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
Packers' Super Bowl Hopes, Badgers' Football Challenges, Brewers' Offseason Troubles, and Badgermbb struggles – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
What if Wisconsin's unpredictable weather could teach us something about resilience in sports? Join us as we unearth the parallels between the tenacity of Wisconsin farmers and the grit demanded in the state's sports scene. From malfunctioning cow water heaters to the shifting sands of college football, discover how the 2025 Badger football schedule and Brayden Locke's transfer portal entry set the stage for a challenging yet promising season. We explore what it means to succeed under head coach Luke Fickle, with a lineup that pits the Badgers against powerhouses like Alabama and Ohio State.
Switching to the court, we critique the Badger basketball team's recent performances, emphasizing the need for a stronger post presence and exploring potential strategies to turn their fortunes around. In baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers face a critical offseason, grappling with budget constraints and the task of replacing key players like Willie Adames. Our conversation highlights the spending disparities in Major League Baseball that challenge small-market teams and the strategic maneuvers needed to stay competitive amidst fierce competition.
As we shift gears to the NFL, we scrutinize the Green Bay Packers' defensive struggles and potential as Super Bowl contenders. Through an analysis of player performances and coaching strategies, we examine how the Packers can transform setbacks into opportunities. From Dan Campbell's bold play calls to Matt LaFleur's strategic adjustments, the discussion covers what's necessary for the team to thrive against formidable opponents. Whether you're passionate about football, basketball, or baseball, this episode promises insights and revelations that'll keep you engaged and informed about Wisconsin sports.
Thank you for watching how we doing everybody and welcome into wisconsin sports on the go with trage. I'm your host. Trage, no, aaron, tonight on the show, he's got work came up. Everything was just a mess for him, apparently, so he will not be on tonight, will just be me tonight here on the show. Man, is it cold, holy crap.
Speaker 1:All day, all day today, we were working outside. You know, the greatest thing about the state of wisconsin and farmers in the state of wisconsin is they don't pay attention that their water heaters for their cows don't work until it's uh, until it's cold out. And then they're like, oh yeah, you know it. Just I forgot about this. But uh, yeah, this doesn't work. So that's what we were doing all day. It's like the wind chill was down in negative 10, negative 15, and we're standing out there in the wind and the cold and the snow and everything else, working on water here. So it was a fantastic day. Fantastic day today. But we got lots to get into sports. Wise badger football. I saw the 2025 schedule came out and wow, that's uh, that's uh something to look at there. So I want to get into that today. I want to look brain lock, enter the transfer portal. That's another quarterback for the badgers now entering the transfer portal. So I mean the quarterback room is slim at the moment. A lot of young guys right, carter Smith, mabry's in there right now and that's about it at this very moment. So getting slim pickings. Hopefully, maybe, looking at the transfer portal, find a bona fide starter, somebody who can come in and kind of take the reins over with Jeff Grimes now at the helm of the offense. So we'll kind of get into that today. Badger basketball men's I mean that was yeah about that last night. It was. I want to talk about that. We're going to get to that a little bit later.
Speaker 1:Baseball winter meetings have been going on here Juan Soto deal. I want to talk about that a little bit. I want to look at the Brewers and just talk about the Brewers and what we think the Brewers could do, and I want to hear what you guys think of the Brewers right now the roster, how they're sitting, everything like that, and where you would think the Brewers should add. I know the budget. According to Pat Murphy, what we heard, the budget is a little tight heading into the winter meeting. So I want to talk about that today and then just looking at the Packers a little bit. I got a little bit to talk about the Packers here, so we will see where the day takes us.
Speaker 1:As always, send your comments and opinions in the chat, wherever you are tuning in tonight YouTube, twitter, wherever it is make sure you're sending in your comments there and then also the text in line right below me there, the text in line, the 715 number you can text into the show. Let me know your opinions. Badger basketball, badger football, the baseball, anything with baseball, brewers, packers, whatever you got, send it in. I'd love to talk about it here. I'd love to talk to you guys and see what you guys think of the Badger basketball lately. Whatever you want to talk about, I want to get into it tonight here. So I want to look right away at this Badger football team and we know Brayden Locke canters the portal.
Speaker 1:Now I mean, I hope for the best for Brayden Locke. Right, he is nothing, but he held, he was accountable, everything that he did wrong. He lets you know it and yes, there was a lot wrong. And I'm not saying that I am like deeply I'm not over here deeply saddened by the loss of Braden Locke. Not by any means, because I, just I, he was never a fit, he was never right for this team and it it stinks right. It stinks for him as a player because I mean, he, he definitely was a grinder. He tried right and you know, trying only gets you so far, but he was a grinder, he gave you his all, he held himself accountable for everything that he did wrong and he owned up to it. And sometimes that tells you a lot about a person, a player, everything like that. So you just wish that there would have been some kind of look at some point where you were like Braden Locke, you've been struggling but there is something right and we just never saw that. So Braden Locke enters the transfer portal just after tyler van dyke entered the transfer portal.
Speaker 1:There I, that one was odd because it kind of seemed like he was trending on coming back and then I don't know what happened between him and luke fickle, but he's, he's out the door. So him and brain lock out the door there. Mabry and carter smith in that uh slim picking quarterback room. Right now, as of right now, we'll see what happens. Jeff Grimes now in the room and you know what. We talked about that a little bit and I saw he did an interview the other day there, I believe it was with Mark Tauscher. He did that interview and I loved everything that I saw in that interview Came out and he said, you know, he didn't really know Luke Fickle before, before all of this. He knew of him but he didn't know Luke fickle personally, right, and got on the phone with him and you know they kind of just aligned there what they wanted, what they saw, what you know, what they wanted to get to or what they wanted to do. They, they just aligned with it.
Speaker 1:So, jeff Grimes, coming in now, I don't, I don't dislike the move at all, I don't. Um, getting back to a more, more of a Wisconsin style right, get the ground game going. That was something that the Badgers, they just couldn't do at times was get that ground game going. And that's a big thing that Jeff Grimes is going to try and get into this program once again. Getting those offensive linemen, getting the horses right. You got to have the horses first. So get those offensive linemen built up and then from there, then your backs can get going. Once you get the backs going and don't get me wrong, like like Jeff Grimes said and like I've seen Kansas or when he was at Baylor. This isn't a we're just going to run the football and that's all we're going to do kind of offense. You know he still he wants to get the vertical threat. He wants to still be vertical, he wants to still utilize the passing game.
Speaker 1:What I like about the offense is is, you know what he said, where it's going. It's going to be more of an nfl style in his words, right, and more of an nfl style getting away from that pro style air raid spread offense getting more. There's gonna be a lot of formations, a lot of, you know, motions, shifts, all that kind of stuff. But getting back to the basics of Wisconsin football, get it on the ground, make that work. Once the ground game you have to have some sort of ground game to open up the passing game. You don't have the athletes of what let's just say like Alabama or Georgia, right, they have good run games too, but you don't have those blow guys away athletes. Vinny Anthony, I thought he had fantastic gear, right, I thought Vinny Anthony was fantastic, but you don't have those guys. So you have to be able to start up somewhere right. And I love the fact that he says I'm going to get the ground game going first and that's not going to take away from everything. Right, he still wants the ground game to help develop those vertical passing routes off that run. And what he said, maintaining unpredictability right, you don't know what they're going to do. Third and 10, they might run the football, like he said, and you know what. That seems kind of odd, right, but he wants to keep defenses on their toes and that's something you have to do.
Speaker 1:Wisconsin under Phil Longo, and you know what it sucked. But Phil Longo, to me, became almost predictable at times. Right, it was Tyree Walker lines up to the left of brain lock, he's going to the right. He lines up to the right, he's going to the left. It was so basic and defenses knew that. They knew what was coming and we saw that at times against Penn State, sitting up there in the bleachers and watching that game, sitting up there in the seats, and I was at the game and watching that it's game, sitting up there in the seats and I was at the game and watching that. It's like you knew what was coming before it happened and it was just so predictable.
Speaker 1:And I love the fact that he says we're going to be unpredictable.
Speaker 1:We don't want guys, we want to keep these defense on their toes and that's that's what you got to do. Right, that's what you have to do. You look at Penn State, you look at Oregon, you see some of the trickery that they throw in there, everything else. And you don't have to do it with trickery. I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is you have to have some kind of unpredictability where you don't become complacent. You don't want to be a vanilla offense, you want to have some of those the motions, the shifts, the throw the defense off, get the linebackers going one way and you're going the other way. You got to have that, and Phil Longo wasn't doing that for the Badgers. So I love you know if, if Jeff Grimes, I, you don't know yet, right, we haven't, we haven't seen it, we haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 1:So I can't, I can't just sit here and say, well, this is how it's going to be, right, we don't know, we don't know. But what's it going to hurt, right, what's it going to hurt? Phil Longo's offense was not going to work in Wisconsin. It wasn't. You did not have the playmakers for it, you didn't this kind, this kind of offense.
Speaker 1:This helps recruit in the state of Wisconsin. Why? Because you know what Barry Alvarez did he recruited in the state of Wisconsin. So well, offensive linemen right Offensive linemen are we're. We got a lot of good offensive linemen coming out of the state of Wisconsin and I'm not saying you're just going to go back to what Barry was doing, right, because you cannot. I don't. I'm not saying you can't win with the run game, but what I'm saying is you've got to have some kind of like I was saying unpredictability where you're still going to throw the ball around, and that's what Jeff Grimes is going to do.
Speaker 1:So I love that move. I do. I love the move of Jeff Grimes and I can't wait to see what happens. I can't because what I've seen over the past couple years from this Badger team, it's nothing good, nothing good. So I want to hear what you guys got to say. If you're in the comment section right now or if you're watching the show right now, I'd love to hear what you guys think about the move for Jeff Grimes coming into Madison there. So I'm looking at that 2025 schedule. That's kind of where I wanted to get with this today here, looking at that 2025 schedule for the Badgers and it's daunting. It is a daunting schedule. I mean you start out right away. You have your two easy games, right, you want to say easy games there. You play Miami of Ohio and then you play Middle Tennessee.
Speaker 1:So you have your two easier games, right. But then you get into kind of this is where the gauntlet is going to start, right. You have Alabama, and that's going to be in Tuscaloosa, it's going to be at Alabama for that game. So, right there, that's a. That's a tough start, right, that's a tough start for that one at Alabama. And then you're going to play Maryland, and Maryland's an unpredictable team, right.
Speaker 1:And all these teams and don't get me wrong, all these teams are unpredictable. You don't know, if Ryan day gets fired, what happens at Ohio state. Or you know Oregon. If Dylan Gabriel leaves, you know what? What's going to happen? What's going to happen with all these different Indiana, what's Indiana going to look like? Washington, what if they have a great transfer portal? I mean, you don't know, you have no idea, but we can only base it off of what we know from success of these teams, right, and what their recruiting class looks like and all that. So, maryland, they're always unpredictable to me. You never know. Maryland goes on the road this year against Oregon, oregon, and they played them tough right off the bat. I mean they ended up getting blown out, but played them tough. So you never know what you're going to get with Maryland team.
