rawaction

Adrian Peterson is inactive for the Bears today. Rest of the list. QB- Hanie DTs- Toeina, Adams WR- Bennett OL- Buenning, Williams S- Steltz Guess this means Fred Miller is ready to go!

Same, except I have Justin Fargas instead of Stewart. I also had to play Fargas instead of McGahee. I have D'Angelo Williams instead of McGahee at my flex position. I was probably gonna start Williams anyway. Gore and Forte are my RB starters. Last week, I started Greg Jennings at flex. This week I have to start him at WR because of the injury to Colston.

I'd guess Vitters anywhere from 20-40. I think Samardzija will be in the top 60. Ceda from 60-75. I wouldn't be surprised to see Colvin in the 70's-80s. My sleeper is Castillo coming in the bottom 15 of the top 100.

What about the Red Sox vs. White Sox for the wildcard?

I think I'd rather play the 2 on Monday over 2 Sunday and 1 more on Monday, because the game on 9/29 will not be needed. It also gives Zambrano a couple extra days. If they play 2 Sunday, I'd go: 9-14 Marquis/Marshall 9-15 Dempster 9-16 Lilly 9-17 Harden 9-18 Zambrano 9-19 Marquis..... If they play 2 on Monday, I'd go: 9-15 Marquis/Zambrano 9-16 Dempster 9-17 Lilly 9-18 Harden 9-19 Marshall 9-20 Marquis 9-21 Zambrano.....

I keep reading about how the Panthers held LT to under 100 yards last week! What a misleading piece of crap reporting! First of all, LT had 97 yards. Secondly, he only had 21 carries for an average of 4.6 ypc. You want to know what LTs career numbers are? 96 yards per game and 4.5 per carry. So, all Carolina did is not let LT go nuts on them. Congratulations! While they were holding LT to his average game, they allowed Phillip Rivers to finish the game with a 125 passer rating.

Yup, the Panthers are always a tough draw. The Colts just didn't plain show up last week, and the Bears overpowered them. But the Panthers will show up. Games against Carolina seem to be the most exciting, at least for me, since I live in NC. So I can't wait till we *hopefully* blow their brains out. I love that matchup against the Panthers without Steve Smith. If Smith wasn't suspended I would give the Panthers the advantage, but without Smith, I almost see the Bears beating the Panthers by 2 scores. Smith is a good WR, no doubt. I don't think he is still a great WR though. I think everybody is putting way too much stock in a game that happened 3 years ago (edit: he actually had 14 catches in the regular season matchup too). He's 29 now. Steve Smith was in his prime then. Chris Thompson was on the Bears roster. If you seriously think the Bears will win by 2 scores w/o Smith and lose with him, that means you think Steve Smith makes up at least 10 points by himself. That's just not the case. I don't believe that it ever was, even as good as his 2005 season was.

With two off-days, I agree entirely. I'd push him a little farther personally. He'll undoubtedly get pushed pretty hard in the playoffs, I'd like to at least work him into that scenario. I wouldn't have pulled him after 62 pitches. Leave him in until around 90ish would be optimal, imo. He still has at least 2 more starts, probably 3. He can get up to 75-80 next time, 90 after that, and should be able to go 100+ if needed in the playoffs.

Another reason, I didn't want Harden to pitch. He's looked progressively more tired the last 3 innings.

I know the PC is fine, but I wouldn't pitch Harden anymore. He's healthy. He got game action. He can get the win. Deep bullpen. Use it.

Idiots! Barton was pretty immobile though and not very good. Still, it's Fred Miller! He's immobile, not very good, and old.

That's not a bad idea. Though, it's not like he would be coming out after a rain delay anyway. I don't think it would be bad to get him some work for 4-5 innings or til it rains.

Jamie Moyer is on 3-days rest. Ben Sheets hasn't given up a run in 20 innings. This one can get ugly.

Jamie Moyer is the pride of South Bend Clay High School.

I think the Dodgers are a tougher matchup than the DBacks. The DBacks top 2 pitchers have been bad recently. Offensively, you can slider them to death. Cubs have strikeout pitchers. Arizona's hitter strike out a ton. Don't let Conor Jackson beat you and don't throw fastballs to Dunn, Young, Upton, and Reynolds you have a shot at shutting them down offensively. Manny has made the Dodgers a different team. He's been the best player in the NL since the trade. Ethier has killed the ball since the AS break. Kent and Martin have killed the Cubs this year. Loney and Kemp killed the Cubs last year. The Dodgers' starters all have good numbers vs. the Cubs. And the Cubs have never seen the phenom, Kershaw. Unlike Arizona, the Dodgers don't have a lot of guys you can pitch a certain way and get them out.

