hawkeyecub

That was a really physical but ugly game with all the mistakes and penalties. Your defense played a great game. Smith isn't a very good QB but he's been competent. I just don't know what the Bears do to fix that o-line. It's not just 1 or 2 guys, they almost need a total overhaul. Chris Williams just does not look good. Pace is obviously done. Probably couldn't read too much into Schaffer's time tonight. Kreutz doesn't have a lot of good football left in him. Omiyale was really bad and Beekman didn't look much better. Without a 1st or 2nd it will be tough to find immediate impact. Forte is a really good receiver but even with the o-line struggles he doesn't look very tough. Cutler probably didn't deserve 5 INT's but he also could have had another one in the 4th quarter when he threw the ball up as he was getting hit. I think he feels like he has to do everything (which he does) and the o-line struggles plus not having a guy like Marshall are just leading to some ugliness.

Who knows what might have been different if Urlacher and Pisa didn't get lost for the year basically in the first half of the first game of the season. I don't think the Vikings are as good as advertised (but better than the Bears). They should have lost 2 of the games they won, and could easily be 5-3 instead of 7-1. I know, should have but they didn't means nothing, but it leads me to believe the Vikings aren't as good as their record. I could easily see the Bears and Vikings tied 5-3 in the division if a few things broke the other way. The talent gap isn't as big as the records indicate IMO. It's the NFL. Most games are close and could go either way. Unless you don't show up or are playing a bottom feeder, each team is "in" the vast majority of games. You're also ignoring that they very easily could have won the game they lost if not for some bad breaks at the end.

It's amazing after all the offseason speculation and prognostication that if the Vikings beat the Lions at home they'll have a 4 game lead in the division with 7 to go.

http://i36.tinypic.com/rk1vn4.gif Love it every time.

Poor Dave caught bad breaks like 4 years in a row and his situation kept getting worse.

Iowa over Indiana? Yes. Indiana's more talented, but I think Iowa's system is more conducive to knocking off teams that outclass them. Yeah that's fair. Iowa will be a better shooting team this year and physically much stronger. They're dangerous against anyone at home when their shots are going down. Well maybe not MSU. There is zero depth at PG which could turn them into a dreadfully bad team if Payne goes down. He looks pretty solid and is the best fit at PG Lickliter has had. But he's a true freshman and can't get hurt. The other two freshman look much better than I thought and will at least be able to contribute.

Iowa over Indiana?

So he's had 3 alcohol/drug incidents in a little over 2 months and he was still playing this week?

Get them. I renewed again this past summer. Until this week I was wondering why but now I'm halfway excited. I think if nothing else it will be a more watchable team. It's all his guys with the skillsets he wants and they don't look like 15 year olds anymore. Most of the team has gotten yoked up and should be a little tougher. May and Cougill will be able to provide more than I anticipated and Payne will struggle but is probably the best fit at PG Lickliter has had at Iowa. The core isn't that bad. They just can't afford any injuries. I think they'll be about like last year's team but a little more watchable. I sort of agree, but it's just not any fun at all. Of course, students get ripped all the time for not supporting teams (at most universities), but what's the incentive to go? Not fun, not exciting, maybe 3 conference wins, I will have to beg people to go with me or else go alone. Geez, I still consider myself a big fan, and I will almost certainly go to all of the games as I have for the past few years, but it's depressing to go in there right now. That is true. Last year some of the Big Ten games down the stretch were fun (Purdue, Michigan, Penn State at least) but much of the year felt like a chore. They sold more tickets to freshman this year than all students combined last year. We'll see how many show up but that could have an impact. I at least think this is the last miserable year.

IU could jump to 9th in the Big Ten! And Iowa could jump to 10th. After the horrors over the last 5 years with Northwestern I find it hard to feel any empathy towards Northwestern.

Get them. I renewed again this past summer. Until this week I was wondering why but now I'm halfway excited. I think if nothing else it will be a more watchable team. It's all his guys with the skillsets he wants and they don't look like 15 year olds anymore. Most of the team has gotten yoked up and should be a little tougher. May and Cougill will be able to provide more than I anticipated and Payne will struggle but is probably the best fit at PG Lickliter has had at Iowa. The core isn't that bad. They just can't afford any injuries. I think they'll be about like last year's team but a little more watchable.

So wait, are these new uniforms for 2010 or will they just be worn for one game this year?

OSU's defense is better than advertised. I thought the PSU/OSU game would be close, but I didn't think PSU's offense would be made to look so bad (and Clark, with all due respect, is a lot better than Vandenberg). You also have a backup QB going into a hostile stadium with the Rose Bowl on the line. Good luck to Iowa, but it's not looking good for you... Oh I understand it's a longshot. In regards to their defense, it's also the same unit that gave up over 360 yards to Wisconsin at home and 365 yards along with 26 points to Purdue. Iowa's defense hasn't allowed that many yards all year. I think the two defenses are about equal and Iowa's may be better. Combine that with OSU's offensive struggles and I think it's a low-scoring, close game unless Iowa sets them up. Win the turnover battle and field position game and I don't think we need a lot from Vandenberg.