Speaker 1:But then comes the gauntlet of the schedule, right, the October, the October schedule for the Badgers. And I don't know if the big 10 just I don't want to say they hate Wisconsin by any means, but I don't know what they have against the Badgers. But this October stretch is rough, right. So you start out with Michigan, you go to Ann Arbor, you're going to play at Michigan and then you have at home against Iowa, so you don't have to go down to Iowa this time, you get Iowa at home. But then you play Ohio State at home the week after and following that you're going to go to Oregon. So you have Ohio State and Oregon back-to-back Middle of the season, ohio State and Oregon back-to-back Middle of the season, ohio State, oregon back-to-back. That's tough, that is right there. That October, I mean you want to be optimistic, right, you want to be optimistic, so I hope that it's a good October, right, but that is a daunting schedule in October. And then after October, getting into November, you're going to see the likes of Washington, indiana, illinois and then Minnesota to wrap up the season there. I mean that's a tough schedule all the way around.
Speaker 1:So my biggest question I got in the bottom line there. Can you define success next season for the Badger football team off of wins and losses? So what I mean by that is Luke Fickle. There's a lot of people out there who say Luke Fickle should be fired and he should have been fired already and the program's trending in the wrong direction and he's not going to be able to fix it and all those kinds of things. So my biggest question is you look at that schedule and let's just say you look off this season's success going into next season right, so Alabama is going to be a good football team. Michigan they got a good recruiting class coming in right now and you expect Michigan is going to add people or add personnel right. So Michigan looking like they're going to be solid.
Speaker 1:Iowa always gives you trouble, right. Ohio State I would expect Ohio State's still going to be a good team, right. And then Oregon right. So you have those four teams right there where those are going to be tough ones. And then you have your Washingtons, you have your Indianas, you have your Minnesota game, you have Illinois who? Illinois has been tough. Illinois can play some gritty football, they have shown it. And Maryland, like I said, they play gritty. So you look at Luke Fickle and you say, okay, what am I going to define you off of right? Is it going to be wins and losses?
Speaker 1:And this season I don't think I was as upset about the losses that the Badgers took, right, if they would have went down to Iowa City and they would have lost that game let's just say one of those stupid scores, right, 15-6. Something just stupid like that, right. I don't think I would have taken that one so bad, right. Or the loss to Nebraska. They would have lost that one. Let's just say 27-23, right. I don't think I'm looking at it and saying I don't trust you. Right, but it's those games where I'm not looking at the Oregon game.
Speaker 1:I thought they played fantastic in the Oregon game defensively. Offensively they can't really get anything going, but defensively I thought they played great. I mean, they held Oregon to what? 16 points. How many teams can say they've done that this season? Right? Ohio State can't even say that. So they played good against Oregon there. They played three good quarters against Penn State. The fourth quarter. The defense was on the field for three quarters of the game. So you're going to run out of gas there, alabama. You were there for the first quarter and then after that it was a route, right. So I don't think I take as much from those games as I do. Okay, when you went to Iowa, when you played Nebraska and you lost those games, it looked terrible, right. You look like you didn't even belong on the same football field as them and that's what I think I took the most from.
Speaker 1:So when I say, can you define that success next season for the Badgers off of wins and losses and I look at the schedule If you go to Ann Arbor and defense comes out, piss is hot, right, and the offense comes out and whoever's running quarterback, right, and whatever it looks like, and you just have a good game, but Michigan just beats you because they have a better game, I'm not looking at that as a bad loss, right, it's a loss. Every loss is bad in the grand scheme of things. But when I look at these games and I want to see this Badger team in those games perform, I want to see them show me something that points me in a direction where, hey, if we just had a little bit better of, you know if this would have happened or if this would have happened, right, that would have changed this game. That's where I'm looking with this badger team next season. I, I, I want to say yes, I want to define it off wins and losses, and that's what you do. You define a season off of wins and losses. I, I understand that I do. But to see the trajectory of the program and which way it's heading these first two seasons under luke fickle, that's what I to see.
Speaker 1:I wasn't expecting the Badgers to go, you know, 12 and one, and end up in the college football playoff. Would that be great? Yeah, sure, that'd be fantastic, but I wasn't expecting it. What I wanted to see was growth of this program. Look like, look like it's trending somewhere where it looked like it's going in the right direction. And I haven't seen that yet. That's that's my problem is, I haven't seen that yet. That's my problem is, I haven't seen that yet. So this next season, I'm defining it off of. What does this program look like? What does it look like? Do they come out every single week and show us something that's like, hey, they're trending towards something? This program is trending in the right direction. Once these pieces, once these guys get older, once Carter Smith gets into the system and he starts to work a little bit and he gets a little bit older and all these other recruits they have coming in Posa and all them, once they start to develop and they get up into the starting ranks and we start to see these guys and they get a little bit older and they get a little bit more weathered, then what right and that's what I want to see is that we're trending in that direction and that starts here in the offseason.
Speaker 1:The transfer portal. You got to go out there. Defensive line has been atrocious. The defensive line was atrocious this year. You got to find guys to bolster that defensive line. You can't bank on recruits. You can't. I mean, yes, maybe a recruit comes in, you know, and they just blow up the world, right, maybe they just look fantastic and you know, in spring, in the fall, and you're just like, okay, these guys are going to be. You know, right away, right away, they're in. You can't bank on that anymore. You got to go into the portal, just like all these other teams do. Look at Indiana. How'd they get good so fast? Right, they went into the portal. They found guys. That's what you got to do. You got to go into the portal. You got to find guys. Right, wide receiver room You're going to have to replace some guys. I mean the way that it's looking, the guys that I've seen they're looking at a little bit more, a little more height, a little bigger right. So that's where they're kind of looking.
Speaker 1:Wide receiver room you got to look, probably, for pieces on that offensive line position there, defensive line cornerback room right, the cornerbacks have kind of cleared out. So you're looking in that cornerback room. Now you're saying we need to add guys in there. So the portal season is now open and you got to find something in there. You got to find something in there. It's going to spark up this team going into next season, because you can't just bank on roots anymore, you can't just bank on development. You've got to find pieces in that transfer portal. So that's where we're kind of looking right now. Um, it's gonna be interesting to see, uh, who the badgers get in that transfer portal, as it now just opened this last monday. So now we see all the the offers going out and everything like that. We'll kind of see, uh, if any of these guys commit soon or if it's gonna be a little bit, what's gonna happen there.
Speaker 1:I, I really do think the big thing was to get your offensive coordinator spot figured out, which they did, and and now it's going to be about. Okay, now what do we do to? Jeff Grimes is in there now. He knows he has a vision of what he wants in this program and what he wants to see. Now let's see what he's going to do with it. So I like, I like the direction with Jeff Grimes. I just now we got to see it. Now we got to see it on the football field, so that's all.
Speaker 1:I got Badger football there. We're going to see what happens there in the transfer portal and kind of where, where this kind of trends towards if they get a quarterback's coach yet and everything like that. So good stuff there with the Badger football team right now. But we got to get to the not so good there. There's always some not so good, right? I always hate this. I always hate going to the not so good at any point.
Speaker 1:But we got to talk about this, this badger basketball team, right now, because it just over the past, these past three games, right, have been rough, have been rough all the way around, and I think what makes this whole three game losing streak worse and it's you know what? Honestly, it's not. It's not Marquette. You know Marquette fans are going to be like oh you know it's a loss to us losing that big in-state rivalry game, shut up. No, it's not that loss to you guys. We went on the road. We went on the road to Marquette and I tell you what, that Pfizer Forum, that was rocking, like that was rocking. That was a great crowd. They were excited, they were getting after it and that's a that's a tough environment to play in when it's like that. So I mean hats off to the Marquette fans for showing up and showing out and getting loud and I mean creating a atmosphere that was tough to play at because that was, that was definitely, that was definitely a big factor in that Marquette game.
Speaker 1:But I look at those three game losing streak and the biggest one is the Michigan game. Right, because we always talk about it, it's hard to win on the road in the Big Ten. It is. It's very difficult to win on the road in the Big Ten, but winning at home you got it. You just have to right, maybe slip up here and there. But that Michigan game is daunting on this three-game losing streak Because I don't think it's as you go to Champaign and you lose this game to Illinois and you lose this game to Illinois. You've lost nine straight. I mean that's not great. I'm not saying that's great at all. And would I have loved to go to on the road to Illinois and beat Illinois. Heck, yeah, heck yeah. I would have. But that game isn't, as it doesn't get me as like upset right. And it's not the Marquette game either. I mean, yeah, it was a rivalry, I guess in state and everything like that. And Marquette fans are I still hear them talking all over Twitter and everywhere else you want to look. They're still getting hype about it.
Speaker 1:But I look at that Michigan game and that one hurt the most, that one hurt the most to me. I don't know if it for you guys it was the same thing, but for me that one hurt the most. So we got that Michigan loss, you got the Marquette loss. Now you get this game against Illinois and I mean it seems like a broken record and it seems like we're going back to last season. We're kind of reverting back to what we saw last season out of this team or out of a certain player, right, but Steven Crowell, I've always tried to give him the benefit of the doubt I have. I've always tried to give Steven Crowell the benefit of the doubt, whatever it was.
Speaker 1:And right now Steven Crowell is one of the biggest problems on this Badger team. He is and, if you want to go player-wise, there's a lot of problems. There's a lot of problems right now. We could talk about turnovers, we can talk about rebounding we're going to talk about that but Steven Crowe's lack of post presence and his lack of ability to play any kind of physical basketball without. When he gets aggressive he fouls, right. When Big Steve gets aggressive, he starts to just throw it around a little bit. And when he gets aggressive in the post, same thing. And you know, last night he had a couple of moves there where he was, you know, his normal little hook and it wasn't there. But I can't tell you that I've seen a time where Steven Crowell outside of that, I think it was in that NIT tournament where he just started lightening up, lighting it up from downtown Outside of that game. I can't tell you a game where I was like I'm glad Big Steve's on there on the offensive end, I am just so happy for it.
Speaker 1:Right, you have to have some kind of post presence. Right now the Badgers have none. Right now they have none. They have nothing down there. No physical play down there, nothing. And you want to look early on this season. What made the Bad successful so successful early on in the season there and what what led to john tonj looking good and all these guys getting going? And one of the biggest reasons was steven kraus passing ability. It was getting in the post and he found cutters. He found cutters coming in behind him. Whatever it was, it's not there anymore. There's no cutting to the basket. All of a sudden we have both of our big guys are playing the perimeter right.
Speaker 1:Big steven crowe spent more time against illinois at the three-point line that he spent in the post. Then he spent in the post. There was zero post presence down there and you come out of this game with no rebounds, zero rebounds. You're a seven footer and you have zero rebounds. We say it all the time with Brooke Lopez. Brooke Lopez sometimes will come out of games. It's like the seven footers got one or two rebounds in a game. How's that even happen? Right, steven Crowell gives you no rebounds. Last night, the Marquette game, I believe he had like 11 against Marquette. So when you look at that game you're like, oh, at least he was boarding right, at least he was getting after the boards. This one here. You look at this game and you look at Illinois 15 offensive rebounds. At the half they had nine offensive rebounds. So actually they cleaned it up a little bit, I guess you could say the offensive rebounds in the second half, but still 15 offensive rebounds on the game they had in this one. And your big man has zero.
