UMFan83

Dammit...the one thing Crawford is good at is the shootout. Emery apparently, is not. Hawks lose, but at least they get a point. Blah. They should have won this. They had several chances in the 3rd that were inches from going in. Poor luck. At least they came back.

You guys are silly. The guy had a really nice year at AAA and the Cubs currently have an opening at 1B. How could you not tell him he has opportunity at this point? If the Cubs sign Pujols or Fielder, the plans change. If they don't they will probably go cheap there, and it would be silly to not give him a shot, along with some other candidates, maybe some undervalued guys they dig up and sign for cheap. We all wanted Theo because we trusted him to do his thing, and so maybe we should do that.

Something about being on VS and making 3+ goal comebacks

Make that 93 points projected

Jonathan Toews is pretty good at the sport of hockey. Hart in his future? With the 2 goals, he's now on pace for a 50 goal season, with 92 overall points.

Only if all 3 teams finish tied. If the 3 team team tie was between the Giants, Falcons and Bears, the Bears and Falcons would get in due to the Giants having the worst conference record. Actually the Bears fare pretty favorably against most teams in the league. But for some reason, not Detroit. A few years ago record vs. common opponents was BEHIND conference record in the tiebreaking priority. If that were the case this year, the Bears would have the edge in the tiebreaker too. Record vs. common teams is the dumbest thing ever when looking at 2 division teams.

Yeah. Sorry I should have clarified that. The Lions have lost and the Bears still do not control their own destiny. In fact, if all 3 teams win next week (Lions against Minnesota, Falcons against Carolina), the Bears will relinquish their playoff spot they now hold to Detroit due to the Division record tiebreaker. How would ATL have the tiebreaker over us again? Although the Bears hold the tiebreaker over the Falcons, they lose out in a 3 team tiebreaker with Atlanta and Detroit. Because all 3 teams are tied at 7-5 right now, if all 3 won out the Bears would lose the tiebreaker. The first step in a 3 team tiebreaker is to eliminate one team if 2 teams are in the same division. In that case, the Lions would win the tiebreaker over the Bears due to record against common teams. Then if there was only 1 playoff spot available, the Falcons would win by virtue of beating the Lions. But since there are 2 playoff spots at play, they would both make it, leaving the Bears on the outside. I know it kind of sucks to go 2-1 against the teams were tied with and be on the outside looking in, especially when the Lions went 1-2 and the Falcons 1-1, but that's the way they draw it up. So it goes right to the 3-team tiebreaker? They don't look at conference record at all? Just curious, this stuff always confuses me. No worries. It is confusing and sometimes illogical. http://www.nfl.com/standings/tiebreakingprocedures So basically the first thing a 3 team tiebreaker aims to do is eliminate teams from the same division. In this case, they are sort of determining who came in 2nd place in the NFC North. So they apply the division tiebreakers first which the Lions have likely won over the Bears unless: Chicago unexpectedly beats Green Bay, Detroit unexpectedly loses to Minnesota, or the Bears finish with the same record as Detroit but lose their game to Seattle (explained at the beginning of last weeks thread). Its slightly more complicated than that but those are the 3 most likely ways that Chicago could actually win the tiebreaker over Detroit. So the Bears get eliminated and Detroit advances to a 2 team tiebreaker with Atlanta. But that doesn't matter because there are 2 playoff spots at play. I think its idiotic that one team can tie with 2 other teams for 2 playoff spots, go 2-1 against the other two teams and not get in, but I don't make the rules.

Seriously, wtf is this [expletive] garbage? "Retired quarterback says he probably won't play for QB challenged team but says its impolite to not listen. QB challeneged team is doubtful to even be interested" Hope they ask Vinny Testeverde whether he'll listen next.

If Tebow went up to you and said 'I can heal Jay Cutler's finger so that it is immediately 100% and just as strong as it was before the injury. I will do this in exchange for a guaranteed win this Sunday", would you do it?

Maybe I'm being extreme here but this doesn't really make me all that happy. This was the one year that I didn't want to see him make it, and of course he does. I wanted so badly for him to make it each time over the last decade and felt sadness everytime he fell short. Everyone knew he wanted this so badly. That's not a reason to vote someone in of course but most of us would agree that his credentials were there. Voting him in the year after he does seems like a cruel joke by the veterans committee, and while I'm extremely happy for Ron and his family who is around to see it, I wish they would have waited another year to see him get in.

Really, they need to win every non-GB game left on the schedule. And hope Detroit can stumble against a team like Oakland, who looked awful yesterday). Its gonna be tough. According to Coolstandings, the Bears now have the lowest odds between the 3 teams (Atlanta Detroit Chicago) so things have definitely changed in 2 weeks.

Nope. The NFL has new years day this year, as usually happens when the day falls on a Sunday. It wouldn't make sense for the NCAA to compete with the NFL and I believe they have a general understanding for situations like this. That's why the NFL only plays Saturday games in December after the college season and why there are rarely any college games on Sundays.

If can get past the stupidity of 2 SEC teams playing for the title, I don't see how Oklahoma State - Stanford isn't exciting. Oregon - Wisky should be decent too. The Orange Bowl sucks every year because it's the crappy Big East champion playing the slightly less crapy ACC champion. From an outsiders perspective I could totally see Michigan vs. Virginia Tech being completely unappealing. Overall I feel like its below average but not horrible.

