As abysmal as the Bears season has been at times there’s one unit that you can always count on. Of course I mean the special teams unit. Robbie Gould and Brad Maynard have been about as reliable of kicking tandem as you’re ever going to come across in the NFL, which brings me to my real point.
Gould, is 3rd on the all-time field goal percentage list, you know who’s first? Mike Vanderjagt, remember him, he of the career 86 percent success rate. I know he got into a very public verbal spat with arguably the best Quarterback of our generation (Peyton Manning), and missed a couple of early season kicks in 2006 with the Cowboys, but how has he gone three years without getting another shot.
Have you seen the state of kicking in the NFL, it’s downright emberassing at times. You’d think you could find 32 kickers who can successfully matriculate the ball through the goal posts with regularity but how many changes at kicker do you see in the typical NFL season?
I understand Vanderjagt is now 39 but hey Nick Lowery, Gary Anderson, and Morten Anderson all kicked well into their 40’s. In the grand scheme of things Mike Vanderjagt’s fate is low down on the list but I’ve just always wondered why he got black balled from the NFL.

Posted under Uncategorized

We’re nearing the end of another college football regular season and big surprise, the top 3 teams in the BCS are SEC, SEC, Big 12. That’s Florida, Alabama, and Texas for those of you scoring at home. Yawn. While I do enjoy Tebow, Ingram, and the McCoy’s of the world, I’d prefer to see a Bearcat, Bronco, or Horned Frog in my BCS title game. What more can these schools do to prove their worthiness. They all played at least two quality out of conference opponents and Cincinnati is even from a BCS conference. I would love to see one of these three play the winner of Florida and Alabama for the title.
The biggest concern the “experts” throw out against the teams ranked 4, 5, 6 in the BCS poll or any non Big 12/SEC/USC team is that they don’t play anyone. Well, last I looked these teams have tried to schedule these games and have either been successful in them or unable to get the “Big Boys” to play them. You can’t win a game that isn’t played. Of all these years for an outsider to sneak into the title game this is it. The top of the food chain is weaker than it’s been in recent memory. Unfortunately I’m afraid we’re doomed to see a flawed Texas team get blown out by the winner of the SEC. Oh Well, I suppose there’s always next year.

JW

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We’ve reached the halfway point for everyone in the NFL and the thing that’s stuck out to me most? There are more TERRIBLE teams in the NFL than any other time in the 20 plus years I’ve been following pro football. The Rams, Chiefs, Lions, Redskins, Buccaneers, Raiders, and Browns are epically awful. The only thing in my mind that prevented one of these teams, or possibly more of them from going winless is just the shear number of AWFUL teams. That list doesn’t include the 2 win Titans who easily could have made that list but I hesitate in deference to their great 2008 regular season. If you add them that is a quarter of the NFL that has no business beating anyone else in the league except teams on that list. Granted today Tampa Bay beat the Packers but to me that’s more flukey than anything. The 7 on the list have 9 total wins, of those only 3 are against teams not among the 7 listed.
These teams have zero shot, absolutely none of beating a real NFL football team. I really don’t know how this happens. Even in the NBA which I dare say has more bad general managers and executives than any other league, can’t compete with the depth at the bottom of their pool of teams.
I guess my point in this column is to say for all their talk of parity the NFL isn’t delivering this season. I would go so far as to say that even the next echelon up of teams, the ones who are simply average to slightly above have little chance of beating an elite team this year. It just seems strange to me that there’s such a disparity between the top and everyone else.

I can certainly empathize with fans who root for a team on this list as I grew up watching the Chiefs and Rams and remember when they were elite teams but you can take solace in the fact that this is the NFL and this years mordibund franchise could be next years media darlings. You need look no further than last years Atlanta Falcons or this years Cincinnati Bengals.

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The only thing better than beating your rival once is doing it again. 

Dakota and Stillman Valley both have the opportunity to do that this weekend in the second round of the IHSA state football playoffs.

In class 1A Dakota will host Lena-Winslow for the second time this season (Saturday/1pm).  The Indians won the season opener against the Panthers 14-6 and held the number one ranking in Class 1A for the remainder of the season.  The loss was Lena-Winslow’s only blemish this season and you can rest assured that they are licking their chops at getting another crack at the Indians.

Class 3A presents the Winnebago Indians with a chance to prove they can hang with Stillman Valley.  The Cardinals handed the Indians their only BNW loss of the season with a 40-7 thumping back in week six.

