UMFan83

A miracle playoff challenge would help my Bears angst a lot. That said, I'm not even considering the possibility until the Cubs are lets say 4 games out of a playoff spot.

Last year when the Packers ran all over the Bears at Lambeau because McCarthy tried to expose the Bears who were trying to shut down the passing game it was brilliant, but this time it was stubborn and horrible?

DLee is now 8th in baseball and 5th in the NL in OPS at .966. It just keeps going up. If you took only his post-April numbers and compared them to everyone's full season numbers, his OPS (coming into today) would be 1.032, putting him 3rd in baseball. However, with his night tonight he might have jumped over Mauer for 2nd behind Albert.

He was closer to the 2005 Urlacher than the 2006-2008 Urlacher. He was the healthiest he had been in years. Listen to the first 15 secs of this clip. In what category were the Bears fifth in defense? 30th in yards, 16th or so in points last year. Anyone who watched last season saw how bad the defense was. http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcnorth/post/_/id/3260/replacing-urlacher Weren't we in 5th in yards against the run? Or maybe turnover differential or total turnovers? That's my best guess. Or if they are using advanced metrics, Football Outsiders statistics generally favor our style of defense statistically.

Didn't realize we were only 7 games out of the Wild Card. It's funny I haven't checked the standings for a week...someone asked me last night how far the Cubs are out, and I told him I thought there were like 12.5 out of the division and 9 out of the Wild Card. Whoops.

Cubs win! 74-68, 84.5 win pace

5 of Marmols first 7 pitches are balls.

If the Cubs can win this one, they will be 2 games ahead of their 2007 pace (72-70) Of course back then, that got them 1 GB first place. This year it gets people calling for Hendry's head (not stating whether or not it's deserved)

Wow Counsell swings at the second pitch Marmol throws after throwing a ball with the first...that's surprising.

did Urlacher get a flag on that hit in your gif, because he needed to. Nope. It looked pretty clean last night but looks worse watching the Gif over and over again. He did lead with his shoulder into his chest. Not to go too much more off-topic but he'll probably get fined for that hit, which is deserved but another twist of the knife for Urlacher.

Buckle your seatbelts, Marmol is comin in!

Darn, looks like something happened again. :)

I feel like everytime I start to think the Cubs can win a 1-0 game, something happens and we don't.

Cardinals winning again.

You people who live close to Wrigley make me sick. I would love to go to a Cub game again. Not to sound like the millionaire who bitches about not being able to buy his third house in Miami, but I only enjoy it when the Cubs are good. When they are mediocre or suck, all I see is no parking spots and horrible traffic before and after the game. I've gotten used to planning my trips out of the house around Cubs games. But I totally know I take it for granted. I'll miss it when I eventually move someday. Let's face it, you're pretty miserable about it when the Cubs are really good too. Yeah, I guess you're right. But it's more bearable for sure.

Do you guys think the NL Cy Young will end up being Lincecum or Suppan? I have a feeling playing in the small Milwaukee metro is going to hurt him.

You people who live close to Wrigley make me sick. I would love to go to a Cub game again. Not to sound like the millionaire who bitches about not being able to buy his third house in Miami, but I only enjoy it when the Cubs are good. When they are mediocre or suck, all I see is no parking spots and horrible traffic before and after the game. I've gotten used to planning my trips out of the house around Cubs games. But I totally know I take it for granted. I'll miss it when I eventually move someday.

Wow first 10k get a Cubs deck of cards tomorrow, is that worth the $4 I can spend on a ticket from scalpers or should I just buy them for $3 at 7-11 down the street?

I dont watch tennis all the time but that was a enjoyable match. I'll have to watch more often.

Random question during a tense moment for tennis fans, but what is the farthest that you've ever seen someone come back from being at championship (or game) point and ending up winning?

