Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions everyday! Follow the podcast and find us live Sunday, Wednesday and Friday nights on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Twitch and Kick TV.
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Badgers' Football Struggles, Packers' Thanksgiving Triumph, and College Football Rivalry Insights – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
What happens when your favorite team loses steam and struggles to find its footing? Join us on "Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage" as we tackle the emotional rollercoaster of Wisconsin sports. We kick off with the bittersweet relief of moving past a disappointing Badger football game. In stark contrast, the Green Bay Packers light up the scene with their Thanksgiving triumph over the Dolphins, giving fans much-needed cheer. We talk about the standout players who are shaping a promising future and set the stage for the Badger basketball team’s battle against Chicago State under the savvy guidance of Coach Greg Gard.
As the Badger football team grapples with its identity, we question the coaching strategies, especially the reliance on transfer quarterbacks that has yet to bear fruit. The winds of change are in the air, and we explore what it might take for the team to regain its traditional prowess. We ponder whether fresh talent from within might be the key to unlocking future success. With the backdrop of strategic challenges, we turn a critical eye toward the broader college football landscape, contemplating the high-stakes rivalry matchups and their playoff implications.
Wisconsin's sports saga wouldn't be complete without a deep dive into the Packers’ defensive prowess, which was on full display against the Dolphins. We explore how players like Quay Walker and the wide receivers have fueled the team's success through instinctive play and unselfish teamwork. The episode rounds out with a look at the NFL's upcoming clashes and our bold predictions for potential upsets and standout performances. Whether you're a fan of college or professional sports, there's plenty to chew on as we celebrate the competitive spirit and strategize for the road ahead.
Thank you, you. So how we doing everybody and welcome into wisconsin sports on the go with trage I'm your host, trage. We're coming back on a friday night. Uh, I would say it's a great, a great friday, a great black friday as they call it. But uh, yeah, yeah, we watched that badge game earlier. We watched that badge game earlier and that was about.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm glad I, you know, honestly, I was complaining about the start time for that and that it was on a friday and everything like that. I'm glad we got it out of the way. I, if that's what it was going to look like, no matter if it was on saturday or a friday, if heck, if it been on wednesday, I I don't care. We got it out of the way. It's done, it's over with the season is, I mean essentially done and over with? At this point here, I don't know if we're going to get in some academic bowl or whatever the heck you want to call it out there, but I mean just a Debbie Downer, right? We watched the Packers get a big win over the Dolphins on Thanksgiving night. I was through the roof. I was like, okay, now all we got to see is this Badger football team, right. This Badger football team come to play on Friday for the Axe the rivalry, right? Yeah well, we saw what happened there. So it was ugly. It was ugly all the way around. Nobody with me tonight here so far. Aaron is supposed to be here at some point. He got in a little fender bender. I guess he was on his way home. Got in a little fender bender the lady is a little bit crazy, I guess and right now he's on the phone with State Farm. I don't know. He's on the phone with Jake from State Farm right now wearing khakis there at 817 Central Time right now. So we'll see if we have anything else to talk about today here. That was ugly. I I mean just ugly. I don't know what else to say, except for that game. That game is what this season was in a nutshell. That game is what we felt all season long in a nutshell. So we're going to get into that today. We're going to talk about Packers Dolphins game, because there's a lot of good that came out of that. A lot of players actually stepping no-transcript. So I want to talk about that Packer game today. Badger's going to be in action tomorrow against Chicago State.
Speaker 1:Badger basketball's back, thank the Lord, right, for Greg Gard. I didn't think I would say that ever. I never thought I would say thank you for Greg Gard because right now the two, the two major, I guess you know volleyball has been fantastic, women's hockey's been fantastic. You know there's badger programs are doing great right now, right, but the bigger one, football, has stunk. And between football and men's basketball, those are two places you know for Wisconsin that I love to talk about, love to watch, and just thank you to Greg guard for making us feel a little bit better in this time because man, oh man, it it's watching this football team right now. Watching this effort today was bad, it it really hurts. So I want to get to that game here in a minute. I see I got a comment coming in about that game. I want to get to that game in a minute here. I told Aaron I would hold off on it for a minute here We'll talk about that Badger game against Chicago State coming up tomorrow here. That I mean hopefully right, chicago State coming to this one.
Speaker 1:I believe they're 0-8 on the season so far. They have struggled. They have struggled to start this season. They lack an identity, right, the Chicago State team has, and last season they had a couple good guards I think there were brothers or twins or something like that that came in there and this season they just don't have a lot going for them. Early on here, struggling to find the basket, struggling to find any kind of rhythm, they actually, I believe, in the Ken Palm ranking they're ranked like 360th in points per 100 possessions or something like that. It's just terrible numbers across the board. I believe that's what I saw or something like that. It's just terrible numbers across the board. I believe that's what I saw. Yes, they're 91.8 points per 100 possessions, so that's good for 360th in the Ken Palm ranking. And they're also 113 points per 100 possessions. That ranks them in the 338th. So they're sitting kind of. You're sitting kind of for Chicago State. Not a lot of size, not a lot of scoring.
Speaker 1:You take care of your business on your home court. You just came off of a very good tournament in the Greenbrier and you took care of Pitt late in that one. You got a big win against UCF. A couple of good wins on your schedule there already, along with that Arizona game. Now you take care of this one. Because you got to take care of this. You're going to set yourself up for that game against Michigan that you're going to be coming up here. I believe Michigan is right after Chicago State, if I'm not mistaken. I just want to double check. Yes, yes, they will play Michigan on the third. So you get this game against Chicago State, keep your winning ways going and then you go take on Michigan there at the Kohl Center before you will travel to take on Marquette. So set yourself up well going into that. Don't allow some Chicago State team to come into the Kohl Center and take it over right.
Speaker 1:Badger fans cannot handle if Wisconsin men's basketball loses to Chicago State. We just can't handle it. We can't handle it at this point. It has been too much of a disaster up until now with the football team. I cannot handle this men's basketball team falling off a cliff to a team like Chicago State. I mean, knock on wood, they take care of their business. It's all good from there.
Speaker 1:So Wisconsin Chicago State that's going to be a 12 o'clock game tomorrow there, I believe. Do 12 o'clock game tomorrow there, I believe? Do they have? It's on Peacock? Of course it is right. Of course it's on Peacock. That's a place you got to go to watch any great game these days, I guess, is on Peacock. So the Badgers will be on there Favored. Right now ESPN has them as a 99% favorite to win that game. So if the odds are stacked in our favor, maybe we'll pull one out.
Speaker 1:So, hopefully, badgers men's basketball in action tomorrow at noon there. But we might as well just get to the ugly. Right, we might still get to the ugly. And over on facebook, there, uh, pat meyer. There he says that game is the very reason fickle needs to go. And I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna get to that point there. And I know there's a lot of badger fans, and myself included, who have been in that same boat. Right, I mean, pj Fleck was rolling the boat straight over top of us there in Camp Randall for that game.
Speaker 1:So that that stunk, that stunk, and to say that, see, minnesota, come into Camp Randall and just win every facet of this game to play more physical, to play faster, to look like they wanted it more than the Badgers In a rivalry game, in the Axe game. Right, you are now trophy-less. The trophy case is empty. It's empty. You lost to Nebraska, you lost to Iowa, you now lost to Minnesota. You lost those three big games. Those are the big games, right, I know Oregon's on the schedule. You had Penn State on the schedule. I get that you had two big big games right there, but that game against Oregon didn't mean that much to me. Yes, if the Badgers would have won it, great, I would have been ecstatic. Right, it would have been the signature win for luke fickle that he was lacking, right, that would have been the signature win. He didn't get it. That game against penn state had him on the ropes up until the fourth quarter. Then, well, your offense not able to move football, let you down. Same with that oregon game.
Speaker 1:I think of the fact that we lost. I'll be honest, I don't think it's as much to the fact to me that we lost, it's the way that the badgers lost. Right now I'm saying a lot of wheeze there it's the way that the badgers lost. That, I think, hurt the most because you as a game and I know you go to Iowa. It's a tough place to play. I'm not going to say that Iowa is the easiest place to travel, to play, everything like that but you go to Iowa and you lose 42 to 10, 42 to 10 to Iowa, and they beat you by playing your game Not your game now, but your game from the past right Ground and pound right up at you. You knew what they were going to do before they ran the play and yet they still beat you Nebraska. They struggled all season long and Nebraska goes and beats you 44 to 25. 44 to 25. And now Minnesota walks into Camp Randall and they walk out with a 24-7 win where you were never in that game.
Speaker 1:I could have shut that game off in the second quarter and been fine. I wouldn't have missed anything. Right, made false hope. Made false hope when the Badgers were driving, one time that, hey, something was going to happen. It's this game, excuse me there, this game needed to happen. It needed to happen that way because there was no. This season could not have ended any better way for the Badgers. Honestly, it couldn't have, because you watch this team. What was the fitting ending? Right, what was the fitting ending for this team, this program, this season?
Speaker 1:That game, that game against Minnesota, where PJ Fleck came in wearing his sunglasses, where it's it's not even sunny outside he's wearing his sunglasses, down the sideline, looking like PJ Fleck does, and he just tosses you. He tosses you. He gets his boys up, they're ready to rock. They come into the camp Randall and they just own you. They just own you in every facet in the trenches. Uh, running the football, right, I mean, how do you win? I don't even you know what.
Speaker 1:I took a screenshot of the halftime stats today. The halftime stats I don't even think I should have because this hurts to even look at. You are averaging 0.4 yards per rush. 0.4 yards per rush in this game I why are you losing 14 to nothing? I couldn't even tell you. 0.4 yards per rush, right, 14 rushing attempts and you average 0.4 yards. You had six yards rushing. Going into that, going into that. Uh, halftime, looking at your third down efficiency, your two for eight. Two for eight. You had 37 yards through the air. You had 43 yards in total at the half against Minnesota in a game where you had to come out and play, which makes me go back to.
Speaker 1:I was you know what earlier on this season. They were 5-2, right, and at 5-2, you're like we need one win, one win, we're bowl eligible, right? We're feeling good, we're feeling good, and then you get to this You're not even bowl eligible. When it's all said and done? You're not even there. You're not even bowl eligible when it's all said and done. You're not even there. You're not even in a crap bowl. Right, we made fun of all the bowl games the Badgers were in over the years. Right, the Duke's Mayo Bowl, the pinstripe bowl right, they're all just jokes Now, look now, where are we?
Speaker 1:Nowhere, and right now we're teetering. I don't even know if we haven't hit rock bottom as a program at this point, if the badgers haven't hit rock bottom. I don't know where rock bottom is. Is it purdue? Is it is purdue, rock bottom? Because we're getting there, trust me, we're getting there, we'll get there at some point. This is just, I mean to say, to say that the Badgers were 5-2 at one point this season and look where they're at now Wow, just wow.
Speaker 1:I mean and you know, in the comments there Pat comes back with the alarming part is the lack of identity, both offensive and defensive. I agree 100%. And you know, we sit here and we blame Phil Longo and we blame Trestle and we blame this and we blame that, and I agree, I agree 100%. But why did we stick so far? Why did we stick so long with that? Right, because we saw after and you know we can say, okay, okay, okay, maybe if we wait it out, we wait it out, we wait this thing out, maybe it gets better. Right, maybe it gets better. When was it? You know, phil long goes, phil long okay.
Speaker 1:So the way the badges were recruiting and what phil long wanted to do with that offense, they didn't go together, they didn't mesh right, so you had to go back to the drawing board. Now we're two years into the luke fickle era and now this offseason we had to go back to the drawing board. Now we're two years into the Luke Fickle era and now this off season we have to go back to the drawing board, not just on the offensive side of the football, but on the defensive side of the football, because the defense looked. I mean, I'm going to blame lack of talent on the defense a little bit too, but I'm going to blame Trestle. That defensive line was not good. That linebacker core was not good. That linebacker core was not good. The secondary they were hit or miss day by day. Right, hallman was good, but he went away.
Speaker 1:Wohler, I feel bad for Wohler sometimes. I do Because Wohler, he gives it everything he's got and it just falls apart around him. It just falls apart around them. And I mean, outside of that, where were you? There was no. You look around this defense and you look at past years and you say, okay, where are the X factors right? And you look at the years of the big linebackers that the Badgers have had right TJ Edwards, and you had TJ Watt in there and I mean you just had all these little pieces, the big pieces right on that in that defense.
Speaker 1:Now we look at this defense and we're like we have hunter wohler. Where else is somebody stepping up? Is there anybody else gonna step up here? And I know, you know we talk about recruiting right and luke fickle is bringing in recruits and the recruiting classes look good, but how long does it take to develop those guys? And do you have the right coaches, the right coordinators, everything in place to even get those guys to the right position to get them over? What we've seen now? I don't know. I seriously don't know.
Speaker 1:Right now you're going into an off season and it's dark. I mean it's dark right now. Camp Randall's dark that. I mean I hope he's sitting in his office and it's dark right now. Maybe he's got a candle lit in the corner. He needs to go to the darkness retreat with Aaron Rogers at this point, because I, I watch this and you're heading into an off season now of unknowns, right, and your, if his seat is not hot, know a lot of people are on the fire luke fickle train and I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you, you can't be on that train. All right, right. But if you fire Luke Fickle now, let's just say Monday morning, and I'm not going to sit here and say it's not going to happen, maybe he does get fired, I'm not going to say it doesn't happen. But if you fire Luke Fickle now, the recruiting, everything, I mean we're in a hole now. But how much deeper can that hole get? It might get deeper, this hole could get deeper. So in my opinion this is just my opinion.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people will probably differ in those opinions but you're going to run this back with Luke Fickle. You are, you're going to run it back next season, next season, is it for me, right? And I get right? Oh man, he's got to turn over this program. Paul Chris left in and shambles, everything like that. I'm sick of hearing about Paul Chris. That's done, that's done and over with by next season. Paul, chris, guys, if they haven't already been gone, they're gone right.
Speaker 1:Now it's Luke Fickle's team, now it's Luke Fickle's recruits, now it's his transfers, now it's everything right and he's going to bring in the offensive coordinator. Whoever he decides he wants to bring in, they have to be the guy they have to. This process that he goes through now, I believe, is for his job. I do Next season is for his job. I know there's a $21 million buyout if they want to get rid of him, I think it's $28 million. If they get rid of him now, $21 next year. Whatever it is, get rid of them. I mean, I think it's 28 million. If they get rid of them now, 21 next year. Whatever it is, you're going to go into next season with Luke Fickle, but next season's schedule is a gauntlet. Right, it's a gauntlet.