Speaker 1:I don't know how much more simple it is than Greg Gardner. You know what, greg Gardner, I don't. Actually. I know a lot of people are like you don't call out your players to the media and all that kind of stuff. And I could see that. I could see where. You're like, ah, don't call him out there, talk to him in the locker room. You know what. You get asked a question and you're like, ah, don't call him out there. You know, talk to him in the locker room.
Speaker 1:You know what you you get you asked a question and you're like you're looking at the stat line, you're like my big man has no rebounds in this game. That's something that needs to get fixed. And he said a point blank right there and I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I need you to go into practice now, and I need you because you don't really have an option. There's no options. Where's the options? Right, I mentioned it a couple of times. I was like you know what? We always talk about big men coming in. They don't have the size, they don't have the physicality, they don't have the ability to play with the bigs and the big 10 because they're not big enough yet. Right, I mentioned it Greppy. Right, he's a freshman, but he's 6'10" and he's 255 pounds.
Speaker 1:If there is a guy on this team who will get, carter Gilmore gives me energy, right, I love the way Carter Gilmore is playing right now. I really do. I think that all those minutes that are going to Xavier Amos to me, he knocks down a three, but beyond that, sometimes I watch Xavier Amos and I just he's hit or miss, right, he's like a Liam Ford for me. A Liam Ford was always hit or miss for me. One game he comes out he's hotter than a pistol. In the next game, he just he ain't got nothing. And Xavier Amos is that for me right now.
Speaker 1:He went through a stretch there where he was playing good defense, him and Gilmore. They came in in that first half and I think a visit kind of went away for Illinois and they did well in the post. They did well defensively in the post. I'm not going to, you know, xavier almost didn't play terrible.
Speaker 1:But Carter Gilmore brings. He brings the energy night in and night out, brings the energy. He's a leader on this team. He can finally knock down shots. Right, we're seeing that now he's knocking down shots and sometimes I wish he wouldn't pump fake out there. I wish he would just pull it Like when he shoots in rhythm. He's got a beautiful shot now I think the shot looks good. Now Shoot it. Like, what's it going to hurt at this point? Here we got I mean in this game here and I don't hate Nolan Winter's got the ability to shoot it from downtown. He's got the ability to shoot it. But he went two for seven from downtown in this game, two for seven. And then we look at Steven Crowell, one for four from downtown. I don't like those numbers. I don't. I don't like the numbers when I see my big men with 11 threes on the game, three for 11 on the game from downtown there, and I see their shot selection and where they're coming from, and the lack of it in the post right.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing that I'm talking about is we have no post identity right now. You you might be this team that's shooting more threes, you might be this team that's trying to play faster, but you still have to have something down low right. Kansas can get out and run, but Kansas has still got Hunter Dickinson right. Duke has still got the ability to go down the post. Michigan State goes down in the post. Marquette will still use that post right. We saw it. Look at the points in the paint against Marquette there. I think they had 44 points in the paint.
Speaker 1:Now, that's not just the big man doing the work that's, guys getting down the lane and everything like that, but having a big man who can spread the not just spread the floor, but have the ability to play in that post area. It takes the pressure off the guards because when you have to, when you have to respect that post player, you're going to try to double, you're going to bring guys down, you're going to try and get him to get rid of the basketball. What does that do? It opens up shooters, right. So you gotta have some kind of post presence and right now Crowell is not giving you anything. And I try to, I try to fend off the people that are like you know he's, he's like Charmin Ultrasoft down there, you know, and he, just he doesn't have it. And I try to, I try to sit here and defend him or defend it and say, you know what he's got, he's got some ability and he's got some ability to shoot it from downtown. I I sure I try, I seriously try, but I, I sit here and I watch it just ain't there, it ain't.
Speaker 1:And you've kind of played yourself into this point here, because you look at this team now and it's like where do you go? Where do you go if steven crowl doesn't get those minutes? Okay, you can, you can put. Just no one went, I, I am. I am honestly at the point where running the two bigs I what the heck's the point? Thanks, boy. What's. What's the point of running two bigs if you don't utilize the post anyways? What's the point of running two bigs if you don't utilize the post anyways? What's the point of running two bigs? Right, if you're gonna be this team that wants to cut, if you want to be this team that wants to play fast, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Put nolan winter out there, and I I don't know if it's crazy, I don't know if it's crazy talk right now, but start kamari mcgee. Just start them. Put a natural point guard out there on the floor, because you know what To me, you put Kamari McGee out there. So this would be my hypothetical starting five. And I want to hear in the comment section there, if you guys, you know anybody watching this, if you agree, if you disagree, what you guys think about your basketball right now. But I look at the starting lineup and I'm like where could you go wrong if you have McGee, klesman, blackwell, tonje, nolan Winter they're just starting five, right. Or you put Steven Crowell in there, I don't care what you do, but you have one big out there. You have a true point guard out there.
Speaker 1:You're allowing Blackwell to play off the ball, which, yes, I still. I don't want to take Blackwell's ability to drive away, right, but playing off the ball might get him open for some of that stuff coming off the wing, right, I want Blackwell in a wing spot. I want to see Tonje out there in a wing, klezmit, he's running that too right. And then you have Kamari McGee bringing the ball down. Let Blackwell be the off-the-ball guard that can get the job done scoring the basketball. Give the off guard off the ball guard that can get the job done scoring the basketball. Give him options to score. I want him to be a score I and you can do that in that point guard spot but I want him to be an just an, just a scorer, just a guy who I know. I get him the ball, let him drive right. There is right now. This badger team is at times.
Speaker 1:What I praised them for early on this season was the ball movement. It was constant. It was boom, boom, boom, boom. Ball was zipping around and they were getting open shots and they were finding cutters and they were seeing open lanes and they were getting to the basket and Tanjay was getting to the basket and he was getting fouled or whatever. It was going to the rim there. Same with Blackwell, same with, I mean, klezman. Right, klezman. I don't know what's going on with Klezman right now. I really don't I, he, right now, is struggling to shoot the basketball. We saw that even free throw wise last night. I mean free throw wise. Three for six for Klezman last night at the free throw line. This is a 90% free throw shooter on the season. John Blackwell two for four.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about free throws? This season, free throws have won us games, right, look at the Arizona game. Free throws won us that game. You look at this game here. Illinois came into this game as one of the worst free throw shooting teams and Wisconsin came in as one of the best. And if you looked at the final tally in this one, you wouldn't have believed it. You would have said, well, illinois, they shot. I mean, they're pretty good free throw shooting team. And you look at the statistics on the year and no, they're not. Wisconsin is and they shot 14 for 21 and Illinois went 22 for 25. There's your difference in the ball game Big time difference, right. So right now there's a lot of problems with Badge basketball. It starts with the bigs for me it really does, but it starts with.
Speaker 1:The energy of this team has been lackadaisical. Right, getting after the boards. Rebounding has been a problem. We won the Arizona game, but rebounding was a problem in that game. Rebounding was a big problem. We saw it. You know what. We won the Arizona game, but rebounding was a problem in that game. Rebounding was a big problem. There was a big disparity. The Badgers got a rebound about like 25, in that game against Arizona and they won the basketball game. I'm not saying they didn't. They found a way to win that game while struggling to rebound the basketball and you were just waiting, right, right, waiting for it to show its ugly head one more time. And it did right here. It did in this game. It did against marquette, I believe it did. I, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 1:The michigan game. Michigan was doing well on the on the boards there. I just wanted to check that out. Michigan in that game, 13 offensive rebounds. They had 43 rebounds overall. They out-rebounded the Badgers by one. It's not crazy disparity there, but out-rebounded the Badgers in that game.
Speaker 1:There, I mean, rebounding has consistently been a problem for this team and it's something that you don't with Badger basketball. It's like what you always expected out of Bo Ryan's teams at least were physicality, free throws, and I mean just ball security, right, free throws, rebounding, ball security. What you're getting out of this Badger team now undisciplined play where a lot of timely, costly turnovers, like the worst spots, the worst spots again, there was in all three of these losses. There was a point in the marquette game where it wasn't out of reach, marquette came out swinging. In the second half they came out swinging and you I mean nobody can deny that in marquette I, I, I don't like marquette. Everybody knows that. I'll tell everybody that. I'll tell marquette fans that. I'll tell everybody around the state of wisconsin I do not like marquette.
Speaker 1:Well, marquette in that second half came out swinging and the badgers were caught flat foot and it's just like every possession for a while there it was turnover, turnover, turnover and they just couldn't find any kind of rhythm in those games. Same with look at the Illinois game. They had moments they went down 10. They would go down 10 and they'd get that thing back to like five. They'd get it down to five. They couldn't find that big shot right and it was the costly turnover. It was the defensive stops, right.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about problems defensively? This Badgers team has problems right now, whether it's going underscreens, whether it's going overscreens. Cutters defending in the post. Offensive rebounds, second chance points, fast break points have been a problem for this team. Points off turnovers have been huge against the Badgers right now.
Speaker 1:There's so many, so many things right now where this Badger team is lacking and we saw it. We saw it for the Badgers early on, right, it was those games against Holy Cross or UT Rio Grande, right, where they'd come out slow and they're kind of sloppy and playing undisciplined and turning the basketball over and they didn't seem like they wanted it more than those lesser teams, right. And my biggest question was okay, so now what happens when you get behind a good team? Right, and they got behind Pitt and they came back and they showed fight. They showed fight in this Illinois game, but it wasn't enough. They didn't have that stop. They didn't have that key stop.
Speaker 1:Right, there's when you, when you're in the middle of a comeback in a, in a basketball game, whatever it is, there's a key moment, a key stop within those within that game that you look back on. You're like when that happened, it changed it right and they the Kentucky game Sam Decker took a charge, right, that was a big moment, a big stop for the Badgers in that final four game. There you look at moments throughout games and it's like that was the turning point, that was it, that was my turning point in that game. They don't have that right now. They don't have that defensive stop, they don't have that ability. It's like when they would finally get Illinois to miss a shot.
Speaker 1:Illinois went on this burner there, yachtunus he's fantastic. I believe he's a freshman and he's fantastic, he can shoot it, he can get to the rim. He was doing a lot of things in that game and he'd get hot. But in that game and he'd get hot, but when the badgers would finally force a mess. Offensive rebound and it's like all right now we're playing and offensive rebound and is consistent, consistent. They get it down to five and they didn't have that answer. All game long didn't have that answer. That's the thing too. Big plays, right. Big players who's gonna make that play for you late in the game? Right, and klezman has made some big shots at times, right, but right now he's cold. They can't find ways to get tanji open.
