bukie

And it will be v: GOALKEEPERS: Noel Valladares, Donis Escober, Ricardo Canales DEFENDERS: Víctor Bernárdez (Anderlecht), Osman Chávez, Maynor Figueroa (Wigan), Boniek García, Emilio Izaguirre, Erick Norales, Carlos Palacios, Mauricio Sabillón. MIDFIELDERS: Edgard Álvarez (Bari), Julio César León (Parma), Ramón Núñez, Amado Guevara (Toronto FC), Wilson Palacios (Tottenham), Hendry Thomas (Wigan), Danilo Turcios, Melvin Valladares. FORWARDS: Carlos Pavón, Carlo Costly, Walter Martínez, Jerry Palacios y David Suazo (Inter Milan). First thought: What is the US doing sending a bunch of players I never heard of down for a crucial tie with Honduras? Second thought: Man, I really need to get some more sleep.

Theriot started the night with a success rate of 75% That is a lot higher than I assumed it would be, but I do wish they kept stats like "steal attempts where the throw beat him easily but got away, thus crediting him with a steal". :) Yeah, and I wish there was a distinction between real steal attempts and hit and runs, too. That too, and I have a feeling that's a good part of the reason the Cubs on the whole have been so poor a SB%. Lou likes his hit and runs, especially with 2 strikes.

Theriot started the night with a success rate of 75% That is a lot higher than I assumed it would be, but I do wish they kept stats like "steal attempts where the throw beat him easily but got away, thus crediting him with a steal". :)

Is there a base stealer with a worse success rate and a similar number of attempts as Theriot?

Is it just me, or are there an inordinate number of really bad teams this year? It's only been 3 weeks, and it's already time to write off 1/4 of the league. Browns, Bucs, Chiefs, Raiders, Redskins, Rams, Lions, Panthers, Dolphins and Jags are basically already dead in the water. And I haven't even mentioned all the 0-3 teams, because I think the Titans can still turn it around.

DVOA (well, VOA right now, since opponent adjustments don't kick in until next week) isn't very kind to the Bears either, mostly getting them on their overall offensive production (since the running game has never been good, and the passing game was good twice and awful once, putting it average overall).

Nope Vikings had a bye that week. Its never happened. 10 Sun November 13 box W Minnesota Vikings @ New York Giants 24 21 137 1 405 5 10 Sun November 13 box W Detroit Lions Arizona Cardinals 29 21 383 0 397 1 10 Sun November 13 box W Chicago Bears San Francisco 49ers 17 9 239 4 161 2 10 Sun November 13 box W Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons 33 25 351 1 321 3

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d812f7400/Bears-25-Seahawks-19 I still love Joniak.

This is the first time all 4 NFC North teams won in the same week since 2005, week 10.

and i laugh at anyone who thinks a quarterback with a 22:22 TD:INT ratio and no running ability is good. what suggests that he is a good player? leadership? intangibles? The legend that is John Madden.

In a really weird series of coincidences, this week for me makes it 12-1 at "home" and 3-7-1 on the "road".

awful waffle almost gets the pick

Cubs win again. At this point, it'd be kind of nice to have those two weekend walkoff losses back.

I don't really care either way, except I would've sat Masterson if I had thought of it, which really is my own fault for not being creative.

I was under the assumption of 7 per week, myself.

is it the same record? Yes, same record.

I'm sure you know this, but seeding rankings are half based on FIFA rankings and half based on WC performances from 2002 and 2006 (2006 performance counts for 2/3 of this, 2002 for 1/3). So, the Netherlands not qualifying for the 2002 WC really kills their performance score (14, where 32 would be a perfect score), and the US finishing last in their group in 2006 really kills their performance score (13.7). Teams like Argentina (21), France (23.3) and Portugal (22.3), on the other hand, are really helped by their performance rating. As for how the selection pods will work out, if neither Mexico nor the US make a seed, and Argentina does make a seed (OK, let's just assume all holds to form): Seeds (Pod A): Brazil, Spain, England, Italy, Argentina, Germany, France, South Africa Pod B (Europe): Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark, Greece, Serbia, Russia, Slovakia Pod C (Asia/CONCACAF): Australia, Bahrain, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, USA, Mexico, Honduras Pod D (Africa/CONMEBOL): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Algeria, Tunisia, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay So, potentially, the US could end up in a pool like Brazil, Netherlands, Ivory Coast, USA. If, on the other hand, Costa Rica/Honduras win the CONMEBOL playoff, or one of Mexico/US gets a seed, the pods don't line up perfectly according to confederation, which could mean the US had a shot at an Asian team in their pod. Something akin to South Africa/Chile/Bahrain/USA would be best-case scenario.

