The Bears can't afford to fumble their chance to beat up on an NFL patsy.
As we've discussed, it's the year of the blowout in the NFL. We know that Vegas bookies are taking a bath as one creampuff after another gets trounced by double-digit margins. Hard to believe there are still three winless teams (the Rams and Buccaneers at 0-7, the Titans at 0-6). Among the teams with only one victory are the Cleveland Browns, who visit Soldier Field on Sunday. Just what the Bears need: a truly awful opponent.
But the way the Bears were outclassed Sunday, you could argue they have "awful" potential themselves. Lovie Smith has stressed that the 45-10 shellacking in Cincinnati was just one game, and the bookies are expecting a big bounce-back this weekend. How about you?
Vinny Del Negro's Bulls will seek to improve on their 41-41 record of last season.
UPDATE: Last chance, Bulls fans: Get your prediction in before tonight's tipoff against the Spurs -- how many wins for the Bulls this season and how far do they advance in the playoffs? So far, we have Tim as the leading optimist with 55 wins and a possible Eastern finals berth. Drew (54) and RPK (53, 2nd-round exit) are close behind, followed by Villano (51, 2nd round), Seedy (48), Keith (46, 1st round), Tim Little (45, 2nd round), Qumar (43) and then Hitman and yours truly at 42 (hey, Hitman, we finally agree on something!). Get your prediction in by 7 p.m. Central and we'll see who was right come April.
By popular demand -- OK, by Edgar's demand -- we present our Bulls' season preview post, in which we solicit your predictions on what their final regular-season record will be and how far you foresee them advancing in the playoffs.
Mark McGwire may be beloved in St. Louis, but he will be scrutinized elsewhere.
I thought it was a joke, a baseless Internet rumor, when I first heard about it Sunday: Mark McGwire, disgraced home run king, coming out of seclusion after eight years to become hitting coach for Tony La Russa and the St. Louis Cardinals? Preposterous!
I double-checked my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1. McGwire, who has been allergic to the public eye in general and the media in particular since his infamous appearance before the 2005 Congressional steroids hearings, accepting a job that will put him back in a baseball uniform for an entire major-league season? What's next, I wondered: Sammy Sosa coming back to the Cubs as team captain?
Browns QB Derek Anderson feels the pain during Sunday's 31-3 loss to Green Bay.
If you're a Bears fan who wasted three hours of your life watching the 45-10 debacle Sunday at Cincinnati, you don't need any further rehashing here of how excruciating that ordeal was. Many of you already have vented your spleen on the previous thread, and your criticisms of Lovie Smith and his admittedly embarrassed players were dead-on.
You can read all about it elsewhere on this site: Neil Hayes calls it possibly the worst loss in franchise history, given the hype surrounding Jay Cutler and the fact the Bears were mere one-point underdogs. Mike Mulligan says this could be the death knell of the Bears' Tampa-2 defense. And no one is happier today than former Bears castoff Ced Benson, who rushed for a career-high 189 yards.
Ex-Bear Cedric Benson has been finding plenty of running room in Cincinnati.
So many story angles to Bears vs. Bengals: Cedric Benson accusing his former team of trying to blackball him while flashing the running ability with the Bengals that we never saw in Chicago. Tank Johnson, embroiled in controversy during his stint with the Bears, claiming to be a new man in Cincinnati. The wacky Chad Ochocinco twittering up a storm all week, talking trash with various Bears while also sending congratulatory tweets to Jay Cutler on his contract extension. And, oh yes, the game itself (which has been moved back to a 3:15 p.m. Central start to maximize the Fox viewing audience).
What looked like an easy game when the Bears' schedule was released last spring now looms as another rugged road assignment. The Bengals are off to a surprising 4-2 start, with victories over Pittsburgh and at Green Bay (where the Bears were unable to win), and they understandably have been installed as 1 1/2-point favorites. But in spite of all the Bears' flaws that were exposed in Atlanta, I look for them to walk away from this one with a victory.
Derrick Rose has been glued to the bench for most of the preseason by an ankle injury.
A week from tonight, the Bulls finally tip off the regular season against the San Antonio Spurs. This seemingly endless preseason -- extended due to the London trip -- has been made even more excruciating by the absence of Derrick Rose, who sustained an ankle injury in the first game and hasn't been back since.
As the mysterious injury lingers on, concern has grown about whether Rose will be ready for Opening Night. Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro didn't put minds at ease the other day when he allowed that it was ''within the realm of possibility" that his star point guard wouldn't be ready for the opener. It's enough to make a Bulls fan extremely nervous.
Jay Cutler figures to give the Bears stability at quarterback for many years to come.
Major news broke Tuesday night (reported first by Mike Mulligan on suntimes.com): Jay Cutler has agreed to a contract extension that will keep the 26-year-old quarterback with the Bears at least through 2013 and make him one of the NFL's five highest-paid QBs. If you're a Bears fan, you have to be thrilled that there won't be any contractual controversy involving the team's franchise player for the foreseeable future.
Kyle Orton guided the Broncos to another upset victory Monday night at San Diego.
It's the last thing we would have expected coming out of the preseason: Kyle Orton, who was error-prone and injured while the Broncos were losing all four of their exhibition games, is playing like a Pro Bowl quarterback for a Denver team that is 6-0 after Monday's convincing 34-23 victory at San Diego.
