Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast/radio show aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions! Find the show Wednesdays from 5-7 pm on Sports radio 92.3 WOSQ or here next day!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Sept 24, 2025: Hour 2 Packers and NFL
The aftermath of disappointment often reveals the true character of a team. Following the Green Bay Packers' tough loss to the Cleveland Browns, hosts Trage and Ummer dive deep into what went wrong and what needs to change as the team looks ahead to Dallas.
Special teams continue to be the Packers' Achilles heel. Despite having talented specialists in Brandon McManus and Daniel Whelan, the blocking and coverage units remain problematic under Rich Passaccia's leadership. The blocked field goal that cost them the game wasn't just bad luck—it was a predictable failure that Wayne Larrivee had even foreshadowed during the radio broadcast.
Jordan Love's performance deserves a more nuanced analysis than many fans are offering. While his interception was costly, it came on a cleverly disguised coverage where the defender dropped off his assignment at the perfect moment. More importantly, Love showed resilience by leading the team back down the field for what should have been a game-winning field goal attempt.
Matt LaFleur's post-game message resonated strongly: "The goal is to go 1-0 every week." This philosophy, emphasizing present focus rather than future accomplishments, seems directly aimed at tempering the overconfidence that may have contributed to the team's lackluster performance.
The conversation expands to include NFL power rankings, with the hosts breaking down their top five teams in both conferences. They also explore the exciting MLB playoff races, with particular attention to the Brewers' pitching concerns as Brandon Woodruff faces another potential season-ending injury.
Listen now to gain valuable insights into Wisconsin sports from hosts who balance passionate fandom with thoughtful analysis. Subscribe to catch every episode and join the conversation about your favorite teams!
Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage I'm your host, trage as we come back here for our number two of Wisconsin Sports Talk here. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday. But before we get to our Packer talk, this next segment here is brought to you by a fantastic and a new sponsor of the show here, and that is Peggy Sue Baelish at Century 21 Gold Key Realty. She knows the area. She knows the central Wisconsin area. She knows the market. She knows the central Wisconsin area. She knows the market. You got to talk to her. If you're looking to buy, sell, whatever you're looking to do at this time of year it's getting close to fall. Maybe you're trying to move into that new house there. Maybe it's going to be that Christmas gift or whatever to the wife that you're going to move into this new house. Call Peggy, she's the one you want to talk to. She knows the area. She knows where's the good places, right? Maybe you need to find a place that's good to close to work but close to you know good places to eat, whatever it is, the nightlife, anything like that. She knows the area back and front. Make sure you check her out. Peggy Sue Bayliss there at Century 21 Gold Key Realty.
Speaker 1:So, umber, how we doing. It's hour two of the show. Here we're fast, we're off and running here tonight. How we doing. Packers struggled but we're going to get to that. How are you doing on this Wednesday? How's the week going so far?
Speaker 2:Week has been crazy, man. Week has been tough. Work has been absolutely busy, so I've just been dealing with that and then, just you know, a lot of stuff going on, Just trying to keep my head above water as best I can and utilizing football Packers, football fantasy and just all this other stuff to keep my positive spirits up. Man, it's been a crazy week, to say the least. Man, how are you doing?
Speaker 1:Great and you know, that's the beauty of sports. That is the beauty of sports. At the end of the day, it's the getaway, right, and that's why I hate when everything has to crash into it. I just want sports to be my getaway from everything else in the world. I just want to watch guys go between the lines or in the diamond, whatever it is, and just play the game. I agree 100%. That's the greatest part about sports there. It's that getaway, the getaway from the real world for just a little bit, where we can pretend like we know what we're talking about. In all reality we probably don't.
Speaker 1:So we want to get into the packers here, our number two. We want to get to the packers here and kind of just what we saw last week it wasn't, wasn't exactly the outcome that we were oh man, yeah, it wasn't really the outcome. But okay, there's bads and there's goods. There's goods that we can take away from this game. There's some bads that we can take away from this game. Yeah, let's just, we're gonna rip the band-aid off. Let's start with the bad. Let's just start with the bad. Okay, let's just start with the, the special teams once again, because my favorite thing was, if you listen to and I I wasn't watching a TV.
Speaker 1:I was out and about on a Sunday there so I wasn't able to watch the game on. So I I was able to watch it after the fact, but it wasn't able to watch it live. I listened to Wayne layer V on the radio and listen to the Packer network there and they were talking after the first field goal that they made and they said and they said, man, they got by there and they're close to breaking that, they're overloading that side. They're close to breaking that and they kind of foreshadowed it and they and then flash forward to the end of the game and they said you gotta watch that side again, you gotta watch that side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, once again. And and this has been a problem special teams have been a problem. Penalties doesn't matter what it is. There's been problems on the special team side of the football. Rich, rich passaccia, who is supposed to be the assistant head coach help oversee things with matt lafleur is the special teams coordinator, is the special teams coach and since he has been in green bay, the special teams have not gotten better. They have a good kicker and a good punter. They do. They have a great kicker and a great punter.
Speaker 1:Outside of that, there isn't a lot to write home about special teams and I think people overlook the special teams. So I guess, umber, that's where I kind of want to start. There's a lot of things to dive into with this Packer game, but just the special teams. Let's just start there. Do you believe that it's, I mean, heading in the right? I don't know if you could say heading in the right direction, but do you believe Rich Passaccia is the guy to lead this special teams unit? Because it's been like this. It hasn't fixed, it hasn't changed. It seems like there's always problems with the special teams.
Speaker 2:Honestly, I've been on the wagon to fire Rich Passaccia after his first year To. I've been on the wagon to fire Rich Pisaccia after his first year To me. We have not seen improvement in that area. It's like you know, ron Zook, maurice Drayton and Sean Meninga and heck, we can even talk about I think Sean Sokol was one of the bottom tier special team.
