Rex Buckingham

As good as Urlacher is, he is not the Bears' best defensive player. He is very important to their defense, but I feel that he is mroe replaceable than Polamalu. Polamalu is all over the field making plays. He will make plays in the box, then turn around and make an acrobatic pick and take it back for 6. He is an incredibly dynamic player who will be greatly missed by the Steelers. My guess is that this helps the Bears' passing game enough for them to win it, as long as Cutler has time to throw.

woulda been nice if Harris wasn't allowed to shove Knox down...

What happened to Juice? 1st offensive play of the game he took an option keeper down the sideline then tripped and I think they said he bruised his thigh... could probably play if he needed to, but it's Illinois State

liking the new format more and more as i continue to use it... I agree with banedon about the submit button being somewhat far down on the page when posting; keep up the great work though

I'm an EIU student and went to watch the game... Jake Christensen (former Iowa QB) had a field day against ISU in part because he had all the time in the world and in part because his receivers were often wide open. ISU also could not run the ball whatsoever against EIU. EIU's D-line spent a lot of time in the backfield. Anything short of a complete beatdown by Illinois should be considered a huge dissappointment. ISU has nothing.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/trainingcamp09/columns/story?columnist=clayton_john&id=4418733 John Clayton casually plays off the fact that Brett Favre is all about Brett Favre and little else

wow, haven't checked this forever...need to make a couple moves... DROP: David Ortiz, Garrett Atkins ADD: Justin Morneau, Curtis Granderson

Boldin... it's Boldin

A- Ryan Howard B- Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun C- Josh Hamilton, Jason Bay, Alfonso Soriano D- JJ Hardy, Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, David Ortiz, Garret Atkins Wild Card: Will PM

Hummel travels at least 50% of the time he comes off a screen... Illinois has to hit something sooner or later, right?

While Warner may not have had a decorated college career at all; Romo did have an outstanding career at Eastern Illinois University. He was a 3 time I-AA All-American, 3 time OVC player of the year, and in his senior year he won the Walter Payton award as I-AA player of the year. Yeah, it was I-AA; but he's certainly not the first, and won't be the last, player from that level to succeed in the NFL

'Bama's also playing without a guy who is arguably (probably?) their best player

That being said, there is no way UNC loses to UK I would say if they feed Patterson the ball relentlessly, they might have a chance

Jones did so against an Eastern Illinois team that is 1. really, really bad and 2. very undersized If my assumptions are correct, he was probably guarded by a guy who is very similar in build to Mike Davis (UI) for a lot of the game... I have a few classes with EIU's center... he's awfully skinny

any idea if Rauch or Lyon will close?

i would assume, without reading any of the article, that Illinois' rating is largely based upon its number of tourney appearances (regardless of the results) and the success of the "Whiz Kids" in the 50s

Mayo will defend just fine if he wants to /stating the obvious

the players got tired of Skiles, and from everything i can tell, Avery is more or less the same kind of coach as Skiles...

Jones can turn out to be a solid player, but he's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is...

While Thomas is certianly not as good as Mendenhall, he's still a pretty solid back

some of the guys who you really wonder about (Roger Powell Jr. from UI a few years ago comes to mind) are guys who just do it to figure out what it is the NBA execs/coaches want them to work on

the bears essentially got Mendenhall in Forte. Forte has more mileage, but didnt cost them alot in picks as would have Mendenhall. Unfortunately, they Bears need much more then RB I don't think Forte is quite as good as Mendenhall. Forte was Tulane's only threat of any kind last year and still piled up the yards... there is something to it

Drop Fields Add Ryan Zimmerman

I'm willing to give him a pass due to having a piss-poor coach and a mediocre supporting cast. I don't think he has the kind of "All Time Great" potential you'd hope for out of a #1 overall pick, but I think his floor is that of a solid, yet unspectacular, PF. That is like the biggest myth ever. Bill Walker was the number 7 player in his class. Sutton was also a 5 star prospect. There was plenty of talent there. The coaching did suck, but come on. C'mon, dude. You and I both know: A. Bill Walker has talent, but he's also an extreme head case. He completely disappeared in as many games as he contributed. B. Dominique Sutton averaged 13.5 minutes/game, only played in 19 games, and wasn't really a factor this season. The talent around Beasley just wasn't that good. What little there is was too young to be consistent/effective. That's not to say Rose won't be a better player. He probably will. But it's silly to belittle what Beasley did on the court. I'm also curious to see how Rose will do against NBA quality PGs. He pushed around a lot of smaller guys throughout his college career. He won't be able to just physically dominate NBA guards like that. The NBA is full of teammates that are headcases. Walker has elite level talent. Maybe I put too much stock into wins, but christ they lost to Nebraska. Nebraska. I mean I know he can and will get a lot better, but I keep thinking Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens when I watch him play. Certainly not the type of guy I would ever pick before a franchise type point guard. Hell even if he becomes a great power forward I still would rather have Rose because I am sure he will be a great point guard. I didn't watch K-State more than a couple times this year, but it seemed to me that a lot of the time they struggled to get Beasley the ball... He scored a lot of his points, in the games I saw, off of offensive rebounds and jump shots... but the few times he got it down inside he was very effective with it

man, do you like anyone or anything in sports? i said i dislike john calipari, not john wooden. I'm with Truffle, Calipari's a snake