Soul

It's just simply quite unbelievable. Tampa Bay now? What the hell. For the third time this has happened...same teams. Well, technically, Tampa Bay is not the same. The difference between the Bears and Packers schedules (other than playing 2 games against each other) is Atlanta/Philly vs. Tampa Bay/Dallas. Right, which I've pointed out in a couple of other threads. Again that's our reward for finishing 6-10 last year. In the NFL, it doesn't always work out that way. TB wasn't bad last year, they just turned to crap in '09. It's no reward for anything. It's just fortunate.

I feel like being in a positive mood today. Here's a nice little tidbit: Devin Hester is on pace to have somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 catches and over 1,000 yards receiving. For a player who most thought would not be able to approach those kinds of numbers, he's been a bright spot on the team this year. He's gone from not even knowing where to line up, to being a pretty reliable target, in just a couple seasons. So good job to Devin, and good job to the coaches. Bob LeGere blogged about this yesterday as well: http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/2850

It's just simply quite unbelievable. Tampa Bay now? What the hell.

It may be a factor, it may not. I guess it would depend on how many trips they make. How long has it been since you were at the Southwest Florida International Airport? It's no longer the podunk airport it used to be. Back in 2006 a brand new state of the art 28 gate terminal was opened while the old one was torn down. Obviously not nearly the size of a major city airport like Phoenix but much more convenient and very easy to get in and out of. I had a hell of a time finding any seat on any flight there during Spring Break once though. Come to think of it, that's right around the time when ST is too. I guess you would just have to charter or something like that. I don't see it as a real issue. Teams are doing it, so.....it obviously can work.

I bet less than 10% of Americans know that. And I don't think it's that close to 10%. That's pretty sad. You're saying over 90% of America make it through their lives not knowing what Abe was talking about. And worse -- not bothering to find out.

Actually, what I got from the Cincy game was that the Bears were so concerned about being beat by the pass that they let Benson run wild. Cincy is the 9th team in the NFL in terms of rush yards per game, so they had the run game to fall back on, and they killed us with it -- Benson having his best game as a pro. Arizona is dead last in rushing. 32nd. So hopefully the Bears can actually get away with concentrating on the pass game, and Arizona won't be able to beat us with the run.

Maybe it's time now to pull Lee.

Looked like an obvious push off by White on that TD.

He hit 2 homers in that AB, one of which was straight enough to register. Ibanez, wow. Well.....enjoy tonight, Phils.

Yep. Both GB/CHI fans would like to see the Falcons held down.

Yes. Or to put it another way, I wouldn't think you'd risk messing up multiple games just because you can't accept a dropoff in pitching for a single game. I'm sure girardi will get away with it but to me this is clearly a mistake.

I do find it a little unsettling that the Cards are 3-0 on the road. We need that Super Bowl loser's curse to kick in a little this week. For as shaky as the Bears have been, we did beat the Steelers at home with this squad. So channel that Pittsburgh performance and get the job done. Simple.

So much for the "other obvious storyline." Phils up 3-1.

Could be. I was thinking the other obvious storyline would be Burnett having a 2nd strong outing and being the unlikely MVP of the series. But based on game 1 Lee could extend the series.

Heh. That made me think of some caller last night on the Score. He asked if Gaines Adams could play some linebacker. Lawrence was like "NO! Stop asking for everyone to change positions!" It was funny.

:-)) Poor girl. Seriously, he was horrible though.

Aww, it kind of feels nice to be wanted by Collier County folks.

The Bears aren't built to thrive in those conditions. I don't think it really matters one way or the other. Arizona has weaknesses with or without the weather, and I just hope the Bears figure out how to exploit them. You're probably right. We're too far away from the old smashmouth teams of yore to expect much advantage from it now.

LOL, the old pre-emptive strike on all you Big 10 apologists. Awesome.

I'm praying for cold, slushy, really un-Arizona-like weather. Right now the extended forecast doesn't look favorable from that perspective.

I'm all for dumping Hendry yesterday, but I have no problem with what Ricketts is doing. It's not all about 2010. The long time health of the franchise matters. They could go nuts and dump a bunch of people, but if the end result is they are going into 2010 with virtually the same team, what's the point? They are giving Hendry one season to make his roster work, and if it doesn't, they will be able to go into 2011 with a clean slate and a new regime in place and much greater understanding of who is available for the job. They can't really just pour a bunch of money into this offseason and find some magic pills to guarantee better performance for next season. Roster spots are filled and the free agent market just isn't all that meaningful. I don't get how you can accuse him of thinking everything is great. He's giving Hendry a year, and indicates Crane can keep doing his business side of the job for a while. With guaranteed contracts to Jim and almost all of the players, that really is the only realistic option. Most owners don't like showing up and giving people the axe on day one. I suppose you're right, but how about just throwing me a bone or two? Does everything need to be exactly the same? What about bringing in a couple new people to supplement, or do some additional analysis? Anything. Also, I'm sure you're right, but he didn't say Hendry was just being kept on for one more year. He said something to the effect of thinking that Hendry's the right guy to move forward with. Now, I don't know if that's just alot of media speak, but I'm just saying -- it isn't clear from the words that it's just a one year evaluation thing. And I've been hit over the head too many times with assuming someone meant one thing, then finding out it wasn't the case.

It's been bad for a few years now, but this year is the peak of ripe reekage from that unit.

That's right, I was fixated on the Vikes but Philly has the potential to be very ugly as well.

LOL. Too much.

Pretty good article. I will admit, some of these calls this year really do look suspicious.