The atmosphere in both Dakota and Stillman Valley will be electric on Saturday to say the least.  The only real problem I have with these games is that they have to happen in round two.  Can you imagine if Dakota and Le-Win met with a trip to the state championship on the line in the state semifinals?  Or if Winnebago had to go through Stillman Valley in order to make it to Memorial Stadium?

Unfortunately, travel and other logistics prevent the IHSA from setting things up that way.  Instead we get what could likely be the Class 1A state championship game in the round of 16.

I had a Winnebago fan tell me earlier this year before the Indians and Cardinals met in the regular season that “when we play Stillman they’re gonna have to move that game to Huskie Stadium in DeKalb.”

If there were a way to set up the postseason draw so that conference rivals could meet in round four instead of two, that might have been the case.

MM

Posted under High School Football

Local teams ready to take the field in the post season.

Three local teams will put their perfect seasons on the line during the first round of the playoffs this weekend.

Boylan is the NIC-10 champs, they’ll be hosting Wheaton North on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

Stillman Valley’s 9-0 record earned them the Big Northern West championship and a date with Rockford Christian Life in the first round on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

And Dakota, the unbeaten NUIC Northwest champs, will be hosting Mooseheart Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

Also, the Guilford game was moved to 2:00 p.m. Saturday and will be played at Addison Trail because of weather problems at Glenbard West’s stadium.

And the IHSA released the game time for Belvidere North, who will be taking on Chicago Robeson at 1:00 p.m. Saturday at Gately Stadium.

The 13 Sports Authority team has you covered Friday and Saturday. Tune in for scores and highlights from all the games, or check back on our Friday Night Football page anytime for the lastest updates from the games.

Posted under High School Football

Without making this post a free advertisement for the Rockford IceHogs, let me just say thank goodness the ‘Hogs return to the MetroCentre this weekend with games on Friday and Saturday night.

Having grown up in Rockford I was never much of a hockey fan.  Truth is, I only attended one IceHogs game before I left for college (shame on me!).  The hockey bug bit me when I took my first job in Wausau, WI… where high school hockey is about as close to high school football as you can get.

Now that I’m back in Rockford I can’t get enough hockey or the IceHogs.  The games are a blast to cover when I’m working and even more fun to attend as a fan. The Hogs do a great job of making it entertaining for fans of all different hockey backgrounds.

Most importantly, it’s something to do!  In a town where I constantly here people complain (and sometimes I’m one of them) that ”there’s nothing to do on a Friday/Saturday night” the IceHogs season is a beacon of hope.  It’s a chance to get some friends together, head downtown Rockford (where there are plenty of postgame hangouts that I’m sure some people in Rockford don’t even know exist) and scream your face off.

This post isn’t an advertisement for hockey or the IceHogs, it’s an advertisement for a good time in a city where quite frankly, once the winter rolls around, options are limited.

Mike Morig

Posted under Misc.

The first four weeks of the NFL have been entertaining.

The first four weeks of the NFL season are in the books, which is just enough time to start forming some opinions about teams.

Lets go with highlights division by division:

NFC North - This is going to be a wide-open race that goes down to the final week. Only the Lions won’t have a chance to actually win the division… but they could play spoiler down the road. From what we’ve seen so far I think the Bears are actually playing the best football even though it’s the Vikings sitting at 4-0.

NFC East - The Giants are 4-0, but this division is tough so they still have a lot of work to do to nail down the championship.

NFC South - Carolina and Tampa are a combined 0-7, ouch. It will be fun to watch the Saints and Falcons feast on them and fight for the top spot.

NFC West - The Arizona Cardinals appear to be having the Super Bowl runner-up hangover season so far, but they are extremely talented so don’t give up on them yet. I think the Rams are slowly proving to be the worst team in the league.

AFC East - Tom Brady is back! New England is only beginning to hit their stride so look out Jets. If this is a close race to the end you have to give the edge to New England over the Jets, simply because they have Brady and the Jets have a rookie quarterback.

AFC North - If it wasn’t for one crazy tipped ball the Bengals would be 4-0. I’m not sure if they are actually that good, but they appear to be poised to stay in what’s shaping up to be a three team battle for division supremacy with the Ravens and Steelers. Should be good smashmouth football in the weeks ahead.

AFC South - If you had the Titans sitting at 0-4 raise your hand. Didn’t think so. No one saw that coming and I don’t think too many people thought the Colts would be 4-0… but they just keep plugging along.

