rawaction

Yeah, Miami should. They have a franchise LT. A C for the next 10 years. A top 15 WR. No star, but 2 very solid RBs. They have a young defense that's top 5 in points per game already. If they can come out of this draft with a franchise QB and get 1 more lineman, they are a strong contender for a playoff spot next year. I also think they are a sleeper destination for Bill Cowher.

Those missed shots from the 1st half....are not being missed any more. Things are evening out for IU and they went on a 31-5 run in about a span of 5-7 minutes.

OK 1st half for IU. Losing Sheehey has been an issue. Roth and Etherington getting some PT, but neither can do anything other than stand outside and shoot the 3. Neither are doing it well today. Hoosiers missing a lot of shots they normally make. Oh and Verdell Jones just pulled his groin. If I had to guess, I'd think he'd miss a couple games from the looks of things.

The Rams/Vikings are the happiest teams around right now. Someone will trade for the #2 now to take RG3, and the Rams should still be able to get Blackmon if they don't go past 6 and the Vikes will be able to get either Jonathan Martin or Riley Reiff for OT. And if Landry Jones comes out, some team will go after him top 10 also to cause players to fall.

Yes, strange combination of names. See "MERCILUS" on the back of a football jersey and you think the first name must be Thor or Hercules or Kevin (seems like a pretty strong name). But then you get Whitney.

Any logical 1st round pick with the Bears taking a player who played college football within 150 miles of Soldier Field would be nice. WR Michael Floyd, C Peter Konz, DE Whitney Mercilus are my 3 favorite options for the 1st round. Floyd had to grow on me this year, as he was only a jumpball threat as a Soph. He was a little bulky as a JR and looked a step slow. But this year, he's shown some ability to separate, looked more fluid, and still has the strong hands. Reminds me of a slightly smaller Vincent Jackson. Konz was Carimi's roommate at UW. Big, strong, and very athletic for his size. C for thenext 15 years. Mercilus may be a 1-year wonder, but that 1 year has been at the top of the nation in TFL and sacks. He had good performances against Ohio St and Wisconsin, who both have NFL caliber OTs, including Mike Adams who will be a 1st rounder this year.

Almost a week until the MSU game. I'd think Sheehey would be back by then.

Eh. If Jerry Angelo doesn't force Caleb Hanie down everyone's throats, and gets a competent backup, this team makes the playoffs with the possibility of getting Jay back. Even Martz knew Hanie was no damn good. It was gross negligence than cost this team a good chance of making a decent postseason run. He should probably lose his job because of the decision. How could you not give Hanie a chance after the NFC championship game? That was the only time in his career he saw significant action and he performed admirably given the sitution. It's a logical conclusion to believe with another offseason in the Martz offense he would've been a servicable backup for this team this year.

But Miami has Battier now. Wade, Lebron, and Battier on Rose, Deng and Hamilton is a win for Miami if LBJ plays DRose like he did last season. I do think Wade can be picked on a little bit, but it would be nice if Boozer would step up and give us a consistent go-to inside.

As much as I'd like to say Angelo and Smith are completely worthless I got to give them a pass on the way the season ended. There's isn't a team in the league that could have overcome losing their QB, main offensive threat and best RB, two OL, who were improving, and in the Seahawks game their top WR. The Houston reference is not applicable, last time I checked Arian Foster is still palying, Andre Johnson is playing and one could argue Yates is an improvement over Delhomme and/or Garcia. By the end of the year, The Texans will have not had Schaub, Foster, Johnson, and Mario Williams for a combined 28 games. Those weren't only their top offensive stars, those are their 4 best players. The only player of that group who is playing this week is Foster (Johnson is hurt again and has been for a couple weeks now). Then throw in their backup Leinhart also getting hurt for the season and they have had some pretty severe injuries themselves. Yates was drafted 8 spots ahead of Enderle this year. They also have only missed 1 game on the OL, which was last week, a game they lost pretty handily. The Williams injury was pretty huge, especially when coupled with Carimi not being able to come back. Also, Foster missing 2 games early is a lot more easy to deal with than Forte missing games late. But yeah, Houston has been able to better deal with their major injuries than the Bears. No question. But the Bears have been slightly more snakebitten.

Yeah, I think I do too. Odds are, the prospects aren't going to be just filler. Getting 3 players for a short reliever with 1 year left on his contract is probably going to be a good deal regardless of the players. Getting a back of the rotation starter for 4 years is not a horrible return by itself.

Man, and I was just starting to get pumped about this trade. Wood is OK, but the prospects probably were going to be pretty intriguing.

CoCo likely wants more than a year, no? Yeah, but I wouldn't sign him for more than a year. I'd rather have neither.

Does this mean no Coco Crisp? I think I'd rather have Coco.

I was always under the impression that Travis Wood wasn't very good. I know he had a good year in 2010, but his stuff looks like he should put up numbers like 2011. Mediocre fastball, strong changeup. Has good, but not great control. Decent, but nothing special ability to miss bats. Just seems like a lot of other mediocre LHPs hanging around the MLB. Sean Marshall should command more than that.

