Matt Trowbridge | Local and national sports

Three NIU football players earn All-America honors from various organizations

Matt Trowbridge — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:30:38 +0000

NIU announced in a news release that three offensive players from Northern Illinois University’s first MAC football championship team in 28 years were named All-American this week by various media organizations. The Huskies (10-3) also have a chance to to tie last year’s school record of 11 wins if they can beat Arkansas State in their bowl game next month.

Senior center Scott Wedige was named a second team All-American by CBSSports.com, quarterback Chandler Harnish earned honorable mention All-America honors from SI.com and left tackle Trevor Olson received fourth team All-America recognition from Phil Steele as all three media outlets ...

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IHSA upholds ruling that Marcus Posley cannot play for Auburn

Matt Trowbridge — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:33:07 +0000

The entire IHSA board upheld Executive Director Marty Hickman’s earlier ruling that former Winnebago guard Marcus Posley cannot play basketball this year for Auburn High School. The official post read:

IHSA ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
1. The Board sustained the Executive Director’s ruling on a student from Rockford (Auburn). The student was ruled ineligible for non-compliance with IHSA By-law 3.045.

This was the right call. And evidence that it is the right call is that I have not heard anyone directly involved — from Winnebago, Auburn or the Posley family — complain since the decision was first made in October.

Posley, by all ...

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Sportsillustrated.com columnist salutes Chandler Harnish, praises NIU’s bowl game

Matt Trowbridge — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:25:23 +0000

SI.com columnist Holly Anderson wrote that NIU’s bowl game against Arkansas State could be “the sleeper hit” of the Bowl season. She also raved about NIU’s senior quarterback and all-around good guy, going so far as to mention the words Chandler Harnish and Heisman Trophy in the same sentence. She wrote:

Let us sing one last time of Chandler Harnish, who’s hovered on the fringes of the national hive mind as a dark-horse Heisman candidate for a couple seasons now, and who put his personal stamp on a thoroughly satisfying season of MACtion by leading a 23-point second-half
...

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Bears running back Marion Barber talks — and still says almost nothing

Matt Trowbridge — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:56:06 +0000

A day after being censured by the league for refusing to talk to reporters, and four days after ducking reporters after fumbling in overtime and running out of bounds in the final two minutes of regulation in Chicago’s 13-10 overtime loss at Denver, Bears running back Marion Barber spoke to two reporters at Halas Hall today.

The Bears then emailed Barber’s quotes to all the reporters who cover the team. His gems include cutting off a reporter when being asked about running out of bounds. He said:

“I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but I just move on. Just bear
...

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Sam Hurd an embarrassment to Bears and NIU

Matt Trowbridge — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 19:04:42 +0000

I can’t think of a worse ethics story involving either a Chicago Bear or former NIU football player than the charges that Sam Hurd is a major drug dealer. You can read the complete list of charges at the Dallas Morning News. This makes gun charges with Tank Johnson, the various legal problems of Cedric Benson, the crashed and deserted Lamborghini of Lance Briggs, etc., look like boys being boys. If true, Sam Hurd is not an out-of-control spoiled pro athlete who refuses to grow up. He is a criminal.

That said, since nothing is ...

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Is Tim Tebow the next Steve Walsh?

Matt Trowbridge — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:31:02 +0000

Seventeen years ago, Steve Walsh was Tim Tebow without the running and hysteria.

In my last post, I compared Tim Tebow’s 6-0 record in games decided by 7 points or less to Dick Jauron’s; advancednflstats.com points out that the Bears 8-0 record in one-score games in 2001 was the best close-game record in the NFL in the last 32 years, but pointed out such records are never sustainable. That 13-3 season was the only winning record Jauron had in his 10 years as an NFL head coach.

So Tebow’s Broncos compare to Jauron’s Bears, who also won on overtime miracles ...

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ESPNChicago columnist says fans and media should praise Jerry Angelo

Matt Trowbridge — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:26:33 +0000

As much as I read ESPN.com, my favorite sports-only website, I almost never read ESPNChicago.com. And now I know why.

Scoop Jackson writes that Jerry Angelo should be praised for this Bears season. To be fair, he wrote this before Jay Cutler was injured and the Bears lost three in a row, but still. I mean, but still!!! To make it even more funny, he goes into long detail about how he wrote a column completely ripping Angelo when the Bears were 2-3 but his editors saved him by refusing to run it and saying that editors save him (and ...

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Dick Jauron was Tim Tebow before Tim Tebow

Matt Trowbridge — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:23:32 +0000

I am on record as saying Tim Tebow doesn’t ultimately have to fail, that you can run an option attack in the NFL without your quarterback getting killed, especially if he is as rugged as Tim Tebow. Quarterbacks get hurt more standing in the pocket than they do scrambling. But I also don’t believe that winning a bunch of close games in a row after playing poorly through the first three quarters makes Tim Tebow Mr. Clutch. It’s more likely a combination of good fortune and feasting on prevent defenses.

That’s just my theory. The good folks at advancednflstats.com have ...

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Marion Barber staying in bounds would not have guaranteed a Chicago Bears win in Denver

Matt Trowbridge — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 20:49:24 +0000

By all accounts, Marion Barber gave Tim Tebow and the Broncos an extra 30 or 35 seconds when he ran out of bounds in the final 2 minutes Sunday. That doesn’t mean time would have run out before another Tebow “miracle.”

The way the ball was carrying like crazy in the thin air in Denver — a 59-yard Denver field goal might have been good from 70 yards and Robbie Gould, who used to never even be allowed to try kicks longer than 50 yards, hit a 57-yard that would have been good from 65 yards — the Broncos needed ...

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Bears need to score more; defense no longer wins championships — if it ever did

Matt Trowbridge — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:55:53 +0000

It’s bad enough that Lovie Smith doesn’t even let the Bears defense play defense with a 10-point lead in the final five five minutes; can you imagine Buddy Ryan ever going into a prevent defense at the end of a game with the Bears’ 46 defense in the 1980s? Me, neither.

But the real proble is that in this video-game football age, Lovie Smith is trying to win with defense, period.

I’m not sure that ever worked. It sure doesn’t work now.

Look at the standings. The 13-0 Packers have scored 466 points. The 10-3 Saints have scored 415. The ...

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