Soul

They lost but it wasn't all bad. They just need to not get completely killed during a single-quarter stretch. Let's get 'em next game.

I've been to both Miller & Wrigley many times. Yes, there are advantages & disadvantages. However, I'd still take Wrigley all things considered. Miller isn't really much more comfortable. The seats are still small & hard. The sight lines are better on the whole, but really unless you have good seats you will still be crooning your neck to see around someone's head, or be constantly shifting because people coming up & down the isles block your view. So I can't say it's really much better. Unless you pay extra for premium parking, you are still going to walk a good distance from your parking spot to the ballpark, over bridges & such. Even with premium parking, unless you get there 2 hours before the game it's still a good long walk. So that's not much better, if at all. Look, it's a baseball game. There's going to be crowds & congestion unless the team is terrible and nobody wants to see them. In which case the whole experience sucks anyway. I can probably park right next to the ballpark at a Marlins game. But I won't -- because I'd rather watch paint dry than go see the Marlins, and so would pretty much everyone else. The problem with a ballpark like Miller Park is exactly what you said -- it's out on this parcel with nothing around it. People try to compensate by tailgating. OK, fine -- but that just doesn't come close to the ambience of the surrounding area that you get with Wrigley. Think about it: would you rather sit out among smelly parked cars and throw bean bags, or spend some time in one of the best pre/post game club scenes in all of sports? I'll take the latter, thanks. In my world, the Cubs are doing exactly what they should do -- seeking to keep Wrigley's atmosphere & neighborhood experience intact, while improving it as much as they can. I used to want them to look at building a new ballpark. I've changed my opinion on that -- they need to stay in Wrigley, whatever hell they have to go through to get it done is fine. As for the complainers? /ignore.

Probably more rewarding to go to Chicago during the holidays than Boise or some other locations. Valid point. However, Chicago in the dead of winter is just brutal. The players would probably just stay in their hotels the entire time. Luckily December is typically not nearly as bad as far as dangerously low temps go than January and February. Yep. Not exactly a good time walking down Michigan Ave. when the temps are close to zero. I can't imagine playing a football game would be all that fun for the kids either. This is why Big 10 schools don't complain about the fact that their bowl games are basically all played with them as the de facto road team. Nobody wants to play outdoors in zero-degree weather when you can be running around in a t-shirt looking at women in bikinis. If we're talking about one of the domes, that's one thing -- but outdoors? I can't see it. I certainly won't show up :)

Roach is OK playing in tandem with Briggs/Urlacher for a game or two.

Post economic collapse + not allowing the company to take the full name - ala, Citi Field - you won't get nearly the same deal. The marque will stay the same, but you can get the name out there. Definitely worth it, but it's going to be tough. Yeah. Heck, why don't we just do it all the way then? People are going to know it's Wrigley.

I'm with you, but I think you'll agree that means there are scads of hopeless people out there.

I figure they'll put Tillman on Marshall -- not Jennings.

I agree with that. But I worry that if they want to go to Brandon Marshall on every play, there's not much the Bears can do to stop him. Of course, that's where it helps that Tyler Thigpen will be playing and not Chad Henne. They're going to rely on Thigpen to pass them to victory? I'll take that if they want to try it. I think they'll try to blow up our run D with creative running/wildcat packages. We'll see.

Where are the "Rose has no killer instinct" people now?

I always prefer this.

He's on Tribune live right now -- and actually, I'm kind of surprised. He sounds good to me; has some substantive things to say about where he's taking the club. He has less of that deer-in-the-headlights look to me than he did in the beginning.

There's only one thing for sure: we'll play all the games, and then we will know :)

Haynes, heh. I had blocked him out of my memory. No Enis. Weird to me, but OK. Golden Richards, LOL there's a name.

I think GB dominates. Boos from the Norsemen faithful this week. It's gonna be ugly for them.

Not a single Bear from 100-51. I presume Enis & McNown will make their appearances in the top 50 though, right? Stan Thomas. Got to be on that list somewhere. Carruth "allegedly" hired a hitman to kill his girlfriend? Wait, isn't he serving time for that? I think it's pretty safe to drop the allegedly from that statement. He flat out hired a hit man to kill his pregnant girlfriend.

They are definitely getting off the field on 3rd down more. I hope we didn't just jinx them, but that has really been a key improvement. DJ Moore has been a standout -- kind of like Vasher was when he first came into the league. He's become the vacuum cleaner for turnovers, though I'm not sure if what I'm looking at is good fortune or good ability. Time will tell. Good to see Major Wright out there now. Peppers is receiving criticism for not having a ton of sacks, but his presence has been felt in more than the pass defense. Urlacher is having a solid year now that he's healthy. Having Briggs/Urlacher as a tandem again has been great for us.

I guess the only remaining question is whether this reflects on Tom's ability to grasp the political landscape he's been put in by becoming the owner of the Cubs. In short, this seems like a pretty naive proposal, if he really did expect it to go through.

I heard that he might be available, but not that he would start. Who knows? They obviously aren't going to broadcast what they'll do if they don't have to.

Hillenmeyer wasn't a starter going into this year with Urlacher and Pisa healthy. I agree we've been lucky in general with injuries this year, but the Cutler concussion might have cost us that game against Seattle, as he was clearly rusty from missing time. The only game this year that still irks me is the Washington game, but since one could argue that we stole wins against the Lions and Packers, I can't really complain. To be able to say that we've only let 1 game slip away out of the first 9 isn't bad. I'd say we've had our share of breaks. Last week was nice in that we took control in the 2nd half and never looked back. I'd like to see more of that, but more likely we'll be biting our nails in a lot of these games because we can't pull away, but the defense will (hopefully) keep others from pulling away from us as well.

Apparently it really is $40 million guaranteed: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5809694

To be fair though, Eagles fans kind of live to get upset over stuff.

See what happens when you get up by 35 points and start playing soft D?

It might've been fun to watch how badly Redskins fans boo, but I think they're just going to leave now.

The real reason it's there is because Brent and Kirk will be doing the Ohio State/Iowa game. Nope, it's McDonough and Millen doing the Iowa game. I'd go to Wrigley. College Station over Wrigley? Seriously?

Holy channel changer, batman