Andy

Great job at the end of the game by Quin switching to the 2-3 zone on that 2nd to last possession with great results. And Gardner is a stud. What a game indeed.

Other than andro, I do not believe Mac has admitted to taking anything that is currently disallowed by baseball.

Based solely on pure talent, I don't think I'll ever see a better Cubs team than 2004. Sosa, Nomar, Ramirez, Alou (at the height of his powers), CPatt (ditto), Wood, Prior, Z, Maddux, Hawkins, Grudzie/Walker (both having great years). The only problem is that many of these players were not playing at their best. I have no doubt that that team would have at least won the pennant had they made the playoffs, especially the way Prior and Wood were going at the end.

NL Central faced AL Central in 02. faced AL East in 03. faced AL West in 04. faced AL East in 05. Doesn't make sense to me either.

Are we sure the broken hand didn't happen before the season started? That would explain a few things. I laughed. Who's in your sig, Raisin?

There's a difference between being fired up/excited and cursing out home fans. Home fans who were throwing stuff at Julius Peppers. Jake was no more fired up about this one than he was about any of his other four playoff victories. Just look at video - his whole career with Carolina, he's always run around and celebrated when good things happened in big games. It probably just seems different when you're on the short end of it - which is understandable - but don't call it classless.

Am I the only one who thinks that if Fox, Delhomme, etc. weren't fired up and excited about beating a team who had thoroughly crushed them two months ago - and doing it in the playoffs, no less - that there's simply something wrong with them?

And good luck to you as well, Huber. Look forward to a nice back-and-forth conversation during the game on Sunday. None of these Bears fans will care about the game. :wink: Whichever one of us wins is probably going to end up clashing with Jazz a few weeks later :D With the way that Delhomme was running around whopping it up after the game, put me (a Bears fan) firmly on the Seahawks side next weekend. Yeah, me too. I hope the Bears players saw that and were pissed. Hmm, sounds like "Cardinals/Zambrano" syndrome - Delhomme has the same competitive fire. But to each their own. And count me on the Steelers' side as well - we have a better shot at stopping their running game - should we get that far - than we do Denver's.

Precisely 4: This one Baseball Fever BasketballBoards.net Bulls Board Panther Nation - PantherInsider.com Board

I distinctly remember this, and this is where i planted my seat firm on the Dempster bandwagon. Demp was in the pen, and calling the game, in a Buck persona. I think i might get a demp jersey one of these days. He was doing a running commentary and talking about Eckstein's squeeze to win the game the day before. It was hilarious. I love the Dumpster Man.

A) easy to say when there's no way to know if you're right or not. Except that there is. Smith already had a step or three on Thompson or whatever his name is when he fell down on the 2nd score, and against Tillman, he was already level with him after about four yards, and you can't tell me that Smith couldn't outrun Tillman from there.

I spent most of the game last night calling him a "#%#^ing waste of 60 million". We should just pay him his money and let him stay home at this point.

Good game. This Bulls team is built for 06-07 anyway, so I'm just glad to see them play well when they can, and maybe steal a win from Detroit in the first round of the playoffs before bowing out.

Well, ND finally won a Big East game in the new superconference - the bad news is it was over probably the worst team in the league in Providence. Got to head to Marquette on Friday. Ball State loses another tight one to Miami by four. That makes four games (5 if you want to count the Butler loss) where Peyton Stovall would have made a difference. It's going to be a long year in Muncie. :(

And good luck to you as well, Huber. Look forward to a nice back-and-forth conversation during the game on Sunday. None of these Bears fans will care about the game. :wink: Whichever one of us wins is probably going to end up clashing with Jazz a few weeks later :D