No mention of the Derrick Rose contract extension?

I knew the Bears were going to have a couple major injuries since they were relatively healthy for the most part last year, but damn. How many teams have ever lost their leading passer, rusher, receiver, and 2 best offensive linemen to the IR, all in the same 1/2 year?

Gotta like shooting 9-14 from 3 and 7-11 from the FT line, in a half. 24 for 32 inside the 3-pt line for the game. Remy Abell is an interesting cat. Seems to play pretty well when he's in there. Would be interested to see how he develops, but I don't know that he'll be around for the long haul with Yogi coming in next year. I like how balanced their scoring attack can be. Through 11 games they still have 5 guys averaging more than 10 per game, with Jones at 8.9. Still not sure how the Big10 is going to go, but certainly exceeded expectations so far. At this point I'm setting my baseline expectation for the Big Ten record at 9-9 and hopefully IU can do a little better than that. The way we handle those first 3 conference games will go a long ways towards shaping my true expectation level for this team. 9-9 may actually be low. I'd like to think they go at least 7-2 at home (losses to Ohio St and at most 1 of Illinois, Mich St, Northwestern). On the road, should take at least Penn St, Nebraska and Iowa. That's already 10 wins and still should have a decent shot @ Purdue, @ Minnesota, and maybe @ Michigan

Gotta like shooting 9-14 from 3 and 7-11 from the FT line, in a half. 24 for 32 inside the 3-pt line for the game. Remy Abell is an interesting cat. Seems to play pretty well when he's in there. Would be interested to see how he develops, but I don't know that he'll be around for the long haul with Yogi coming in next year. I like how balanced their scoring attack can be. Through 11 games they still have 5 guys averaging more than 10 per game, with Jones at 8.9. Still not sure how the Big10 is going to go, but certainly exceeded expectations so far. I hate to sound like a sappy cliche, but I just enjoy seeing these guys win. These guys finally have a taste of winning, and I think that means a lot for the conference season. Beating Howard by 50 doesn't make them a great team, but the more they do win...the more the players feel they should win. Hopefully when they do lose a couple games (like to start the conference season) they can keep it from snowballing like it has in year's past. I'm still pretty confident in this team's ability to shoot the ball in Assembly Hall. But it's going to be a struggle when they can't hit shots on the road and teams go at Zeller and get some fouls called on him. Part of me would really like to see someone really become the go-to guy on the perimeter, but I do like that Watford, Hulls and even Sheehey and Oladipo all feel confident enough to make plays when they need to.

Gotta like shooting 9-14 from 3 and 7-11 from the FT line, in a half. 24 for 32 inside the 3-pt line for the game. Remy Abell is an interesting cat. Seems to play pretty well when he's in there. Would be interested to see how he develops, but I don't know that he'll be around for the long haul with Yogi coming in next year.

Unless Frank Gore gets 2 carries for less than 5 yards, fumbles both times, and gets injured, I'm going to lose. The effing Raiders. Calvin Johnson puts up 43 points against me. Even if they kept him out of the endzone, I had a shot if the Steelers stoppred Gore. Did Percy Harvin get hurt today?

I don't think you start Enderle vs. GB. They blitz a lot and nothing good can come out of him starting that game. I'd start McCown and save Enderle for the finale.

No, Notre Dame was not very impressive. They'll struggle in the Big East, though the league is a little down. While not a resume building win for IU, it was a still a nice win in context. It's never easy coming off a huge win. IU was rather sluggish but did have control of the game throughout the second half. Two more games which should be gimmes, then they dive right into the Big Ten. First three games: at Michigan State, home to Ohio State, home to Michigan. Eager to see how the team does in the league. I'd be extremely happy with 1-2 to start the conference season (Michigan looks most winnable). Should win 4 of the 5 after that. Pretty tough conference schedule with Ohio St, Michigan St, and Michigan all twice and only Wisconsin game is on the road.

As for this game, I'm going to miss most if not all of it. May be a good thing. Lose today and Cutler and Forte probably should/will go on IR. Maybe get Hanie in there for a start vs. the Vikings. But obviously, this game is very winnable. The Bears would have won all 3 of the games without Cutler had they had 1 fewer turnover. Take away 1 Hanie INT vs. the Raiders that led to a score. Take away the Williams drop for INT. Take away the Barber fumble. Seattle isn't any better than Oak, KC, or Denver. The Bears still win this game if they continue to play defense and protect the ball.

If NO wins out (vs. Min and then home for last 2 weeks) and SF loses to the Steelers tomorrow night (all strong possibilities), then NO is the 2-seed with SF as the 3. If the Bears make it as the 6-seed, I'd have a lot of confidence in them winning in San Francisco with a healthy Cutler...not even necessarily Forte. Best case scenario would be Bears win and Lions lose today. If the Bears beat GB, the Packers will have little incentive to try vs. the Lions in the final week.