bukie

Offense playing well, defense causing turnovers, things look good now. Can't wait for the defense to give up the lead in 3 minutes here.

That is not the case, they just need Wisconsin to beat Nebraska and then Minny to beat Wisconsin. EDIT: I thought you meant Illinois. NW does need a weird tiebreaker. Illinois just needs to win twice and not tie Wisky or Nebraska in the standings.

Defense is still an issue, and Soderblum doesn't seem like he'll steal many for them at this point.

Bedard is the youngest player with a 4 point game since World War 2

First game where Bedard was clearly the best player on the ice:

Early on, it looks like Purdue and Kansas are a leg above everyone else, and Duke should be able to dominate a very weak ACC, to the point where I'd be surprised if those are not 3 of the 4 1 seeds come tourney time. Still a ton of things that can happen, but I'd be very surprised if those teams stay at full strength and don't stay at the top. After that, though, who knows? The Big 12 has 14 teams now and 13 of them look legit (Central Florida is really in for a rough season, I think). The Big Ten has 14 teams, 1 of which looks unstoppable, 1 of which people think will be good but didn't look the part on Monday (MSU), and then you have maybe 10 teams that could be in the mix (sorry, Minnesota and PSU). The Big East is stacked, but I'm not sure that will result in one great team that emerges or 3-4 really good teams that beat up on each other all season (UConn, Creighton, Marquette, Villanova). The SEC has no really weak teams, but I'm not convinced they've got any really strong teams either, we'll see how Tennessee and Kentucky shake out. The ACC is terrible, but ESPN and pundits will use it to show how amazing Duke is for running the table or going 16-2 or something. And the Pac-End has one last hurrah among teams that probably won't play each other much going forward (USC, Arizona, Colorado, Stanford) to see if they can get one last championship for the league before it dissolved.

Though it was a bad game, it was just one game so far. DePaul is again stuck in a really good Big East this year, but there's always Georgetown to keep them company.

Lot of ranked teams in action yesterday in home buy games, only Michigan State was sluggish enough to be upset. Maybe James Madison is good this year, though.

10 games into the season and the Blackhawks already beat both of last year's Stanley Cup finalists.

Cool moment today for Illini walk-on QB John Paddock. Grew up a huge Illini fan, chose tobforgo a starting gig at Ball State to attend Illinois as a walk-on, then was thrust into a 4th and 11 situation with 2 minutes to play and Illinois down 5. Proceeded to convert on 3 of 3 pass plays for the game winning TD.

Hey, today is more fun to watch so far.

Technically, games start this upcoming weekend, but today there were a couple very high profile scrimmages, one between #4 Michigan State and #9 Tennessee (that Tennessee "won"), and one between #1 Kansas and #25 Illinois (that Illinois "won", theoretically extending Hunter Dickinson's career losing streak against Illinois). Preseason AP top 25: 1 Kansas(46) 1548 2 Duke (11) 1466 3 Purdue (3) 1436 4 Michigan State (1) 1346 5 Marquette 1283 6 Connecticut (2) 1243 7 Houston 1117 8 Creighton 1099 9 Tennessee 1032 10 Florida Atlantic 1011 11 Gonzaga 830 12 Arizona 776 13 Miami (FL) 750 14 Arkansas 685 15 Texas A&M 597 16 Kentucky 530 17 San Diego State 529 18 Texas 493 19 North Carolina 474 20 Baylor 431 21 Southern Cal 427 22 Villanova 395 23 Saint Mary's 335 24 Alabama 163 25 Illinois 104

I did not think coming into the season that Tommy DeVito would get an NFL TD less than halfway through the season

Not to diminish the play of the Hawks this game, who overall outplayed Vegas for the night, led by Tinorti and Bedard:

When you play nothing but undefeated teams, eventually you win one.

How bad do you have to be to take the reputation of "worst run sports team in Chicago"?

As expected, the Blackhawks aren't very good. However, their early schedule has been absurdly tough thus far.

Denver beats the Packers, so the Bears are 3rd now. And a game out of an NFC playoff spot.

Denver and Arizona both off to good starts in their games, such that the Bears could still end the day with the #2 pick.

Correction, the Browns converted on 4th and goal from the 1, so they are also a winning team as of now.

The Bears schedule will continue to be pillow soft, as their only remaining games against winning teams will be against the Lions. They're 2-5 with the 4th worst record in the NFL, but still have a feasible path to a playoff spot in the NFC if they can beat the bad teams on their schedule. They won't beat out the 49ers, Eagles, Lions or Cowboys, but there are still 2 wildcard spots up for grabs in a conference where at least half the conference seems to be trying to be terrible.

Raiders taking their timeouts to extend the game is odd when they're down 8 possessions like they are now.

That just allows us to argue the Bears would beat the Dolphins through the transitive property.

Raiders with the field goal from the 5 to pull within 5 possessions.

Fortunately, the season opening 5 game road trip is over, so they can finally come home and relax against...*checks notes*...Vegas and Boston.