jersey cubs fan

Baseball people/players are both dumb and cocky. They are slow learners and even slower to accept what they learn.

Why? It is personnel. They ignored it for nearly a decade then drafted second rate guys. It's a 5 man unit that needs 6-7 in a season, and if you do it right only one or two are weak spots. The bears have 5 weak spots on the line. Not one good guy. No talent. They thought they could coach the suck out of them because they think are great coaches. But it's an unshinsble turd.

Chris Kuc ‏@ChrisKuc #Blackhawks' Steve Montador said NHLPA is "considering a proposal but nothing is definite." http://trib.in/Wil7sI Chris Kuc ‏@ChrisKuc #Blackhawks' Montador: "Time is ticking more now than ever but we're not at a point where the season would be cancelled--in my opinion." Chris Kuc ‏@ChrisKuc #Blackhawks' Steve Montador on CBA negotiations: "For now, it's a continued reserved optimism."

Ok, but he hasn't been a bust either. I understand wanting more than league average out of a first round draft pick, and so from that perspective, I understand not liking the pick. But hopefully as he develops he'll be a positive asset for this team. Yeah, hopefully he'll help eventually. The biggest problem was and remains the lack of any offensive linemen, again. That was inexcusable. They had an offensive line devoid of talent and there were plenty of opportunities to pick one in a justifiable spot. They need to take 2 a year for the next 3 years.

McClellan has been a good pick so far (concussion notwithstanding). Rodriguez has been pretty good in a FB role. After that, it's pretty sketchy. Lovie's first coaching staff was garbage, it was all college assistants. But he's gotten better, especially on defense. Having Marinelli is quite good. The offense is where the coaching sucks. Rodriguez has done nothing. They should have and could have drafted an offensive lineman at any point in the first three rounds and gotten a player better than at least 3-4 of their current linemen, if not all of them. I was disappointed with the draft and remain so, but the Hardin pick is really the most indefensible.

The school presidents know the sports leagues and teams cannot and will not police themselves, which is why they want the NCAA to do it. No team is going to want to be punished, but as long as the presidents are in control, they will want somebody to maintain the facade of the purity of amateurism and student athletes, so they give the job to the NCAA.

I'm not really sure what the point of this comment is. Does Biggs want to take the role of the "you have to accept reality" Cubs writer who basks in the glory of a complete rebuild? The fact is that yes actually, talent overhauls can be done quite quickly by competent NFL personel men and coaches. The Bears have enough talent right now to be 7-3, so they are not completely devoid of talent. There are quick fixes to patch the problem, if not completely solve it. Schemes can be designed weak to weak to take advantage of opponents and at least partially offset your own issues. If SF can scheme an offense with a backup QB to completely dominate the Bears defense, despite being a poor pass blocking team themselves, then it can be done. Lovie is to be blamed for the offense in so far as he preached defense, special teams and running the ball above passing for so long. And he is to be blamed for his own poor decisions in drafts when he got more power after the super bowl. And he is to be blamed for the coaching deficit they have on the offensive side. But that doesn't negate the fact that Tice is the GD offensive coordinator, and that Tice gave his thumbs up to the Carimi acquisition, and that Tice tossed aside his best lineman from last season, and that Tice has insisted he could get more out of this line than he has gotten. It should not have taken as long as it has taken for the offensive line to get fixed. And it should not take very long in the future to fix it. If it does take time, heads must role. This is a fixable and addressable issue if the Bears finally decide to actually address it with competent decision makers at the control

Read more: http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2012/11/meast-and-least-for-week-11.html#ixzz2Cn7qtFF7

no, not really

He should be feeling vindicated.

I believe this is Goldman Sachs, etc's stake, not the % owned by the Yankees which they are keeping. Perhaps, it's 49% though and supposedly with an opportunity to acquire a majority within a couple years. Those guys wanting out now though is an even stronger signal.

