I worry the Jerry world parking will make me poor.  Does anyone know what Island in the Bahamas is living off the revenue generated by the cost of parking in the Pokes p-lot?

I worry Blake Sezmanski or Nick Florence of the Bears will throw very, very well.  Actually the Carlos Mainord and Brian Mitchell coached secondary is likely to beak up 7 – 9 passes. Goal 4 picks. 1 for a score. As a unit which was mistrusted at the beginning of the season - based on the 5 senior safeties graduating – but over the last 4 games they have gotten steadily more aggressive. The thing which really helps these D backs is not being the leading tacklers. Props to the D line  for stripping away blockers and allowing the Linebackers to tackle. It’s going to be strength of the team in 2010 folks. There is no doubt the Raider def linemen will be out to prove a point in this game. OU had a dinged up offensive line but they are still a better unit than what the Bears can field. The key is deflating them emotionally and stepping on their throat, by stifling their inside trap and short flare screen game. Clog up the offensive tackles so they can’t pull and hit a Tech linebacker.

The Baylor defense is actually pretty good.  Sure tacklers and good run stuffers. Jason Lamb is a first rate linemen. Jordan Lake is a good a hitter as any All American in the Big 12 and Joe Pawelek is literally all over the field.  The worry is they play out of their minds. They did last year and knocked Graham H around, put Michael Crabtree in a boot before halftime and if you think about it, they actually ruined 2 games for us.  Yeah I know they caught us at precisely the right moment after OU drubbed and skull dragged us. (Just as a momentary gloat the last quarter of last Saturdays OU game was the best 15 minutes of Raider football I have had all season.)  Back to the Bears - because Crabtree was slowed we lost the tinniest bit of skill player advantage we had going into the Cotton Bowl. What DTNer doesn’t think Crabman not falling down in the 2nd quarter and allowing an Ole Miss interception wouldn’t have taken at least 7 points off the board? So l look at the Bears as the ultimate spoilers. Yeah it’s their Bowl. They have a lot of DFW alum’s and heck even Grant Teaff might start stalking the sidelines to stir up evil karma.  Be glad the Big 12 doesn’t allow schools to ship live Mascots around. Though that female black bear they have is pretty out of shape and has penchant for marshmallows. Still those claws…

 The Bears offense is a lot like ours same type scheme which is unsurprising as Art Briles worked for Mike Leach. He’s got several really fast receivers and running backs. I think they may have even more problems at Offensive line than we do.  Listening to the ATM game via Sirius radio the Bears got  into the Aggie red zone 4 x times - I think - and came away with 3 points? Guess I could go look at b-guts website and confirm that, but it doesn’t matter that much to me to give him a hit. He’s been an even more annoying gad fly ever since he refused to move Tech up in the polls after his own logic was pointed out as terminally homered. Flawed too. So the thing about the Bears offense is just this they are overdue for a big game. Maybe they got it at Mizzou. The Raider defenders need a real case of the jaws to stomp them early. With this Bear O line on the field a bull rush and contain strategy is required to very quickly force multiple 3 and outs. Last weeks first quarter sparring seems to be the norm. Leach's offense has done this against KU, OSU and now the Sooners.  Starting fast as a Raider offense can help but I believe that if the Raiders stay patient they can score 3 - 5 time in the first half. Let’s not wait to the 4th quarter to put up multiple scoring drives. I am travelling to my second game of the year and I don’t want anything resembling a nail biter. Detron Lewis missed or dropped at least 2 passes and was pretty much a decoy all game. But against the Bears I don’t worry about him. As long as "Nick" stays upright someone new in the receiver rotation will get the ball for big numbers. The Raider O line looks to be starting to dominate. Kind of like the end of 07 momentum  seems to be building behind this unit.

Last week I worried that we would have a special teams meltdown. Now not so much. In fact the Special teamers have been very stout over the last 4 games of the season. KU, OSU and OU all have excellent midsized, fast guys who can block and tackle while running and their returners are national leaders. Yet none have stung this Eric Russell coached unit. At least they have not stung them with a game changer. Look for the Raiders to get solid kicker  and or specialist play and a scoring return on the Bears. Eric Stephens and Austin Zouzalik are overdue and it’s something I‘d really like to  be right about just once this year. Also it would give who ever we are playing in whatever Bowl something more to worry about.