UMFan83

LOL, I know this would never happen but it would be hilarious if the Pats resigned him.

Yeah I'd have to say out of the 8 divisions, the Giants and Packers are the two division leaders I see most likely to stay there. I agree with those that say the Giants have looked awesome. They have. And the thing is, their only real competition is Philly at this point. Washington is clearly not a very good team and they are starting to have a lot of turmoil. Dallas is just done as it has completely given up, so unless a coaching change occurs, they won't even be in that "dangerously skilled spoiler" category. Philly is a decent challenger, but seems to up and down. They look really good one week, and the next a lot of issues are exposed. As for the Packers, its pretty much out of default. I actually don't think their win yesterday is as impressive as I've read. Their offense was nothing special (obviously against a top 5 defense and crappy conditions), the Jets offense was just as bad if not worse but against due to conditions. Also the breaks went GBs way, with the INT calls. Anywho not supposed to be tearing down GB. I think at this point the Packers win by default. They are obviously the best team in the division. The Bears are just not a very good team. They have good parts to their team but their flaws are absolutely fatal and for the most part too big to cover up with scheme changes. The Vikings I still believe are talented and they've lost a lot of close games but at this point their hole they dug is too big. Lions might be the 2nd best team in the division but again, the hole they've dug is IMO too big. Reset the season and they might be a 10-6 team, but 6-3 the rest of the way is only going to put them at 8-8 for the season. Just for fun, my picks for playoff spots at this juncture: Giants (11-5) Packers (10-6) Falcons (11-5) Seahawks (8-8) Saints (10-6) Buccaneers (10-6) Pats (12-4) Steelers (12-4) Colts (10-6) (changes if the Texans win tonight) Chiefs (9-7) Jets (11-5) Ravens (10-6) (I'm just guessing on the tiebreakers...the WC teams could easily be 2 of these teams: Jets, Ravens, Titans, Texans, Dolphins)

The bills have played well enough to win the last two weeks. If there's a team that can make enough mistakes in a close game to give the game to the Bills, it's our Chicago Bears.

on the flip side, how did Penn State's anemic offense and terrible O-Line win a shootout with Michigan? I didn't see a single snap of the game That's easy. They ran 35 counter plays that Michigan got faked out on every time. Then they ran 15 rollout passes that saw every Penn State receiver open by 15 yards. Your walk-on QB had over 250 yards passing. I'm recording ESPNU's replay tonight. I'll be interested to see if PSU can build on this Build on what, destroying one of the worst defenses in Division 1? It looks like Purdue is Michigan's only hope for getting bowl eligable. (which I predicted when we were 5-0 ;))

Here I said it. If Noah and Rose keep those stats up the Bulls won't need Anthony. Disagree. He's averaging 29 shots a game after the first 2 games. The next closest person is Durant with 24. I'm not saying Rose hasn't done well but averaging 33 points on 29 shots is not very efficient at all. Think back to post Shaq pre Gasol Kobe when he was just throwing up shots by the boatload because no one else could, scoring 50-60-80 points in a game. And even he still topped out at 27 shots per game. Think pre-Pippen Jordan. Most he averaged in a season is 27.8 shots per game. Of course that year he averaged 37 PPG. It shows a guy who is trying to shoulder too much of the scoring load because there aren't enough options to help him. All that said, obviously there is sample size involved. But bottom line is, Rose will not be efficient unless he gets to the FT line quite a bit more. As it is right now he's playing well but not nearly as well as his counting stats would suggest.

5 wins in your last 47 games and cocky enough to talk about 4-3 teams being inferior to you. Typical Detroit sports fan. I am starting to come around on the Lions though. It's not even the offense that's impressing me, it's the defense not giving up 500 yards and 40 points a game.

Last 2 minutes of the Bears holding a share of 1st place.

Finish him Pats Why the heck do I have to watch Dallas vs. Jacksonville as one of the 3 games this afternoon here in Chicago. There had to have been a better game for CBS to show. Like for instance I'd have much rather watched Cincinnati and Miami than stupid Dallas and Jacksonville. Or even Denver vs. San Francisco, only because its in London though.

How many years will Notre Dame give Kelly?

This is turning into the Rockford Ice Hogs. Remember when we said we'd only really feel the loss of depth if we had to deal with a lot of injuries this year? Well here we go.

BTW, seems like Bolland is dealing with some injury issues as well. He didn't skate on Thursday or before the game and didn't play the 3rd. He only played 9 minutes overall tonight.

Not sure how that guy got the contract that he did. He's a bum. Joe D is a nice guy. It was funny to see how quickly he want from the most brilliant GM in the game that could never do wrong, to the bum who ruined the Pistons. The Gordon/Charlie V. signings set the team back 3-4 years. I know it was a situation of use cap space or lose it but man there were surely better fas out there that summer.

Drink? It's been really disappointing seeing Bolland, Kane, Toews and Keith among others to come out so sluggish this season. I don't know if it's a slow start or a weakened team due to trades and injuries or if its what I feared going into this year, which is a Cup hangover. We're talking about the core of the team almost exclusively in their mid to late 20's, they've already accomplished the best year they could possibly have (many winning gold or silver in the olympics and also being a key contributor on a Cup team), and Kane, Toews, Hossa and Keith are all locked up long term. Also, you watched half your team disappear so you know that even if you put in the same level of work as last year, you are probably gonna fall short of the Cup. So you've achieved your team goal, you have security, what else is there? It's difficult unless you are mentally really tough to achieve the same level of desire and passion for winning when the hunger isn't there. Even if their mentality is in the right place, they might not have that extra gear. Anyways, I'm not saying this is happening, but I'm introducing the idea and seeing what people think.

Mark Messier scores a goal.

Turco was yanked in favor of Crawford to start the 2nd.

The funny thing about this post was it originally said "2 goals given up to the [expletive] oilers in the first period" and before I could post it, a 3rd goal was scored, so I edited it, and before posting the 4th goal was scored. Blah

Kane and Toews both scored in the period, but point taken.

I was about to get into my "Gretzky/Messier/Kurri scores a goal" mode for a minute

4 goals given up to the [expletive] oilers in the first period. 3 in the last 2 minutes. Unacceptable.

Was anyone else reminded of another goal on Toews 1st period goal?

I want a sandwhich

Not that we would have offered them arby, but I hope Dewitt and those 3 pitching prospects are worth more than 2 first round picks.

I feel bad for whoever is born on November 15th. That date has the lowest WAR of any day.

What is January 31st? (Ryan was my boyhood hero so of course I knew things like that, and Banks is...Banks)

We didn't sign LeBron James and Chris Bosh this offseason. The Bulls actually supposedly sold several hundred season tickets in June based on the speculation of the Bulls signing LeBron, including a guy I work with, so I have no doubt we'd be beyond sold out for the home debut of these guys, whether it was on Saturday night or Tuesday morning.