Speaker 2:Special team, we fence people in the league. We're in Rick Gosling's rankings. We're in the bottom tier. Every time we're in the low 20s, almost low 30s. It's terrible and I'm sorry, like there's no. There's like no creativity, like I'm thinking like if you know that they're overloading on the left side and they're pushing really hard on the left side, it means that they're probably going to have as many people on the right side Call a fake Like I've never seen them take advantage of situations of calling fakes trying to get the just do something different, because Rich Passaccia is an old coach with no new ideas.
Speaker 2:Our special teams has been bottom tier and I just am not seeing.
Speaker 2:The only reason why our special teams was even decent last year and starting to be decent, like in an area of saying like when it comes to production is because of Whelan and McManus. Mcmanus, you know, started closed the season pretty strong last year and then this year already has two missed kicks. One was blocked, but even then, though, like he had missed a kick in Lambeau on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, as well as on a Thursday afternoon too, like, I'm sorry, on Thursday evening. There's no excuse for any of this, and I'm just trying to understand, like, like, at what point does the mediocrity just get? Get over it. Like I'm there's even as a assistant head coach is reason is also his title. He's not providing anything from a perspective of game management, time management, anything like. It is sad that wayne larry v, who is the goat of goats in radio, could see something from his booth, from the press box, but you have Rich Passaccia and two assistants on the sideline who do not see what we're seeing as fans as well as people in the press box.
Speaker 2:There has to be a point in time where you just cut the weight. You're not getting anything of benefit from this dude they should have. At the moment that Darren Rizzi got fired from the Saints, when they cleaned house, they should have dropped every single cent they had and bring in a man in Stanley Chicago. They should have fired Rich and brought him in. Other than him being a recruiter for Nixon Jacobs and Hobbs minus that, I don't see any benefit for him because of the fact that Brandon Maness was a good kicker before he even got here. He was a good kicker in Denver. He was a pretty decent kicker in Jacksonville before all the issues occurred, and then, when it comes to Whelan, you can maybe credit him for Whelan. Other than that, though, honestly, there's nothing that he does that he provides that makes me feel like, yeah, this is a great special teams.
Speaker 2:And then his press conferences are terrible. He has no answers. He's an angry man that doesn't want to answer anything and wants to be offended by everything that's asked of him. He has no answers. And just to let you guys know, I'm very worked up about this because I've been asking. He is my next man up because he was best friends with Joe Barry and I can see why I've been wanting out now for a while and when we get to it I'm going to mention it, but right now I know I'm on the radio and I hope the guy he's listening to is he is a good man in the sense of being a good heart, a good person.
Speaker 2:The things that he talks about about other people out in the world and stuff like that as a coach sucks. Maybe he should be a head coach somewhere, because John Harbaugh was like. John Harbaugh was a special teams coach. He became a Super Bowl winning coach, right. Maybe he needs to go do that. Maybe he needs to go because he was a decent head coach when he was at Raiders. He probably should have got that job. But as special teams, no, he hasn't produced above average or even average special teams in the last 15 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean average special teams in the last 15 years. Yeah, I mean couldn't, couldn't, couldn't have said it any better myself. That was, that was a good rant there and I couldn't agree more. I mean it's, the proof is there. You wait for year after year I mean we're talking badgers before they were about luke fickle and how many years do you wait? How many years do you wait for it to get better? He's like you said. I mean we're not, it's, you're not firing the person. You think he's a great guy. He's probably great in the locker room, maybe he's great with the players, everything like that. He recruits guys into, you know, green bay, everything like that. He's. He's great in that aspect.
Speaker 1:But when you give him responsibility of setting up the special teams. It just hasn't been there. It hasn't gotten better. And the same problems in the, the blocked field goal there, I mean, and that's where I want to get to next. So let's get off of the special teams. Let's look at this is a little bit better and you know, fans are still kind of jordan love.
Speaker 1:Let's look at his. You know what he had going on in this game 18 for 25, a touchdown, a pick, the pick, massive. Now, here's what I'm gonna say. They were in a man coverage, they were in a man coverage and that guy I can't remember who had the pick, it's gonna, it's gonna baffle me here. I don't have the exact name up in front of me grant delpet had the pick and he dropped off a coverage. He was on craft. He dropped off a coverage off craft. Love didn't see that and it was hard to see. You weren't going to see it. Now, was it that? It was in design, was it? He's just read the ball that. Well, I don't know what it was. I don't know what led Delpit to drop off a craft like he did, but the way that the pocket was collapsing and everything like that, jordan love had to get rid of the ball fast. So that's where he got rid of it, and if no pit doesn't drop off, he's got his guy.
Speaker 1:But the problem was he didn't, he didn't, he didn't see him, he didn't see him there, so then it just led to issue right, so it's again rearing its ugly head of ken jordan love. Is he the guy? Can he be the guy? We got that answer, in my opinion, on the next drive. He led the Packers down the field and this was after the Browns scored. He led them down the field. He set them up with a relatively easy field goal to win yeah, 100% Very makeable.
Speaker 1:Yes, they just let him down. So, yes, I will agree with everybody who says did Jordan Love play his greatest of games? Probably not, but under the circumstances, the way that the offensive line was manhandled. Will agree with everybody who says did Jordan Love play his greatest of games? Probably not, but under the circumstances, the way that the offensive line was manhandled in this game, the way that Matt LaFleur, I thought, drew up a terrible game plan in this game, the way that everything was against this team, I thought Jordan Love did not play bad. Did he play great? No, but did he play terrible? I don't think so.
Speaker 1:And the way that fans are trying to throw this like perspective out on it, saying that oh, he's not good and you got to drop him and he's never going to be this and he's never going to be that. He, you're right, he's never going to be aaron rogers because he's not. He's going to be jordan love. What capacity, what? What he gets to where his ceiling is? We haven't seen it yet. We haven't got over the the silliness yet, but I think they will eventually.