I don't agree with most of that, but I do agree with the Urlacher comment. This is not 2005 Brian Urlacher the Bears are losing. It sucks because he is the "QB on defense". However, He has lost a step or two. Watching him last night showed me that and watching him in the Pre Season game against the Giants watching him trying to tackle Jacobs showed me that as well. He's not the best LB on his own team, losing Briggs would be a bigger loss. Don't get me wrong, its a bad loss, but he can be replaced. A lot of Bears fans were expecting big things from Urlacher based on the things that were said in the preseason about his dedication and the lack of pain he was feeling. How much of that was fluff, I don't. It's not unheard of to see performance dip during a career and then rise back to a similar level, though it's definitely not normal. Ray Lewis is probably the benchmark for that. I think a lot of people expected a good year from him, and watching his first half didn't do anything to lower those expectations. That's part of the reason why this sucks so much.

Lopez, 2B Counsell, SS McGehee, 3B Fielder, 1B Cameron, CF Gerut, RF Kendall, C Catalanatto, LF Suppan, P Brewers sure have changed since the last time we've seen them, which feels like 10 years ago. Theriot, SS Fukudome, RF Lee, 1B Ramirez, 3B Soto, C Fox, LF Baker, 2B Fuld, CF Dempster, P

More like they lose and Derrek Lee is injured by a HBP and is out all of next season. Oh and the ball that hits Lee deflects off him and goes into the stands hitting Derrek Rose injuring him for all of next year. That sounds just about right.

Lovie: -Urlacher out for the year. Big shoes to fill. Will come back strong as ever next year -Other injuries: Dez Clark (rib injury) sounds like d2d (will deal with on his own), Pisa and whats his face have knee injuries, don't know how long they'll be out. -Can't turn ball over, couldn't get running game going, part of that was due to Packers -Passing wise, we moved the ball, but getting inside the red zone 3 times and getting 0 TDs signals you are going to lose -Jay has to and will play better. Cannot live with some of the things he did. Compared this performance to 1st preseason game -Defense needs takeaways. Pass rush up front (front 7) was impressive. Shut down a good Packers offense. Despite offensive follies, we were still in position to win. -We'll bounce back and go from there... -(couldn't hear discussing player's rib injury) -Bears are looking for all available LBs, been looking for a big part of the day. Pisa will be back "eventually", considers them only down 1 LB -Asked if outside org. LB will come in for depth or starter, Lovie says he feels comfortable with his guys. He says he'll more likely look for guys that can help with ST, but looking at all options -Asked about Derrick Brooks, Lovie reinterates that we are looking at all available players, and Derrick is an available player -Asked more about Urlacher, has already had surgery, that's about all there is to talk about -Lovie says the scheme won't change at all with Urlacher out (stupid), you can't replace Brian, but other guys will have to step up, he thinks other guys can step up -Lovie says Lance will NOT be moving to MLB, they like Lance at OLB -Urlacher is disapointed because he put himself into a position to have an outstanding year, was playing great before the injury, and wanted to come back in the game despite the injury. -Said most likely he injured himself and continued to play thinking it would go away but it didn't so he got taken out -Said all of the LBs on the team can play inside, but Hunter has the best grasp of the defense, and the team is comfortable with him playing at MLB (looks like he'll be our MLB) -Asked if Lovie talked to Jay about INTs, Lovie basically just danced around the subject -A lot of football left in the season -Alfalava played "ok", made some plays they liked, made some mistakes he can't make again -Very physical game, a lot of players have little nicks and stuff afterwards -Talks about looking forward to matchup at home against defending champion Steelers and expects a lot of improvement between week 1-2 -Someone asked about McBride's knee and if he'll be out all year, Lovie says that won't be the case -Playing 3 straight games against 3-4 defenses definitely will help them, played better in 2nd half than 1st half -Anyone who they think can help them win, they will play (Vasher?) -Nate made a bad play at the end, but made some good plays during the game -Lovie expects progress from game 1-2 from Jay because in his experience Lovie's seen it before. All QBs have games they'd like to have back, but it's about how they come back. He's a QB and will come back as strong as ever. -Lovie says Alfalava didn't bite on pump fake at the end, he says someone else should have been deep on that play. That's about it.

Lovies PC on now on Comcast.