Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
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Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers' Fall in Philly, Badgers' Basketball Outlook, and NFL Playoff Surprises – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag & Aaron
How we doing everybody and welcome into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage I'm your host, Trage. We are coming back on this dreadful, snowy, craptastic, whatever you want to call it Sunday night here in the state of Wisconsin Way more snow than I thought we were going to get. I'll be honest with you. Like I know it's supposed to be, we're supposed to come on here and be pissed off and depressed and everything like that about Packers, and we'll get there.
Speaker 2:But like way more snow than I thought we were going to get today. I didn't think I'd. Oh, yep bam, snowballed out. This morning I was snowballing snow, it was fantastic.
Speaker 2:Got halftime of this game, did that to cool off. I was cool, I had to cool off. I was all fired up at halftime, went outside, shoveled some snow on. I was like this is going to cool me down. Right, this is going to cool me down a little bit. But I mean, all in all, we I want to talk about that Badger game because we didn't get into the Badgers the other night there. I told you guys I was going to re-watch. We're going to talk about that Badger game tonight here. Badger men's basketball. I want to talk about that game preview Ohio State because they're going to take them on a Tuesday there. So we got to get to all of it tonight here on the show. But I got Aaron with me tonight here. He's a little bit more chipper than I am. Penn State lost but the Eagles won, so he's feeling a little bit better tonight here than Wisconsin fans at this point. So, aaron, how are we doing on this Sunday?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know me, I mean Penn state rains like tenfold over the Eagles success, but I can't complain. I mean this honestly. I I'm excited to get into it with you and not just to pile on your your misery. I don't want to do that. It's just, you know, on the flip side we got, mean, a win's a win, but that that's kind of what this was. I thought. You know a lot of eagles fans are losing their mind. You know what this team's amazing like. Yeah, it's a good team, uh, the eagles, but it's it was ugly, it was. I mean, you can't play like this against, uh, a top tier, top competition, like in the next round, I would say. But yeah, I mean, um, as john comes in already, uh, but oregon worse than that oregon's.
Speaker 3:Worse than that john, come on they, they beat penn state by one point basketball. I didn't see any of that, but they, of course you know they had. But you know, hey, we outlast you in the college football playoff.
Speaker 2:There was no, I was ace baldwin playing. Was that from today that was?
Speaker 3:yeah, tonight I was Ace.
Speaker 2:Baldwin didn't play. John, you're going to tell me you want a quack, quack one-point win with no Ace Baldwin for Penn State. Come on now. Come on now.
Speaker 3:That's not even yeah, it's no, but overall, man, a lot more mild weather here. I would say we got like one inch of snow. If that on Saturday, uh, I'm one of those people that I don't mind like I bring on the snow, like and and how you said. You know going out there with the snowblower. There's just something too clear in some snow that like it's a therapy for me. I don't know, for some people they hate every second of it, but I don't. I'd rather do that than laundry all day. I'd rather give me the snow, give me the shovel. Even I'll do that over doing laundry all day I feel you there.
Speaker 2:I feel I do like moving snow a little bit. Tomorrow, though they're talking it's supposed to be last time I saw it's supposed to be in the negative. Oh, we have a high tomorrow of. It looks like at about 9 am. It's gonna be negative two. A high tomorrow is about five, but I know the feels like because it's supposed to be windy. I know the feels like it's way deep in the negative. So it's's going to be frigid, stinking cold here in the state of Wisconsin. So I can't wait. That's when all my dairy farmers out there are going to figure out that their water heaters don't work is when it's cold outside. That's the best time to figure out when your water heater doesn't work is when your water freezes.
Speaker 2:Me. I said the Eagles did not win this game on their own. I said the Packers and their own mistakes lost themselves a chance in this one. And oh my God, I thought I opened up a can of worms there. Eagles fans are going ballistic Like, oh, what about those three turnovers? They're dropping the dumb and then dumb butt kind of words on me and everything like that and I'm like, okay, hold on, hold the phone If you go back and you look at those plays and we're going to get more into that, because I do think there's a problem with Jordan Love and I look at those throws, the one to Zach Vaughn, I get, I got so many feelings with that one of Braden Locke against Penn State and that interception he threw. It was, I believe. What was that start of the third quarter? It was in that third quarter.
Speaker 2:Well no, third quarter, third quarter, there that pick six yeah.
Speaker 3:I think like, yeah, third quarter, or, like you know, start somewhere in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something like that. And he threw that one over the middle and there was nobody in the area code and a Tucker Craft was kind of over there, but it was just a terrible throw right to Zach Vaughn. I got the Braden Locke vibes out of that. The one to Dontavian Wicks down the sideline it was an underthrown crap ball. If he threw it over the top. Wicks had him beat for a minute but he had to slow down. He had to come back to it. Got picked off.
Speaker 2:Look at the one that was late in the game, the one to Quinney and Mitchell. If they call the pass interference which whatever they didn't call it, the game was over, I get it, it's whatever at that point. But if they call the pass interference, call, there is no interception there. So I'm looking at it and it's like Jordan Love was a big reason for those interceptions. I don't know if it's as much of the Eagles defense forcing those interceptions though the Eagles. I will give props. Props are due, props are due. The Eagles front. The Eagles put a lot of pressure on Jordan Love. They were. They were flushing him out of the pocket. I will give him that all day long.
Speaker 2:Like the Eagles, I honestly thought, and I'm going to say this point blank the Eagles are the better team. Eagles are the better team. More stars they have, the better team they have, the better coaching staff. Right now they played better, like they played better, but the Packers, they just played worse. All the things that we talked about all season long that have hurt the Packers pre-snap penalties, drop balls, everything, everything. The drop balls weren't as bad in this one, but the pre-snap penalties, the turnovers, all the little things, the undisciplined football, two different times where they had the eagles. One was saquon going out of bounds, keishon nixon shoves them, and then we had another one was slighting in the backfield there with saquon barkley, again two different times. Undisciplined football that got the packers penalties, that gave the Eagles free yards. Instead of being a third and five, it turned out to be an extra 15 yards for the Eagles in the first out. It's just the Packers beating themselves consistently. And the thing that hurts me the most once again they came out of the tunnel and they were flat. They came out of the tunnel with nothing, zero, nada.
Speaker 2:The offense I'm not looking at defense, aaron, because the defense for Green Bay. I honestly said to myself I didn't have it on my bingo card today that the Packers would be in this game against the Eagles and it was because the defense was keeping them in this game. I did not think that I thought the defense could get some stops right. I thought they could definitely get some stops. Two for 11 on third down. Were the Philadelphia Eagles Two for 11 on third down?
Speaker 2:We talked about Aaron the other day. We're like, if the Packers can get off the field like 50% of the time on third down, awesome, awesome. If it's a little bit more awesome, two for 11 on third down. The Packers defense got off the field. I mean, you can't ask for much more out of a defense. You can't. You can't ask for much more out of a defense. You can't. You can't ask for much more. This defense balled out. Yes, they had their mistakes in this one, right, uh, the one that got it on the sideline there. Yes, valentine, he got weight room right. He should lift up more weights, get a little bit bigger here in the offseason. We'll make that tackle.
Speaker 2:But outside of that, I mean I'm looking at the rest of the game and it's like, okay, where, where do you want to look at defense and blame? Right, they don't have a pass rush, I'll give them that that first drive. Well, technically the Eagles started with it on the Packers what 30, but that first throw that Jalen hurts had to the back of the end zone. He had what 10 seconds to throw the ball, like there was nobody in his face, nobody, even on that Rashawn Gary. He had a sack later on in the game and it still took Rashawn Gary 10 seconds to get there. It's just Jalen Hurts just stood there and stood there and stood there and then he busted through. It's just the inconsistency of the pass rush. It does hurt. It does hurt. And it hurts the secondary, I think, because there was times where you watched that secondary out there and they're not playing bad coverage. Coverage looks good. It's just after 10 seconds, 12 seconds. Somebody's coming open. When you got AJ Brown, devante Smith and the other pieces out, like you're gonna find somebody open. But all in all, I thought the defense played well. It was just, once again, the offense coming out of the tunnel and they're flat. There was nothing. They were. They were skin tires, they were skidding tires. Once again doesn't help.
Speaker 2:First, and this is the one I want to talk about here, I want to talk about this first one of the game because you watched that replay. I watched that replay, I don't know. I saw a lot of people talking about it helmet to helmet. I saw a lot of people talking about helmet to helmet. I thought it could have been called helmet to helmet. They didn't call that. But when you watch the replay, keyshawn Nixon has the ball. He rolls over on his back and he's got the ball in his hands and then he gets dogpiled and then he loses the football. But there again we thought we had the special teams figured out.
Speaker 2:And Keyshawn Nixon barrels into a guy when was the move? Where was the objective of that? He comes barreling into a guy what was it? Burks coming down the field there, barrels into Burks, just gets steamrolled and fumbles the football. It's just stupidity.
Speaker 2:That was just a stupid play. That was just all in all stupid play. Yes, I thought that it could have been called helmet to helmet. Yes, yes, I thought that Keyshawn Nixon had the ball. But that's just a stupid play. That is just all in all stupid. And Keyshawn Nixon, between that and the undisciplined play on the sideline there when he was called for the whatchamacallit, the unnecessary roughness out of bounds. There just two boneheaded mistakes in this game that I thought were avoidable. But I mean, you don't you have to F around and find out right, bring it out of the end zone before you're going to fumble. But I'm not saying don't bring it out of the end zone, but I just don't. That play like it caught me. It was like what are you going for when you're trying to break that out Because he took it right at it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I mean you couldn't have said it better honestly with that, because it's and like to start the game like that is like oh my goodness, like how do you? I mean, yeah, players flush bad plays. You know it's like in baseball, you have a bad at back, you know you strike out on three pitches, Right, and you miss all of them by six inches. Sure, like players can say, you know, I flush that. But in a playoff game on the road, like you never want that and like even to go down in a playoff game, you're like, ah, all right, come on boys. But like to give the Eagles the great field position. But, like you said, I mean I, I thought like watching that replay over and over and over again. There it's. I, I don't know, man, we can speculate with these NFL officials. I just things are like changing. I'll say I'll just say it like that, because I I just some of these calls are so. And now what? What they call that the uh replay announce uh, uh, that that's like that new feature they have replay.
Speaker 3:Oh, the instant replay, or whatever they call it yeah, whatever instant replay, something whatever, right, yeah, and I'm like you're still getting calls like obvious calls, wrong it's like, it's like they're trying to cover up the fact that they're just either, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well that confusion late in the game, Like you're talking there, that confusion where they did the replay on that legal man downfield and then all of a sudden they're like wait, they didn't give him the yards, Wasn't that a completed pass?
Speaker 3:Everybody's like, yeah, it was a completed pass, and they're like the same spot where you know what I mean, where, like you didn't make sense.
Speaker 3:No sense, no sense at all. And yeah, I just talking about that play in particular, though that I mean it just it looked discombobulated for the Packers almost from the start and you're just like you know, if you're sitting there as a green Bay fan, you're just like, wow, I mean it reminded me of like it's not this to the same level, cause you go, I wouldn't say the Eagles were really dominant at anything other than you know, defense at times. But like that Pittsburgh Baltimore game where you watched it and you're like watching the state, like I, I, I don't know Everybody's calling for Mike Tomlin's job now, but I've been saying that for the last couple years. But just teams that are undisciplined, right, we'll mention more of that.