Speaker 1:At the moment blackwell is doing well, driving at the rim and I I heads off to blackwell for kind of keeping the badgers around. In this one he kept them around, mcee kept them around, and that's what I'm saying is that right now you're lacking energy on the floor, and it starts with Steven Crowell. The energy that Steven Crowell brings ain't much. It ain't much for this Badger team. You got to see some more energy out of him. We got to see more energy out of this Badger team. They got to be some more energy out of him. We got to see more energy out of this Badger team. They got to be more active on the boards. That's where it starts is on the boards. That's where it's going to start for this team If they want to turn it around.
Speaker 1:You got to clean up two things Because, outside of that, you scored 80 points, right, and, yes, some of that was late in the game, but you scored 80 points on the road. 80 points in the Big Ten should win you most games, should win you most games. It wasn't in this one. You got to clean up those little things the rebounding, the turnovers Right, those are the big things. Knocking down free throws is huge. This one I mean the Badgers couldn't shoot the free throw for some reason. I just went away, right. But knocking down those free throws went away, right, but knocking down those free throws, you played good enough to score 80 points in this one. But defensively rebounding turnovers, those are your big things right now.
Speaker 1:This team it's like they at times lack confidence. They lack confidence in themselves, they lack confidence in each other right now. I thought this team was so gelled, they were so well-knit, they were moving the basketball rounds early on this season I was like I'm excited for this team. They might not have all the talent in the world, right, but man, they can play fast and they can shoot right when the shots aren't falling. And you get into some of these games like we're seeing right now. You're getting into some of these games when the shots aren't there. You know, klezmic goes cold or Tonjay is not scoring that's a big one right now. Tonjay is not scoring like he was, or Blackwell's in foul trouble. Right, foul trouble has been a problem for this team.
Speaker 1:Undisciplined play, right, just hacking at the ball or the silly things like on the offensive end I mean we talk about I believe it was in, was it that Michigan game or was it against Marquette there? Or Tonje on the baseline Gets a call for a hook right, an offensive foul, just those little undisciplined things where they're costly for this team and I, honestly, in this Illinois game I thought they did a fantastic job of weathering a storm when Klezma was out, blackwell was on the bench with foul trouble and they were running a five that you wouldn't really write home about. Gilmore was in there, mcgee was in there, amos was in there and they held it and they held the lead. They were taking care of their business out there. The Badgers team needs more. They need more energy. They got to come up with more energy. They got to rebound the basketball, basketball. They got to limit the turnovers.
Speaker 1:The turnover's been costly for this team. I mean, you're talking about the 12 turnovers against illinois here. 12 turnovers against illinois yes, you did. You didn't turn it over as much as illinois. I don't know if you want a handshake or a sticker for that. You didn't turn them all over that much.
Speaker 1:But 12 turnovers in this one 15, I believe, against marquette. That's a problem. Turnovers rebounding it's, it's fixable. I'm not. I'm not sitting here telling you that we need to throw in the towel. I'm not sitting here telling you that and I know the fire greg guard meter has been just blare and the sirens are going off. Right now they're like we gotta fire this guy. I mean it's over, it's over. And I don't want to say that I'm going to fire Greg Gard. I'm not going to fire him, but he's got to fix this. He's got to, because right now they're beating themselves. It's not that these teams yes, marquette, played a fantastic game, right. It's not that these teams yes, marquette, played a fantastic game, right. But 15 turnovers. Illinois played a good game 12 turnovers Out-rebounded you 40-29. Offensive rebounds 15 of them in the game for Illinois, wisconsin at 11. It was a lot late, but right now you're getting beat up by beating yourself, not being the aggressor. Come, not being the aggressor, come out and be the aggressor.
Speaker 1:Arizona the Arizona game impressed me. Yes, they shot a lot of free throws and I know a lot of people are going to allude to the free throws being the reason why the Badgers won that game. And it was a big part, right, it was a big part, but they were the aggressor. They got after Arizona, they went at the rim, they did all those things. Steven Crowell was even being aggressive in that game. They were being the aggressor. You got to come out and be the aggressor.
Speaker 1:Now You've dropped three in a row. Hopefully it's December. Usually this isn't the problem, right? Usually we fall into this trap in February. February is usually the problem. You get into February Okay, now we're losing basketball games. You get into late January Now we're losing basketball games. It's usually not right now, right.
Speaker 1:The fall of this team happens in January to February, not now. What the heck's going on, right? So now you figure it out. And it's not saying this team's lost three in a row. But, like I said, they've been beating themselves up. Michigan, they beat themselves up you couldn't figure out a pick and roll beat themselves up. Marquette beat themselves up. Illinois beat themselves right. Those teams played good in those games, sometimes great in those games, but you did not help yourself and you had opportunities in those games to make a statement, to make it close, and you couldn't do it right.
Speaker 1:So now you have this game against Butler coming up this Saturday and then you're gonna go and you're gonna play Detroit Mercy, and then you get back in the Big Ten play. This is where you get yourself right, butler, they're coming off a loss. I believe again, it was a not a great team that they lost to I can't remember who it was now North Dakota State. They lost that game, north Dakota State. Before that, they lost that game to North Dakota State. Before that, they lost that game to Houston. But they got a win against Mississippi State, who was ranked at the time there.
Speaker 1:So this is a team in Butler who they've rattled off some wins this season. We've seen it. You got to go take care of your business there. You got to get right. Then you take on Detroit Mercy. That's a game you really got to get right before you get into Big Ten play and then the stretch run. You got your stretch run of Big Ten games. Then this is your two non-conference games. You got left there and then you're going to, hopefully right in the ship, get it floating again. Get Steven Crowell to start playing like he's seven foot tall and not like he's a three foot guy down there. Have him start playing like he's a big man. Get Klezmic going. Find ways to get your playmakers going, tonjay Blackwell and maybe start Kamari McGee, I don't know, maybe Gilmore Give him some time, give Gilmore some time. See what happens right.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of things right now that the Badgers have beat themselves up doing, and I know Greg Gard knows it, I know that this team knows it and I've seen. You know, listening to the guys in the locker room, listening to Greg Gard, there's not a whole lot of panic right now in this team. There's not a whole lot of panic. They understand. They know what they're doing wrong. It's just a question of can they fix it right?
Speaker 1:And these are two games coming up where these are your fix-it games before you start up that Big Ten schedule and you start out there with Iowa and Iowa always plays tough. So if you're not the aggressor against Iowa, iowa will beat you up. So Badgers drop three straight. It's rough, as of late, but we'll see. We'll see what kind of happens there with the badgers moving forward there. So good stuff there.
Speaker 1:Uh, with the badgers, good, good, I mean I'm I'm not out on this team, is what I want to say. I'm not out on this team. I think they have some potential now, do I think they're gonna go and win the national championship? I'm not going to put it at that point. Right. I think that our expectations coming off of the eight no start. We were feeling ourselves and now we got a gut check. Now we got a reality check. Right now it's a question of what do they do after that reality check? They've had a three-game stretch where they got I mean, they got a reality check for a big time right. And even greg guards Gartz. He's telling the guys in press conferences now like hey, we know what the problem is, figure it out right, so we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1:Butler coming up this weekend, we'll talk about that game on Friday here on the show. We'll preview that Butler game and hopefully talk about a Badger win there against Butler on Saturday there. So right now, before we move on, I want to get to the baseball. A little bit of baseball talk today. I want to talk Brewers a little bit there. But before we get there I want to get to Hunter here. Hunter's got our hockey video for tonight here. He wants to preview, or he wants to recap the weekend. He wants to preview next weekend. So let's get over to Hunter and then we'll come back here and we'll talk a little Brewer baseball. So we'll see you guys on the other side.
Speaker 2:What is up everyone? Welcome back to the podcast. Let's dive right into the recent action from the Badgers, which is the women's and men's hockey team. Starting with the men's team, it was an exciting weekend at the Kohl Center. On Friday night, the Badgers shut out number one Michigan State with a 4-0 victory. Quinn Finley was the star of the night, scoring two goals, while net miner Tommy Scarfone made an impressive 26-save shutout to earn his first as a Badger. The Badgers moved into second place in the Big Ten with 14 points in nine games played. Tyson Dyke opened the scoring 14 minutes and 20 seconds into the first period and the game remained quiet until Quinn Finley scored on a power play. Early in the third period, owen Mellenbacher added to the lead and Quinley sealed the win with an empty netted goal. However, saturday night what was Joe Pavelski night saw a different story. Despite having an early 2-0 lead very early on in the second period, the Badgers fell 3-2 in overtime. Even with the loss, wisconsin managed to win the series, earning 4 out of the 6 possible points and sharing second place in the Big Ten with 15 points in 10 games played.
Speaker 2:Now turning to the women's team. The women's hockey team on Friday night played against Minnesota State at Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center. Thanks to goals from reigning WCHA Player of the Week, caroline Harvey and Kristen Sims, the Badgers pulled through on a strong performance. Wisconsin now 18-1. 18-1. All they do is dominate. Losing is just not in their vocab. Only the one time I think I'm going to call it a fluke Got off to a quick start in power play.
Speaker 2:Less than a minute into the game, kristen Sims found space behind the net and passed it to Harvey in the high slot, who beat Minnesota State's netminder Haley Hansen on a stick slide. The Badgers maintained their 1-0 lead into the first intermission after killing off a Minnesota State power play. Five minutes into the second period, wisconsin extended the lead. Layla Edwards sent a nifty pass to O'Brien. Kayla Edwards sent a nifty pass to O'Brien, who scored, and delivered a cross-ice pass to wide-open Sims, who one-timed it to the back of the net. The Mavericks managed to score on a power play late in the second period, making it a 2-0 game heading into the third. The Badgers' defense stood strong, killing off two more penalty kills. In the third period, ava McNabb stopped 23 of 24 shots, securing her 17th win of the season.
Speaker 2:Then, on Saturday afternoon, freshman Maggie Scannell led the team with two goals, guiding the number one Badgers to a 5-0 shoutout win at Minnesota State. For Scannell, it was their second multi-game. For the Badgers, who now are 20-1 on the year, that's just insane. I'm telling you guys, if you're around Madison or you can get to Madison, especially this weekend because they play number two Ohio State. Oh, and before I forget the Badgers, they go take on number eight Michigan at Yost. But back to the women's If you can go to Madison this weekend it's a potential NCAA championship matchup for the year. Go to LeBron and watch. It's going to be a great weekend of hockey.
Speaker 1:There you go. Hunter told you, get down to Madison and check out some hockey there, because great stuff, great stuff is always from Hunter there. I mean, like he said, all they do is win, all they do is win, and it is impressive. It really is just impressive there. So I want to talk a little bit of Brewers today, coming off of their in-winter meetings. Right now we see Willie Adamas ends up going to the Giants and we all. He's going to be missed. He really is. Willie Adamas is going to be missed, not just I know we talk about it all the time the clubhouse presence.
Speaker 1:Clubhouse presence is huge for this team. I mean, that's what makes Brewer baseball, I really do think at times, is they don't have. They don't have the stars. They don't have the stars. They don't have the Aaron Judges or the judges, or the show he'll Tani's or any of Freddie Freeman, right? Mookie bats, any of those guys. I just named off three guys. They're all on the same team, right, and that's what I want to get into with the Juan Soto thing. But I mean it's Willie Adam is going to the giants. I love it for him, right? You want to see a guy go out? Get what he's worth, get what he. You know, whatever he's worth in this league, get what he's worth. And he did, and he got himself a multi-year deal.