Speaker 1:So we talked about the other day Aaron and I talked about it going into this game, and we said, because he was talking about schedule two, and he said how do you judge a coach wins and losses off of that schedule? And I said you know what? Honestly, I'm not judging him off of the wins and losses, not what the record looks like. I'm judging him off of what it looked like in those losses, what it looked like in the wins, what it looked like in the losses right, because this season my biggest problem with this Badger football team this season was not in the losses even. I'm not even looking at the else right now. I'm looking at the performances in those else, in those losses.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at those and I'm saying to myself in those losses, how did his team perform? Did they show up? Was there fire? Was there this? Was there that? And in those games the Iowa, the Nebraska, the Minnesota, when it meant something, when it was for a trophy, when those games are my measuring sticks and you play those games and you get dog walked, dog walked, dog walked. Those are the games that I judge him and I say to myself wow, like is the? Is the locker room gone? What's gone, right?
Speaker 1:And then you listen to all the post-game uh interviews, right, with hunter waller and with brain lock and I believe there's another couple linemen or anything like that. They interviewed a couple different players there, I think it was Ben Barton was in there, there was a couple other guys and you listen to them talk and it's like they love Coach Fickle. They do. They've said it in their posts and maybe they are just lying to us. I don't know. Maybe they're lying to us, but the way that they make it seem they didn't quit on Coach Fickle. So what is this crap then? So then it comes back to the drawing board of your head coach managing a game. It comes back to the coordinators putting guys in right positions. It comes back to the drawing board then. So that's why you're going into this offseason and you have to completely redo, retool, change it up, fix it all, and in year three you're going into it like you're year one all over again.
Speaker 1:That doesn't bode well for a fan base who is already hot and I mean probably 60-40 on firing or keeping right. I mean it's like the Greg Gard scale, the gauge right. Everybody's always ready to fire Greg Gard and then all of a sudden, he wins a couple of games. It's that we're at the point where we're probably 60-40 firing him. It's that we're at the point where we're probably 60-40 firing him, and even those people who are in on keeping him are still in the back of their heads saying is he actually the right guy? Right, because I'm even there, I think you I'm going to honestly say you don't fire him. Okay, that's my point, blank opinion you don't fire him.
Speaker 1:Now, that's doesn't sit well with a lot of people. They think that we should fire him and I can't say that you're wrong, because I'm in that group right now where I'm saying to myself I think you keep him for these reasons, but next season is it for me, next season is going to hit the hay for me. And if he doesn't figure it out next season, what do you do? Because you cannot continue to let your program. If you are McIntosh and you ride this baby out until the end, until the contract's up, and this program keeps falling and keeps falling, what do you look like? The 80s fired then right, the 80s fired, fickles fired Now we're starting from square zero on everything, right. So I mean just a disaster right now for this Badger team.
Speaker 1:And uh, pat says, with the way you can bring in transfers in today, grab a new coach and a whole new team. I mean, yeah, we can roll with the indiana way with the kurt singetti. I mean he brought in a pretty decent enough roster from james madison and everything like that. I agree, but I mean, you play this game of and I know it's it's the cliche, but you play this game of. And I know it's the cliche, but you play this game of what if the next guy sucks? Right, what if the next guy sucks? There's always that possibility that the next guy's going to suck, and maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, I don't know. Right, I've always been on the fire Greg Gard train, right. But this season, the way that he changed his coaching philosophy and changed the way that he does things let Kirk Penny basically design the offense and everything like that that was big time. That was big time and it changed a lot of people's perspectives on what Greg Garda is as a head coach.
Speaker 1:So maybe, just maybe, maybe, we get an offensive coordinator coming in, right, I don't know who it's going to be. I've heard Notre Dame's quarterback coach, I believe. I've heard a lot of different names. Right, maybe you bring in this offensive coordinator and he just he comes in, changes it up a little bit, changes up the offense, the offense starts to feel it right. And then the defense maybe you fire Trestle, maybe Trestle's gone right, we start at square, we start over at ground zero with the defense and set it up. Maybe Jim Leonard comes back. I don't know. I see a lot of people praying for Jim Leonard to come back. I don't think he will. But maybe you get a good defensive coordinator in there and he fixes the defense right, because the way that fickle, the way that fickle has it set up and this is the way that I believe fickle wants it to be, because then he isn't the fall guy for anything it's, he has an offensive coordinator, he has a defensive coordinator. He doesn't do much in between the lines except for manage that, manage the game right. So if you bring in this offensive coordinator, maybe it's a good one this time around you find a defensive coordinator out there. Because you don't trust Trestle, you fire him off. You could see this team start to figure it out. Then it changes perspective again, right.
Speaker 1:But I truthfully believe right now you're not winning football games with Brayden Locke and it's tough. But you look at the last two seasons we've banked on transfer quarterbacks coming in in Tyler Van Dyke in Tanner Mordecai coming in changing the offense, being that guy. Both those guys get injured. Both times Brayden Locke has to step in and be the guy right, be the guy twice. He's got to step in and be the guy I don't believe he was ever supposed to. He's never supposed to have been the guy right. And yes, he might have the brains for it. He might, and I sometimes I I lack the the ability to think that he has the brains for it. But he he has. I think he understands what he's supposed to do. I just don't think he has the talent to do it. I don't think he has the talent to do it. On this level. You can have all the IQ in the world, but if you can't play the game, you can't play the game right. And if Mabry was really not that ready, okay.
Speaker 1:So now you go back to square one with the quarterback rule. What are you going to do now? Are you going to go out and grab another transfer quarterback? Are you going to bank on a transfer quarterback coming into the system and trying to lead you? I'm sick of that. I'm honestly sick of that. If you bring in an offensive coordinator who can fix quarterback or work with quarterbacks, anything like that you bring in a quarterbacks coach and you bring in Carter Smith you have Locke already. You're going to have Mabry's going to be in there too and you fix this quarterback room. You fix it from the inside. I I hate the idea that we keep. He's done so now we're back to square one with the quarterback room anyways. So and if tyler van dyke comes back, I mean, do you trust him with his injury problems? I'm so sick of the transfer portal for quarterbacks.
Speaker 1:Build a quarterback. Carter smith's coming in. Build him up right until in this offseason. Get Mabry ready to go. Mabry is a good prospect quarterback. I believe he can sling it around. He's got some height, he's got some athleticism to be able to move around there. Get him ready to go and when Mabry's ready to go, throw him in there. And then, when Carter Smith, have him work behind him. When he's ready, bam there you go. Work from the inside.
Speaker 1:If you're the badgers with this quarterback room, because a big downfall of this season the penn state game, the oregon game, lack of quarterback play, terrible quarterback play. And the hardest part is is we want to sit here and blame paul chris for all this crap. What we want to sit here and blame Paul Chris for all this crap. What Transfer portal? Tanner Mordecai Transfer portal. Nick Evers was transfer portal. All these guys are transfer portal guys and Mabry was a recruit. So where are these? Where are these Paul Chris quarterbacks? They're gone. Graham Mertz is gone, right, they're all all gone now.
Speaker 1:Now it's luke fickle's problem and phil longo is supposed to be this quarterback guru who is supposed to get all the boys up. He didn't do it. We've seen it, right. We've seen the lack of production, the lack of anything at the quarterback position for the badgers. We've seen it for years. We saw it for years worse. It got worse this season.
Speaker 1:Brayden Locke was at times I thought he could be something, but then he drew me back. He threw me. It's like he made me believe in him for about one throw and then the next throw was like this guy, you got to find something in the quarterback room. I don't think you keep dipping in that transfer portal to try and find it. I think you got to build it from the inside. You know, and honestly, this whole Luke Fickle experience and everything like that has been a train wreck up until this point.
Speaker 1:I want to see him come into next season with a team of guys who are bought in right, you got to be bought into this system. That's what he said in his press conference. You got to be bought in. They got to come in, bought into the system, but they have to come in and show some kind of fight. I don't care Next season they're going to have they have a dog fight of games on there.
Speaker 1:They have Ohio state, they have Oregon on the road, they have Alabama again Indiana, they have Illinois. They have a tough schedule next season. You're going to play some tough games next season, but it's not the wins and losses that are going to affect me the most, it's what they look like in those games. That's what I think it comes back to. So can Luke Fickle get his guys ready for games? That's my biggest question. Can he manage in the game? Can he adapt to adversity? Because this season season it's like we got punched and we didn't know what to do. They look lost. They look like they just gave in, gave up on these games. Multiple games right. The usc game had the lead, blew that. Look at some other games on there. The uh penn state game had to lead late pick six fell apart. Iowa got them just completely obliterated. I don't know what to even say about that.
Speaker 1:Oregon, you were in that. You came out like your piss was hot and oregon, they had the better quarterback. They didn't make the bigger plays. They didn't make big plays on that day. Right, they made the plays they had to to survive. That was a game that was destined to be an upset and you couldn't find a way.
Speaker 1:Nebraska dog walked, minnesota dog walks you. It's the losses that, the ugly ones, right, and your ugly losses came to teams that are outside of the rankings, have struggled against the good teams and you believe you're supposed to be on a tier with them. Right, there's. There's tier one, tier two in the Big Ten. Now, tier one Ohio State, oregon, penn State's in there, a little bit right, missing a team in there. Probably no, that's probably about it there. Tier two you have. Nebraska was supposed to be in there. I don't think they ever got to there. But you have Iowa, you have Minnesota's, probably up in that spot. Now, you thought you were supposed to be in that tier. Now, where are you? You're probably on the tier just above Purdue, a little above Purdue. Rutgers. You're ahead of. You beat them Northwestern, you're ahead of them. But those aren't measuring sticks, those are. Those aren't good programs that you dog walked. You got dog walked by the programs that you're supposed to be on their level. So, man, it just.
Speaker 1:This season as a whole, this game, this game was it. This game was the season right here. In a nutshell, you got embarrassed. You got embarrassed. You got messed up on your home field, in front of your home crowd, for a trophy, for the Paul Bunyan's axe, with a lot on the line, and throw the ball streak out. You couldn't get up for this game. You couldn't get up for this game. You couldn't find a way to get things done. Wisconsin football in a nutshell there we do have one on the text in line there.
Speaker 1:Is it time for Fickle to hang up the team vest? Is this really even a team? I want to say no, I really do. I want to say no. But listen to these guys talk in the press conferences after the game. I don't believe that they ever gave up on fickle. I, in this, in every everything that I've seen, I I don't believe that they gave up on fickle. I just think they, they lack leadership and that's fickle's fault that it starts at the top and it works its way down. They lacked leadership, they. They lacked a guy who was able to round up the troops and get them going, and that sucks. That sucks Because I look at this team and man, there was some players on this team I mean, did they lack talent?
Speaker 1:Yes, there was some glaring spots where they lacked talent. I thought they lacked talent on the defensive line. It was a big one for me, the linebacker room. I thought they lacked talent in there until they started to give Christian Allegro some time. The offensive line, I thought, fell apart. I thought the offensive line was actually a good portion of this Badger team and that offensive line fell apart on me and they. I mean at one point going into this game, they allowed 21.5% pressure allowed by the O-line. It was the fifth best in the FBS. So I mean percent pressure allowed by the o-line, it was the fifth best in the fbs. So I mean their pass blocking was good this season and that was atrocious.
Speaker 1:And you look, three batted balls in this game I believe. I don't know if it ended up as more. I tell I totaled it at three batted balls, uh, by the defensive line and that's on lock, that's, and that's on Locke, that's on Locke, that's on coaching, teaching him, hey, you got to back a little bit more, you got to step out of the way, right, you're throwing it. I mean he's spiking off guys' helmets in this one he's had the last two seasons he's had 17 batted passes. That's top 10 in the FBS 17 batted passes for brain lock over the past two seasons. That's, that's terrible, that's rough. You're not even getting the ball off at that point. And I mean, who knows, with the way that he throws football, sometimes that might've been a blessing in disguise because it might've got picked off on the other end there.
Speaker 1:But man, this, wow, just, I mean just wow For it to end like this in the way that it did. I don't know. I feel like it was the way it was supposed to. I feel like this was the way it was supposed to end. We were supposed to fall apart. It was supposed to look like this. I don't even know. I'm at a loss for words with this Badger football team at this point and, honestly, until next season.
Speaker 1:Now, and I mean Coach Fickle, he came out in his press conference. I watched the press conference. I don't have the video here to play it on the stream, but he did say, just like I told the players those that stay will be champions. You've got to have people that believe in you. I know it's hard having faith in things that you can't see, and right now I'm sure they can't see it either. And that's the tough part. You're right, you're right, we can't see it. We can't see it right now, and hopefully that's just us sitting here saying to ourselves I mean, we were used to success. It started to fall apart and now we're not even in a bowl game. Right, and I learned a lot of people out there who poked fun at the badges for at least just making a crap bowl game. Now, what, right now? Where are we at? We're not even in one, we're not even looking at one right now, unless we get into some academic bowl and I honestly think an academic bowl or whatever it's called there.
Speaker 1:If you do get invited, I would take it, I would take it. You're going to get your young guys built up a little bit at least. Right? You have some young talent on this team, christian Allegro on the defensive side. I mean, okay, let's look at the positive. Right, we've been talking about the crap this whole time and I hate talking about the crap so much all the time. I want to talk about some of the positive.
Speaker 1:So you have Christian Allegro in that linebacker room and I thought he played fantastic. I thought in these last couple of games where there wasn't a bright spot, he was a bright spot. He has stepped up big time. He's looked good right. Um, vinny Anthony he has stepped up big time this season. And Vinny Anthony I I'm excited to see. Hopefully I'm like I said, it's all hopefully right. Hopefully we see Vinny Anthony stay around, stay with the Badgers, because I I love what I say to Vinny Anthony he's got big play, uh explosiveness. He's got uh great hands. He's got the ability to do just about everything you need him to do. I hope vinnie anthony's gonna stick around because this could be a big, a big piece. Uh, darian dupree I I loved what I saw out of darian dupree this season young back, not a whole lot of experience, he's got a lot of speed.
Speaker 1:He's got a ability to find the hole, hit the hole. I you've tried I'm trying to find the hole, hit the hole. I you've tried it. I'm trying to find good in this in on this team right now, but it's really uh really bites you in there. I do.
Speaker 1:I did see Ricardo Holman did not walk with the seniors, uh on in this game, so maybe you know he was uncertain of what he wanted to do. He was scheduled to walk with the seniors. Maybe we do see Ricardo Holman come back there. That'd be a big boost with a younger secondary in this next season here, but you have some pieces coming back. I don't know what it's going to look like. I don't know. I only saw a few quotes from guys.