The facts of the game: - Steve Smith is on another plateau of players. Even if those guys didn't fall down on those TDs, Smith already had them toasted. The man is the only legitimate weapon on the entire offensive side of the ball, and still no one can stop him. Truly unreal. 218 yards. - Simple explanation for the delay of game nonsense: Shady officiating. On that 2nd to last Bears drive, some shady defensive holding and contact calls (the contact on Lucas was Moose-initiated) to keep the drive going. Almost seemed like the refs were trying to keep the small markets out. (I know it seems absurd, but look at the ridiculous call in the Pittsburgh game. ANY chance at all that wasn't a blatant attempt to keep the Colts going in the playoffs? And the CAR/DAL game seemed like another example.) To be frank, after Lucas picked it I was waiting for the refs to decide to throw the flag and bail the Bears out by calling the penalty. - Jake Delhomme might be my favorite player in all sports. The guy's just a fan out there playing QB. He's got the intensity of Zambrano, and he steps it up when it matters. That's why he's 5-1 in the playoffs despite having played only one of those games at home. 318 yards? Wow. - It's a credit to you guys that even as I was enjoying Carolina's play and the fact that they never trailed, I was scared the whole game. And I'll freely admit it. I was waiting for the Bears to make that big defensive play. (Some props to Urlacher for that inhuman interception.) - For all the talk about the Bears D going in, I thought the Panthers D really stepped it up. Complete lockdown until they were up by 13, then loosened it up a little bit, but they always went right back into lockdown when it mattered. Kenny Lucas is one of the most underrated defensive players there is. - John Fox. The man's a genius. - Stick with Rex. The kid positively scared the crap out of me when he led the Bears right down the field for two TD's on two drives in a row. That's a good football player. - Congratulations on a great season. HERE WE COME, SEATTLE!

Looks like jmajew won't have to work hard to make fans here at NSBB. :lol:

Hmm - well I'm certainly glad it doesn't look like he's going to bolt. :) Prior/Dempster/Lee - The Holy Trinity of Cubs Class

Carolina 16 - Bears 10 Gut feeling that the Bears are still not able to stop Smith, and that the offensive line probably won't be as awful as they were in week 11. I also think the Carolina D is pretty much going to have Grossman and his 57.9 QB rating for lunch. But I'll gladly come on here after the game and eat some crow if I am wrong. :wink: Unfortunately I won't be able to be on here during the game (my computer's power cord was left at home when I came back to school) so here's to a great game, Bears fans! :)

Delhomme and Brady were clutch regular-season QBs too, though - it just happened to carry over into the playoffs. Delhomme led eight game winning drives for the Panthers in 2003. Brady got his reputation by leading clutch drives against Oakland and STL in 2001. Some QBs are meant for the playoffs.

The real question is when has Plaxico ever shown up for a big game? I can assure you the Panther's DBs look that much better because of the same reasons you mentioned about the Bears CBs. QB's avoiding Lucas? Come on man is his middle name Champ Bailey? I think you are overrating your CBs a bit. Possible, but Lucas tied for the NFC lead in picks last year with Seattle, and has saved us in more than a couple of games (saved us from an embarrassing loss to Arizona by picking off McCown twice in the red zone or end zone for instance). Kenny also got some Pro Bowl buzz although in the end he was edged out by Ronde Barber. I think it's more underrating by everyone else than overrating by me. Maybe I'm crazy, though.

Lucas is a fantastic shut down corner. Ask Plaxico Burress. Gamble is a decent cover corner, but I agree that he's never really had any game where he made a game turning play or really stopped a wideout. His INTs have mostly been the result of QBs avoiding Lucas. And I'm about to get flamed terribly for this, but I don't think the Bears' secondary is all that great. It's just that the front seven is so damn good that QBs never have time to dissect the secondary and look for the right pass consistently. That was certainly the case in the Week 11 meeting. Banedon, it's possible, just a tiny little glimmer of possibility, that the reason Thomas Jones had so many more carries than Tiki did in their games against Carolina was that the Bears were up 10-0 in that game before you could blink an eye, whereas the G-men never had a lead to work with.

I can't blame Prior for hating the organization and wanting out as soon as he is an FA, which has been rumored. He's been woefully mishandled and unfairly labeled as "injury-prone" his entire career.

My thoughts EXACTLY. Why is it that you tell your players to foul down 4 with 1:20 left, but when you're down 3 with 50 seconds left, you play for the defensive stop? It makes no sense whatsoever!! That game unfolded like all the ND/Cuse games at the Joyce have the last four years: Irish make a bunch of stupid mistakes, but threes keep them in it till the end when Gerry Mac proves too much. I am NOT going to miss him. My two college basketball teams' record since December 30th: 0-7. :(

A key matchup that no one is talking about: Rex Grossman vs. Kenny Lucas/Chris Gamble/Ricky Manning (two of the best corners in the league, plus one in Manning who came up huge last time we were in the playoffs). I think that one might end up determining the outcome as much or more than the battle in the trenches. Remember that Plaxico had no catches last week, and no doubt the Panthers will look to put the same lockdown on Muhsin Muhammad.