AFC West - The Denver Broncos are frauds! Sure their defense is good, but the rest of this team is living on luck and a bad division. I hope they make the playoffs and get spanked in the first round.

Enjoy the rest of the season… and remember… this is just one guy’s opinion.

Mikey C

Posted under NFL

Our Friday Night Football game of the week is a classic match up between Harlem and Hononegah.  It is without a doubt one of the biggest games in the NIC-10 this season.

A Hononegah win means the Indians could make it to the final week of the season undefeated.  Waiting on the schedule?  The Boylan Titans, who we have every reason to believe will also be unbeaten when they travel to Rockton in week nine.

If Harlem can pull out a win on Friday things get really interested.  That means that both Hononegah and the Huskies will have one loss.  If Hononegah can beat Boylan on that final Friday night of the regular season, then the Indians, Huskies and Titans will all have one loss and share the conference title three ways.

So who’s wants to make a prediction for our game of the week?  I’ll go out on a limb and say that Hononegah gets the win tomorrow night at Harlem.  I know the Huskies are stacked at the skill positions, but Hononegah is big up front and I think they’ll be able to control the game on the ground.  They also have a nice complement with Chase Robinson at quarterback, so I’m saying the Indians win a close one.

Please, feel free to tell me why I’m right or wrong in the comments section below.

Mike Morig

Posted under High School Football

I hope every one’s as excited as me for the kickoff of the Bears and Packers season and what a way to do it right here on WREX. I’ll be posting my thoughts on the game throughout the night. I want to hear what your initial reactions are as well. My key to the game, Chicago’s secondary versus Green Bay’s Wide Receivers. I think it’s edge Packers there and in this game. Let’s see how it plays out.

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It’s hard to believe, but we are already approaching the third week of the high school football season.  One-third of the regular season will be over by the time the lights are turned off at the stadiums this weekend.  Unreal.  With that in mind, here are three things that have stood out to me through two weeks of play.  Feel free to share your observations in the “comments” section below.

Stillman Valley running back Nate Bond is a big reason the Cardinals are showing a lot of promise early in 2009.

1.  Boylan is tough, but beatable.

When Boylan pushed it’s conference win streak to 30 games with a 22-10 win over Harlem in week one many people were ready to hand the Titans their fourth straight NIC-10 crown.  Not so fast.  Boylan beat Guilford in week two 21-3, but the game was much closer than the score indicates.  The Vikings were able to move the football in between the tackles against the Titans defense, picking up 138 yards on the ground.  Boylan coach Dan Appino said before the season that his defense was smaller than in previous years.  This gives a team like Hononegah (the Indians ran for 306 yards against Belvidere on last Friday) a lot of confidence that they too will be able to run the football and control the clock against the Titans.

2.  Drinking the Stillman Valley Kool-Aid tastes good.

There was talk about how good this year’s Stillman Valley team would be back in week one… of last season.  The Cardinals sophomore team from a year ago 40 pointed the majority of their opponents en route to a perfect season, and rumors swirled among the media that the younger team used to beat up on the 2008 varsity team in practice.  That was a varsity team that lost to Oregon for the Big Northern West title on the final week of the regular season.  Believe what you want, but that sensational class of sophomore’s isn’t disappointing in 2009.  The Cards hung 40+ points on both of their opponents so far this season, and running back Nate Bond is soon to be a household name around the stateline.  The junior ran for 207 yards in Stillman’s win over St. Joesph, which included a pair of 80 yard touchdown runs.   The Cardinals (ranked 4th in class 3A) have a true test on their schedule this Friday when they travel to Richmond-Burton (ranked 5th in class 4A).  We should know just how tasty the Kool-Aid actually is by Saturday morning.

3. Dakota deserving of #1 ranking

Injuries are a part of football and Dakota is the last place you will find them being used as an excuse.  Still, it’s hard not to think about how far last year’s Indians team might’ve gone if quarterback Austin Oberbrunner could’ve played in the postseason.  Oberbrunner is back this season and so is star running back Evan Dornink, which is probably a big reason Dakota began the season ranked 1st in class 1A.  Preseason rankings are always tough to do, but so far the Indians have lived up to the hype.  They beat a tough Lena-Winslow team on the road in week one and followed it up with a 43-13 pounding of Pecatonica at home (Pec beat Orangeville 41-6 in week one) in week two.  Mix in the always tough Dakota defense with skill guys on offense like Oberbrunner, Dornink, and wide receiver Landon Ketchum and we might not see the Indians move from that top spot in 1A all season.

Mike Morig

Posted under High School Football