PHILADELPHIA—***The Bears are now 2-0 at Lincoln Financial Field,having also won here in 2007. The Bears now lead the Eagles lifetime 30-12-1 including three Playoff Games of which Philadelphia leads 2-1,the Bears lone win was the infamous “Fog Bowl” at Soldier Field Dec 31,1988, a 20-12 Bears win.Buddy Ryan,now only a former Bears Defensive Co-Originator but also an Eagles Head Coach, was honored at half time.
Jay Cutler’s QB Rating was 96.9 while Michael Vick was 60.5.

***Earl Bennett,on his return to the lineup for the first time since the New Orleans game week two, caught all five passes Cutler threw his way for 95 yards and the game winning touchdown.Matt Forte ran the ball 24 times for 133 yards and he caught three passes for 17 yards.He did lose a pair of fumbles that the Eagles turned into 14 points,but they overcame it.

***Now the Bears return home to host Detroit at 3:15 in Soldier Field this coming Sunday. That will be the Bears after afternoon game after playing four in a row under the lights including the Tampa Bay game in London which started at 6pm local time(Noon in Chicago).

***The Bears are now 2-2 on the road this season,but this was the first win in front of a hostile crowd since the Buccaneers “Home” game against the Bears was in London.

***This has been a sad day in these parts,what with legendary Joe Frazier passing away after a brief bout with cancer at the age of 67(he’s a long time Philadelphia resident), the scandal involving Penn State’s Football Coaching staff(which does not including Joe Paterno),and with the Eagles getting upset by the Bears here at the “Linc”.

***Looking across the Parking Lot at Wells Fargo Center,brings back great memories of the Blackhawks win in game six of the Stanley Cub Finals a year and a half ago to win their first Stanley Cup since 1961.

LES

PHILADELPHIA—***Tonight’s the 41st ever meeting(Regular Season and Playoffs)between the Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. The Bears knocked off the Eagles 31-26 last November at Soldier Field. The last time these two teams met at Lincoln Financial Field was Oct 21,2007 when Brian Griese hit Muhsin Muhammad with a 15 yard TD pass,and with just :09 remaining for a 19-16 Bears win.

***The Blackhawks suffered an ugly 6-2 loss to the hated Vancoiver Canucks Sunday nighty. Vancouver scored five power play goals,which is one more than the Hawks have scored TOTAL so far this season. The Hawks looked like they were more interested in giving the Canucks a knuckle sandwich,then winning the hockey game. The Hawks picked up many stuid and selfish penalties than bit them in the butt!

***It was nice to see the REAL NU win in Lincoln Saturday. Northwestern outplayed and defeated favored Nebraska. It was also the first time the Cornhuskers lost to a Big Ten opponent in Memorial Stadium since 1981. Dan Persa hurt his shoulder and is a question mark for this Saturday’s Non-Conference game with Rice in Evanston. The Wildcats beat the Owls in Houston last year. NU is back in the race for a Bowl bid.

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Henrik Sedin had a goal and three assists and Vancouver converted five of six power plays to lift the Canucks to a 6-2 win over the Blackhawkson Sunday night.David Booth, Aaron Rome, Daniel Sedin and Dan Hamhuis each added power-play goals and Jannik Hansen had Vancouver’s only even-strength score as the Canucks (7-7-1) handed the Blackhawks their first regulation home loss. Michael Frolik and Marcus Kruger scored for the Blackhawks (8-3-3), which went 0-for-5 on the power play and has scored just once in its last 26 chances.Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo made 38 saves to help the Canucks end a two-game slide.Corey Crawford blocked 32 shots.Booth’s goal was his first this season. He joined the Canucks from Florida in a multi-player trade on Oct. 22.Rome, who has just three career goals in 132 games, connected in his first game this season after recovering from a broken hand.The Canucks and Blackhawks met for the first time since Vancouver eliminated the Blackhawks in overtime of Game 7 of an opening round playoff series last April. The teams have faced each other in the postseason for three straight years, with the Hawks winning the first two series.Crawford was sharp and made several quick, point-blank stops in the first period as Vancouver dominated and outshot the Hawks 17-9. But Booth, who opened the scoring 6:00 in, was the only Canuck to connect in the frame.After Crawford make a kick save on Booth’s one-time shot from 10 feet out, Booth was left open and popped in the rebound.Frolik tied it at 1 with 7:03 left on a soft shot from the left wing boards that Luongo misplayed. The 45-foot attempt struck the inside of Luongo’s left pad and caromed in between his legs.The Canucks took charge with four goals in the second.Rome and Daniel Sedin scored power-play goals 3:24 apart early in the period to make it 3-1.Rome connected on a screened drive the top of the circle at 1:16. Daniel Sedin fired into an empty net at 4:40 after Crawford had fallen following a collision with Vancouver’s Ryan Kesler.Kruger cut it to 3-2 with 4:53 left in the second by plowing to the net and knocking in a rebound. But Hansen replied from the edge of the crease with Vancouver’s only even-strength goal 43 seconds later when Crawford was trapped out of position by teammate Bryan Bickell.Hamhuis added another power-play goal, shooting in through traffic from the top of the right circle, with 2:10 left in the period to extend the Canucks’ lead to 5-2.Henrik Sedin made it 6-2 midway through the third when he took Alexander Edler’s feed and backhanded it in from the edge of the crease.