Speaker 3:With the Packers them throwing Saquon to the ground way after the play, it's like even I was like why I don't want to get. I mean, sure, give me the free yards, yeah, but I just it's a head like. And then they keep stressing, you know, keep saying how. You know matt lafleur was pounding in their heads all week. You know we got to be disciplined. He's showing them clips of like you know, guys that are on this, it's not, but something's not hitting you know like it's either his voice doesn't matter or these players are just jerk, like they don't care, they're just we'll. We'll disregard the head coach and we'll do our own thing.
Speaker 2:It's one of those couple things like do we blame it on the youth, because that's what we love to blame a lot of things on. Is that they're young, right? So do we blame it on? Then it's a bunch of undisciplined kids out there like is that where we're going for? Is that, is that going to be our new excuse? Right, because, yeah, I agree, the undisciplined play. This team is undisciplined. We saw that point blank in this game here. Now it doesn't help.
Speaker 2:Injuries galore I mean John mentioned it there Three wide receivers out for the Packers. He didn't have Watson. Then Dobbs goes out. The thing that irritates me the most with the Dobbs injury. That ball should have never been thrown. Double coverage. Dobbs is being double covered.
Speaker 2:If you rewatch that play. Jacobs was wide open in the flats underneath that play and he threw it to Dobbs. It's just a stupid throw that got Dobbs hurt. Now I don't want to say I'm blaming Jordan Love for Dobbs getting hurt, because that'd be a crappy thing to do, but that ball should have never been thrown. And then what was the lesson? Reed got hurt. Reed got hurt across the middle there and that was just a tough, hard nose football play. I mean reed was going in with the shoulder. He got a little bit banged up there. I mean, the shoulder was hurt, it's. It's the unlucky part, I don't even know if it was as much as the receivers, as much as the offensive line.
Speaker 2:When elton jenkins went out and they were trying to find an offensive lineman to take his spot, it was like you couldn't fit the pieces to the puzzle anymore. The puzzle was you were. You had a piece to a puzzle that wasn't even in the room with you. You had a completely random piece to that puzzle right there. Glover came in. It was just, it was a mess trying to figure that out. And then it was penalty after penalty, holding calls, everything. You couldn't sustain a drive when you're getting constantly pushed back. When you're're getting constantly pushed back and you'd have a big play and it'd be a holding. It's just bam, bam, bam. It's like what do you do? And I don't know. That's just how I felt about it.
Speaker 2:There was injuries galore and it did not help. It did not help matters right. It was already bad. You already came out of the tunnel cold. Look at the first couple of drives there. It was already bad. You already came out of the tunnel cold. You look at the first couple drives there. I mean fumble, punt, punt interception, missed field goal interception, end of the half, like that is a terrible way to start a game but it's 10 to nothing. Like you had that bad to the start of a game and you're still in it.
Speaker 2:And that's where my utmost disgust comes with this offense right now, with Matt LaFleur and the way that things are trending and I know exactly what we're getting it in the press conference. I know exactly what Matt LaFleur is going to tell us there. I didn't have him ready to go. Sirianni coached a great game. I didn't have this, I didn't have that. We just we weren't ready to go. We came out, we expected one thing, they did another thing. That's what we're going to get the classic Matt LaFleur, the classic excuse for it.
Speaker 2:All the time Sirianni was on the hot seat to start this year. Look what he's doing with his team now. Right At one point Sirianni Eagle fans wanted him gone. Now they're like look at this guy, go again. He's got 14 wins. Like he's a consistent 14 win. How many seasons has he had now with 14 wins? A couple of years at least with 14 wins. He's got a Super Bowl. And everybody was like let's fire this guy.
Speaker 2:Matt LaFleur, has gotten his team to the playoffs, but they underperform when they get there. So it's like, well, where do you put that into perspective? Then? My Siri is going off on my phone right now because she heard Sirianni and she's like all freaking out over here on the side. But Matt LaFleur has a lot of questions that he needs to answer. He has a lot of questions that he needs to answer.
Speaker 2:I want somebody to go into that press conference and I wanted to ask the hard questions, not the easy ones. Ask them the hard questions. Hey, I know Josh Jacobs is here now and I love the run game, but why did you go away from everything that worked? Why did you go away from the things that worked when you went down to Dallas? I'm not saying that Dallas is as good as the Eagles, but Dallas was not a pushover team and you went to Dallas and you found ways to get guys open, make things happen, drive the ball, put up 40 points against the Dallas Cowboys in their house. On the road in the playoffs you put up 40 plus points. Now you did have some picks in there. Road in the playoffs, you put up 40 plus points. Now, you did have some picks in there. You had everything else, but you were able to do that on the road. Take half of that here in philly, you win the football game.
Speaker 2:It's just the inept play this season, the regression of this team. It just hurts. It hurts to watch because we went into this year and I mean how many people out there said we think the packers could be a Super Bowl contender, we think they could be a dark horse for the Super Bowl? It's going to be them and the Lions for the division. Nobody was talking about Eagles, nobody was talking about Vikings, not single soul. They were talking Packers. Jordan loves this, jordan loves that.
Speaker 2:I tell you what and this just might be me and I'm going to ask you, aaron, because you've watched this guy a little bit, you've seen him Jordan Love, he's got the talent. I know he's got talent. Anybody who doesn't think that he has some talent is far out there. He's got some talent. I just don't know if he's got it between the years. I got to be honest with you. I don't know if he's got it between years Because when throw, when you're watching him in his progressions, right and one to two, three, when you're watching him out there, his visual, his vision, I just don't think it's there. I don't think he sees the field because, like I just mentioned before, the Dobbs throw right, double, covered underneath Jacobs, wide open the throw across the middle, the uh, zach Vaughn, literally to Zach Vaughn I just mentioned. He threw it directly to a Eagles guy. He had craft coming across to his left but he either he was leading him or I don't know where he was throwing it to and he ends up throwing it to Zach Bond.
Speaker 2:So I look at Jordan Love and it's like I, visually I don't know if it's there progressions, I don't know if they're there, I don't know if he, if he's, the game is like last season, you watch him, it's like the game came to him all of a sudden, right during toyota thon. I saw john mentioned that in here 28 touchdowns, two interceptions during toyota thon. You know, I, I, you know, during toyota thon it's like, does it just come to him, did, did it all just click right all of a sudden last season, about halfway through right, it was about that thanksgiving game. It seemed like it all just light switch, clicked on. It's like all right, here we go. And then he went to the playoffs and then he had that pick against the 49ers in that playoff game in the divisional round.
Speaker 2:And then this season came around and, yes, the injury happened, but it doesn't seem like it ever clicked. It never came back. He was never consistent. I can't name a time when this offense was consistent, right when you could. Just I don't believe right now. I believe Jordan Love's got talent, but I don't believe right now I could give him the ball and say, jordan Love, take me down the field and win this thing. I don't know if I could believe in him. I don't, not against an Eagles team, not against a Lions team. I don't know if I can trust him to make the throws to get me down the field. I don't know, aaron, I mean, you're watching, you're seeing it. It's like this guy's got talent. We know that. I'm not like we're, we're talking. You know Eagles fans and them. They're probably like Jalen Hurts is like three times the quarterback is Jordan Love after this one, and it's like I don't believe that Jalen Hurts is that much better than Jordan Love.
Speaker 3:I just don't know what's going on with Jordan Love yeah, I mean, if let's just say this is the first time you watch Jordan Love, like you're just some newbie or like you never see the Packers right one of those deals, and you flip that on, you're like whoa, like this guy is not not good. But you know, like I'm just trying to say it as fair as I can he just I don't know he's lost out there and I don't. Is it one of those things where he needs, I think, them bringing in another number one receiver? We talked about it in the pregame. I think they have to do that at this point just to regain his confidence, because not to take anything away from these guys.
Speaker 3:And I'm sure we'll get into the injuries too. I mean I I even tweeted out at one point I was like the packers are are glass. I mean they're just breaking. Like it's just crazy how many injuries they sustained here and I mean that's unfortunate for sure, like I wasn't trying to pile on just like wow, but it's for jordan love. I mean mean he's like two different quarterbacks from where he was.
Speaker 3:And I'm not saying he can't find it again. I mean I think he could. It's just you've got to critique what you just saw. You can't go back and say, well, he's this, he's that, like yes, we think he still is, that we probably don't think he's as bad as he was today. But I mean today he was just. I mean I, he threw them out of the game. Basically, I mean, if they had any any chance, you know, when it was close it was just like he. He just didn't have it.
Speaker 3:And and, like you said, maybe it is the mental thing, like I never look at and Jalen hurts is kind of the same way, cause he's not like I wish he would show more, like the guy will throw a pick and he'll throw a touchdown and he looks the same way. I kind of hate that. Like I got to be honest with you about Jalen Hurts because it's like show me some body language, you know, like be excited or be pissed off, like at least Tom Brady would be visibly mad. Or like you know there's guys at Baker Mayfield. He'll like flip out. You know what I mean. Like I like that in a quarterback, not saying you need it, but Jordan Love's kind of the same. He just is like a robot. There's guys out there that are just robotic in their body language. It's hard to tell. Is this guy really amped, is this guy really mad, is this guy really happy? You just don't see it nearly as much and, like I said, you don't need that, but it's just watching him today I'm like man, like he. Just I don't know and I don't want to give him like a massive break, but I don't know if it's like what his elbow was the problem, that he was kind of battling. I got to believe like some of those under, but Hurts threw one that was way under thrown too. I don't know if the wind because they said, oh, like Brady, or somebody said, oh, the wind hit it at a certain and I was like I don't see the wind gusting. You know what I mean. Like you watch a game in Chicago, you see like literally the ball will go way over here or something. I didn't see that. So I'm not going to like really let either guy off the hook for that. Like, if it's injury-related, sure, but I just maybe it was the way the season went down.
Speaker 3:You lose enough games down the stretch, you start doubting every like. You start looking around can this guy do it? Can this guy bail me out? You start having question marks, like if they bring a number one guy in and and Jordan Love's, like you know what I can go to that guy in a much needed time that might change his whole perspective. I just not trying to take anything away from this Packers receiving core, it's just I don't think he's in love with this receiving core. I just craft, yeah, but outside, like you know, and Wicks and like Dobbs here and there, but like I just think he needs that, like guy he needs. He needs more than like a tight end to, like you know, bail him out when he absolutely needs it.
Speaker 2:No, I agree, that was my next talking point was no number one wide receiver hurts his backer. Steve, I agree, like I thought. I thought just maybe you know you had enough guys right, different talents, different areas. But Christian Watson goes down. You have no vertical threat anymore. And then Dobbs goes out. You don't have the hands, the red zone guy. And then Wicks.
Speaker 2:Wicks had a good game. Wicks had a good game in this one. They were targeting him a lot. He had a good game in this one. But you're banking on Melton, you're banking on Malik Heath, you're banking on your fifth and sixth guys. Jaden Reed, I thought, had a good game today but he kind of went away.
Speaker 2:This season he wasn't as involved. I don't know. You know we talked about him like we were talking about before with the. You know the play calling. Where did the play action game go? Where did it go? Because if you utilize the play action game like they did last season, simplify the throws for Jordan Love, get guys into open space and just let him dump a ball off, five, five plus yards right there in front of them. Just dump it off, not have to make challenging throws. That definitely gets the confidence back there too. So Jordan, I don't Jordan Love is the guy, he's the guy, I know he's the guy.
