Jenksismyhero

Congrats dude! It's truly a life changing experience and I wouldn't change it for the world.

http://myfox8.com/2013/01/06/ga-mom-shoots...saves-children/ She should have waited for the cops...

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jan 6, 2013 -> 01:13 PM) Watched the first Downton Abbey last night. Color me impressed. #instantlyhooked If it were on in the middle of the day it would be a soap opera and i'd laugh at my wife for watching. Yet there I was yesterday, being excited for the 2 hour premiere. And it was pretty good.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Jan 6, 2013 -> 02:51 PM) Band of Brothers was amazing. The Pacific was awful. I have HBO for GOT and Boardwalk Empire. The only other time I watch it is for boxing. I'm basically paying $120 a year for 2 shows. f*** that. I'm getting rid of HBO and I'm off to torrent land. Couldn't disagree more. I think BoB's factual history lent itself to being a better mini-series. You could follow the same core group of guys through key points in the war. That, and it was one of the first mini-series of its kind. In dealing with the Pacific you had to skip around to different groups to capture some of the bigger battles/experiences. If BoB was an A, I think The Pacific was a B+ at worst.

Heat with just about every call in the 4th

QUOTE (farmteam @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 12:27 PM) Maybe Paul will go off for 45 again? From what I've read/seen this year, it seems like he's more consistent, but he was always a guy that could go for 40 or 4, and you didn't know which it would be. Where's that consistency coming from this year? Better shot selection? General improvement from the offseason? Groce's style better suits him? I think he just had a good run of games to start the season. The last 3-4 games he's come back down to earth. The only main difference is that he's taken on the role as the go-to guy in big situations, and he's purposefully driving to the basket more, but he still has a tendency to not move without the ball and rely too much on his jump shot. That's the problem with the hole team really except for Abrams. In thinking about the last few games, the recipe to beat Illinois is to slow it down and make them work in the half court. Teams that tried to run got outrun (everyone in Maui and Gonzaga), except for Missouri. But Missouri didn't stop Illinois from scoring, it was mainly that Illinois couldn't stop dribble penetration and Missouri eventually made a couple of plays on consecutive possessions to pull it out. Georgia Tech, Purdue, Auburn and all the crappy small schools deliberately took 25 seconds per possession and stopped Illinois' transition game. And that resulted in grind it out wins or in the case of Purdue a loss. I think if OSU wants to run, Illinois can beat them and it'll be a game in the high 70's/80's. If not, Illinois loses by 4-6 points in the 60's/low 70's.

QUOTE (IlliniKrush @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:51 AM) I'll be at the game tomorrow, here's hoping Paul feels like going nuts again. If I had to guess, I'd say OSU pulls it out by 5-7, just don't have a good feeling. One positive is that we struggle against teams that drive well, but OSU is not that team and Craft isn't that guy. But I don't really know how we'll have any answer for Thomas and could see us going pretty deep on the bench if/when everyone's racking up fouls. I'd be more confident if they were playing well at home, but they actually play better away from home. Or maybe it's the fact that they play to the level of their competition. Who knows. I'm excited either way and think it'll be a good game.

Were those flukes? Or DJ's good coaching?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 12:03 PM) I thought that was 04-05? Ha at myself. It was actually 2001. God that's so long ago.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:54 AM) You mean when it was Dick Jauron coaching, and not Lovie Smith? I thought that was 04-05?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:49 AM) He was. He also had one of the greatest offenses ever assembled and was an incredible offensive mind. With a particular set of hall of fame players, yes. In Detroit, San Fran and Chicago he sucked.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:43 AM) Good coaches win games through "lucky defensive plays or special teams plays", that is how it is done. You dont just minus out those victories from a coaches record because of the way it was done. By your definition every interception that ever happened could be considered a fluke or lucky. The offense consistently sucked in Lovies tenure, there is no getting around it. But there isnt just offense and defense. there is offense, defense and special teams, and Lovies teams consistently performed above average in 2 out of those 3 facets of the game. Its not worth arguing with you about because you dont like Lovie and I am glad he is gone and looking forward to the next era. No, it's when those interceptions literally win the game for you that it becomes a fluke. I mean seriously, when you watched that season when Mike Brown and the defense won 2-3 games in a row in the last 5-6 minutes, that's normal? That's not fluky? No one ever stepped back and thought "s***, this team is not nearly as good as their record, we got bailed out by those lucky plays?" Devin Hester returning kicks against Arizona - no one else though that was lucky the Bears came back and escaped with a win? At some point yeah, you chalk it up to good players making good plays in a good defensive scheme. But everyone that paid attention to those games knew the team wasn't as good as the record indicated. And the reason is that everyone knew those wins should not have been wins because of those lucky plays. Edit: and that final point is basically where we've been under Lovie Smith his entire tenure - you KNEW the team wasn't as good as the record because you KNEW how incredibly flawed the team was.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:40 AM) Really? A .560 winning percentage is well above average. This is a league of parody. The dude is well above .500 in a league where it is difficult to be much more then a couple games over .500 typically. Mike Martz had a .624 winning percentage. Above average!

