Fear The Chorizo

Let's take a step back and see if they actually win tonight first before giving them the next 3 super bowls, ok? It's still Jimmy G at qb.

Seattle has been bad most of december...combo of injuries and Wilson's play dropping from superhuman to average the past few weeks.

Vikes match up well personnel wise with the saints defensively- if they have cook anywhere near 100percent I think they give the saints all they can handle. A 1 seed means they either get the Vikings or the winner of SF-philly, no saints or seahawks until the title game, and all at lambeau. Go seachickens!

Never a doubt!

Lotta game left but at some point they probably need to show up and actually play. Would be a really good idea to start right now before the half

Based on the 2nd half of their season the Sooners had no business being the number 4 team...however nobody else was deserving, either when compared to the top 3. Good thing there is a 4 team playoff, otherwise one of the two teams duking it out right now would have been left out. I do agree on your larger point - the true title contenders for college football can probably be counted on 1 hand every year without fail... 1 Sec west champ 2 Clemson 3 OSU 4 #2 SEC team 5 Random big 12 or pac 12 team with 1 loss if the SEC #2 has 2 losses

Lol, oklahoma

Particularly with a strike appearing more likely by the day following the 2020 season, next year is the year to go all out.

Even before the domestic abuse issues surfaced with Russell, the guy basically was the Cubs' biggest flop in terms of what initially appeared to be an endless run of perennial all stars amounting to league average, or even below league average, position players. He had a good 2016 and was downhill ever since. Russell is a good defensive shortstop that never developed into the plus offensive player many assumed he would become...basically he was their version of Orlando Arcia with just slightly more pop, and I'd argue Arcia will wind up having the better MLB career. Would anyone want Arcia being our everyday 3B? Think of Russell as that plus he's a domestic abuser. Take Russell away from SS and he has no value to a contending team.

Those 70-80 innings per year are spread out over a very high percentage of likely brewer wins in late game, high leverage situations. Hader pitching those innings also frees up other relievers to be more effective, and often allows for starters to only need to get 15-18 outs before getting removed from a game. His impact benefits the entire staff way beyond 70-80 IP. This proposal sounds like something yankee followers and beat writers come up with that jettisons some of their own extra pieces and magically returns a stud to fill one of their few mlb roster holes. Sorry, just not buying that as a fit unless Gleyber Torres replaces Frazier on the trade package.

In all honesty, what are the odds any player acquired in a Hader trade wind up being equally valuable to the Brewers organization? IMO, dealing Hader this offseason leaves a black hole in the pitching staff that will crater their chances to contend in 2020 - you can't replace what he can do by just plugging in another reliever. I'd be surprised if they get enough value in return to make it worth dealing Hader when they still need a pitcher of his ability to contend right now. It's for that reason that I'd actually prefer to see if they Brewers can work out a contract extension that buys out 1 or maybe 2 years of his free agency (he's still just 25, so that would be his age 30 and 31 seasons in 2024 and 2025). Try to give them some cost certainty in arbitration and spread out a payoff that a healthy Hader would get on the open market should he actually get there after the 2023 season. Offer him $10M a season from 2021-2023, up that to $15M for 2024, and have a mutual option at $15M for 2025. That gives the Brewers what is now the best reliever in baseball through his prime years at a reasonable pricetag, and I think Hader would be wise to consider such an extension rather than bank on health over the next 4 seasons before finally reaching free agency.

We're talking about a White Sox team that managed to win just 72 games in a division with two historically bad teams, correct? They really had no choice but to spend like crazy this offseason to fill gaping roster holes that even all their young talent/prospects weren't deep enough to fill. They now do have an interesting mix of veteran and young talent, and should be fun to watch in 2020. They will definitely be competitive in their division. But much of their young talent hasn't been in the majors long enough either due to age or injuries to really know just how good it is - particularly on the pitching side of things. Keep in mind they were fully planning to give Machado $30+ Million a year last season and he spurned them for the Padres - they've been sitting on a mountain of $$ for several offseasons now, and they are right to put it back into improving the MLB roster. However, as they are currently put together, they only have a 50/50 shot at their division - that's not very meaningful in the AL Central in terms of contending for a pennant, since that league also has 3 teams in the AL East (Yanks, Red Sox, Rays) and 2-3 in the AL West (Astros, A's, Angels) that are likely to be better than whoever wins the AL Central.

Winning the field position battle was huge yesterday in hiding that. It's big for this offense when they start 25 yards away from FG range and 60 yards from the endzone as opposed to starting deep in our own territory. It's big for any offense to consistently start at or beyond its own 40 - both the defense AND special teams have been better over the past several weeks at improving field position, which is critical for January football in the cold...great to see! As for the offense, getting that consistency particularly with downfield throws 15+ yards past the line of scrimmage depends a ton on #12 playing better. Both his accuracy and decision-making have been questionable at best, and it seems to be further restricting the downfield routes he's even looking to throw to. The run game is chugging along, and their time of possession edge last night largely due to all their turnovers and the defense shutting down a hapless Viking offense without Cook (their line can't pass block when their play action game doesn't fool rushers/LB's) really wore out the Vikings' defense. In large part I think the run game has been really good because opposing defenses don't want to consistently put the 8th guy in the box for fear of Rodgers carving them up. That may change with teams looking at recent film knowing Rodgers is not playing well, but in all honesty defensive coordinators may prefer to stick with a gameplan that doesn't give Rodgers the opportunity to get hot downfield for fear of what monster they let out of the bag in a playoff game. I've been waiting for one of those Rodgers games where he reminds everyone what he can do on the football field - he's past the point of being able to carry a team every week offensively, but the pieces are in place for this offense where he doesn't need to do that. Hoping that happens a few weeks from now in the divisional round!

Already reading and hearing stuff that the vikes must have held back because they might face gb again in the playoffs - didnt want to show too much...lol Last time I checked a team looking to play close to the vest doesnt have their starting qb running for his life the entire game. They are just a different offensive team without Cook

Careful, I got poo-pooed off last weekend's in game thread for stating they will be in the nfc title game

Its nights like these that truly make me appreciate my affinity for living in chicago and now minneapolis areas over half my life...witnessing those fanbases lose their minds repeatedly is just too much fun!

Kendricks was a huge mid game loss for the vikings... he is unbelieveable in pass coverage and the pack sprung bigger runs with him out

Cousins had no chance tonight...he dropped that dime to Diggs but he was harassed all night long

How about lafleur's first season as head coach?? Any chance he is coach of the year? Lots of spots where it really seems like he's a rookie coach with clock management situations, but there's alot to be said with how this team finds a way. Harbaugh probably gets it with the ravens, but still

If not for the turnovers this would be an absolute curb stomping even with rodgers having a really poor game.

Sure, but that hold negated another sack instead of a long TD Agreed that can't happen in the secondary

The d line is getting two guys home almost every play after 3 seconds

Lol...we all hate Crosby now

Oh that was pretty

Vikes d has been on the field forever tonight