Archive for October, 2007

I wouldn’t expect much from the Bulls this year.

A lot of talk is swirling about the Bulls being a top playoff team, coming out to represent the East in the NBA Finals. Who would ever say that about a team that lost its major scoring presence in the paint. That being 6′9″ 450lb. center Michael Sweetney.

The Bulls will try to replace Sweetney with two young players, Tyrus Thomas and rookie Joakim Noah, whose weight hardly equals the power of MS. That combined with the free agent acquisition of the comparably scrawny veteran Joe Smith makes me feel uneasy about the Bulls’ chances this season. It just leaves the question we’ve been wondering about since we knew Mike would not be a Bull anymore: how do you replace a legend?

How can an aging veteran and two budding sprouts be expected to fill the shoes of a man when they need all three of them together to fit into his jersey? You can only play one person at the 4 spot at a time; duh.

I wish John Paxson and Scott Skiles luck in trying to fill such gaping, massive, empty hole in the Bulls’ lineup. We can only hope that the Bulls can acquire Kobe Bryant to at least contribute half as much as the great Mike Sweetney did on a nightly basis.

Godspeed, Mike. Chicago loves you.

AJD

I learned something this weekend: TV and radio make instant replay way more understandable.

What seemed to me as some questionable officiating and mysterious replay calls turned out not to be as severe as I thought, as the Illini fell to Michigan. At the time, in a close game, the calls seemed so desperately important. However, after a few deflating poor plays by the Illinois special teams, they appeared hardly important at all. Kyle Hudson’s muffed punt, and a “crack under the pressure” 25-yard line drive shank by Anthony Santella showed that the Illini still have a lot of youth and a lot of growing to do before they are conference contenders.

The quarterback tandem of Juice Williams and Eddie McGee was extremely unproductive. It looked as though the Illini abandoned the option in the 2nd half of the game. Without TV to tell me, I can only assume that Michigan’s defense, despite losing nine starters from last season, still has some strong recruits, and a lot of pure speed to beat that spread option offense. Need only one to become bowl-eligible for the first time since 2001.

The Bears snuck past Philadelphia behind the much-maligned-by-the-scrawl Brian Griese. He’s making good decisions, being elusive, and getting the ball out quickly. However, Cedric Benson may very well be worse than Rashaan Salaam. His “run and fall down” technique is not very impressive. I understand that the offensive line isn’t always giving him large seams to work with, but even when he does get through a crease, he can never get past the second level. He has no moves, his power is not what we thought it was, and he is generally a big bust, thus far.

Soon, we’ll have the Bulls to talk about! Hopefully that Kobe talk keeps swirling…

AJD

What a mess. A Super Bowl hangover of the worst kind has set in at Halas Hall.

The Bears loss to the Vikings wasn’t just particularly gut-wrenching, it was also embarassing. The icing on the cake was the 60-yard kick return by Adrian Peterson to set up a Ryan Longwell field goal as time expired.

The Bears haven’t been able to do much this year. When they get good defensive play, they haven’t been able to score. When they score, they can’t seem to find any defense.

Here’s the real story: the Bears traded Chris Harris.

We had to watch Brandon McGowan dance around Adrian Peterson, Danieal Manning try to play cornerback and gently nudge Adrian Peterson, Adam Archuleta gimp down the field 30 yards behind Adrian Peterson, because we traded Chris Harris due to our “satisfaction with our depth” at the position.

The Bears would love to have Chris Harris right about now.

Cubs lose. Duh. Who didn’t see that coming?

More important is our state’s complete dominance over our lactosely-gifted brethren from the North. Illinois “took care of business” as the 2 1/2 point favorites, covering the spread and beating Wisconsin 31-26 behind their deadly combination of running the ball and stopping the run. The Bears snuck by the Pack 27-20 in Lambeau after a disappointing first half, a comittment to the run, and a horrible Packers game plan.

Both teams stuck with the run, which proved important. The Illini’s ability to run the ball is deadly. An effective running game controls the clock, keeping the opponent’s offense off the field for long periods of time. For the Illini, though, it serves almost in a similar way to a big passing game, as well. The Illini break off huge chunks of yardage quite often, and some of their entirely run-based drives will only shave 4-5 minutes off the clock. They are just too good at running to knock away enough clock. I guess I’ll take it.

