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UMFan83

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Everything posted by UMFan83

  1. UMFan83
    No one cares but my fantasy team is pleased at this decision and welcomes the two headed Brees/Vick combo. Didn't the Eagles cut ties with a 30 year old McNabb so that they can get younger before it's a year too late with McNabb. Well now you have a 31 year old as your starter. I'm guessing the Eagles plan is to stick with Vick and hope he keeps playing this well all season and then trade him in the offseason and give Kolb another shot.
  2. UMFan83
    It's amazing how well a team can play when the lights dim and the pressure of winning goes away. Helps that we've played some mediocre teams lately too. Not saying it's not a good thing what they are doing, I'm just saying if you plan on fielding this exact team next year, prepare to have another year like this one.
  3. UMFan83
    What do you think has happened to the special teams? Still coached by the same guy. Obviously the personnel has changed quite a bit, and Hester has gotten less effective as has Maynard, but you gotta think the coach should have something to do with the effectiveness of ST play. I do believe it's hard to get consistently good special teams play from year to year because its rare to have someone like Ayenbadejo who is satisfied with being a special teams specialist. Most of them are younger backups that either the Bears want to keep on the active roster in case of injury, so they have to fill up Special Teams, or they are borderline marginal roster players who are on the roster over other guys because they can provide value to special teams. The later seems like the only place where they have input to improve his return blocking, etc. Edit: it's also very possible sample size is at play since we haven't had any sort of sizable returns, and we gave up a TD on a punt return.
  4. UMFan83
    Don't forget Sexy Rexy! That's 55 yards from throw to catch I believe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTm1nyfpEsE
  5. UMFan83
    I would honestly say Rex has a very very slight edge in arm strength based on what I remember seeing from both of them. Cutler is much more accurate downfield though. That ball to Knox was a bomb though...it was around 65 yards! Anyways, another advantage Cutler has over Rex is the fact that he's 2 inches taller than Rex. I always felt that a lot of Rex's issues came from him not being able to see the entire field well enough when he was under pressure, so he would often make incorrect reads or go off memory of the play and hope there wasn't a safety hiding behind the arm of that lineman that's in his face. Cutler's vision is much better in those situations because a) he's 2 inches taller and b) as you mentioned his pocket presence is superior to Grossman's, and he can move around inside and outside the pocket better than Sexy Rexy. It's sad because Rex has a lot of tools that a lot of QBs wish they had including arm strength and confidence. But he's also missing important tools that kept him from being more than a good backup, marginal starter.
  6. UMFan83
    According to these odds, the Blackhawks are favorites to repeat: http://www.sportsuntapped.com/2011-stanley-cup-finals-blackhawks-capitals-preseason-nhl-futures-114238/ 1. Chicago Blackhawks +600 2. Washington Capitals +650 3. Pittsburgh Penguins +700 4. Vancouver Canucks +900 5. Detroit Red Wings +1100 T6. Boston Bruins +1400 T6. Philadelphia Flyers +1400 T6. San Jose Sharks +1400 9. New Jersey Devils +1500 10. Los Angeles Kings +1600 11. Montreal Canadiens +2500 12. Buffalo Sabres +2600 13. St. Louis Blues +3000 T14. Anaheim Ducks +3500 T14. Calgary Flames +3500 T14. Ottawa Senators +3500 T14. Tampa Bay Lightning +3500 T18. Colorado Avalanche +4000 T18. New York Rangers +4000 T18. Phoenix Coyotes +4000 T18. Carolina Hurricanes +5000 T22. Dallas Stars +5000 T22. Nashville Predators +5000 24. Toronto Maple Leafs +6000 25. Edmonton Oilers +7500 T26. Atlanta Thrashers +8000 T26. Florida Panthers +8000 T26. Minnesota Wild +8000 T26. New York Islanders +8000 30. Columbus Blue Jackets +10000
  7. UMFan83
    Thank God this didn't happen. I don't want a mosque on the Wrigley Field site.
  8. UMFan83
    We shoulda beaten Michigan last year. IU keeps talking about how they need to run the ball. I say, run be damned. Throw the ball every play if you need to. Got four freaking 6'3+ WRs. We intercepted that ball fair and square. :)
  9. UMFan83
    Guess I'm wrong. Enjoyable game. I bet the Saints score before the end of regulation
  10. UMFan83
    Damn it looks like he might have gotten it, but I can't see them overturning it as it's not at all conclusive.
  11. UMFan83
    Oh man I forgot Packers fans always come and flood this thread when we play them. Should be a fun week and don't mind me if I bitch at your presence in this thread during the game on Monday.