NOTES—The five power-play goals against tied a Blackhawks team record. …  Duncan Keith missed his third game with a left hand injury. Keith, who won the Norris Trophy in 2010, is day-to-day. … Vancouver LW Alexandre Burrows sat out with a back injury suffered Friday in St. Louis. D Sami Salo missed his third game with a groin injury. … Including regular-season and playoff games, the Canucks and Blackhawks have met 32 times over the past four seasons.

LINCOLN—Second-string quarterback Kain Colter ran for two touchdowns and passed for another to lead Northwestern to a 28-25 upset of No. 9 Nebraska on Saturday.Filling in for injured starter Dan Persa in the second half, Colter scored from the 1 with 1:34 left to finish a 13-play, 66-yard drive that chewed more than 7 minutes off the clock after the Cornhuskers had pulled to 21-18.Taylor Martinez, who passed for 289 yards and two scores, hurriedly moved Nebraska (7-2, 3-2 Big Ten) down the field. He hit Kenny Bell for a 14-yard touchdown with 18 seconds to play, but Charles Brown recovered the onside kick and Northwestern (4-5, 2-4) ran out the clock.Persa injured his left shoulder in the second quarter when he was slammed to the ground by Eric Martin.Colter ran for 58 yards and completed four of six passes for 115 yards.This was NU’s second ever visit to Lincoln,and first since a 49-7 loss in 1974. It was also the first meeting between the two since the Cornhusers routed the Wildcats in the December 2000 Alamo Bowl.The Cats, back in the hunt for a Bowl bid,host Rice in a non-conference game in Evanston next Saturday.

Kain Colter handles the heat from Nebraska, rushing for two scores and throwing for another TD in the second half. (Getty Images)

TAMPA—Steven Stamkos posted his fourth career hat trick, Vincent Lecavalier scored at 4:06 in overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Blackhawks 5-4 on Friday.Stamkos had three goals during a wild second period that featured each team scoring four times. Lecavalier scored the game-winner from the low slot off a pass from Martin St. Louis, who finished with three assists.Tampa Bay also got a goal from Brett Connolly. The Lightning have won four consecutive home games. Patrick Sharp scored twice for the Blackhawks, who had won three straight. Marian Hossa and Daniel Carcillo also scored.Stamkos’ final goal, a left circle power-play shot with 32.2 seconds remaining in the second, tied it at 4. The center had pulled Tampa Bay within one at 11:45.The franchise record for goals in a game is four, set by Chris Kontos in Tampa Bay’s first ever game, a 7-3 win over the Hawks at Espo Hall on Oct. 7, 1992.After Tampa Bay went up 2-1 on Connolly’s goal at 4:55 of the second, the Blackhawks responded with three scores from Hossa (6:17), Carcillo (7:10) and Sharp (7:22) over a 1-minute, 5-second stretch.Hossa scored from the low left circle, Carcillo stopped a personal 28-game goal drought during a breakaway and Sharp beat Dwayne Roloson from the slot.Stamkos scored 15 seconds into the second on a rebound goal against Ray Emery before Sharp tied it with a power-play goal at 1:05.The Blackhawks went 0 for 19 with the man advantage in their previous five games and failed to convert their first opportunity Friday.Patrick Kane had three assists. He has five assists and seven points over his last three games.

NOTES—Duncan Keith missed his second straight game due to a left hand injury. He could return early next week. … Stamkos has seven goals and eight points in five games against the Blackhawks. … Hall of Fame goalie Tony Esposito, who led the Hawks to the 1971 and 73 Stanley Cup finals, was at the game. … Hossa has 24 goals and 57 points in 52 games against the Lightning.