Speaker 1:If guys are going to walk away from the program there, maybe it's a good thing that they do. You get some of these younger guys in there and you start to build from the ground up again. That's where we're at. You're building from the ground up. You're seeing next season, is it, though? I mean, next season you have to see progression from this team, and if you don't see any progression from this Badger team, I mean then you're kind of're. You can't help but move on from your head coach, and you kind of just start over, take, start over and see what happens. So that's kind of where we're at right now.
Speaker 1:Badger football is in the dark. They talk about the darkness. They, they are in the dark and we're gonna see. Uh, it's quite alarming, is quite alarming, but we'll get through it. We'll get through it there, badger fans and we have Badger basketball right now. So Badger basketball playing well. So hopefully, maybe Greg Gard can deliver us to the I don't know hopefully a Sweet 16 appearance this season and maybe we'll forget about this Badger football team until next fall, when we can just I don't know sulk in it. Then we can sulk in it then and maybe Luke Fickle finds an offensive coordinator, turns it around a little bit and this team starts to look like something. But until then, at this very moment, wow, just a depressing season. That's plain and simple. That was a letdown season.
Speaker 1:I, honestly, I went into this year and I don't even know why I went into this season looking at the Badgers had coming in, looking at the quarterback play with Tyler Van Dyke and I was excited. I actually was excited for Badger football and I was one of those people. I was one of those people who said eight wins, nine wins, I think they'll get there. I had faith. I had faith. I said you know you're going to lose that game. Um, I think I looked through their schedule. I said the game to Alabama probably a loss, uh. Penn state probably a loss. Oregon loss Um, and it's. Those are the games I looked at and I was like those are definite losses. I was like I think this team's good enough, they can win some football games. They can take care of their business. I think they can win these games. I really did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that went away fast. I'm glad my wife doesn't let me bet on games. I'm really glad I would have put money down on the Badgers and I would have lost a lot of money this season. So I'm glad that she doesn't let me bet. That might be the reason why. That might be the reason why there is false hope, right, false hope in Wisconsin sports. That's that's really gets you every time there. So I mean just a letdown, a complete letdown by the Wisconsin Badgers this season here for this football team.
Speaker 1:But we're going to get more into the Badgers. I don't even know, I don't even know. We're gonna do, uh, we'll do a season wrap-up show at some point here. Uh, when this, when this all goes away, right, maybe we see, maybe we wait until next week and somebody gets fired, right, maybe somebody gets fired next week there, I don't know, but we'll talk more about this badger football team coming up, probably next week there. Get into that a little bit. See what Aaron thinks right, Because Aaron, he was kind of sad, he was kind of upset with me because he said you know, I actually watched the Badgers today.
Speaker 1:He said I was at work, I was watching the Badgers, I was getting into it a little bit there and he was like I'm sad, I got into a car accident because I actually wanted to talk about it tonight and I was like you know what, I'm sorry, I'm sorry there. So hopefully he can get in at some point here we can talk about the Badgers a little bit more there. But as of right now, I mean this is just ugly, that's just ugly. This was wow, okay. So Badger football drops the axe. The trophy case is empty.
Speaker 1:Five straight losses than the season. Five straight losses after going five and two. You were sitting there at five and two. You needed one more game to get bowl eligible and you couldn't find it. You couldn't find it in there somewhere. So that's where we're at right now. That's where we're at and I I'd love to hear your guys' opinions out there. I'm badger football.
Speaker 1:You can find the text in line there, right below me, there. You can find the text in line there, right below me, there, the 715 number. You can find text in line, you can let me know there. You can let me know over the chat here, wherever you're tuning in from on Twitch, twitter, youtube, facebook, wherever you're tuning in, let me know your thoughts on Badger football because, yeah, I said at one point I was at loss for words. Right, I was at a loss for words. I was at a loss for words. I was at a loss for words.
Speaker 1:I was sitting on the couch and my wife and I were watching the game. I believe it was right after half. We were sitting there, I think it was right after Minnesota scored. Again. She's about to say something. I said nope, I said we just got to sit here and watch. We just got to watch. I said there's a lot of things that I could say right now, but they don't need to be said. We just got to watch this crap. So we sat there, we watched the rest of that game, got the false hope that there was a comeback potentially on the way, and well, here we are. Badger football falls to Minnesota. The Axe is now heading back, with PJ Fleck in his sunglass, wearing selfies heading back to Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Listening to his press conference was depressing after the game, because when I have to hear that son of a gun all fired up, all excited, you know telling me that and you know what the worst part was is he didn't tell any lies during his press conference. He said the more disciplined, tougher, more physical team won today, I was like, yeah, you're right, you're 100% right. Like I go into those press conferences, I'm like I want to look at what PJ Flex says and I want to just tell him he's wrong and I'm like, no, he's right. They came to ball, they came to play, they played tougher. Something I didn't think that would happen was that badger football would look this. I don't want to say weak, but it just demoralized they. They look this is demoralizing watching this team watch, watching what unfolded and it man, wow, okay. So we move on, we move on with it, we, we look ahead to 2025 and hopefully, carter smith comes in and he just starts lighting the world on fire. Right, that's all we can hope for. That's all we can hope for. Barstool big cat, save us. Right, that's what we're hoping for. You know, dave Portney is all up in there in Michigan trying to save them. Barstool big cat, save us here in Madison. Because at this point for this Badgers team. So Badgers drop the ax to Minnesota.
Speaker 1:I want to talk and look at the rest of the college football slate coming up this week Happening right now Georgia third, 17-6. Right now, 17-6. Wow, that's rough there. And I do have Aaron. He just texted me up there. He says he's coming, he's coming. He said three minutes here, three minutes. So we'll hold off on the college football picks for the weekend here.
Speaker 1:But if Georgia drops this game to Georgia Tech, wow, I mean that is going to. You know the committee is going to find a way, right? Three loss Georgia team. Well, you know these losses before don't matter as much, right? Yeah, okay, you know the committee, sometimes they made this 12 team playoff and they're like that's gonna fix all of our problems.
Speaker 1:And I watch this and I, I'm seeing these, you know, you know watching the committee talk about these games and everything like that, and it's like how is alabama and georgia and some of these other scc teams? They're like, oh well, the SEC is just deeper than the Big Ten. So these Big Ten losses, they don't look as good as the SEC losses. And okay, sure, sure. But if Wisconsin and Minnesota, let's just say, hypothetical world. I think I saw somebody tweet this out there. They said if we're in an Ohio State on the same day, same day, and Alabama and Georgia both dropped games to I don't even know who the bottom SEC is, probably some two craptastic teams. Let's go with two craptastic teams. They would tell me that the Georgia and Alabama losses look better than the Ohio State and Oregon just because the SEC is deeper. The SEC is deeper. It doesn't really matter. The SEC is deeper.
Speaker 1:That's bullhooking. That's just a load of bullhooking. On that, I mean I hear it, I see it and it's just like stop, just stop. I mean it's just ridiculous sometimes. So we see Georgia on the ropes right now against Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech currently moving the football a little bit here getting towards the later half of this third quarter, so we'll see what finishes there. We saw Boise State pull off the big win against Oregon State there, 34-18. Ole Miss got the win against Mississippi State 26-14 earlier today and Colorado routed Oklahoma State 52-0 there. Travis Hunter had a good day for Colorado there, shador Sanders had a good day and Colorado keeps their hopes alive for the Big 12 title. I think they need a lot of things to happen on the backside of that for them to get in. So we'll see what happens there. Outside of that, we did see Memphis pull off the win against Tulane in that American conference there. So that definitely helps out because I believe Army is still I believe Army is now in the chase for that. I was just trying to pull up that.
Speaker 2:Army game there when?
Speaker 1:the heck are they? I lost where Army was on my list there, but I believe that gives them a pretty good chance to get into the college football playoff yet. So love to see that I was rooting for army. I was hoping they were going to beat notre dame, because notre dame for me sometimes they just I mean they got, they got some good wins on that schedule and if they beat usc maybe that helps them out a little bit. But the texas a&m win doesn't do much anymore, I don't know. The louisville win doesn't do much for you anymore. The navy win doesn't do much. The army win maybe does a little bit, but there's no win that notre dame has had this season that really moves the needle. That moves the needle to say this is a, a powerhouse, this is a team that deserves a first round buy or anything like that in the college football playoff. There's no game that Notre Dame has played this season that points me in that direction. So I mean that's kind of where I'm at with Notre Dame right now. They're going to have that game against USC and then that's it. They're going to. Essentially, if they win that game against USC, notre Dame is going to be in that college football playoff, as probably I don't know if they get a first round by, but I think that they're going to be. They're going to get a home game. They're going to get a home game out of that. So we'll see what kind of happens there with Notre Dame against USC there. But a lot of good games, a lot of good games still on the docket here coming up this weekend and hopefully Aaron gets on here soon so we can do the preview for that one there.
Speaker 1:Uh, college basketball. I just want to look if there's any good games at college men's basketball coming up this weekend here. I believe duke is duke in action. I believe duke is in action. Is that next week? Next week, wednesday, I believe? Uh, right now. Let's see if there's any good games happening today. Uh, purdue got the win over old miss number 13. Uh, 13th ranked purdue got the win over old miss number 13. Uh, 13th ranked purdue got the win over old miss. They're 80 to 78. A close game there. Uh, indiana with the win over providence they get right. Florida with the win over wichita state nothing much there. Arizona drops another game. Arizona's making my badgers look like they. That win was not as impressive right now because they keep dropping games left and right. There, aaron is in for the night. There he is, mr Crashy. What's going on? Did we did we? Is the cop still there? Is he in the background?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I should have asked him what team he's like. You know whatever team he likes, I should have had him on the pod. Dude, I, I this. But man, what a this this day. Well, I won't forget this day for a while, to be honest, just because it was just. Ever since I left work, chaos, absolute k, I mean in every stretch. But, um, black fridays were like one of my favorite, like growing up, I mean I love black friday. Maybe I have a little bit of a tinted uh view of it now, just because I mean it could have been a lot worse, don't get me wrong. But just, oh man, the way everything went down, it just you couldn't write it. You couldn't write it. But I'm here, I'm safe. I could have been injured, I'm not. So, anyways, sports, let's just.
Speaker 1:Let's go sports we're glad to have you. We're glad that you're here.
Speaker 2:We're glad that I appreciate it um we just got done.
Speaker 1:It was a long, long conversation about the badgers, badger football. Um, that was, uh, a fitting end to the season for what it was for the Badgers. That's the way it had to end. That's what I said. The way that this season went for Wisconsin the complete letdowns, the empty trophy case at the end of it that was the way it had to end.
Speaker 2:It's man and like I know I texted you earlier about how I got to see, like from the second quarter on. I didn't really get to see the first quarter too much, but I just thought like it was really and I don't blame shoot the running back there for you guys I mean he was getting just stuffed every time, like it was tough for him to get even excuse me any positive yards there. But you know a lot of points in this. Throughout the second, the third to the fourth quarter, I'm like man, the defense is they're they're doing enough, like I didn't think they were playing great but they were doing enough, you know. And then Minnesota had some key drops. I'm like you know this game was kind of up for the taking. I thought at least in the second and third quarter. I mean I thought Minnesota's quarterback there, max Brosmer, played pretty well. But I just man watching that game, I just was. I even think guys on Wisconsin were like come on, brandon Locke, like you can't be better than this. You know, like that's just the impression I got was like, come on, like give us something. You know they had that. I think it was Vinny Anthony in the end zone. I mean that was a good throw. It's just outside of like a few good throws today.
Speaker 2:I'm like man, like the defense gave you a lot of stops when you needed it. You know what I mean. Like I just thought the defense. You know, like I said, I didn't think they played excellent, but they played. I mean, given the circumstances too, I think there were some short fields. I was just like man like Braden Locke I think that's almost a fitting way for his season to end. Because I'm like dude, just help us, don't hurt us, right, if you're Wisconsin. But I just, I don't know man, that was I don't know what. Do you think about how they came? Do you think they came ready to play? Because I mean, throughout the second and third and fourth, I thought at times they kind of checked out a little bit. I'm not going to say completely, but it felt like they were just like no matter what we do, we can't offensively, we can't do anything. So it's just like.
Speaker 1:You know, I think it is. It's hard to play defense when your offense stinks, it's hard to play defense consistently throughout a game and it's demoralizing almost when you get a three and out or you force a punt and your offense comes out there and it's just like what am I watching? Like what is this? And then you're back on the field and then you got to try and do it again and then you go off the field. State game same thing. Right, you got you stop penn state, you get them stopped on a fourth down or you get them to punt and then all of a sudden the offense would come out and it was just disastrous. And it's so hard to keep your own morale, I guess, up in those situations. It's for there. And I said you play with everyone.
Speaker 1:In the press conference after the game hunter waller, brain lock, uh, ben barton, some of the different players on the team, nobody gave up on coach fickle. They all said how much they love coach fickle, how much they love this program, everything like that. They all said it. And now if I believe them, I don't know. I I don't know if they're lying to me or anything like that. I can't't tell if they are or not, but the way that they make it seem is they never gave up on Coach Fickle, so the locker room wasn't lost. So what was it then? And I alluded to? It comes back to leadership. I said if you want to blame Luke Fickle, it's for his leadership, it's his game management, it's adapting in the game, it's game decisions right. Game decisions right, because those are the biggest things for head coach. Look at ibraflus, right? Ibraflus? What got? What cost him his job? That mishap at the end of that game, the mishaps that have happened all the time with him with game management. Game management has been luke fickle's problem. Coaching in the game, it's not outside the game. Dude can recruit, dude can fire up his guys, dude can make him love him, right, but he cannot get over the game, he cannot get into that game. And once they face adversity, the team falls apart, they all fall apart defense, offense, everywhere in between. So I mean it stinks, but this is how I believe it had to end. This way I do because if they would have won let's just say, hypothetical world, they would have won right.
Speaker 1:Do you get a gut check then? Do you go into the offseason? You think you have to change it all and fix it all. No, because you did just enough. You did just enough to squeak into a bowl game again and yeah, maybe you have to tweak a few things, but you don't need a full turnover. Now you go into this offseason and you're like okay, we didn't even make a bowl game. We look like crap Minnesota's ahead of us, iowa's ahead of us, nebraska's ahead of us. What do we got to do? And I think it changes them. I really do. I think if there's anything coming out of this that's going to benefit them, is that they didn't win this game, because I don't think they deserve to. After that stretch, they just went on five straight losses, five straight losses. That's tough.
