Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag

October 8 Hour 2: Packers coming off bye, NFL Talk and MLB Playoffs

Tragen Episode 343

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We challenge the Packers to prove they’re contenders by turning a 14-point favorite into a statement and lay out what leadership, urgency, and aggressive play-calling should look like against Cincinnati. We also examine Jeff Hafley’s bounce-back test, power rankings, fantasy targets, and why adaptable teams win in October.

• why a big line vs Cincinnati is a measuring stick, not a comfort blanket
• how Green Bay’s pass rush must punish a weak Bengals offensive line
• why LaFleur needs to remove the training wheels and trust Jordan Love
• halftime adjustments, defensive accountability, and Hafley’s response
• leadership and urgency at two-minute, not just coach-side urgency
• ditching “self‑inflicted wounds” as a crutch and raising standards
• NFC and AFC power rankings with Detroit’s ascent and AFC volatility
• fantasy streamers and pickups for the coming week
• MLB playoffs insight: contact, pressure, and winning multiple ways

Make sure you guys are checking them out there across social media. Make sure you guys check out Coast the Coast Packers on Thursday there as we dive deeper into the Packers and what to expect in that Bengals game.
If you guys missed any portion of the show today, make sure you're checking it out next day across all podcast platforms. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade.
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Text me, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914.


SPEAKER_01:

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 a fine sponsor, and that is Badger Tree Care, the tree removal, tree trimming, pruning, full cleanup, small lot clearing, storeroom cleanup. They do it all at Badger Tree Care there. Check them out, Facebook, so anywhere across social media. Search them up there, Badger Tree Care. Call Trevor Bart there, 715-937-3276. They do fantastic work. You see some of the images, images of what they do. You have a tree, it's gonna bite the dust. It's gonna go away. You won't even notice that it's there. You won't even notice that it was there before. They do that good of work. It's like brand new. You look at your backyard, you're like, where did that tree go? You can't even tell that it was there at any point. They do fantastic work there. Badger tree care, Trevor Barth down there. So, Almer is back here for a second little segment here. We're gonna talk a little bit more Packers here, get ready for this Bengals game. And we went to the break, and I asked you guys the question. I said, if this Packers team can't find a way to take care of the Bengals and basically stomp them as we believe they should. I think they're going to this game. What are they? Like 14 point. They're 14-point favorites in this one, I'm pretty sure. Which I know doesn't seem like it's does that seem crazy? I don't know. It is in the NFL world, that is. 14 points is a lot. Usually, games that they expect to be blowouts, the favorite is like seven. Like, so the 14 is a lot. That's a lot on the betting line. So they're favored by 14 and a half. Is this game to you? It's good. I think it tells us a lot. I really do. Yeah. Is this game? Is this game gonna tell you a lot about where this Packers team is at due to the outcome of this?

SPEAKER_02:

I I think that um I don't feel like these next two games against the Bengals and the Cardinals are gonna be a true depiction as to where the Packers are at. I feel the reason why I say that is because when you look at the Bengals, yeah, they got Flacco, they have some amazing weapons on offense, but their offensive line is almost as bad, if not worse, than the Browns was. And their defense is nowhere even close to being as good as the Browns was. Now they got some good pass rushers. Now, don't get me wrong, but you know, uh Shamar Stewart hasn't really played most of the year. I don't know if he'll be in for this game, but Hendrickson is a beast. But that's about it, though. I don't need the floor to get uh too scared about one pass rusher again, like he did with Miles Garrett. Uh but truth be told, I feel like this should be a game will be at home. That's another big difference, right? It should be a game that, if anything, shows that the offense should pick up where he left off in Dallas, and then defensively, we should have a better output than we did against the Cowboys. Same thing with the Cardinals. I feel like the Cardinals next week up, not trying to think too far in advance, but Kyle Murray has been very inconsistent. I'm a Murray fan, but he has been so inconsistent, I'm having a hard time supporting him. And on top of that, too, they have a lot of things going on there. We got coaches, you know, you know, semi-fighting players for making some really bonehead mistakes, and then God knows what else is going on over there. Yeah, but the truth be told is these next two games are like maybe get right games for the Packers, right? And I don't want to I'll put it this way if they if they come out and lay an egg, okay, then you might be right. We might be concerned about something, okay? Like because this defense is probably one of the worst defenses we've we're gonna face all year. I mean, that's they you know, they hired a call a college coach out of uh Notre Dame, I believe, and they get it traded away a lot of assets, they gave up on Lou Amaro, who's killing it right now in Indianapolis. And yeah, I mean, if anything, maybe a shootout because you know, maybe Flacco get the ball to their monster weapons with uh Chase and Higgins. Uh, but no, I I definitely think that this should be a game where they're walking away pretty happy with uh at least a two-score win, you know. Like, yep, back to our last segment, it's one of those things where we just need the offense, we need the floor to stop playing nice, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

