Monday Night Magic

Jay Culter has been called the next Brett Favre; hopefully he took notes on Monday. Brett added to his Hall of Fame resume by heaving an 82 yard bomb to Greg Jennings for an overtime win. With the win, the Packers are 6-1, their best start since 1995.

This 82 yard touchdown pass comes two weeks removed from people questioning Favre's arm strength. Skeptics thought Favre had lost some zip on his "fastball" after his poor showing against the Redskins. Last night Favre answered the skeptics with his 82 yard pass to Jennings in OT. The touchdown pass also shows how Favre is still a student of the game. In a sideline meeting, Favre and Jennings were reviewing film on a previous series. Favre saw something that setup his pass to Jennings.

Outside of Wisconsin, sports fans have been calling for Favre's retirement for the last few years. I thought Farve should have retired after the 2005 season, when he posted 20 TDs and 29 ints. Favre continues to make me and other people like me eat my words.

People should respect how great Brett Favre is playing at this stage of his career. He is the last GREAT gunslinger. He proved once again that he is one of the GREATEST QUARTERBACK EVER.

Love him or HATE HIM... You have to respect him...

Sunday of new era's

This Sunday ushered in some new era's in sports. In this blog, I will discuss the end of the Bears Super Bowl era/the start of Kyle Orton era, the end of AROD Yankee era, and the beginning of the Boston Red Sox era.

1. The Bears Superbowl window closed with a record of 3-5, they have a 2% chance of making the playoffs. They are not a good football team anymore. The defense is a shell of what they were in years past. They could only play that well for that long. This off season will be very interesting for the Bears, all they can do this season is hope to play the role of spoiler.

2. Brian Griese was supposed to finish out the season at quarterback, well since the season is now lost, maybe they should move into the Kyle Orton era. He is the only quarterback on the roster this season not to play. The Bears need to see if he fits in their future plans or are they going to overhaul the entire quarterback position next season. BEGIN the KYLE ORTON ERA!

3. AROD is opting out his current 252 million dollar contract with the New York Yankees to pursue greener pastures. He is walking away from 81.5 million dollars over the next three seasons. Scott Boras is hoping to land AROD a deal worth 30 million a year. AROD was never beloved in New York and probably will be hated even more now. There are not many possible destinations AROD could land, maybe San Fran, Chicago, Anaheim, or Boston.

4. The Boston Red Sox completed a 4 game sweep of the Rockies. They have won two World Series championships in the last 4 years. Boston took 86 years to get there first World Series since 1917. Red Sox nation did not have to wait very long for the second championships. They have the money and young talent to start putting together a nice little World Series run here. With Pitchers Beckett, Lester, Papelbon, and Clay Bucholez, not to mention Dustin Pedoria, and Kevin Youklis The Red Sox are filled with young talent. Dare I say the Red Sox Dynasty??

The lay-off will doom Rockies

The Rockies blew through the national league playoffs, winning a one game playoff, sweeping the Phillies, and then sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in route to a World Series Berth. The Rockies did not know that they would have to wait over a week to play game 1 of the World Series. If Rockies would have known that, they might have lost a game in the playoffs somewhere to give themselves less time off (just kidding).

The Rockies long lay off is partially due to the fact that they played so well in the playoffs and partially due to the fact that MLB messed with the playoff schedule. MLB inserted a day off in between Game 4 and 5 of the league championship series. The Rockies did not get to game 5, so did not have to worry about days off. The additional day off hurt the Rockies in that that Rockies would have to way another day to find out who would win the Boston vs Cleveland Series.

The Rockies pitchers will suffer the most from not pitching in game for some time. It was made apparent to me by the poor pitching performance of Jeff Francis. Jeff Francis has not pitched in a game since GAME 1 of the NLCS, which was over a week ago. Before last night's game Jeff Francis had similar numbers to Josh Beckett in the playoffs. As we saw last night, Francis did not command his pitches well and was shelled by the RED SOX. The rest of the Rockies rotation could also suffer from a layoff hangover. If Jeff Francis suffered that much last night from a hangover. I can only imagine what Aaron Cook will suffer. Cook has been on the DL since August and has not pitched in the postseason.

