raw

Good for IU, they've had a lot of near misses against the good East teams and deserved one. ND still has played no one with a Power 5 win, but that will end next week because NC State toppled mighty Wake Forest today. That Wake Forest loss still pisses me off. We gave the game away with the -5 turnover differential. But getting a win against Sparty makes it all feel better, and now I am more optimistic about getting bowl eligible for a second straight season. That hasn't happened since the early 90's. Watching the fates of ND and Texas since that season opener has been amusing. Texas got that huge poll jump and has been sinking like a rock since then. Change at DC seems to have paid off. After giving up 508 yards per game, they're down to 373 per game this year. Granted, that number will be put to the test now that the conference season is starting, but I'm very encouraged by the number of turnovers and defensive plays that have been made. 12 INTs and 9 fumbles recovered last year, and I guess they are on a similar pace this year.....but already have 2 defensive TDs vs. 1 last year. 3rd down defense has got to be a lot better than last year. Route to a bowl game is beating at least 3 of Rutgers, Purdue, Maryland, Penn State, and Northwestern. I'm not sold on Nebraska either, so I don't think that's unwinnable. Ohio St. will completely destroy us this week and Michigan late in the year, but at this point I'd be surprised if there's not 6 wins on this schedule.

"Enough already" was a Brennaman quote from early this season when the Cubs were whooping their asses. Yes, but Brennaman was directing toward the Cub fans in attendance who where whooping it up. He was getting very annoyed how much noise was coming from a visiting crowd in their home park. I couldn't remember exactly what prompted it, but I remember it was a blowout loss for the Reds.

Start the playoff game thread!

ENOUGH ALREADY Should I have said regular season Mr. all caps. Stop yelling. "Enough already" was a Brennaman quote from early this season when the Cubs were whooping their asses.

103 was the target number I set for this team a couple months ago (because I wanted them to lose less than 60). This is pretty cool.

Ideal game: Bryant goes deep for his 40th Russell gets an early RBI single, and a grand slam in the top of the 5th for his 100th RBI After the GS, Lester comes out and shuts the Reds down in his 5th and final inning Cubs bullpen throws up 0s the rest of the game, Lester wins #20 in blowout fashion. If we're being greedy and awesomely symmetrical (over the next 2 games): Bryant 3-run HR (40, 105) Rizzo 2 RBIs (110 RBI) Russell 5 RBIs (100) Baez 2 RBIs (60) Fowler 2 RBIs (50) Heyward 3 RBIs (50) Ross RBI, Montero 2 RBIs, Soler gets back with 2 RBIs.....to all finish with 33 RBIs.

Agree with order, exactly. But I say F it, give it to Fernandez. He should get it because of the tragedy. It would be a nice gesture for what from all accounts was a really fun guy and good teammate, who would have probably won a couple in his career anyway.

Ah yeah, that's about right.

Would like Lester to get 20th, Arrieta 19 wins, Hendricks to win both so he looks better for Cy Young award. Lackey can pitch well, but get NDs.

Ha. That's not fair.

No. He picked the ball up in the end zone. Since he never left it forward with the ball, it's a touchback.

Yeah, I hated the Floyd pick less too. And it's not that I really hated White per se. I mean, 6'3", 215 runs a 4.35, there's a lot to like there. But WR isn't exactly a value position to pick at 7. And it reeked of panic after the Marshall trade.

And dropped that deep pass along w/ a 1st down conversion earlier. The OL has been decent today, against a DII level DL.

not making the playoffs in a heartbreaking fashion would be better for me Very torn on whether them not making the playoffs or the Cubs ripping their faces off is the better scenario. I really want to beat the horsefeathers out of the Mets, but they'll claim they were not at 100%.....nevermind the fact that they will never be 100% because pitchers.

And 0-3

Young gets a roughing the passer penalty, with his helmet off. Nevermind the fact Witten ripped his helmet off by the facemask very blatantly and in plain sight.

Championship! Just need 2 more fumbles after 50 yard completions and we're in there.

Seems accurate.

Jordan Howard started with a 36 yard run. He is up to 5 carries for 33 yards.

Weekly reminder that I hated the Kevin White pick. Of course, i would have picked Vic Beasley, who also apparently sucks.

How does this work? Ref 1: throws flag for holding Ref 2: nah, that wasn't holding Ref 1: OK "After discussion, there was no holding on the play." The guy threw the flag for no apparent reason, I guess.

Collectively though, they suck major ass.

As dumb as this sounds and as pointless as this is....I feel like the Bears are right there on every play today, all year really. I feel like every 1st down against them has been the other team getting just past the marker. Every TD has been just barely in the endzone. Coverage has generally been pretty good. Getting a lot of people in the right places on defense. And on offense, it's the opposite. Just short of 1st downs. Just tripped up to keep them away from bigger gains. Throws just a tad off the mark. Other than Bobby Massie, Jeremy Langford, and Kevin White (2 of which clearly have a shot of getting much better) I can't say anyone on the team has been flat out bad. Which I guess is an improvement over last year when several players on the field were bad.

year.

He just won't get that 100th RBI will he?