Soul

I don't really know. Fox did a pretty bad job explaining what is happening.

Gotta look cool for the ladies.

No way. He already missed last week because he was hurt. He can't take the pounding that kind of use brings. He's got a really good backfield mate in Bell. They've both had really good seasons so far, with Bell taking the big pounding in short yardage situations. But who cares? He's just another back now. I'd just use him for whatever is left in the tank. Between the tackle runs, outside throws -- whatever. Just use him up. Get what you can. RBs are all like this. You just get what you can during the limited time that they can provide a boost.

Good job putting up the wall near the goal line.

If the Lions just use him as a regular RB, and stop trying to protect him as if he's some franchise asset, I could see Reggie putting together a few pretty good seasons.

I can't accept the Lions hanging 37 on the Bears.

As a Razorback fan, let me tell you that this will happen and it will be a slaughter. Our starting QB is probably still out this week and the backup is dreadful, like it's as if he's never seen an actual football before dreadful. I am expecting something along the lines of 44-10. You have a couple of good RB's from what little I've seen. Our D is still shaky against the run, so I'd bet you'll put up more than 10. I also think we'll score more than 44, though. Wish I was making the trip to Fayetteville. Williams is a very good RB, but he is nothing compared to the freshman RB Alex Collins. Wow. He reminds you of Marshawn Lynch and it's not just because he's a black dude with dreads. The offensive line is solid. D-line is borderline great with depth. The LBs are not good and the DBs are so-so. None of this matters if you see AJ Derby line up under center-just godawful. Brandon Allen is supposedly still hurting and they as of yet haven't taken the redshirt off of his younger brother, Austin, who is supposedly lighting it up in practice. That is the only shot Arkansas has of keeping it from getting ugly. I'm looking at the schedule and this is going to be a brutal stretch for Arkansas. The problem is just where the Razorbacks are vs. just about everyone else in the conference. There's an awful lot of work to do down there.

OH, the body language!

Yeah, I'm just going to assume they'll suck every year until they prove me wrong.

28-27 Bears. This is going to be a very tough game with a hobbled Tillman trying to cover CJ, and Reggie Bush back in the lineup. I'm expecting a much better game from Stafford than usual, poor Bears pass rush, more time to sit back and throw, and a valid screen option in Bush to slow down a Bears blitz if it comes. Bears could find themselves burned on a few very big plays. Ultimately I'm putting my faith in the Bears to toughen up near the goal line enough to change TDs to FGs, and continued improvement of the Bears offensive scheme to pull this one out by the skin of their teeth.

Bradford just looked abysmal.

Maybe. Lions are a better team than the Steelers, so it's really the first quality road matchup for the Bears so far. Some matchup difficulties for the Bears as well. The Bears have gotten really good mileage from Tillman covering CJ, but this time around P-Nut is gimpy. Long will get another early career test matched up against Suh. Might be his toughest yet.

Show me this incredible roster. I'll pay your bar tab for life.

Given the lack of an actual dual mandate, and the fact that most other teams actually try to be good at the major league level, I really don't think it is that impressive. A fair amount of the big names were already here, most notably Vogelbach and Baez. The most refined blue chipper they have is only here because they were allowed to take a dive in 2012. They have thrown much more money at the farm than other teams in recent years and have been the most active in terms of trading veterans for prospects. I really don't think that making a farm system climb the rankings while focusing exclusively on the farm and abandoning the major league team is all that difficult. We just disagree on this; I don't see it as nothing. It's not nothing, but it's like focusing on only half of your job. Of course you would do better at it.

It's not really an either/or proposition, unless there is truly no other team interested in Girardi next year. Even then, a 3rd option might include taking a break for a year or two. Apparently Phil Rodgers is floating the idea of Gardenhire in the Trib today -- it's behind the dreaded Trib pay wall for me.

Then there's that whole, you know, possibility (hopefully strong) of winning the World Series as the manager of the Chicago Cubs thing in subsequent years. People still generally have a positive outlook for the Cubs' future. That said, I don't really want to waste money on a big name manager and I don't think Sveum needs to be fired, nor do I necessarily even think Girardi would be a better manager. Yeah, I get that the manager who wins the WS with the Cubs is immortalized. I just don't think next year is right in terms of timing, to become that guy. He would be walking in knowing there's a period of time that would be very frustrating. Possibly a lengthy period of time. Maybe he's OK with that -- or maybe Ricketts/Epstein would tell him something that tips the scales, such as new spending/focus on the major league level to cut down on the rebuilding time.

We don't know he's telling the truth. Maybe he was actually swerving to avoid a raccoon.

He's won a World Series on the biggest stage in baseball. Now he's going to be happy to take over a developmental project and receive accolades for taking a club from 95 losses to 80? I'm having difficulty believing Girardi would do that.

Chicago/Detroit, Seattle/Houston -- two very solid matchups in the early games. Thursday's game is suddenly interesting because the 49ers are suddenly human. Ready to get steamrolled, Philly? NE/ATL matchup should be good. DAL/SD -- potential for fireworks. Monday night -- more watchable than last Monday, for sure.

Yay for grass turf.

It's a trap!

Weird ranking system. Something nebulous and wishy-washy like "fan relations" is valued at nearly 10 times a more solid measure such as championships. I don't know about you, but win me a couple titles and you can have as crappy a website as you want. Isn't the ranking system based on fan surveys? I guess. I'm just not getting the value of this thing. It says it combines fan perspectives with solid objective measures but then seems to value the perspectives thing higher than the objectives. I'd do the opposite, or at least a more even distribution. Oh well, I'm probably missing something :)

Weird ranking system. Something nebulous and wishy-washy like "fan relations" is valued at nearly 10 times a more solid measure such as championships. I don't know about you, but win me a couple titles and you can have as crappy a website as you want.

Just incredible. People were just starting to talk about he finally turned things around.

What now? Don't know. Must've been on TV. His latest article on ESPN is a fairly glowing opinion on how the Bears are handling the early part of the season.