Monday mornings are usually reserved for Bears recaps, but since they don't play until tonight, I guess I'll have to write a "preview" of tonight's game. Here's my preview.
The Bears offense will struggle all night while the Bears defense gets carved up by Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor again.
Which, to be completely honest, would be 100% fine with me. There are a couple of reasons that tonight I'll be openly rooting against the Bears. I know. It's heresy, but it's true.
Okay, so I worded that a bit wrong. I'm not going to be rooting against the Bears but I won't be all that upset if Minnesota destroys them tonight. The Bears have nothing left to play for. They can't make the playoffs, so they may as well lose their last three games to get themselves a better draft pick. God knows they need it.
The second reason is purely selfish. (WARNING:FANTASY FOOTBALL DISCUSSION AHEAD)
You see, for most of you who play fantasy football this week marked the first round of the playoffs. I'm no different from you. Ever since 2001 my friend Bill and I have owned a team in a league, and though we made the playoffs our first two seasons, we haven't been back again until this season.
This year we finished with the best record in the league thanks to Adrian Peterson and Peyton Manning. Well, we're down 22 points right now but there's still hope. Not only do we have Adrian Peterson going tonight, but we also started Chester Taylor and we have Bernard Berrian.
So I need the Vikings running attack to shred the Bears defense again tonight. Do you realize that the prize for first place in this league is $1,800? If we lose tonight, we basically get our money back with a little profit.
So as you can see, I'm going to be pretty emotionally involved in tonight's game.
And aside from all that, there's another reason to watch tonight. Kyle Orton is back, baby! The Neckbeard has returned to lead the Bears to the promised land!
Okay, so I'm not really excited about the fact that Kyle Orton is going to be starting tonight. I'm happy that Kyle is getting a chance instead of going with Brian Griese, but I don't think we're going to see anything in Orton tonight that's going to say "We have our quarterback!"
No, because Kyle is going to have to play behind the same offensive line that couldn't block for Grossman or Griese. He's going to have to hand the ball off to the same running backs that can't find any room to run behind this offensive line, and he's going to be throwing to the same receivers who have been dropping passes from quarterbacks all season.
Nothing is going to change tonight, except we'll all have more chances to compare Orton's neck to a vagina and spit out quotes from Knocked Up.
As far as what we'll see from the defense, I'm excited by the fact that Nathan Vasher is probably going to play tonight. I think his absence since the Cowboys game has been a huge loss for the Bears all season. It's meant more playing time for guys like Adam Archuleta and Danieal Manning, which is never good for anybody.
Granted, I don't think Vasher is going to come out in his first game back and shut down whoever he's covering, but his return will make things easier on the entire secondary and even the linebackers.
Of course, our secondary probably isn't going to have to cover many receivers tonight the way the Vikings run the football, but at least Vasher is a better tackler than our other corners.
That's another problem the Bears will face in tonight's matchup. When the Vikings won in Soldier Field earlier this season, they did it despite their quarterback Tarvares Jackson. The Vikings looked magnificent every time they handed the ball to Peterson, but when they asked Jackson to drop back and pass, it was comical.
He danced around for a few seconds before overthrowing his target by ten feet.
That's not going to be the case tonight as Jackson has started to mold himself into a real quarterback the last month. He's starting to develop a rapport with another youngster in Sidney Rice that makes me think this Vikings team isn't just hot right now, but that they may be legit for years to come.
So with that in mind, I'm calling this one for the Vikings tonight. 31-14.
Foul Balls
Michigan Has It's Man -
Michigan has made itself another enemy. They were already hated by the state of Ohio, and now I'm pretty sure they're hated by the state of West Virginia as well. Not only did the school steal away John Beilein to be the head coach of their basketball team from WVU, but now they've decided to take away their football coach as well.
Rich Rodriguez is the new head football coach at the University of Michigan.
Michigan has hired West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez as its next football coach following a search that featured two other top prospects deciding to stay put.
"I am thrilled to have Rich Rodriguez as Michigan's new coach," athletic director Bill Martin wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Sunday. "Rich brings an exciting brand of football to Michigan Stadium. We welcome the entire Rodriguez family to Ann Arbor."
Rodriguez you may remember was nearly announced as Alabama's new head coach last winter before he changed his mind at the last minute and returned to West Virginia. Apparently this season he didn't love Morgantown nearly as much.
Now I'm not sure how long it's going to take for Rodriguez to implement the spread offense he used at West Virginia, but I do know it's going to take me some time to adjust to seeing Michigan run it.
After being turned down by Les Miles for the job, and interviewing guys like Brady Hoke, I don't think there's a better coach in the country that Michigan could have found to replace Lloyd Carr.
A-Rod Isn't Talking To Scott Boras - Alex Rodriguez was interviewed by Katie Couric last night on 60 Minutes, and though they talked about a lot of different things, the comments I found the most interesting were
Rodriguez's comments on his agent, Scott Boras.
The Yankees third baseman is extremely upset with the way Boras handled the initial decision to opt out of his contract with the Bombers. (...) When asked by Katie Couric to describe his relationship with Boras, who has advised A-Rod since he was 18, Rodriguez took a long pause, before Couric pressed him for an answer.
"The whole situation saddens me a little bit," Rodriguez said. "There hasn't been much back-and-forth talking."
When asked if he is speaking to Boras, Rodriguez said, "Not right now." He then was asked if that could change and he said, "We'll see."
So let me get this straight. When Boras was doing everything in his power to keep A-Rod's name in the spotlight all postseason, and then got Alex another huge deal, he was totally cool with it. Now that A-Rod has the contract and all the money, he no longer needs sports most hated agent. So he's dumping him and trying to pin all the negative PR on Boras.
Well played, sir. Well played.
The Dolphins Won! - Although I'm actually upset by it because I wanted them to go 0-16, I guess I'll take a second here to congratulate the Miami Dolphins. They beat the Ravens in overtime yesterday, 22-16, to get their first win of the season.
They then celebrated like they'd just won the Super Bowl and World War II at the same time.
Some people have taken offense to it, but I mean, c'mon. They're the Dolphins. They're harmless. Let them have their fun.
So we're three games into the Rich Rodriguez era at Michigan, and so far, things aren't looking too good. Big Blue lost it's home opener for the second straight year against Utah, and while the defense showed marked improvement against Miami of Ohio, they regressed at Notre Dame on Saturday. Though, it's not really fair to blame the defense for giving up 35 points to the Irish when the offense handled the ball as if it had been soaked in the leftover bacon grease from Charlie Weis' Saturday morning breakfast.
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