Lori

Likewise.

That's definitely a possibility - but Orton has been making a good impression throughout the preseason, and Hutchinson was beyond bad. One postgame view, from a source whose opinions I respect: "If Orton isn't the starter when the season starts, Lovie should be looking for work elsewhere. "

Check... ...check... Uh-oh, I think Jerry Sullivan's in trouble on that one.

From listening to friends who are OSU fans, the no-hard-work/preparation thing shouldn't have come as a shock to Shanahan. Speaking of Shanny - amazing how his star seems to have fallen once Elway retired, no? Lot easier to pick up that "genius" label with a Hall of Fame QB running the offense....

Indeed. If I end up ditching the shift-worker's life and going to J-school - and yeah, I have been giving that some semi-serious thought - I figure in the long run I'd probably end up with about a $10K paycut. Then again, there's something to be said for finding a job you enjoy.....

Good one - and if that's the prerequisite, I think I qualify! (Seriously, though, you DO realize most of them now have college degrees in journalism....)

Pergament's sources are usually pretty good. Marv was on @ 8:30. Neither he nor Howard mentioned it, but I assume he'll be calling in from home (Chicago) each week.... He'll be on w/ Howard and Jeremy, Dickerson isn't on till 11, so there's probably no chance of the real coach punking the "Coach" on the air. A few notes from this morning - HS's first question was, of course, about JP. Marv said his overall first impression is positive - it'll take some time, but he's "focused on what he has to do to continue to improve." Sees parallels with Roethlisomething's situation - with possibly the #1 defense and kicking teams in the league, JP doesn't have to do it alone. Interesting point - he thinks the team should probably do more 'scramble drills' in practice. WRs need to learn to mirror JP's east-west movements, OL has to get used to him moving around behind them AND to blocking downfield for him. Quality pickup for GR. Maybe the 'constructive criticism' here and elsewhere is paying off.....

Yeah - that'll do me a LOT of good when trying to settle a stat-related argument in Lot 1. "Hang on a sec, I gotta go boot up the computer..."

My money's still on Blake starting more games than Orton this season. But either way, they're certifiably insane if they stick with Hutchinson.

That's the one I was looking for, too.

Roadtrip? .....

Funny you should mention Bears vs. Colts, because that's who the Bears played last week. And unlike their game against Buffalo, most of the Colts starters actually played against Chicago... 6 carries, 4 yards for Edgerrin James. After their first five possessions, the Colts had a grand total of zero first downs and two turnovers. The one scoring drive Manning led was only kept alive by a personal foul on a 3rd-and-19 incompletion; otherwise, Indy would have been punting from their own side of the 50. Again. And when the Indy starters came out, the Colts were losing 14-7. You were saying? NFL.com Gamebook: CHI@IND

Little late now, but you should have complained to OneBillsDrive when you didn't get them. I did, and not only did they reimburse me for the media guide I bought, I got some nice loot (auto'ed minihelmet) to boot.

Must be you missed what I posted before the game: "Wearing down" was only part of the Bears' problem in 2004. Ogunleye - who led the AFC in sacks the year before - missed four games. Urlacher missed seven. Neither of the projected starters at CB (Azumah and Tillman) ended up starting more than 8 games. And playmaking SS Mike Brown shredded his Achilles tendon in Week 2. Except for Azumah, they all played last night. That, I'll agree with. I kind of expected what I saw against Chicago, but I was disappointed by the performance in the first two games. And if anything should happen to BigMike, Greg Jerman didn't do anything to change my (low) opinion of him last night.....

Slight correction: one fumble vs. Indy. No INTs, though.

Right the first time. While I'm certainly not thrilled with the way the Bills offense looked last night, the team on the other side of the ball maybe, just possibly, might have had a little something to do with that. Their 2004 stats dropped into middle-of-the-pack range after the injuries started to pile up last season, but that squad's got some playmakers on it.

Remember, the first cutdown is BEFORE the Detroit game.....

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Not sure how I'm going to approach this yet, but I was thinking about just using the blog function to archive previous weeks - or just posting them there in the first place, and linking from the Wall. We'll see - still got a couple of weeks to figure something out.... I think the ghost of George Halas still haunts the offices at Soldier Field, whispering "thouuuuu shall not passsssss." (Not that they haven't tried to find a good QB - since picking Jim McMahon in the first round of the 1982 draft, they've spent three other #1 picks on the position. For whatever reason, though - coaching philosophy, injuries, or just plain bad drafting in the case of Cade McNown - they've never been able to find 'the guy'....) Even in the 15-1 Super Bowl season of 1985, Chicago relied on running the ball - an unbelievable 610 carries for 2761 yards and 27 rushing TDs - and playing great defense. McMahon et al. only totaled 17 TD passes that year, for a team that was #2 in the league in scoring. Willie Gault led the Bears WRs in catches (33) and yards (704) with numbers that would have ranked a distant third on the 2004 Bills club. They won their three playoff games by a combined score of 91-10; the Pats were the only opponent to even find the scoreboard.... You can't think of a Bears WR in the Hall of Fame, because in the modern (post-WWII) era, there aren't any. Other than TE Mike Ditka, all modern Bears enshrinees are either RBs, linemen, or defensive players. Bears football. Amen to that.