I agree 100%. Like you said in the first segment, they're all gas, no breaks. That's 100%. I agree with you there. And this is a game, I just feel like if you have, and you don't want to say, like, oh, what I'm gonna see here in week six of the NFL season is gonna dictate what the end of this year is gonna look like. But I'm saying it right now, if you can't, if this game is like 24 to 21, I don't come away from this feeling great. You won. Go good, you won, but you won by a field goal against a team who has no business being on the same field as you. If you have Super Bowl aspirations, you you have to at some point here put together a complete game for me. Look like, look like you are the team that we went into the year thinking you were. When you got Micah Parsons, and we were and everybody said, Oh boy, watch out for this team. This defense is darn good. Micah Parsons isn't even playing full time yet, and this defense is this good. What's gonna happen when he's first playing full time? They're gonna give up 48 points to the Dallas Cowboys. That's how good it was gonna get. You have to figure something in this game, like you said, over these next couple weeks here, something has to give to the point where we look at this team and say, Yep, that's the team we were expecting. This is the team that I was ready to watch. This is it. Yeah, this is something they're building off of. Because right now, if you actually look at it, what they had to start the year to now, it's like they got hot and cooled off right away. So now what? Where do you go from here? These are two weeks in a row where I'm saying to myself, I want to see this team fulfill that 14-point dog right there. I want to see them let Jordan Love run wild. And it's the hard part, right? You you have a terrible defense, yet the Bengals still have good weapons. And now you had Joe Flacco, a guy to just deliver the football to him. That might be a good thing for him. But this offensive line for the Bengals, as you alluded to, stinks. They stink. So this pass rush for the Green Bay Packers, I hope they can get home. I hope they can, because if they can't, I'm worried about that too. There's a lot of things in here where you watch either it's that defensive line, the cornerbacks, I don't know about that because you got Jamar Chase, you got T. Higgins. That's gonna be a whole nother mess. But if you look at this, if the defensive line can't get home, the offensive line is struggling again, and the wide receivers can't get open and Jordan Love can't move the ball and the run game can't get going. Okay, I'm worried now. I am majorly worried because outside of Trey Hendrickson and some decent pass rush, it's nothing. There's nothing there to write home about. So, yes, if they do not, if they do not go into this game and stomp this team, I am I'm worried. I am just I don't, I'm not saying flush the season and like we got to trade it all away and we got to fire people, but I am definitely worried about the direction of this team, and I think it's gonna put into a lot of questions and the Matt LaFleur, like we were talking about there in segment one, where we said, well, you know, about this team and the leadership and the moving forward and everything like that, it's definitely gonna beg those questions to move in even more. And then LaFleur is gonna have a lot of questions to answer if this does not look good after this one. So looking at this Bengals game, okay. I had one thing real quick.

