Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus

Bears vs. Vikings at Soldier Field this weekend. The Bears must go 8-2 to have a chance to make the playoffs. Anybody see it happening? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

On Tuesday, the Bulls will begin their 50th season. Sadly, they have not been relevant since 1998. I am trying my hardest to be optimistic this year. Of course, the roadblock known as LeBron James stands in their way when it comes to winning the East. However, if it’s any indication of what I saw in the preseason, if the Bulls were to fail to get past the Cavaliers, at least I know that the coach put the team in the best position to win.

I can just take the last preseason game as an example. At the end of the game, Doug McDermott was in the game. In fact, he hit the game-winner a single second left. This entire preseason, Fred Hoiberg has played the entire team. He’s given just about everyone a chance to play. And it appears, that the 12 or 13 guys on the roster will be given an opportunity.

And that’s all I’ve asked for over the last five years.

With ThomASS, it was play six guys and the other four or five stay put. That’s what killed those teams. I still feel that Hoiberg was dealt damaged goods. Derrick Rose has always been an idiot but these injuries have exposed his lack of social skills even more. When it comes to Joakim Noah, he’s became dumber by not adjusting his game according to his own injuries. Unfortunately, the Bulls are stuck with him.

We’re going to find out starting Tuesday if Hoiberg is going to continue to use the entire team in games and not play five or six guys 40+ minutes. The Bulls need to stay healthy to have any chance. We’re also going to find out if he’s going to bench others for shitty play (i.e. Joakim Noah driblling the ball up court because he thinks he’s a point guard).

With what I’ve seen, the Bulls are closer to a championship with Fred Hoiberg than they were with ThomASS.

Well, Jay Ratliff was released by the Bears the other day. According to several reports, Lake Forest Police were called to Halas Hall because Ratliff was angry. I am not sure if his anger reached Chucky-like levels, but many are saying he has been showing up out of shape and “unfit”. Police were called to escort him away.

Until now, I had no idea that Ratliff had issues with players/management. Word is that he had a similar heated argument with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. He’s been a good player but couldn’t stay healthy throughout his career. His three-game suspension to start the season didn’t help his his cause and it hurt the team.

I think Eddie Goldman has played so well at nose tackle. Every since switching to a 3-4, the Bears have extra depth on the line and were able to trade Jared Allen and now, release Ratliff.

And let’s not forget what’s most important here: The Bears cannot and will not lose this Sunday.

Very disappointing end to the 2015 season, for sure…but the Cubs certainly exceeded my expectations this year. The Mets starting pitching was lights out.

I do believe that the culture is changing, and the Cubs should contend again next year.

I’ll write more after the weekend….in the meantime, your thoughts welcomed.

…..tick tock…tick tock…tick tock…tick tock…

Fuck this defense. Fuck the stupid penalties. Fuck Adam Gase for his shitty play-calling. Fuck Kyle Fuller and the rest of the shitty secondary. Fuck John Fox for his shitty clock management. Oh, I hate blaming referees but this game was poorly officiated. But in the end, there was no excuse for this loss. The Bears had it and pissed themselves at the end of the 4th and in overtime.

Honestly, I am too damn tired to recap this game. I just sat through nearly four hours of shitty football. This was another case of a team trying to give a game away with the Bears saying in return, “no thanks”.

The Bears have a bye next week. After that, it’s the dangerous Vikings.

PATHETIC.

Yes, the Cubs are moving in a better direction…your thoughts, please!

Yeti is on the far right.

Yes, that is really him everybody. We were at the Blackhawks game on Saturday night. Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to talk stats but he did tell me that life is good. Him and his wife drove about three hours from Springfield for this game. Special thanks to Fork and CT at Hockeenight for getting us tickets. From left to right in the picture, it’s me, Fork, the famous Big Cheyenne, CT and Yeti.

As the last two games have gone, I have just stopped having expectations. Then, the Bears surprise everyone by being in a game with a chance to win. Today, this drove me nuts. The Bears were helpless after three quarters and somehow, someway, they find a way to win for the second week in a row. Most of us would probably agree, they had no business even being in this. They were playing a team just as bad as them.

Jay Cutler: I don’t know if it was his hamstring or what, but he wasn’t anything special for the first three quarters. He was under-throwing receivers and it didn’t seem like there was any zip on his passes. It didn’t help early on that the offensive line couldn’t block anybody. Charles Leno was terrible and I won’t give Hroniss Grasu too much crap since it was his first game. But that line wasn’t anything spectacular. When Cutler is running for his life the entire first half, I think it’s fine for us to give him a pass on that fumble in the end zone. But when it was all said and done, he lead his second straight game-winning drive.

The receivers: Marquees Wilson, Cameron Meredith and Martellus Bennett all had great catches during crucial times. Wilson caught the first touchdown pass on a great throw from Cutler in a really tight spot. And Martellus Bennett came up huge on the game-winning drive.

Vic Fangio: Okay, this defense isn’t last year’s defense. It was looking like it in the final seconds when Alex Smith was trying to win the game. But holy shit. The Bears sacked Smith three times and only gave up 10 points. Sure, there were two drives where they couldn’t stop the receivers but only giving up 10 points should be more than enough to give the offense a chance to win. Sam Acho and Willie Young had a great day. It’s a work in progress but it’s good to see.It really sucks what happened to Jaamal Charles. He’s one of the best running backs in the game and it appears that he will be out for the season.

Pernell McPhee: This guy is earning is money. The Bears are down 17-3 when the Chiefs have a chip-shot field goal coming up. This guy runs right through the line and blocks the attempt. This was the turning point in the game. The Bears drove down and only had a field goal, but it started the comeback. And don’t forget about how he’s played on defense. The 3-4 system is great for him.

Matt Forte: This guy is the offense. He does everything. It sucks that he is going to be 30 in December and on his last year of his contract. I don’t think the Bears will bring him back because of the shelf life of an NFL running back. He runs the ball, he catches passes and he can block. Today, he caught the game-winning touchdown on a great pass from Cutler.

The Bears head to Detroit to face the Lions next week. They are a tire fire right now and if the Bears want any chance to make the playoffs (yes, I said playoffs), they have to win this game. In the NFL, there is a big difference between 3-3 and 2-4.

Cardinals up next…..