bukie

2nd and goal from the 4, you have the nation's leading rusher and a backup QB and are missing your #1 WR. That is not the time to telegraph a throw to a double covered WR.

Art Sitkowski is 9-14 for 22 yards. That 3rd down pass was terrible. EDIT: It's worse now, 10-15 for 16 yards.

Tommy Devito is still Illinois' leading passer, and he hasn't played for two quarters.

The two turnovers in 3 minutes doesn't help matters, and losing Devito in the 1st quarter is a shame, because I'm not sure Art Sitkowski is the answer at QB.

Surprising no one, Illinois-Iowa is 6-3 midway through the 2nd quarter.

All 3 games are in St. Louis so any series win will do that? Oh, I thought they had given a game 3 to the lower seeded team, so...even better.

Still rooting for Phils (because Schwarber), Pads (because Yu and screw the Mets), Mariners (never won a WS), and Guardians (because it would be hilarious for them to end their WS drought the very year they finally dropped the Indians moniker).

All I want here is a Phils series win without their fans getting to watch a home game.

And Segura singles on ball 4 to drive in 2. Phils lead 3-2.

As an example of how bad it got, here's a play where Mustipher blocked 0 of 2 rushers up the middle leading to an immediate broken play: [tweet] [/tweet] EDIT: Also includes bonus Herbert "blocking"

Yeah, when every drop back is a race between the ball and the nose tackle to see who can make it to Fields first, there tend to be a lot of QB pressures. Fields got about as much pass protection from Mustiphar that he'd have gotten from an automated snapping machine. Though maybe the NT would occasionally trip over the snapping machine and provide a throwing window.

[tweet] [/tweet]

Illinois plays Minnesota next week after hopefully beating Iowa 6-4.

My memory is such that nothing after beating Ohio State in 2007 happened. Until last Saturday.

Yeah, this is why I don't understand fans who watched yesterday's game and decided "Yes, this game shows Fields is the problem" The line was awful, up and down, both ways, and the reason the Bears lost this very winnable game.

To give an idea of just how long Illinois has been bad... - They now have the longest AP poll drought in the country at 11 years (2011 was the last time they showed up in the poll, the last Zook year). - They haven't finished the regular season with a winning record since 2007, when they beat #1 Ohio State to tie for the Big Ten championship (but Ohio State technically won the conference and went to the BCS while Illinois was stomped in the Rose Bowl by USC) - They haven't actually won the conference since 2001 (Ron Turner), when they were beaten by LSU in the Sugar Bowl. - The previous coach, Lovie Smith, was seen as a great hire and went 10-33 in conference in 5 seasons, going 0-1 in bowl games. - Before that was the disastrous Tim Beckman era, where they went 4-20 in conference over 3 seasons (and still got one bowl game and lost it) - Prior to that, Ron Zook actually made 3 bowl games, going 18-30 in conference over 7 seasons (0-2 in bowl games...though Illinois won their 2011 bowl game with an interim coach) - Ron Turner, the last coach to win the conference, went 20-44 over 8 years of coaching (and 8 of those were the one year they won it) - Lou Tepper before that was 17-21 in conference over 6 seasons. And Ron Turner and Lou Tepper are fondly remembered among Illini fans as "the good old days". EDIT: Bielema is now 5-6 in conference over a year plus, so he's caught Beckman already and is halfway to Lovie.

The B1G West, where everything is weird and the scores don't matter:

To me, the offensive playcalling to this point, and likely for the rest of the season, is effectively "keep running the ball so our franchise QB doesn't get killed this season trying to throw to the worst WR/TE corps in the league." The added "benefit" of this is the offense becomes extremely predictable and they lose games without looking like they're trying to lose games, go 4-13 or 5-12, secure a top 5 pick and make use of the next offseason's draft/FA to build the team. If anything, the production of the defense is making games closer than the FO would like them to be. And that's without Jaylon Johnson, who the team is also trying to preserve in any way possible. It's a cynical take on the Bears' front office, but it seemed like the plan ever since the prior offseason, so we are stuck with whatever this football is for this season.

Sweep!(ish)

Tonight's Mets-Braves game is the biggest regular season game in a long time, especially since there aren't tiebreaker games anymore. Here are the stakes: - The Braves lead the Mets by 1 game with 4 remaining. - The winner of the season series wins the divisional tiebreaker, and the season series is currently tied, so tonight's game clinches that. - The division winner will get a bye in the first round and play the winner of the Cardinals-bottom WC series. - The runner up will play WC 5 in the first round (likely the Padres) and then the Dodgers after that.

I don't see him doing anything besides endarounds and WR screens and the occasional quick slants. I guess though, the best thing that comes from that is some easy throws/yardage for Fields, which would make a pretty solid difference in how this offense feels. I mean, if he goes for 80 yards receiving, he'd immediately be the Bears' leading receiver for the year, so he's not that far behind.

I still can't velieve Illinois blew that Indiana game. They win that, there's an outside shot at winning the B1G West. Now they're at least looking solid for a bowl game.

Also, the Cubs were 10-25 against the NL West this season, 61-61 against everyone else.

Cubs have now clinched a better record than the Nats, A's, Pirates, Reds, Royals, Tigers, and Marlins. Clinched a tie with the Rockies. Also, ahead of the Rangers and Angels, DBacks, Red Sox and Twins still within striking distance. Likely going to finish somewhere between 10th and 14th worst record.

Shohei Ohtani leads his team in every offensive and pitching category, is worth 4 WAR hitting and 5 WAR pitching overall, and isn't going to get a single MVP vote.