SPEAKER_02:

I had one thing real quick. You got it, you got it. All right, so last thing I want to say about that Cowboys game. The quarterback coach for Mr. uh whatchamacallit Brian Schottheimer was the former OC at Boston College. Mark Eccles talked about this on Pack a Day with Jason Perome. I actually talked about on Twitter. And I think that is the reason why that offense looks so good against our defense, because he had that institutional knowledge of how Halfley runs his defense, right? No different than when Shanahan and Peton would go against each other because you know Shanahan was Peton's OC too, right? And we played them in 2019. He eviscerated us because he said if we went up against this defense, I would have so much, it would be so easy for him. And he proved it. So just I feel like that might be a reason why our defense didn't look as good as it did. And also they know Parsons better than anybody because they hadn't for 40 years. So with that being said, now they've got the Bengals, now we got one of the worst ranked defenses going up against us. What were you saying? I'm so sorry. I hope I no, no, no, you're good, you're good.

SPEAKER_01:

That I I actually that was a great fact that you just brought into it, and that also brings into the question of how good is Jeff Afflee? Because, and this is why I say because if they do see the Dallas Cowboys again, because the Cowboys are playing some good football, there's a potential maybe something crazy happens and they end up getting into the playoffs some way, shape, or how, whatever. Maybe you do see a Cowboys team again. I mean, I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but maybe you do see a Cowboys team again. What happens round two? You know, that's that's kind of where I'm looking at is like what happens in round two? I'm not saying Dallas Cowboys are gonna go to the playoffs or anything like that, but it it does have that question of, you know, because you want to see even an adjustment at halftime, because I don't know if the Packers made a good adjustment at halftime to what was going on there. So Jeff Halfley, at the end of the day, like you're saying, he got, I mean, outcoached by a guy who knows him. So it's a question of how does Jeff Halfley come back from that? And what does the defense show from there? So I that's a great fact, and it's a great, it's gonna be a great uh to see how Jeff Halfley responds now to this is my worst called game of my entire NFL career. How do I come back from this? It's gonna tell you a lot about Jeff Halfley, and will we see him as a defensive coordinator next year or head coach? Because these are the things that other teams are looking at too, when they're saying to themselves, okay, what were his worst games and how did he bounce back? Because that's where we look at Matt LaFleur too, and where we judge him is okay, we're saying that one of well, the bank the Browns game wasn't a great game called by Matt LaFleur. The Cowboys game, it was a good game called by him, but some questionable moments. So now it's like, okay, how do you come back against this Bengals team? How'd he come back against the Cardinals? That's how you judge head coaches, that's how you judge coordinators. So I guess we're gonna see what kind of happens there. But what's going to this Bangles game? We got just a little bit here. Yeah, Joe Flacco comes over. Yep. Does that change your opinion a whole lot about you know what we saw or what we were gonna see in Jake Browning? Does that change that uh that feeling you have about this game?

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, not really, because I mean Browning isn't he's a vet too. He's just a backup vet, right? Flacco is a you know former Super Bowl champ, things like that. You know, he was definitely getting the ball out pretty quick. Um, I do feel like the offensive line for the Bengals is just nowhere, it's your worst, even though ranking-wise they're one up, but one step like they're the second worst, and the Browns were the worst. There's something about that offensive line where having Flacco back there, I don't think it makes a difference. And he will be the kind of dude who can get the ball to Higgins and Chase if he has time. Question is will he have time? I don't know if he'll have time against this our defense. I really don't. I mean, I think the defense is probably very upset about the way the game ended with the with the Cowboys and how they were literally probably they were they were close to 10 sacks that they just were just either one second too close or just missed by a hair, right? Yeah, and I'm hoping that they can make it up. And also, Parsons did say Flacco's one of the quarterbacks he has not sacked, and he didn't get any sacks in that Browns game, so maybe he gets his get back. And for a guy who's a part-time player and didn't play in week five to lead the league in pressures means he's pretty good at doing something.

