Wake Me Up, When September Ends

The Chicago Bears, Illinois football and the St. Louis Cardinals: Three different teams, three varying levels of success this weekend.

Chicago Bears
Positives:

• They went into a hostile Metrodome and took all the Vikings could throw at them.
• It looked like they were going to get handed their first loss of the season, but the defense came up big when needed and Rex Grossman stayed calm down the stretch.
• Robbie Gould was perfect on field goal attempts.

Negatives:

• The whole first half, which included way too many penalties and the offensive line having trouble picking up the Minnesota blitz. The pressure gave Rex happy feet.
• Grossman also needs to know when to throw a ball away into the stands. He gave the Vikings their only touchdown of the day on a gift-wrapped interception return.

Looking Ahead: The Seahawks, John Madden and Al Michaels head to Soldier Field for a Sunday night showdown of NFC heavyweights. Seattle will be without Shaun Alexander, who is out due to the Madden curse.

The Fighting Illini

Positives:

• Well, if you throw out about a 6-minute span in the second quarter where Iowa scored 21 points, the Illini win the game 7-3.
• The penalties were down from 12 to 2.
• While Juice Williams' numbers weren't the best, he came on strong in the second half.

Negatives:

• The coaching staff is still making too many questionable decisions. They called on DaJuan Warren to do that stupid little rugby punt again, this time while fairly deep in their own territory. The punt went straight up and for a total of 12 yards. Another time, they were running out of the shotgun and snapping the ball into the end zone. That was a recipe for disaster.
• They also subbed Tim Brasic for Williams in the first half. Brasic ran for a first down on the first play, but then threw an interception on the next.
• Too many dropped passes and missed field goals.

Looking Ahead: The Illini travel to Michigan State on Saturday. Illinois hasn't beaten MSU since 1992. This should end well.

St. Louis Cardinals

Positives:

• The road trip is over.
• The regular season is almost over.

Negatives:

• A 7.5-game lead on Thursday was down to 3.5 games after Sunday's game (updated to 2.5 games after Monday's loss).
• While they were busy losing, San Diego, Los Angeles and Philadelphia were actually trying to win and improve their playoff position. It seemed a foregone conclusion that the Cards would be opening at home in the playoffs. Now, they're facing a 3-game sweep at the hands of the Mets.
• As soon as the bullpen is handed a tie game or a lead, they feel the need to cough it back up.

Looking ahead: Who knows? If they don't win a few games this week, the players will be worrying about their tee times.