Speaker 2:But there has got to be a lot of work that's going into this offseason, first with his vision, second with his foots, his footwork. I think his footwork has been off. He's getting a lot on that back foot again. It's getting, you know, dangerous times again with Jordan Love. The talent's there, it's just the consistency and finding the rhythm is the hard part. They haven't been able to find a rhythm with him where he comes out and he's just freaking hot, right, we haven't seen, we haven't seen Jordan Love just get hot and stay hot. We've seen a drive where he comes out and it's boom, boom, boom and they're down the field and he looks good. And then the next drive is like, oh, I don't know how I feel about that, like I want to see consistency and I think they can. I think Jordan Love can get to that point.
Speaker 2:But the question is now you go back to the drawing board as Matt LaFleur and you go back to the drawing board with the offense and you say can we do it right? And that's where Goody's got to step in and say is Matt LaFleur my guy to get these guys ready to go right. Because we're talking about, again, consistently undisciplined play. We're talking about consistently coming out flat. We're talking about consistently underwhelming offense, week after week, against good teams.
Speaker 2:I mean, look back to the games that they've played against the Vikings. They put up seven points in the first half. Lions three, lions seven, vikings three. The Eagles nothing. There's your weeks ever since. Well, week one. But you know what Most people don't even include week one Cause that's that's such a tough like.
Speaker 2:Week one is like still pre preseason. Honestly, at times so many teams grow since then, it's so hard to gauge them there. But you're looking at the rest of that and you're saying to yourself okay, vikings, in the early on, jordan Love was just coming back, you can give a little bit of leeway there. But the Lions, the Lions, twice the Vikings. The next time around you came out flat. You looked like you weren't ready to go. And that's where I think we always come back to with Matt LaFleur saying weren't ready to go. And that's where I think we always come back to with Matt LaFleur saying are you the guy because you come into these games flat? You're undisciplined. I mean the pre-snap penalties, the drops, the drops come from. Focus. That comes from.
Speaker 2:Not, we're not talking about Sunday, right, everybody thinks it just happens on Sundays. Right, it's Wednesday through Saturday. Right, it's the lead up, it's getting ready for that game. It's practices. You imagine bill balachek at practice? Right, he would make the patriots run the same darn thing over and over and over again until he felt like they had it so ingrained in their head that they were ready to rock that when they went to it in the game, they were watered down, they were ready to go. It was, they went to it in a game, they were watered down, they were ready to go. It's going to be easy. Right, it was all those things. It was a well-oiled machine and everybody's like well, you're such a tyrant. Right, he was. You know, bill Belichick wasn't this great, he wasn't this nice coach he was. You know, such a, such an a-hole and everything like that. Yeah, but guess what? He won football games and and you didn't have these consistent problems. You had leaders in the locker room. You were able to get things done.
Speaker 2:I just don't know. I love Matt LaFleur, I do. I love him as a head coach. I think he's a good play caller at times, but sometimes I really wonder, like you put in your good coaches, right? Dan Campbell, the one thing with Dan Campbell he can always get the boys up, doesn't matter who's out there, he can get the boys up. And you look across the league Kevin O'Connell, I mean with the Vikings, look what he's done with Sam Darnold in this offense and the rest of this team right now with Brian Flores, you know, leading that defense. They've been fantastic. Look what Andy Reid's been able to do consistently. I get it. He has Patrick Mahomes. But if you take Andy Reid away from Patrick Mahomes, I don't know. I don't know if you get the same consistency. Now, it's not saying I'm not trying to take anything away from Patrick Mahomes, but Andy Reid's a heck of a head coach. Heck of a head coach. Sean McVay heck of a head coach.
Speaker 2:I don't know about McDermott, sometimes up there with the Bills, but I mean. But I look across and it's like even Sirianni with the Eagles, what he did to bring them back together. Right, he's a loudmouth dude, likes to get into it with the crowd and everything like that. We know that. But he brought that team back together, right? Aj Brown and Jalen Hurts weren't friends. We knew that they were having problems. I don't know what fixed it, but it got fixed. It got fixed. Nobody wavered, it got fixed. It's just Matt LaFleur to me right now I he hasn't lost the team. I don't think that he lost the team at all. I just don't know if these guys are getting up ready to go in. The game plan is the right one. I don't know that it's.
Speaker 3:It's the same thing I'll say about, like the Steelers last night. Are they playing for Mike Tomlin, are they playing for Matt LaFleur? Like that's the thing, right, like are they? I'm not saying he lost them, but does he, does he move the needle? Because, like that was the whole thing with Sirianni when they went down, you know, I think six out of last seven or seven, the last eight, last season, right, it was like okay, well, and ultimately it's gonna come down to players too, like you know, you or I could have, like we could be like Bill Belichick and we could coach the Packers.
Speaker 3:But if the players don't like you know, if there's bad vibes in the locker, like they're all human beings, right, let's say Jordan Love, and this is hypothetical, right, but Jordan Love's cool with, like Josh Jacobs, but like the whole receiving core, he kind of like shuns to the side, he's like, ah, those guys are like whatever, I don't care about those guys Like we don't know. I'm not saying that's the case, but we don't know what goes on, like when a team comes, like we've seen, like the Diamondbacks in baseball, go in and beat the Phillies, right, like, and no one thought they had a chance. Like when teams gel, they have the biggest potential. Like and there's so many layers, it's like cutting open an onion. Like is it Jordan loves? Kind of injured, is it Jordan loves? Like you know, mentally not there, is it, matt LaFleur?
Speaker 3:But you got to at least look at it. You got to at least address the elephant in the room like is this guy making the team better, worse or the same? Like you know? Like at some point it's a results-based business. We can say, oh, the Eagles are better than the Packers on paper. It it's the way it looks right. It's the way it goes down week after week, mistakes after mistakes. The way it's consistent, right, and like you said and I don't always want to bring my teams into it, but when I watch Drew Allard against great teams, I do blame the receivers to a certain degree too. So it's literally the same thing as the Packers. That's why I kind of bring this in. It's like I don't trust Penn State's receivers outside of Tyler Warren, and none of them show up in big moments.
Speaker 3:But is it? Is it Drew Alar? Like that's the tough thing. Like is it? Is it Jordan Love? Like you can't force guys, like you can't you know what I mean like, is it one of those things where, like, if you got Drew Allard the best receiver in the transfer portal, would things change? If you got Jordan Love, the best receiver on the free agent market? Would? Would he look different? Would he be more confident? Would would he not have to like I'm gonna throw this guy open? Is it that, or is it a Jordan Love problem, or is it a Drew Allard problem? You know what I mean. Like which one it goes, it's either one or the other. You know what I mean. At some point you got to say, okay, like jordan loves our guy, that's no doubt. It's just how do we get him to like like that play? I forget who on the eagles came after him and he just threw that one up and I was like, wow, that was like not many guys can make that play.
Speaker 3:I mean really yeah, um, but like then he goes and just throws, like balls under thrown, or you know, the guy's leading, he's going up the field and he throws it behind it, like you know where where's the disconnect? You know what I mean. Where? Where is it? Like, are they not on the same page? Is it like what? That's what you got to get down to, you know, to the crux of the issue and like is, is Matt LaFleur, like I said, is he resignating? And to the crux of the issue, and like is, is Matt LaFleur, like I said, is he resignating? And like, do these guys care what Matt LaFleur says? I mean, there's gonna be guys that do, but I don't know.
Speaker 3:Like I said, when you see a team gelling, like you never know what could, like we talked about. You know the Packers could come in and win this game if they were gelling. I think this is a closer game, like I, no matter what, I just I think there's a. You see it with the cowboys a lot. They just look how much talent they have and they just come unglued. It's like why? What is the reason for it? You know?
Speaker 2:and it always seemed like conservative play calling. You know we're late for a break now, but it always seemed like conservative play calling. And like matt, was it? Matt lafleur didn't trust jordan love. Was it injury? Was it what was it? What was what was causing this problem where the play calling seemed like it was conservative and it sometimes seemed like it was vanilla and at other times it's. It was predictable. Like what was? What was the reason for that? And nobody ever asked that question to matt lafleur.
Speaker 2:Why did you go away from the play action? That's what I wanted to know. That's what I kept like. I was like why? Why is this?
Speaker 2:Why are we not using the play action? We have tucker craft. I get get. We don't have a number one wide receiver. It'd be great. Like I'm not saying we shouldn't have one, but what I'm saying is you have Tucker craft, you have Josh Jacobs, you have a good run game and a good tight end. I think the tight end room's fine, but it's like why are you not utilizing what could be a strength? You went completely away from it. I get, you want to run the football, I get that. But then you go third and two and you're chucking it deep. I don't understand those play calls.
Speaker 2:So it comes back to what is Matt LaFleur's trust level? What is what is the play calling? And there's a lot of questions. I think there's a lot of reflection that needs to happen here, going into the off season, where these guys need to look at themselves and say what are we doing? You know that should have been before we had it. You know we had it before week 18 of the season here now after this playoff game. It should have been before that.
Speaker 2:But now you're going into year three. Now the excuses are gone, right Now the excuses are gone. Now it's on Matt LaFleur, Tom Clemens, the rest of these guys to get in there, figure out these guys, figure out Jordan Love, figure out the consistency of this offense and then go from there. So we got to get to a break. We're going to get to our ad break. We're going to come back. We got more to get into with the Packers and Eagles game here, more to get in with the Packers, and then we got Badger talk to get to today. We got lots of stuff to talk about.
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Speaker 2:I don't know what happened there, kind of like skipped ahead in our ads there. I don't know what's going on there, but uh, we want to talk more about this packer game. I did see john said in the comments there uh, would you all sign chris godwin to come in free agent next year if he don't resign? I, I wouldn't hate it. I know he's had, he's been banged up, but I wouldn't hate it, I. We talked about davante adams the other day. We said what about adams coming back and just bringing in a veteran into the room? Does that fix your number one problem? I don't know. Adams kind of towards the tail end of his career, do you? I mean, do you go balls to the walls and go after a expensive dude like t higgins? I don't know what the packers will do there. I think they have a lot of glaring weaknesses or a lot of glaring holes. Right, I look at the offensive side running back room. They're good Offensive line. You could always use depth. We saw that today. They definitely need more depth in that offensive line, the tight end room. I feel like it's fine. I look at Tucker craft. I'm like he's great. I look at Luke Musgrave. He was banged up this year I think a full season out of him. With Tucker Kraft. I like the tight end room. I get out to the wide receiver. They have pieces, they have guys.
Speaker 2:The problem is that nobody ever took that step forward from last season. You had a bunch of dudes last year. This season you just had a bunch of dudes. Yet you didn't have that guy say I'm going to be that dude. There was no I'm going to be that dude out of any of these guys. Injury didn't help. Christian Watson I mean he had a good year. I thought Christian Watson had a good year but got hurt again. Probably going to be out next season for a little bit too, if not for the completion of next season. I don't know how bad that knee injury was there, but I mean Romeo Dobbs didn't take that step. Jaden Reed, I thought would take a step, kind of regressed, it's just there wasn't that next step for these guys. So now you go back to the drawing board. You need that guy Because I do believe with that number one guy comes the kind of relaxed feeling out of a young quarterback.
