Indiana are 22.5 point underdogs to tOSU Buckeyes tomorrow. See you there, Armchair Superstars! One quick thought: I've always found Ohio State's marching band to be one of the most overrated in the country - they spend so much time on "Script OHIO" that they don't both learning how to play real music, and it really shows. Keep an ear out for some high-school level stand tunes tomorrow.
Hopefully will be somewhere in C-Bus or Indy in time to catch Northwestern-Purdue, let me know if you have any bar recommendations!
Ladies and gentlemen, I wanted to take this chance to wish a happy 90th birthday to my Grandma Jean Fodor. She just got out of a successful surgery and will be partying it up with my parents tonight. By the way, she is a Bears and Illinois fan - (we'll agree to disagree on the second one.)
Ninety is one hell of an achievement, as I'm sure you'll agree, and so in Armchair Superstar Style, here are the sports-related highlights of October 7th throughout Grandma's long and storied career:
1916: Okay, so this is four years beforehand, but today was the day Georgia Tech beat Cumberland University 222-0 in college football. Tech's coach? John Heisman. Yeah, you may have heard of him. 1920: Along with Grandma, famous Manchester United player Jack "The Gunner" Rowley was born.
1931: Lowell "Cotton" Fitzimmons born in Hannibal, Missouri. Grandma is, meanwhile, growing up just a stone's throw away in Iowa. Fitzimmons goes on to a career as an NBA basketball coach for at least six different teams, including the Suns just before the Bulls got to them in the '93 championships.
Some other notables born on October seventh? Desmond Tutu, Oliver North, John Mellencamp, Yo-Yo Ma, Tony Braxton, Priest Holmes, Charles Woodson (last year's Defensive Player of the Year!), and Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays.
At SportsIllustrated, Steve Rushin makes the argument that October 7, 1975 was part of the most important three weeks in SPORTS HISTORY! It was the day the Reds swept the Pirates to get into the World Series -- by the way, this is a great article if you're a history nerd like me.
Finally, and most importantly to all us Bears fans, October 7, 1984, as Grandma was admiring her very first and most adorable grandchild, we saw Sweetness do this:
Last night, Chicagoans all saw what I have noticed as a trend this season. Teams that play on Monday Night Football do not play well the next week. The Bears showed this as they embarrassed themselves in front of a national audience on the Sunday Night Game of the week. Let’s look at the rest of the MNF teams
Week 1
Baltimore @ New York Jets & San Diego @ Kansas City
Week 2 Performances Baltimore: Lost to Cincinnati in a game they were favored to win. Kansas City: Beats Cleveland by 2, doesn’t cover the spread.
Chargers and Jets won and covered
Week 2
New Orleans @ San Francisco
Week 3 Performances New Orleans: New Orleans Loses by 3 in OT in a game they were favored to win. San Francisco: Loses to Kansas City by 21
Week 3
Green Bay @ Chicago
Week 4 Performances
Green Bay: Beats Detroit by 2 but fail to cover the double digit spread Chicago: Lost by 14 and allowed 3 times as many sacks as points they scored.
Week 4
New England @ Miami
Lucky For New England and Miami they both have bye weeks coming up after their games.
Why are the teams playing poorly after their Monday Night Football games? I believe a lot of it has to do with screwing up the schedule of practice for the week. NFL teams are so regimented today, that losing one full day of preparation time or even resting time hurts the team. Also, for road teams, jet lag becomes a factor. Games are not ending until Midnight EST. The away team then has to shower, talk to the media, get to the airport, fly back home, then get back to their homes. When New Orleans was flying back from San Francisco, they didn’t get land until around 7 in the morning. Add another hour to get home and they aren’t going to bed until almost 8 AM. Most NFL teams get Tuesdays off, but New Orleans needed that entire day Tuesday just to recover from their flight.
Also, teams don’t physically recover in enough time. Older lineman need every minute of the NFL week to get their body healthy enough to play again on Sunday, Losing 36 hours in that week hurts how much they can recover.
I am sure there are other reasons why teams are not playing well following Monday Night Football. It could just be random luck and not a trend, San Diego and New York Jets played well after their MNF games. Until I see reasons to change my mind, I will not be wagering on any teams that played on MNF the week before.
Last week, the Bears offensive line was getting dominated. Jay Cutler ended up on his back many a times. However, the run was effective. Johnny Knox had another good performance. And the defense, well the defense looked a little bad and a little good. The d-line was dominating, even though they didn't produce the sack numbers you'd want. The linebackers looked good as well. It was the secondary that I had a problem with, but we ended up with the win.
Now, let's talk about what everyone else is talking about: "Greenbay shooting themselves in the foot." Quite frankly, they did not. They were outplayed. The Bears defensive line caused the Packers to hold and the fans plus the d-line caused many of those false starts. It's all part of the game. The pass interference calls weren't wrong, they were pass interfering. The Packers had to do it, b/c they couldn't keep up with the receivers. It's just that simple. Now, You add, or subtract, yards for penalties which the Bears should have got or the Packers would have lost due to sacks, and add the 100 yards of punt return yards to the Bears offense and you've got a clearer picture of how this game went. It was dominated by the Bears. The Bears left 10 points on the board. That game could have easily been 30-17.
Now, my grades for last week:
Jay Cutler B Running Backs C+
Wide Receivers A-
Tight Ends B+ (would be an A but Clark dropped a TD)
Offensive Line C
Defense Line A
Linebackers A
Corners C+
Safeties B-
Special Teams A (would be a + but Robbie missed a make able field goal).
This week, the Bears play the Giants in the meadowlands. As many have stated, this has the makings of a trap game. But, I think the Bears are pissed enough that even after they start out 3-0 beating 2 division rivals, and 2 teams that many people picked to win the Superbowl (Cowboys and Packers) they have not received ANY respect. In fact, the Giants are favored! I see the Bears coming out on fire. Not to mention, the Giants aren't that good. My prediction: Bears 37-17 (and if they put Hester on kickoff returns 2 special teams TDs). Did I mention I called Hester's TD return to Steve?
