While the Chicago Bears won their latest game against the San Diego Chargers, many considered it a loss when just a few hours after the game's conclusion, it was announced that QB Jay Cutler would be out for the remainder of the regular season with a broken thumb on his throwing hand. 

Even with Cutler going down for the rest of the season, the Playoff hopes for the Bears are far from finished. Here's why (this is in no particular order);

1. Caleb Hanie - ​If Hanie showed us anything during his relief of Cutler in the NFC Championship game against the Packers, it was that he is capable of being a solid NFL QB. In the Bears offense, Hanie isn't going to be solely relied upon for offense, which is a big plus. All Hanie needs to do is throw smart, manageable passes. Use screens to Forte and expect to see Earl Bennett and possibly Dane Sanzenbacher see a lot of action. He doesn't need to try to take control of the game by himself, and the Chicago coaches all know this. 
2. Matt Forte - No question about it, Matt Forte has been unstoppable this year. Forte accounts for almost 50% of the Bears offense, so look for Hanie to hand the ball off to Forte early and often in games. Another big part of the Bears offense and Forte's game is screen passes. Forte has already racked up nearly 1400 yards from scrimmage (926 rushing, 465 receiving) and will not only see more carries, but he will probably be looked to more often in the passing game as well. 
3. Improved Offensive Line - The Bears offensive line play was abysmal to start off the season, but the tides have been changing as of late. Cutler was no longer scrambling for his life, and the run blocking was very solid. Expect the solid offensive line play to continue as lineman love to run block and the Bears will be doing plenty of running in the coming weeks. Also, Hanie is going to play much more smoothly without being constantly under pressure from opposing defenses. 
4. Defense and Special Teams - The Bears defense is really starting to come around even since Major Wright and Chris Conte were installed at safety. The Bears have been playing much more man to man and have been using Conte often in single-high safety formations. The Bears have also hauled in 7 interceptions over their last 3 games, a major plus. It also doesn't hurt that Lance Briggs and Brian Urlacher are playing at the top of their game right now. As for special teams, everyone knows how dangerous Devin Hester is. The best kick returner in the league without a shadow of a doubt. And their kicking game is also very good. Robbie Gould is money from inside 40-yards. He's one of the most consistent kickers in the league. 
5. Schedule - The Bears end the season with a remarkably easy schedule. The toughest games are against the currently undefeated Packers and next week's game against the Oakland Raiders. The Bears-Raiders game should be a close one, but it's certainly a winnable game. Carson Palmer has thrown 7 interceptions in only 4 games played for Oakland. As for the rest of the schedule, it should be a cakewalk for the Bears. They should be able to shut down Tim Tebow and the Broncos, and the remaining games are against the Kansas City Chiefs who are stuck with Tyler Palko as their starting QB, a 4-6 Seattle Seahawks team, and they end the season with a game against the 2-8 Minnesota Vikings. 

They're 7-3 right now and have 3 victories pretty much locked up against Kansas City, Seattle, and Minnesota. Even if they lose the other 3 games, 10-6 should be enough to sneak them into the Playoffs, especially owning the tie-breaker over the Atlanta Falcons who are currently sitting in one of the two NFL Wild Card slots. At best, I see the Bears going 5-1 over these next 6 games. Even without Jay Cutler, they should be able to make it into the Playoffs. 

Fair warning, this is a topic that probably NOBODY wants to hear about anymore. 

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, QB Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans is done for the season with a Lisfranc injury to his foot. 

Everyone knows that this is most likely coach Gary Kubiak's last chance to make the Playoff or he's out, and this is yet another huge blow that adds to Houston's injury woes this season. 

The Texans first dealt with hamstring problems with star RB Arian Foster, then Mario Williams went down for the season with a pectoral injury. A hamstring injury has also forced the Texans to be without star WR Andre Johnson for six weeks though he might return against Jacksonville following a bye week. 

That said, this injury to Schaub might be the one that finally cripples the Texans and their chances to finally break into the Playoffs. The Texans defense this year has improved by leaps and bounds with new coordinator Wade Phillips as well as the additions of guys like CB Johnathan Joseph and DE J.J. Watt. Their offense has even been able to survive without Foster and Johnson due to players like Ben Tate and Kevin Walter stepping up into their roles. But it always hurts when your QB goes down, especially for an extended period of time. 

With Schaub done for the season, the offense now gets turned over to backup QB Matt Leinart. Since being drafted 10th overall by the Arizona Cardinals in 2006, Leinart hasn't done much to impress. Seriously... this guy lost his job at one point to the 2010 version of Derek Anderson. That's brutal. 