For the Bears, it was completely different. They were incredibly unsuccessful gaining any sort of yardage off of the run, but they stuck with it. The Bears proved that they were ready to stick with the run, and the Packers had to respect that. It set up Griese’s 34-yard TD pass to Desmond Clark, over the head of the safety that bit on the play fake, to win the game. The Bears used Cedric Benson’s “run and fall down” technique to 27 carries for 61 yards, a 2.4 ypc, to set up the game-winning play.

Benson needs some coaching, or some offensive line help, or something, because the Bears’ running game is a mess. But, they are holding it together, and are now back in the hunt at 2-3.

Mendenhall- Heisman?

AJD

This has been ugly so far. I’ve given up most hope. There’s a culture difference that I want to bring up real quick before I head to Champaign for another game.

Cardinals fans have been a little ignited by the apparent firing of Walt Jocketty. It was probably a tough move to make, and if it was a clear firing, it was probably dumb. Most things I’ve read make it seem like a mutual decision. However, one thing is apparent: the Cardinals missed the playoffs, and that is a big deal.

The Cubs made the playoffs this year, and we’ve treated it as a monumental acheivement. We accepted the 79-83 and 66-96 seasons in stride, business as usual. That’s a difference that I’m not sure will ever change. It needs to be a big deal when the Cubs have a terrible, losing season, and it has to be normal to be a playoff team. Or else, another 100 years is going to go by without much success.

We’ll see what Rich Hill can do…

AJD

Ok, I was going to write about Griese and Grossman and the Bears offensive abomination. But let me sum that up real quick so we can talk about good stuff.

I think Griese is way worse than Grossman. He brings all the turnovers and poor-decision making to the table, along with absolutely no ability to stretch the field, and a questionable rapport with his teammates. Bears stink.

So Ron Zook is on the trail to shoving a bunch of wins and a bowl game in my face after being an extreme doubter. And I am so pumped. The Illini have some real excitement brewing in Champaign. There was some good play on special teams (????) some big defensive stops (????!?!?!?!?!) and some offensive touchdowns (!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???????!!!!!!!!!!!???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!?!?!???????!!!!!!!!).

I was frightened the entire time. Arrelious Benn is the real deal…so far. He’s big and fast, and that’s a pretty deadly combination for an 18-year old. Vontae Davis has improved his play at cornerback since his burst onto the scene as a freshman last year. Dere Hicks complements him well. Martez Wilson is in and making big plays, subbing in for Brit Miller. They are exciting.

They need more consistent quarterback play. I’m not sure who is starting on Saturday, but Juice Williams was pulled in the fourth to give way to Eddie McGee, who quickly bust off a 53-yard run. Rashard Mendenhall and Daniel “Andy” Dufrene take a lot of the pressure off, but it hasn’t been enough yet. Benn is a 100-yd a game receiver, but he needs a consistent quarterback to get the ball to him.

Keep winning.

The Cubs crawled into the MLB playoffs with a victory on Friday, coupled with yet another Milwaukee loss. All the Cubs had to do was get swept by Florida to make the playoffs!

But, I’m over the ridiculously bad division, and the pretty average record, and the 2-4 finish. Let’s make a playoff roster prediction!!

Piniella said that the team will carry 11 pitchers and 14 position players. I’m still not sure if Daryle Ward has a shot, depending on his injury, but barring injury, he’s in. I don’t know if this is dumb or not, but let’s try it:

Catchers - Kendall, Soto (already in, apparently)

Infielders - Lee (1b), DeRosa (2b), Theriot (ss), Ramirez (3b), Fontenot (Util.), Ward (IF/OF), Cedeno (2b/ss)

Outfielders - Soriano, Jones, Floyd, Murton, Pie

Pitchers - Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Marquis, Marmol, Dempster, Howry, Wuertz, Wood, Hart, Eyre.

OK, so that was way harder than I expected it to be. Wood isn’t even a question to me after his last few appearances. I think Kevin Hart has played his way on…and I think he’s eligible. No way I would keep Trachsel over any of these pitchers. I want to think Sean Marshall could make it, but it would leave off either Scott Eyre or Hart. The real news: Trachsel sucks.

Daryle Ward’s health will affect the way the position players are set up. If he’s too hurt to play, Craig Monroe or even Sam Fuld could get a shot. I think the Cubs have to keep Cedeno to give them a backup at shortstop. Monroe has been largely useless for them, while Felix Pie has at least speed and defense.

The great thing about the playoffs: everyone gets a shot. This is the big story, so we’ll be following this one quite a bit.

Next up - Griese grosses out Grossman, out-grosses Grossman in gross amount of gross interceptions to Griese’s greasy handed receivers.