Soul

However you cannot argue, we have started this offseason on a high note. Improved manager and coaching staff. A much improved hitting coach, and got some good deals on Miller, Wood, and Ram. Now it's time to bring in the new guys. It's still a team coming off a nightmare season, and we have so far resigned players who were a part of that ballclub. Let's not overreact here and start celebrating or anything. As for improvements to the coaching staff, that remains to be seen. How many "good" managers and coaches from elsewhere have we brought in only to find out they stunk? Rothschild, anyone? How about Mr. World-Series himself, Dusty Baker? Nothing can be said about Piniella and his staff, other than they are now here and it won't be the same as when they were elsewhere.

This is some seriously good news, for a change. Not only do we have Aramis back, but I feel this gives us a shot at having a productive offseason. If Aramis left, I was really afraid it would snowball into *nothing* getting done.

How about all of the posters who were jumping all over Hendry? I think a whole bunch of people need to apologize for the things they were saying about Hendry. Don't hold your breath on that one.... I'm not sure that Hendry cares. In the end, it looks like Hendry pulled it off. Hendry's being paid to win the World Series. Last time I checked, he's been piloting a ship that went from the NLCS to worst in the NL in record time. Hendry should apologize to the millions of Cub fans he has let down. Not the other way around.

I love the pine tar helmets!!! Ugh, you can't be serious. It looks someone used the helmet as a receptacle for their copehagen spittle. Makes me want to throw up every time I see it. The league needs to mandate better uniform standards. Christ, it's terrible to look at.

The Tigers are thinking NOW.......they figure their window is open next year, so they're trying to add a piece to put them over the top. That's a large piece of your future to mortgage, though. The Yanks continue to get what they what, year in and year out. Let's just hope the bad karma continues to hold and they chokarama once more.

Not that I'm convinced it would happen, but what is the likelihood that a platoon of Jones/Jose Guillen or Craig Wilson or a comparable player could outproduce Sheffield? Ignoring the likelihood that we'd ever see that happen, the odds are probably decent. But you can't assume those guys would only hit in the perfect L/R platoon. Plus, I don't see it happening at all. Is it a little early yet to be expecting movement on some of these options? When's the GM meetings and the owner's meetings?

I'm not just saying him. I'm saying with Ramirez too, and eveyrone else. Not just Matsuzaka. Just the overall feeling I'm getting from this offseason. I could be way off, by the way. Last offseason I was ridiculed for stating early worries about the direction they were taking. I was still getting the "it's early" comments in December. Same thing happened before the 2005 season. At this point, I'm not ready to write off the offseason. But going on Hendry's track record, I wouldn't expect it to get much better than it has been in the past. I'm in the same boat. Looking at Hendry's record, I'm starting to wonder if the best we can hope for is a resigning of ARam, maybe a journeyman starter.........and done. The nightmare scenario: ARam leaves, no FA's of note show up in Mesa in March------is still very much on the table, despite the supposed loosening of the purse strings. I still wonder if Hendry thinks he got the steal of the decade with Izturis so he doesn't have to do much now.

I'm not convinced Sheffield is going to be better than Jones in '07 either. How many games does everyone think Sheff will play? Didn't Jones play the whole year? We'd be giving up a full time player for one who would likely be injured at some point... *sigh* our options just don't look all that great right now....

Man they looked horrible. The concerns are likely to continue to mount, too. We're now a team with no size in addition to having no inside scoring. I'm shocked at the number of open/uncontested shots Cleveland had. It wasn't all Big Ben's fault. But it seems that without a big man---really anywhere on the court---we're collapsing down and leaving guys open. I agree with Barkley's assessment: when we face other teams that are young and athletic, it negates our strengths and leaves us pretty much exposed. I don't see that being fixed this year. Pax definitely has some chips to work with for next year though. But right now I just see us trying to live with it. November is likely to be a rough month for us. I think we only play at home twice more. It's going to be a long haul to December.

