what a great sunday of football. Hopefully all goes as planned tomorrow night - no "they are who we thought they were" moments needed, just a nice win.
Damn we finally lost. EJ Manuel really wasn't that great and neither was the o-line. Then again, we were up against the 2nd best rushing defence in the league and a team that beat the Seahawks so to lose 22-10 isn't all too bad. I've got a feeling the Chargers will make it to the SB
The Eagles are going to give me a heart attack this year. I think our run of come backs will end this week, if we fall behind the 49ers.
I think the Eagles will get a win against 9ers. They've been so ill-disciplined and hey, if Chicago can win against them (which nobody really foresaw), then I think Chip will get it done there. (But that was a great game at the weekend). In Chicago news, I've now watched Monday's game - great to see the team chalking up another win despite not playing great. I am beginning to think that this could be a good season. Cutler has got a fine set of receivers, and he's playing well. Getting back up from that hit in Silicon Valley could be the crucial moment for this year. Also, Kyle Fuller, take a bow. Coming in to a D low on confidence and consistently making plays - so great to see.
Credit to GM Phil Emery. History tells us Chicago 1st round picks might as well be traded like in the Cutler deal because the players they select are generally busts. Emery seems to have stopped the rot and at least the last few players picked are still on the team. I'm hopeful that Fuller can be a dominant player for a long time . Especially since Tillman is gone for the season and probably for ever. In a pass happy division with Rodgers and Stafford a decent cornerback is essential. Now to beat the cheese heads while they are a bit down. Bad day at the office last night for Cousins.
Anyone on here going to the International Series games? I wanted to get a season ticket for the three, but just missed out in my price bracket. Considering going to Regent Street on Sunday, would like to get myself some CHI paraphernalia.
http://tcf.org/blog/detail/what-do-nfl-cheerleaders-have-to-do-with-the-minimum-wage I love me a football sunday, must not lose to the cheeseheads tonight!
Just got back from the game this evening at Wembley. My father-in-law took me as he is a massive Raiders fan, really knows his stuff having been the defence coach of Hertfordshire Stags years ago. He has been to America to see them 3 times but they have always been away games so had never seen them in their home kit until today, he wanted to leave at half time, oh dear! I felt a bit bad for him but it was aided by us being in Club Wembley seats, which are very nice!
Raiders are just dire. One of the most poorly run professional sports organizations in the world. So sad...the league is much better when the Raiders are contenders.
My father-in-law became a fan in the 70's so I think it is something like 83 and 02 when they were divisional champs and the rest of the time has been pretty dire. He has been raging about the team for the past few season and how poorly run they are, getting rid of dead wood and then replacing them with more dead wood! The Raiders fans are great though, was a great day out today, got to Wembley at around 2pm and just spent the hours before in the fans zone drinking and eating. 'Soccer' could learn a lot.
Jay Cutler. Enigma. Leader. A good win last night. I wonder if defences will begin to realise that if you hit Cutler hard he will just get up and play football. 26/38 for 381 yds isn't too bad for Jay. As ever though, it is that elusive quality: consistency. - Gould is now 2nd in team history for made FGs at 242 - Forte is 20th player in history to reach 7000 rushing and 3000 receiving - Marshall is now tied 3rd in team history for most number of 100+ yd games with Ditka, at 14. An interesting evening, all told!
Relatively annoyed that we lost to the Pats but there we go. We could still make it to the play-offs, but it'll have to be a wild card as I don't think our team is strong enough to top the group now
So much for Fortress Soldier Field. Big free agent money paid to Jared Allen & Lamarr Houston for a combined sack total of 1.5 . Waste of money Willie Young, low key FA pick up 7 sacks . Nice move . Mel Tucker should make plans to update his "resume" asap.
The only good thing about Sunday was Brandon Marshall telling it how it is. He's right, it is unacceptable. I'd been pleasantly surprised with Houston and Allen before Sunday, but they were nowhere near on point. Everything was off. Hopefully Mel will be too. I dunno, maybe it's Emery. Maybe it's Cutler. Maybe it's everything. My prediction now is a losing season, something like 6-10. Oh, Lovie Smith... The Chicago Bears are what we thought they were. We let every team off the hook!
Went to the bathroom last night with the Texans up by 10, with 3 minutes left in the half. Came back with 18 seconds left in the half, and they were losing by 11. How does that even happen?
I am off to Wembley on Sunday to watch the NFL game. Never been before, not really sure of the rules, but very much looking forward to it!! Any tips?
Hope you had a good time. Makes a change for a Wembley NFL game to be competitive and exciting. Normally a bit one sided. Good news is three more games scheduled for next season. Two of them in back to back weeks. Seems like it's only a matter of time before London gets a franchise - big question is do they expand, although the current 32 team format is all very symmetrical, or does someone like Jacksonville move across the pond. I think they have to sort the LA situation before they can justify the possibility of a team coming to London. Maybe the prospect of a brand new 50+ million market is too much to ignore. The west coast might take some getting used to a 6:30 am start for their football though !!!
Linslade, you know what although it pains me to say it, this Bears team is one of the most under achieving for many years. It's fair to say that the offence has not been as packed with talent at the skill positions since the the prime years of the 80's. Back then the defence rightly so got all the credit but the offence had the greatest running back of all time, a maverick but capable QB and a world record athlete at WR. This offence, given their depth as a group of players as at least on par with that team on paper but fails to deliver on grass. True they are not getting much help from the defence but were they expected to ? Someone is going to have to answer some tough questions come the end of the season unless their is some major improvements in the second half of the season. Trestman has his work cut out over the bye week. The only saving grace at 3-5 is that they are not going to be in a position to stuff it up at the final hurdle - better to know now the season is over rather than the last quarter of week 17 !!!
I've seen lots of comments on the lines of "[the Bears] are becoming the new Lions". It sure looks like it. Something needs to be done to stop the rot now. I certainly don't expect Tucker to be at Halas Hall next year. 31 points in one quarter?! Ouch! The bye-week cannot have been placed better this season, although I hate to admit it, I can honestly see CHI losing all of the remaining games. If we're specifically talking '85 then everything was optimised - from coaching through to each position. The NFL Network film on that team is a great watch. In comparison with that period, there doesn't appear to be an innate belief that this is a team of winners and professionals - I can't believe Da Coach would have tolerated Lamarr Houston's antics. It seems like there is a great percentage who are just phoning it in. At least we may get a high first round pick next year...
What has happened to San Diego ? I've been away the last two Sundays and so haven't been able to watch anything . A couple of weeks ago they were a hot team losing a tight game against KC, now they have imploded. Rivers was an early MVP candidate, now he's laying big fat zeros !!!