Speaker 1:But, going into this game, I think there's a lot of intangibles that went in the opposite favor. So I guess I'm looking at the jordan love performance in this game, a lot of fans dislike what they saw. I'm on the boat of. It's like he had one bad, one bad throw and I he dropped off a coverage. It was. If you re-watch it, it was like he dropped off a coverage off a craft. It was a weird play that. I don't know if del pit was supposed to be there or not, but he was and it just outworked out. So I guess what are your thoughts on the jordan love performance in this one?
Speaker 2:I think that whole play was doomed to fail from the get-go. Like I feel, like you know, it's been a lot of situations, situations where they've had that situation in the last game too where they just ran it three times and punted it right and honestly, that would probably be the best decision because your defense was playing lights out and, honestly, throwing, like if you saw a play drop, it was just all slants. It was like slants everywhere, right, and my thing was, like you know, wicks was the guy that was kind of like his go-to dude. You know, with Reed being out, you could probably say Wicks was his number one. So maybe Delpit was kind of thinking that way. I feel like it was a bad throw, it was a bad route Because even if, say, delpit wasn't there, that ball wasn't going to get to Wicks Like it looked like.
Speaker 1:It was like.
Speaker 2:It was low, I think him, and hesitated. I I don't know. I think he, I think he was like he. He went back delper was reading his eyes the whole time so he saw that jordan was just staring down wicks. He didn't even try to look him off and so when he saw that he tried to throw it. And then he tried to. Probably maybe I couldn't, couldn't tell from the game tape, but if he was trying to like maybe take it back, but it was too late because it wasn't enough. It wasn't even enough on it to get to Wicks for where Wicks was. So that means either A he did hesitate and that caused the ball to be even lower. B Wicks ran the wrong route. Maybe he was supposed to run a slant and then stop on the first down marker, like as a curl route instead of a slant. Or C it was a done play from the get-go, and even LaFleur said that as much. Lafleur did take the hit for the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Again, it was one of those things where I think a whole bunch of other people, a whole bunch of bloggers, have said this that jim schwartz just has the floor's number. He's had his number every single. I think he's like, oh and three against shorts. He just shorts just knows how to game because even though the floor's game plan, his play column, was kind of like all it was kind of erratic because he didn't really like try to develop plays off, plays in formations. He was trying to see whatever would work and, honestly, with the offensive line having probably one of its poorest performances ever as a green bay packer team across the board, I mean I agree it was a bad pass. It got them into scoring distance. They basically had to like not only did they, they needed penalties. Even though they got there, they needed penalties to be able to punch it in and score. The fact of the matter is that Jordan did get them back into. If he was, I'll say this, if he threw that pick, then he came back and went three and out and didn't get him in scoring distance. I think everybody could be like, yeah, jordan isn't clutch, he's not the guy, whatever you want to say, right, but the fact of the guy, whatever you want to say right, but the fact matters, you're 100 right, he got them into scoring distance. He did his job. Honestly, at that point I would have been even more aggressive, I probably would have, even just I would just, I would have, instead of, like you know, because josh jacobs fumbled it and almost lost the ball right there too right, it's like nobody I don't think anybody played their best game in that game, minus maybe a block by Savion where he basically de-cleated a corner and then maybe, like Rashawn, gary, having two sacks. But the truth of the matter is Jordan did his job. Again, special teams failed him.
Speaker 2:It's a story that us, as Packer fans, have been unfortunately too familiar with, and this goes back to the second coach that I wanted fired for the last three years, and that's Luke Buckus. I think Luke Buckus is an op, he's a fricking bears. You know alumni, because his dad was a former bear, dick Buckus. And all I'm saying is like I've just I know we've seen development on the offensive line, but I have yet to like, honestly, our run blocking has been terrible. It was terrible last year, it's terrible this year.
Speaker 2:Uh, and the decision making by the coaching staff to and I said this in one of my posts where it's like okay, you have jordan morgan, who's been playing left guard and left tackle all of training camp. He's never once played right tackle. You brought in canard to play right tackle on a pinch, who played pretty well when tom got hurt, you know when he came in for tom for a little bit. And then you had belton, who played pretty well when tom got hurt, but instead you decide to go with morgan or right tackle when he's never played that position. The decision making by this coaching staff drives me crazy. It doesn't make any sense. Like why put a guy out there who's been playing left side for all his career as an nfl player and as a college player? You put him on a side where he hasn't even practiced? Like what was the point of that? It's like they were just trying to lose the game. Like I don't understand the thought process there. Like you have belton, who played a right tackle and did decent, you had canard, who you brought in with a six-round pick, who did decent against detroit. I mean you have options there whether you throw in a guy there who never plays a position and all you're doing is just stunting his growth again.
Speaker 2:Whoever had made that decision should be gone, because we've seen that happen time and time again now. We saw it in other playoff games when they started Billy Turner on one leg instead of starting Yash against the Niners. We've seen it with other decisions on the offensive line that just don't make any sense whatsoever Cross-training these guys and just continually rotating them out and rotating them in to get them snaps. This isn't like college and this isn't preseason. We're in NFL now. I'm sorry. We're in a regular season. We need to start making better decisions. That was just dumb to me. I'm with you. The team, the defense, is the only bright spot, even though they might have given up 10 points or whatever, but they did their job. If your defense gives up 10 points, you should win every single game.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I can completely see that and I was just re-watching that interception there by Jordan Love throwing that and the way that it was set up. It was man-to-man to start it and then we saw him drop off there and drop onto Wix in a coverage and then he had help come over the top which actually took care of Kraft then. So they disguised it. They disguised it well there and he ended up just helping down just enough, got into the right spot at the right time interception and we saw the rest of it there.
Speaker 1:Were the pass gone there, though you think I don't think it was, the more I look at it. I don't think so.
Speaker 3:I really don't think it just looks like a bad throw.
