Soul

True. I think the coaching change has yet to sort itself out yet though, and could prove to be a difference from all the other years the Lions were supposed to be better but weren't. Then again, "better" for the Lions would be like 6-10.

Well, they also act like the Colts in preseason in that they rest starters beyond the norm and don't do much other than vanilla offense and defense, even though they've got no record of success that says they can get away with that. So it's a bit of a double-edged sword. The bottom line for me is that the Bears just don't seem to treat the offseason and preseason with the kind of alacrity that I would expect from a team that has been mediocre and has many people fighting for their jobs. But then again, what do I know. I'm just a stupid fan who has no clue, like all of you.

Cards, they are a tankin'. I guess as a Cub fan I can allow myself to enjoy watching a team that I hate blow what could have been a special year.

But 7-9 would really suck. would it? How would it not? No playoffs for 4th straight year. Possibly not bad enough to get some much needed change in management/coaching. Could easily lead to the deterioration of the Jay Cutler era before it gets a chance to get off the ground. Absolutely no step forward. It might not be surprising, but it would really suck. Well, OK. I'm of the mind that 7-9 gets Lovie fired though -- that's the angle I was taking. I think the sooner Cutler can get away from Lovie's ball n' chain, the better, regardless of whether it means another system change.

The Lions are more scary than usual because even if they don't turn out to be much after 16 games are played, the excitement they have due to acquisitions and the whole year 2 of Stafford thing could translate into week 1 difficulty for the Bears. Also of note -- Lovie teams usually start off looking flat and unprepared.

But 7-9 would really suck. would it?

Pitt/Utah was a nice way to kick off the college season. Pitt's style may be boring, but they get into such close-cut games because of it that it somehow becomes entertaining fare anyway.

Good God no. There were sporting events on yesterday evening that actually meant something.

'09 Sanchez: 53.8% completion, 6.7 yards/attempt, 0.6 TD/INT ratio, 10 fumbles '08 Jamarcus Russell: 53.8% completion, 6.6 yards/attempt, 1.6 TD/INT, 12 fumbles Yeah, he sucked. The only times he didn't suck was when he was handing off. He threw a handful of nice passes, but anybody who can get an NFL job can do that on occasion. He didn't suck in the playoffs. Yeah, but holy crap those are horrible numbers.

I'm happy with how they are utilizing the remainder of the season. At least they are actually getting a look at other players. Maybe it helps some in the evaluation process later on, maybe it doesn't. But I think it's a good thing given our situation. And I've seen this club not do that in the past.

Sharks lost Nabokov then, and gained Niemi? At best that's a wash for them, IMO.

Well it's a good thing Jay is just as smooth and attractive to ladies as Brady is. Brady wasn't the ladies man he is until he won Super Bowls. Yeah, nothing like a couple rings to make women's opinion of you change.

It's the same thing as last year. Our offense looks amazing but our defense looks suspect, although quite a few guys haven't played in the preseason. The team was very laid-back in their approach when the real season started and we weren't real crisp on offense. They've vowed to change that this year and use the same approach that we did in the second half of the season last year, but we'll see. Overconfidence is a major issue with a young team and I really hope we learned from our disappointing first half last season. Nobody is confident about our defense. I think everyone is fearing the types of games that we had against Pittsburgh and Arizona last year, especially if Harris is PUP-bound. I'm pretty optimistic that they'll be better against the pass this season than we were at the end of last season, but that's not saying a whole lot. Opening day will tell us a lot about where we stand defensively against the Eagles attack. Wasn't the Packers defense much improved last year?

You may be referring to the Cowlishaw report that a deal was imminent last week, which was since proven false. The latest I see is that nothing is done yet, but who really knows.

Rex has garnered a heck of a lot of attention for his team. I'll give him that. He's a force of personality; sometimes those guys lift a team all the way to a championship. I believe they'll fall short this year though, but still. It's pretty exciting right now if you are a Jets fan. Interestingly, when you say that it is the national/rivals who are talking up the Jets and not so much their own fans, I had to think of the Packers. Some of that same dynamic is in play with Green Bay. Their own fans think they'll be good, but are generally more cautious. Others are looking at Rodgers and the way they have been blasting people in preseason and predicting great things for the Pack. But internally, I hear much more caution.

Can't believe I'm saying it, but the Cards still have an entire month to play better and they're only 3 games back in the WC race. So they aren't dead yet, though I would very much like them to be, and I'm overjoyed at their recent struggles :)

I think Minnesota could stumble a bit. I don't understand what everybody sees in the Jets. They were 9-7 last year, and lucky to get that 9th win. They squeeked through in the playoffs thanks to some missed field goals and then got bounced. Their best defensive player is sitting out, they have a starting LB who is going to miss time. And their QB is a mess. They were the #1 defense, but it's tough to win consistently with defense. They could win their overrated division, but they don't look like world beaters to me. Top 5 overall defense, top 5 offensive line, good RB corps, rookie QB that is likely to improve over last year, decently deep set of WRs (although no truly elite guys - S. Holmes, Edwards, Cotchery, Coles). NFL is way too unpredictable to say the are for sure going to contend. But the team has a lot of talent and pretty good depth. I can certainly understand why they are a popular SB pick, even though my expectations for them fall a bit short of that. I'll probably have egg on my face in a few weeks for saying this, but I feel like it is just as likely that Sanchez falls flat as it is he improves over last year. On one hand, I agree with your overall point that they have some good talent & depth. But on the other hand, so do a lot of other teams in the AFC, and it just feels like the Jets are being promoted above & beyond their accomplishments to this point. I feel like a lot of their expected returns this year are based on year 1 to year 2 improvements that people think will be inherent, but really we don't always see that in the NFL. Many times we'll see year 1 to year 2 decline.

Maybe some of those teams will turn out to be worse than expected.

Nice.

Ahh to be young again, where 2 years makes the difference between newbie and old hand. Now I count my age in half-decade increments. Funny how you go from "I'm 15 and a half" to "I'm somewhere in my 40's"

LOL. I've been in baseball for 40 years, so even when I'm dead wrong I'm still right, ya know??

I looked at the Cowboys and thought the same thing. They've really struggled in preseason, but most people I've heard think they'll pull it together. If we make our FGs that final TD drive w/ LeFevor is for the win. Just sayin'......not that it really means all that much. But I don't think it's too much to ask to make the FGs, and I really don't think we'll be that bad on ST until I actually see it happen in the regular season.

Unfortunately the first 4-5 games are arguably the toughest part of the Bears schedule. If we started 1-3, with the one win being Detroit, we might have a chance to come back and salvage something respectable.

Since one of the hallmarks of Lovie Smith teams in recent years has been lack of preparation, I'm going to go ahead and assume things will be pretty rough around the edges for the first few weeks, and the only thing that might save us is getting embarrassed enough to make hard, quick improvements.

I think if any other team placed much value in Fukudome, he would be on that team by now. I don't know about that. We'd probably keep him around as a backup OF if he was paid like that. Other teams would likely do the same. But that contract, for that level of production... To me the Fuku hate is simply just that he makes way too much money. It's not like he doesn't do anything good on the field.