 yards for a TD after punter Chris Kluwe dropped a perfect snap and Zackary Bowman recovered a muffed punt in the end zone for another score after it had caromed off Minnesota’s Charles Gordon.

“I’ll be honest with you, we got lucky on that,” said special teams coordinator Dave Toub. “They had a lot of bad luck in those situations. We weren’t even going for a block and we ended up getting a block, so let’s call it what it is. We got lucky. Our guys were playing fast, and that’s a credit to them. But at the end of the day, that’s what it was.”

“They’ve definitely improved as a unit,” Wolfe added. “Those two touchdowns that we scored, I don’t think that really had much to do with us. The odds of that happening [again] are slim to none. We’ll go out and continue to play hard and try to capitalize on those opportunities. But for anyone to expect us to do that, I don’t think it’s doable.”

Happy returns: It would seem that the best chance the Bears have of scoring on special teams would be on a return by either Devin Hester or Danieal Manning.

Manning came close on the opening kickoff against the Rams last Sunday, dashing 50 yards to the St. Louis 49 before being dragged down from behind.

“It was right there, man, just a block away,” Manning said. “I’m excited for this game because we know we made the adjustments and we’re going to stick to the same game plan and see what we’ve got.”

Charles in charge: The Dec. 8 issue of People Magazine features a story about Charles Tillman and the heart transplant that was required to save his infant daughter’s life.

Tiana Tillman suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, which causes the heart to weaken and enlarge, disabling the heart’s pumping system. It’s a condition that affects roughly 1 in 100,000 children in the United States.

Doctors bought more time for Tiana in late July by installing the revolutionary Berlin Heart, a ventricular assist device that takes over the pumping action of the heart. In performing the eight-hour operation, Children’s Memorial became the first hospital in Illinois to use the Berlin Heart.