Banedon

Similar to Vance, I just don't know what kind of overruling Dusty did over Larry...but right now from the things I've heard, I'm leaning toward cutting Larry some slack, which is something I wasn't willing to do at the end of the season last year.

From an ESPN Scouts Inc. article: The whole thing is a pretty interesting read...Insider Article.

It started out as a hypothetical discussion that the Bears would be the 8th should they win on Sunday. :wink: Oh, I see now 8-) Actually, given NHL attendance this year we might have to add Arena league to the discussion considering they might outdraw the NHL Oops. I meant to put 7 on there...my bad. Counting my chickens and what not....

I was wondering if NFL Films would put something like that together. Too bad i dont get the NFL Network. Im jealous. I don't either. If you have digital cable, go to the On Demand options. See if there's something called the "free spot" or something similar. There are a ton of on demand shows for various channels that are free. NFL network is one of them.

Even without the win this weekend, I think Chicago takes the title...this is thrown together real fast, so it's possible I'm off...also this is only NFL, NBA, and MLB. Chicago 8 New York 5 Boston 4 Dallas 3 St Louis 2 Houston 2 Toronto 2 Miami 2 St Louis 2 Denver 2 Minneapolis 1 Atlanta 1 Phoenix 1 Anaheim 1 Washington 1 San Francisco 1 Green Bay 1 Baltimore 1 Tampa Bay 1 Pittsburgh 1 So basically Jordan's Bulls have more Championships than any other city has combined Championships in all the 3 leagues.

Bill Simmons hasn't made his pick (or really talked about the game for that matter), but he did tip his hand in today's article:

NFL Network On Demand (free) has the Bears "Chase to the Championship" or something like that. It's an NFL films compliation of the season. It's very fun.

Im really having a lot fun watching all this Super Bowl stuff. Watching the WGN News at Nine, NFL Live, Sportscenter, etc. Im enjoying more than i thought i would of. Its SWEET. I'm actually having less fun than I thought I would with all this buildup. The stories that are being written by the media are mainly mindless drivel. It's only one game! How much analysis can be done? I can't wait for Sunday because they'll actually finally play the game and I don't have to hear all the fluff pieces anymore.

The speculation I've heard has Lowell as part of a deal for Helton.

Mike North this morning was trying to sell the audience on Deng and Nocioni for Garnett...

Orton is young and cheap. If the Bears feel like they can get the same production out of him that they could from Griese, that's all the leverage necessary. If Orton is unhappy being third string, how do you think Griese feels about being 2nd string?

I doubt that seriously. Orton's struggles were in his true rookie year. He had 10 wins, and has had a year to sit, watch, talk to both Rex and Brian, and learn what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. My guess is that we have the same 3 quarterbacks next year, or if we draft a middle round/late round QB, I could see Griese being traded and Kyle being #2. Who cares? He's not going to play here, ever. He knows that, which is why he was complaining back in training camp. #3 QBs aren't for someone who just sits and stagnates. It's a fluid depth-chart position that almost always has some young low draft pick who nobody knows about yet. We know about Orton. I doubt Kyle even wants to stick around under these conditions. As for trading Griese----I suppose that's one of the only ways Kyle sticks around, but it leaves us in a much worse QB position than this year. I don't see why Angelo would suddenly want to leave us razor thin when he worked so hard to remedy that situation. Here's where we differ. I don't think we know about Orton yet. How can you know about Orton after 15 games as a true rookie? He didn't have a full grasp of the playbook yet. You don't know that he's not ever going to play here...injuries happen. Grossman could get his leg smashed again or something. And I don't remember the complaining in training camp. He was probably upset that he got knocked down to #3 after being a somewhat successful starter last season, but he's a 2nd year player. I haven't seen him as upset as you imply.

Don Banks did a mock drafttoday. Why is it that there's still a prevailing opinion that the Bears will draft a TE? If they were going to do that, I would think they'd have done that last year. The guy I still have pipe dreams about somehow falling to the Bears (yeah, right) is LaRon Landry, and somehow in this mock draft he doesn't get taken till 20th by the Giants. I think that's the farthest I've seen him fall in any of the mock drafts I've seen.

I doubt that seriously. Orton's struggles were in his true rookie year. He had 10 wins, and has had a year to sit, watch, talk to both Rex and Brian, and learn what it takes to be an NFL quarterback. My guess is that we have the same 3 quarterbacks next year, or if we draft a middle round/late round QB, I could see Griese being traded and Kyle being #2.

Bears are #1 in the league vs Tight Ends. I really don't remember a tight end doing a lot of damage to the Bears this season.

<3 Urlacher. that contradicts this interview in SI though. Interview with Urlacher SI link gets a 404 for me. I just fixed it. It was an html file, not htm.

<3 Urlacher. that contradicts this interview in SI though. Interview with Urlacher I'm gonna believe Harris on this one though. Urlacher doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would admit using something like that as motivation.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6404958 <3 Urlacher.