So, about seeding chances... As of the latest FIFA rankings, the US is currently tied for 11th in line among teams for 7 seeds. Here's the order: 1. Brazil 59.7 2. Germany 58.7 3. Italy 56.7 4. Spain 56.0 5. England 52.0 6. France 48.3 6. Argentina 48.3 ------------------------ 8. Portugal 46.0 9. Netherlands 43.0 10. Mexico 38.0 11. Croatia/USA 35.0 There are currently 4 teams which have already clinched spots that the US will not pass: Brazil, Spain, England and the Netherlands. Italy just needs either a point v Ireland or a win v Cyprus, so it's safe to assume they're in as well and that the US will not pass them. As for the others: - Germany currently leads their qualifying group by 1 over Russia, and has a remaining away game v Russia. Very possible they finish second in their group and have to win a 2-leg playoff for a spot. - France is currently second in their group and are likely to finish second also. - Argentina is currently 5th in their group, but have a favorable setup to finish fifth, since Ecuador and Uruguay play each other and are unlikely to both finish ahead of Argentina. Really, the only way Argentina finish worse than fifth is with an Ecuador/Uruguay draw, and a Uruguay win v Argentina coupled with an Ecuador win at Chile. Not out of the realm of possibility, but very likely Argentina finishes at worst fifth. - Portugal is currently 3rd in their group, 2 points out of second, with 2 games remaining at home. Likely they don't finish first, but could very well sneak into second. - Mexico, we know about. The win at Saprissa likely locks up at worst second, and likely first in the qualifying group, unless they drop the game at T&T (and even then they'd likely have a spot locked up by then). - Croatia is likely to finish second in their group. It's a really slim possibility, but the only chance the USMNT has is to hope 5 of the following 6 things happen: - Germany loses at Russia and loses their 2-leg playoff - France loses their 2-leg playoff - Argentina finishes 5th and loses a 2-leg playoff to Honduras/CR - Portugal finishes 3rd or second and loses their 2-leg playoff - Mexico loses at T&T and the US passes them on points - The US wins both their remaining draws and beats out Croatia on points or Croatia loses their 2-leg playoff. Their best bet, IMO, would be to try to win out and see if they can pass Croatia/Mexico in qualifying, and then just hope Germany/France/Portugal don't get matched up with each other in the Euro qualifying playoff, and then rooting for Greece, Slovenia, Bosnia and Ireland.

Pierre might be the only player I know that managed to set franchise records for 3 franchises in 3 consecutive years.

So with that logic we just bench the entire team I guess? Nice. Yes, because the entire team has the same situation regarding the increase to workload this year.

I find very little about the Bears' offensive performance over the first two weeks good. Really, Knox and Hester have been the best things about it, and Cutler could go to Hester more frequently. The running game has been terrible (how much of it is the line and how much of it is Forte?), Olsen has only caught 33% of the balls thrown to him, Bennett hasn't been very effective despite being thrown to the most, and Cutler has had one awful game and one decent game. Maybe it's just been because they've faced two of the better defenses in the NFL (Cincy would beg to differ), but things definitely need to improve here for the Bears to be considered one of the better NFC teams. Defensively, they've been better, but not great. About average all around. On a per-play basis, they've actually been better against the pass than the run, and I'm hoping that isn't just going to be the way things are without Urlacher around. As special teams goes, they're good, but not as good as they've been the past few years. Maynard has been really good, and Gould has been a guarantee on FG/XP, but kickoffs are slightly below average, and returns haven't been great to this point. Could be largely due to the field conditions Sunday, of course. EDIT: I forgot Davis on the offensive end. He's really been a positive also, certainly much better than Olsen so far.

Yeah, I ended up flipping the #1 pick for the #11 pick, Jason Bay, and Jordan Zimmerman, and subsequently flipped Zimmerman to Don for Pablo Sandoval, Ross Detwiler and Austin Jackson. Considering the #1 pick was Beltran, who was out half the year, and Zimmerman ended the year getting TJ surgery, I lucked out pretty well.

Jones is healthy enough to play again, apparently, so I put him in for Bourn.

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d812c6362/Bears-17-Steelers-14 NFL.com highlights with radio calls. I love Joniak.

10-2 game, and somehow Cameron gets 12 points and Theriot gets 3. And why the hell did Davis get skipped?