Speaker 1:It looks like a bad throw, jordan. I really don't think it just looks like a bad throw. It looks like a bad throw. Jordan Love had pressure in his face. There was a bad throw. It was just all around bad. It was just all around bad. There. I would agree with that 100%. I think the coverage confused them. I think he threw one last hurrah. Play at them the triple slam. He kind of like they knew what was coming. Like you said before, they kind of knew it. And they play at him the triple sign. He kind of like they knew what was coming. Like you said before, there they kind of knew it and they just jumped it. They jumped out and they jumped wicks and we saw it there once again and, like you said, it was just, uh, an issue. And we're going to talk about a matt lafleur quote when we come back here. We got a matt lafleur quote, what he had to say in the press conference. We're going to jump onto that and then we're going to look ahead. We're going to look ahead to what the Packers have coming up here. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here is brought to you by B&H Concrete Lifting.
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Speaker 1:So, ummer, we went to the break.
Speaker 1:We were talking packers.
Speaker 1:They're kind of just venting right our discretions over this, uh, past week.
Speaker 1:There I want to talk about a matt lafleur quote that I couldn't agree with anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he came out and he was talking to the press conference and we saw, we kind of talked about it actually last week.
Speaker 1:It kind of made me, it reminded me of last week because we talked about Rashid Walker and his comments of saying, basically, like this team could go undefeated I believe we can go undefeated and Matt LaFleur came out after this game and said I've said it a million times to you guys, to the media he's talking to the media here, but I don't think obviously I've said it enough to our team the goal is to go 1-0 every week.
Speaker 1:It irritates me he used another word there, but I'm not going to use it it irritates me when we start talking about things outside of the next game, things that are done down the road. Focus on, keep the focus on the present, on the now, and worry about getting better each and every day. He didn't mention Rasheed Walkerer, but he's like yeah, we saw the quote from rashid walker. We know this is pointing in that direction there. I absolutely love that quote because this is I'm gonna point this to the lions. Okay, I'm just gonna point this to lions for a second. The lions lost to the packers week one and a lot of people were skeptical of this lion's team.
Speaker 1:The last two weeks they have trounced their opponents and I get, it was the bears, but they just went to baltimore and just shellacked baltimore in their place. Now I'm not saying that they're the greatest team in the world or anything like that, but what they did was they showed, we refocused, we got ourselves back into it, we took care of, we went to a a great opponent's place and we took care of. Yeah, and that is the mentality that I think matt lafleur is trying to, you know, instill in his team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the question is is the message getting across? That's the question, and it also comes down to then, in my opinion, leadership in that locker room, because it can't always just be Matt LaFleur.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Now it's got to be. What does Micah Parsons say? What does Jordan Love say? How do those guys, your leaders in that locker room, your captains right, I don't know if they're there who's the captain of that team? I'm blanking on it off the top of my head right now, but your guys, your leaders, josh Jacobs, all them guys walking in there and saying this is how it's got to be. We all got to focus. It starts now. It starts now in practice. It doesn't start on Sunday, it starts now in practice. Now in practice, it's one on Tuesday, wednesday, thursday. That's when it's one. It's not one on Sunday, it's one in the practice. It's one now focusing on the present, getting better every day.
Speaker 1:And I think what Matt LaFleur is saying is, basically, this team likes to look past opponents, yeah, and not take opponents seriously. And that's what it's. And I'm going to hold Matt LaFleur to that same credit, because I don't think he drew up a very good game plan for this one. I don't. I don't think he had a good game plan going into it, and it's hard for an offense to get going when your game plan isn't there. And you have to, and I get, you have the game plan for having miles garrett in and miles garrett out, but you got to be able to still do things with the football in either situation. And he's like flipping through an entire playbook, like we can only run this one miles Garrett's out. We can only run this one miles Garrett's in. It's like, okay, well, let's find out what works when he's in there, because we have to just pretty much game plan for him to be there.
Speaker 2:They call it time when he was out how many timeouts did?
Speaker 1:have burned the penalties in this game, everything in between, this team resorted back to old packer football. Yeah, the things that we thought were gone are back. Yep, and the question is now and this is where I love this quote by matt lafleur what is this next week show?
Speaker 2:yeah, how does this?
Speaker 1:how do they respond to the adversity? That's my question. So our thoughts on this quote from matt lafleur and just kind of the moving forward portion here for the Green Bay Packers I think LaFleur is very much make the main thing, the main thing.
Speaker 2:I feel like he's all about living in the present, living in the now, because if you think too far ahead or too far behind, you're going to always be in one of those situations. I think you know, having confidence like Sheed Walker had, hey, that's great. I want you to be confident. Be confident. You can't have that kind of statement, that kind of confidence, then come out and have one of the worst offensive line created by pff ratings out of all your office alignment, even though they all sucked, you being the worst. I mean to the point where miles garrett beat you so cleanly that you're screaming to jordan to run like it's a sequel out of get out like run jordan, run like I mean, I'm sorry, it's literally coming out of a movie like Water. It's insane to me and I love the floor trying to basically calm the waves. Tell these guys hey, I need you to refocus, re-energize, get back on the plan. Okay, we had a bad game, we were thinking too much of ourselves. We're trying to get ahead of our skis. We're over here trying to say that we're going to go undefeated. All right, we did that. It didn't turn out so well. Let's focus on what needs to happen, get ready for Dallas and go to Dallas Because, at the end of the day, matt LaFleur is a good leader.
Speaker 2:He is a good coach. I know there's been a lot of commentary about him being soft or, and the day his, his, his ability to have his thumb on the pulse of the team is is pretty good. He reminds me a lot of McCarthy in that sense, and he's not Mr Like bravado. He's not Mr Like I'm going to act hard. He's not a fake alpha by any means, and I appreciate that about him. But I think that him taking the team and say, hey, guys, I really get back on track and we need to focus on just one at a time.
