UMFan83

A loud "Beat Ohio" chant broke out at the end of the Michigan-UCLA game from Maui, lol.

Does taking a risk by offering Pena arby say anything about Theo's desire to pursue Fielder and/or Pujols? I mean I guess he could think if Pena doesn't accept we will go after them, but if not we can live with Pena. But unless I'm missing something (and I could be) or Theo knows Pena won't accept (unlikely unless they flat out told him they don't want him back, which I don't think is allowed), I'm not sure Theo and co. are dead set on going after the 2 big 1st basemen.

Thank god, you saved David from having a seizure.

I'm not particularly worried about his arm and ability to make throws or even throw on the run. Just worried about his decision making, as both of his INTs in that game were head scratchers.

Follow the logic: 1) Bears have shown to be a dangerous team that could threaten the Packers Super Bowl run. 2) Bears QB is injured and their replacement is a guy who has never started an NFL game or thrown an NFL TD (in regular season). While you and I might have high hopes for Hanie and think he can succeed to an outsider it looks like a situation where they might struggle to stay in playoff hunt. 3) Packers know Bears in market for veteran QB. 4) Orton while average at best, might as well be Joe Montana compared to the other choices out there. I doubt the Packers care if the Bears sign Josh Mccown, but Orton increases the bears chance of making playoffs over some marginal team like the Giants. Even if he doesn't start initially, the bears are much better off with Orton behind Hanie in case of injury or in ineffectiveness than Mccown. The Packers clearly think they are better than the Bears, and they are. But based on their last 4 meetings, the Bears play GB tough and they know it. The chances of signing Orton effecting their SB run are marginal, but if you are GB and you see the bears pass up on making a claim because they want to sign him for cheaper, whats $2.5 million when you are weakening a threat.

Holy hell, did you really believe this? Holy hell no team has ever picked up an available player to prevent them from going to another team.

2.5 Mil and Bowe, Baldwin, and Breaston. Not a bad group of receivers. Orton might be better than Cassel too. Kinda sucks that we play them next week as it just got more difficult.

lol Orton's gonna be pissed. But I bet he'll get over it and report. We're talking $2.5 million here

Well the deadline to make a claim was 3PM today, so it makes sense that its now coming out that someone put a claim in. But as I just mentioned, the Trib article says that the Bears wouldn't make a claim, and their reasoning makes perfect sense. Angelo doesn't seem like a guy that would accept a $2.5 million contract when he could likely get him for less. I have a feeling the team making the claim isn't the Bears, but likely another team wiling to gamble that Orton would change his mind about refusing to show up.

I'm reading a Trib article that suggests that the Bears won't place a claim on Orton, because with the Bears being 30th, and the 49ers and Packers not needing a starting QB, they would rather him become an unrestricted FA and negotiate a contract that is better than what is owed left on his deal. But...don't you think its just a little bit possible that someone like the Packers would put a claim on him. They obviously don't give a [expletive] if Orton shows up, as they have no use for him. But if the Packers have any worries at all about the Bears making the playoffs and being a tough out for them, they might be willing to throw away $2.5 million dollars to ensure they don't get Orton. I'm assuming they would not think highly of Hanie, despite his performance in the NFC title game, and would think that Hanie starting makes them weaker than Orton. The 49ers could do something similar, but could also use Orton as insurance in case Smith goes down or starts sucking. Orton wouldn't report at first of course, but if the aforementioned did happen, I would think they'd convince Orton to start pouting and start some playoff games for them.

That's so bizarre. Does he think he's going to be put in immediately as the starter here until Cutler comes back? Because I guarantee you that he's not. Hanie will be the starter unless he proves he cannot be. But even if he sucks, I am almost positive he will start at least 2 games before starting another QB is even considered. Maybe he just misses the Chicago bars. I mean I'm happy that he apparently enjoyed his time in Chicago enough to be the backup QB for a playoff team. If we didn't have Hanie, I'd be for him starting, but I think this is the perfect time to see what we have in Hanie, due to the fact that we have a little bit of cushion in our playoff push, we have an easier schedule, and the highest seed we can reasonably attain is the 5 seed.

Misspelled Tebows. ftfy

This ones my favorite. Every single team in the NFL finishes between 9-7 and 7-9, except for the 2 teams that can't already get in that range. Although seeing the Colts getting in as the 6 seed at 6-10 was great too.

This actually minds me a lot of their NCAA tourney game last year. Duke had a lead that occasionally jumped to double digits in the first half, and after a brief UM comeback, Duke extends the lead to 15 midway through the 2nd half and looks in control, and then Michigan almost improbably comes back and makes it close in the final minutes.

So I miss the great and against Memphis and then get to watch this brickfest? Halftime shooting percentages couldn't be further apart. Duke: .650, .667 from 3 Michigan: .333, .182 from 3 I guess i should feel fortunate they are only down 12.