It really was. So many things that have been troubling at times in the past, or in some cases at all times, showed up last night. Lost in it all was another splendid waste of timeouts by both the offense and defense.

Yankees ownership wanting to take the cash at this point may be signalling a top in the market for team owned networks.

Who knows, they all suck. And these idiots felt it wise to bench and then release their best lineman from last season. I would love to never again hear the phrase "coach them up" as it refers to this line. That failed strategy has gone on too long.

Yep.

That is unacceptable and a fireable offense of Lovie really didn't look at game film of Kaepernick. It was a masterful bit of subterfuge to pretend Smith was playing then calling him out at last minute. The Bears are the Ron Burgundy of coaching staffs. They will read whatever you put in the prompter, and rely on who they are to carry them through the game, rather than make adjustments and actually gameplan.

Because college presidents like to hide behind the cloak of "purity and amateurism" the NCAA provides. I could see the PAC16 being miffed enough about the many, many millions that the NCAA cost them because they were embarrassed that a couple of yahoo sports interns made them look inept. NCAAs 5 year investigation dug up what we alreadfy knew from the yahoo article and that a tennis player made some long distance phone calls. Im sure the PAC wants to get out in front of the Oregon sanctions also. The big 10 I am sure wants to vacate the penalties against penn state and osu that were similiarly heavyhanded. Not that the conferences would blow up the ncaa to lift in-place penalties, but the spectre of the NCAA being able to hand these things out in a Goodellian manner has to bug them more than the cloak of purity makers them comfy. On the contrary I think the presidents want the NCAA making those decisions and there's no way they want to vacate Penn State's penalty.

Wow - all four guys getting owned. Urlacher wasn't really getting owned. It was play action, he stepped up when it looked like run then backed away. Briggs looked horrible but that's also the kind of hit a guy gets more credit for live than after watching film. Briggs recognized pass too late and as he tried to slow and backup all it took was a shove to knock him on his ass. He got caught in between.

Also, while Lovie generally gets the most out of these guys, I feel a lot of the motivation comes from the embarrassment at getting their butts kicked from time to time. The ability to use weather as an excuse for the Houston game probably didn't help them come out inspired for this one. This game can serve as a launching pad for getting some people back to playing at their best. Namely Briggs and Peppers, who both sucked yesterday.

You are right about that. But the fact remains the defense is good enough to keep them in most every game and the team will go as far as Cutler can take them, because nobody else can do anything with this offense. If they do wind up as a wild card there are some fairly unimpressive teams they'd be facing on the road in week 1. And they can still win the division.

http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2012/11/levine-hints-at-big-mult-player-trade-involving-young-players/ That was talked about yesterday on all the blogs and forums (and, presumably Twitter) to the point that Levine put out a Tweet saying that the Cubs weren't trading any of their young players (whatever that means). Chicagonow? More like ChicagofivedaysagobutnotanylongercomeonkeepupoldmanBanedon.

Because college presidents like to hide behind the cloak of "purity and amateurism" the NCAA provides.

The defense was putrid but that sort of showing is to be expected from time to time from a group that plays the bend but don't break style the Bears play. If you rely on turnovers as part of your game, you aren't always going to get them. Punching balls after they've been caught isn't as effective in the long run as preventing them from being caught in the first place. Oh well, they can regroup. The offense remains the biggest concern, and the line, obviously, remains the biggest problem. Campbell held it too long on occasion, but unlike his opponent, his coordinator did him no favors with that high school offense they ran. KISS doesn't work with NFL offenses. Unfortunately Tice has proven time and again he's a simpleton of a coach. This game showed just how valuable Cutler is. He makes do with the same garbage talent around him that Campbell could do nothing with. It's not really Campbell's fault. 99% of NFL quarterbacks would look awful on this offense with this line and this coordinator.

He probably had more than 2 seconds of protection. Then he'd just hold it until the d got there

If? This is literally high school level offensive game planning.