He needs to spend more time with his kids anyway. Him and Travis Henry are doing a telethon to help support babydaddies.

Tampa Bay Rays.

There's a joke in there somewhere.

I thought Payne looked pretty lost at times on Sunday. That's definitely the weak link of the defense. It's possible to survive the loss of Brown, if he's the only loss. But what I'm worried about is multiple injuries. Brown + just about anybody else could be a disaster, or at the very least, weaken them to the point where they are just barely above average defense. This team still needs a dominant D to go anywhere. Yeah, Payne was MIA on the Colts lone TD drive. McGowan was out there with him and wasn't any better either. That will happen from time to time, especially if they play WRs of the Colts caliber again.

I like Indianapolis Colts fans. They are just really getting into this football thing. They were so bad for so long and never really had a huge fanbase because of bitterness from the Baltimore situation (those fans didn't follow the team after the move). I liken it to the Brewers. They don't have much of a history so they are just getting into this fanatical trash talking stuff. Colts fans have definitely gotten behind their team. I don't envision them entirely jumping ship either if things get down for a few years now that they've gotten into it. The succes the team has had the last 6-7 years is fantastic and really rare in the NFL anymore. I think they're just accustomed to winning at this point and go into full meltdown and the slightest sign of failure. Yeah, that's when they become legit fans. When they suck and the fans still care about them. I think the Colts are there now, probably as of the last 3-4 years. The stadium is proof.

I like Indianapolis Colts fans. They are just really getting into this football thing. They were so bad for so long and never really had a huge fanbase because of bitterness from the Baltimore situation (those fans didn't follow the team after the move). I liken it to the Brewers. They don't have much of a history so they are just getting into this fanatical trash talking stuff.

As do I. Defensive injuries and a collapse by the offensive line are probably the two easiest ways for this team to stumble. I'm also a little concerned with their boisterous response to proving skeptics wrong. If they need that attitude to play with an edge, fine, but I think their cockiness played a role in the team suffering last year. Hopefully they stay a little bitter for the rest of the year. I dont worry about the line, it will likely only get better with Bruenning (sp?) and possibly Williams, as well as with more playing time barring injuries. but the backlash at the reporters is kind of weird. could be they are just trying to use any little mit of motivation they can find, but how long can it possibly last? I know Buenning is a decent OG, but is he really that much better than Beekman? Beekman has been impressive at times in the preseason and Sunday night. He's younger and could use the experience. Beekman's biggest problem seems to be reading the D and picking up blitzers, which Buenning wouldn't be much better at because he's further behind on the blocking schemes than Beekman due to not being in Chicago that long. I think if Williams cracks the lineup at all this year, it will be because of disaster. Either JSC will suck or somebody will be hurt worse than he is. In which case, the Bears probably aren't any good by the time Williams is ready anyway.

Is Mike Brown really that bad of a loss this year? Payne and McGowan have gained valuable experience at safety. Steltz looks to be a pretty decent project that won't kill the team if he's in there. Danieal can play some FS. It's a lot different from last year when you had Archuleta who was horrible, DManning who was learning to play CB, and McGowan who had little experience to that point of hte season. They did fine in 06 without both Brown and Harris, though I wouldn't expect that again, in the case of Tommie.

Week 2 is always the most interesting week. I think this week can make or break a team and determine who they really are. Of the 16 teams that are 0-1, EIGHT of them looked absolutely pathetic (Rams, Lions, Texans, Raiders, Bengals, Browns, Miami (moreso on reputation), and Seattle). If these teams have a repeat performance, their seasons are probably devoid of hope after just 2 weeks. Playoff hopefuls (Redskins, Bucs, Jags, and Chargers) are playing teams that looked really good last week, while the 0-1 Colts and Vikings play each other. At least 1 and possibly 5 of these teams will dig an 0-2 hole. A couple of last year's middle of the pack teams are looking to compete this year (Bears, Panthers, Eagles, Jets, Broncos, Saints, and Bills) are trying to show they are legit contenders.

I can't believe all the people picking the Bears as a 4-5 win team. Looking at the schedule before the season, anything less than 6 wins to me would have been a shock, even for a team as bad on paper as the Bears are offensively. Teams with the talent the Bears have on defense don't lose 12 games. This franchise isn't nearly in as bad of shape as Atlanta, Miami, or Oakland. I predicted anywhere from 6-10 to 8-8, leaning toward the high end if no major injuries are suffered on defense.