Speaker 2:It's yeah, no, I mean you, you really hit the nail on the head on all those, all those points there. I, I just was, I'm watching that and I'm like you know it's, I'm not going to leave Luke, luke fickle off the hook. But man, I'm that far down on Braden lock, like I, luke Fickle off the hook, but man, I'm that far down on Braden Locke, like I just I don't know what you'd do with him. You know, it's like he's like we've talked about before. It's like you know, at times you probably think he has the ability and it's his decision-making. Today, it was like I felt like it was everything. It was like his ability wasn't there, his decision-making wasn't there. You know how decision making wasn't there. You know he's how many balls you know were tipped at the line. That's a whole different issue, but it's it's like he's thrown into double coverage constantly, like I, I just I don't know what you're supposed.
Speaker 2:Like you said, I mean I agree with you, I, you know keeping the team together is tough. Um, you know, when things start going bad, I mean that's when it excuse me, is is when you're faced with that, that adversity, like okay, what do we do? You know where do we go from here? How do we bounce back this and that? But I just, I even saw like there had to have been times like I forget what receiver it was, but Brain Lock like yeah, he's getting rushed a little bit but he like air mails it over to one guy.
Speaker 2:And I'm just, and you heard boos, like you, you know you heard some boos from that, from the wisconsin fans and I don't know about. Like penn state doesn't boo too well, it's not like the nfl, right. Like there's some fan bases, like the eagles fan base, the jets, the john, like there is fan bases that will, let you absolutely hear it, college it's. It's kind of rare you hear them booing the home team and I mean they went into half. I didn't blame them for kneeling it down there, but you know they kneel it down to go into half and like I mean you hear it it's. And I mean even you know the jump around. I figured you know it's the last home game of the season, the last game of the season, unfortunately, but you know their jump around was pretty.
Speaker 2:You know they probably gave it everything. You know they know'm not trying to put it completely on him, but you know I was listening to the game cast and they were saying how you know, minnesota's game plan was shut down Wisconsin's running game and make Braden Lock beat you. Like that's what they came in here and tried and that was what they were going for from the jump of this game. And I mean, like I said, I don't blame Tyree Walker, but you know he averaged less than three yards a carry, dupree less than, or just over two yards a carry. So it's just when you can't and I'm not like Minnesota game plan like they loaded the box, so it's like what do you do?
Speaker 2:But that's when you know if you're brain locked, you're like okay, I got to find the holes, I got to. You know if they're sinking back in the zones because they know we got to throw, now you know you throw underneath, like it. Just I feel like I said I don't want a quarterback that can get you anywhere. It's like how much can Luke Fickle do? That's my, you know what I mean. How like he's so strangled, locked by by lock, that it's like you have to fix that. Going into that, like if you run him out there week one, like I'm, if I'm a Wisconsin fan, I'm checked out already, cause it's like here we go, like what can we possibly accomplish with him? Is my, my pushback, you know?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, you went into the half. I know you're talking about the running backs there 0.4 yards per carry going into the half, 0.4 yards. You aren't going to win a football. And Luke Fickle is a hundred percent correct. He went into his press conference. He said you cannot win football games and he named off the stats. He's like you cannot win football games with this, this, this, this, this, this. And I'm like, yeah, you can't, you can't do it. And you know I alluded to it before. I said I don't want to give him the bailout card. Right, there's no bailout cards.
Speaker 1:But you went into a season two seasons now in a row, with the transfer quarterback, tanner Mordecai, and now Tyler Van Dyke. Both seasons, both guys go down with injuries and Tyler Van Dyke's was an ACL tear. It's that sucks, because now it changes everything. Brain lock was never supposed to be the starter. Maybe you know all throughout. Well, we heard of close wise together, like they were so close, they're so close. I don't believe it was that close and if it was, tyler Van Dyke was garbage. Because I don't want to say that brain lock was garbage, because I you know what, like you said it there. I mean he makes a good throw to Vinny Anthony in the corner and then he makes another throw and it's like what was that? What was that throw? Like, why, why, what was that? So it's 10, it's top 10 in the fbs for like, the worst out of all of them so that hurts that is a hurtful stat right there, and that tells you quarterback coaching too.
Speaker 1:You know teaching him how to drop back a little bit farther, get himself into an open lane to, so that hurts. That is a hurtful stat right there, and that tells you quarterback coaching too. You know teaching him how to drop back a little bit farther, get himself into an open lane to throw the football, because he is a smaller guy. I mean, yes, he can't help his height, he's a smaller guy. That comes back to quarterback coaching too. That comes back to leadership. That comes back to the coordinators there. So we do have another comment there. Pat says how can you expect Fickle to fix it? These were his coordinators, his players, his team. I agree, I 100% agree, and that's why I said before. I said Luke Fickle set it up so he couldn't be the fall guy. He has an offensive coordinator, he has a defensive coordinator. He doesn't do anything. He doesn't play call, he doesn't do any of that stuff. He's just supposed to be the leader of the group. So when you go into this off season now, you messed up with your first two coordinators, phil Longo and Trestle. You fired Trestle. Get rid of that. Get rid of that crap show. Get rid of Trestle, start over because, honestly, you're starting over anyways, like you're starting at square zero anyways. So you're bringing a new offensive coordinator, you're bringing a new defensive coordinator, you're bringing us a system that fits the players that you have. Because, I agree, it's his players, his team, his coordinators, everything. But I think the biggest problem with Phil Longo was he was trying to run a system that didn't fit Wisconsin. The air raid system did not fit Wisconsin and we saw that. We saw that early. You got to have explosive wide receivers. You got to have a quarterback that can sling it and run a little bit. You got to have guys that can run the option. You got to have an offensive line that can block hole. You got to be, you got to have it all and you did not have that. You didn't play to the strengths of. I don't even know what the strengths were. I will be honest with you. I I'm going to try to brainstorm the strengths, but I don't know if there was really a strength, so I don't was. But he was running a system that didn't fit. It didn't fit what was here. It didn't fit the players.
Speaker 1:You have to adapt to the players that you have. And if you can't adapt, that's your problem. Then you go back to the drawing board, then you fix it. But it's so hard to do an in-season. And now we go into year three of Luke Fickle, into year three and it's like we're back at year one. It's like we're starting over. It's like we're starting over with the new head coach. You're on a hot seat now and you have to go back to the drawing board. So now you have to come out next season with that gauntlet of a schedule like we talked about the other day, and you have to bring the fight every single game. You have to show Wisconsin, show McIntosh, show everybody that you are the guy, that you are the answer. Because if not, how much farther can you afford Wisconsin football falling into an abyss Because they're falling? They're falling into abyss right now. How much farther can you go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean missing. You wanted to see them at least in a bowl game, right after everything that's happened this year. Like you said. I mean you know it's hard with your backup quarterback. I get that too. But yeah, like you said, I mean if, if you can't find your strengths, then like, how good of a like I mean, can they not do anything? Like that just seems a little bit far. You know, I mean like I, I thought at times they ran the ball.
Speaker 2:Okay, you know, decent this year, even, um, and like you know, now teams have kind of like minnesota, minnesota is a tough like, they're a tough out, they have a great defense and they're I mean I saw them last week like we talked about they. Just they get after you like they are one of the most physical big 10 teams there are in my opinion. That's like defensively, it's like okay, you have to earn every yard against, but it's not like they're, you know, world beater, like you can beat them. It's just like I think you hit on it so well as when you said, like how can the morale be good when you're going three and out, three and out, three like that? That, just that kills you. And then the defense. Like you know, time of possession ends up being like pretty lopsided in Minnesota's favor because you know the offense struggled so much. There it's it's like they didn't even turn the ball over, but I think at one point they were like five straight drives with a punt and like that's when you start hearing the crowd. You know get restless because it's like okay when you know when. But I just like another thing you said that I just have to echo is you know the morale? Like, like you know, with the offense struggling so much, and then you are squeezing the because the defense is like, ok, we have to make it like it's not. Even you can't play comfortable as a defense when the offense is doing nothing, so it's like you have to. You feel like you're everything's maximum, like you feel like everything's maximized. You know you're under a microscope because if you don't come up with plays, if you don't get Minnesota off the field, like you have no chance because you don't want to get in a shootout with the way the offense looked today, like it's demoralizing. Like you said it's tough, like I. It's. Like you said year four for Fickle, like, if not now, when I mean they were at home.
Speaker 2:This spread was one point. People thought this was anybody's game. I thought I picked Wisconsin to win this year. I mean they can hang in against teams like Oregon and Penn State and USC to make games out of those. I don't know if everybody's checked out. There might be more to this than you know.
Speaker 2:I'm not gonna say luke fickles lost the team, but it's like these kids are like okay, we, you know we're playing for a bullcrap bull. I guess you know like is that their mindset? Like what, what? Where's like the pulse? I mean, after this game, obviously everybody's just gonna be like whatever, like season's over, I'm done, I'm out of. Like I just want I would love to have known what these like, not so much what Fickle said to him, like what these players are feeling Like I can't think that.
Speaker 2:You know guys are looking around the locker room like man, you know, here we go again with our quarterback. Like I hate to say like throw a lock under the bus that hard. But like you got to think defensively. Guys are like all right, come on, like show, like do something. You know Like we're trying to like I'm not saying 24 points is amazing, but I really didn't for the circumstances the defense got themselves, like found themselves in.
Speaker 2:I was like man, like just you know, there were times where it was like this game was up for grabs and I'm like just, it's very unfortunate Wisconsin couldn't, just couldn't do it.
Speaker 2:And it's like, like you said, where you know where do they go from now or where do they go from here, and like you have to, I think you have to nail these hires, which is like that's I'm not saying that's easy to do either. I mean you hope, you hope and pray and cross your fingers. But like, if next season, like you said, that schedule I mean record-wise how can you think anything can change year to year? But that schedule already is like it's just, it doesn't get easier. That's where, like, this could really go off the cliff, like you said. And then if they come out 5-7 next year, even with the opponents, I think there's no way Fickle, they'd do this again, like I, just you got to expect a little more. And they do this again like I, just you got to expect a little more. And, like you know, I remember wisconsin and big 10 championships and eight, nine, ten win teams. Like this is kind of a fall from that, fall from grace from that.
Speaker 1:You know so I saw a stat uh, the badgers have lost five games in a row for the first time since 1991. So that's been, uh, it's been, a hot minute for that one there. Um, I also another tweet. I was's from Dylan Graff.
Speaker 1:He said things with Wisconsin football hasn't been under Luke Fickle, tough, nasty, disciplined, 100%. You got to play tough, you got to play nasty and you got to be disciplined. Right, that's the three main keys. That's Wisconsin football. Right, that was Big Ten football. You had to be tough, you had to be nasty and you had to be disciplined. You had to learn how to hold your water. All those things Gone, gone out the door. So those are some of the things. I don't know if anybody would actually be able to come up with this answer here, why Wisconsin never played Cade Giacimeli I, I have no idea on that one. I was just I'm gonna pull him up because I wanted to pull up his stats on the season. Because this guy, when I tell you his stats, aaron, you're gonna be like why is this guy not seeing the field at all?
Speaker 2:because he's a four-star right four-star recruit I don't know what he was.
Speaker 1:Truthfully, I don't know what kade yakimeli was anymore. Um, we could probably figure it out he had. Okay, this is, these are the numbers. These are the numbers for kade yakimeli on the season and maybe they're skewed because different moments and games and everything like that. But 33 carries, 274 yards, 8.3 yards per rush wow, 8.3 yards per rush. His long was 45 and he had two touchdowns on the season. On 33 carries he had 274 yards.
Speaker 1:Now you can tell me and I know people will, they're gonna say well, you know, look back to those moments when he did that. Look back to those moments that he did that. I don't care, be honest with you, I, I don't care, I don't care if it was garbage time, I don't care, be honest with you, I don't care. I don't care if it was garbage time, I don't care if it was against Purdue and Rutgers, I don't care. This guy is averaging 8.3 yards per carry and you're telling me he did not deserve any more snaps than what he got. That baffles me. That baffles me why you, you're in're in an offense where, at what point do you just say screw it? At what point do you just say screw it. You have nothing going good for you, your quarterback can't throw half the time, you have no passing game. Your run game stinks. I don't want to blame Tyree Walker. Tyree Walker was fantastic this season. I don't want to blame Darion Dupree. He's a young freshman back who played fantastic for the time that he got. I didn't expect him to do a lot. What about Cade Giacomelli? This guy? He's going to transfer out, he's going to leave and I hope wherever he goes, you know what? I hope he goes to some. I hope he goes to Minnesota, I'll be honest with you and he just comes back and he just destroys Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:I just think it just baffles me, because it was week after week. You're like where's kate yacamele? Why is he not playing? Why? And then today they finally put him out there on two passing plays in the red zone. I'm like what? What is the point of this? The one throw that he actually got thrown to him brayden lock almost got him killed. So why is this guy even in in those moments when?
Speaker 1:Look, look at the stats, just look at the stats. If we're in this analytical time of football, why are those analytics what we're not looking at? 8.3 yards a carry. That probably wouldn't have continued If you would have gave him 72 carries, like you gave to Darian Dupree, probably would not still be averaging 8.3. But I tell you what I'd put it to the test. I'd at least test it, and that just tells you how it.
Speaker 1:Just you, nate letton, the tight ends coach. They put him in a terrible spot. I'll be honest, he's trying to play. Call for this craptastic offense right now. Will pauling goes down with injury. That stunk.
Speaker 1:I mean, there was lots of things that went wrong for the badgers, but, starting with luke fickle working his way, it comes to everything that we've talked about discipline, football toughness, playing, just playing the game right. You've got to come to play first. Throw skill out the window for five seconds. I know everybody draws it back to skill and I'm not going to say that Georgia Tech doesn't have a decent enough quarterback and they don't have decent players on that team. They probably do. I haven't watched enough of Georgia Tech football to tell you that. But and this is the big but you're telling me that Georgia Tech has more talent than Georgia does. Bs, that's BS. Guess who's coming to play tonight? Georgia Tech? Guess who came to play when Alabama played Vanderbilt in Vanderbilt and the Vanderbilt fan base consists of one section of that entire stadium and everything else is Alabama fans. Guess who came to play Vanderbilt? They came to play.
Speaker 1:So whenever I hear Badger fans tell me, oh, it's the skill level. Right, it's the skill level, shut up. I'm done with the skill level talk and I'm not telling you all to shut up. I'm sorry. You can have your opinions, but it's not the skill level. You cannot always chalk it down to skill level. Sometimes it's about who has the dogs that are willing to come to fight night in and night out, and Wisconsin did not have the dogs that wanted to come and fight. So honestly, I'll be honest with you, if the locker room isn't with Luke Fickle, okay, bye, bye, I'm sorry, bye.
