UMFan83

While the boss is away...

Such a weirdo

And they're discussing an IR stint. Luckily a 3 week IR stint would only be 2 games as they have the bye. But if they IR Mack, even for the 3 games, and lose to SF Sunday, they actually should conduct a firesale. Shop Quinn, Ogeltree, Hicks, Nichols, Goldman. Really any D piece, but those are the guys who might have positive value. Few are pending FA anyways. ARob will be tricky to deal because of his salary (unless they took a contract back). And I'm inclined to only deal from the D and not take a weapon away from Fields (even one that he hasn't clicked with). Based on what I've read, its not based on weeks its based on games missed meaning the bye week doesn't count. For instance George Kittle went on IR and was expected to only miss the minimum. He's been out 3 weeks but only 2 games, so he's not eligible to play this week against the Bears. https://www.nfl.com/news/49ers-te-george-kittle-calf-to-be-placed-on-injured-reserve

This keeps getting worse. The chances that Kane and Toews didn't hear any of this are very small.

I mean at least they're having him take some ownership for the mistakes. I guess in an alternate universe something like that is used as an excuse for not having consequences, which is why it comes off poorly. Well his own personal statement sucked. It was horsefeathering awful. Not the time or place to make excuses for assign blame to others. The Wirtz statement was very favorable towards him (while still acknowledging his blame in this situation), he should have let that statement speak for him and taking responsibility in his own statement. Here is the statement for those that didn't see it. He legitimately goes out of his way to blame McDonough:

Considering he just lied about knowing about this a few months ago, I'd guess there's no way he's coaching another game https://www.tsn.ca/kevin-cheveldayoff-joel-quenneville-chicago-blackhawks-report-1.1711952 yeah he's toast

I wonder if Q will resign in Florida. He looks as bad as anyone else in this.

So you lose interest before the season starts because Michigan loses to OSU every year? Sorry, couldn’t resist. No I'm the idiot that constantly talks all year about how badly Michigan is going to lose to Ohio State but secretly can't sleep the night before the game hoping that somehow this year will be different.

What makes me disgusted is Stan, McDonough and Q learned about this while preparing for the SCF in 2010. Q and McDonough wanted to ignore it and focus on preparing for the Flyers. Also I'm pretty sure when this all came out in the summer Q claimed that this was the first time he heard about it. Dammit Q...

You really think so? Someone's head needs to roll, plus it gives the team an excuse to fire Colliton down the road and host a fire sale of anything/anyone not nailed down. If management wanted to fire Stan then this would have provided the perfect opportunity. But I don't think they are anywhere near that point yet unfortunately. So it sounds like the Senior VP of Hockey Operations is the one that will take the fall. edit nevermind Stan is gone

I was going to push back on the hardest part of the schedule being behind us but as usual several teams that looked strong before the season have looked bad now, namely SF, Pittsburgh and Seattle (though Seattle will have Russell Wilson back). Still, I'd say the 4 games out of the bye are the hardest part of the schedule - vs. BAL, @ DET, vs. ARI, @ GB. Obviously Detroit sucks but its a road game and the other 3 teams will probably be jockeying for their conference's bye week in the playoffs. Not sure if we can, but if we were to beat SF and Pittsburgh before the bye, we might still have a shot at the 7 seed, but obviously there are more pressing matters than making the playoffs with this team.

Jenkins in a few weeks? Dude hasn't even had one OTA practice, much less training camp or regular season practices/games. I'm sure he's learned the offensive system and worked closely on the stuff he can work on but can he really just be thrown into the lineup with little practice?

Just make those bowls become playoff games now and they rotate every year and play the 4 playoff games on New Years Day. It would be the greatest sports day in America every year. On this scenario it would go: Peach Bowl 12pm (EST) Sugar Bowl 3pm Fiesta Bowl 6pm Rose Bowl 9pm I also wouldn't mind if some of the lesser bowls combined into an NIT like tournament. Lets say 8 teams to prevent too many extra games being played. 3 teams are the 3 highest remaining conference champions not selected to the playoff the last 5 are at larges. The games are still ultimately meaningless, but it might add some additional enjoyment for teams compete to win the consolation tournament. I'd rather see Michigan in a bracket like that then play in the Rose Bowl, though I'm sure many would disagree. Just playing this out, I project these teams: CUSA champ - UTSA Mountain West champ - San Diego State Sun Belt Conference champ - Coastal Carolina At-Large #1 - Iowa At-Large #2 - Texas A&M At-Large #3 - Oklahoma State At-Large #4 - Baylor At-Large #5 - Pittsburgh (wow didn't realize they were doing well this year) (left out conference champ: MAC champion NIU) 1. Iowa vs. 8. Coastal Caronlina 2. Texas A&M vs. 7. UTSA 3. Oklahoma State vs. 6. San Diego State 4. Baylor vs. 5. Pittsburgh OK that looks like a boring bracket but I bet it would be good in other years. From an interest standpoint I love it but I know its ultimately about money and I'm not sure if this brings in more money and interest than regular bowl games.