Speaker 2:Jordan Love's still young in his NFL career. So you get that more relaxed feeling. Look at McLaurin with Jane Daniels watching him right now. Just how much of a safety blanket that adds to a guy having that kind of weapon. That kind of weapon but that kind of safety blanket on you. There you feel good, even for veterans. Look at Mike Evans and Baker Mayfield. That's a combo right there. I mean Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow, it's just. You have that guy, patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 2:I don't believe that right now the Packers have that go-to guy. Right, they don't have that go-to guy Like I could not name on the Packers right now. Like this is the guy where I'm expecting the Packers to dump it to him on a third and short, I don't know, I have no idea. Like would I say probably Tucker craft. Yeah, like I'd go to Tucker craft but they haven't consistently. It's like we go away from you. Know you got. They got in the goal line.
Speaker 2:I believe it was goal to goal there from the nine and one of the throwers went to Malik Heath, who's wide receiver number five, and they threw him a little out route and then they had one in the back of the end zone. Then to Bo Melton and Tucker Kraft, dane Reed nobody even got a look. Two straight shots to your number five and number six receiver. The second throw, the one to Heath. I don't hate that one. That was good. It was just he led him too much. It was a good route. He just led him a little bit too much. The one to Bo Melton in the back of the end zone, that was never going to get caught. I think somebody did the percentage on it and they said it was like a 2% catch rate, like the catch percentage, like the odds were against you.
Speaker 2:Why not just dump it down? Give it to Tucker Craft, let him try to rumble ahead, get yourself with a fourth and goal from the two. You got more options then, but now you back yourself up and you're on the nine. Well, it's field goal or bust. Now you have to walk away with that. So I just us now you have to walk away with that. So I just I hated that play calling, but I definitely do agree with I.
Speaker 2:We were talking about the other day. We didn't know what we agreed with if we thought that they needed that number one wide receiver. I. I'm kind of at the point now where I'm like, yeah, we could use that number one ride receiver like that's. You gotta get back, you gotta go. You got a quarterback who you, the organization believes in the fan base might not the fan base. I'm looking over twitter right now and they are just completely like losing their absolute marbles over this right now. Like three quarters of them are throwing jordan love to the wolves right now and the other quarter is saying that malik willis should have started the second half. So I mean there's there's still a whole group out there that believes malik willis should. And you know what honest, honestly, I I never I'm not gonna say that I thought that they would do it or should do it, but I saw somebody put malik willis should come out in the second half and I looked at the stats and I was like what could it hurt? Honestly, what could it?
Speaker 3:hurt. That's my, that's my thing. Like you, you don't want to do it like, because this is your franchise guy.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 3:I've thought about it too. Like, even when Jalen Hurts looks so bad tonight, like even while they were winning, like people were like put McKee in. And I'm like, first of all, this fan base has no appreciation, Like maybe I'm just like the biggest. Like there's guys I just kind of like okay, I root strongly for like Kenny Pickett's. That guy to me I don't know, Like he's not that good. I'm not going to sit here and say he's like an all-time like you know he fell off from being a starter there in Pittsburgh. But like this fan, like my fan base in particular, they have no respect for Kenny Like like they think he's the worst thing ever. And I'm like, at one point, though, when Jalen hurts was playing bad, I was like could Kenny picket play worse? I mean really like, honestly, like. And same thing goes like when I don't care who it is Right, Like it could be Josh Allen and he's thrown four picks.
Speaker 3:Like there's certain days where guys don't have it, whether it's injury, whether it's whatever, and like Jordan love, this was one of those days for him. And you can argue like Jalen Hurts was one of the days for him. It's like I I guess you kind of can't do it, but I don't know. I mean if I, if, if I knew it wasn't going to ruin, ruin his morale. I mean I, I at one point I probably would try it. I, I like for a couple drives. I'm like what do we have to? Like it's win, or go home like if and if jordan love is so fragile that we can't put another guy in because he's playing bad. That speaks more to like to me, like that would that would ignite a fire. If I'm jordan love, I'm like, look, get that guy back on the sideline. I'm the guy you know.
Speaker 3:I mean like yeah at some point I like people are gonna say that's the dumbest thing ever, and this I, when you're not making any progress down the field. For the most part it's like what can? I don't know. I've I've always been in the camp of like, let's switch, let's try something. Like the Steelers, I think at one point should have put fields in.
Speaker 2:But they didn't like they would have thrown a different look at him where, you know, look at the Steelers, like you said with Justin Fields, like, just throw a different look where this guy's more than likely going to run, but he has the ability to throw it and it keeps it in the back of your head, right. It's just that kind of tempo that maybe could have changed. This game got the Packers a couple of chunk yard plays, you know those little things where. And we're talking a lot of our butts right now because we're talking about terrible play calling by Matt LaFleur. Why would he he can't even call play action. Why would he have drawn it up? Anything crazy like this. But I mean it's there. There was times when I was like, yeah, we got to fit, we got to switch something up in this category. But let's talk about some good. Let's talk about some good. I guess we'll come away with some good. We're not going to recap the complete season tonight here for the Green Bay Packers. We'll get into some more off-season talk and what happens from now and everything like that. We'll get into that later on. But let's talk about some good. Let's talk about the defense for the Packers. I mean for the most part, like we talk about the stats in this one, the Eagles two for 11 on third down, two for 11 on third down. That's impressive, that that is impressive by this Green Bay Packers. Uh, secondary holding, I mean AJ Brown didn't have a great day. Aj Brown had limited targets. Same with Devontae Smith. He had four catches, though the catches for Devontae Smith were big catches. He had some big chunk plays. That was the backbreaker for him. But I mean, outside of that there wasn't a whole lot happening with those two in this game. Saquon 119 yards but 25 carries to get there. I mean the Packers defense played well. This was an all-around effort. Jeff Halfley drew up a good game. We talked about the pressure. We know the pressure for the Packers defense played well, like this was an all-around effort. Jeff Halfley drew up a good game. We talked about the pressure. We know the pressure for the Packers stinks like, uh, it has, I mean.
Speaker 2:But all in all, your offense came out completely like hot garbage in this game and you held the Eagles to 10 points in the first half. 10 points, and that was in the first quarter and the only reason, a big reason, why you gave up that touchdown and I'm not saying a big reason why, but the Eagles started With the ball at what the 30 yard line Not even Like this was like. Reverse flip the script on what happened down in Brazil, with Packers starting with the ball Down inside Eagles red zone For multiple trips and ended up only Coming away with field goals. The Eagles came away with touchdown. But you started, the Eagles started at the 28 yard line of green Bay and they punched it in. And that was we talked about. Lack of pressure. Jalen hurts at like 10 seconds. Throw football on that one and he just dies. Diced him up into the back of the end zone there.
Speaker 2:But outside of that, look at the rest of these drives. I mean, uh, what are we talking about? The second drive for the eagles there, five plays, yeah, five plays and a punt. The third drive was a field goal. The fourth drive was three plays and a punt. The fifth drive was three plays and a punt. Three plays and a punt at the end of the first half. They're not being just the.
Speaker 2:The defense found ways to get off the field and they played well. Quay walker played well. Edger and cooper Cooper that dude's going to be a star. I love watching Edgerin Cooper play. He flies out of the backfield there and actually the most impressive tackle I saw tonight for this game was Javion Bullard when he blew by and a little dump pass off to Saquon going over the sideline there and Javion Bullard kind of blew past and man, I mean just took him himself. I mean that was an impressive open field tackle against a very impressive runner in Saquon Barkley. Like I did not see that. That was a great tackle. So that was my favorite, one of my favorite plays there. But Edger and Cooper taking, uh, saquon Barkley down a couple times there Saquon was close to busting out some runs and Adrian Cooper was right there on the edge to slow him up there. You know the Eagles offensive line played well Saquon.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that Saquon didn't have a good day. Saquon definitely had a good day at the office, like 119 yards, don't shake your head at that any day of the week. But the Packers for the most part we talked about in the preview, right, we said the Eagles, they can beat, they're going to beat you. Right, saquon's going to beat you. You can slow them down, but you can't stop them. He's going to beat you, but what can you do? You can contain the rest of the weapons right. Aj Brown one catch for 10 yards. Devontae Smith four catches 55 yards. Dallas Goddard four catches 47 yards. Jawan Dotson one catch catch 11 yards.
Speaker 2:You did your job. Yes, you slowed down saquon. You didn't stop him, you're not going to. You slowed him down. He was averaging 4.8 yards per carry. That's pretty darn good, but you slowed him down.
Speaker 2:The rest of the guys who did your job, they did exactly what they needed to do to win this football game. It's just at the end of the day, how many times did the Packers shoot themselves in the foot? Too many, too many to count. And when you're playing a good team like the Eagles a great team, I would say a great team I thought honestly, going into the playoffs they were the most complete team. When you're going on the road and playing a team like that, you can't afford mistakes, not a boatload of mistakes, if you want to win that football game, especially with the inconsistency that the Packers had coming in. And when you have eight penalties for 85 yards and you have four turnovers on top of that, that's tough, that's tough. That's tough for anybody to win a football game. And the Eagles just did the little things better than the Green Bay Packers.
Speaker 2:No turnovers, well, well one less penalty but no turnovers in this one, and just capitalized on situations that they were given.
Speaker 3:You know, the packers set them up self, set them up in good field position and they capitalized, and that was your difference maker yeah, I mean honestly this was one of the like worst, in my personal opinion, one of the worst games the Eagles have played all year.
Speaker 3:I just thought, like on offense especially, I just felt like they had no rhythm, like it felt like, and sometimes I look at like everybody's, like oh, kellen Moore is some genius, like sometimes I look at that guy and I'm like I, I don't get it, like I some of the things I don't, I mean that's everybody's, everybody right, we can go to, but I don't think he's some like. Like when they had Shane Steichem a couple years ago, I was like man, like that guy can just like I know he hasn't had that much success there in Indy, but as a play caller I'm like that guy is elite to me. So like that. Unfortunately, like you know, making it about the Packers there, that kind of plays into your hand too. It's like they played a bad game and still it felt I mean at one point I wasn't like I think it was 16-10. I was like, oh man, eagles could mess around and find out they really could, and I've seen it. Every team I ever root for does that. It seems like. So I was like you know, you never know. Like if the Packers get a drive down the field and they're up by one because Jake Elliott can't make a freaking extra point, but which like that's a whole different. I mean, he banged home some kicks from 30, 40 plus, but I don't know. He's still verdict's still out on him this season.
Speaker 3:But I just thought you know the fact that the Eagles played almost like down to how the Packers like in my opinion it's kind of like they didn't have that kill shot and like when they did the fake Philly special or Philly special fake tush push, I should say, and threw it. I'm like how, like that's when I look at Hurts. Like dude, you got to hit those. Like he had steps behind the Packers Like and it's AJ, so of course AJ Brown then pulls a book out and he's reading it. Like this team's never like 100%. You can never trust this team 100% without some chaos or just some dumb stuff happening. But that's like if I'm a Packers fan, I'm like look man, we didn't, we didn't face the best Eagles team today and we still looked. It's the way it looks right. It's the eye Like that's how I always, that's why I'm critical of Steelers. It's the eye.
Speaker 3:It's watching them and watching this Packers team today, it's like, are they? Are they locked? Are they locked in? Are they really like? Because you know you talked about those pre-snap penalties and then, like, after the plays are over, they're trying to mug people. Like I get it, trust me, and I respect the fact that they have that passion right, like they have the heart, because they're like, you know, these guys, the Eagles, are pissing us off. We want to go, we want to knock them down after the play. I get that. Like, trust me.