Speaker 2:And it's cliche and it's corny and it's very simple, but the fact is, if you stick to that motto, before you know it, the season's going to be over and maybe you have 11, 12, 13 wins and you have a first week bye, but you're getting into the playoffs. You might be a divisional winner and that's where you go from there, because we winner. And that's where you go from there, because we're in week four now. Right, yeah, talking about undefeated seasons and all this kind of stuff. It's like look at the day, having confidence is one thing, but if you can't back it up, then it's like why you can say that yep, no 100, I 100 agree with you there and you need that.
Speaker 1:It's the question of, like I said before and like you're saying, it's it's the question of does this get across to this team now? Do they respond? How do they respond? Do they follow his leadership? Because you got a lot of guys in the room right now who you got your Rasheed Walkers and then you got your Micah Parsons. They got their own personalities right.
Speaker 1:They got their own personalities, but it's all about and at the end of the day, it's all about everybody buying it, buying into the model, buying into the system, buying into what Matt LaFleur, what Halfley, what everybody's trying to do. That's what it's all about. At the end of the day, can you get those guys to do it? And this is what he's trying to do with this quote, in my opinion, is he's trying to get everybody to buy into a simple model. Go one model, go 1-0 every week. Focus on today, not tomorrow. Don't focus on next week because dallas is coming up. Don't focus on dallas, let's worry about the browns. Then you got by week after that and then you got. I mean some weeks where you got aaron rogers, you know you gotta focus on that game against rogers.
Speaker 1:Don't look too far ahead. Right, look at this game today, then worry about that. I, I completely agree. I. I love that quote by him. So now Packers, now they try to reboot, try to reboot. Here we move forward. We see what we're going to see this next week and who do they got coming up this week.
Speaker 2:Dallas, dallas and Dallas. I just said, you know, I just said, now I'm blanking.
Speaker 1:They got Dallas coming up this week here. I mean, what are some of the things I guess there's a lot of things that we want to see in this one. What are some of the things that you're looking for for this team against Dallas for a?
Speaker 2:bounce back. Well, I'm hoping that when the Packers are on offense, they don't have a tambourine playing in the PA for artificial noise Every time they're about to hike the ball. That needs to be investigated. That was insane to me. When I saw that, I was like, and I heard that, I was like how do you even let that happen? Like that was so.
Speaker 2:For me, I think the biggest thing is there's no cd lamb this week. Probably he's going to be out. You need to really focus on trying to find a way to cause disruption and pressure on dak. Dak is a pretty good quarterback. He has legs, he has an arm, he still has weapons. And george pickens and also and jake ferguson that is a scary alvarez uh favorite. And then on top of that too, um, you know, giovante williams is definitely kind of really come back to his pre-acl form when he was with denver. Um, that defense is led by matt eberfuss. Didn't look good at all against caleb williams and chicago bears last week. So this is a get-right game for Jordan in that offense.
Speaker 2:We really just need to clean up the penalties, because it feels like it's 2024 again. We're already second in the league in false start penalties and in pre-snap penalties and with the pre-snap false starts, as well as holding, we're second. That's what I'm saying. These are the kind of things, these mental issues. They need to fix them up, because this has been a constant problem since last year and if these are starting rearing their ugly head, I'm sorry we need to start firing people. There's people that should not be there in the positions they are doing these things, because us bringing back the same people and over and over again result is literally the definition of insanity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no saying yep. So I just think that I just want to see them get jacobs going. Okay, this is the perfect game for that. I think kenny clark unfortunately got hurt last week too, so he may or may not be out there. I want parsons to get like five sacks just to really rub it into jerry jones, and I just want, I just want them to play.
Speaker 2:There's no such thing as a perfect game, uh, but last time jordan love and the green Bay Packers were in Dallas, they pretty much had a perfect game until they got ruined with a bad pass. So no pick, but it was like a missed pass, I think, or something crazy Me. I just want to see them play a complete football game and I just want to see everybody get back on track because I want them to go into the bye week on a high note, because once they come on that bye week, they got the Bengals, who really aren't the same without Joe Burrow, but they're still a pretty good football team with a lot of weapons, and you have to be able to counteract that. What do you think?
Speaker 1:100%, 100%. I am right there with the penalties. Focusing back in. That's the biggest things I want to. If you're the Green Bay Packers, you come into this game, you are the better team. If you come into this game, you are the better team. If you do the little things, if you focus in, you limit the penalties, you do all the right things in this game. You win. I seriously think so. If jordan love plays as he has been, the defense plays well, the playmakers do their things, the offensive line takes care of their business. You're fine. You just got to clean up the silly mistakes. This dallas cowboys team they got. Did they get ran by? Who the heck just ran them last week there?
Speaker 2:Oh, chicago, chicago ran them last week, two weeks ago.
Speaker 1:They just got. I mean, they took what Overtime?
Speaker 2:to Giants.
Speaker 1:So I mean this is a Cowboys team where Dak's playing well but CD's not out there. You love Ferguson but like, like, there's nothing really crazy about. I love kenny clark, so kenny clark, but outside of that, I mean there's nothing really to write home about this team. This is a a get right game. But we said that about the browns. You gotta focus, you still, you still.
Speaker 2:I mean I know that that defense for the browns is legit, like we need to remember that number one defense right now and what I said when I say I was like this will be our first test against true defense and unfortunately we failed, so that is a fantastic defense that you hope you never have to see again so
Speaker 1:exactly. That's just the way that that went. But this cowboys team is not that. But it doesn't mean as and like matt lafleur saying, you look past him, you take him lightly, you do any of that kind of stuff. You go out there, you win every down. You win's what matters. I completely agree with that and that's what they got to do. They got to focus back in for Dallas, and that's what I'm looking for is the focus of this team going into that game against Dallas. Ummer, thank you, as always, for hopping on here.