SPEAKER_01:

Pretty darn good at doing something. I would agree 100%. I agree 100% there. This game coming up, bangles, like we just talked about. I I you wouldn't say there's a lot riding on it because there's a lot of season left. As Amers trying not to hack up a lung here in the mic, but yes, yes. Um there's a lot of season left, so we're not saying like, you know, what the outcome of this is gonna hit everything, but what we're seeing.

SPEAKER_02:

Not doom and gloom, not doom and gloom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep, the this this game right here is going to tell us a lot about the direction of this team right now, where it's heading, Matt LaFleur's leadership, getting this thing right, riding the ship in the moment. Because sometimes we we didn't see it at halftime, right? As we were just talking about there with Jeff Halfway. We didn't see the adjustments at halftime in the Cowboys game like we wanted to see, I guess. So, what do we see now for adjustments moving forward here for this Packers team, especially without like a Devontae Wyatt in there and guys like that? The offensive line's been banged up, the adjustments that we're gonna see Matt LaFleur make. So, Ummer, I got to run here. Thank you as always for stopping by. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say, uh, you guys can find me on uh Twitter at AMAR3455, uh Coast to Coast Packers. Uh, we took a bye week just like the Packers did. We'll be back Thursday night, probably looking at probably 7.15 to 7:30 uh central time. And plan is to talk everything we did here and probably a little bit more, go into more detail about some things. Uh, and as always, you can find us on Instagram, you can find us on TikTok, Kick, and Twitter, and all that good stuff. And Tra as always, thank you for having me, man.

SPEAKER_01:

No problem. It's my pleasure having you on here every single week. Make sure you guys are checking them out there across social media. Make sure you guys check out Coast the Ghost on Thursday there as we dive deeper into the Packers and what to expect in that Bengals game. So, with that, thank you as always, Ummer Kyle stopping by next. We got some NFL talk to get to, we got some MLB playoffs to talk about. So, we're gonna get to that when we come back here at from the commercial break. We'll be right back here. Welcome to the case. I'm Wisconsin, Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday for hour number two of the show here tonight. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday. And if you want to chime in at any point tonight, make sure you're doing it. Badger questions, packers, brewers, everything in between. Thoughts, make sure you're commenting in 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. This next segment here, I'm stopping by. We're talking Packers. This next 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 doing whatever you're doing, feeling better than ever. So I told you guys I wanted to do a new segment, a part of the show. When I find some feel-good stories, because the world is a full of a lot of terrible stuff. And I want to find those feel-good stories that just make us feel better on a Wednesday night. This is my feel-good story of the week. So this came from I found it over on Facebook. Marathon School District shared it over there. And the Marathon varsity volleyball coach witnessed a special moment at Wednesday night's game. So this was last week there. She after so what was happening was is there was a game going on, and we were they were playing another team, and their crowd only had six people total, including their bus driver and a JV player. So there was barely anybody there. After the game, one of the high school boys said, We saw what they that they didn't have anyone over there and thought it was simple. So they split their crowd up. They split their student student section out, and half of the student section went over to one side of the gym, and the other one was on the other side of the gym. That half cheered for this opposing team while the other half cheered for the marathon team. That was awesome because it was just a feel-good moment where these girls were out there, they didn't have much of a crowd there, and the marathon crowd split themselves up. They were cheering against each other, even though at the end of the day they were all marathon fans. They were fans of the game that night, and that was awesome. So this came out of Marathon. I don't really, I don't have the opposing team on here who they were playing that night. All I know is that student sections split themselves up, one half cheering for this opposing team while the other half cheered for marathon. That was awesome to see. That was awesome to see something like that. Just a just a feel-good story for your Wednesday here. So hats off to that, everybody, everybody involved there and to the marathon school district. That was awesome to see there. So Ummer is here. Umer, how are we doing on this Wednesday?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm good, man. It's it's been a crazy, crazy year, I think. I think um we're already like in the second week of week of October, which is kind of wild. The year's gone by really fast. Uh, all in all, work has been still crazy. Uh, I had a really great weekend, and um, the bye week was definitely needed, just need to not be stressed out about Packers football for one weekend in my life. And uh had a lot of plans, some friends, some family, and you know, school's going really well, and work is crazy, but going well, and just really looking forward now to another week of us talking about Packers football, football, and just see what this week brings. How are you doing? I see that the brewers are doing well, my friend.