Isn't OSU 9th because currently they are not in line to win the Big Ten? I'm assuming they are basing it on a 'if the season ends today' model. I mean we all know they are going to curb stomp them (this is part of my way to pre-cope with the annual loss) but right now Michigan is the highest ranked team that's in a position to play in the Big Ten Championship game. Either way yes this is why the 12 team rocks. And in years where there is a clear cut top 3-4, the 12 team still rocks IMO because it keeps interest in the season alive. I heard someone on the radio say 'Michigan/Michigan State is an example of why the 4 team playoff is awesome because the loser of that game is out of the playoffs, making it essentially a playoff game. OK that's fine but a) even in a 12 team, losing that game is a serious dagger to your playoff hopes because both teams still have to play Ohio State and b) If Michigan loses this game, I will immediately lose interest in the season and will follow the subsequent games from afar and maybe watch the Ohio State game until they are down 3 scores. I can't be the only one that loses interest as soon as the playoffs are out of the equation. I know people care about the NY6 Bowls, but they are meaningless exhibitions IMO (yes even the Rose Bowl). Great so you beat a 10-3 Oregon team with 3 players sitting out to prevent injury before the draft, good job. One final 12 team defense. Lets say that is the final bracket. Ohio State is clearly one of the 4 best teams IMO. They lost in the regular season though and now they have to go on the road to beat Ole Miss. Yes the punishment for losing is not 'you are out of the playoffs', but now they have to win in a hostile environment and play an extra game in order to win a championship. That would be awesome to watch.

It's not even like they did a ton with the young talent GarPax left them either. -Lauri was let go in a S+T trade but they got back a late 1st and a player who hasn't done anything for the team this year, so that move isn't responsible for any team success -WCJ and OPJ were obviously a big pieces of the Vuc trade, but I don't necessarily think the trade was made because Orlando had to have those guys. Porter is already on another team. WCJ did sign an extension but he's not exactly balling out for Orlando. If the Bulls had taken another player with that draft pick I don't think it ruins the chances of completing a Vuc trade -Give a bit of credit to GarPax for having a least a couple of ok contracts that were desirable enough to include in trades if only for salary matching purposes. Thad Young was a piece in the DeRozan trade. Sato was a piece in the Lonzo trade. Kornet, Gafford and Hutchison went out in the Javonte Green/Troy Brown trade. It's not nothing...having those types of contracts helps with flexibility in trades, but I don't see any of them singularly being needed to complete those trades. Denzel, Arcidiacono, Felicio were let go in FA. Valentine has played 4 minutes for the Cavs so far, Arch was waived by the Celtics during the preseason, Felicio is back in Brazil I'm pretty sure. While GarPax didn't draft Patrick Williams, their crappy season put the new FO in a position to take him. AKME took a bunch of crap and a few first round picks and turned it into a team that's 4-0 and on an upward trajectory.

If you include the Olympics and preseason he's on a personal 13 game winning streak. Dude just doesn't know how to lose.

That was quite a 4th quarter…wins a win

Bulls have looked out of sync on offense and have had several defensive lapses. Zach Lavine didn’t hit a field goal until the last possession of the half, Pat Williams is afraid to shoot, Vuc has missed some point blank shots. All this to say that the Bulls are up double digits on the road at halftime

I mean year there are just so many things wrong with the offense right now that its hard to correctly assign the right amount of blame. I think we can definitely stand to improve at WR too though having another deep threat WR type will not help Fields when he has 2 seconds to throw lol. It's just all so broken they need to start over again this offseason. Keep Fields, Mooney, Monty (and/or Herbert), a couple of the offensive linemen including Jenkins replace everyone else including coaches.

Sure you can play for a higher profile exhibition (AKA bowl) game and play for the development of your players etc but unless Clifford is really messed up, I think a win over Ohio State is probably the best thing you can still accomplish this season so I'd play him.

This is a pretty damn good breakdown of all the things working against Fields: https://www.bleachernation.com/bears/2021/10/25/justin-fields-is-in-an-impossible-position-right-now/ I'll list a couple of examples from the article: It goes on to talk but other issues like none of the receivers seem to be getting open. More at the link. This doesn't absolve Fields of his mistakes but it helps explain why everything looks broken and why he's not put in a position to succeed.

Assuming they lose to Ohio State like usual, absolutely nothing Harbaugh has done this season will matter at all if he loses this game to Sparty. If he loses, the fanbase will be calling for his head no matter what the team does afterwards (again assuming an OSU loss).

Probably not any correlation (in fact I would think the head coach who just coached a game yesterday testing positive for COVID would move the line the other way in anticipation of more positives) but I found this funny