I'm a massive Bear fan, but the thing about Plaxico's comments----they aren't that far off. Even I don't think our corners are the greatest. And I fear Burress can destroy cover 2 easily---especially since we have a junk safety in Todd Johnson and and a rook in Manning who will be providing the "2" aspect. Oh yes I said it: Johnson is junk. He's been terrible since he joined the league, and as Ronnie Brown was pasting our run defense all day last week, I couldn't help but wonder how many of his 10+ yard runs would have been limited if Mike Brown had been there. My strong suspicion? ALL of them. Johnson's a concern, and if the Giants are smart, they will exploit it. As for Manning, I'm not seeing the strong nose for the ball and the hard hitting that I need from my safeties.....yet. Hopefully he develops that. He's certainly got more than enough athletic skills. I'd rather play Harris/Manning than Johnson/Manning but I'm not sure if Harris can go, and to be honest he's not all that great either. But I think the point is-----and it's a valid one-----out of this great defense has emerged some very sudden and serious concerns about the DBs in general. Plax may be talking trash, but he's not lying.

Ravaged, you mean? Ravished by injuries, I dont know what to make of that :lol: I've seen a lot worse than this. Plax may well play, so they may have their starting QB, RB and top WR. Toomer really isn't much better than Tim Carter or David Tyree at this point in his career. The offensive line is healthy, and Shockey will play. Defense they're in worse shape, especially on the line, but it's not the end of the world there either. Not to whine about last year, but the Eagles lost their starting QB, top 2 RB, top 2 receivers, 3 starting offensive linemen. On defense they lost 2 DT (1 starting), a starting DE, 1 starting linebacker LB and top CB. Even the punter got put on IR and the kicker missed significant time. That is a bad injury situation. The Giants are really nowhere close to that. I'll ravish your sig ;) To be honest, it being a road game and all, I think the Bears need some help to win this one. I'd rather it not come in the form of injuries. I agree with you, the Giants still have enough of their players to win this game @ home against what I believe will be a Bears team suffering from a slight loss of confidence after last week. We'll see how it plays out. I'd be perfectly OK losing this game if we came back and beat the Jets & Pats. But I fear if we lose this one, it might snowball into a 4-game bender, and that's the nightmare which is in the back of every Bear fan's mind right now.

Maybe. I don't want to disappoint everyone, but from what I've heard Bradley's knee + ankle has slowed him down a little. So I'm not real confident we will be getting last year's Mark Bradley. That's real unfortunate too, because the kid had some good quicks.

Yes, but we've all been shocked by Hendry before, when he turned a great thing in 2003 into the worst team in baseball in under 3 years. So the history of shockage is definitely there.

Market price is what someone is willing to pay. That doesn't preclude Hendry from being shocked into submission if, say........the Cubs think market price will be $10 million and someone says "I'll pay $15"

Our hope doesn't like with Ramirez resigning. It could still be a long cold winter with him returning, and the team could still suck. Resigning Ramirez does not improve the team, and this team needs to be improved. They have to resign Ramirez, then still make major improvements. We certainly need to do more than just ARam. I dunno, if Ramirez doesn't sign I just see things like stormclouds gathering over Wrigley, vultures beginning to circle over Hendry's office.......the 4 horsemen riding forth. you know, bad things like that.

I'll allow my feelings to come out on this one. I know Bruce says all of this is a formality. I don't agree, it feels completely different than that. I think Ramirez doesn't sign by the 2 week mark, and he hits the open market where the Cubs will be unwilling to match the biggest offer. In short, I think he's leaving. Reasons? 1) It feels like it, because 2) If it was really all touch-feely "I love Chicago", he would have signed already. The lack of news on the subject in recent days only bolsters it, in my opinion. Lord, I do hope I'm wrong.

I also heard Clayton say this morning that, while Strahan is saying he'll be back in 2-4 weeks and the NY papers are reporting the same, the kind of injury he has is very serious and almost always ends the player's season. Just reporting what I heard, that's all.