  12. UMFan83
    This season has been wacky so far... -Vikings and Cowboys start out 0-2 -Bears, Buccaneers, Chiefs and Dolphins start out 2-0 -Seahawks dominate the 49ers and then get destroyed by the Broncos next week. -Broncos lose to the Jaguars in week 1, then destroy the Seahawks. Meanwhile the Jaguars get dominated by San Diego the next week -49ers get killed by Seattle and look like pretenders, then play the Saints tough, leading halfway into the 3rd quarter. -Jets have an anemic offensive performance against Baltimore, then score 28 points on the Patriots and win by 2 touchdowns. The Patriots blow out the Bengals, scoring 38 points and looking really really good, and then lose to those Jets
  13. UMFan83
    That's really sad. Why does this always happen to Denver? RIP
  14. UMFan83
    You are reliving my 2006-2007. In 2006, Michigan and the Bears started the season a combined 18-0 (7-0 for the Bears, 11-0 for Michigan). Michigan ended up losing their last 2 games but went to the Rose Bowl, the Bears went 6-3 the rest of the way and of course went to the Super Bowl. Then starting next season, the Bears started out the season 2-4 and Michigan started their season out 0-2 with losses to FBS Appalacian State and a 38-0 home loss to Oregon.
  15. UMFan83
    It went on for longer than those 2 games though. The next week he had a mediocre but not bad game against Minnesota, and then after that another couple of great performances against the defending NFC champs (Seattle) and another cakewalk team. And then the Bears went to Arizona, and everyone's perceptions of Rex changed forever.
  16. UMFan83
    I do enjoy these surprise winning underdog stories the NFL seems to come up with every year. Sometimes they even sweep right through to Super Bowl championships. Actually I love it in every sport. Even though I've got no particular love for Tampa, I'll naturally root for them most weeks just to see how beside themselves everyone will become if they really do start to look like a contender (myself included). The Bears could be that kind of team this year too, although not to the same degree I think. We'll see about Tampa. They looked good yesterday, but neither the Browns or the Panthers look to be very good, and they barely beat the Browns. I guess we'll know after their next 3 games (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, New Orleans).
  17. UMFan83
    We lost a close one against the Packers last year, but I don't know how you guys felt but I remember having the feeling that the game wasn't really as close as the score indicated. Maybe it was just because we were in the middle of an awful stretch so I didn't think we'd win no matter what. The year before, we took on a 6-9 Packers team rifled with injures, played a horrible 1st half, trailed almost the entire game before tying it late, and then having to block a ~35 yard kick that would have won the game for the Packers before winning in OT. In 07 we demolished the crap out of the Packers winning 35-7, aided by a defensive score, a special teams score, and at least 1 of Favre's 2 INTs directly lead to a Bears score. In 06 we lost the last game of the season when Rex Grossman publically admitted he was thinking about his New Years party more than the game. In 05 we won a mostly defensive game. I seem to remember the Bears up by a couple of points, Favre driving and then throwing a pick to Manning Jr. or maybe Azumah that he took back into FG range for the Bears. So mixed bag of results, but nothing that would indicate there is a stigma of the Packers playing great at Soldier Field.
  18. UMFan83
    I read MMQB this morning wondering what King would say about the game. He bumped the Bears up high in his rankings, but his only talk of the game was Dallas struggling and the Bears offensive line being worse than he thought. He talked about 3 QBs who won their games, and not one of them was Cutler. Don Banks who had the Bears in the bottom 5 or so to start the season said he's not sure how the Bears have won and assumes they probably won't keep winning. I sent Peter an email this morning on his lack of coverage of that game. He'll have plenty of comments about the Bears when we lose a game and he drops us 10 slots. King must've had someone from Chicago kill his dog once, or something. Wait the same Peter King who before last season predicted we'd reach the Super Bowl?
  19. UMFan83
    Also, one expected but annoying thing about the coverage of this game is that all the analysis about this game online has not been about how suprising it is that the Bears are 2-0, its all about how the Cowboys are 0-2. Again like I said I'm not at all surprised, so I'm not upset about it, I just wish there was more viewpoints to read about regarding the Bears outside of our local sites. Anyone come across any Bear-friendly articles in the national media and the big 4 (ESPN, SI.com, CBSSports, FoxSports) this morning?
  20. UMFan83
    Of course it is. The 68-81 Cubs just finished the best 9+ game road trip in team history. Where was this back in June?
  21. UMFan83
    It's been going on for awhile now. Nobody was talking about it last year because they were winning, but he had a really mediocre year (which I'm sure you knew already). I feel bad for Bengals fans for what happened in that playoff game 5 years ago. I don't think he's been the same since.
  22. UMFan83
    I dunno, where's Vance when you need him?
  23. UMFan83
    Man...I read this last night, and can't get it out of my head. I know that Haynesworth is a headcase, but I really like this idea. Worst case scenario, he gets disgruntled here and has a bunch of his phantom injuries and doesnt play much for us. In that scenario we have to be comfortable starting Idonije (which I am) in his absence. The thing about Haynesworth is that we have to find something to motivate him besides money. He seems like he doesn't care if he's playing because either way he gets his guaranteed money. If we cannot maximize his talent there's seemingly a sharp dropoff in impact between "Determined Albert" and "Less than determined Albert" All that said, I'm still all for it.
  24. UMFan83
    Also, I must have missed something...what happened to Aromashodu? Apparently he got relegated to special teams only today, and Bennett took his spot in 3 WR sets. Rotoworld speculates that its because of his drops in week 1.
  25. UMFan83
    in the martz offense, the screen is part of the run game. and the offensive line is holding it together ok. martz just puts more of a focus on pass-blocking, which was good enough to get the job done today. I agree, both weeks the O-line has been solid blocking for screens. Which is bizarre because they are awful in almost every other situation
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