Soul

Get ready to be frustrated when they don't cut him because they don't want to take the cap hit.

Here's an example of a football game that should not be in doubt, yet still is.

I can't believe they let the Lions drive the field before the half, and now this from Hester.

yahoo reporting that lovie is safe. but then they also are saying whisenhunt is safe which doesn't make sense. i have a feeling that if they fire lovie, they will first go to the packers for clements, and this time they can't say no. and i will be ecstatic. then, sign jake long and draft a tackle high, move carimi permanently to guard and your offense is instantlly legitimate. Doesn't make much sense to say Lovie is safe right now. Whisenhunt certainly isn't safe. That's bad reporting.

I don't know if the Bears will win, but it would be unusual if the Lions *didn't* self-destruct.

Everyone realizes that Packers/Vikings is just as big of a rivalry (if not bigger) than Packers/Bears, right? The game will still matter, Christian Ponder is still their QB, and GB will still probably win. Yea, strength of "rivalry" is not something I really take into account. Firstly, we need Seattle to win for this game to mean something to Green Bay. Next, if that happens, that "rivalry" (which typically I don't buy into but those two teams and fanbases truly, truly hate each other) will simply amp up the meaning for both teams. And in that sort of game, I'll take midget Rodgers and Green Bay over fricking Christian Ponder, even if it is in that dome. Well, the Seattle part is looking good so far

You know, I still haven't given up on my dream of having Marshall and Fitzgerald on the same team. Who cares about the line if that happens. I still do :)

A good article overall -- and big bonus: not behind a pay wall.

On this game: Bears 24 Cardinals 10 They'll do enough to win this one, the Cardinals just beat a team that gave up awhile back. Big deal. It's been bad for the Bears, but not this bad.

Cowher's offense's were a hell of a lot better than any Lovie oversaw. Cowher may have been a defensive coach with a tough guy attitude but like Belichik he realized you had to throw to win in this league, a decade before Lovie figured that out. He wouldn't be my top choice, but he and Gruden would clearly be better options than keeping Lovie around. Ok, I'm probably overstating it. I just want more dramatic change than Cowher and Gruden. Yeah, but what if dramatic change means a pretty complete teardown and rebuild?

It's not a matter of having the refs take the game from them, it was just absurd how strongly they were working in the Packers favor when GB was clearly the better team that was going to win anyway. Yeah, I'm not happy about it. I just can't work up much steam over it, knowing how they played overall.

Bottom line: there are 2 games left, and both are against horrible, horrible football teams. Win them both and see where the chips fall.

That blame factor goes way down when the team isn't paying a ton of money for him, though. If the Cubs are really willing to eat much of his contract, then someone is going to come calling. Possibly 2013 trade deadline.

I know I'm taking one sentence from your post, but which receiver other than Marshall can be trusted to be at that spot? Maybe the reason Cutler only does that with Marshall is because only Marshall is there, consistently enough to be counted on.

You're being inconsistent in your own argument. You look at what Byrd and Soto did in 2011 and talk about this being about expectations on 12/16 last year. But then you talk about Rizzo having to beat LaHair's first half (btw - 1st base as a whole had a .796 OPS last year, Rizzo will beat that easily). You also talk about the actual performance of the pitching staff instead of what was expected of them going into last year. Let's make this about expectations then. But we need to compare expectations at the same point in the offseason to be fair. - Byrd did perform much worse than expected going into last year. But he had been declining. He's being replaced this year by a Schierholtz/Sappelt platoon that should out perform Byrd's 2011 .719 OPS easily - Soriano was hurt and pretty bad in 2011 - Most of us had very low expectations for LaHair - Samardzija was a big unknown heading into the rotation - We didn't even have Rizzo yet - We didn't sign Maholm for another month - Dempster was coming off a 4.80 ERA season and looked to many to be declining quickly - Zambrano was still in the rotation and sucked hard - We hadn't yet traded for Travis Wood So, fundamentally, our rotation was Garza, a lousy in 2011 Dempster, a lousy in 2011 Zambrano and an unproven Shark. We didn't even have a fifth starter at this point last year. On offense, expectations are much higher for Soriano than they were last year. We have much, much higher expectations for Rizzo than we did for LaHair. DeJesus is constant, but I expect more out of a Schierholtz + Sappelt platoon than I did from a declining Byrd. The only spot where expectations are lower is catcher. I'm not sure how you can honestly say expectations are similar to last offseason at this same point. The projections on offense are somewhat better and at this point last year the rotation was in shambles. I appreciate this post, but I still feel rather hollow with our progress so far. I was expecting more by now.

If there was no God, we would have a chance. It's obvious that God hates us.

Yeah, he's an interesting prospect for the Bears, but has more work to do.

I think the refs told Alshon to knock it off, and he didn't. That's the only thing I can think of, because the last 2 calls on him were something that happens all the time.

Even the QB color guy thinks its a bad call.

Can we Private Pyle-you? For good of the community. Oh, go [expletive] yourself.

My fondest hope is that they do nothing about Crosby, and it costs them in the playoffs. The reality? It's the Packers, they walk between the raindrops.

Yeah, that was Rodriguez, and yes it would have been a much better toss to go short to him instead.

9 out of 10 times, it is the Bears. That's the problem.

Why on earth would they do that. How stupid.

Game's no longer in doubt. Not that bad a decision. How'd it work out? Who cares?