BigSlick

it's a cross between 2001 and 2006, with the exception being we now have a franchise qb to pin our hopes on. i was watching a rex grossman highlight tape (such a thing exists, i know right!) and the biggest thing that stood out for me was the protection he got at the beginning of 2006 was phenomenal. we got john tait at the zenith of his career, we squeezed one last good year out of fred miller, olin was still more than serviceable, garza was a battler, we had a pretty nitty gritty oline that could block well. in fact it was pretty easy to see grossman crumble to pieces as the oline sorta fall apart a bit as the year progressed. that and most of the highlight reel was grossman bombs to berrian. what i would do to just have an oline of that quality again.

knox still has some issues, he had a couple plays he probably doesn't strictly have to make but if he wants to at least imitate a number one receiver, he should. a lot of cutler's problems aren't just oline related, but receiver related, and this is getting ignored by the punditry

pretty satisfying game, really got nervous at the beginning there but the defense came to play for the first time in almost 3 weeks and locked it down. (i'll consider the lions game an 'eh') will be interesting to see how people judge cutler's play on the radio tomorrow. he had pretty much the quintessential 'cutler' game, he threw some amazing laser throws, had awful footwork, and had one absolutely mindbogglingly bad throw, but overall had a very solid game. running game also looked strong...with forte. chester either can't buy a block when he's in, or doesn't really have the burst to bust open a long run when he does get some blocking. some up and down play by the pass blocking and the receivers, such is life. congrats to devin hester. he is at his rightful place, as the king of all kick returners. he'll likely add to this record, and he's had quite a year for himself. well done dude, i'm happy for you. happy for the defense to have a nice bounce back fun game. they got at em, hit em, got some turnovers, and played solid. wished they coulda bottled up gerhart better at the beginning but they locked it down and took care of business. there was an atrocious PI penalty that should have been offensive PI if anything, but what can you do, that gifted them some points, and the broken contain on the play. its gonna be a nice relaxing few weeks, now that we don't have the world on our shoulders. we still have a lot to gain if we can lock up a bye, but at least i wont be biting through my nails in each and every game because its not life or death. i still get the feeling this is a bit of a 2001 type season, that our magic might be spent after this year if we dont do something special with it, so i'm gonna enjoy it while i can. i predicted an 8-8 season and possible 10-6 wild card hopes if everything broke the right way, we've definitely outplayed that. good job guys. bear [expletive] down

its also disgustingly patronizing and quasi-racist so yeah perhaps i'm projecting but i squirm everytime i see something like 'kicking out that great hardworking white player (mark grace) for some lazy latin player (literally name anyone denigrated in the article)'

'Great Plains' and 'Great Lakes' would have been adequate division names, heck the ACC has completely arbitrary division too and they make it work

joe webb rushing for 10,000 yards at uab still wouldn't be enough for me to be worried about him that doesn't mean he can't still burn the bears, but those numbers mean literally nothing at the pro level for a quarterback

now my goals would be 1. don't let anyone get injured 2. win the game (this is viking's goal number 5 or so so i dont feel bad knocking this to 2)

anyone that says that it would lessen the importance of the regular season, that too many 'undeserving' school would get in or whatever id bet all of them 100 dollars that a few years down the line a 12-16 team playoff system would be more profitable, more heavily watched, more gambled on, and damn right more exciting than almost anything. it would automatically be up there with march madness, and might even butt heads with the nfl in popularity. it would be insanely amazing and exciting. and i'm not gonna lie to you guys, it will lower the importance of the regular season. i just don't care about that. 'the regular season as a playoff' has always been a farce anyway, only the right programs who have balanced the right out of conference schedules with the strength of their conference schedule have benefited from it. going undefeated hasn't been a guarantee (see auburn in 2004) and with such a small sample size regular season, you can never truly properly weigh how powerful conferences are. having an elimination playoff is the only 'fair' way to determine a winner. even those holding reservations would be swayed within a few years. its the best way to get rid of all the ambiguity, and we'd get so many more exciting and worthwhile games. 40-10 blowouts in the first round? maybe? its not like the bowl system doesn't have its fair share of blowouts and the match ups are all stupid anyway. edit: i'd like to remind most people here that the only reason we dont already have a playoff is because of Jim Delaney and because of how he corners the market for the Big Ten and how much money they rake in. something like this would have to be uber super profitable for him to get on board.