Your local paper is the Bergen Record? Adrian Wojnarowski (Bona grad) still down there? I like his style. Agree with Carucci, Dr. Z., and Mort. As for most of the rest of the "national" media, I trust the opinions of some of our fellow Wallers more.....

The Steelers geeks are still here, of course - and loud and proud after last season. Oddly, though, I don't hear too much from the Fish fans these days......

REGULAR-SEASON SERIES RECORD: Chicago leads, 5-4. PLAYOFF RECORD: none LAST MEETING: September 29, 2002 - Buffalo 33, Chicago 27 (OT) Travis Henry took a Drew Bledsoe pass 26 yards for the game-winning TD in overtime. The OT touchdown pass was the fourth of Bledsoe's career, setting a new NFL record. The Bills defense stuffed Bears RB Anthony Thomas, holding him to 48 yards on 23 carries. LAST BILLS GAME AT SOLDIER FIELD: August 21, 1998 (preseason) - Rob Johnson completed 10 of 13 passes for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 17-9 Bills win. Todd Collins was released the next day. BILLS O vs. BEARS D: Assuming DEs Adewale Ogunleye and Alex Brown and DT Tommie Harris see significant time, this will be a much stiffer test for the Bills o-line than the previous two games. Now, maybe we'll see what we really have in Mike Gandy and Bennie Anderson - the Bears D-line is fast and aggressive. Expect some more scrambling from J.P., and rushing yardage between the tackles might be hard to come by. Everybody's heard of MLB Brian Urlacher, and safeties Mike Brown and Mike Green are playmakers (although Brown is still working his way back from a season-ending Achilles tendon injury early last year). Secondary depth is hurting right now, though - projected starting CB Jerry Azumah is still out, and the Bears lost two backup safeties for the season against Indianapolis. Nathan Vasher, who led the team with five INTs last year, should start in Azumah's spot. On the Bills side, the battles for backup RB, #3 WR, and depth on the O-line continue. TE Tim Euhus is out indefinitely, so that means more playing time for Ryan Neufeld, Rod Trafford, and Brad Cieslak. Expect only one of them to make it past the final cuts, with the veteran Neufeld the safe bet at this point. BILLS D vs. BEARS O: Stat of the half-century - the Bears career passing yardage (14,686) and TD (137) records are held by Sid Luckman. If you never saw Luckman play, you're not alone - his career ended in 1950. As Chicago Tribune columnist Don Pierson noted in his Hall of Fame presentation honoring Bennie Friedman, Friedman's 20 touchdown passes in 1929 are more than any Bears QB has thrown in 38 of the last 39 seasons. (Odds are, they make that 39 of 40 this year.) New WR Muhsin Muhammed's 16 TD catches in Carolina last year almost doubled the 9 scored by the entire Bears team. To make a long story short - Chicago's passing attack has not been good in a very long time, and with another severe injury to QB Rex Grossman, that's not likely to change this season. Replacement Chad Hutchinson got off to a rough start last week with three sacks, two INTs, and a lost fumble. He's listed as the starter for now, but expect Jeff Blake - or possibly even rookie Kyle Orton - to take over that job before too long. The rungame should be a different story, though. Even with the worst passing game in the league, former Arizona first-round pick Thomas Jones somehow managed to average 4 yards/carry last season, while also leading the team in receptions. (Memo to Cedric Benson: work out a contract soon, or you might not have that starting job after all.) John Tait and former Titan Fred Miller give them two veteran tackles, Olin Kreutz is a Pro Bowl center, and da Bearss picked up RG Roberto Garza from the league-leading Falcons rushing attack. If old friend Ruben Brown is fully recovered from the neck injury that landed him on IR last year, the Chicago o-line could actually turn out to be decent... but with the mess at QB, that might not matter much. With the starting lineup pretty much set, the Bills will probably keep doing what they've been doing - the Bears were dead last in sacks allowed in 2004, and the inexperienced Hutchinson is an inviting target for Jerry Gray's blitz-happy scheme. SPECIAL TEAMS: Chicago made some massive changes in the offseason, dumping returner R.W. McQuarters and kicker Paul Edinger and signing Doug Brien. Will he be the same Doug Brien who beat the Bills with a clutch kick early last season, or the one who gagged in OT in the Steelers playoff game? Who knows - he's a kicker. WRs Bobby Wade and Bernard Berrian and CB Nathan Vasher will most likely split returning duties, at least until Azumah comes back. Wade scored on a 54-yard punt return against Indy last week. --------------------------------------------------------- Getting in some practice reps of my own; I plan to do this for each game this season. Let me know what you think. Er, let me rephrase that. Constructive criticism appreciated; unconstructive criticism ignored....

to both of you. Can't help being biased on this question - the first football jersey I ever owned was a silver-and-black Ken Stabler #12. It took the Bills signing Kelly and drafting Conlan to finally coax me away from the dark side....

First the William Tell wanna-bes, now this. Oy vey.

Problem solved, then - we can all agree on hating Miami, right?

That's not what the Bears are saying.... but yeah, that's about how I figure it, too. Remember the Don Pierson quote from the Hall of Fame induction? "...But I’m from Chicago, and 20 TD passes in one season is more than any Bears quarterback has thrown in 38 of the last 39 years.” Odds are, they make it 39 out of 40.