Speaker 1:It sucks to see him go, because now the Brewers, they have to find a way to replace the home runs. They got to find a way to replace his RBIs, his production on the field, not just in the clubhouse. You got to find a way to replace that production. And where's it going to come from? So you're not going to replace that with Joe Ortiz because, unless if he bulks up in this offseason here, I don't know if Joey Ortiz is going to go off for those replacement home runs there, the replacement RBIs. You hope so. Right. Same with Bryce Terang. I don't know if Bryce Terang is going to be able to replace that Fantastic defender. Right, both of them. I think both of them have the ability to be able to slide over to that shortstop spot. But I'm leaving Terang. I'm leaving Terang in second. I would slide Joey Ortiz before that.
Speaker 1:But I really do think you got to find somebody out there I don't know how, because you don't have the funds to find somebody out there to replace Willie Adamas at third base. You're not replacing him position-wise, you're replacing him production-wise. You got to find a way to make up. You're not going to make up all of it, I don't think, but you're going to make up some of it. So that's kind of where I'm looking right now is where do they go to replace that? There's options out there like geo. Your shell is out there and you're not going to get alex bregman right. Bregman's not going to be the guy you're going to go out and grab up there. I'm just thinking of other names. I know Alec Boehm's name is now they were looking at Alec Boehm, right. But now Alec Boehm's name is kind of being taken off the list there.
Speaker 1:So where do they go? Where do they go for that third base? I don't know if you're going to find it in-house. Can you trust it in-house? Last season it was oh, let's see if Oliver Dunn can do it. Well, how'd that work, right? Oliver Dunn was Oliver Dunn's not going to be able to replace that production. You're not going to find it there. You know there's guys within the organization that could do it down the road, but how long? How far is down the road? How long do we have to wait for that production to be there? So I don't think you're going to fix that in-house this season.
Speaker 1:You know Reese Hoskins, maybe he's going to become trade bait. I like I've seen Devin Williams name up a lot right for trades. Devin Williams is going into that final year and everybody's kind of looking at him and saying you know, you're probably going to be the guy out. We're not going to pay you, so we're probably going to look to trade you and I'm not opposed to that right.
Speaker 1:I think the biggest strength of this Brewers team is the bullpen right. You have Uribe, you're going to have Pomp, you're going to have Pagueros out there. You got Trevor McGill, you got pieces in the bullpen right, but you don't have them. You don't have them in the rotation right now. Right, because right now you're looking at Woody and you're saying right now Pat Murphy says that Woody is progressing right, which is good. He's progressing right in his rehab, but you can't bank on Woodruff being the guy in there. And Freddie Peralta, he's solid, he's a good pitcher. I'm not saying anything against Freddie. I love Freddie, but Freddie's not an ace. He's not an ace of staff.
Speaker 1:You know you're going to have Tobias Myers and Tobias Myers. I love Tobias Myers. He's a great pitcher, great all around pitcher, and he had a fantastic season last year. But what are you going to get on this year, right? That's the big question. So Valley is going to be in that mix there. Um, you could see a bullpen arm of Jake Jacob Mizorowski at some point. I'd love to see that more of you know pulling a a, a Corbin Burns kind of route with Mizorowski, and I wouldn't be opposed to that. You know, not throwing him into the rotation right away. See what he can do. Maybe he becomes a closer. Right, he's got dominant stuff. Maybe he becomes a closer. You got Craig Yoho down there in the minors. He was having a fantastic year last year. Maybe you see a guy like him.
Speaker 1:The Brewers have always been, and I've never understood it right, it's always. It baffles me sometimes, but the Brewers have always been great about going out and they find these random guys, right, bullpen arms. You don't expect those guys to be big name, big production guys for you, but they end up somehow they end up doing that for you. So the Brewers have always been good at that. Now, that's not my worry, right, my worry is now that Willie Adamas is gone, where do we replace that production and that's what we're going to have to see, that's what we're waiting to see. So what moves will they make?
Speaker 1:Right, and I think that Devin Williams trade as much as I've liked Devin and as much as Devin has shown that he can do right Not in the postseason, I know, sadly, not in the postseason, but in the regular season. This guy, when he's on he's a dominant closer. Right, when he's off he's off, but when he's on he's a dominant closer. But if you can get something for him and I know the Dodgers are looking at him go and get the Dodgers, get some top prospects, get some top prospects, get some not top top prospects. Right, you're not going to unload the Dodgers farm system with this one, but get some prospects out of this one, some good prospects. Right, maybe a pitching prospect. Maybe you go and you grab an infield prospect.
Speaker 1:We don't need any more outfielders, for the love of Pete. We don't need more outfielders right now. Maybe an outfielder? I don't know, what do you guys think out there in the comment section? Um, if you guys are, you know, in tune to the comment section, but um, what do you guys think? Do you? Do you look at trading an outfielder? Right, garrett Mitchell. I've heard his name a lot.
Speaker 1:I I'd hate to see Mitchell go just because I think Mitchell's got the most upside outside of Jackson Churio, don't get me wrong, outside of Jackson Churio. I think Jackson Churio has got the most upside out of all the young outfielders, but out of Mitchell, frelick, perkins, those are going to be your guys that you're kind of looking at, where those guys could be, the guys where you're looking at trading. I love Sal Sal. He's going to give you his all every single day in the outfield. So I'm not saying to trade Sal, but I'd hate to see Mitchell go because we haven't seen the full display of what Mitchell can do. He's got. He's got great power, he's got great speed and he's got a good glove in the outfield, right I? Just we haven't seen it because he's always been injured. So I hate to see Mitchell go.
Speaker 1:But if you need to add depth, where, where can you, you know, move pieces from? I think Christian Yelich right now to me, is he Christian Yelich? I mean, I'm hoping he comes back completely healthy. I'm hoping that the back, you know, the surgery is going to help him and it's he's going to look good there. But, um, you got to look. If you're the brewers, you got to look at moving a piece.
Speaker 1:Right, you got to look at moving pieces there because you're not going to be able to go out and grab free agents free willy-nilly like you hope, right that's what you hope and I want to talk about that here in a second but that's what you hope is that you can go out and grab guys, but you don't have the capital for that. So where are you gonna, where are you going to move pieces, to find pieces? And that's where I'm looking. It's kind of devin williams and that outfield depth, that outfield depth, to see what you're gonna do there. Uh, john john's in the comments there. John quack quack. He's always with that Oregon crap there. He said he had to there. But thoughts on Max free to New York and another team. What is the Mets doing with what? That hack LL reminds me of the vanilla contract. I, you know what. And that's that's where I wanted to get today. That's what I wanted to talk about. I honestly, john, I hate the Juan Soto deal. I do. I hate it. First off, I don't feel like Juan Soto is actually worth that. I don't. If you want to ask me plain and simple, like Shoya Otani got a massive contract, why Shoya Otani? When he's pitching, he's a fantastic pitcher. When he's hitting, he's a fan. We saw it 50-50, right. We saw it 50-50, right, we saw it. He's a fantastic hitter. Juan Soto, what are you getting from Juan Soto. He's a fantastic hitter, right. He's going to give you home runs, he's going to give you RBIs, he's going to give you production, but you're paying a guy to hit. You're not paying a guy to play the field. His glove is subpar. He's not a great outfielder, so what are you getting out of him? You're getting a bat's good, right, but that contract's crazy, and that's where I wanted to get. Today, I see something like that, this crazy deal, right, and I don't. It's going to turn into a vanilla contract. I guarantee it. We're going to have a day for Juan Soto, just like we have Bobby Vanilla Day. We're going to have a day for Juan Soto. But when I look at this deal, it makes me sick, because it's like okay, you look at some of your lower end teams, right, the Brewers are one of them. The Royals are in there. You have a couple other ones. What are the Brewers supposed to do?
Speaker 1:Right, you know, you went in this offseason. They're like oh yeah, lots of teams have their names in the ring for this one, for Juan Soto, bs, who? Who has their name in there? The whole time that we were waiting for this answer, because the biggest answer of the offseason was where is Juan Soto going to go? That's what we were all worried about. We were all waiting for it. Where's Juan Soto going to go? We knew the names the Mets, the Dodgers, the Yankees. Those were the names, those were the three teams where you were looking at and you were right, those are the names. Those were the three teams where you were looking at and you were saying there's the teams who can pay the top dollar amount for this guy. That was it. And actually we, we you know Kyle and Aaron and I we, we boiled it down to two teams. We said the Yankees, and the Yankees and Mets, those are me, two ones, those are me, the two teams right there who are going to try the hardest and they were going to throw the most money out there. And the Mets did it, and they threw this craptastic deal out there.
Speaker 1:What are the Brewers supposed to do?
Speaker 1:You know and I'm not saying this as like oh, poor me, right, poor me, poor me as a Brewer fan and what are we supposed to do? Okay, mark Ananasio, spend more money. Mark, poor me as a Brewer fan. And what are we supposed to do? Okay, mark Ananasio, spend more money. Mark Ananasio isn't worth as much as that contract is worth. So what is Mark Ananasio supposed to do? Right? He can't throw that money out there. He can't. You can't.
Speaker 1:As a Brewer team, you can't even look at him. You can't even look at these guys. And that's what I think is the most disgusting part about the game today I really do is these contracts. I hate them. I really do, and I know everybody's got their own opinion on that and I'd love to hear you guys' opinion on that. But I hate these contracts because you look at them.
Speaker 1:First off, this Juan Soto deal. I mean, what if Juan Soto goes and he has some crazy injury? Right, and you banked him up for all these years and I think there is an option after it's in the short term. But I mean this guy, it's ridiculous. And you look at a Brewers team. You can't even look at these guys, like every single season, right, you almost wish that you could go into the offseason and you are like a fan of the Brewers or you're a fan of the Royals, you know, or you're a fan of one of these other teams, right, and you wish you could look at the free agent pool and say we could go after this guy, but we can't go after anybody else. Right, we could go after. We're looking at the top 10, right, we're like we could go after these guys, maybe not get them right Because somebody else is going to throw a little bit more money down, but we still have that option too. There's no option. There is no option for some of these teams.
Speaker 1:Even look at these guys and look at the Dodgers, Look at the Mets they're probably not even done yet. Look at the Yankees what they're able to do. I mean Yankees make stupid contracts, right? You look at the Yankees Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMay, who they're grabbing Josh Donaldson and they're grabbing all these old guys. I mean the Yankees. They're terrible at making decisions. They need a GM in there that can actually comprehend. And that's where you know what. Honestly, I was actually happy for David Stearns going out to the Mets, because this guy look what he did with the Brewers with absolutely no money at all. Now, imagine what he can do with money, right, and well, his first deal that he gets to make with the Mets is this big old deal for Juan Soto, like the big one. Right, the first big deal he gets to be in is the one for Juan Soto, and that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I don't like these contracts. I don't and you know what Everybody can. They can have their own opinion on it. They can argue with me and tell me that you know it, it's how it works, and everything like that. There needs to be a, there needs to be a salary cap, there needs to be some kind of cap. Honestly, well, I don't know. You know what I heard.