Speaker 2:Let the people know where to find you out there, of course, man. Thank you for always having me. Man, you can find us at Coast to Coast Packers on Twitter. We're on Twitter. We're on Instagram. We're on TikTok. We're on. I think that's it right now, yeah, and also on Kick. We're also on Kick as well, too. So, yeah, you can find us everywhere. We have our show coming up on Thursday. We're going to probably talk about the same stuff and some more stuff, and maybe seeing how the injury report plays out here, because there was a few guys that did drop out in this past game. As always, trey, thanks for having me, man.
Speaker 1:Of course it's awesome, as always. Thank you guys and make sure you guys are checking him out. He's got great stuff there and he's always keeping you up to date on everything that's going on. The crazy takes everything in between. That's all you need out there from Ummer there.
Speaker 1:So, thank you as always, ummer, we'll be back here. After this, quick support on the go with trage. I'm your host, trage, as we come back here on this wednesday. And hey, this next segment, kyle, stopping by, we're talking a little nfl. This next segment is brought to you by foreman's hardware. They offer you everything from home essentials to farm supplies, house to farm, grills to drills. Foreman's hardware has got you covered. Visit today in loyal colby or metford, wisconsin. Tell them, I Tell them, trade sent you. Get 5% off your purchase there. Get down there for the Friday Frenzy. Tons of great deals. I believe this week is dog treats. So if you want to check out the dog treat sale they got going on maybe your furry friend needs a dog treat Check them out there. Formance Hardware they got some deals right now down there for the Friday Frenzy. So, kyle, how are we doing Wednesday? The NFL season we just got through week three, we're heading into week four.
Speaker 3:How are we doing on this Wednesday? I'm good, it's fall, great time of the year, playoff baseball is in the air. Nfl season like this, great time to be a sports fan Loving it.
Speaker 1:It is an awesome time to be a sports fan Loving it. It is an awesome time to be a sports fan. You are 100% correct there. So, kyle, as we do every single week, we have the Mellow Yellow Minute, the little trivia portion of the show, here in honor of my grandpa. He loved Mellow Yellow, he loved trivia shows. So we make sure we do a little trivia every single week. We usually do a top 10. And this week we have the top 10 top selling sodas in the United States. We're going to do one through five, we'll do one through five, we'll go one through five, we'll see. We'll see what kind of Kyle comes up with this in the one. So we have Sprite, pepsi, Diet Coke, dr Pepper and Coca-Cola Classic. Kyle, what do you got Number five on the list there All right Sprite Pepsi Coke Dr Pepper.
Speaker 1:We got Diet Coke and Coke. They're different. They're not combined for this one, they're separated.
Speaker 3:Okay, so five I'm going to go with. Hmm, I'll go.
Speaker 1:Diet Coke five. Diet Coke number five Solid first pick. Alright number four we have Pepsi Sprite, dr Pepper and Coke left on the list.
Speaker 3:Four. I'm going to go, Dr Pepper.
Speaker 1:Not Dr Pepper. Okay, I respect that.
Speaker 3:dr pepper might surprise you before I'll go sprite not sprite, not sprite in number four spot it's actually a little worried about that, because that's usually my choice. Uh, all, right then four has got to be pepsi pepsi is number four.
Speaker 1:Number three kyle. So three, I'll go sprite. Sprite is number three, sprite is number three. We have two and one left on the board. There you got coke and dr pepper I'll say dr pepper to coke one ding, ding, ding.
Speaker 1:Dr pepper comes in at number two. That's surprising. That is surprising. There's, like I maybe know like two people in my entire life that drink dr pepper. I there, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of people. So they're those people that drink dr pepper must buy all of the dr pepper and that's what makes the sales go way through the roof. They just they have an unlimited stock of dr pepper in their basement and nobody else can have it. They just that's what they have. The world ends. They're going to be fine because they have all the dr pepper they could ever want in their basement there.
Speaker 1:So, top selling solos for the week diet, coke, pepsi, sprite, dr pepper and number one being coca-cola. So, kyle, as we do every single week, the nfl season wrapped up last week. There are a lot of interesting ball games that we had. Kyle, let's go through our rankings for the week. So, going into this week, into week four, give me where, give me your top five, give me your top five in the NFC. Who are you looking at? Who are in your? Who is in your top five NFC football teams?
Speaker 3:Okay. So NFC, I would say I'll go Eagles one. I just feel like they're the champ. They should be at the top. They're not winning pretty, but they're winning. That's good enough. They're just finding ways to win. I like that.
Speaker 1:Two.
Speaker 3:Here's where it gets interesting. I would say I'll put the Bucs at two. I think with the Bucs they're another team like the Eagles. It may not be pretty, but if they're in the game late, baker will find a way to get the win. So I'll have them at two right now. Three I will go with. I'll put the Packers at three. I will go with. I'll put the Packers at three. I still like what they have. Brown's game aside, that's one of those where you lose it and you go, you scratch your head for a little bit and you say you know, whatever they'll be fine. The Packers have all the elements to be a really good team, so I'll put them at three. Good team, so I'll put them at three.
Speaker 3:Four I guess I I I want the brands of four I think are a team that's built to play in january. They have a tough test this week against the eagles. You'll learn a lot about them. But Stafford and that group, you know verse on defense, I think they're. I'll put them at four right now. And then five it's tough, tough, tough. I'll put the Niners at five. You got to give them credit. Brock Purdy's out, but they're still winning. With Mac Jones. The competition hasn't necessarily been fierce, but they're playing well. I'll give them five.
Speaker 1:The only one that maybe you could slip in there would be the Lions. That'd be the only one that I would say could possibly slip into that top five just because of the performance that they had against the Ravens.