A large part of that is simply the variability of pro football. Look at the Bears/Seahawks games and Colts/Patriots games for example. Did the Bears and the Colts really prove they were the better team? They deserve to go and possibly be called champions, definitely. At the same time, both of those games were so close that 1 play changed the outcome of the game entirely-when that's the case with teams, it's hard to say that somebody was really off by picking the other side. Isn't it amazing to think that if just 1 or 2 very small things go differently, this could be say a Chargers-Saints SB? I can tell you one thing, I'm glad that for this year, those things did not go differently :D. Saints Bears was close? He actually clarified this a page or so later in response to my post.

Angelo is really happy to have a Super Bowl team. They did get pretty ticked at all the "Lovie to Dallas" rumors. They basically said if there is any attempt by Dallas to talk to Lovie or anything, they would take action through the league. They have no intention of letting anyone speak with Lovie.

Once Mike and Mike is over, flip over to the Score for Mulligan and Hanley. They're tolerable.

It's certainly possible that he could be very good, but you're going to have to accept that he won't break many long runs, and he'll have his limitations. I saw Jones make at least three runs where there's just no way Benson could've broken them like Jones did. He'll have more positive yardage plays, but not as many where he bounces outside or uses a burst to bust a big run. Jones doesn't break long runs. He's far more agile than Benson. I'm thinking of one run that he made in the last game, where he was about to be bottled up and then cut and broke it outside for about an 8 yard gain (think he got down to around the 2). Watching that play, I thought that there's just no way Benson could have made that run. He'd have plowed into the pile and picked up 2 or 3. That specific play you are right. But those have been few and far between for TJ. For all his advantages in agility, he hasn't broke anymore long runs. He's a steady decent RB. Ideally he'd be the change of pace guy to Benson, but he's better than just a change of pace guy. And as a free agent after next year, I see him looking for much greener pastures one way or the other. Benson has had runs where he's bounced out...I can't go locate video of it while I'm here at work, but I'll try to do that later. Both guys had their longest runs this season of 30 yards, so it's not like TJ is more likely to bust out a big run than Ced.

Probably not a first rounder, but he might get you a 2nd rounder. I wonder if any team would be interested in Jones and Wale together. How old is Jones? I wouldn't trade much for a backup RB as they are probably the easiest thing to find. Well, he's a starter. How did the carries by each Bear RB breakdown? Thomas Jones had 296 carries for 1210 yards in the regular season. Cedric Benson had 157 carries for 647 yards in the regular season. There's a steep drop off after that. In the postseason, TJ has 40 carries, while Ced has 36, so it's much more even, but TJ has a 4.7ypc while Ced only has 2.9. Thanks. I think the Bears could replace his production easy enough. He does seem to have stepped it up a bit in the playoffs but I have also seen some huge holes that the line has given him. It would actually be Benson's production that the Bears would have to replace. If Jones is dealt, I could see Benson coming near or matching Jones' numbers from last year. The key would be finding a solid backup to match Benson's 647 yards. Or Benson would have to be damn near 2000 yds. Which seems likely... 8-[

A large part of that is simply the variability of pro football. Look at the Bears/Seahawks games and Colts/Patriots games for example. Did the Bears and the Colts really prove they were the better team? They deserve to go and possibly be called champions, definitely. At the same time, both of those games were so close that 1 play changed the outcome of the game entirely-when that's the case with teams, it's hard to say that somebody was really off by picking the other side. Isn't it amazing to think that if just 1 or 2 very small things go differently, this could be say a Chargers-Saints SB? I can tell you one thing, I'm glad that for this year, those things did not go differently :D. What "very small thing" makes up a 25 point difference in the Saints game? The Seahawks have much more of a case for what you're talking about than New Orleans. I'm saying that the Seahwaks beat the Bears, and then I believe the Saints beat the Seahawks due to the matchups. That's why I didn't put the Seahawks in my Super Bowl matchup. Fair enough, although I think the very thing you're discussing means you can't make that assumption about the Saints beating the Seahawks. The Seahawks came very close to beating the Bears, who stomped the Saints. I do get your point though. That's really just the nature of sports though. That's how an 83 win team wins the World Series. Did the Cardinals prove that they were a better team, or did were they simply hot at the right time? If Detroit doesn't make some of those pitching errors, what happens then?

A large part of that is simply the variability of pro football. Look at the Bears/Seahawks games and Colts/Patriots games for example. Did the Bears and the Colts really prove they were the better team? They deserve to go and possibly be called champions, definitely. At the same time, both of those games were so close that 1 play changed the outcome of the game entirely-when that's the case with teams, it's hard to say that somebody was really off by picking the other side. Isn't it amazing to think that if just 1 or 2 very small things go differently, this could be say a Chargers-Saints SB? I can tell you one thing, I'm glad that for this year, those things did not go differently :D. What "very small thing" makes up a 25 point difference in the Saints game? The Seahawks have much more of a case for what you're talking about than New Orleans.