Speaker 1:I think it was on the bill Michael show today. I heard him talking about it too, and he said something about a, uh, a limit to the years too. Right, cause these, I mean these years are ridiculous. Right, juan Soto? The years are ridiculous. You look at the Shohei Otani contracts. These contracts are taking them up into their 40s. Like this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1:I think there needs to be a year mark. I like that idea, I like the idea of a year mark, but there has to be some kind of cap there does. There has to be, and I don't know what it's going to take, because it's hard to just. What are you going to do? Go into the players union and say you guys need to make. You know, take less money, good luck, good luck. Right. What are they going to say now? Why would we take less money, right? Why would we take less money? We want our money. We think we're worth this. What guy is worth the Juan Soto contract? Seriously, what guy is worth that kind of money? I don't know. You think of the grand scheme of things. Yes, you're playing the game of baseball. It's grueling, I guess, on your body. But $765 million, $765 million. You're telling me that wine, soda, is worth that 15 years.
Speaker 1:I believe there was an opt out. There's no deferred money. There's an opt out. There's an opt out in there, somewhere, where the heck was it? There's an opt out. Um, it's gonna add an addition of four million per season to the final 10 years of the contract.
Speaker 1:So there's a. There's a lot of cash being thrown around right now. I just it almost ruins the game of baseball. It does you create super teams and I know every once in a while you're gonna have, you know, a spark of a year. Right, the diamondbacks will go to the world series. Or you're gonna have some kind of world series like that where this lesser roster and we're hoping the brewers do it right.
Speaker 1:Maybe with this young cast of characters they got in there, right, jack centurio takes off next year, and yelich comes back healthy, and woodruff comes back and he pitches well, and you know, you bring up some guys out of the minors and they start pitching well and you get all these pieces together and everything starts working. Maybe you put on a run, right, but how long can you sustain that kind of run? Because once those contracts are ready to come up, and those guys need their money too, they're gone, right, so the Brewers have to operate it as a guessing game, right? Jackson Turio what if he ended up stinking? Right, what if he ended up stinking? They gave him this bigger contract, right? What if he ended up stinking?
Speaker 1:Then you're kind of at a loss and you just have to eat it. Right, we can afford a Christian Yellich contract or a Ryan Braun contract, but you can't afford more than one. You can't afford more than one star player to be there. Right, and you can have star rookie players or young players, but once those contracts are up, they're out the door and then you have to start over and then you have to rebuild them, because those guys are going to the Dodgers, those guys are going to the Yankees or the Astros or whatever it is teams that can afford to spend that kind of money and the Brewers can't. They can't.
Speaker 1:And I hear it all the time and everybody looks at the numbers and they're like, well, you know, we should be able to spend some kind of money. We should be able to spend some kind of money. Yeah, we can spend some kind of money, and sometimes I do think we take the cheap way out. I do. But you know, end of the day you have to pay for the little things inside of a stadium. Your owner is still going to pocket money. He's not going to lose money in the whole system.
Speaker 1:You wish that he would right, but that's the problem. That's why I talked about a while back and I've heard a lot of people talk about it is investors, getting investors into the brewers, whether it's call up John Menard in Wisconsin here and say, hey, dude, hey, you want to be an investor in the brewers, you want to throw some money in here and be a part-time owner or whatever it is. You know, don't. Don't ask them if they want to be an owner Right, but ask them. Say, hey, do you want to be in on getting this guy Right and help out the brewers and all those those kinds of things. It doesn't have to be an owner, just an investor, a guy who's going to invest in a player.
Speaker 1:Right, you almost have to get to that, because I wish that we were sitting here and we were. Like you know, I wish rob manfred would come out and say, instead of the golden bat rule, this is this doorknob. He'd come out and say well, we're in talks with the players union, are trying to become trying to get some kind of control over the contracts, and I'd be like great, fantastic, and I'm not asking all these guys to lose their contracts that they have now. Like you know, I've heard people say, like grandfather them, I'm in, right, get to. You know, juan Soto deal, it's already done. You can't ask him to take away money. So keep, keep that contract.
Speaker 1:But now we put some kind of cap in where you cannot spend over this, you can't spend over this, you're. You have to hit that and maybe put a floor in there too, a cap that makes competitive league. Why? Because now teams can't sandbag it, right, they can't just sit there on the bottom and not have anybody. They got to still go spend money to make a competitive league. Right now what we have is, I mean, we have the dodgers, the yankees, the mets throwing money around and then we have these other teams who are like well, you know, wade miley's only 44 years old. Maybe we can go get wade miley right, maybe he can be a number five starter in a rotation Like that's. That's where the Brewers are at. So I I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of that contract.
Speaker 1:I do like the Max Freed to New York though I Max Freed, I I've, I've always liked him. He's never been over the top, but he, he's been a solid and at times great pitcher. So I like, so, john, I like that Max Fried to the Yankees there. I think that was a good move for them. I think he's going to help bolster that rotation a little bit there and I mean I'm excited for him. He got his money right. We're talking about money here. He got his money and one of the biggest I believe it's the biggest contract for a left-handed starter. If I'm not mistaken, it's one, if not the biggest, the biggest contract for a left-handed starter there in the longest term, I believe. So I mean good for him, good for him. He proved it a little bit there down with the Braves and now he's getting his money up there in New York, so good for him. Hopefully he has some good success up there. But Crochet is off the board now. I did see the Brewers rank to Crochet. He's off the board now. He's Now. He's going to the Red Sox there. You you're.
Speaker 1:If you're the brewers right now, I feel like you gotta be diving into that third base market, because I don't think you're going to find a shortstop out there in the market that you're going to replace, unless you get hung sung Kim. But I feel like right now, after Willie Adamas, the domino of Willie Adamas fell. Now his name is kind of getting hotter there. So we'll kind of see where the Brewers kind of lean towards. Pat Murphy kind of said that the Brewers are not going to spend a lot. They're not going to spend a lot. They don't have a lot of money to spend. So we'll see if it's in-house too, whatever they come up with. Right, that's kind of where we are with the Brewers.
Speaker 1:But I listened to Pat Murphy. I believe he was on MLB Network. He was talking to some of the guys and I mean, if there's a guy that I want to be the manager of a team with, I mean, the talent and everything that we got and the young guys. That's the guy like I love. I love listening to him talk, hearing him. He was well deserved nl manager of the year like well deserved I think craig council should have won one way back, but well deserved manager of the year and hopefully, right, hopefully coming into this next season. Here we get them some pieces, we put together a team. And I mean right now I think the Brewers are still I know the Cubs are going to add. Right, the Cubs are going to add some pieces.
Speaker 1:The Cardinals they're kind of trying to unload right now. I've heard people calling that would be an interesting one. I don't know what would you guys think out there of the Brewers? Nolan Arenado, could you somehow entice a deal to the Cardinals? It's in division, those don't happen very often, but could you entice a deal to the Cardinals to get Nolan Arenado? I don't know, it would take a heck of a package, right, it would take a heck of a package. But I mean Nolan Arenado's name has been out there in the trade market. So Cardinals are kind of unloading the Pirates. They're making moves but you never really know with the Pirates, they kind of fizzle out.
Speaker 1:The Reds I mean, the Reds always seem to start hot and then they fall apart. And the Cubs what are the team to beat? Right now? They, they're the top. We got to get to that right. So the brewers right now I still feel like they're the best team in the nl central. But I don't know, last season they had a lot of things go right, right, you know, double steel, whatever it was. They had a lot of things go right for him last season and that's what got him to that. You know, a boatload of wins.
Speaker 1:What's it going to look like this season now? Right, we'll see, we'll see. There, you got to, hopefully, a healthy Christian Yelich. You got to, hope, hopefully, a healthy core, um, uh, brandon Woodruff Right, so we'll see what kind of happens with steam there. So I like, I like where the brewers are at. If they had a piece or two, I'd mean, winter meetings have been happening we'll see, kind of, if the brewers are in the noise, if they start making some noise here pretty soon, maybe make a, an under the radar move, right, that's always what it is. The brewers don't make the above the radar move, it's always an under the radar like bottom of the ocean kind of move there and sometimes it it actually hits. So we'll see what this Brewers team does uh moving forward there.
Speaker 1:But let's talk a little bit of Packers here. They got Seattle coming up this uh weekend here. That's gonna be a it. Like Matt LaFleur said, it could be a playoff atmosphere there. Seattle's in a prove it time. Right, they're in a prove it time. They haven't proved it up until this point.