One of the few times Cowboys, Skins, and Eagles fans will all be rooting for the same thing, no doubt.

Haha, nice visual. It is true though. Always nice for Manning to be able to throw off his back foot and have Burress bail him out. Rex does not have that luxury.

I suppose, but I just feel if the Giants beat the Bears it's like a college team beating the #3 team in week 2, but by the end of the year that club isn't ranked anymore so what did you really beat? My point is, if the Giants win, people will begin to dismiss the Bears so hence, not as triumphant a victory for the Giants. If the Giants lose they stay right where they are now, top challengers to the Bears once the playoffs start. I guess I'm just being biased.

Not sure if this was posted, but Berrian is apparently out up to 4 weeks: http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/news_story/?ID=183202&hubname=nfl So, deep threat? Gone. Someone kindly inform Mark Bradley that it is time for his tweaky legs to start actually......you know......HEALING 'n all.

I think that last point is debatable. Manning has more pro experience. But his 2006 rating is barely higher than Grossman's, while his career rating is a tad lower. Manning has a slightly better TD/INT ratio this year, and a bit better completion percentage, but by and large they are similar QB's. Both have big time potential playmaking ability, and both make stupid mistakes. As for the defense against the run, the Giants give up a little more than the Bears, and have given up several more TDs on the ground. I wouldn't call them amazing against the run. Good yes, but hardly invincible, and now they are injury depleted. I do agree with Shavo that Manning is better than Grossman at this point in time. Not sure how it will all shake out in the end, but I would think at some point the Bears are going to need to work on his checkdowns and hot reads in order for him to take the next step. As for running the ball, I think the real point is committing to the run, which we haven't really done consistently enough. I'm confident we can run the ball well enough to be effective so long as we don't give up on it when the going gets tough. Sure----some games we'll get stuffed, but I think that happens to just about everyone anyway. We will learn much about the Bears next Sunday, IMO. No offense to Giants fans, but this game is all about the Bears, and really not about the Giants at all. Win or lose, nobody's opinion of the Giants will change. Opinions about the Bears will be formed next week that will last the rest of the season.

Did you see his postgame interview? The man could barely talk and was having a hard time breathing. Maybe that would change in a week, but judging by his interview after the game, I was fairly certain he was out. No I'm sorry I didn't see the post-game interview. I was just going on the reports that it was only a bruised rib, not a broken one.

Someone told me today that they should go to Greise if the Bears are losing at halftime to the Giants. Are these people high? I can't beleive that rational people could come to this conclusion. Football is one sport that really brings the stupidity out of people. Even people with no clue about sports have strong opinions on the Bears. Mike North this morning was talking about how last year Orton only "lost" us a couple of games, while Rex so far has "lost" one and should have lost 2 more. That sounds like pretty obvious, "say something to rile people up" kind of stuff. If only other people in the city didn't think the same way. A lot of people seem to think the Bears would be more successful with a "game manager" type QB. AKA a bad QB. Hey, Eckstein is gritty and clutch! If we say something enough, it becomes true! :roll: LOL, it isn't just Mike North. Those Rex Grossman executioners from the preseason have been salivating for a chance to save face. There's actually quite a few of 'em hanging around, just waiting. One more game like last week and you'll hear it a little louder. The trouble is, if Rex doesn't learn from his mistakes then at some point you DO have to yank him----then everyone who hated him in the preseason will conveniently forget the 7-0 start and the 100+ QB ranking, and simply declare themselves "right" all along. It's really quite maddening.

Just me, but if I've got a bruised rib I'm finding a way to take the field in the biggest game of the year when my team needs me. Again---that's just me, but I would hope Bernard feels the same way. As for Urlacher, I'm not sure how a guy plays the very next play after the injury, and also walks off the field under his own power without any real difficulty if it's a serious injury. I agree, if these two are out our chances go down dramatically. I'm just saying, from what I'm seeing, I would be disappointed if neither is going to take the field, for *THIS* game of all of them. This is as close to you can get to a playoff-calibre football game in week 10.