By Steve Rhodes and Jim Coffman
Jay is for Jerk, The Bills Were Due, Carl’s Wild Card Weekend Fishing Trip Is Back On, How Not To Talk About Ray Rice, and The Sky Is Falling.
Posted on September 12, 2014
The College Football Report: Chalk & Chips
By Mike Luce
In a weekend lacking any marquee match-ups, let’s look at some interesting trends among otherwise uninspiring games. If you aren’t sold on the ho-hum nature of the weekend, check out this visual. That’s right, only one of the seven experts polled by USA Today predicted an upset in #6 Georgia vs. #23 South Carolina (everyone else picked the Bulldogs) and one of seven selected Central Florida over #22 Missouri. Otherwise, it’s chalk all the way.
Syracuse (-6.5, down from -9) vs. Central Michigan, 11 a.m.
We can’t figure out why the money likes the Chippewas. Central Michigan boasts a not-so-illustrious 1-7 record as a home underdog since 2011. Oh, wait. The ‘Cuse can’t handle giving the points. Dating back to 2012, the Orange have a 4-7 record as a favorite.
Our pick: We’ll follow the herd. Take the Chips and the points!
Posted on September 12, 2014
Wild Card Weekend Fishing Trip Back On
By Carl Mohrbacher
Ouch. My hopes and dreams.
Thanks to this latest/earliest setback, I’m going to have to downgrade the likelihood of the Bears making the playoffs from “possible” to “leaving town during Wild Card weekend.”
For those of you who didn’t receive the magnet in the mail, here is the scale:
Posted on September 11, 2014
Fantasy Fix: Devin Hester Is Ridiculous Again, Jay Cutler is Jay Cutler Again
By Dan O’Shea
The opening week of the NFL season started with the Green Bay Packers getting thrashed by the Seattle Seahawks, and ended with Ray Rice being banned indefinitely. Some observations on the fantasy relevance of those book-end events, and a few other things that happened in between:
Posted on September 10, 2014
The Ricketts’ Sticky Ticket Wicket
By Steve Rhodes
“The Cubs’ biggest prospects have barely started paying dividends on the field, but the club has decided to raise ticket prices for some of the most popular sections at Wrigley Field in 2015,” the Sun-Times reports.
Barely.
* Javy Baez is hitting .164 after all that hype. His OBP is .209. He has 62 strikeouts to go with eight walks. And he isn’t even hitting home runs anymore.
Posted on September 9, 2014
SportsMonday: Cutler Flinched
By Jim Coffman
The biggest worry a Bear fan has in the aftermath of Sunday’s season-opening 23-20 overtime loss to the Bills is Jay Cutler’s discomfort in the pocket. Maybe a few old-time Bears fans are primarily concerned with the run defense first, but most of us are zeroed in on the QB.
Posted on September 8, 2014
The College Football Report Top Ten: The Ballad Of Pat Fitzgerald And The Big Ten’s Last Stand
By Mike Luce
1. The SEC.
The most dominant conference in college football has five teams in the AP Top 10 (#3 Alabama, #5 Auburn, #6 Georgia, #7 Texas A&M, and #10 LSU) another three (#14 Ole Miss, #20 Missouri, and #24 South Carolina) in the Top 25 and a chance to add one more in the near future, as Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Florida look solid. We believe the new playoff structure should automatically award the #1 overall seed to the winner of the SEC championship game, and the #4 seed to the loser. Seems right.
Posted on September 8, 2014
Be Like Mike
By Roger Wallenstein
In what has been billed as the beginning of spring training 2015, this month – at least from a won-loss standpoint – looks ominously familiar.
With the trades of Gordon Beckham, Alejandro De Aza and Adam Dunn, the White Sox front office cleared space so that we could get a look at the likes of Carlos Sanchez, Michael Taylor, Andy Wilkens, Chris Bassitt, and Scott Snodgress while observing the progress (or lack thereof) of Jordan Danks, Marcus Semien and Josh Phegley.
This all appears reasonable since the Sox, while interesting to watch prior to the All-Star Game, have truly never been in contention since Opening Day. No one puts much stock in a team’s spring training record – the Sox were 9-14 this year – but our fellows were joined by Boston, Texas and Minnesota at the bottom of the American League last March, and all four teams reside at the bottom of their respective divisions as we painfully trek toward the end of another losing season.
Were we foolish to think that the Sox could finish at .500 or better back on August 1st when the team was 54-56? I mean, isn’t 110 games enough to determine the caliber of a major-league ballclub? Apparently not.
Posted on September 8, 2014
The Beachwood Radio Sports Hour #16: Double Nickel On The Bears’ Dime
By Steve Rhodes and Jim Coffman
You Better Bill-ieve It’s A Must-Win! Plus: The Sky Is Flying; The Derrick Rosercoaster; The White Sox In The Thick Of The Race; and The Pageantry Of College Football: Bring On The Creampuffs.
Posted on September 5, 2014
The College Football Report: Bring On The Creampuffs, Including The Big Ten
By Mike Luce
Dating back to 2007, the Big Ten is 17-41 against ranked opponents.
The conference can start the turnaround on Saturday. In games with postseason implications, #7 Michigan State travels to #3 Oregon, Michigan travels to #16 Notre Dame, and #8 Ohio State hosts Virginia Tech.
Our picks: Oregon -12.5 , Michigan +3.5, Ohio State -11.
Posted on September 5, 2014