Speaker 3:There's been times I I'm watching eagles, I want them to do that here and there, but it just you never felt like the packers had a consistent rhythm and like the eagles really didn't either. But it was like eventually I think the eagles were going to wear them down, which I thought happened. But you know you, you brought it up too. I I probably wouldn't have went away from j? Uh, josh jacobs there nearly as much like I. Just it went full-on like past happy and like the eagles kind of sat back and and said, okay, beat us. You know. I mean like, do do that, and if you mix in that run, I think you at least have more success. I know they gave him like 25 carries or so, but it just felt like in the second half they he was an afterthought for sure uh, let's see jacobs 18 carries they did have 25 carries in total, but I mean you got two for tucker craft in there, so that doesn't, doesn't really count.
Speaker 2:That was the, the packers. Uh, tush push, their version of the tush push. I love that with craft just it was working.
Speaker 2:They had that one where I think he busted it off what for like eight yards or something like that, like he was grinding, I mean, it was a, it was a heck of a play. But um, yeah, all in all, I mean it comes down to the inconsistency of this team and it's just. They leave a lot to be desired week in and week out in these big games. And it's the big games. Right, it's these games, it's the packers and the eagles. You went oh and2 against the Eagles, 0-2 against the Lions and 0-2 against the Vikings, and every single game. You left so much to be desired in those games and looking back on them, it's like what hurts you. Right, because I don't look at those games and say that the Eagles were. I mean, they're better. I think the Eagles are a better team. Like they have more stars, I agree, but on this night you cannot tell me that the Eagles were the most deserving team, right, they did not play that great in their own right. If they played a clean game like they probably would have blown the Packers out by 30. Like it wouldn't even have been a ball game. But Packers defense stepped up, did their thing. It's just the offense once again comes out stale. Same with that game against the Lions twice Twice I mean comes out stale. Same with that game against the lions twice, twice. I mean you talk about that game against the lions where they were down early big and then they had to come back. Vikings down early, big had to come back. I mean multiple times where they had to come back in these games. And also that first game you had a missed field goal. You had a missed field goal in this game here against the eagles where mcmanus has been just. I mean we talk about all the time. We're like this dude's money he's like so consistent, goes into this game misses a field goal. You're talking about a completely different landscape than if it's 16-13 instead of 16-10.
Speaker 2:Now, I'm not saying that was a chip shot, field goal by any means, but what was the miss from? I wanted to double check on that. Where was that miss from? It wasn't too. Oh, right here, let's see here. The miss was from 38. It's not a chip shot, but it's got to be a chip shot, especially in moments like this. It's got to be a chip shot Because if you look last year at that game against the 49ers, anders Carlsen missed that field goal and it would have gave that Packers team a little extra boost in that one Would have actually made them give them a bigger lead at the time.
Speaker 2:So all those things come back to bite. And then also, john does come in and he brings this up all the time to me because he's completely right. Love had 60 yards with five minutes to go in the game against the Vikings. It's the adjustment period, right. And that's where it comes back to Matt LaFleur. He talked about it after that Vikings game. He said, well, I didn't expect him to come out with so much man, right, I didn't expect so much man defense. So it took you three and a half quarters to figure out that they were in man defense and adjust to it. Call the offense Like why did it take so long for you to adjust to this? So I mean, it's just all those little things that come back to.
Speaker 2:There has got to be a lot of questions that are answered in this offseason and I think it's going to come back to also. Gutekinds has got to walk in there and say, matt, dude, love you, love what you can do for this team, love what you got for this team, but hey, you've made it to the playoffs. But Love what you got for this team. But hey, you've made it to the playoffs. But now it's time we take that next step, because we can't keep finding excuses of we're too young, we're too young to do this, we're too young to be there, we're the youngest team in the playoffs Great, you were the youngest team.
Speaker 2:Last year. I saw that stat. It's like oh, this is the second youngest team in history in the playoffs in NFL history. What was the youngest? Oh, last year's Packers team. It's like who cares? Who cares? Like I get, they're young. I understand that. But after a while that excuse has to go away. Jordan Love is now going to be in year three. Josh Jacobs is experienced. These receivers are experienced. Tucker Kraft, the offensive line, adrian Cooper is going to be a year older. Quay Walker is a couple years older. All these guys are going to have experience. So we cannot use that excuse anymore. It cannot be that we're young. It has to be.
Speaker 2:Why are we not developing? Why are we not taking the next step? Why are we not getting there? And if it's the players, fine, then find new players, then find different guys to fit those spots. If you don't think it's the players. If you think that you've drafted right, if you think that your guys can develop right, then where does your silver lining have to come? Where is that guy?
Speaker 2:When you look in your locker room, where's the problem? Where is that problem? Is it? You don't have a leader right? There isn't a guy to get them rallied up. Is there not a leader in the locker room? Is there not a leader in the huddle? Or do you got to start at the top? Is there not a leader who's bringing them into each game, which would be Matt LaFleur, because, like we said, getting guys prepared is from the.
Speaker 2:It's during the week, it's not on Sunday, it's not on Sunday. You can only get guys so prepared on Sunday. It starts during the week. How fired up can you get them for that weekend game? Listen to Dan Campbell, talk to his guys during practice and talk to him about hitting each other and talk to him about getting them prepared for that game coming up on Sunday. It's during the week. It's Bill Belichick during the week. It's Sean McFay. During the week, kyle Shanahan, who whatever good coach you want to look at, they don't just do it on Sunday, it's during the week. Does Matt LaFleur get the boys ready to go during the week?
Speaker 2:That's my biggest question, because when I look at these games and I look at this game once again where it's like you weren't prepared, and I look, you know, at the end of that first half there, when, uh, I believe that was the one where zach, they threw that craptastic pick to zach bond across the middle, was that that drive? Yes, yes, yeah, and they were like it was, it was hustling, it was hustling, right, they're taking so long and they're getting in the huddle and they're taking so long. You had three timeouts. Why did you not burn one to just settle jordan love down? Right, settle them down, just settle the offense down. You had three timeouts. You have all the timeouts in the world, right, you have 40.
Speaker 2:When he threw, threw that pick, or when they snapped that ball there, he had an incomplete pass on the play before that to Chris Brooks and then after that he threw the pick. Why not just call timeout, settle the boys down. You have three timeouts. You don't get to take them home with you. They don't carry over the second half. Burn it, just burn, burn it, just burn it and set up something.
Speaker 2:You know, don't do a quick play call like hey, boys, let's, let's hold on. Let me put the play sheet in front of my mouth here. Hey, uh, let's, let's now like, use your time out. That irritates me. Sometimes. It's like you're they're so rushed, they're like trying to move the ball fast, they're trying to rush. It's like call time out. Just relax them, just relax the boys, because nothing is going to relax that offense more than if Matt LaFleur is face-to-face with Jordan Love, then if he's talking directly to him and saying like hey, hey, we're good, we're good. Let's set up something simple, right, josh Jacobs? He's able to talk to Jordan Love, the receivers are able to talk it out. Tucker Craft, whoever. The offensive line right A couple plays before that Glover had an offensive holding call. Offensive line right, a couple of plays before that Glover had an offensive holding call.
Speaker 2:So it gives you that time where you're able to talk it out to slow the game down. You have three timeouts in all the time in the world to get yourself in the field goal range. And you couldn't even get yourself in the field goal range. That's what it just. It eats, it just hurts Like game management is a problem. Game management is a problem for Jordan Love, not for Jordan Love. Well, not for Jordan Love For Matt LaFleur. Sorry about that. Sorry about that. Game management is a problem for Matt LaFleur. That scares me a little bit when I think about that.
Speaker 2:My head coach has issues with the clock and that's not Iberflues problems with the clock and that's like not eberflus problems with the clock, but there's problems and I I just I don't feel the urgency at times of green bay either. I don't feel. You know, jordan loves getting the guys up and he's like we gotta go, we gotta go, we gotta go right, because when they were this drive started, when the packers had this drive start, there was three minutes and 25 seconds left on the clock. In the second quarter, when they threw that pick and they had just gotten to Philly's 48-yard line, there was 45 seconds left. In the first half.
Speaker 2:It took you that long to set up a drive to walk. I mean what I'm trying to do? The math here, my head 20. We got 20 yards here and then another what? 20 yards to get across, so 40 yards. It took you that long to pop off 40 yards to get across midfield and get yourself close to field goal range. That's urgency, that's getting the boys up, that's getting them ready, that's getting moving right and that's why I'm saying in that time, why do you not burn a timeout?
Speaker 2:Yes, the two-minute warning happened in there, but from the two-minute warning until that interception you ran one, two, three, four, five plays, counting the interception. You ran five plays counting the interception and when that interception happened, there's 45 seconds left on the clock. First play happened with two minutes. Second play with a minute 52. The third play of the drive, the third play of the drive on third and three. You ran that thing with a minute and 15 seconds left in the quarter. So you ran it down from a minute 52 to a minute 15. That tells you how much time you just burned off the clock. That's the difference between and okay, let's say they do advance it in the field goal range, great, you came away at the field goal. Then the half, those 40 seconds, are the difference between a touchdown and the first half, and momentum shifter to a field goal and you're down 10 to 3. That's the difference. That's the difference between winning on the road and losing on the road.
Speaker 2:Right, we talk about it multiple times this season with the Packers was going into halves, coming out of halves, the consistency, being able to put teams away, being able to put consistent efforts together. We talked about it so many times and yet we keep seeing it rear its ugly head over and over again there. Let's see. John says who do you trust more, lafleur or Mike Daniel? Or does quarterback make that much of a difference? I think quarterback does make a difference. I would say quarterback makes a difference. I don't. I don't like Mike McDaniel. I don't like Mike McDaniel. After watching what that Dolphins team was this season and now Tyreek's like gone, and Tua when he was out the offense just looked completely lost. Like I don't trust mike mcdaniel at all.
Speaker 2:And also, john says if green bay doesn't get nine wins next year, leflore will be fired. All right, all right, making a bold prediction. There is john I. You know what. I can't. I can't say that you're wrong if green bay doesn't get the nine wins with this team, with jordan Love, your franchise quarterback.
Speaker 2:And I mean there's like we talked about before there's glaring weaknesses. Right, you've got to get a pass rush. You've got to find pass rushers. You probably you've got to find guys for that secondary, because that cornerback room is thin. They are thin. Wide receiver yes, running back room, running back room, you're fine. Josh Jacobs and Marshawn Lloyd will be back from injury. You got to get some depth on that offensive line.
Speaker 2:But outside of that, I mean there's no excuses. Like you cannot make the youth excuse next year. You can't make any excuse Like you have to go out and win football games. That's plain and simple. Like you have to find a way to win football games. So we're gonna get back to that, erin. We're gonna get back to that. We're past our last ad break here, so we got to get to our ad break. We'll come back. I'll let I'll let erin talk about that. Last comment there from john. There we'll get to the badgers, maybe wrap it up with a little package here and then we'll hit the road for the night here. So we'll be back on the other side of the ad break this show is brought to you by these fantastic sponsors.
