bukie

8 rounds into the shootout I'm not sure I've seen a good move yet. Granted, I was spoiled by Patrick Kane for 10 years, so maybe nobody else can do anything close to that.

This is the NFL, any team is a good offseason away from being ready to contend.

Jared Allen played 3 years at defensive end for the Chiefs after being drafted by them in 2004, and was then traded to the Vikings. Eventually played a year for the Bears. Definitely not relevant to this year's postseason or this comparison, though.

Next step is assembling the right coaching staff, which was another thing Eberflus failed about as spectacularly as possible. So far so good on the rumors on that front, though.

An analytics shoutout, two digs on the Packers and a Cubs fan? This man earned at least 3 years leeway in about 15 minutes.

I see there's no offensive line in front of them, so it must feel just like a regular season game for them out there.

I'm pro Ben Johnson because he ran the Lions offense the past 3 years, and that offense has been near the top of the NFL, averaging 33.5 points per game this past season. In comparison, the Bears offense has scored over 33 points exactly 6 times the past 5 seasons (and they were a playoff team in one of those seasons!). In addition, everywhere I've seen him, he looks like he just has his horsefeathers together, which is something sorely missed in this franchise in recent memory. Even the speech to the employees, which was fairly normal and straightforward, was treated like he was some kind of rainbow unicorn because the franchise has sorely missed any kind of quality coaching and head coach that just simply has his horsefeathers together.

Robert Mays spends 20 minutes talking about how much he loves the Bears coaching hire:

Well, maybe they planned on drawing this out for another month while the Lions won the Super Bowl, but Jared Goff decided "No, we'll just end this now."

If the Bulls are ever going to try to improve, now is the time to trade Lavine and Ball while they still have positive value. They were just swept by the terrible Pelicans, they aren't going anywhere this year, their roster is garbage, so get what you can for the garbage that has net value so you can start over with actual direction and assets.

End of Bucs-Saints: If Mayfield would have thrown a pick-6 there at the end trying to get Evans the receiving record it might have been the most hilarious play in NFL history.

And before anyone starts crying about draft position, can it, beating the Packers means more than 1 spot in the draft.

Just the opposite of any sense of urgency anywhere on this team.

Bears ST tries a lateral just to lose an extra 5 yards on the return.

From this post, the Bears go holding penalty-fumble, losing 15 yards and handing the ball to the Packers without forcing them to take a single time out.

Packers doing their best to try to out-Bears the Bears.

2 minutes to go, Bears have first down on the Packers 43. I am morbidly curious to see what stupid way they ruin this.

WR screen that goes out of bounds isn't ideal.

In addition, I'd probably move up the playoff one week so that the semifinals are Jan 1 with the quarters on Christmas weekend and first round the week before. That gives all teams a week off between regular season and playoffs for finals week, keeps everyone fresh, and doesn't drag the NCAA playoffs into NFL playoff time (granted, it still hasn't happened yet but this is going into late January now and they're holding the championship game on the 20th of January after two weeks of NFL playoffs).

The NFL is a completely different beast than the NCAA. The bye there is one week, while this year teams had 3 weeks of rest with the bye while the first round participants had 2 weeks of rest and then a game. Calling the Georgia-ND game "essentially a 6-3 halftime score" while ignoring the 2 TDs spanning halftime that effectively iced the game is disingenuous at best. Boise State started out the game throwing 3 picks and giving up 2 TDs before they settled down a bit, still down 10 at the half before briefly making it a game before losing by 17. I personally just don't like this bye system with neutral sites. Back in the day, that's why they eventually expanded the NCAA tournament so everyone played every game, and adding the other 4 G5 winners solves two current minor issues while still reseeding them 1-16 without guaranteeing conference champs the top 4 seeds solves the most glaring issue from this iteration.

The solution to all the bye teams having the doors blown off them in the first half would be to have them all play the same number of games so they aren't rusty, yes. I agree Clemson, ASU and Boise were rewarded, and that it eventually worked out to have 5 auto bids because the gap between the top 5 conference champs and the other 4 was big enough this year. However, there will come a time where the difference between champ 5 and 6 is negligible, so why not just include every conference champ? Then at least every team has a theoretical shot at the title. It'll be similar to the 1-16/2-15/3-14/4-13 games in the basketball NCAA tournament, 90% of the time it'll be a blowout, but it will allow for infrequent crazy outcomes while still giving the top seeds a week of play to stay in rhythm with the rest.

Two rounds in, here's my thoughts on the 12-team playoff system... What works: Just about everybody that deserved a national championship shot got one. Boise State got a deserved chance, even though they lost the game. Big 12 and ACC got shots they wouldn't have with a 4-team playoff. Nobody goes home deservedly short changed (except maybe Oregon) Home games in the first round. Electric environments, even in blowouts. Good enough that they should do it for every game until the championship. This was the perfect year to expand, because a 4 team playoff would have been a disaster. Who would have been the 4 teams? Oregon, Georgia, Notre Dame, and then choose between Texas, PSU, OSU, Tennessee, Indiana, Boise State, Arizona State? Nobody would have been happy, and a team that will likely be in the national championship game wouldn't have had a shot. What isn't working: 4 byes for 4 conference champs. All 4 lost, 3 of them handily. Whether it was the long layoff or the seeding being messed up based on there being only 2 deserving conference champs, nobody was rewarded for winning their conference championship game. I'd propose expanding to 16 and inviting every conference champ, so the lower-tier conference championships at least have meaning. Then everyone gets a home game that is ranked high, and everyone is on a level playing field for the quarters. Quarters at neutral sites after first round at home sites. It was almost a disadvantage to be a conference champ this season, even with the byes. Having all the games on a network in the SEC's pocket. All we heard for two weeks was how the SEC got shafted and nobody else deserves a spot at the table, only to watch every SEC team lose and/or struggle. Now they're left with Texas, a team not even in the SEC a season ago and a room full of analysts and Nick Saban left with nothing to say.

Fun fact, Illinois was 6th in BR's rating metric before last night's game. Now they're in the top 10 in KP, BT and NET, which means they're a really really good team whether AP voters think so or not.

I have had a feeling that Illinois was quietly really good and underrated and just needed a big win to get attention. If you think about it, if KJ makes both FTs at the end against Tennessee and hits the fadeaway at the end of regulation in NW, Illinois is probably sitting in the top 10 with effectively the same metrics. 109-77 in Eugene should get attention from AP voters, I suppose.