Jon

First down! Nice catch by Mushin despite the PI.

What are they out with? Is anyone else out? Lovie refused to say. I didn't hear any other names, but we'll see. Alex Brown is wearing a specially designed sling-like device for his shoulder. Is Alex playing? Yeah. Odd start on the kickoff.

What are they out with? Is anyone else out? Lovie refused to say. I didn't hear any other names, but we'll see. Alex Brown is wearing a specially designed sling-like device for his shoulder.

And the Lions lose.

I'd much rather have seen them kick the FG with :16 left and hang onto the timeout just in case.

Sweet audible!

Both Bradley and Gage will not play today due to injuries. Berrian will start as the #2 receiver.

You could take him. Cal up 28-17 at the half. Ball State still leads 23-21 early in the 4th.

Tennessee is only up 7 on Air Force. I believe that's the game that Air Force backed out of their deal with Northwestern last year for.

The Fire keep on rolling. They won in Columbus tonight 2-1.

28-14 Cal now.

Indiana trailing 23-7 to Ball State and Minnesota and Cal are tied 7-7.

Syracuse had approximately 15 plays from the one yard line to tie the game and couldn't do crap. Amazing.

The Syracuse receiver drops an easy TD pass that hit him in the numbers on 3rd and goal to open up OT. 13-10 Syracuse.

Wow. Syracuse ties it up with :06 left on a FG that bounced 3 times on its way from the snapper to the holder. OT. And Syracuse's uniforms are horribly ugly. Orange helmet with dark blue numbers, dark blue jersey with orange UCLA-style stripes and solid orange numbers, and orange pants with two dark blue stripes down the side. Those better be throwbacks. Would it have killed them to put in a little white?

I don't know that they were. NH just made Cole a non-factor and took advantage of the young and bad defensive backs. It also didn't help that they had absolutely no pass rush going. I know they practiced against the no-huddle since the offense has run it time to time. But like I said, that was a virtually identical offense to NU's. They just couldn't stop anything. It was probably more due to the personell and not the coaching. Of course, I heard that NU had 10 players on defense on two consecutive plays at one point... Early in this season, the Big Ten is not looking very strong, especially defensively. Michigan State and Illinois' defenses have been pretty bad so far and apparently Purdue doesn't bother to field one.

I can't even begin to describe how disgusted I am right now. Not only were they outplayed, but they were completely outsmarted (Northwestern played a really, really stupid game). I have NO idea what Fitz was thinking when he decided to go for it on 4th and 8 with 8 minutes left and one timeout when they're down 17. It would have been a 40 yard FG with the wind at Howells' back. Instead, they go for it and effectively end their chances at coming back. May I ask why McGee virtually abandoned the spread offense after three straight possessions in which they were basically moving the ball at will? There was almost no spread in the entire second quarter. It was all 1 FB/1 TE or 2 TE. And it didn't work. I really did not get that at all. And Kafka...whenever they tried to stretch the ball down the field, he had guys (not a guy, guys) wide open all day. It was really disappointing that he couldn't hit them. He had some for 6, too. It really wasn't pretty. Someone needs to tell Hamlett to look at the flags next time. When there's a stiff wind at your back, move up a few yards. Oh, and the team desperately needs Heinz back out there. NH kept the ball away from Cole all game (except late on a pass across that field that if Cole saw better, and he was in position, he would have had a pick 6) and the rest of the secondary could not stop a passing attack that is virutally identical to ours. Even if you take away both of NH's easy TDs on turnovers inside NU's own 15, the defense was horrible. They couldn't adjust and only looked better in the second half because of NH's conservative play calling with the lead. They would have been able to keep in on the ground instead of having Kafka air it out, but yeesh.

At least he didn't use the same "I'm not used to sitting at home in October" line that he used the past two years.

An update on Cherry: He plans on playing in either Puerto Rico or Venezuela.

The Tribune spent over $28 million more in player expenses in 2005 compared to where they were in 2002. At the same time, operating income dropped from $11.9 million in 2002 to $7.9 million in 2005 and I'd imagine this year won't be much better. In addition, they have a bleacher expansion to try to turn profitable. Meanwhile, they've averaged over 1,500 unsold seats a game so far this season and the percentage of no-shows is certainly going to be higher this season than in 2002. Those lost concession and merchandise sales do hurt. The increase in ticket prices alone is not going to make up for that. A change in attendance will have a significant effect on the team and company. They've already put their big $30 million construction project on hold indefinitely. While they have a base attendance that will come out during the summer no matter what, they've made plenty of changes to both Wrigley Field and their approach to the team in hopes that things were going to be better. They can cut payroll, which wouldn't be a bad idea with Hendry in charge anyways, but clearly they were optimistic about the growth of the team and their future. They can't just return to the way things were in 2002.

Plus, it would be the only way that Murton would get playing time AND the Cubs could conceivably have an average offense. An impact bat is required in one of the corner spots and they can't afford to start Jones against lefties, so it might be a good fit. I don't see Jones going anywhere, so if they can replace his .219/.239/.377 line with Murton's .302/.383/.457 line against lefties, they can put a major league average bat in RF. But Hendry already knew how terrible Jones was against lefties when he signed him to a 3-year deal, so it won't happen. He also doesn't realize/admit his mistakes.

Won't matter this year. Most of the tickets have been sold already. Trib has their cash and they could care less. Paid attendance was a pathetic 27,105 today. But if actual attendance was significantly lower, they're missing out on plenty of money thanks to lost concession and merchandise sales.

From the Sports Editor of the Onion on tips on who to pick in the Shattered Expectations league:

Saw/signed that earlier. It's only one week, but it's ridiculous as to how much game times were reduced. Northwestern's first half against Miami lasted about 66 minutes, and that includes the regular number of TV timeouts. Stupid TV companies. Heinz and Ngene are out for NU's defense. I was hoping Heinz would be ready to go.

Carr with two more USOC goals and the Fire stun DC United 3-0! Pickens with an impressive shutout. They will host the USOC championship game against LA Galaxy/Houston Dynamo in three weeks. Apparently it will be on Fox Soccer Channel.