Speaker 1:Luke Fickle's coming back next season. I'm pretty darn sure. I'm probably in the 75 to 25 range right now. He's coming back next season, so he's probably coming back. You got to have a team that wants to play. You have to have a team that wants to play. You have to If you want to win football games. You got to have a team that wants to play. So that's where you're at. You have to have players that are bought in. You have to have coordinators that know what the heck is going on.
Speaker 2:And that's where you're at right now as a program. Yeah, no, I did look up that Cade Yakimer. I mean, yeah, like his stats are crazy too, and Pittsburgh kids so not, I mean it's completely the other side of the state for me. But you know, he was actually like recruited by a ton of military schools. I don't know if he expressed like interesting, but then he was recruited by Harvard too, so just kind of interesting. You know, wisconsin was like kind of completely different than all the other schools and that's where he ended up going.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that would be a. I mean, you know, sure you can say you know they use them in situations where you know he could just completely have massive success or whatever. But like you, I think you know I agree with you completely. There's like what do you have to lose today? I mean I don't know if they were worried about burning like a red shirt if they went to another quarterback, I would have threw another quarterback out there. I mean at that point, like brain locks, if he's not going to be your starter next year, I I would imagine you know they're trying to do at least the transfer portal. I don't know who's completely underneath them, like you know, um, as far, as I said, I'm sick of the transfer portal.
Speaker 1:I said I'm sick of it I said we've tried it twice, we've tried two quarter quarterbacks out of the transfer portal. At this point you just kind of start at ground zero. You have Mabry in there, you're going to have Braden Lockback, you're going to have Carter Smith coming in. You kind of just run with the guys you got. That's where I'm at.
Speaker 2:I've tried Ty and Mike.
Speaker 1:I've tried Ty and Mordecai. They both got hurt and that's out of control, out of anybody's control. You can't control injuries or anything like that. But the transfer portal is not working for at least that portion. Maybe it does one time, but I don't think you can bank on it for quarterbacks, year after year after year. At some point you've got to establish something.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and I guess you can look at it in a couple different ways.
Speaker 2:It's like I guess you can look at it in a couple of different ways. It's like I in my opinion there's no. Like I don't care if it's you're afraid of burning a red shirt, I don't like whoever's behind, not Van Dyke, the kid from brain lock. Yeah, like I don't care who else is. Like I don't care if the kid looks worse than brand. Like I, next year I'm throwing somebody else out there. I, I, that's where I'm at like just watching it. Like I, I would be like you know what, if it gets super bad, we'll put brain lock in there. Like, yeah, I, but but just throwing brain lock out there for the wolves again, like I, I'm not gonna say all of it's his fault. Like I'm sure there's coaching and like there's probably a lot of different little things adding up to it, but like he just doesn't, for whatever, for whatever reason, he doesn't have it and I'm not convinced he's going to find it. That's, that's my thing, and I, like you said, I mean it's a matter of like who who?
Speaker 2:Sometimes it is a matter of who wants it more, and that's what really makes me question this team a lot is because, like the Penn State game, they I mean they, they could have walked away with a win that's, you know, penn State's number four, I think at the time coming in. You know they run the number one team. It's almost like it's a tale of two. Like who was the team that showed up today? You know it's like, is this Wisconsin or is it the team? Because you know it wasn't just the Penn State game, it was the Oregon game. It was like I know USC didn't finish with a good record, but they still, they, the talent wise, they probably have more offensive talent than Penn State. They probably have more. They probably up there with USC and an offensive talent. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, and they hung with them.
Speaker 2:Like that's what is so like Jekyll and Hyde about this. Like yeah, that's where you almost think, okay, if Fickle had the right people. But you know, now it's three years of this like and it's been. Like it's just such a roller coaster that it's like how are you convinced that he can figure it out either? Like it's, it's a tough spot to be in. I will say that Cause I mean you get one great quarterback and a good coordinator You're. I mean, look at Indiana, they were garbage I mean just hot garbage, for so many years. You know new coach, they know he brings in his JMU guys and you know they're having a great season.
Speaker 2:It's just you, gotta, you can't come out next year and the game, like you said, the games that they're supposed to win, or at least you know heavily compete in, like a Minnesota, nebraska, like those type of next year. I feel like Fickle has to win, like this is year four. Like, if not now, because it's going to be very hard to beat oregon on the road. It's like we went over that schedule. It's I think it's alabama on the road. It's like there's at michigan, like I know michigan's not the same, but like those games are going to be like I mean you just hope and pray somehow they figure it out, but you don't chalk those wins like. You don't chalk those up, the wins, you know, with this team right now.
Speaker 2:So those, those middle tier teams like you gotta find a way to like, yeah, the pressure is on. I like I don't see how luke fickle doesn't have immense pressure because this game was like, say, like it could have saved him, it could have kicked the can down the road for for a good bit, you know. And then you go to a bowl. Let's say you win the bowl, like then. Then you end the season on momentum. Now you end the season and it's just like quiet, it's like, okay, now what? Like now, the now everybody's looking around as wisconsin fans and they're like so, so where do we go? Like is this what we're supposed to be right now? And no one wants to be five and like I don't care who it is, like you don't want to be five and seven. That's just, it's a shame, it's, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know now the boosters get called, now everything gets called into question and you say to yourself we have to make those million dollar hires at the coordinator position to make this work, to fix this. And that's why I said this needed to end this way, because it wouldn't have got fixed, otherwise we would have just like walk through the mud and it wouldn't have gotten fixed. Now you go into an off season where you say to yourself okay, we need a new, we need new offense, we need new defense. I know it sucks, we got to start at square one, but this is where we're at and I think it's going to be as much as it hurts to say I think it's going to be the best thing I really do. I think it's going to be the best thing for this program down the stretch there. So, aaron, off the Badgers, I've had enough of these. Like I said before, we're going to get, we're going to wrap up this season here and we'll talk about this Badger football team as of right now. Greg Gard is saving us for a little bit, hopefully. Big win tomorrow there against Chicago State. Set us up for that game against Michigan coming up next week there. But Aaron, outside, I mean Georgia Tech still got the lead against Georgia right now. That's going to be a good finish there.
Speaker 1:We got some rivalry games coming up this weekend. We got some rivalry games coming up this weekend. We're going to fly through them here. Do our picks for this college football slate? So Michigan, ohio State in Columbus it's a rivalry game. I mean, there's guys that get up, but I got a feeling this Michigan team can't they just can't offensively compete with Ohio State. So I'm going to take Ohio State in that one. The spread is 19 and a half right now. I don't think I've seen a spread like that for Ohio State and Michigan in a while, but I'm going to take Ohio State to win that one. It could be closer. It could be closer for a little bit, but I don't think. So I'm going to take Ohio State.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm right there with you. I mean for the same reasons too. I mean it's it's a disparity in talent too. Like Ohio state has a lot of talent on that offensive side of the ball. Michigan I'm not going to say Michigan doesn't have talent, but they just can't. They can't figure out a quarterback, they can't. You know, offensively they're vastly challenged. I mean I, I think their defense could get after Will Howard a good bit. I mean you might see a turnover or two or something like that. I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Speaker 2:I wish this game was in Michigan, at least to make it a little bit. You know that would have helped. Yeah, I mean everything's going, everything that you know. Michigan's 6-5. Like when's the last time you saw Michigan 6-5? That's crazy. So 4-4 in the Big Ten, like they're a 500 team in conference. So yeah, ohio state, I mean second ranked team in the nation. They only hiccup they had was the Oregon at the last, second in Oregon.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I mean you gotta, that spread is crazy though. I mean I get it, I understand. But like, wow, that's that, that's. I mean that's bulletin board material. If you're Michigan, that's about all you have. But I hope they make it a game, just just for the simple fact that is a huge rivalry. Like those teams absolutely hate each other. Fan bases like I've seen videos of fan bases like that is bad. I don't, I, I don't know that's bad, that's, that's borderline. Like some nfl rival like raiders who was it raiders? And uh, shoot, it was somebody out west, but raider, there was a raiders rivalry. That was like that and it was like wow, like these people, absolutely it gets ugly between them there.
Speaker 1:So we'll see how that one squares off. I know penn state fans, indiana fans, they're gonna be watching that game real close because that's their shot. They need michigan to win that game for their chances at the big 10 championship game. I know indiana also needs penn state to lose that game against mary. That's going to be at University Park. Penn State's going to win that game. I don't see a path for Maryland. I think Maryland can keep it close. 25 and a half is bold.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm going to tell you what. Right now, you favor a team by 25 and a half. I don't think they're going to cover that spread. I'm going to be honest with you. Maryland plays aggressive nose. Keep it close football. They have a decent quarterback. I saw that in that oregon game. I I think they keep it close. I'll be honest with you, I think they keep it closer than 25 and a half, but I I still think it's probably two touchdowns. But I think that maryland does keep it closer than what they're giving them here.
Speaker 2:It's. I don't know if it's because they cleared house with pretty much like a lot of people, I think they think falling apart, yeah, that, that I mean Pence.
Speaker 2:I think I saw a stat the other day, cause I have a buddy that's a mayor. I mean he's from Maryland, so he's like Maryland, you know Orioles, Ravens, terps, all that, and he, you know, every year this is the first year he hasn't told me that Maryland's going to beat Penn State. Like every year he's like, oh, they'll beat them this time Because I think Penn State's like 49-3 the last 52 minutes, like they don't lose to Maryland, like I don't know what it is, but I mean I, penn State's really good with the spread, for whatever reason, I don't like spreads like that, but I wouldn't be shocked if they cover it, but I wouldn't be shocked that they don't either. Like I could see this being I think it might be a little more than two. Like this might be 20 points, 17 points, something like 17 feels about right to me.
Speaker 2:But yeah 25, is it? I mean in conference play. That that I mean in conference play. That is pretty disrespectful, I mean that. But I mean Maryland is just. It's crazy, because you know Maryland, at times they look like a very good, you know a team that can compete, and they always hit a stretch. It's either at the end of the year or the middle of the year and they just they fall apart like two or three games in a row and it's like, okay, there's a season and it's this year is no exception. I, I I'm with you, though I do like their um, was it, uh, edwards jr, like he's, he's a decent, uh, decent quarterback. Um, not horrible, um, but yeah, it's maryland's in a tough spot. And then they fired every, like they're kind of I'm not gonna, I I don't hope wisconsin gets there, but like they, they just cleared house, you know's like. So now they're like what? You know, what's their position going to be going?
Speaker 1:pretty close to Wisconsin. They're pretty close to Wisconsin. They're right in that ballpark there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know where you go. Maryland has, like they don't have a direction right now. That's, that's their like. You know they had Tua's brother for like four or five years because of COVID, decent guy. I'm surprised he didn't get drafted. But yeah, now it's I don't know, I don't know. Are they Rutgers level, like I don't know where they're at.
Speaker 1:I would agree. I would agree with that one there. Oh, we have a big game Number 12, Clemson taking on number 15, South Carolina. That should be a good game there between those two. That's Clemson trying to keep somewhat of a hope alive to get into that couch for a playoff somehow some way ACC championship route, South Carolina eight and three. They're looking to stay alive. I don't think they're a couch for a playoff team, but they're looking to stay alive for a pretty good bowl game there. So Clemson, favored by two and a half, it's in. It's at Clemson. I'm going to take Clemson to win that one Dabble Sweeney. He'll get his boys fired up. We'll hear a great press conference afterwards. He'll get all riled up. So I like Clemson to come away at the wind there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do too. I mean what their last game was, uh, oh, I mean Clemson's only loss is on the season. I mean number one, georgia, week one. And then you know a few weeks, kind of you know now, five games ago, louisville. That was a weird one, though I didn't really understand how they lost that one Louisville's, tough Louisville's real tough they are.
Speaker 2:No, you're right, you're right. I just was like, wow, that's not something you, I mean, necessarily saw coming. But South Carolina has been that team that they're in a lot of games. They play really tough as well. The only game they really got obliterated was Ole Miss, and Ole Miss, to me, is not what they're all cracked up to be. In my personal opinion, especially after last week, I think the fact this is in Clemson, this should be a good one. Like you said, give me Clemson, but I think it's going to be close too. I think South Carolina, they've been putting up a fight all year. You've got to love that. So I think you'll see that here it just won't be enough.
Speaker 1:I agree, I like that. Let's see, here we got the Iron Bowl, alabama and Auburn. I that one might be closer than what people think, because Alabama they give me some iffy vibes. Sometimes they give me some of them, oh yeah absolutely yeah, three loss Alabama team.
Speaker 2:I mean you don't see that, um, the I'm not gonna say the pressure's on, but I mean if you lose this game, I think it's like wow, like then you really start. You know, if you're, if you're the athletic director at Alabama, it's like okay, now what do you know what I mean, like I'm not going to say you get rid of them after one season, but it's like you better figure it out next season, or like we're going to have serious problems. So at three losses it's not great. You know they get killed by Oklahoma last week or, I'm sorry, yeah, by Oklahoma. It's just like wow.
Speaker 2:I just I mean yeah, and this is one of the bigger rivalries too. Like this is like the SEC version of Ohio State and Michigan. Like Auburn Alabama, they're in-state rivals, like that's a big one. So I mean if you're Auburn, I'd love to kind of see it. Just because they're I mean they're five and six on the year I guess you don't give them a huge chance. I mean Alabama's fair by 11 or 10 and a half there. I hope Auburn makes this like a nail. But I mean we've seen crazy stuff from Auburn Alabama game before.
Speaker 1:So I want to see it. I want to see it there. I think this one could be a nail biter. Arizona state has played their way into that Big 12 picture for that championship game against Arizona and Arizona. It's in Tucson. Arizona always comes to fight, they always come to fight. I think this could be a good game. I think it's closer to an eight-and-a-half point spread there. I think Arizona State pulls it off, but if it's by anything, it's a field goal.
Speaker 2:I could see that too. I really could. That's one of those. You toss away the record, excuse me, for uh, for arizona there, um, arizona state's definitely riding the hot way. You know, like they're riding the wave right now. Coming off that win at uh by or against byu, which was like that was a staple win right there, that's like kind of a make or break on how good your season's gonna be, because you know ranked opponent, you know all that. And third, but yeah, I, I wouldn't be surprised, this is a rivalry as well, like you said. I mean, this is arizona will be up for this game at arizona, so I give them a fighter's chance for sure I think arizona state wins, um, but yeah, it's it, it definitely that's an interesting one for sure.