Speaker 3:I would. I would actually put the Lions at five. That's right. That top five. Just because of the the performance that they had against the ravens, I would. I would actually put the lines at five. That that's right. What they did against the ravens was impressive. I love that dan campbell has that team. They have an identity. Yeah, ravens lost that game because they were scrambling for what they wanted to be lines, lions lineup, smash-mouse football play, action, gadget plays. So, yeah, the Lions have to be in the five, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you can see it. You can see the 49ers slipping in there, you can see the Rams being in there, the Lions, it's just when you watch them against the Ravens. That's the one that set me apart. It wasn't the Bears game, I don't care about the bears game. It was going to baltimore and winning that game pretty handily and refocusing in right, this team. You're missing the coordinators. All this talk about you after the packer game and it was like which direction were they gonna head? And we see this team. It's like they're back, they're good, they figured it out, they're good. So I like that one. I like that top five there. Let's look over at the afc. Okay, afc picture. Who do you got top five?
Speaker 3:so afc. I feel like the top two teams are kind of set. Uh, I would go buffalo one and then chargers two. I think those two have separated themselves in the afc. Uh, chargers love uh the offense and you know, defensively they can get after it in buffalo. Look, josh allen is just playing really well right now. Uh, three, here's where you can get a little, because the fc is just really jumbled.
Speaker 3:I think process of elimination. I'd have to put the colts at three. I don't necessarily buy into them, but they're just playing really well right now while a lot of teams in the AFC are not. I'll put the Colts at three. Four, I guess, despite the loss. I'll put the Ravens at four. I don't like it, but offensively they're really good.
Speaker 3:I don't like their defense at all. Roquan Smith in the middle of the field can have trouble in the running game and pass game. Humphrey gets picked on by opposing offenses, but Lamar, derrick, henry, I think they'll figure it out. So I'll put them at four and then five. Good luck with that. This may be crazy. I'll put the Chiefs at five. It's like the best of a lot of mediocre teams right now. They have the Ravens this week, so big test for them. They look like they got back to some good habits. Against the Giants. It is the Giants, but there's questions with them as well. Is their offense good enough to beat top tier teams? I can't buy into the Jags. I just I just can't. So I'll put the chiefs at five.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a weird. You know, joe Burrow going down kind of changed the landscape of everything. So, yeah, I would agree. The AFC is legends game of everything. So, yeah, I would agree, the afc is kind of kind of wide open plus the texans. Cj stroud and the texans team haven't been able to put it all back together. It's just, it's uh, it's a down day. The afc is definitely down. The nfc seems like that's going to be the hot league right now and the afc is kind of like ah well, you got the bills and the ravens are sticking around and you got some decent teams, but it's not.
Speaker 1:It's not up to snuff, I don't think yeah, well, I mean, it's gonna work its way out. It's week three, right, work in the week four it'll work its way out. We'll see some of these teams take off there. So power rankings done there. Kyle's power rankings for the week. Kyle, let's flip over. I want to talk a little mlb. We haven't. We haven't really talked a lot of mlb in a while.
Speaker 1:You know, nfl people get you know there's enough about the nfl. I, like I said I talked about it last week. I believe it's like people need to remember the packers are playing well and that was before the you know, the browns game. I was like backers are playing well, but we got to remember guys like, hey, the brewers are still playing baseball right now. They're in a hot, hot race right now. Now they just locked up the central, they locked up either the one or two seed in the playoffs. As we're watching this Padres team kind of light up Bruce Zimmerman there. So it's kind of looking like it's, you know, going to go rough here against the Padres in game two. So the Brewers we see them battling it out right now with the Phillies for that number one seed in the National League and then the Brewers also battling it out with the Blue Jays and the Phillies for the number one overall seed in all of baseball there.
Speaker 1:So, kyle, I mean grand scheme of things. We talk about, you know, locking up spots right now, everything like that. What are you seeing right now? Who do you like? You know, just kind of give me, as we kind of wind down this race here, the National League's heating up. You got the Cubs, they locked up a spot, so did the padres, but the mets, reds and diamondbacks are all battling for that last spot there. The cardinals are surprisingly not out of it, but they're still technically out of it. And then you look over at the al side of it. You have nothing locked up. You have a tight race there between the yankees, red sox, tigers, astros, rangers. I mean the Rangers are most likely out, they're five and a half back. Most likely they're going to be eliminated here pretty much today, as we're talking on Tuesday. But, kyle, I mean just give me a grand scheme of things right now. What are you seeing right now? Wild card race and everything like that.
Speaker 3:Like you said, it is crazy, like the weird thing is, because of the Guardians' hot run, scooble and the Tigers could find themselves completely out of the playoffs, whereas a month ago they might have been a safe bet. And that's where September baseball is really intriguing and full of a lot of drama. The Blue Jays have a tough series against Red Sox this week, the Red Sox taking game one. That's a series that the Red Sox need because the Tigers and Astros are right there on their heels so they can't really give up games. Right now the Mariners are battling with the Astros. The Astros seem like they might have been in lock two, three weeks ago.
Speaker 3:So the American League is crazy. The Blue Jays do have their spot locked up, probably to win the AL and beat that one seed going into the playoffs. But I think there's some matchups that could be intriguing, like we might get Yankees-Red Sox wildcard round. I think baseball would love to see that. You know you could get, I don't know, mariners-astros or something Like it's so much up in the air that I love it. And then the National League. I think the fact that the Reds are hanging around intrigues me. I think their final push in the season. They face some tough opponents. Call me crazy the Diamondbacks might find themselves in the wild card.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't that be nuts? After trading the roster.
Speaker 3:That's the weird stuff about baseball. Like the Diamondbacks gave up on the season and it's like, as the Mets started dropping, they started playing well and the Mets have kept them in this and now they may slide in there and, overt know, overtake the reds and the mets to claim that final wild card.
