You know you're excited

Today marks the return of live blogging with Sunday night's matchup between the Bears and the Falcons. In each quarter I will be posting observations and lame attempts at jokes.

Just a note on the Colts loss today, all praise to Allah that the Chargers won that game and saved me from another week of having to listen to talking heads pontificate on why the Colts would go for the undefeated record. The whole non-story had become so ridiculous you had guys on ESPN's pregame show arguing that an undefeated record is more important than a Super Bowl victory.

Which is obviously a load of crap.

Anyway, this means sports columnists will be forced to concentrate on a real story, like . . . oh, I don't know, maybe the tight playoff race in the NFC? Where the only team which has locked up its division is Seattle?

Which leads me to tonight's game, between the Falcons and Bears. I'm rooting for the Falcons in this one, but not because I think Vick is the second coming of Fran Tarkenton. For the Bucs to still have a chance at a home playoff game, Carolina needs to lose a game, while the Bucs need to win out.

So if Atlanta wins today, all three teams (Bucs, Bears, and Falcons) will have records of 9-5. Tampa Bay beats Atlanta at home, which means Atlanta needs to beat Carolina the last week of the season to get into the playoffs. Of course, Carolina needs one more loss for the Bucs to lock up the NFC South and a home playoff game. Plus if Chicago picks up two more losses (against Atlanat and Minnesota), then the Bucs could potentially get a first round bye if Carolina losses and the NFC East continues to beat each other up. Follow?