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Speaker 2:Let Peggy Sue Bestlik at Century 21 help you with all of your housing or property needs. New year, aaron, like I always say buy, buy, sell. That's what you got to do. Get out of that craptastic house or get into a new one, that's what you got to do. Just have a year. So make sure you're talking to peggy sue there. Uh, aaron, I mean I've talked about a lot. We've talked about a lot. Anything else you got to add on to the end of this first, I guess, segment of the pack, talk here anything else you got to add on there from from what you saw from this team in this one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I just they don't look inspired, I'll put it that way. I think we've kind of we're kind of shooting at a horse a million times on that one, but it's I just I don't know. I don't know if it's lack of. We kind of alluded to it before. You know, I remember when they had like Clay Matthews, when they had, I mean, and you're talking about, like you know, hall of Fame caliber guys or or like Charles Woodson and the boys, right, like yeah, I, like I said I'm not trying to make this about like now I'm talking about the Steelers out the wazoo, but it's like I look at these two teams kind of eerily, like not similar to a T, but like just in glaring ways. It's like who is the Steelers leader? Right, who is the Packers leader? Who is the guy that like when the Packers were like the Packers to me, you know, obviously like the Favre days, that's one thing, but even with the, with Rogers, like AJ Hawk, clay Matthews, like what was it? Bj Raji or– Yep, bj Raji? They had guys you could like circle on their team that like that's a dog, that guy is a problem. Like now it's like they're just and I'm not going to take anything away from their defense.
Speaker 3:I do think I will be honest. I do think the Eagles played like down or just like not. They just were not, like they're not. This was a crappy version of what the Eagles offense is, but give them credit Like the Packers made plays when they had to too. So, like I'm not going to like, take it that way. I just the Packers don't. This is where I'll end it. They don't have like an identity to me. They don't have like like yes, they, they can play the run game with josh jacobs. Yes, they can, you know, do it with jordan love, but it's like weekend and we got, we talked about it down the stretch. They just don't have that like like no one's really they don't have. They don't strike fear into other teams right now I got it.
Speaker 2:I got exactly what you're trying to say. They have a bunch of guys and they have to play perfect to win a game to win a good gets a good team right, they have to play perfect one through a through z. But the eagles they have a bunch of dudes and then a bunch of guys, and when you got that, you could put together a craptastic performance, still win a football game, and that's what we saw. That's what we saw in this one.
Speaker 3:No, you're exactly right, and is it? Are we going to take the guys that are in this building and make them those dudes? And do we have the like you said? Do we have the personnel in place to make these guys those type of dudes? I'm not even saying, like AJ Brown, level Just up a notch.
Speaker 3:If everybody goes progression, like we talked about with Jordan Love, is he progressing, is he regressing? That comes down to coaching too. Coaching. We can talk about basketball, we can talk about hockey, baseball, football. Coaching is essential in football.
Speaker 3:Like yeah, I I think if sirianni had like the poor, really poor coordinator, like if they were, you know, middle of the pack, to like down towards the bottom, like I don't think he he's regarded as a good coach.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean. Like he might motivate the boys to a certain degree, but they have a lot of guys in there that like like I think bringing in saquon was huge for, like, the locker room, I just yeah, he's a guy that's like I'm gonna, he's, he's the guy that would own the company, but he's sweeping the floor, you know, like he's the type of guy where you have that. And like sirianni by himself, who knows, like we saw that team be completely unraveled. So that's the thing, like they, I don't know, like, even like when they brought in Salah for that, like that type of I'm not saying bring him in as your head coach, but like somebody like a Rex Ryan If you had a Rex Ryan as a DC, like there would be no BS. You know, like I'm not saying these names are the people you go out and get, but bring in like players that have that and like even if they're assistants, like bring those type of people in the room.
Speaker 2:You can bring. Salah in. You can bring him in, like right now, passaccia, that piece of garbage, the special teams gets fixed and then it's complete horse shit again. I mean bringing Salah as a special teams coordinator. How could it get worse? Like what has Passaccia done that Salah couldn't do for you? Like, bring him in as a special teams coordinator, because that's what, uh, you know what I mean, though, like change the culture, like yeah, no, I agree, that's what?
Speaker 2:um, uh, let me see here. I was trying to what the heck was I just right, here it is. It's. It's Rick Passaccia, that's what it is, passaccia. I always call him Passaccia Passaccia, but that's what it is, passaccia. I always call him Passaccia Passaccia, but he's assistant head coach too.
Speaker 2:So, like, bring in Salah, let him be your, I don't even care. Let him be the special teams coordinator, because guess what? Passaccia's special teams? How'd they perform today? First kickoff was the fumble, second one was a holding call and then you had the missed field goal there. I mean, the special teams has not been that much better. Anyways, who cares? Get rid of him. He's always been like this. I don't even know. I've always disliked him. Bring in, put Salah in there, promote him to your assistant head coach or a co-head, whatever you want to call him there with Matt LaFleur. Let LaFleur just take care of your the personnel work and get boys ready to rock and roll, and I mean I wouldn't hate it. I wouldn't hate it at all, like that'd be. That's the way to do it, because right now it's it's the question of is Matt LaFleur enough to get the boys up, right?
Speaker 2:I think they have players in that room you mentioned it before about like do they believe guys could be guys Like we? We've talked about Edger and Cooper before during Cooper before. I think that dude is going to be a star. I do Tucker Kraft. I think he can be a star. They have some guys on the offensive line who are pretty darn good.
Speaker 2:Looking at the defense, I can't do Valentine he's. People hate on that guy a lot. I think he's had moments and I think he looks a lot. He's looked a lot better. So I like what Valentine's been able to prove.
Speaker 2:Evan Williams has been great Bullard for a rookie. You can't keep flipping him from slot to safety. He's all over the place. He's nickel and then he's. I mean, they just keep moving this guy all over the place. They're like, yeah, he'll figure it out. It's like he's a rookie. We can't be. But I mean you got to do what you got to do, right, guys are getting banged up. You got to do what you in there. You got mckinney. You're gonna. You're gonna have money to spend, right, I think they're gonna release jair, I think they're gonna let him go, so you're gonna have about eight mil to spend there saving on jair. David bakhtiari's contract comes off the books here pretty soon. I think he comes off. You're gonna have a couple other guys, you're gonna have money to spend and it's just like where do you spend it now? So I would salas going to the patriots, don't know. You think he wants to work underneath of Rabel, I don't know about that one.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to lie that would be a bold group of dudes right there, I was going to and like literally that guy John there, he read my mind too because I was thinking the whole culture thing, right, the Patriots move on. And I'm not saying that Mayo should have got fired, but something about. Maybe saw Robert crafts like impatient or whatever, but maybe he thought, hey, the culture is messed up here.
Speaker 2:Like the call. What would solid do, though? What would he do with the Patriots Cause? Vrabel is going to call the defense.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't see taking it.
Speaker 2:So what's Sal's job, then?
Speaker 3:Like he's not, like we're having that conversation about, about the floor, though, if you bring in like a let's just say, solid type guy, right, whatever, yeah, and like he's in the build, like maybe that pushes Matt, like maybe Matt LaFleur by himself, with like so let's just say so, so coordinators isn't the guy, but like I think that's. I think the same way about Sirianni, without like great. Like we saw Sirianni with Shane Steichem. The offense looked amazing. Uh, nick Sirianni started calling plays. The offense looked like. It looked like Madden coach suggestions every four. It's like a joke.
Speaker 2:I think Matt LaFleur should play more Madden. When I watch him I'm like this dude should play more Madden Clock management. I feel like I manage the clock better on Madden than he does in real life, like I get real life to fake. But I mean man, oh man, he could. He could use some madden time. Him and marcus freeman could ball out together on madden. I I did hear that marcus freeman plays uh college football. He plays it to get uh because you could like his boys will tell him he could scout other teams with that.
Speaker 2:So he'll play, he'll play college football, his boys out there. Uh, john did say earlier, because I want to get the badgers tonight here, I want to talk about this Badger-Ohio State game. We got to get to that. John did say I got a take on the NBA and if y'all are talking NBA tonight, something that could help with the ratings, john, give it to us. Give it to us, let us know what you think is going to help with the ratings in the NBA, because I am intrigued. You don't have to ask, just you don't have to ask, just shoot your comments in there. Anybody else out there in the comments tonight too? Like, let us know what you're thinking. Packers, eagles, let us know what you think about the Badgers. Whatever you want to talk about, let us know in the comments section. We'd love to get to you guys there. But, aaron, I want to talk about this Badger team real fast because I don't want to miss this game here. Badgers got that big I didn't get time to watch. It was a hectic Friday I wasn't able to watch, so I said we'd talk about coming out of this one here.
Speaker 2:Steven Crowell, that dude continues to play well for this Badger team right now and it's been ever since Greg Gard lit him a new one. It's been ever since that press conference, right, we talked about it after that game against Illinois where he had no rebounds. And Greg Gard's like no rebounds, he's got to play better. Right, he said a point blank he's got to play better. And I had the quote here from Greg guard. I was gonna, I'm gonna pull it up there. Uh, let's see here. Right there he said I'm going to be honest with you. They know that. They know I love them. I got their back for the rest of life. I always tell them until they shovel dirt on me, I'm with you. And that was after. You know.
Speaker 2:They mentioned about him calling out Steven Crowell after that game against Illinois, and I love that. I love that, for the simple fact of Steven Crowell didn't roll over and just say, oh, my coach hates me, oh, no, I'm just going to enter the transfer portal like everybody else does nowadays. He didn't do that. He came out and look what he's done over the past games here, aaron, since then he scored 18 points and had six rebounds. Against Butler 15 points and four rebounds. Against Detroit Mercy 14 points and seven rebounds. Against Iowa 18 points, 10 rebounds against Rutgers in that five game win streak. And then you look at this game here against Minnesota and he added on another total of 18 points and five rebounds against Minnesota. So you're talking about in that stretch this guy has been putting up big time numbers and scoring and big time numbers in the rebound department for you. I love that. I love that his answer was not to roll over, his answer wasn't to cry, his answer was all right coach says I'm sucking, I'm going to step up and I'm going to do it. And he has. And when he starts playing well, it makes the Badgers that much better.
Speaker 2:If you can get a good Steven Crowell and you have John Tonje, and you have John Blackwell and you have what Max Klesman comes back Kamari McGee, nolan Winter when you have your stars already balling out and you add a good Stephen Crowell into that mix, good luck. Good luck to other teams. I mean that's like you got to stop these guards on the outside right, but now you got to stop the post. So now you got three levels of scoring that you got to look out for. And it's not just the scoring with Stephen Crowell, it's the distribution of the basketball with Stephen Crowell, it's the three assists here basketball with Steven Crowell. It's the three assists here against Minnesota that you love, the ability that he has to dump it off to cutters, the ability he has to scan the floor and see the open shooters. It's those things with Steven Crowell. When he plays well, the Badgers play well. So I love what I've seen on Steven Crowell as of late. Here the defense is starting to come around. Over their last three games there teams are averaging only 69 points against them per game. Doesn't seem like a lot.
Speaker 2:But that game against Minnesota, I mean for that first half the offense was not clicking whatsoever. Offense was cold. I mean they had 30 points in total in that first half. That's low for the Badgers, but you held Minnesota down to 29 points and a lot of that was because of Xavier Amos coming off the bench there 22 minutes you look at the stats only four points. But defensively this guy was a spark plug on Dawson Garcia. Because on that night the only guy from Minnesota that was going to beat you was Dawson Garcia and Xavier Amos came in and Dawson Garcia went 0 for against him and I saw a lot of people say well, guard, just saw minnesota as this crap team and that's why xavier amos got all these minutes and that's why gilmore was having a rough night. Gilmore was sick. He had a date with the porcelain throne that day before playing in that game. He was having a rough night. So, like, let's all leave gilly out of this one. He's fine. He played seven minutes, but he was sick. Xavier amos stepped up and that's what you love. You had two guys right.