Meanwhile, in Minnesota, 40-year-old Brett Favre has found the fountain of youth in leading the Vikings to a 6-0 start. Despite first declining to come of retirement and then, after changing his mind once again, barely breaking a sweat in the preseason, Favre is flashing his gun-slinging style, rallying Minnesota to yet another come-from-behind victory Sunday over Baltimore.
Orton and the Broncos. Favre and the Vikings. Who has been the NFL's biggest surprise so far this season? Here's my top-5 list:
Jay Cutler was pressured by a Falcons defense that shut down the Bears' run game.
Yes, the Bears let one get away. The conventional wisdom entering Sunday night's game in Atlanta was that Jay Cutler would have to have a huge passing night and it would take a high-scoring effort for Lovie Smith's charges to prevail in a raucous Georgia Dome.
As it turns out, the defense more than held its own against Matt Ryan & Co., but Cutler could have used a little help from his friends. The running game was non-existent, a fumble and two Cutler interceptions short-circuited drives and nine penalties further gummed up the works. And yet, just like on an earlier Sunday night in Green Bay, the Bears were still in the game in the final minute before failing on fourth-and-six from the Falcons' 10.
Quarterback Matt Ryan (left) and running back Michael Turner lead Atlanta's offense.
No less an authority than Hub Arkush, editor/publisher of Pro Football Weekly and longtime Bears radio analyst, calls it his Lock of the Week: The Atlanta Falcons will beat the Bears handily on Sunday night, their potent offense -- led by Matt Ryan and Michael Turner -- posing too many problems for Lovie Smith's suspect defense.
The Falcons are three-point favorites, playing at home in their dome and fresh off an impressive 45-10 rout of the 49ers at San Francisco. If the underdog Bears were to win, it would be quite an accomplishment, a victory that could stamp them as genuine Super Bowl contenders. But, what exactly will it take to get the job done?
Rush Limbaugh has been silenced in a preemptive strike by NFL powers-that-be.
Well, we could all see this coming: Rush Limbaugh has been dropped from a group seeking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Although the conservative radio talk-show host was going to be only a limited partner in a bid led by St. Louis Blues chairman Dave Checketts, the group will proceed without him after it was determined that Limbaugh's participation had "complicated" their efforts. You think?!?
Believe me, I'm no fan of Rush or his politics. But I can't help but wonder whether he has been treated unfairly in this case.
Bills fans sound off about Dick Jauron during Sunday's dismal loss to the Browns.
We're only five weeks into the NFL season, but it's already time to speculate about which beleaguered coach will be the first to get axed. There are no less than four coaches who, based on early returns, might not make it to the finish line.
Let's start with the Bears' connection: Dick Jauron's loyalty to offensive coordinator John Shoop played a big part in his downfall in Chicago. Ironically, he has the opposite problem in Buffalo: Jauron jettisoned offensive coordinator Turk Schonert after the Bills struggled to score in the preseason, and Buffalo has been rendered totally impotent on offense. Rock bottom may have been reached last Sunday, an ugly 6-3 loss to the equally inept Cleveland Browns.
Hawks players raise their sticks after rallying for a 6-5 overtime win Monday.
This was supposed to be a blog post about Chris Chelios and his inspirational comeback attempt with the AHL's Wolves. It was pretty much written and ready to go. But, we interrupt that moving tribute to the indomitable spirit of the 47-year-old future Hall of Famer to bring you this late-breaking news flash:
Torii Hunter gets a bubbly bath from teammates Howie Kendrick and Chone Figgins.
Sweep, sweep, sweep: Three of the four baseball division series were three-and-out for the luckless losers -- and to think, the Cubs weren't even involved this year!
Before we salute the achievements of the Dodgers, Angels and Yankees, another personal pet peeve (yes, just like the throwback uniforms ... did everyone enjoy the Broncos' Milk Duds look Sunday?) -- It's one of the great mysteries of professional sports, one that defies logic but is perpetuated every October: Why do baseball teams feel the need to spray champagne after winning a first-round playoff series?
Defensive end Adewale Ogunleye sacks Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford.
So the Bears do have a running game. And a pass rush. And they can win without going right down to the wire. There was a lot to like about their 48-24 taming of the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
Yes, things were dicey in the first half as rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford marched the Lions up and down the field, including a 98-yard TD drive. But when Johnny Knox returned the second-half kickoff 102 yards for a score, the Bears seized the lead and never looked back en route to boosting their record to 3-1 entering a bye week.
The Bears need to put the heat on Lions rookie quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The Detroit Lions haven't had a winning season since 2000. They finally managed to win a game last Sunday, snapping a 19-game losing streak with a 19-14 victory over Washington. The chances of them coming into Chicago and winning for a second consecutive week? Next to none, right? The oddmakers certainly think so, installing the Bears as 10-point favorites.
So why do I get the feeling that this one will be another nail-biter?
Pedestrians pass a giant TV promoting Chicago's Olympic bid near Daley Plaza.
OK, we here at Full Court Press have put it off long enough. We've listened to all the debate about Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid. We've read the opinions of the local newspaper columnists, from the wary skepticism of the Sun-Times' Rick Telander to the near-unanimous endorsement from the Tribune's ensemble. Now it's time we posed the question to you:
Do you hope to hear Chicago's name called shortly before noon (Central time) on Friday, when the International Olympic Committee announces the 2016 host city? Why or why not?