GROBBER’S FRIDAY THOUGHTS—Nov 4,2011

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NFL Picks Week 9

DALLAS over Seattle 

San Francisco over WASHINGTON

 BUFFALO over NY Jets

 NEW ORLEANS over Tampa Bay

 KANSAS CITY over Miami

 HOUSTON over Cleveland

 Atlanta over INDIANAPOLIS

 OAKLAND over Denver

 Cincinnati over TENNESSEE

 NEW ENGLAND over NY Giants

 ARIZONA over St.Louis

 PITTSBURGH over Baltimore(Sun Night)

 NFC NORTH GAMES

 ———————————

 Green Bay over San Diego

 PHILADELPHIA over Bears(Mon Night)

Through 8 weeks: 77-39 Last week: 7-6

 LES

SUNRISE—After a taxing win against a reworked team, Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville gave the credit to his goalie.Patrick Kane scored the only goal in a shootout, leading Corey Crawford and the Blackhawks past the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Thursday.Crawford stopped 41 shots and all three shootout attempts before Kane’s backhander went through Jacob Markstrom’s legs. Jonathan Toews and Marian Hossa scored in regulation for the Blackhawks.Ed Jovanovski and Stephen Weiss scored for Florida, while Markstrom made 31 saves. Florida tied the score with 2:04 left in regulation when Jovanovski deflected a shot from Dmitry Kulikov and tipped it past Crawford.Trailing 2-0, the Panthers scored late in the second period. Weiss took a pass from Kris Versteeg between the circles. His first shot bounced off the skate of a Hawk defenseman, but Weiss grabbed the rebound and poked in the puck at 18:19. The Hawks took a 1-0 lead on Toews’ goal at 4:04 of the first. Kulikov passed the puck in his own zone but it was picked off by Andrew Brunette. He passed to Toews in front and he pushed the puck past Markstrom.The Blackhawks stretched their lead to 2-0 in the second. Kane passed the puck across the ice to Hossa at the bottom of the right circle. His slap shot beat Markstrom at 4:51.Hossa has four goals and an assist in the last four games against Florida.The Blackhawks are in the beginning of a stretch in which they will play 10 of 13 games on the road.

NOTES—Duncan Keith, who left last Monday’s game with an upper-body injury, was scratched. … Daniel Carcillo was back in the Blackhawks’ lineup after serving a two-game suspension for an illegal check on the Hurricanes’ Joni Pitkanen. … Florida LW Sean Bergenheim was back on the ice after missing seven games with a lower-body injury. … Panthers LW Tomas Fleischmann extended his points streak to six games. … Florida D Erik Gudbranson was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. … Florida’s Brian Campbell, Versteeg and Tomas Kopecky all faced their former team for the first time.

Certainly no surprise as the Cubs have dismissed manager Mike Quade who managed the Northsiders for just over a year, taking over when Lou Piniella left midway through the 2010 season and then leading the team to a 71-91 finish in 2011. Quade was tight with former general manager Jim Hendry, and his future was sealed after Hendry was fired and replaced atop the Cubs’ baseball hierarchy by Theo Epstein. Epstein flew to Florida on Wednesday to tell Quade in person that he was not being retained. His contract runs through 2012.Quade, a 54-year-old baseball lifer, was something of a controversial choice last winter, with many Cubs fans favoring Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg, a Hall of Fame second baseman with the Cubs, left the organization and spent this season managing the Phillies‘ Triple-A team in Lehigh Valley.Sandberg however is not being considered,and was told so by Epstein who said that the new manager “must have managerial or coaching experience at the major-league level.” Sandberg has neither but the Cardinals received permission from the Phillies to talk to him about replacing Tony LaRussa.
Epstein praised Quade for his “passion, knowledge of the game, commitment and integrity.While Mike is clearly an asset to any organization and any major-league staff, [general manager Jed Hoyer] and I believe the Cubs would benefit long-term from bringing in a manager for 2012 who can come in with a clean slate and offer new direction.”
Epstein said the search process will begin immediately.
“We are looking for someone with whom and around whom we can build a foundation for sustained success,” Epstein said. “The next manager must have leadership and communication skills; he must place an emphasis on preparation and accountability; he must establish high standards and a winning culture; he must have integrity and an open mind; and he must have managerial or coaching experience at the major-league level.”

LES