I'm probably just crazy and homerific but I'm strangely optimistic about this Ohio State game. I watched some of the Northwestern game last night and Vandenberg wasn't nearly as bad as I thought he was in the stadium Saturday. He obviously has a strong arm, decent mobility, made some good decisions and wasn't missing by that much most of the time. A week of practice with the 1's will do him a lot of good. Unfortunately he's facing a much tougher defense in a really tough place to play. I think our defense plays out of their mind and we win some kind of 13-10 type game.

I'm pulling for him to go to Europe. Or UCLA.

Still up in the air with not much way of predicting. Winner of Iowa/OSU goes to Rose Bowl most likely. If Iowa wins it probably shakes out like this: Iowa to the Rose, OSU- Cap One, PSU- Outback, Wisconsin- Champ Sports. If OSU wins you have them to the Rose with Iowa/PSU/Wisconsin all in the mix for the Cap One or Outback. PSU could still lose at Michigan State. Wisconsin plays Michigan and @Northwestern. Iowa finishes with Minnesota. Iowa has been to the Outback 3 times in the last 6 years including last year. So they might be scared the fans won't travel as well as normal. Wisconsin has also been there twice in the last 5 years plus they have a trip to Hawaii in December so that could reduce travel for a bowl game.

You can call it an excuse but I am convinced Iowa wins that game if Stanzi is healthy. As far as the team knocking him out, Iowa's TE/FB screwed up an assignment and let Wooten run free. There was nothing special Northwestern did to knock him out. QB's get hit 10+ times every game. This one just happened to have an odd/fluke/freak landing that injured him. There's nothing you can do to design that to happen.

I thought the same thing last week and you saw how that worked out Well I didn't see a minute of that game so I have to claim ignorance but it doesn't look like Pryor did that much. 8-17 for 125. He did throw 2 TD's and avoid the turnovers and break one long run so he was effective. Still he only sustained one drive of over 50 yards. One TD was only an 8 yard drive and another came on one big play. They had a 47 yard drive for a TD and a 61 yard drive for a FG. All I can really base my hope on is that he gets impatient and forces something, we get a few turnovers and win the field position battle.

Thursday night games are starting already? Were they this soon last year? I was thinking they started at Thanksgiving.

Vandenberg will be better. Not sure he'll be good enough to win but he won't be 9-27 for 82 yards and a pick. The real problem is that we can't run the ball. I'm confident the defense will hold OSU's offense down though. We need a positive (likely +2 or more) turnover margin to win. OSU has a top 10 defense. It's going to be quite difficult for Iowa to do anything on offense, especially since you won't be able to run the ball. True. I also don't think they're going to run on our defense and would like to think we can bait Pryor into getting impatient and throwing a pick or two. I don't expect our offense to put up much at all. Like I said we need to win the turnover margin to win the game and probably by a couple. Will need our defense/special teams to get a score or give the offense short field.

Hopefully it will inspire your fans to rush out and actually make your stadium 1/2 full for your last home game. Do I smell 25,000? Eh, what does it matter. We're somehow never going to beat Northwestern again.

Vandenberg will be better. Not sure he'll be good enough to win but he won't be 9-27 for 82 yards and a pick. The real problem is that we can't run the ball. I'm confident the defense will hold OSU's offense down though. We need a positive (likely +2 or more) turnover margin to win.

I can't believe after all the offseason hoopla that the Vikings have a 3 game lead over both the Bears and Packers at the midway point. And it's a 4 game lead over the Packers with the tiebreaker. Next three games are at home against Detroit, Seattle and Chicago. Have to go 2-1. 3-0 and we could almost have the division wrapped up with 5 games to go. Then again, with the way every season goes with all of my teams it's only a matter of time before Favre or Adrian go down and the season goes up in flames.

Stanzi being out (and the play of Vandenberg Saturday) shifted the line 6-7 points. Last Thursday a guy from one of the Vegas books projected the line as -6 to -6.5 for OSU.

This [expletive] sucks. If it was just a regular loss where we were outplayed but Stanzi was healthy, I would at least think we have a shot at beating OSU and still getting the Rose Bowl. But now it feels like we have about a 5% chance. Vandenberg at least looked like he had a strong arm, he just threw every pass as hard as possible and timing was bad. Obviously total homer take but we win that game with Stanzi. The holding call on Wegher's 65 yard TD was just awful and a total game-changer plus the [expletive] didn't throw the flag until Wegher had busted loose and was gone. Defense was outstanding today again, offense was just inept for the last 3 quarters. Tough to blame them though. We were playing with: #2 QB #4 RB Missing 2 of our top 5 WR's Missing our top o-lineman this year. For all the luck talk, we just got hammered on offense with injuries. When your offense isn't that good to begin with, it just left no margin. Defense stayed pretty clean, just missing Greenwood at safety. What a shitty way for a perfect season to end. Should have known it was too good to be true.