Speaker 1:We got two more. Two more real quick here. Number three Texas taking on number 20, texas A&M. That's going to be at College Station. So maybe a little home cooking for Texas A&M, I don't know. I don't know if Quinn Ewers is going to play in that game. Last time I saw anything I thought he was banged up heading into this game here, but I could be wrong. I thought he was banged up heading into this game here, but I could be wrong. Maybe Arch Manning gets a start. I don't know what's going to happen there, but I do like Texas. I think Texas is going to win this game. I think it's going to be a close one.
Speaker 2:I think it's going to be a dogfight. Yeah, yeah, I do too. I mean there's people that love Texas as like one of those teams where like wow, you know this team is it could win it, all that that type of deal. Then there's teams that then there's guys out there that are like they have no, no, like it's weird they're, they're interesting as far as like what people think. I think they're pretty pretty dang good football team, honestly. But college station, that's another place that you know. Over a hundred thousand plus that that's that place rocks, at least from what I can tell on TV. That's a very hostile environment. So I mean, yeah, texas A&M, they lose a couple coming off a loss to Auburn, which was just an absolute gunslinging affair 43-41. That's just craziness. So they're looking to end their season better than losing the last two. You don't want to do that, that's no way to go out.
Speaker 2:So I give Texas A&M a fighting chance as well. I think Texas wins this, but this one does feel a little bit like I mean you never know. I mean Texas. You know this is a huge game for Texas, though, like they have to win this game. They got to.
Speaker 1:I mean they got to to. I mean you got to to stay alive to get that first round by in the college football playoffs. So I mean they're going to be in it. It's just a matter of where they're going to be and who they're going to be playing there. Kansas state, number 24, kansas state taking on number 18, iowa state. That's going to be an Ames Iowa for that game there. Iowa state favored by two. Ah, screw it, give me kansas state I could.
Speaker 2:I could. I mean, yeah, I could see that. I I haven't watched a lot. I've seen a kansas state here and there a little bit. You know, I've watched some bits and pieces. I haven't really seen iowa state, though that's one team. I'm like I don't know, maybe it's because brock purdy went there. I'm like, yeah, I'm good. Uh, the Cyclones, right.
Speaker 1:The Cyclones.
Speaker 2:Not for me, but I mean they've been a pretty good, consistent program there in the Big 12. Decent year they haven't really played a lot of great teams. I mean they beat Iowa week two. Nobody else ranked honestly. So yeah, kansas State, give me Kansas. Kansas state too, give me kansas state. I think they get it done okay, I like that.
Speaker 1:I like that one there. So a big weekend of college football rivalry weekend. Can't wait to see what unfolds. Some craziness, maybe some movement in the college football playoff. Georgia just went down two scores the Georgia Tech. So if that holds, georgia will be out of the college football playoff, and that is wild to think. In the first season of the 12-team playoff Georgia will not be involved. That is craziness. And if Alabama were to lose two to Auburn, you see them get knocked off, they drop out of the 12-team playoff or the committee finds a way to get them in anyways. I don't know, they probably will find a loophole in there. They'll knock Army out and they'll get them in there. So we'll wait and see.
Speaker 1:I mean, this game's ending up looking like it's looking like George Deck's going to pull it out. I don't know, we'll see there. But heck of an tech there. I haven't talked about it yet here tonight, but we got this packer dolphin game. I want to get to the packers 30 to 17 over the dolphins there and I mean this packers team is starting to look. They're looking dangerous. I, in my opinion, they're looking dangerous as of late here, jordan love 21 for 28 and this one for 274 and two touchdowns.
Speaker 1:We had josh jacobs go for 19 carries, 43 yards and a touchdown in this one. He also I mean that's a skewed number, I would say because he also had some yards through the air in this game here. So a little bit josh jacobs working a little bit everywhere at 70 74 yards through the air in this one. Four catches, 74 yards through the air in this one. Four catches, 74 yards through the air for Josh Jacobs. Tucker, kraft we talked about it. Aaron, we said get the big fella involved. Six catches, 78 yards. He was rumbling right along there. He looked great. Christian Watson bounced back in this game. We talked about the nervousness with those couple drop balls there. Two catches for six, seven yards. Great game for Watson there. Jayden Reed three catches, 24 yards, two touchdowns on this game. So lots of great coming out of this one.
Speaker 1:We all saw the defense for the Green Bay Packers. I mean the defense looked good. I thought you know this is the most impressed I've been with the front of this, the front four for the Green Bay Packers in a while. In a while I mean they were getting pressure.
Speaker 1:Quay Walker one of my notes that I had was Jeff Halfley allowing Quay Walker to just be Quay Walker, fly downhill, rush the passer, be yourself, make plays. It was one of those things where it's almost like you listen to Quay Walker and he says you know, I was just trying, I was thinking too much, I was thinking too much. We don't need you to think I want. If Quay Walker's problem is, when he thinks he's done, he just runs, he just doesn't know what's. You know, sometimes guys have that they it's like when they overthink situations. Right, they overthink situations. That's not their forte. They just have to be a guy who's just a go-getter, just go get them right. You see the snap of the ball, you have one up, you have one object and you're like I'm gonna bust through this hole and I'm gonna get to that quarterback. Like sometimes, you know, with a guy maybe like quay walker, you cannot be in a right up and you have sometimes you can't be that guy right now allowing him to be himself fly downhill, rush the passer. He has impressed, as of late he had 10 total tackles, six solos, one sack, two tackles for loss and one quarterback hit in this game. Those are stats that we didn't see early on from clay walker, so I love what I'm seeing out of him there.
Speaker 1:Um, I know, you know we talked about we're talking about these wide receivers. It seems like a lot and in this game, watching the wide receivers for the Green Bay Packers, the unselfishness of the of the receivers. You know Dontavian Wicks, we talk about him. Why. Why is Wicks still out there when he drops the ball? Every, you know every other throw Right and I will agree, this game though, four for five, you had four catches on five targets. He had 30 yards, he was solid, right, but why is he out there all the time? You watch this guy block? Watch him block for a little bit. He is so instrumental in the run game. Same with Christian Watson.
Speaker 1:It's not just everybody thinks run game, they're like it's the offensive line, it's always the offensive line. Yeah, that gets it started. But what's the big play, the explosive plays? How do those happen? How do the cornerbacks all of a sudden not end up even in the area code? Watch Kristen Watson, watch Dontavian Wicks, watch even a guy like Jaden Reed or Romeo Dobbs. They're taking guys out downfield and they're opening up holes for Josh Jacobs.
Speaker 1:It is just, it's almost. It's awesome, it's impressive to see just the unselfish play of these guys where they don't care if they're involved in the passing game or not. Right, two catches for Christian Watson he's probably like I wish I had like seven catches. Like that'd be awesome. Right, that'd be awesome. He doesn't care, he's like if we win games and I was involved in the run game by blocking downfield and getting Josh Jacobs going, I'm good with it and that's what's building this team. That is what is making this team so successful right now is not just the play of Jordan Love getting better here during Toyotathon, right, once Toyotathon starts on the TV there, jordan Love just takes off. It's not just that, right. It's not that Josh Jacobs is just unreal in that backfield, it's also the little things and the Packers are doing the little things great right now and it's just awesome.
Speaker 1:It's just awesome to watch out there, just all unfold there, and you don't see it in live time. You got to go back, like I always record the games and I'll go back and I'll watch the games over again, you know, and just try to see different things, because we're always like I don't know that much about football, I'm just, I'm learning, I'm watching to see, you know, the little things in there and I'm watching these receivers and I really watch them. It's like I didn't even notice this in live time. But Christian Watson is blocking out like a linebacker. He just goes and he takes on a linebacker who's twice his size and it's just like that's in a business decision. You're like I'm not taking that guy on, he's going to take me out, like I have bad hamstrings, but in the player position that he's in, he's like I'm going out there, I'm going to take him on, I'm going to set a block, even if I get ran over. I'm going to slow him down at least. Right.
Speaker 1:And it's one of those it because that that is just awesome. That's just awesome to watch. So if you haven't had a chance, go back and watch some of them plays that I'm talking about, because even like guys like Wicks, where we harp on them for the drop passes and the drop passes and then you watch the run game and you're like man, this guy can block, like Holy crap, this guy can block. So I just love that, Love what I'm seeing there. I saw, uh, somebody put the numbers out there the 2024 compensation for wide receivers tyree kills making 26 million. Jaylen waddles making 20 million. The packers seven wide receivers combined make eight million eight million wow and you know and everybody you know.
Speaker 1:I saw somebody out there in the comments. They're like oh, you know, packers wide receivers. They're no-transcript. First off, they're young, they're rookies. They're not rookies, but they're young yet. So they're still on rookie contracts. But secondly, I think the Packers wide receiver court works because you have guys who are all good at one thing, or like you know what I mean, like Christian Watson, he's the explosive guy, right. Dontavian Wicks is supposed to be your explosive guy with the hands. He doesn't have the hands, he's just got the explosive niffs. Romeo Dobbs is your.
Speaker 1:I have to throw it in the area code of this guy and his hands are going to make up for it, because he's going to haul that baby in Jaden Reed's, your Swiss army knife. You can use them in the run game. You can use them in the pass game. He's all over the place. Tucker crafts, just, I mean he's a psychopath. I in the tight end room, that dude's a psychopath. I mean he goes out there and his one uh trash talk is he threatens to burn down people's houses like this guy's just nuts. So tucker craft, though I mean, look at him, just the pass game, everything in between. He's gonna be up there if you utilize him the way that you should. He's gonna be up there with george kittle. He'll be up there with Travis Kelsey. At one point he is going to be one of those guys. He is just that fantastic.
Speaker 1:I think Josh Jacobs look what he could do. He's a bruiser but you look at his ability to just break plays open, miss, make missed tackles. That is something that you don't really think about. But Josh Jacobs has been unreal in that factor. And then you have all the other pieces, like the Chris Brooks is, you know, coming in there as a backup, running back, or Emmanuel Wilson stepping in there Just all the little things for this Green Bay Packers team that it wouldn't work if it was separate. But when you put it all together, the pieces fit like a puzzle and when they fit it works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely I mean. And just because none of these guys are making big money yet doesn't mean like, if anything, they have more to prove as far as week in and week out, because they're trying to get that big. You know, not to say that that's a good or a bad thing, but you know like they're trying to establish themselves. Like you know, when you don't have that, like Tyreek Hill is established, everybody knows how good Tyreek Hill is, this and that. Like these Packers. You know these guys want to probably have some limelight. That's just like that's a natural thing. You know, when you're, when you're a star, you know any type of player, right, You're in the NFL, you want to make a name for yourself.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I mean, I thought the Packers did a lot of things well in this game. I mean I always. You know it's crazy to think. You know I remember Brett Favre. It, brett Favre, it felt like he threw, you know, 150 miles an hour. And then you know Aaron Rodgers gets in there. It's like, yeah, he throws 150 miles an hour. And now it feels like Jordan, like just the ball comes out of Jordan Love's hand Bang. It's like a slingshot or something.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I'm watching it, but it's yeah, I mean they played really really well. I mean I got you know somewhat close there in the third quarter, but it didn't feel like the Dolphins were really going to like it. Just, this is kind of how I expected this game to go. I mean I saw clips coming out of like I'm not I'm not crapping on Mike McDaniel just because he was cold, like, but there were clips where he's like shaking and like his and it's like this guy is leading your football team. It was funny. But it's like you know, for the Dolphins to come into Lambeau I mean you saw the snow coming down at times Like I mean, tua didn't play that bad. Honestly. I mean he found his. I kind of expected like he'd find his. You know it's not like they can't figure out the Packers' defense at all.
Speaker 1:I didn't think that would be the situation be the situation wild and and this georgia game is getting nuts. I flipped it on here too, but, um, I think georgia tech just fumbled it and I think georgia will now have it and if they survive this, I'm gonna be pissed off. But I, I was just gonna add to you before I I interrupted you, but I'm gonna add to you. You know, if you watch the pregame, the warm-ups, right, and uh, bill michaels was there at the game. He's working on thanksgiving, that's. He's a trooper. He's a trooper here. Uh, wisconsin radio guy, he's fantastic, fantastic. I always listen to him every day. And uh, he was at the game and he's posting pictures. And he, he said, you know, you watch the packers come out and he posts a picture of them.
Speaker 1:They're in shorts, tank tops, like they look like, you know, like it's like 50 degrees outside. And then you saw the dolphins come out and they're like sweatpants, sweatshirts, like bundled up, like it's and it's cold. I agree it's, it's freaking cold, like I, you know, I, I agree it's cold, but you have them and you're hearing about all the equipment they brought. They're bringing scuba gear to wear underneath to keep themselves warm and all this other stuff. And you got the packers out there and they're like short sleeving it like it's just another day at the office and I mean that speaks volumes. That speaks volumes to you know what the cold weather does to a football team I?
Speaker 2:I think no, you're exactly right. I think the packer, like there are certain teams, I think, that are built, not that the bears are good, but like they they play at soldier field right, like if you're taking a team from tamp, like even the Bucs, and they got to come up and play the Bears, like I think there is something to that, like where it's, you know, the Packers, the Bears, like there are teams that play, I mean New England, they play in just horrible. I mean when it's 30s, 20s, teens, with wind chills and snow, like that's a whole lot different than playing, you know, all your home games at 70. Cause it does the weather doesn't even really, you know, wait. Like it doesn't really change from start to finish of an NFL season for the dolphins or for the bucks, like it stays around 70, 80. Like it doesn't get to like 50 even. I mean it's just so.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to take credit away from the Packers.
Speaker 2:I'm just simply making the point that I never trust the Dolphins to go into like an environment like that and like dominate, like maybe they pull out a win here. They're like you know you're surprised, but like I would have been shocked if the Dolphins just came in and I think it's a disparity in talent too. Like I think the Packers are far better, but I mean the Dolphins have some players like you know what. I mean they the receiving core, obviously you know um the defense. I mean we, we praise their defense a lot and the packers just found, um you know, everything they wanted to and more in this game. I thought like josh jacobs, like you said, in the passing game, was huge, um, it just felt like the packers like didn't skip a beat, like it was just like okay, we're not at all afraid of this team like and I'm not saying they're they're gonna be afraid of the lions or whatever next week, but it's like I think they came out and knew they were the better team and like they.