QUOTE (whitesoxfan99 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:13 AM) Lovie did not do a good job picking offensive coordinators but please list the good offenses in the NFL that have had QBs the caliber of Orton or Grossman or an offensive line as bad as the Bears have had the last few years. I think you will fine that with few exceptions, they don't exist. This makes total sense, unfortunately it's still Lovie's fault for advising Angelo or failing to advice Angelo that he needed offensive players and not defensive players. And from all indications, Lovie was involved in personnel decisions, even if the ultimate decision was the GM's.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 11:06 AM) And I would like to know how you can discredit his entire defense as being lucky and based on flukes. Reread what I posted - I've said 10-15 of his victories have come from lucky defensive plays or special teams plays. Not sure how anyone can really dispute that. This year against the Panthers - is Newton throwing a pick 6 in the closing minutes good coaching? Or a fluke? I've credited Lovie for bringing in his defensive scheme and coaching up the defense. I refuse to consider him "above average," however, for being good at half of the game of football.

Yeah HBO used to be overpriced, but now with GO it's worth it. You can watch their "good" catalog (the bombs and flops aren't available) at anytime. During the breaks between shows - like now until March 31st when GOT comes back - I catch up on old stuff during my commute home on the train. I've watched all of Entourage again (first season was so much better than the last few), Generation Kill, and Boardwalk. I'm thinking about starting up The Wire again...it's been a few years. I which Showtime would come out with a similar app for Android. Nothing yet though.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:58 AM) Nothing I will say will change your mind. You already think everything he does is based on luck and flukes. Why bother arguing with you? I never said he was the best ever, but he is above average It won't change my mind, I just want to know how you can label him as above average given the results over the last 9 years.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:49 AM) Gruden's offenses in TB his last 6 years ranked closer to the bottom than the top of the league. I am not in anyway saying the Bears should go after Gruden or that he's the best coach available. I'm just saying what he did with the Raiders and Tampa is proof that he's not a terrible coach.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:47 AM) LOL. You wont give Lovie any credit for anything. At least you are consistent with that. He wasnt the best coach ever, but he was definitely above average How is a .560 winning percentage and playoff appearances 3 times in 9 years, going 3-3, "above average?" He was a good defensive coach and a f***ing horrendous offensive coach. That's indisputable. How can you just ignore half of his job?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:41 AM) Every other team emphasizes those things, but few if any other teams have produced nearly as consistently at those things as the Lovie Smith-coached Bears have. I can't find rankings by defensive scores, but the Bears are one of several teams that have been consistently good at takeaways. They're not a far and away better team though. http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/takeaways-per-game

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:38 AM) What about the last 6 years of his career, was he just "unlucky". Jon Gruden hasn't won a playoff game in 10 years. No, I think his hall of fame defensive players got old and Tampa gave up a ton to get Gruden so they couldn't draft good players going forward. I admit he took over a really good defensive team that Dungy built, but he did make them a better offensive team and still was able to get them to the playoffs. If Lovie could have gotten his offense to be even average over the last 9 years the Bears would have been in the Superbowl a few times.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:35 AM) When it happens on a consistent basis with Brown, Hester, and Tillman, it isn't luck. It's a mindset he instilled in the players on how to attack players. It's just unfortunate that he basically ignored the offense and always tried to make it too conservative. This is on him and is why he had to be fired. Every other team emphasizes turnovers. Every other team tries to turnover the ball and return kicks/punts for touchdowns. Lovie just happened to have maybe the best special teams coach ever, the best return man ever, and some really good defensive players. But good defensive players don't magically cause stupid QB's to throw terrible pick-6's.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:22 AM) There is nothing about Jon Gruden's coaching record that says anyone should want him. People just see him on tv and drool and say "give me" because they are familiar. I think bringing back a terrible Raiders franchise, making them a top team in the AFC and a superbowl contender, and then beating that team with another team he coached is pretty impressive. Overrated? Probably. But still good.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jan 4, 2013 -> 10:01 AM) thats fine. its wrong, but thats fine. Apparently St Louis and Tampa were all lucky when Lovie was there too. Lovie was a linebacker coach at Tampa when Tampa was bad to average. And St. Louis didn't win because of defense. He made them better, but they weren't winning because of defensive touchdowns. Not sure how his prior coaching is relevant. Anyone who objectively looks at some of the defense plays made over the course of Lovie's career has to chalk it up as luck. I'm sorry, but winning games with Mike Brown interceptions for touchdowns or Hester returns for touchdowns is fluky. I'm not saying Lovie shouldn't get credit - he's a great defensive coach who has had/drafted/coached up good defensive players. But the his winning percentage is probably 10-15 wins (or more) too high if you take away some of the lucky plays. Calvin Johnson's bogus non-TD call last year, the late TD interception against the Panthers this year, etc.

The cheapest way is to sign up for HBO for a month and watch them on HBOGO within your cable billing cycle. When you're done, cancel the subscription. That would be less than 20 bucks, and probably with promotions like 10.