Speaker 1:Here you look at this team. I believe they're still up top of that NFC West at the moment, but they still. I mean you have the Rams chasing you. You're right now eight and five. The Rams sitting at seven to six, the Cardinals six and seven, and then you have the 49ers sitting there at six and seven. But Seattle has kind of been right now. They're on a four game win streak. Before that they were struggling. They're back and forth team right now. 're on a four game win streak. Before that they were struggling. They're a back and forth team right now and they want to prove it against one of the better teams in the NFC right now, as they view it and a lot of teams, a lot of people view it as the Packers are one of the better teams in the NFC. The NFC North is fantastic this season and Seattle they're coming into this game and you know playoff team. So the Packers going on the road in this one into this environment, the 12th man right, we always talk about the 12th man out there in Seattle this is going to be one of those games. I feel like this is going to be a tough, a tough game. You know, you look at them and you're like, ah, eight and five. They haven't been overly impressive. Gino Smith Smith he's passed for a lot of yards here on the season but nothing really crazy about him. This is a solid team and if you get they have a, they have a very underappreciated, not really thought about wide receiver core right, dk Metcalf Lockett and, uh, smith Najigba out there. I mean they have a good receiver core and I know the Packers secondary is the biggest question mark we got. I did see. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, jair did practice on today, wednesday, so that's good signs for that secondary portion there. Edger and Cooper I was limited at practice. Javion Bullard did not practice. He's got that ankle injury. We don't know the extent of that yet. Luke Musgrave was limited. He's back at practice. Limited there with that ankle. Josh Myers was back. Evan Williams was limited at practice. He's got concussion but he's limited at practice. We'll see what happens there. I believe he's in protocol. But I mean Romeo Dobbs, he had a full practice day. He's got his injury, was you know'd been in the concussion protocol for a while there. Now he's back at practice. So hopefully, hopefully, good signs. They're getting getting a guy like Alexander back. Hopefully Ballantyne too, because Corey Ballantyne, I feel like I'd rather have him out there than Eric Stokes, right, I'd rather have anybody out there than Eric Stokes at this point. Kalen King gives that rookie some time. Give somebody else some time, right, give somebody else some time. So the Packers heading into this hostile environment. This is going to be I believe it's going to be hostile environment. It's going to be a good game. I really do think this is going to be one of those playoff type atmospheres and I've you know what I heard. I seen a lot of people across social media and they're like well, you know, do you, do you go into this game and not really try and win it, but try and win it right? Don't show your hand, no, you go and win this football game, just win this football game. I don't know why people think that you can just flip a switch and turn it on and turn it off, but the one thing I want to see from this Packers team is them get hot. They haven't gotten hot. They haven't played complimentary football at all. Cardinals game, right Outside of that, when have we seen complimentary football from this team, both sides of the ball, all game long, right, offense stays consistent, defense is consistent. It just looks good. When have we seen it? We haven't. We got to get hot going in the. This packers team has got to get hot going to the playoffs. They have to. Losing games now, not showing your hand, all those things, no, no, like. Are there teams I would probably rather face in the playoffs than not face in the playoffs? Sure right, I don't know if I want to play the Rams right now. I don't know if I want to play the Rams because, honestly, puka Nakua, cooper Cup, this team, that team, we saw it against the Bills. I mean that game was ridiculous against the Bills. There they can sling the football and you look at the packers and you're like, where's their weakness? Well, the secondary. So the rush, the run defense has been better as of late here. So where are you looking? You're looking at the secondary and you're saying, man, they, they can just throw the ball around on you guys. Right, look at the lions game, look at weeks before. The secondary has been a problem and we knew it was a problem and I, if you want to blame brian gutekens for anything, blame him. Going into a season with even just look at the nfc north, right, just look at the nfc north. And you say to yourself, you have the vikings, right, justin jefferson and addison out there, right. And you look at, let's go to the bears, right. And yes, the bears have been a cluster, I mean, they've just been a mess. But you look at the bears, kenan allen and dj moore and, uh, roma dunzey, right, you got a pretty good receiver core there. You look at the uh lions there, you have jameson williams, you have amon Williams, you have Amon Ross, a Brown, right. And you went into a season and you're like, well, we got Eric Stokes, we got Corey, we got, uh, uh, valentine, right, we have Jair Alexander whenever he's there, right. How do you? You went to, you went through the draft, like that, and you got guys late rounds right. You went into the draft like that. You went into the draft like that and you got guys late rounds right. You went into the draft like that. You went into the season like that and then you passed free agency and you still didn't go out and say maybe we should just get a quarter. I don't care who, it is right. We saw, you know, a lot of people talking about, like Greg Newsome from the uh, um, browns, right, we saw Greg Newsome and it's like, why not try to make a deal? Why not try and make that deal? Try to get them right, try to get somebody some help in there in that cornerback room, in that secondary, and nothing, no action. If you want to blame Brian Gutekinds for anything, blame him for that. That's what I would blame him for is that you don't have playmakers out there. You don't like. We can blame the linebackers, right. We always want to get on clay walker's case and isaiah mcduffie he cannot. He, isaiah mcduffie is not good in pass coverage. We know that good run, he's good in the run defense, but he's not gonna pass coverage there. Uh, clay walker usually is the opposite. He's been playing better, as of late here on run defense there. But I mean he's usually the opposite he's pretty good in coverage but he's not so good in the run defense. But he's been playing better. Like I said, defensive line, you've had problems all season long getting consistent pressure right. Rashawn Gary, one day is there, one day is not right. One day is there, one day is not. And that's the biggest thing, my biggest question are the Packers actually legit Super Bowl contenders? Like, could they do it? Could they do it, I don't know, offensively, I think they got playmakers. I think Jordan Love I saw things out of Jordan Love against the Lions mobility-wise, stepping up to the pocket, making good decisions. And he's been making better decisions as of late. I like what I'm seeing out of the offense. I think at times matt lafleur gets ahead of himself. I think he he tries to do much trickery. I think he's got to find more ways to get jayden reed involved in it. But outside of that, I mean I I like the offense. I just look at the defense. It's like where are you going to get consistent pressure from rashaun gary? Hasn't been that. Lucas Van Ness is iffy. One game he shows up and the next game he's gone. Right. You look across there, aaron Mosby, you've had troubles with him. I mean you just look across that Kenny Clark. I mean Devontae Wyatt, I thought he was going to be a game wrecker this season, and some days he's there, some days he's not. Kenny Clark, I mean they look better in the run defenses last one. They look better in the run defenses last one. But it's getting pressure, it's putting pressure on a quarterback Can you bring? The question is, can you bring four and still get pressure Right? Do you always have to bring six guys to get pressure on a quarterback? Because if you have to do that, you leave yourself exposed. Because if you're going to do that and you have a secondary, like you do, you're not, it's not going to be, it's not a good combination, it's not. The ingredients aren't there to create a winning football. Right, and you look at teams over the years getting to the Super Bowl, being a Super Bowl team. The defense right. The defense is a big part of that. The Lions just balled out against the Packers. I mean the first couple drives there. They were playing with a defensive line of question mark, question mark, question mark, question mark. Who the heck are they right? And they're making consistent pressure on Jordan Love and they're getting stops and they're putting pressure in his face and they're disrupting the plays and they're disrupting play calling and everything in between. That was with no name guys. Right, the Eagles, that defensive front, that defensive front has been playing better. That secondary has been playing a lot better. The Eagles have a good defense. Packers, could they? Yeah, I think they could. I really do think that the Packers you're looking at key moments, right, key stops in those games. Can Rashawn Gary get pressure on a quarterback in a game? That could change a game. Right. Jair Alexander just being there? That could change a game. Right, not having Eric Stokes on the field? That could change a game. Right. Kway Walker make a big time plays, not just in the run game but also rushing the quarterback like he's been doing as of late. That could change games. You got to have game changers on a defense. Right now I don't, outside of Xavier McKinney. Let's exclude Xavier McKinney because he's been a game changer for the Packers and Keyshawn Nixon has played a lot better. So I don't want to say that everybody on this defense has just been playing bad or has played bad. Keyshawn Nixon has been playing a lot better and he's been put into tougher situations, right, because Jair's been out and because of all the injuries. Right, javion Bullard gets injured and a lot of these guys get injured on this defense here, and he's been put into some tough spots. And Keyshawn Nixon has played better, right, I'm not saying he's an all pro, I'm not saying that any of that. I'm saying that he has played a lot better as of late. So we do have a Detroit Lions fan in here Going good, going good in here. Thoughts on the Packers Like, if you got some thoughts on the Packers, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Packers. They're a Detroit Lions fan there over on Twitch. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Green Bay Packers. You guys, we just saw you guys and I mean it was a hard-fought game and I mean Dan Campbell, like we saw, he's got some of the biggest balls out there. Like, when it works, it works, and when it doesn't work, you get yelled at and you get, you know, criticized about it. But in that game, I mean fourth and goal, fourth and goal a couple times able to make big plays, and the packers just weren't able to get that stop right. So that's what I'm talking about with the defense there is. This defense has got to find ways to have those big moments, those big plays, right and um, yes, yes, can you at least agree? Golf wasn't down if you know the rules. Yes, I, I saw a lot of people after that game and they're all like you gotta know the rules here and the rules. They're looking up the rules and everything like that. And it's like he wasn't down like, okay, let's, let's understand the rules. We can look at the rules we get. We're reading the rules and what they were bringing up. I'm like, oh, yeah, you know what you're. What you're reading makes sense with what your context is, what you're trying to say. But it's not. No, no, he was not down. He was not down, um, and by any means. So, yes, I can agree with you there on that one there, golf, I, I I've honestly said you know, with Jared golf that I, jared golf, should be in the MVP conversation. I don't understand why he's not. I don't Like we look at who has led to success of teams and Jared Goff, he's had his moments right. That game against the Texans it almost seems like that was a fluke, because you look at his line without that game there and the interceptions are low, right, and he's been doing just about everything. He's consistent, he's consistent, he's consistent and he has been a big reason why this team is where they are. He makes the big-time throws and it's not just the big-time throws, he makes the right reads right, and he doesn't fall for the pressure and it's those little things right. I've loved it. I've seen that Jared Goff there, so I mean hats off to him so far. Watch that Rams 49ers game. I'm going to watch it. I'm going to watch it there. I'm honest with you right now, I like the Rams. I think the Rams are a very scary team. I don't care if you're the Lions, if you're the Eagles, the Packers, the Vikings, I don't care who you are. The Rams are a scary team With Cooper Cup and Puka Nakua. This is going back to Detroit Lions there. Matt Stafford, he can still ball it man, he can still throw a good football and with those kinds of weapons that he's been working with right now, they've been getting the run game going. The defense has been playing a little bit better there. I like what they've been doing on the defensive side of the football and they have a pretty good head coach there in Sean McVay, I would not want to see the Rams in the playoffs. I wouldn't. I would not, not even in the slightest. Like, if they win that West, if they come from behind Seattle there and win that West, I would be okay if we got to somehow get up to that five and not have to go see them or anything like that. I do not. The last thing I want, the last thing I want is to see them stinking Rams, because we saw them at one point this season and, yes, the Packers beat them. But I believe Nekul was out for that game and I believe if Kup wasn't out for that game I believe he was so I I'd be okay with not seeing them in the playoffs there. That is a dangerous team. That is a very dangerous team right now. Um, so I mean just getting to the Packers a little bit there, um, getting a little off script, but getting. But getting back to the Packers. You know, the biggest thing for me with this Packers team and you know I this is what I love about the Lions. At times I think it gets kind of crazy at times, but what I love about the Lions is they come out and the Lions are the aggressor Every single game. When they come out on that field, they are the aggressor. They get after you and that's what I just mentioned before there. They had a front four the other night. I mean Zedaria Smith was in there, but they don't have no aiden hudgenson. They're missing. All these guys on that defense. I mean, if they had that entire defense what I mean? You look at that injury report if they, the lions, had that defense right now, that would be one of the best, if not the best defense in all football. Like that, it would be hard to move the football against that team. And they did things against the Packers early on there where I was like, who are these guys? I don't even know half the guys who are on this defense right now. I don't even know them and they're out here balling out like they're all pro. They've been there, done that. They come out and they're the aggressor every single game. And the Packers they don't. They just don't move that needle. For me, and that's one of my biggest problems is that the Packers aren't that aggressor. They don't come out firing. They don't. They don't come out firing. They don't come out like they want to stomp on you. They don't come out firing. They don't come out like they want to stomp on you. They don't come out with the first punch and if they do, they kind of lay back and they just relax and then they're playing this scramble mode where they're trying to just go swing for swing. They got to come out and be the aggressor here. They got to come out and be the aggressor and they got to put it on them, right. That's something we haven't seen either. They haven't put it on teams and put it on them. I mean they've played a lot of a lot of games close, right. I mean the bears game, that was a close game. The bears played well in that one. But close game, they on the 49ers. But how much do you really? I don't want to discredit the 49ers, I don't want to discredit the packers, win against the 49ers. But I thought there were still things in that 49ers game where I was looking at saying this team has still not put it all together. And then even the dolphins game 30 17. I was like this still I mean still doesn't look like this team is playing to their full potential. And I think there's a lot of potential with this team. I really do. I just haven't seen it. I haven't seen it in full form yet. Right and against the lions I mean against the lions, they played a great game. I thought the packs played a good game. What I let, what I went, went back to, was number one getting those key stops right. One getting those key stops right. Fourth down, getting those key stops. They, they couldn't do it. We saw it, we got one, got one. But when it mattered right, fourth and goals, right. