bmags

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 08:23 PM) Teams don't get to make their own schedules, other than being able to list a few weekends when their stadium would be unavailable for a home game. I know, the point is that the bears offensive line usually starts off absolutely woeful. So it helps to start off with an easy schedule, like we have. This team will start to look better as our team gets its act together upfront. Tice did a much better job getting help on the outside this game. Frankly, with Marshall, we can now basically run passing routes with 2 receivers and a bunch of protection and trust Cutler to find him and Marshall to get open. We just have to get that combo time and it will payoff. Also: Henry Melton is awesome.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Oct 3, 2012 -> 04:09 AM) Yeah, I probably would. But it wasn't a woman. It was a guy. And as weird as it is to teabag a complete stranger, I still don't know if he deserves jail time. Anyway, just a lesson for everyone else out there. Don't be stupid. What if it was a homeless man that did it and not some dumbass drunk college kid.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 03:26 PM) De Aza, Dunn and Konerko all hurt and Youkilis beat up will do that to an offense. Its easy to say its a choke, especially after they score at will once its all over, but as was stated previously, the tank was at E. There aren't many teams that can play with their 1,2,3 and 4 hitters hurt and score consistently. The Sox were really beat up this year. Probably more beat up than any year I can remember. Perhaps we should stop relying on a 3-4-5 of people 34+ with injury histories and start developing dynamic young position players.

The bears should definitely try to schedule the easy part of their schedules early in the season. Why? Because it appears inevitable that it takes 6 games for our Oline to work out the kinks and coaches to figure out the best protection schemes. The bears haven't played incredible football their first 4 games, but they are 3-1. In my estimation, they will get better as the season goes along. Unfortunately, it's also possible they get ravaged by injuries again.

I don't see how we can blame september on pitching. Short of getting a string of shutouts, when we were in the race and trying desperately not to lose, I couldn't help but look at the offense and wonder how we had gotten to this point. I feel like we rarely had a lead in the first 5 innings on ANY of the games in september. We were constantly shut out the first 5 innings and playing catch up. Our offense was just awful in september.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 01:15 PM) While mostly good, keep in mind a single crown or root canal will cost 1200$ or more...and the maximum is 2000$. So, essentially, don't let something major happen more than once a year and I'm ok. Even with good insurance, dental work tends to be pretty overpriced. But once again, this isn't the insurance company screwing us, it's the dentists. One of my best friends father is a dentist (just retiring), so I have a bit of insider info on these types of things...if you get a crown, the tooth they have to make in a lab costs about 200$-230$ to make, $230 model using top end base metals...yet they charge you upwards of 800$ for that tooth, and then the labor makes up for the remaining 1000-1200$ bill your insurance company will receive. I know, because I just received one. But once again, not the insurance companies fault that the markup on what should cost about 400$ to have done costs 1200$ instead. but anyway, I just ended up paying 65% of my cleaning bill. I have to call them today to see if that's accurate. If they don't cover that...smh

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 01:15 PM) While mostly good, keep in mind a single crown or root canal will cost 1200$ or more...and the maximum is 2000$. So, essentially, don't let something major happen more than once a year and I'm ok. Even with good insurance, dental work tends to be pretty overpriced. But once again, this isn't the insurance company screwing us, it's the dentists. One of my best friends father is a dentist (just retiring), so I have a bit of insider info on these types of things...if you get a crown, the tooth they have to make in a lab costs about 200$-230$ to make, $230 model using top end base metals...yet they charge you upwards of 800$ for that tooth, and then the labor makes up for the remaining 1000-1200$ bill your insurance company will receive. I know, because I just received one. But once again, not the insurance companies fault that the markup on what should cost about 400$ to have done costs 1200$ instead. They also prevented dental hygeinists from performing cleanings on their own, which would drive down cleaning appointment costs. ^this is something ACA addresses, too, btw.