Speaker 2:Kamari McGee, inserted in the starting rotation because Max Glezma was out, played 33 minutes of action in this one. 33 minutes of action Five for 10 from the floor, three for four from downtown. He had 15 points in his first start with the Badgers. I love that. And then a guy like Xavier Amos coming off the bench there for 22 minutes giving you big time minutes against Dawson Garcia. Just a great performance. On a couple of just dudes. Right, you gotta have dudes we were talking about before. You gotta have dudes and you gotta have stars. These are the dudes stepping up for you and Aaron.
Speaker 2:Kamari McGee 57 percent from three on the season. 57 percent from three on the season. I love that stat. I just love that stat. When I read that, just 57 is nothing but impressive. So kamari mcgee stays hot from the perimeter and he's got to be. I was gonna say he's got to be up there in uh percentage in the league right now. He probably doesn't have, probably doesn't have the amount of attempts as a lot of other guys, but this guy's been shooting at a hot clip and I love it.
Speaker 2:Outside of that, no klezmet, but by committee they found ways to stive off the slow start, take care of the problems and get the job done, and I love to see that. I love to see that In the past, without stars on the floor, the Badgers have struggled. One guy goes out and the whole world blows up this one here. They just didn't blink an eye. Next guy up right. Next guy steps in, takes care of business. That was kamari mcgee. So I love that ability that they had in this one here.
Speaker 2:Um, outside of all of that, like I was talking about the defense, if the defense comes along with this offense, I love the potential of this Badger team. I do. I love the potential defensively. We've talked about it. That's our biggest problem. They go into games, they score 80 points. They lose 85 to 80. What can they do to better themselves defensively? They've been getting better right. We talked about the last three games. They're keeping guards in front of them, stopping the cutters. It's the little things with this badger team right now discipline on that court and they've been getting better, which is what greg guard's been harping on him for. So I love to see that there. So badgers get the big win against minnesota there. They're going to be back in action now, coming up here, I believe on tuesday tuesday there the 14th would be tuesday taking on ohio state on peacock, because we loveacock, so they're going to be on Peacock there.
Speaker 2:Ohio State coming into this one, 10 and 6, 2 and 3 in conference play notable game so far for Ohio State. They had a win against Texas by 8. They beat Kentucky by 20. That's an impressive win there by Ohio State. They have losses to Texas, a&m, michigan State, pitt by 1, which is a similar opponent to what Wisconsin had. They've also played Pitt, oregon by two and then Auburn. They lost 91-53. I didn't feel like doing the math for that one, so I put 91-53 because I didn't feel like doing the math, so I left it at that.
Speaker 2:Outside of that, just looking at some of the notables right, I want to look at some of the key guys to this Ohio State Buckeyes team team. Bruce Thornton the guard there's 17.1 points per game, 4.4 assists, 53% for the field and 43% from three. He's the main cog in the engine. He's like that spark plug. You can't make it run without him, like that's the dude. That's the dude that you got to watch out for. So Bruce Thornton is going to be the guy where you got to watch out for him. That's where I'm watching here for this Badger team is what can they do to slow down Bruce Thornton in this one? I don't know right. It's the tough, tall task that these guards are going to have for the Badgers there. So I'm looking at Bruce Thornton and saying the Badgers got to play well on him. Devin Royal, the forward there 13 points per game for him, seven rebounds, 54% from the field. And then John Mobley Jr 12 points a game, 41% for the field and 42% from downtown there. So those are some of the notable guys.
Speaker 2:The depth is pretty good for Ohio State. They're willing to go about nine deep on the bench there. Give some guys some pretty good minutes there. So they're going to be well-rested. They're going to look like a pretty solid, formidable team here as a team.
Speaker 2:37% from three, 72% from the free throw line, 48% from the field, 11 turnovers per game, seven steals per game. They're eighth in points per game at 81.1, fourth in three points. This is all in the big 10, fourth in three point percentage, sixth in field goal percentage there, 10th in free throw, 11th in rebounds and eighth in turnovers. There they want to turn you over. They want to turn you over, they want to get out and run, they want to be able to take the ball away from you.
Speaker 2:So big thing for the Badgers play smart, play consistent. You'll be fine in this one here. Get the bigs going. Take care of the paint, take care of the glass. Those are things we talk about every time with this Badger team. Control the rebound and control the glass, control the offensive glass. You'll be fine in this game here. Also, mobley's the guy. I mean he takes a lot of threes. So if you're talking about a guy where you got to watch out for him from downtown, mobley's the guy you got to be watching out for. And then teams against Ohio State, they're shooting about 29% from three and 39% from the field. So I mean they pretty well up defensively. So you're going to have your work cut out for you trying to score points against this Ohio state team is they only give up about 71.1 points per game on the season there. This is a good team. This is a good team in Ohio state. This is going to be a tough matchup for the badges here. It is at the coal center.
Speaker 3:Should be a little bit better there, but it is at the Kohl Center Should be a little bit better there. But, aaron, anything else you're seeing about this matchup here before we get to John's ways to fix the ratings in the NBA Not really a lot else on what you said, I mean I think this will be a good, like this is a good. You know we talk about some of the tests that Wisconsin. You know Pitt was going to be a test, countless others right, but I think this is one of those games like you're getting them at home, like we were kind of a little bit worried about the Rutgers matchup, right, they're a sneaky team. This is like now you're taking a step up a notch right, like from a Rutgers team to a better caliber Ohio State team.
Speaker 3:And like, don't get me wrong, I will always pull for Wisconsin seven out, seven times and twice on Sundays against Ohio State. I don't care, but no, it'll be, I mean Ohio State with a small like favorited by two. That's really like, that's close, that's real close. So, yeah, I'm just looking for, like you said, I hope Steven Crowell comes out and just balls out too, like just the fact that he like the coat, you know, um, he gets called out and basically, like ever since then he's like crashing, like that game against rutgers. I think you mentioned like 10 boards. I mean there's games you know four, six, that type of thing. But like seeing that and you know I'm not gonna say the comment, some of the guys on the other side like that might play into it. But just coming out at home at the cole center, like you know what you might be ohio state, like the ohio state, right as I like to say the ohio state but like we don't care, we're the badgers, right.
Speaker 3:Like you know what I mean, so just take it to them right like I, I just wanted high energy from the tiff and like just see what it can happen. Like you know what I mean. See, see, maybe Tonjay goes off Like we haven't really seen Tonjay go off in recent time Like maybe this is a hot minute.
Speaker 2:It's been a hot minute since we've seen Tonjay have a burner of a game.
Speaker 1:It's a dude.
Speaker 3:Are you?
Speaker 2:calling it Aaron, are you?
Speaker 3:calling it.
Speaker 2:Tonjay to have a burner.
Speaker 3:Watch. I'll say that now score like six, like that would be some like horrible prediction. But no, yeah, why not? You know it's been a little bit at home to you know, college sports atmosphere is just a lot like it's fun. So, yeah, maybe he'll heat up and and just start banging them from three Like he's fun to watch. I do. I do enjoy some Tonje, for sure.
Speaker 2:When he gets around the rim. Just some of the stuff he can do around the rim. It's nothing but impressive. And you know what it rings true. Everybody's like. You know Greg guard this and Greg guard that. If you want to look at what Greg guard can do as a head coach for a basketball team everybody, or a head coach of a player in that standpoint, everybody. Go. Take a look at the guy by the name of AJ store who decided that he was too good for Madison and he wanted to take money and go to Kansas. Because you should look at this guy's numbers right now. Right now, in 15 games, he's averaging 6.8 points per game with Kansas.
Speaker 3:Not great.
Speaker 2:Not great at all. He's going to Kansas to up his draft stock because he wasn't going to be able to do it in Madison. Well, guess what, buddy, you look like complete hot garbage down there. Last season with the Badgers 16 points per game. This season with Kansas, so far 6.8. There's your difference.
Speaker 2:Greg Gard for as much as people want to hate on him and a lot of people do look what he's been able to do with Johnny Davis, who's now in the G League technically but was with Wisconsin there.
Speaker 2:You look at what he's been able to do with aj store last season with that 16 points a game. And then you look what he's doing with john tonjay now, and even a guy like john blackwell I, I don't know what it is, you can call it, he's not a good developer. You can call whatever you want, but what I know is these guys fit his system and they worked in his system and he made them work and he went out and he recruited them because they were going to work in his system and he made them work and he went out and he recruited them because they were going to work in his system and he got the best out of them, and that's what you love. John Tonje is a prime example of that, Because before he came to Madison, everybody was like John Tonje, who Now it's like that dude's one of the best players in the Big Ten and you can write that home there's a lot of good players in the Big Ten.
Speaker 3:Like, don't get me wrong, he's not in the big 10, but he's one of the top players in the big 10 is he nba, probably because you know your basketball a lot better than me.
Speaker 2:Like is he at that level.
Speaker 3:No, no see, that's hard to believe, like because you know you watch him and you're like dang, this guy can like you can.
Speaker 2:I think I think he could develop to that, but I don't think he's that. I I don't think he's that yet. He's a three level score, but I don't think he's that yet. He's a three-level scorer but I don't think he's consistent enough to be that three-level scorer. Like when Johnny Davis left Wisconsin, johnny Davis was a good player. He was a good player. I just thought he was a higher-volume shooter, took a lot of shots, scored a lot of points, but it took a lot of shots to get all them points. That's what AJ Storr was. I didn't think AJ Storr actually reached what he could have. John Tonje is more of a. I'm going to take 15 shots and I want to make 13 shots. Like that's John Tonje. He wants to get downhill, he wants to get to rim, he wants to get to the free throw line. So I'm all in with that. We got to get to John.
Speaker 2:He's lighting up the comment section over here with his ideas. So he says the 2001 NBA All-Star Game was a four-team, three-game format, eight players on each team. First to 40 wins game, which obviously changed that to 60. Let Shaq, barkley, kenny, stephen A pick their teams Little mini tournament but have it over two nights and maybe, if you keep it at 40 points, have it all done in one night. Be like WrestleMania vibes. I like that. Tables, ladders and chairs. They were, and they wear their current team jerseys. That was what they were talking about doing back in 2001, but never did so. That's what they were talking about doing, never did it. He's saying this would be a way to improve the game.
Speaker 2:I I, I don't hate it. I don't hate it. I don't hate it at all. Actually, I think it'd be interesting to watch. I think the biggest problem that keeps coming back to me with the NBA is that there is no rivalries and nobody cares. That's my biggest problem. They get to the All-Star game and it's not like it's Kobe versus you know. It's not like it's Kobe versus the world. It's not like it's Mike and he hates everybody. Like they're all friends, they're all on their phones, they all don't care. Like if you want to make a good all-star game, put the Indiana Pacers against Giannis, that's it, because Giannis hates the Indiana Pacers. You want a competitive game? He'll give you a competitive game on All-Star Night. That's just Giannis against the Pacers. You want that, you can have it. That's a rivalry. Outside of that. Everybody wants to push across the Lakers and the Celtics as a rivalry. It's not. It's not anymore. Maybe it was. It's not anymore. It used to be.