Speaker 1:That's crazy and it's baffling, it really is, and you're talking about great matchups there. You could potentially see like a phillies, if the phillies were to get I believe was if they got the two seed, you could see phillies dodgers end up playing each other there in the second round. Already in the NLDS you could be talking Cubs, brewers in the NLDS. There is a lot of good matchups that could roll across. I mean, right now you're watching the Brewers and Padres and I mean the Brewers and this is where a lot of fans because, as I'm talking right now they're going to be game three of the series. Here we're watching game two. They're pitching bruce zimmerman. You guys ever heard of bruce zimmerman? Remember. If they do and I'm I'm hoping they come back, win this game, you know anyways, but if they do lose this game, remember they're. They're pitching bruce zimmerman tonight here. So we got to remember that at the end of the day I there's.
Speaker 1:The brewers have some injury concerns heading into the postseason. Here, as we saw brandon wood, he got another opinion from a surgeon. They're talking about surgery now on that arm. There it's looking like it could be another year of Brandon Woodruff going down before the postseason. And so the Brewers pitching staff looking like it might take a hit. You already have Quintana out.
Speaker 1:I guess I want to look outside perspective, kyle, because you're kind of looking. He's. He's hoping to be back, but we're talking about an eye out with the lat, with the lat strain there. So if Woodruff can't go, there's talk of Mizorowski going to the bullpen. Mizorowski's struggled this season. It seems like there's more bad outings than good. I mean, I'm good with Freddie Priester and Quintana going in a rotation there.
Speaker 1:Maybe maybe you throw a gas or maybe you throw a. Uh, maybe you throw. I mean, here's my question because I was asked this If you're Brandon Woodruff, you've done this before. You've had had this problem. He's been pitching with it apparently for like a month. It's made his velocity go down in his fastball. If you're Brandon Woodruff, do you just say screw it, because you have, for multiple seasons now, had to sit out of the playoffs and now you're looking at another year where you're going to have to have surgery anyways. Do you just say maybe I'll just give her a run? I mean, this was a question I was asked and I was like I guess it depends how bad it is. You know the lats train and everything but you. You might be talking about retirement anyways, if you have to have surgery again, so are you just? I mean, in your opinion, do you just say screw it?
Speaker 3:I think the temptation will be there and look, maybe for Woodruff, you put him out in the bullpen and you go break glass in case of an emergency type thing where maybe you need an out to kind of close out an inning or something like that, and he feels good that day, you try it. Yeah, I wouldn't put him in the starting rotation because I feel like, yeah, if you have three, four starters you believe in, you can make it through the postseason. So I think you're fine there. I think Mizorowski in the bullpen makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 3:Some guys may struggle on the mound as a starter, but you put him in the bullpen, they come out for an inning or so and they catch people off guard. So I think that would be the smart move to make. And yeah, woodruff I would put in the bullpen, kind of like as a long reliever If you're up a few runs late, you don't want to burn like a key setup or your closer, and you want to throw Woodruff out there and see if he can get you two, three outs. Why not?
Speaker 1:It's a crazy risk. It's a crazy risk at the end of the day. It might be crazy to even think about trying to pitch through an injury like that. I guess he's going to see what that surgeon says, what that opinion says back to him, but it just ah to have another year where you're heading Brandon Woodruff set up to be that guy in your rotation and he just goes down it. It really does suck here. It really does suck to see. So I mean any last final thoughts there of the MLB before we, before I let you go here, kyle.
Speaker 3:No, I look. I think these races are fun. This is what the league wants, and it's going to be a crazy final week because I believe wild card starts next.
Speaker 1:Tuesday, next Tuesday already. Isn't that crazy? It's like the final game of the season. You're like basically day and then you're back. So I mean, yeah, it's, wow, it is. It's just like that MLB postseason baseball is going to be upon us. Next week already, the Brewers they have the Padres right now. Next week already, the Brewers they have the Padres right now, and then they're going to wrap it up with the Reds coming up next week there.
Speaker 1:So, kyle, thank you as always for hopping on the show here. Let the people know where to find you out there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look up Chopping Up the Bit YouTube, facebook easiest way to find me and then you'll find the links to the other socials there.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you as always, kyle, make sure you guys are checking them out. Out there. Great stuff, mlb post-season coming up. He's going to be talking about that, nfl, everything in between. He's got great stuff there on his page. So we're going to come back here. We're going to wrap up the show for the day on the backside of the eye break. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin. I'm your host trade as we come back here on this Wednesday and we wrap it the day here. This last little segment is brought to you by Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood, wisconsin. Expert traditional physical therapy and structural integration programming. Call for flexible scheduling and evaluations. Just call Chad down there at Sport and Spine Clinic of Greenwood. He'll get you right in doing whatever you were doing, feeling better than ever.
Speaker 1:So we were just talking about Brandon Woodruff there, a little bit for the Brewers, talking about MLB and NFL, everything. If you missed any portion of the show, make sure you're checking out across all podcast platforms. Just search Wisconsin sports on the go trades. Give us a like, follow, subscribe. Also, check us out across all social media platforms.
Speaker 1:We were talking about a little bit there and I mean we understand the lat strain, we understand the. You know it. It's good, it's a terrible injury, everything like that. We were just kind of saying, like it could be it for Brandon Woodruff Do you want to pitch through that kind of injury?
Speaker 1:No, pain tolerance, everything like that is going to have to be very high. Is he worried about injuring it worse? It's all those different intangibles going to it. We don't expect him to. It's just a question of does he finally or not finally? But does he just say, well, I'm just going to throw and see what happens, because apparently he's been doing it for a month now.
Speaker 1:So would he test it for postseason appearance? I don't know, that's a question. I guess we're going to have to wait and see. From the sounds of it, from what he said, probably not, but maybe, just maybe. I don't know, we'll see what kind of happens there. The brewers they're gonna be wrapping up the season here and then next week here we start out postseason play, so can't wait to kind of see that there. So we're gonna be talking postseason baseball next week here. We got lots getting to there. We got packers talking about next week badgers, everything in between, as the badgers will get back in action next week there. So tons to get to next week on the show. Thank you all for tuning in tonight. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your wednesday and week, but until I talk to you guys again,