Speaker 2:Not even for a second did they like even if something, you know, a drive went bad or something, like they just boom all right next, like they. Just they seemed locked in the whole time and and that's what you want. I mean, that's what LaFleur I think LaFleur had them ready to play and I think he you know they just totally bought in this week as far as we're going to beat this team and there's not even going to be a debate about it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and you know you look at the ground for the Miami Dolphins, that is great on the Packers and for defense. I mean run defense has always been a problem for the Packers. Holding them down to 39 yards impressive. And you look at the pass game. They got her going a little bit there at 365 yards. The Packers, they played almost to avoid the explosive play. They were going to play deep. They were going to allow you to hit the underneath stuff and then they were going to stop you. And they were going to play deep. They were going to allow you to hit the underneath stuff and then they were going to stop you and they did. I mean they did. That is the game plan they went in with and that's what led to the Dolphins kind of driving down the field a little bit there late. And you're going to get into games like that because, guess what, you have no Jair Alexander, you don't have your main guy out there, you have no Ed. You were able to put pressure on, you were able to shut them down on third downs.
Speaker 1:We talked about the third down stats the other day. There the Dolphins were one of the best with two on the field on third downs this game here. Four for 14 on third down Great work there by the degree of Packers. Five for 11 for the Packers not great. But we also talked about the Dolphins' defense was also fifth in the league, I believe, on third down defense. So not bad. I mean five for 11, plus, you didn't put yourself in a lot of those positions either. You got I mean you were either getting a first down before that or anything like that. So the Packers definitely played an impressive game here, got some fourth down stops when they needed to, and I mean the 30 to 17 looks closer. But what the game felt like, it felt like the Packers could have if they wanted to put the gas pedal down. They didn't put the gas pedal down. Sometimes I wish they would just put the gas pedal down and bury teams. They decided not to. So I mean it's okay. It's okay we get over it in this one. But I want to talk about some of the impressive play, because the PFF grade pff grade, that was awesome to see there. Josh jacobs 86 overall grade there. Jordan love 77, chris brooks 77 and then jayden reed 72 on his offensive grade there. Uh, pass game. Looking at just the pass as a total there with the grade. Tucker Kraft was a 91, josh Jacobs was a 90, and Jordan Love was 76. So you love to see those numbers there. And then, looking at the run game, josh Jacobs did come in at 78 overall in his grade for the run game there. So great stuff On the offensive side.
Speaker 1:On the defensive side. These are the numbers that I wanted to see because I was like we saw guys in this game step up that haven't stepped up this season. Looking at the defense, xavier McKinney graded in at 78 overall. His tackling was at an 87, which is good because we saw him miss that tackle against the Bears. It's like all right, all right, let's see you step it up. He was fantastic.
Speaker 1:Aaron Mosby, the guy they just brought in, he's a 73 overall on his grade there. He graded in at a 71 and tackle in a 60, 54 and pass rush there he had one tackle on the game and one stop. So a pretty good game on Aaron Mosby there. Keyshawn Nixon 73 overall on his grade. Kenny Clark 70. And then we see Eric Stokes at a 69 there.
Speaker 1:Uh, looking at what I wanted to see, which which was the pass rush, this is the big one, right. The Packers have been struggling in the pass rush. It in at a 76 overall in the pass rush. That's good numbers. That's good numbers right there. Devontae Wyatt 67 in the pass rush. And Lucas Van Ness this is a guy we've been waiting, waiting for to step up 69 overall grade in the pass rush department. He was I mean, he was fantastic. I thought in this game From okay, I don't want to say fantastic, fantastic is like Micah Parsons' numbers or crazy numbers like that. I'm not expecting crazy numbers like that out of Lucas Van Ness. But when you have one sack, two tackles for a loss and one quarterback hit, I'll take that from what we've been seeing out of Lucas Van Ness. He's starting to progress, which is what we're looking for. Even guys like Kenny Clark, who's our big money guy, who we're expecting to make plays. He had a sack in this game here. The Packers had five sacks in total, nine tackles for loss, three pass deflections there and six quarterback hits on this game. All good numbers, all good numbers right there. So you love to see that.
Speaker 1:So the defense was the story. They stepped up big time in a game where we needed it. We needed the defense to show us something on this night. What were you? You know we get rid of Preston Smith. We have questions on the defensive line. Are they going to be able to step up in big moments to make plays to get after quarterbacks? This was a pretty good third down team in the Dolphins. What were we going to see? That was our biggest questions. They showed it to us. They showed it to us in this game. They have that ability to make stops, to make big plays when they have to. I was impressed in Isaiah McDuffie. He leads the way with 10 total tackles and seven solos in this game here. Aaron, I mean, I loved when I saw the defense. It wasn't a masterclass. I'm not going to say it was a masterclass performance, but it was a good performance and that's something that they've been lacking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think if you are the Packers, like sometimes I hate that style too, like I really do, cause like the Eagles play that way sometimes where you know you let a team kind of gas, you, you know, 20 to 20, like you know, from the 20 to the 20, and then you clamp down in the red zone. I hate watching it, but like I've seen, you know, vic Fangio run that type of thing with the Eagles this year and and it's kind of like, okay, well, we're not. You know you look up at the scoreboard 17 points to a team that has Tua, tyreek Hill and Waddle. Like you know you'll take that Really, you will. I know it was at Lambeau and everything else, but it doesn't matter. You know like that is holding a team you know under 20 in today's game where you know it's just pass, pass, pass. And you know deep on, deep on, deep on, a lot of these teams, especially like the Dolphins, like to do, yeah, I mean that's impressive. And that was a game where it's like, okay, you know we're coming down.
Speaker 2:Everybody talks about how, you know, after Thanksgiving, all these teams kind of find their way. You know how good are these teams going to be. So that's a game where you want to get it right. You know you're at home. It's going to be a little bit harder now coming up, you know, like that Lions game, everybody's going to have their eyeballs on that. What next Thursday night? That'll be like wow, you know that'll be a marquee game to watch. But yeah, this is, I mean, still a primetime slot against. You know, on thanksgiving, they they came to play and, um, I, I just I was impressed with, like I don't think, love, I don't think he turned the ball over this game. Nope, nope, no turnovers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's toyota, thon man, he doesn't do that kind of crap now guy loves toyota like I don't know what it is when toyota thon starts, he lights the world on fire right.
Speaker 2:Right, I mean, hey, there's something to that. So yeah, I mean that was uh, you know everybody thought that would be the most interest. You know that that's. That was a closely you know looked at game like you know spread of three. You know everybody was giving the Dolphins a shot. I didn't really feel. I don't think either one of us thought that way, but I mean it was kind of as to be expected and like a pleasant in a pleasant way, because you know, you never know what can happen. But it was uh, they just came to play in all three phases, I think.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree 100 and zero sacks, zero sacks. And I think a big portion of you know we're just talking about Jordan Love. They're getting healthy. I mean his mobility, it looks like it's there again. I see that throw he had uh to Jaden Reed, where Reed made a fantastic catch.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was crazy.
Speaker 1:But I mean to see Jordan Love roll out of the pocket being chased, make that throw and on the run it just spoke volumes to when he feels good, it looks good and he's able to throw through that leg. He's able to get out on that front leg and put some zip on the ball. He's able to throw through that leg. He's able to get out on that front right, that front leg, and put some zip on the ball. He's able to get out of the pocket and be mobile. When he's mobile, when he's able to do those things, he looks good and he's looking good and it's putting people on notice. It's really putting people on notice like hey, I don't know, the pack might be back like watch out here. So I mean it's good news, good news for the packers there, back Like watch out here. So I mean it's good news, good news for the Packers there. They get a big win against the Dolphins and sitting better than the Bears. I want to talk about that game there.
Speaker 1:Ibrahim Flues was fired earlier today here. Not kind of saw that one coming. Well, I kind of did, but I kind of was not going to be surprised if they didn't fire him at the same time, just because I thought you know the bear, you know quarterback or what's. What's his name? Thomas Brown, the new offensive coordinator, has made Caleb Williams look a little bit better. So I was like I don't know if they want to change up the locker room quite yet, because if Ibraflues goes, thomas Brown, if he doesn't get the head coaching job, who knows if the next head coach is going to want him? And then you have to change offensive coordinators again and then it just creates this whole thing with gail williams. So I thought maybe they'd keep him around just because of that.
Speaker 1:But, aaron, this game I mean the bears lost it in the most bears way to lose a football game like 34 seconds when he gets sacked. Now you have two options, which I don't. I. I guess I could be wrong. I, you, I would have burned the time out. But also, if you get back to the line, you set up a play, you run a quick play with, let's just say, 20 seconds or whatever on the clock and even if you stay in bounds, you get another five, six yards. Whatever it is, whatever what it ended up being. You call your time out, you get your field goal unit on the field, you kick the field goal.
Speaker 1:Everything's good in the world, world, but it all went south. Caleb Williams is trying to get the boys back the line's trying to tell guys to hurry, caleb Williams is changing the play. It's just a whole disaster. And at that point you call a timeout. At that point you just say, screw it, here's my timeout. At 12 seconds you're just like timeout here. Everything went wrong in that moment and it all goes back to Ibraflues.
Speaker 1:But man, oh man, like you, I don't feel bad because his game management sucks. It does Like his game management sucks. But wow, that end of that game was just terrible. It was terrible Like the Lions. They did not win that game. They did not win that game. The Bears lost that game, did not win that game. The bears lost that game. And also, before I forget, jordan love did get his turkey leg. Finally. That was great, that was great, great stuff there. Jordan love didn't get one last year after they beat the lions. I don't think the lions wanted to give him one. So now he gets his turkey leg. Awesome to see leroy butler hall of famer packer, former packer brings uh turducken out on the field there for Jordan Love, like that was awesome. That was a great display. That was awesome there, so just didn't want to miss that because that was great there. But I mean, aaron, this game wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean wow is pretty much the only word you can say about that. The ending of it it was just like and we were going back and forth there I definitely like no Eberflus, definitely was more on, like I don't know why. You know, if you're Eberflus and you're sitting there like you had to at least have thought, you know, if it gets to this point, I'm calling, like you should be standing next to the ref and then, if it okay, let's say it's seven seconds you're calling a timeout. So like for him not to have any barometer on, like I'm going to call a timeout at any point, like that is that is piss poor, you know. Like that is just horrible. So I also, like I told you. I also thought, though, like Caleb, it's like where's the urgency? Like snap the ball, snap the wall. You know what I mean. Like get to the line, yell at your guy.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be the perfect play, just snap the ball like you're anybody. Keenan allen has been there. Done that guy. Dj moore has been there. Done that guy like somebody, not just the offensive line. Somebody hustled through your spots because it looked like everybody was walking. It looked I mean out there, we're walking, but it just looked like it was so slow yeah, no, it wasn't in.
Speaker 2:even when they got, like, when everybody got in position, I'm just like, okay, snap it. Like Caleb had the chance to snap it there for like four or five seconds and I think he's just like looking around, like okay, where am I going? It was just like overthinking like to the max. But you're exactly right, like there wasn't. I mean to be honest with you, I think DJ Moore is like that guy.
Speaker 2:I mean he lets his head get in the way a lot. To me he looks checked out, completely like that that play where he got the helmet pulled off and they chucks the ball like a, a madman, you know, like that was a terrible no call, though that was no, it was, it was but that was bad.
Speaker 1:That was bad, was that? No, that wasn't dj more, that was keenan allen, or keenan allen, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But I like, man, these guys are like losing there. It just felt like there was no, and I get it Like it's hard in the heat of the moment, but like the composure of everybody was just not there. And then Caleb Williams, to me, was just, I mean handled that horribly too. But I mean, yeah, at the end of the day, I mean what are you waiting on? Now? You hold on to the timeout Guess what? You never got to use it. So that one timeout you had you probably should have used it. That's just kind of an educated guess. Maybe you should have used it.
Speaker 2:I mean, if they kick the field goal and they miss it, I mean so be it, you put yourself in position to win. Your kicker screws you, whatever that happens. But man, I mean the fact that he got. I am still kind of surprised that he did get fired too, just because I mean they hung in there with arguably one of the best teams. I mean some people say it's the team that's going to the Super Bowl, the Lions there. So I know it's division, but, man, it's almost worse to lose that way than like if they were lost by 10, it's like, okay, well, lions have been beating everybody by 10.
Speaker 1:It's like, okay, well, lines have been, they've been beating everybody by 10 so it's like whatever but man that adds to the streak too the hail mary against the commanders, the blocked field goal, the overtime loss of the vikings, and now you lose, like this, to the lions, like that's, four straight games where you could argue the bears could have or should have won those games where they lost. And if you take those four straight games, let's just say you give them three of them, right, three of those games. They're seven and five, but instead we're sitting here and we're looking at four and eight, like that's. That's the difference. That's the difference between a, you know, you beat the lions, you beat the vice, say you beat the lions. Vikings and packers say you, the hail mary happens. You beat the Vikings. Say you beat the Lions. Vikings and Packers Say the Hail Mary happens. But you win all those three games.
Speaker 1:What's the division look like now? The Packers you're closer to the Packers, you're closer to the Vikings. Like you're right there, you're right there. Instead, your head coach is fired, the season looks like a bust and now you're shopping again with a rookie quarterback. Yet you're still having a rookie quarterback and you have to find a new head coach to try and come in and fix this mess. That's bad. That's just rough, rough all the way around. So bears lose to the lions in that one.
Speaker 1:The dallas giants game. Michael parsons still believes that they're going to run the table you beat. You beat the giants by seven. I mean table. You beat the Giants by seven. I mean that was you beat the Giants by seven. Not a good game. Not a good game. We actually said that this one might be a blowout. And Drew Locke did not impress or deplete. He was 21 for 32, one touchdown. He did have that one rushing touchdown so that I mean made him look a little bit better there. But I mean this was a game of. I don't even know what this game was.
Speaker 2:This just sucked, that's just terrible game and I mean that pick six that drew lock. I mean I'm not gonna say I mean it was a bad throw, but like dallas guy you know, puts his hands up, deflects it right to himself, basically, um, that was like wow. That's the Giants season in a nutshell, but I almost think that you know watching the Giants this year outside of a couple excuse me, a couple games there. I mean you could make the argument that Drew Locke looked better than Daniel. Like that's how bad Daniel Jones has looked. I mean now Minnesota Viking Daniel Jones, but it's oh man. I thought the Giants like at one point were going to find their way in this one and find a way to beat the Cowboys. I just I don't know. That Cowboy's running back, though he's starting to make some a little bit of noise there.
Speaker 1:I like Dowell. I think he could be a Dowell or Dowell, I don't know. I don't know it's something weird, but I like him and I gotta be honest with you. I know the giants did lose and it's like it doesn't. It doesn't really look good, but I liked that, tyrone Tracy. I think he could be a good backup there too. I don't think, you know, right now he's running behind a terrible offensive line. So you're like, is he, is he, is it? You know, could he explode if he had a good offensive line? I think. So I kind of like what they got there. So I think there's two good backs for the future on those two teams right now. So maybe we'll see something out of those two down the road here.