Yeah. It's gotten better this year and given the lack of talent at WR and on the line, the results are respectable. That said, there are numerous things that bug fans about Martz. For one he randomly going through stretches where he decides we need to pass 45 times with 10 rushes in a close game. Makes no damn sense. He often outsmarts himself with extremely irrational play calls at inopportune times (end around to Earl Bennett with the NFC title on the line). His offense is apparently really difficult to grasp and takes awhile to master, making it difficult to plug a new player in there in a pinch. Finally, his style of offense is somewhat non traditional. Can't even count how many times we've seen Jay or Forte completely blown up because Cutler is not allowed to audible at the time. That's a big reason why Jay has to use timeouts at random spots in most games. It's also an offense that for some reason cannot use a pass catching tight end. Because of this we had to trade away a useful TE and are now lacking at that position when Martz is gone this offseason. All that said, it is really rare to have a coach/coordinator whose fan base does not complain about. They all have their own little quirks that annoy the hell out of fans. I bet I could find a 49ers fan on the Internet that is complaining about the decisions Harbaugh is making. It's just part of the territory I guess.

Not exactly exhibition games, but meaningless nonetheless.

Instead of 9 years $200 million, we'll give him 7 years $200 million

Is that even with the assumed Lions loss tonight? (24-10 Saints currently) Yeah. Sorry I should have clarified that. The Lions have lost and the Bears still do not control their own destiny. In fact, if all 3 teams win next week (Lions against Minnesota, Falcons against Carolina), the Bears will relinquish their playoff spot they now hold to Detroit due to the Division record tiebreaker. How would ATL have the tiebreaker over us again? Although the Bears hold the tiebreaker over the Falcons, they lose out in a 3 team tiebreaker with Atlanta and Detroit. Because all 3 teams are tied at 7-5 right now, if all 3 won out the Bears would lose the tiebreaker. The first step in a 3 team tiebreaker is to eliminate one team if 2 teams are in the same division. In that case, the Lions would win the tiebreaker over the Bears due to record against common teams. Then if there was only 1 playoff spot available, the Falcons would win by virtue of beating the Lions. But since there are 2 playoff spots at play, they would both make it, leaving the Bears on the outside. I know it kind of sucks to go 2-1 against the teams were tied with and be on the outside looking in, especially when the Lions went 1-2 and the Falcons 1-1, but that's the way they draw it up.

Is that even with the assumed Lions loss tonight? (24-10 Saints currently) Yeah. Sorry I should have clarified that. The Lions have lost and the Bears still do not control their own destiny. In fact, if all 3 teams win next week (Lions against Minnesota, Falcons against Carolina), the Bears will relinquish their playoff spot they now hold to Detroit due to the Division record tiebreaker.

I know you don't care about my fantasy team but if someone could give me advice, i appreciate it. Has anyone lost a game because they sat a MNF player to secure a close win, and then have a stat correction that changes the result of the game? I have a 1 point lead right now in a game that is for a playoff spot. If I lose, I'm done. If I win I'm in the playoffs. I have Ryan Matthews going tomorrow. I was going to sit Matthews just in case he fumbles and gets injured on his first carry or something. I'm just scared because I've seen Yahoo post a lot of stat corrections this season and with my luck it would be in favor of one of my opponent's guys and give them the win. Should I go through with sitting Mathews or just risk the improbable negative point fluke? I'm not close in any tiebreakers or anything, so total points don't matter, just winning.

Both sides of the Tebow thing are obnoxious enough I'm happy to root against either side. So you are hoping he has a 75 QB rating and the Broncos win 50% of their games?

Still doesn't mean that they are seriously trying to sign him. I would think the number of years is likely more important to Pujols as long as the AAV is in the same range. So offering him less years would likely cause him to decline the offer, but at the same time having an offer with a higher AAV would probably be used by his agent to get the Cardinals to raise their offer. I dunno maybe I'm just a skeptic. Would love it if true though.

So despite currently being in a playoff spot, the Bears officially do not control their own destiny. If the Lions, Bears and Falcons win out, the Lions and Falcons will advance to the playoffs.

BCS Championship Game: 1 LSU vs. 2 Alabama Rose Bowl: 5 Oregon vs. 10 Wisconsin Orange Bowl: 15 Clemson vs. 23 West Virginia Sugar Bow: 11 Virginia Tech vs. 12 Michigan Fiesta Bowl: 3 Oklahoma State vs. 4 Stanford Gotta love a system where the 6,7,8 and 9 teams aren't among the 10 teams to play big money bowls.

It's better then a LSU massacre of OSU. LSU and Bama are prolly the two best teams in football but doesn't mean I will watch the game. We need more changes in the BCS. You honestly think that? I thought Oklahoma State looked really good in destroying their arch rival yesterday. OU was overrated most of the year but they were still a good team this year. I mostly wanted Oklahoma State to make it because its a team that has never played in the title game before. I'm sick of seeing the same SEC vs. one of 5 teams every season.

Sorry forgot the link: http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/18927/hokies-to-face-michigan-in-sugar-bowl