Houston coaches were saying that they were impressed with him in the pre-season. Houston does run the ball more than any other team in the league, so at least the offense won't be totally reliant upon the play of Leinart. Maybe he'll only have to make short, manageable throws while only taking minimal chances. Maybe he can succeed as an NFL QB afterall. But what if he doesn't?

Even with a great running attack and a great defense, Houston can't be too confident with Leinart stepping in, and the situation will only get worse if he struggles. So, here's where that whole "F Word" part comes into play - Favre. Yes, the man we've all grown very tired of hearing about, Brett Favre. 

Sure, the ol' gunslinger is currently "retired," but this is a very favorable situation for him to step into with Houston. It wouldn't surprise me, or many others I'm sure if Favre were to step into a starting role mid-season. I actually think that's probably the ideal situation for him to comeback again. The Texans are a winning team, are definitely top tier on both sides of the ball this season, but now they might be in desperate need of a QB. A partial season in Houston with a high-powered offense and a chance to make a deep Playoff run. As much as I hate to admit it, it makes total sense if Houston and Favre are both up to the task. 

Well, tonight marked the debut of the world's biggest MMA organization on network television. I can't call it a success though. The UFC's primary objective with the deal on FOX was to gain more exposure to hopefully enlist some new fans. The fight that was showcased may have been one of the most anticipated fights of the year, but I can honestly say I doubt it brought in too many new fans. 

The fight was for the UFC heavyweight championship. Following his title win against Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez was sidelined with a torn rotator cuff and successive surgery. Instead of sitting idly by, Junior Dos Santos took a fight against former title challenger Shane Carwin and won, setting up the highly anticipated much between he and Velasquez. Shortly after the UFC announced a deal with FOX, the fight was slated to be showed on the debut show. 

Sure, hardcore fans were absolutely pumped for this fight, but now I'll explain why the whole hour program on FOX didn't deliver on what it was intended to do.

The first 30 minutes of the program were strictly talking between FOX's Curt Menefee along with Dana White and Brock Lesnar. This effectively ended any chance to show any other bout on the card, which was an awful decision. If the UFC wanted to grab the attention of people, they should have broadcasted the lightweight fight between Ben Henderson and Clay Guida. Not only was it a number one contender fight for the right to face current UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, but both fighters are known to bring immense energy into their fights and both have a diverse skill set. Do the math, if the Velasquez-Dos Santos fight could have gone up to 25 minutes, and the max for the Henderson-Guida fight was 15, why was something not done to accommodate it into the broadcast? It just doesn't make sense. 

Well, guess what? It came back to bite the UFC in the behind because pretty much everyone knew that the championship fight was only going to go one of two ways. Either Dos Santos was going to score a quick knockout in one of the early rounds, or Velasquez was going to utilize his wrestling and either get the fight to a decision or get a late round victory via ground and pound punches. 

Well, it ended up being the former. Dos Santos connected with an overhand right to the side of Velasquez's head at roughly a minute into the first round. He followed up with punches to the head of Velasquez and the fight was called at 1:04 into round one. Yes, that's right. One minute and four seconds. That is what effectively killed the broadcast. One fight and it only lasted a tiny bit more than a minute. 

The UFC would have done themselves a lot of good if they got the Henderson-Guida fight on the card because everyone was talking about the fight afterward. Even though it was a unanimous decision victory for Henderson, it was a closely contested fight with many different facets of MMA on display. Both fighters effectively used punches, kicks, knees, wrestling and submissions. If fact, there were points in the fight where both Guida and Henderson went for the victory with submission. UFC middleweight Jason "Mayhem" Miller called the fight a definite "Fight of the Year" candidate. 

So, that pretty much sums up my thoughts. While the UFC is most certainly welcome on FOX, their first endeavor was more of a failure than a success in my opinion. Hopefully they learn from their mistakes. 

So, the "game of the century" wrapped up in overtime with LSU prevailing over Alabama by a score of 9-6. I'm not surprised in the least that it was a defensive battle, but the game really came down to Alabama only converting on 2 of 6 field goal attempts. With such a close game, there are going to be numerous people calling for a rematch come bowl season, but will it happen?