I'm glad the refs that came back ended that pass interference fest that was the first 3 weeks. I agree that regular refs make bad calls, but it's just nice to see the game move quickly and decisions made fast.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 2, 2012 -> 01:22 PM) That was just a thorough, team victory. You could see Cutler gaining confidence in that second half, confidence he sorely needed. Things are looking good with the Jags on Sunday afternoon and then the BYE. It's easy to gain confidence when you aren't on your back. It's amazing isn't it, when you give your quarterback time to find his receiver he looks great.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Sep 30, 2012 -> 02:38 PM) With insurance my fillings and checkups are 100% covered...crowns and root canals are 80%. That is, to a maximum of 2,000$ a year. Damn dude.

Jesus, i would take Bush for chris johnson in a heartbeat. I'm currently starting Daniel Thomas over him.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 10:00 PM) I'm not into having 250+ cloudy/rainy days per year, I'm not into coffee, and Seattle is really far from the rest of the country, so it rates pretty low in my book. The entire state of Florida is too humid for my tastes. I think you should visit seattle. I feel like that's saying someone would never live in Chicago because they don't like deep dish or snow.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 08:17 PM) Yeah, some cities are great for visiting, but not great for living in. Memphis being a prime example. Same with New Orleans. But Miami and Seattle?

QUOTE (whitesox901 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 09:23 PM) but, it lays ground work, and it helps us see what our weaknesses are (too many low OBP hitters, for example). seems like it's been that way for the last 8 years.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Sep 28, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) I'm pretty sure everyone had that fear. I know I stated it pre-season in my predictions, and so did many others. The rotation just screamed that. This was a year to stretch guys out - which is good for 2013, but not so good for 2012. I know pitching hasn't been stellar, but even if it was, we are talking about needing 1 ER or less each game to prevent this losing streak. Our offense has been woeful. The next few years they are going to need to find some young power and fast. But Danks would have been so helpful this year.

I find the framing of this as just people who work hard and those who don't to just be odd and misplaced.

I'm just so bummed. It's so god damn hard to win a division in baseball, it takes so much longer to build a team to do it, and you need good luck with injuries. To get this close and just completely s*** the bed against bad teams is just damn hard to take.

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 03:58 PM) I'd love to buy him low right now, but that's the problem. His value is so low that I don't think Johnson owners would even want to move him. They wouldn't get anything of value in return, so why not just keep him on the bench and hope he turns it around. If I had Chris Johnson, I'd only trade him for a Steven Ridley-type. But, if I was offered like Peyton Hillis or someone like that, I'd just say heck no. Exactly. Unfortunately to get a good RB at this point I"ll have to move one of my good pieces and just hope CJ can get good enough to trade and try to replace that previous production. It is unbelievable how bad he is. In the modern NFL, it seems like you can basically plug anyone in at RB and get pretty consistent production. At least 3 ypc. He can't even manage 1 ypc. He is AWFUL.

Even when Forte was in, Bush is getting the goal line carries.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Sep 27, 2012 -> 01:50 AM) Yep, donor states is the dirty secret that Republicans and Democrats dont want anyone to know about. Democrats dont want their constituents to know that they are subsidizing the people who always complain about govt spending. Republicans dont want their constituents to know that they are the ones who are getting the hand outs they constantly complain about. I don't think so, as a democrat one of the things I don't like is poverty. I don't want people to starve to death just because they don't vote with me.

Nice. I'm headed to knoxville November 9th. I'm pretty excited.

Yes, a train linking the 2nd, 8th, and 14th most populous cities in the united states is going from "nowhere to nowhere".

QUOTE (dasox24 @ Sep 26, 2012 -> 09:13 PM) Welcome to my world. Tennessee's special teams have been awful since I started school. We signed the #1 kicker and #1 punter in the nation (according to Rivals) 2 years ago and we still stuck. We're using a walk on, 3rd string kicker right now. And we have missed 3 extra point attempts in 4 games. As a Bears fan, I've been spoiled with great special teams, which makes it tough watching my college team suck so much at it. Holy crap. We're they just terrible or did they get injured?

Cripes.

Adam Schefter ‏@AdamSchefter As @mortreport is reporting, an agreement between NFL and NFLRA is at hand and both sides will work to have officials working this weekend.