UMFan83

Yeah seriously. Last November, the Hawks blew out the Sharks 7-2 in San Jose. This November, we are the ones getting blown out on the road against Anaheim 7-2.

Do the Bulls even want to do that trade at this point. OK of course they do, but despite the 2 previous games before today, Taj is a very solid piece and gives the Bulls depth when Boozer comes back. Also, as maddening as Luol is, he's said to be an extremely positive influence in the locker room this year and has never worked harder. Still, obviously you do that trade without a moment of hesitation. I guess my point was, while we definitely need another scorer, we're certainly not garbage without that player.

If anyone is interested, I took some pictures of the setup around Wrigley Field tonight while walking my dogs. Photo quality is 'meh' with my iPhone but you get the idea... http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs992.snc4/76503_714280763681_22000467_39447646_1758860_n.jpg http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1224.snc4/155612_714280788631_22000467_39447647_4120553_n.jpg http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs588.ash2/151090_714280449311_22000467_39447628_5162987_n.jpg http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs488.ash2/76172_714281302601_22000467_39447673_6417725_n.jpg A bunch more inside..

So much for owning the Flames. This team can't even do THAT anymore.

They said they couldn't and quite obviously they cannot since the game is tomorrow. You folks were right and I was wrong. The Cubs.com site stated the following: "Since the Bears played, additional seats have been added at Wrigley along the left-field line, which made the north-south configuration unworkable for the Illinois-Northwestern game." I just wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, that's all. I'm prettysure that info is posted in this thread somewhere.

Maybe Mike Maddux would want to work with his brother. Obviously he's currently employed by the Rangers who probably regard him highly after last season.

Why is this in Cubs discussions? Are the Ricketts gonna make a play?

See I dont know....as much as I ripped on Rothschild at times, you could certainly make a case that he did a good job in most cases. The Cubs have consistently had good pitching staffs almost every year he was the coach, and there has been a lot of turnover yearly on the staff. How he pulled an above average pitching staff last year out of Zambrano, Dempster, Lilly/Colemen, Wells, Gorzelanny/Silva I'll never know. I guess we'll know for sure how good he was next year.

Ouch, didn't see that coming. Who are some candidates to replace him?

Also, the offensive line has done ridiculously better the last 3 weeks. I mean its been night and day. While by no means is it a good or even average or even below average offensive line, the improvement has been noticable. 2 thoughts pop into my head: 1) Was Angelo right (even a little bit) when he said the line needed continuity and it would be fine? 2) Will this improvement, considering it continues or at least stays at this level, combined with a playoff appearance cause Angelo to ignore improving the O-line yet again for next year?

We do tend to play Philly really well the last few years. I know every team every year is different, but there are many players that are the same, and the coaches are certainly the same on both sides, which is a key measuring stick in situations like this. You could argue that the Eagles were conisidered the better team between them and the Bears before each game the last 3 years we played them. In 2007, we went to Philly with Griese as our QB, I think this was the week after AP ran for 203290593 yards against us and we beat them on a last second drive. In 2008, Philly came here for SNF on the 4th game of the season, after the Bears beat the Colts and losing to TB and Carolina. I think the Eagles were 2-1 (after a bye) and were the highest scoring per game team in the league to that point (and this Philly team eventually made the NFC Champ game) and we beat them after a goal line stand late in the game to secure victory. In 2009 we were in the midst of a horrible 2-8 stretch with our only victories being over the Rams and Browns, and in the last 3 week had been blown out horribly by the Bengals (45-10 I think) and Cardinals (41-21. The Eagles came in with a good offense and the clearly better team. Everyone expected another 40+ point collapse by the defense but instead the Bears were in it all game and actually led 20-17 until about 5:30 left in the 4th. They also had the ball at midfield with about a minute left in the game down 4 and Cutler threw a pick.

Didn't look that way when Marshall picked up a 15 yard penalty for taunting Cutler.

This is extremely unscientific, but I was trying to break down the Bears and Packers remaining schedules, and while the Bears schedule is supposedly much harder, a closer look shows they might be closer than you'd expect. What I did was just try to match up a Bears game with a similar Packers game remaining on the schedule (exclusing the Bears-Packers game). Bears - Packers - Adv 1. @ DET - @ DET - Even 2. @ MIN - @ MIN - Even 3. NE - @ NE - Bears 4. NYJ - @ ATL - Bears 5. PHI - NYG - Probably Even 6. SF - @ MIA (already won) - Bears

Really? I'm thinking I want NYG to win, because the Bears already lost to them and if they have to compete for a Wild Card spot they are screwed. Exactly my thoughts. As much as a bye week and all that stuff would be awesome, I am just rooting for any and all ways to get in.

What time do you think is the latest time to get there to get a good spot in the crowd? I ain't getting up at 2:45 that's for sure.

It's begining to be a problem (having that bad quarter). Obviously you can't expect a team to win every quarter, but 37-12 last night in the 3rd quarter, 30-14 to Houston 2 nights ago in the 3rd, 27-18 in the 3rd to Denver a few games ago, 30-15 to Boston in the 2nd quarter, 36-22 to the Knicks in the 2nd quarter, 39-23 to Detroit in the 2nd quarter, 24-13 to OKC in the 4th. In 7 their 10 games they've had a lopsided (at least -19 points) quarter. I'm sure that's probably a typo, but only one of those games you mentioned (the Spurs game) fits the category of a "-19" quarter. I'm assuming you mean -9. And honestly, if you're going to bring it down to that kind of number, I'd be surprised if a lot of teams don't meet that statistic. Occasionally yet, but with being too lazy to look, I'd bet most teams don't have a quarter like that 70% of their games. Even so, take out the -9 game, adn the -11 game, and say in half their games they have a quarter where the opponent outscores them by 14 points or more.

Thanks for your backhanded compliment of an article Gene http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?page=wojciechowski/101119&sportCat=nfl

Huh? Are you under the weather or something?

Like I said, if he wants to offer an insane discount, go ahead. That's a $5m average, and he is going to get $5m this year alone. Crap I didnt realize that. I figured it was somewhere around $3 mil. I was thinking 3, 5, 8, 10. in the 4 years or something. So I guess 4, $26m, so maybe 4 $30 mil or 5, 7, 8, 10 each year

I think we need to win 1 of the next 2 games, either vs. Philly or @ Detroit. If we go 1-1, we'll be 8-4, needing to probably split the "impossible" last quarter of the season against Minnesota (in the terror dome) NE, NYJ and at GB. We can beat Philly if the D shows up, but they are a phenominal team with lots of dynamic play makers. So it's gonna be very tough. Hopefully home field advantage tips the scales on our side.

P.S. Who knew I've been using the phrase "weak link" incorrectly all these years. I always thought that it meant something or someone who is the worst part of a group

It was ok....My girlfriend hated that during intermission and while leaving the theater I put on my headphones and blasted music so that I wouldnt overhear people talking about the game. Also I made her put on a CD on the drive home so that I didnt hear some FM deejay say something about the game in between songs. It worked out in the end.

Wake is out, Long will start and play which sucks. Thigpen will start with Ramsey as the backup and Henne is active as the third qb.

Joe Morgan is rolling pver in his grave. HOW CAN YOU GIVE IT TO SOMEONE WITH ONLY 13 WINS ARE YOU NUTS!!!!!

Exactly, its a detriment against Dusty that he wasn't able to get them winning sooner.