The Contenders

• LSU - As of right now, LSU is in the drivers seat following their win against the Crimson Tide. Unless the Tigers were to lose a game somewhere down the road, they're going to be playing for the National Title. 
• Oklahoma State - The Cowboys hung on to beat a tough Kansas State team by a score of 52-45. Kansas State had a chance to win it, but couldn't convert in the red zone as time expired. We already know their offense can outgun just about anyone in the country, but they have a tough test coming up against Oklahoma in three weeks. With Alabama's loss, the Cowboys are likely to move up to #2 in the rankings for the time being.
• Stanford - Stanford has the offensive capabilities being led by Heisman favorite Andrew Luck, but after a close call against USC last week in a triple overtime thriller, how will the Cardinals fare against the Oregon Ducks next week? 
• Boise State - The school voters love to hate. Boise doesn't play the strongest schedule by any means, but they've always come to play when it matters, especially in the bowl games. Will Boise State finally get some love from the rankings if the teams in front of the Broncos falter? 
• Alabama - Alabama isn't going to fall too far down the rankings with a loss to LSU, and people are definitely going to be calling for a rematch between arguable the two best teams in the country. That said, if Oklahoma State, Stanford, or Boise State remain undefeated, Alabama shouldn't vault over them. They still have an outside chance at the National Title. 
• Oklahoma - In three weeks they will play their biggest game against one of college football's best offenses in Oklahoma State. Can Oklahoma beat their in-state rivals? If they do, they'll surely receive a lot of love in the polls, but their story is the same as Alabama's. Even if they win, a one-loss team shouldn't vault over teams with no losses. 

In a few weeks, hopefully this will all be cleared up. That said, if teams like Stanford and Oklahoma State falter, this could become really messy.

Sunday's race at Las Vegas was supposed to be a celebratory occasion; The crowning of a champion, Danica's farewell to IndyCar, and a chance at $5,000,000 dollars. However, after a 15 car crash on lap 10, nobody was celebrating. The concern immediately went to those involved in the crash, and those injured. Namely, Dan Wheldon. Wheldon was the only of the drivers airlifted to the hospital, and then came the agonizing two-plus hours of waiting for word on the two-time Indy 500 winner and previous champion. 

A silence swept over the garage area and the race track. After hours of waiting, IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard broke the tragic news that Dan Wheldon had unfortunately passed away from "unsurvivable injuries." 

The remaining 19 drivers decided to pay tribute to Dan by performing a 5 lap salute around the track in remembrance of their friend and colleague.

Over the years, Wheldon had matured into a very respected family man. He won the Indy 500 twice, as recently as this year when he passed JR Hildebrand on the last lap after Hildebrand struck the Turn 4 wall. Everyone had nothing but kind words to say about Dan. He was often characterized as one of the nicest and most popular drivers in the series. One thing is for certain, the auto racing world certainly lost one great man on Sunday. My thoughts, and the thoughts of the auto racing world are with his wife Susie and their two children.

Besides mourning the loss of Wheldon, IndyCar certainly has a dilemma on it's hands. Many fans, writers, and even drivers were critical with the decision to race a record-setting field of 34 cars on a 1.5 mile oval where there is no lifting off the throttle, speeds are regularly at 220-225 miles per hour, and nobody can really break away from the pack. 

IndyCar might not be the same without ovals, but I believe they need to be more selective in what ovals they choose to race on. None of these 1.5-2 mile ovals designed for NASCAR. IndyCars shouldn't be racing on these type of tracks at much higher speeds. They need to bring back the 1 mile ovals like Loudon and Milwaukee and forgot about the high-speed ovals other than of course, Indianapolis. The smaller and flatter ovals like Loudon and Milwaukee allow the race to be much more in the hands of the driver. The tracks actually take skill to race at, unlike the pack racing that is a by-product of tracks like Vegas. As we've seen over the year, it doesn't take much for these cars to get airborne. Kenny Brack and Ryan Briscoe had memorable crashes at Texas and Chicagoland where both launched into the catchfence. Luckily, both are still with us today. Sadly, in Wheldon's case, that isn't the case primarily due to the fact that when his car launched into the air, it flipped over and he hit the catchfence cockpit side/helmet first. 

So, what is IndyCar to do? If they really wish to race on the bigger ovals like this, they need to make a safer car. Ironically, Wheldon was a main tester of the new Dallara car that will be used in 2012 which is reportedly safer. Still, either IndyCar has to find a way to prevent these cars from racing in such huge packs at such high speeds, or they need to find a way to keep the cars from going airborne so easily. In Sunday's crash, 4 cars went airborne, including Wheldon. The other three were those of Will Power, Pippa Mann, and Townsend Bell. 

If IndyCar can't address the current safety concerns with aerodynamic improvements, then they need to reduce the speed. Another thing that I would like to see added is a "pod" around the cockpit to protect the driver. That may factor into the extraction time if a terrible incident were to occur, but it will surely prevent the driver(s) from slamming into the wall/fence helmet first.