I don't even think we'll have the chance to get him. There are probably a few teams out there that like Orton better than their current starting QB. Doesn't the system work in a way that they go in order by record and each team has a chance to claim him, and if no one does all 32 teams can get him? If that's the case, even if we were dead set on acquiring him, you are hoping teams like the Chiefs, Vikings, Redskins, Seahawks and Titans don't make a claim. And I don't know who has a higher priority between the Texans and Bears since they both have the same record, but the Texans would probably consider putting a claim on him. Even if the Bears brought Orton in, I'm sure he would still be the backup behind Hanie. 1st because as mentioned he doesnt know Martz's offense, and also because I think the Bears really do like Hanie and want to see how he performs. Any QB we bring in, including Orton, would be for emergency only. I say the chances of landing Orton are somewhere around 10-15%

Just thought it was apt to compare the 2005 defense and this one to see how plausible it is for the Bears to be successful if Hanie's QBR is under 60. 2005: 281.8 ypg (2nd of 32) 179.5 pypg (5th) 102.3 rypg (10th) 202 pts allowed (1st - 2nd place team had 247 PA) 12.6 pts/game (1st - 2nd place had 15.4 p/g) 259 1st downs allowed (4th - only 5 behind leader) 31.9% 3rd down percentage (2nd) 30.0% 4th down percentage (3rd) 10 passing TD allowed (1st - 2nd place team had 15 allowed) 24 INT (2nd) 41 sacks (9th) 61.2 opposing QBR (1st - 2nd place was 68.0) 9 rushing TD allowed (4th) 10 fumbles caused (6th) 34 TOs caused (4th) 2011: 371.9 ypg (25th of 32) 270.7 pypg (30th) 101.2 rypg (10th) 207 pts allowed (13th - 5 more than all of 2005, 331 projected over 16 games) 20.7 pts/game (13th) 188 1st downs allowed (13th - 301 projected) 37.2% 3rd down percentage (13th) 36.4% 4th down percentage (10th) 14 passing TD allowed (14th - 22 projected) 15 INT (3rd - 24 projected) 18 sacks (26th - 29 projected) 78.5 opposing QBR (9th) 6 rushing TD allowed (6th - 10 projected) 6 fumbles caused (8th - 10 projected) 23 TOs caused (2nd - 37 projected) In a lot of categories, the 2005 defense destroys this years. In terms of yardage given up, points allowed, 3rd down percentage, theres no contest, this defense is quite a bit worse. But a couple of things to point out to support this team: 1) This defense started off really poorly and has progressively gotten better after the safeties were switched. First 5 games this year we averaged 419.6 yards allowed per game, which I believe was dead last in the NFL or close, and allowed 24.4 points per game. In the 5 games since then, we've allowed 324.2 yards allowed per game and 17.0 points per game. My guess is the defense will be closer to that one than the one at the start of the season. 2) We are looking to predict how the defense will perform only under the last 6 games, a schedule that is significantly easier than the teams we've faced so far this year. The Bears were the worse ranked offensive team in 9 of their first 10 games (Offensive rating by week (Bears are 17th): 12th, 1st, 4th, 5th, 11th, 19th, 16th, 3rd, 11th, 8th - average 9th ). The Bears are the higher ranked offensive team in 4 of the last 6 games (rating by week: 10th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 4th, 19th - average 19th). In summary, Calib Hanie has to end up performing better than a sub-60 QBR for the Bears to succeed. Unlike 2005, we can't expect to score 14 points and feel good about winning. I think most people hope/expect that he will perform better than that. But he doesn't have to perform a LOT better than that, as the defense is solid and improving and is facing a much easier schedule in these last 6 games.

Which would imply that he broke his thumb out of anger. Sounds to me like a media plot to further highlight what a horrible person he supposedly is. There are several signs that point to this being a less serious injury than we're led to believe. Assuming he gets surgery before the week is out, I'm going to go a step further than Lovie and say he returns on the 18th against Seattle. It was actually a caller who first mentioned it, W+S didn't really believe him at all but asked if anyone else saw it, and several callers and texters chimed in to say they saw it as well. I doubt its true, and I wasn't going to post it, but figured its interesting discussion. Cutler hasn't even had surgery yet. Do you really think he could recover in 24 days?

Kind of bizarre: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cops-man-who-broke-into-sox-gms-home-was-wearing-his-clothes-20111122,0,3656917.story Apparently they got the ring back when they caught him, along with a stolen pair of keys. Hope he enjoyed himself.

They were discussing on Waddle and Silvy yesterday that supposedly Cutler is seen slamming his hand on the metal bench during the tirade he had after Knox's interception. I didnt see it so I don't know if that's true, but if it is, I don't think he slams his hand on a bench if his thumb is already broken.

Unreal. I was wondering how the baseball gods were going to manage to screw us after we got Theo. It seemed like they were out of luck. I guess not.

Wow....wasn't paying attention. I thought it was Kemps to lose? Edit: Hell yeah! One voter thought Starlin was the 10th most valuable player in the NL this year!

ESPN bumps the Bears from 5th to 7th in their power rankings, no doubt because of Cutler's injury. Would have really liked to see where they put the Bears after last weeks game and a healthy Cutler.

and he didn't yell at dan sanzenbacher for dropping 3 passes on 3rd down! born leader! no no no no: he yelled at sazenbacher the RIGHT way, off camera followed by going over the in-game film to show him where he did wrong. such a great guy. He also visited a sick kid in the hospital and promised him that he would throw 3 touchdown passes this week.