If the Rockies want to have a chance in this series, their pitching needs to right the ship tonight.

I don't believe it...

If you are guessing from the title this article is about the Boston Red Sox, you guessed wrong!! This article is about the improbable comeback of the Chicago Bears. The Bears were down 5 with under 2 minutes to play and 97 yards to go.

I honestly felt that the game was lost when the Eagles went up by 5 with 4:57 left to play. I thought the nail in the coffin was when the Eagles pinned the Bears at there own 3 yard line. I almost turned the game off. Brian Griese showed why is the starting quarterback and not Rex Grossman.

Brian Griese executed pass after pass to several different receivers (Clark, Peterson, Moose, Hester, Berrian and Olsen), working his way down the field. When the Bears crossed the 50 yard line, I had hope for the best, but I also had the feeling an interception was coming on the very next throw. Griese then completed a 20 yard strike to Hester, putting the Bears within legitimate striking distance. Griese managed the clock by spiking the ball when he needed too.

With 19 seconds left in the game, Griese found Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone for a 15 yard touchdown pass, giving the Bears a 2 point lead with 9 seconds left to play. The Bears would stop the Eagles on the next series ending the game.

My question is did this victory save the season? Everyone thought the victory over Packers saved the season, the Bears then went on to lose to the Vikings. If this victory over a struggling Eagles team propels them to a winning streak, then the victory saved the season. If the Bears lose to Detroit next week, then it was just a bad team beating an even worse team.

A few positives besides Griese's drive, was the defensive play. The defense played better allowing only one touchdown in the entire game. They were tougher inside the red zone and pressured McNabb. The Bears did not commit any turnovers, even though Griese fumbled the ball once. He did not lose the fumble. Greg Olsen and Muhsin Muhammad are getting more involved in the passing game which is a plus.

The Bears still need to improve tackling on defense. I think the Bears defense needs some help from the offense. They need to run the ball better to keep the defense off the field. The running game has to be better, Cedric Benson is a bust right now in my mind. He needs to improve for the Bears to win more games. The defense also did not force one turnover, which the Bears teams in the past have thrived on.

This win over the Eagles saved their season.................for now.

A sports brief

I have decided to rant about a few different topics in this blog. These topics will be discussed in brief.

Pro-Football:
The Bears defense is awful this season! Could they miss any more tackles against the Vikings? What happened since last year? I understand they have injuries this season, but do injuries account for poor play. Lance Briggs is a special players who need to be re-signed. ARCHLETHEMSCORE is AWFUL, there was a reason the Redskins benched him. He was benched by the Bears Sunday.

Devin Hester is the best player on that team. He is the reason they will 6 games this season. To quote Forrest Gump, "That is all I have to say about that".

College football:
Illinois lost to Iowa in a low scoring affair. Illinois will go to a bowl game this season, but they will need to beat Michigan and OSU to make a BCS game. I would to congratulate Ron Zook on a nice job this season.

ND Coach, Charles Weis, has switched quarterbacks again going to Evan Sharpley over Jimmy Clausen. Clausen is apparently playing hurting according to unknown Irish sources. Could it be from the large number of hits he has taken this season?? That Offensive line is just plain OFFENSIVE. Sharpley has more experience and is more mobile than Clausen. Should Sharpley started the year at Quarterback? I don't know, I do know Charles Weis has done an awful job at Notre Dame this season.

Baseball: Rocktober
The Rockies continue their ride through postseason by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks last night. The Rockies have won 20 of their 21 dating back to the regular season. I never thought the Rockies would make the World Series if they were based out of Colorado. I always believed they could not pitch well enough to win in the playoffs. This Rockies team has shocked the baseball world with their play.

I being a Cubs fan have jumped on the Rockies band wagon. The Rockies proved that if you hot going into the playoffs you can ride that momentum all the way to the World Series. General manager Dan Dowd and manager Clint Hurdle leader from previous high priced mistakes and built this Rockies teams on home grown talent. Their work has paid off.