Speaker 3:That thing is gone time where, like even in the kobe era, like that was like, wow, like you're going into paint, you're getting mugged, like I remember. But I, honestly, I and not to like completely disregard the nba, but I just feel like after kobe, like that era right, like right towards the tail end of his career, it just became because I used to like watching stuff and this, but like I I'm not mad that the nba has changed to like you know it's gonna, sports are going to change. I like the old way, but like when the Splash Brothers were just, you know, banging them from half, like I did enjoy that, don't get me wrong. It's just now. You watch it and like almost every team kind of plays very similarly and, like you said, it's not like there isn't that appeal on a night-to-night basis where like, oh, this is a massive rivalry. It's not like you know, packers and vikings and pack like look at the nfl, they just have like everything at their disposal.
Speaker 3:Um, well, even though I will say these wild card playoff games have been like the weakest in years, um, just from like a competitive standpoint, like the games aren't that close, which is weird, um, but yeah, no, you're exactly right. Like you gotta and you can't manufacture. Like rivalries, like the yannis versus the pace, like that's a real thing, the yannis versus the pacers, but like I don't know they, just they. Once again, it's like we talk about the packers and like the identity, what's the identity? The nba until the playoffs?
Speaker 3:it's like yeah whatever like it just just makes. It makes its way there, it just finds its way to the playoffs, it's just a bunch of dudes who don't care.
Speaker 2:That's what it is a bunch of dudes who don't care. I mean, yes, there's guys who care. Right, I love yannis because yannis is like a basketball purist. Right, he still averages 30 plus points a game and he does it all from the interior. Like. I love watching yannis. He's still gonna give me everything he's got. There's still guys who do, but then you get the carl anthony towns is and you get the joe ellen beads and you get some of these other guys where it's like yeah, we don't care.
Speaker 2:Leonard right like leonard I forget that he's even in the league. Sometimes I forget kawaii leonard's even in the league half the time because he's out, it's like I don't even know. I mean, I don't get me wrong, I love watching the box. I'll watch the box. I love watching the Bucs, I'll watch the Bucs. I love watching the Bucs and keeping up with Giannis and that. But I don't get much further than that sometimes because it's like I just the interest is the atmosphere. The interest it's just not what it was, not what it was anymore.
Speaker 2:What did John say there? Instead of conference versus conference, imagine, example, lebron with Giannis, franz Wagner, siakam Tatum and Kat, so forth. Be different, to see how those people could play together. Yeah, no, I would agree. You split it up. You don't have West versus East, you just have a bunch of random teams put together. I agree with that. I agree with that. I mean there's a lot of things that they got to try to tweak. Try to tweak and work with and try to up the ratings and try to get people back. I don't know how you do it Right Because, like you said, the three point shot has become it's blown way out of proportion.
Speaker 2:I mean, when you have a game where it's like they put up 54 threes and they only hit 12, like, at what point do you stop shooting threes? I mean there has to be a line in the game of basketball Like shooting threes. I mean there has to be a line in the game of basketball. It'd be like me showing up and I coach my sixth grade boys basketball team and we're shooting jump shots left and right and we're missing every single one of them. It'd be like me saying keep popping them. No fall, no fall. Let's scoot it back. Let's scoot it back. Let's shoot it from three this time. That'll work, that'll work. No, let's not try to get it to the rim, let's not try to drive it closer. Nah, let's keep popping it. Let's just keep popping it, cause they're not falling yet.
Speaker 2:Like it's just, it drives me nuts. Sometimes it just it drives me nuts watching them shoot out there. That's why the NBA I like the NBA. I do and I'll watch it, simply for the bucks that, outside of that, the NBA has lost a lot of interest in me and they've lost a lot of interest in a lot of people out there. And it's from one thing to another it's the threes, it's all this other stuff that has taken people away from the NBA, and they did it themselves. So now it's about how do you draw eyeballs back to it? I don't know, how?
Speaker 2:I don't, because you're not watching the NBA game over an NFL game game. You're watching nba over college. In my opinion you're. You're watching the nba if nothing else is really on, like that's. That's just kind of how it is at this point here. So, um, aaron, I mean anything else we got to wrap us up for the night here. I was just looking through my packers packers talk here and I don't, uh, I don't see anything else that we didn't really hit. We hit a lot of it tonight here.
Speaker 3:Um, do you like either team? Well, I mean just kind of the other games there real quick, is baltimore like. I mean we saw him against the steelers team. That you know what do we really think of that? But do you think they like? You think they come out of the like seeing them play against pittsburgh? Does that give you any more reason to think the ravens can go anywhere, the Texans can go anywhere? Those couple Saturday games, either result. Does that make you feel any different about either team? I'll ask you that.
Speaker 2:I think the Texans could give the Chiefs a run for their money. I think the Chiefs will win it. But if you watch the Texans' defense, I love that defense and they can turn guys over. I mean, look at the game against golf. They turn them over what? Five times. And then they just turned over the other night there Justin Herbert multiple times too. I mean they turn guys over. That defense plays well. So I, like I liked what the Texans are able to do. I don't think they're going to beat the chiefs, but I think they can give them a run.
Speaker 2:The Ravens bills game, that's gonna be a great game. Uh, I think the bills win it. I was impressed by the bills in this one. They started out I mean they were just moving the football and the broncos did buckle down in the red zone a couple times there, and then the floodgates kind of just opened up and it was just game over there. I was impressed by the broncos though I was. I mean bo nicks has got a very good career in front of him. He's got a very good career. I was super impressed with what Bo Nix was able to do this year. So I'm impressed with the Broncos, but I like the Bills. I think the Chiefs are going to make it through. Outside of that, I think the Eagles will be just fine. I just think they played a craptastic sloppy game.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 2:I mean they're going to avoid. They won't have to go to play the lions right away. Right, they're probably going to have. I mean, we'll see what kind of happens in the rest of these games. If the Buccaneers win and then if the Rams win, we'll see who ends up playing who there. But I think the Eagles will be fine there.
Speaker 2:If they play like they did in this one, though, they're not a Super Bowl team anymore. No, like that's just my opinion, they're not a Super Bowl team if they play like this. Like I didn't believe the Packers were a Super Bowl team. I didn't. I thought they could maybe limp their way and somehow like find lightning in a bottle, like it'd been crazy. But I thought maybe I just I watched this Eagles team and it's like when they put it all together yes, yes, 1,000, but Jalen Hurts today, with that inconsistency in the passing game, and the Packers just kind of stuck it out, I mean, no, I don't think the Lions get a bye slump.
Speaker 2:I don't think so. I think the Lions are the one team that needed that, and if they get any more guys back on that defense, they are going to be a scary team, because just getting Anzalone back for that game against the Vikings and how many impressive plays he had. I can only imagine, if you get one more guy back on that defense, especially on the defensive line, some help there. So I mean, right now looking at it, there's not a lot of like. There was some impressive. There's not a lot of close games.
Speaker 3:So far what I am worried about. Just because I am not rooting for the Ravens in any way, shape or form, I I derrick henry makes that team different.
Speaker 3:I will say like yeah with having to play lamar I mean lamar in the playoffs. We know we've talked about it nauseam, but like um, he's, we just don't. You never know like he can throw a clunker out there. But like having the fact like if you I'll put it this way if you can't shut down like henry's not, he's like a barkley you're not going to shut him like if you, I'll put it this way If you can't shut down like Henry's not, he's like a Barkley You're not going to shut him down.
Speaker 3:But if you can, if you're not able to limit him from gashing like there's so many plays in that Steelers game I'm like yep, there's a first down, there's a first, it was just like nonce. Like every time he touched the ball he's getting like if, if the bills can't control him, they might be in trouble. I still trust josh allen to be able to like put up points at a premium, but I mean, if you can't stop him, like if you can't, if he's gashing you all day long, I I do worry for the bills, I'll put it that way like because because then they can do whatever, and then lamar's running all over the place like it just turns into chaos, you know yeah, and john agrees with you there.
Speaker 2:He said Henry is more of an MVP on that team than Lamar, which I would agree. I mean, without Derrick Henry, I don't think they're as good as what they are Right now. Boys, right now, we are currently all tied in our pick-em. I picked the Texans, everybody else picked the Chargers, so I started out 1-0 against everybody. Then the Ravens won, so everybody got a point. The Bills won, so everybody got a point. I got screwed by the Packers. I picked the Packers.
Speaker 3:Respect for the fan, like you got everybody else took the Eagles.
Speaker 2:I picked the Packers. Now, now this is where we decide ourselves here, because I picked the commanders and everybody else picked Tampa. So if the commanders win, I have the lead, and the only one who can catch me is my wife. She can only catch. She picked the Vikings, she's got the Vikings. We all picked the Rams, so she's the only one who could catch me and tie it. You guys would all lose, and then it'd be us too, with that first place finish there. So this one's coming down to it. John, this was coming down to it. We got the rams in the box. You got a route for him there. Rams in the box there you called it.
Speaker 3:You called that text like I was really not I told you guys, I fell for the because the chargers were favored and like the texans are like like it felt like the chargers were going this way up and then the texans were like, yeah, we're kind of a roller coaster, but it's yeah, defense, that was a good pick.
Speaker 2:It's a defense for the Texans man. They just get her done. I thought the Packers would have been a good pick if the offense showed up in the first half. They showed up in the first half. That would have been a phenomenal pick there. But well, you know, you get what you get and that's what you do. We throw a fit right. I don't know, but, aaron, anything else we got to wrap us up here we're getting. We're way past the holy crap. We're eight minutes past the end here.
Speaker 3:They cut us off the air. Let me see One quick thing here. I don't really think so, yeah, no, not really, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:John did say Bucs in a blowout he said it wouldn't even be close.
Speaker 3:That's still. I mean, mean, if they somehow go on a like crazy run here, I mean of all if you can, just I don't see. I wish I knew all the free agent wide receivers, just to get your input on like, because you know, john brought up chris god like as much as, like you know, anybody goes to penn state. I'm gonna root for chris godwin was like electric in college but he's he's injury pro. Like he's a. He's a nice piece, like he's an additional piece to me especially at this stage, he cannot be your number one guy.
Speaker 3:No, bring him in to be the one and he's so in like he gets beat up every year, it seems like. So that's where I'm like adams.
Speaker 2:Adams could be a one. He's a guy who comes in. He could teach your boys the system. He's used to the system. The fans still love him. Like it would be like don't skip a beat and and I think it would relax everyone. Plus, Adams was never a burn-em-over-the-top guy, he was just a consistent red zone dude, which is what you need right now, and he's a consistent hand, so I wouldn't hate Adams there. John did say y'all see Pitt women make that huge comeback 32 points. John. I was hoping that the guys from Green Bay would pull off a comeback there. I was not watching the Pitt women's team.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry for that. Wow, Khalil Mack is going to be a free agent.
Speaker 2:He's having a pretty good year. He had a pretty good year this last one. We'll see. Maybe the Packers pick up Khalil Mack. Maybe they grab up Mack Attack and maybe hopefully have some guys develop in there. I don't even know at this point we're going to get more into the Packers on Wednesday.
Speaker 2:We're going to talk more about this Packers Eagles game. The once our heads are screwed on straight, we're all relaxed and we're all calm. We'll talk more about this Packers Eagles game. We got more to talk Badgers game. We're going to recap that game with Ohio state. We're going to recap that game with Ohio State. We're going to look at their upcoming games. We're going to look at it all bucks, everything we got to look at the bucks. Maybe we'll get Kyle back on here, because we haven't looked at the bucks in a while, so we'll get Kyle on here to look at the bucks with us. So with that, for Aaron and myself, this has been Wisconsin sports on the go with Trage. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll catch you guys back here on Wednesday, but until then, see ya.