Speaker 1:But just that was a. That was terrible, just terrible. And then I mean, yeah, the last game of the day was the Packers and Miami Dolphins, and then we saw, it always seems like it's the Chiefs and the Raiders. If there's gonna be a close game between a good team and a terrible team, it's the Chiefs and the Raiders, like the Raiders. The Raiders had a shot to win this football game and you look at the two quarterbacks in this game, aiden O'Connell had better stats than Patrick Mahomes. Like how many times you to say that one in your lifetime? Aiden O'Connell 23 for 35. He had two touchdowns. And then you look at Patrick Mahomes there, 26 for 46, 306 and one touchdown in this game. Like you could say that Aiden O'Connell outdueled Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2:I mean absolutely. Yeah, he did and he did. And isn't that so fitting that their quarterback outduels Mahomes and they still lose? That is such a Raiders thing that's the Chiefs.
Speaker 1:The Chiefs just find ways. I mean that's good on your part. If you're a Chiefs lover or that's your thing. You sit there and you say to yourself hey, we can win football games when we look like this.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no-transcript. Like if he found out you know your girl broke up with you or something, he'd point that like he is a heartless dude, like he really is. Um, I can respect it, though he's a D lineman, like that's. You know you got to be gritty to play that position. But man, I saw him like in Mahomes' face multiple times today just talking like trash, and it's great, like you know, because there's guys out there that like won't talk trash to LeBron or won't talk trash to like I. Like the guys that are like you know what, like you're a human being, just like me, man, like I'm going to, I'm going to come at you all day long and that's my job. So, yeah, I I hope Max Crosby gets out of there, though I'd love to see him go to some decent franchise. But, man, I think Antonio Pierce I kind of feel for him too, honestly, I do, but it's, they just can't figure it out.
Speaker 2:No matter what, I I think in O'Connell might give you a better chance to win than Minshew right now, which I was a big Minshew guy, but I just he's not. I don't know he, I I think, uh, jacksonville Minshew was his peak and like he went to Philly didn't look, that looked okay, he didn't look horrible. But then you know, raiders Minshew, it just doesn't. Uh, colts Minshew, like I, he's just I kind of I guess I over-projected him. Like when he was on the Jags I was like this guy is pretty dang good. And now it's like yeah, I don't know what you get with it. I bet the team's not good either, but Aiden O'Connell put up good numbers, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:And I like Brock Bowers. I got him on my fantasy team there. He put up good numbers for me today 140 yards and a touchdown. He's carrying, he's carrying. He's a good talent, I mean. And if they find a quarterback in the draft some way somehow and get some pieces in there, maybe they start to build and the raiders start to look like something, because you're playing in dogfight games like this. I mean, you put some good talent on the field, you might be able to put something together just do you think, tom brady, ever like you know what I'm going to coach this team?
Speaker 1:They might let him be the GM. You look at him with Tampa Bay. He played it well, played it right. So stupid. They're going to overtime. Georgia Tech and Georgia.
Speaker 2:Georgia's, so lucky they're in this.
Speaker 1:Georgia's just lucky. They got more talent, because without talent they wouldn't win this football game. But, aaron, we're at the two-hour mark. We're at the two-hour mark. Crazy night here, holy crapola. We're at the two-hour mark, but we got to get to our NFL picks the rest of the weekend here before we wrap it up and get the heck out of here for the night. So, aaron, looking at the Sunday slate of games here, at noon we have the Chargers taking on the Falcons. That game is going to be in Atlanta. Spreads at one. Chargers favored by one.
Speaker 2:Wow, give me the Chargers here. I think, coming off that loss to Baltimore they'll be ready to go Close game probably. But even on the road I take the Chargers here.
Speaker 1:I like that one. I'm going to take Chargers too. I just don't have some with Kirk Cousins, that team. They just haven't been able to find it yet. Maybe they do, maybe they do, but they haven't been able to find it yet. And I like the Chargers, what they're doing out there. So I'm going to take it. That's going to be in Cincinnati and I'm going to fantasy team there. But outside of that I think the steelers will win that game. Interesting, cincinnati's favored by three. The spread's at three right now. They can shoot it. I. I will say they can shoot it out with anybody.
Speaker 2:Can russell wilson lead good enough drives against the bangles craptastic defense to win a football game most of the time I will favor a defense, like, if it's a good defense versus a good offense, I'll I'll, you know, I'll go with the good defense, like I'll trust the good. Excuse me, like ravens, back in the day, they had no offense but a great defense. Look, I mean, they were just, you know, that's one of those teams that went on to win a super bowl. Trent dilfer, like that's an example of that. But I, I just feel like I do feel I don't know, I feel like Cincinnati's going to win this too, though I do. I just have that feeling where it's like they need, if they want, any chance at all, like this is absolutely their season, like if they lose this game, there's no way they're making the playoffs. So I just think, with that being said, they I just think, with that being said, they're going to throw everything at the wall and see if it sticks on this one.
Speaker 2:It's a division game. I mean, cincinnati and Pittsburgh are usually great games to begin with. Yeah, I just think they find a way to put up a ton of points. Pittsburgh doesn't Not that Russell Wilson's bad, but he's not, you know, seattle prime Russell Wilson anymore. So maybe they'll struggle to put up as many points and uh, and Cincinnati just finds a way with the offense, because they're like you said, their defense is not anything to write home about at all. So, um, yeah, but give me Cincinnati in this one, I think it's close maybe three to three to six like something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could see it that's a craptastic defense, cardinals at Minnesota. The line is at three and a half and I'm gonna tell you right now I'm gonna take the bold one. Give me the cardinals to pull off the upset against the vikings I, I almost think so too.
Speaker 2:Like I, I really they, you know, coming off that loss at seattle you want to keep like that. You know sam fran's not out of it, I think. Think you know, and we've been talking about the Vikings They've kind of been teetering with like losing, like it's just they're finding ways, but it's like it's not like you're confident they're going to find a way every week. So yeah, give me the Cardinals as well. I'm on that with you.
Speaker 1:Here we go. This could be some Patriots. Right now, indy's favored by two and a half in foxborough. I'm gonna take the patriots pulling offset a little bit of an upset.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna take the patriots pull it off uh, once again, man, I think we're, uh, we're in lockstep tonight because I I mean new england. I know it's not belichick. Belichick used to dominate like younger quarterbacks, but I that defense doesn't go away. New England with a good defense is just a staple at this point. You can book it, no matter who's coaching them, and I think Mayo can at least coach the defense well. So I think Richardson will struggle to find his way in this game and they'll do enough with Drake May. They won't blow the doors off of them. But yeah, I think the Patriots get it. I don't trust the Colts going up there against that great defense it can be a very good defense and and pulling it off either, I don't. I don't trust that.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, I like that one there. Uh, seahawks and jets, that's going to be at the jets for that game there. I want to say something stupid and say that the Jets are going to pull off this game. I'm going to say something stupid here I'm going to take the Jets to win this game just for the fact of it's going to keep them relevant in this world.
Speaker 2:Give me the Jets to win this game against Seattle. I totally see it. I totally see it too. They're not mathematically out of it. Um, I guess you know so and it's and it, yeah, it gives. And Jets fans need that little bit of hope to like just get absolutely crushed once back down again. Um, I'll go with you there too. I'm kind of hesitant, I'm kind of like feeling like seattle will still, because you just can't bet on the jets at this point.
Speaker 1:No, no, nobody's putting money down.
Speaker 2:If there was money involved, I would not take the jets it's almost like it makes sense for them to win this, because it's just like that would be a jet thing to do. So yeah, just for the simple fact of that. Yeah, why not jets?
Speaker 1:all, there we go. Titans Commanders. That's going to be. It's going to be at home for the Commanders. In that one I'm going to take the Commanders. I think the Commanders get a big win here against the Jets or against Titans, sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so too. I think they find their way back. I mean, I know they haven't been playing their best ball as of recently, but Tennessee is rough. That's a rough, rough team this year. And, yeah, commanders coming off three straight I didn't realize that. Three straight losses Steelers, eagles, cowboys, back to back to back. So, yeah, they need to find it and they need to find it quick. So I think they will. I think the urgency will be there and Dan Quinn will have ready to play.
Speaker 1:So I like that one there. Texans Jaguars in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2:I like the Texans staying afloat there in the AFC South and holding on? Yeah, neither team. I mean, obviously, jacksonville is not impressive, but we've talked about the Texans. I think that's how they have definitely taken a step back from last season. But yeah, jacksonville is just. I don't. I'll be shocked if Dougie P isn't fired after this season. That's just like writing on the wall. I guess at this point I don't know what you do with Trevor Lawrence and all that. But yeah, in this circumstance, I mean, they're coming off four straight losses Packers, eagles, vikings, lions. Why not add the Texans to the mix at this point with the Jags? They are man, just when you thought they were turning the corner one of these years. Not at all this year.
Speaker 1:I like that one. There we got the Rams and the Saints. I'm going to take the Rams. Rams are going to win this game. It's in New Orleans, but I'm going to take the Rams to pull it off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard to bet on the saints at this point, uh, coming off two straight wins, but I mean falcons division game and then browns are not very good. So, um, yeah, I think this could be a close one. I think, just because the saints, you know, sometimes they can play a really good defense. But, um, yeah, give me the rams as well all right, there we go.
Speaker 1:Buccaneers, panthers. That's going to be in charlotte for that game there, but I don't think it matters that, it's a home game. I'm gonna take the buccaneers to win that game. They're getting a little bit healthier with mike evans coming back. I like the buccaneers yeah, it might.
Speaker 2:You saw georgia uh georgia yeah sadly uh, but um, yeah, give me the bucks too. I mean, the panther panthers have looked a little. I mean, I'll give it to them. They've looked a little bit better. Uh, bryce young and things. But uh, yeah, I think the I mean bucks are very hungry right now. They're trying to get right, um and and with mike evans, yeah, it's tough, that's that's a tough matchup gotta agree.
Speaker 1:there next up, a big game. This is going to be a big game on this day Eagles Ravens. That's going to be in Baltimore for that game there. If they take advantage of the craptastic secondary that the Ravens have, I think the Eagles win this one. If they don't I mean Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry they're going to put the Eagles defense to a test in this one. Saquon Barkley's been fantastic. I'm going to take the Ravens just because I think I just got a feeling the Ravens are going to win this game. I just got that feeling.
Speaker 2:I need the Eagles to win this because I'm just like I tell you, all the time surrounded by Ravens fans. I'll never hear the end of this, I'll never hear that Lamar is like the best quarterback to ever walk the face of the earth. If they win this, so yeah, please give me the Eagles. I mean, I just hope, I hope, even if they have to lose next week, to win this one. Like, just win this one for me at least, for my mental sanity at this point. But, um, I think the eagles do find a way.
Speaker 2:I, I just that that raven secondary, like you said is, is suspect. I, you're, you're, you're, so right when you say this will put the eagles defense so like, this is a huge test. Like, um, stopping lamar, you know running the ball, and then stopping henry, I mean we haven't played the Ravens since the COVID year and that season was Carson Wentz and it was like 30-29 Ravens, eagles came all the way back and then wasn't enough, but that was a weird game. So I mean, this is not a matchup, you see often. But, yeah, give me the Eagles. I think it will be a nail-biter, an absolute nail-biter. But I wouldn't be shocked if the Ravens win either. This is a matchup. This is definitely a matchup.
Speaker 1:All right, there we go. There we go. Next up we have the 49ers Bills. Looks better on paper than it is in real life. Give me the Bills to win that one. At Orchard Park it's going to be really snowy for that game. I heard they're going to be crazy snow out there, so I'm going to take I'm going to take the bills to win that one is purdy playing.
Speaker 1:I heard he's like getting better, but I don't know if he might be, but I I just don't think it matters pretty expected to play williams bosa out for that game. So bosa is still out I, I like the bills.
Speaker 2:and trent well, yeah, no, trent, william Williams, that's rough. Yeah, give me the Bills too. I think it'll be too much. And going up there, I mean that is a different like you talk about Green Bay, different type of weather. Buffalo is a different type of weather as well. That is just brutal to go up. And then a team like San Fran yeah, I don't, I'm glad San Fran's falling down like they are, but I don't see a way they pull this one off.
Speaker 1:They get that lake effect snow going and then it's game over. So we'll see what happens there. Next up we have the Monday night game. We have the Browns taking on the Broncos. Wow, that's going to be in Denver. The line's at five and a half right now. Give me the Broncos. Broncos are going to win that game. Half right now. Give me, give me the broncos. Broncos are going to win that game.
Speaker 2:Browns, I think james winston will get them fired up, but that's about it. Yeah, it's hard to completely hate on james winston, but I mean bonex has been playing good, that broncos teams kind of find their way. Um, yeah, give me the broncos. That it's just gonna be too much for for the um, for the browns they just they chalk it up the next year already for them all right, all right, there we go.
Speaker 1:So good weekend of nfl, good weekend of college football. We'll see if georgia tech can pull this one out. Here they're, I mean going uh, they, they got shot, they got shot here so a little bit of a shot, still a little bit of a shot there.
Speaker 1:so we got some good games coming up. College football we have the badgers coming up tomorrow here taking on Chicago State at noon on Peacock, so it should be hopefully a good win there for the Badgers and we move on from that Badger football. We're going to talk about the rest of that crapola on a different occasion. With them, packers got the big win against Dolphins. They prepare now for the Lions coming up next Thursday there, thursday there. So lots of good stuff there. Aaron, anything else you got to wrap us up for the night there.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I mean it'll. It'll be interesting. I think NFL more so than I mean. We've seen crazier things though Maybe. Maybe this top 10 will shake up even more. We were. We were definitely looking at Georgia going down, but we'll see. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Georgia tech puts her into the end zone and overtime here we're going to overtime if they put the field goal through. So Georgia is on the ropes tonight.
Speaker 2:Boys, here we go, and girls, boys and girls and Carson Beck I don't know if that's the guy you want with with the game on the. I don't know. I mean he's doing enough, but that's what I mean. He's doing enough, but that's what I mean.
Speaker 1:He's got them back to this point, but can he take them over the top there? We'll wait and see on that one. So with that, we hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving. Thank you for tuning in, as always. We hope you guys have a great rest of your night and tomorrow, but we will be back on Sunday when we will recap the rest of these games. We'll recap whatever that happens in this game between Georgia and Georgia tech. We'll talk more badges. We'll talk more Packers. We'll talk about all here on Sunday on the show. So with that, for Aaron and myself, this has been Wisconsin sports on the go with trade. Thank you all for tuning in. We hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night and weekend, but until we talk to you guys again on Sunday, say Until we talk to you guys again on Sunday. See ya, thank you.