Bears win??

The Bears went into Lambeau field last night as HUGE underdog. They came out with a unlikely victory. Three things changed for the Bears from last week, they forced turnovers, protected the ball and had improved quarterback play. Charles Tillman returned to the lineup in a big way. Tillman forced two fumbles killing two potential scoring drives for the Packers. Brian Urlacher also came up with the big interception to put the Bears back into the game.

Brian Griese took advantage of the five Packer turnovers, by protecting the football and putting the ball in the end zone. Griese hit both his tight ends for scores in this game. Griese was not flashy, but he made big plays when he needed too. That is what Lovie Smith and the Bears expected when they inserted Brian Griese into the starting lineup. Griese did throw one interception that the did not come back to haunt the Bears.

This win was huge for the Bears, because now they get out of the NFC North cellar. This win also helps the Bears build confidence in their quarterback and in themselves.

BROOM BROOM BROOM

Now that I have finished my take home midterm, I can write about the awful play of the Chicago Cubs in the division series. There were three main reasons the Cubs were swept in three games.

After losing game one and two, I knew the Cubs were doomed to lose game three. The stranded ten runners in the first five innings, if you can't drive in runs you cannot win games. They scored 6 runs in three games, that was not enough. The big three (Sori, Lee, and Ramirez) were AWFUL swinging at pitches 5 feet off the plate. There best player in the series did not play in game three and that was the kid G. Soto.

The players were not the only ones to blame for the Cubs losing in three games. Lou Pinella made one crucial mistake and one DUMB mistake. The crucial mistake was pulling Carlos Zambrano after 85 pitches in Game 1. He was playing for Game four, which did not happen. Lou's dumb mistake was when he STARTED Rich Hill in game three. Rich Hill was erratic in the regular season, let alone a series deciding game. Rich Hill should have not started this game, a veteran such as Jason Marquis should have started. He might not have faired any better, but at least he was not a second year pitcher. Rich Hill like Ted Lilly felt the weight of 99 years of losing on his back.

The most important reason why the Diamondbacks won game three and sweep the series. THEY were the better team. There is a reason they won 90 games during the regular season. They were patience at the plate, they did not try to do to much. They played their game with timely hitting, good pitching, and solid defense. Everyone overlooked the Diamondbacks including me and they made the Cubs pay for it.

The Diamondbacks advance to the most unexpected NLDS ever to play the WHITE HOT ROCKIES! While Cubs and all of Cubs nation must wait again for next year.

Game 1 questions?

The Cubs were defeated by the Arizona Diamondbacks last night. The Cubs play last night rose the following questions in my mind: Was Webb and Company that good or were the Cubs that bad? Did Lou take out Zambrano too early? Will Lou decision haunt the Cubs?

To answer my first question, Webb is a very good pitcher. He won the national league Cy young last season. He is the best sinker ball pitcher in the game today. That being said, the Cubs did not capitalize with runners in scoring position. If the Cubs are meant to win this series, they will have score more than 1 run on 4 hits. Arizona won 32 one run games this season, so if the game is close. The odds favor an Arizona victory.

Lou might have made his first mistake major mistake as a Cubs manager. He pulled Carlos Zambrano out a close game too EARLY. Zambrano had only thrown 85 pitches throw 6 innings of work. If Zambrano is the Cubs ace and horse, why would Lou pull him out. Zambrano averaged over 100 pitches in his regular season starts. Lou logic was that he was saying his ace for Game 5. GAME 5!!!! By pulling Zambrano early, Lou potentially took his ace out of the series. If the Cubs do not win at least two games, Zambrano may not even get another chance to pitch in this series.

In Lou's defense, he did have his bullpen setup the way he wanted with Marmol pitching the 7th, Howry the 8th, and Dempster the 9th. Only time will tell, if Lou decision to pull Carlos early will hurt the Cubs in this series.

The most important question is : Can the Cubs beat lefty Doug Davis in Game 2.
We will find out tonight!!!