By Mike Luce

The entire Midwest is awash in commentary on OSU-Northwestern, so we can’t hope to add much to the conversation. But we will point out this quote, from Buckeye special teams coach Kerry Combs, on the unique demands of punting for Ohio State: “[T]here’s a lot more that goes into being the punter, particularly here, than just talent, just being able to catch a ball and kick it.”
If you watch on Saturday, and we hope you watch from home because ticket prices are ridiculous are ridiculous, keep an eye on the OSU punter, Aussie Cameron Johnston, and try to divine if he has whatever more goes into being a punter than catching and kicking. Our guess: the ability to not only catch the ball and kick the ball, but to run half-heartedly afterward. That is the mark of a true punter, one worthy of the scarlet and gray.

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Posted on October 4, 2013

By Carl Mohrbacher

Sure it’s a loss, but if you take away the fumble return, and Matthew Stafford loses the ball on the goal line, Jay Cutler remembers that he is to distribute the ball to members of his own team, a modicum of clock management is practiced in the last eight minutes, Henry Melton miraculously recovers from a torn ACL in four days and Reggie Bush rushes for only 80 yards in the first half . . .
. . . the Bears still lose 33-30.

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Posted on October 3, 2013

By Steve Rhodes

In May 2012, just Dale Sveum’s second month as Cubs manager, I started preparing a post called “Dale Sveum Is Making Me Dizzy.” I never got it finished and posted, but the gist was that Sveum had already developed a curious habit of saying one thing one day and then reversing himself the next. My examples up to then included whether Steve Clevenger would platoon with Geovany Soto; where Starlin Castro would bat in the lineup; where Alfonso Soriano would bat in the lineup; who would bat leadoff; whether Chris Volstad had earned a place in the starting rotation; if Casey Coleman would be in the bullpen; if Kerry Wood had an issue with his back (he did); and more.
One of my citations was going to be this one, from the Sun-Times’s Gordon Wittenmyer:

Cubs manager Dale Sveum apparently set his starting rotation for the season Saturday during a series of media interviews, though he said he won’t actually do that until Wednesday.
Huh?
Exactly.
In a sequence of confusing, at times conflicting, media interviews Saturday morning, Sveum reiterated that two rotation spots remained open. Then he told SiriusXM radio’s Jim Bowden that Chris Volstad has pitched well enough to fill one spot. Then he told beat writers he didn’t say that, after which Bowden provided the audio that refuted the denial.

Players – and management – notice that sort of thing, even if reporters never developed the theme further. And it was a theme that should have been developed because it kept happening. It was a pattern that continued through the 2013 season.

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Posted on October 2, 2013