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, the lions have got like four touchdowns out. Fourth and goals against the packers, like that's ridiculous. First off, so you got those numbers. And then I mean you just look at the slow start for green bay. They didn't come out, they weren't the aggressor. They knew what the Lions wanted to do. They wanted to make them throw the football and right away they came out and they're like all right, let's sling this baby around, let's play it, let's do it. The offensive line didn't come out aggressive in that game and that's where I'm leading with this team right now is at some point you got to come out and you got to be the aggressor. You have to be the top dog right and right now they aren't playing like that. They aren't, and you know. I get back to the point where I don't understand why we're running so much shotgun. Why are we running so much shotgun and pistol crap? Look at Jared Goff. Look at Jared Goff when he goes underneath the center and I could be mistaken, but I believe Jared Goff has the most yards when going under center or in play action this season here. But he's so good at selling a fake and Jordan Love is good at selling the fake too right. He's good at hiding it. He's good at selling the fake too right. He's good at heightening it. He's good at selling that fake. And he's got the ability that you don't know if he's going to take off and run. He's got the athletic ability to take off and run. He's got that throwing ability there. Get him under center and let him be that guy for you. And I mean you want to get the run game going. Give Josh Jacobs a full head of steam when he hits the line. I don't you know, between Badger football this season and between the Packers. You almost feel bad for the running backs. You're like line up under center. Give him time to get you know a three yard, whatever it is head start there, coming downhill full head of steam, get the football hit the line and burrow a hole through there. We run all this crap in this, all this stinking, you know, shotgun and pistol crap. You're not going to get those actions, you're not going to get that. So those are. I mean, that's one of my problems too. I, I hate, I hate, I hate, I hate that the packers they seem like they're. So if, if jordan loves still hurt, I, I almost I don't want to say I understand it, but I get it right. You don't want he doesn't have that mobility to come from under center and still be able to, you know, set up the play action, whatever it is set it up. I get that, but the way I'm seeing it, he's not injured, he's not playing injured right now. So why is it still so much shotgun, so much pistol? Nobody's asked that question there. Nobody's asked that question there. Nobody's asked that question. And it aches me, it hurts, it just irritates me. It irritates me to see that the Lions the success of that offense. They run a little bit of shotgun, not going to say they don't run a little bit of shotgun there, but I mean a majority of the time Jared Goff's on their center and it gives Jameer Gibbs, it gives David Montgomery, it gives them time to get downhill, to make that move, and those two they come through the hole like a freaking cannon. And I'm not saying Josh Jacobs doesn't come through the hole like a cannon, but you want a shotgun. He gets the hand off there. Now he's got to. Oh okay, he doesn't have that momentum getting him forward. There's a lot of I won't say question marks, just I mean I just a lot of question marks that I'm having, I guess, with this team and why. You know the wise, the why, why are you? Why are you doing it this way? You know, and nobody's asked that question. I really wish somebody would. I really wish somebody would ask Matt LaFleur hey, why are you running so much on a shotgun? Why, why are you doing that? And I want to hear his answer, but nobody's asked that question yet there. So, last but not least, a lot of fans are saying to get rid of LaFleur at this point here. They're like LaFleur can't take us over that hump, he him everything like that, you know, and we're not getting rid of him, for I know, yes, he's got a bad record against, uh, dan campbell, I, I, I see that, I understand that and I I do feel like dan campbell. He gets into those games and he coaches ballsy, right, I mean you know that, uh, detroit lions fan there in the comment section there. Uh, over on twitch, I mean you know that. I know that, right, one of those fourth and goals doesn't go the lion's way. We're talking about a different outcome. Right, that fourth and inches. I mean he could have kicked the field goal. He didn't kick it. He's like I know that I cannot give this ball back to jordan love and matt lafleur because those two they're humming, they can make plays, they can get down the field. We don't want to get in that situation. Right, so we went for it. And if it didn't work, well, we're scrutinizing and we're like dan campbell's a doorknob, right, but we're not saying that nobody is. But why? Because it worked, and sometimes it works, sometimes it gets the job done and you cannot criticize him. You can't criticize dan campbell in those, in the moments that it works, or the moments that it doesn't work, because in the moments that it works, everybody, those same people, are like wow, he's so smart. He's so smart. You know, I would go for it too. We got an offensive coordinator, like the Lions do. I'd go for it too, every time. I'd go for it too when you're fourth and two. I know that he can draw up a play. I am absolutely fascinated watching that team, not just on offense but on defense too. The Lions have two great coordinators. Ben Johnson is fantastic. I love what they have there, and if I had coordinators like that, I would have my utmost faith that if I go for it on this fourth and two like they did and I don't get it, well, I know my defense can get a stop. I know they and the packers, they went down. You know they got stopped on that fourth and two and ended up scoring. But you have that confidence and I like that confidence. You're showing confidence and not just your coordinators, but you're showing confidence. Your team and that's what I mean a great leader, right. And matt lafleur you know I you're not firing him after this season, right, but you're kind of looking at next season, right. Maybe I don't think the seat's hot, I don't, but maybe it gets hot, right, if he can't take you over that hump, if you feel like there's things wrong. But I'm looking at this team. And I'm saying defensively, did you get yourself good enough to be the be what you could be? I don't think so. I think you could have added a cornerback. I think you could have went and got help in that secondary. You didn't get help right, you didn't get help in there. You look at injuries this season. I mean you're looking at injuries, right, because we talk about Jordan, want them. You know the progress of Jordan Love, the progress of different players out there, because when the Packers were winning those games they weren't throwing the ball a lot, they weren't running those. You know those different play calls that you could with Jordan Love, because Malik Willis was not. I'm not saying he isn't able to do that or at some point there, right, but Malik Willis doesn't have the same capabilities of what you were going to get out of a guy like Jordan Love. So you kind of derailed where your season was heading because you know you look at the first couple of games there of a regular season for a football team, I mean for your starters. I this is why I don't like the preseason. I shouldn't say I don't like the preseason. I think starters should play more in the preseason because you get to playoff time and or not playoff time, but regular season. And you know your starters are still technically in the preseason, yet they're still working themselves in a preseason. So I I you're not blaming this on matliff floor, you're not saying that matliff floor is getting fired after this season but muds next season. I if you see problems, right, same problems arise. You don't think that he's the right leader, the guy that can get this team over the hop. You're going to have a new um G are not GM in there, but you're going to have a new leader in there. I mean maybe, just maybe. Then you think about moving on. I, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not in that boat of moving on from Matt LaFleur. I think Matt LaFleur is a great play caller. A lot of people respect him as a play caller. It's just about rallying up the troops now, right, and you got this little, I mean this stretch here of games. You got the Seahawks, then the Saints, right. I want to see the Packers go into Seattle and play that Saints team at home and I want to see the Packers put some games together, put some complete games together, come out and be the aggressor, right. Those are this, these last four games the Seahawks, the Saints, the Vikings and the Bears you got to come out, be the aggressor, get hot going into the playoffs, because I mean Lions fans know it, we know it we can go into Detroit and win that game. We, we can. We know we can right. You need the little things to go right. You got to play. You got to play not perfect but almost right. You got to play a complete game. You got to put it all together. You got to play complimentary football. Maybe you need a thing to go your way right. In that Lions game in Detroit there, keyshawn Nixon had that big interception on Jared Goff. That was a big play. That was a big moment in that game. You've got to have big moments. You've got to have big moments in those, and Jair Alexander wasn't there. So that doesn't help at all. It doesn't help at all. You don't have Edgerick Cooper, evan Williams gets banged up, bullard goes down with injury. It was a lot of problems that led to that. Right, and I'm not saying like lions were banged up completely going into that game. I completely understand that, like they were banged up too. But when you lose some of those, you have those key pieces that you're missing. If you're green bay and you already have a defense that's struggling, well, that doesn't help at all. That doesn't help at all. So I mean, we're not. We're not firing guys left and right here, we're not going free willy-nilly on it here. We'll see. Well, I mean we're gonna these last four games are big right get hot going into the playoffs. When you get into the playoffs, then you're gonna be on the road for the entire thing. It's happened before, right, the last time a team went on the road for the entire playoffs and ended up in the super bowl, you, you're Green Bay Packers. So is it possible? Yes, sir, it is definitely possible, and you can set up games where you're going to end up having to. If you're going to make a playoff run, right, you're going to have to go to whether it's Seattle or the Rams, you're going to end up there. Maybe it's Tampa, right, maybe you go down to Tampa and then you're going to have. Whether you got to go to the Eagles, right, you're going to have the Eagles after that, most likely. Or if you, I think if you end up as the five, you end up going to the lions then, and then you'd end up in Philadelphia after that. So it's not like it's going to be easy, but it's not impossible, right. It's just, does this team have enough? Right, does this team have enough? And we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that. As you know, the week goes on here. We're going to get into it on Friday here on the show. So, uh, we did have one more. Uh, detroit fans. Uh, thank you for the follow there over on Twitch. Awesome to see you in the comments there. And I mean, hey, the lions, you gotta love what you see. You gotta love what you see out of your Lions team right now. I mean, they're doing it without a lot of the cornerstones, right? Aiden Hutchinson, I thought honestly when he went down, I was not worried because I was like, yes, you know, great for the Packers, right. But I was honestly like you know, maybe this he's a leader, he's one of them guys, right, he's a leader. In that locker room. I was like you, look around the defense, he's a big player. I was like, man, maybe this is going to hurt him, maybe it's going to hurt that defense. They didn't skip a beat. They didn't skip a beat man. And can you imagine if he was still out there. Can you imagine if they still had, like I said before, some of these other pieces out there Like, wow, wow, this would be a dangerous Really. I mean they're a lines, right, but wow, if you had them pieces. Crazy, just just crazy, crazy to think where the lions could be if, if they didn't have all them injuries, uh, to that team right now. So I mean, wow, yeah, just thinking about that, but, um, so badgers take the loss. We're going to talk more about the badgers on friday here on the show as we get into our weekend preview there, that game with Butler. We want to talk more about the Packers as they prepare for that Sunday night game with Seattle. Hopefully the injury report stays well, stays good for the Packers, right? I mean we're looking at the injury report. Hopefully, as you're in, cooper is going to be good to go, hopefully right to be back there. Jair Alexander, it's always a hope, right, it's a hope on one hand and well, it's crap in the other. So we'll see what kind of happens there with Jair. But the injury report, hopefully it stays well for the Packers. We're going to talk about that on Friday, getting into that Seattle game. We're going to talk Bucks basketball on Friday here on the show. Hopefully Kyle is going to be in here. Kyle, he's my NBA guy, right, he's my NBA guy there, so hopefully Kyle's back. We'll talk to him about that game coming up there. We got lots to get into Friday here on the show, so hopefully catch you guys all back here on Friday. But with that this has been Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll catch you guys back here on Friday, but until then see ya.