ugh i really hate how this game is a Monday Nighter. Ideally we would just get it out of the way as a Sunday noon game and, probably, sew up the division, but now we gotta wait with all the artificial hype and chitter chatter because the pundits have nothing better to do and all the while I'll get more and more nervous.

this isn't devastating in the slightest, the worst we can do is the 4 seed Have you guys seen the rest of our division? Do you really think the Pacers will leap frog us now?!!?! I still think we get 50+ wins

pretty sure the bears are owed a ton more magical monday night moments when you get down to accounting everyones misery in terms of how things have played out over the last 20 years bears fans deserve to publicly beat him down one final time on national television. now they wont, because they are the bears and have never played well on a national stage, but its the way it should be.

it seems like we have the worst reverse home court advantage ever. i dont know if the reffs do it to make a point or something but we get the least amount of calls at home than any team i've ever seen.

i dunno who i'd rather play in this game, tarvaris or brett, but tarvaris certainly looked godawful today and the team as a whole looked like they quit, aside from the defense in spots. (which could be a problem) theres so much talent on that vikings team its amazing to think how much they've collapsed. they've got former all stars and blooming stars at so many levels, it just boggles the mind. pretty much our playoffs right here, gotta win this game. win it and the packers have practically no shot to get in. this is our superbowl. just do it.

eh, it was Rose jumping through 2 players when the game was almost already decided. I more wish that he didn't feel the need to do that. but its part of what makes him special that makes him vulnerable to these types of things. [expletive].

if we win against minnesota and green bay loses we can clinch next week. if we win against the vikings AND the jets we have it clinched. basically our magic number is 2 now. i think. if we win next week then lose and green bay wins i think they can still win the division if they beat us in week 17 because we'd have the same record, same divisional record (it would be 4-2 for each) and after that i'm not sure how the tiebreakers really work out (conference record would be muddled and up in the air)

well that was about as bad as it could have gone, but considering we got another gift from the football gods we're still in amazing shape for the playoffs, thanks detroit, it really shouldn't have been that difficult when rodgers went out, but you made it as hard as humanly possible. and we dont have to play in minnesota either, welp, we'll figure out a way to screw this up.

hahah, luckiest season ever if we don't play in the metrodome for the minnesota game well, nothing will top the 2001 season, though that was the luckiest season ever just from the stuff that happened during the game, not all the surrounding hubbub

bears win on a late mini-ditka field goal

I want as much wind as possible. Tip the scales to the running game. Though we may not be the best running team in the league, I have full confidence in our defense to stop their running attack.

You don't doubt at all that Orlando, Miami, or Boston is better than the Bulls? I think the Bulls could beat any of those in a series, but it is certainly just a possibility. I honestly believe the Bulls are a better team than Miami, though they are clearly not up to the task of taking out Orlando or Boston yet. But we still have plenty of time before we play Miami for the first time this season, so who knows! (they certainly have been on a roll of late)

the only problem with the Bulls is they have to learn to gel mid-season, thus hurting their record when they throw some games away, as they inevitably will (they nearly threw the Cavs game away), and hurting their season. There is no doubt to me that this is the 3rd best team in the East, but I don't know if their record will show it. They can really do no worse than the 4th seed because of their division, so its not a big deal though, but the 2nd round match up could be really darn fun if we get the Celtics again. I think next year is really the start of the championship contender years, as we may still be a couple small pieces away, but damn this team is playing well, just not always consistently well. (I feel like Joe Morgan saying that)

I am without any feeling regarding this game. I can't make myself hopeful, but I can't make myself feel like we'll be completely demolished. Especially with the weather situation rolling in, I have absolutely no idea what to expect. Other than that the Pats wont score 38 points. I really don't see that happening, not necessarily because of our defense (they very easily could be torn apart) but I doubt the conditions and the very nature of their game (long drives that eat up clock that would likely not be broken for big plays against us) would allow them to score so many points. There just isn't enough time in the game.

i'm watchin on espn then you missed a gem from Stacy King again- "DON'T GIVE HIM THE HOT SAUCE, KYLE" after he made that three

I didn't notice it until kerry sayers made a note of it- i'm gonna need a picture of the derrick rose 'shrug' after he made that ridiculous 3 because it. will. be. my. new. sig.

brewers wacky rainbow free throws scare the crap out of me