SPEAKER_01:

The brewers are rolling. It is fantastic. It is fantastic. What's going on with the brewers right now? Then I just had that feel-good story I just read off there that made it even better. So, I mean, yeah, you you can't beat it. You can't beat it. Plus, we're here talking sports. So, I mean, what else could you possibly want? We're here talking sports on a Wednesday night. So, love it. Love to hear that you're doing great tonight here. The Packers, I don't know, you'd say they limped into the bye week. It wasn't a great way to go into the bye week. They had the tie with the Dallas, or they had first they had the loss to the Browns, then they had the tie with the Dallas Cowboys. So, not a great way to go into your bye week, but could have been worse, right? Could have been worse. That was still a heck of and and okay. I I went I went back, I watched the Dallas Cowboys game. I felt better after watching it. I I really did. There was some silly things still in there, I would agree. Like there's still some bad things. But what made me feel good was Jordan Love went toe-to-toe with a guy right now who could definitely be up for MVP. You could definitely say Dak Prescott has played like an MVP quarterback at this very moment in the season. And Jordan Love went to his building and went toe-to-toe with him. When he had to match a drive, he did it. Dak would go down and score, Jordan would go and score. Dak would lead this drive, Jordan led this drive. That gave me so much hope and promise. I thought play calling was stupid. So I, if you ask me, like that's where I was at with that. I hate using the word stupid, but terrible, right? Play calling was terrible in those in some of those moments. And I thought Jordan looked like a deer in headlights at the end. Now, that comes back to for me preparation. Preparation, not just by him, but by the coaching staff, by all these guys, guys on the offensive line, doesn't matter who it was. You did not see Rush in any of those guys at the end of that game. So I still come back to in this bye week. If you're Matt LaFleur, you're saying to yourself, I need to find some leaders on the offense. Jordan Love might be, and I guess this would be where I want to start. I think the offense still lacks leadership. I'm gonna be honest with you. Like those leaders who push, I think they have guys who pushed guys. I think Jordan Love is a leader of this team, but what I saw in that last 30 seconds, where it could have not ended in a tie because they had one second left on that ball yet. So it could have definitely ended with a loss by the Green Bay Packers. Right. Watching that, I said to myself, they don't have urgency, which comes from I don't want to say from a true leader, but a guy who has that respect. Where even a guy like Josh Jacobs, somebody in there to say, let's go, hustle, somebody run, somebody tell these guys, let's go, we gotta move. There was nobody, nobody on the field that was running, that was hustling, that looked like they had urgency, except for Matt LaFleur, who was screaming on the sideline. But he can only do so much. ATT Stadium's blowing up right now. Like you you can't just expect your coach to control it all. So I guess that would be is that a concern to you, I guess. In my in my opinion, it is because you don't have that sense of urgency, which I think comes from a guy who has the ability to push these guys and say, let's go, let's move. Is that a concern to you on the offensive side of football right now?

SPEAKER_02:

No, and the reason why I say that is when I watched that last Thursday night game with the Niners and the Rams, and I watched how like they were, I feel like there was maybe a little bit, and maybe we're never gonna hear the truth about this, right? But maybe there was a little bit of like we want to kill as much of the clock as possible that way, like if for some reason they get the ball back, they don't have a chance to score something, right? But my logic was with all that being said, maybe LaFleur kind of forgot the rules and not thought about hey, if we score a touchdown here, it's game over. It doesn't matter what happens, right? So, because of that, because we have seen Jordan run a two-minute, we've seen him in that Saints game in 2023, where he had to be able to take the team back and get them in scoring distance. He was running up to the line, he was clocking the ball, he was very efficient with the time. We've seen him being able to do that. So I felt like what will whatever was going on in that game was almost orchestrated to a certain degree, which I don't 100% agree with, but that maybe that was their plan going into it, right? Because they did have two plays called, but again, like you said, there was this poor decision making, poor play calling, and then there's some lack of urgency that maybe was supposed to occur, was planned. But even with all that being said, it's like you score a touchdown, it's a it's a it doesn't matter, nothing matters at that point, yeah, right. And you're kind of taking the ball out of Jordan's hand there because you know you're calling plays that weren't allowing him to drive the ball downfield, you know what I'm saying? And so I personally don't think that there's an issue with leadership because his leadership is different than Rogers. You know, Rogers he had that thin line of competitiveness and arrogance, right? And if you win, you're a highly competitive dude. Brady would get the same kind of thing, but when you lose, now you're an arrogant, not so nice person, and you're getting you know, you're getting trashed on, right? Jordan's not either one of those things, he's a very quiet, go-lucky dude. Not he's very like not very high, not very low. He'd say he's pretty consistent. So again, you have a rookie out there, you have a makeshift line. I'm not trying to make an excuse because of youth, but like there was just something missing there, and I completely agree with you when you don't have that like veteran leadership. But Jacobs is a leader, like he's a veteran, he's your leader guy on there, right? Maybe I think Jordan is in that position too. But even then, though, I just feel like maybe there was something, there's some miscommunication between the floor, maybe there was something going on we don't know about, and then no one's gonna admit to it at this point. But that whole sequence of events didn't make any sense after what you just saw the whole game and how that offense was really running down the field. So I feel like hopefully this bye week taught them a lesson to kind of self-scout, figure out what they were doing wrong, as well as looking at games across the league where they were watching a lot of these games that went to overtime and saw what these teams did in those situations.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I agree with you. I'm I'm going both ways. I I I agree, but I say it, you know, you you kind of pushed me into saying this is about LaFleur, too. This is about saying that it was a combo. It was a combo of saying his urgency in the moment, plus Jordan Love's urgency in this offense's urgency in the moment. You put them together, it wasn't good. And it begs the question then who needs to step up and be that guy in that moment. I think it's love. I think it is, you know, and I think you said it perfectly. Nobody understood it in the moment. You have makeshift offensive line, you have all these moving pieces. I get that. But I think Jordan Love has to be the guy to say, okay, let's go. Let's go. Get up to the line, get up to the line. We I can call it at the line. We know that he can. He can call this offense at the line. Let's get up there, let's get set. My wide receivers are just basically pushing downfield. So run me a route and just my offensive line block for me. Let's go. Just get up to the line, let's do it. Call something out quick, let's roll with it. That's where I guess my problem came in. It was so slow. It was slow. It was there, was it was almost like, ah, well, okay, we're settling here. We don't want to try and do too much. And then you look at and we talk about these coaches in the NFC North, even like a Dan Campbell, like a Kevin O'Connell. They'll force it. They'll just say, let's go, let's do it, let's go win this thing. You know, you watch that Vikings versus Browns game there with Carson Wentz going at it. And Carson Wentz had a pretty he had a darn good throw, but he trusted Carson Wentz to just go and win it. Just go and win this darn thing. And that's what he did. And that's where I think Matt LaFleur is still at times, it feels like he puts training wheels on. He's like, I don't want to trust Jordan Love. Trust him. Let him run it. And if it if it goes to heck, if it all goes south, we're fine. If you force the issue, if you go for it on a fourth and two at their 30-yard line and you don't get it, I'm good. I'll move on with life. I trusted you to get me that first down. You didn't get it, so be it. That's where I think we've we've settled, and I hate settling. And this is a question I had for the settling portion. Why do people, why do we, as Packer fans, continuously accept when the media and everything tells us and when Matt LaFleur tells us these self-inflicted wounds? I love that quote. It's always, it seems like after every loss and every tie or whatever it is, so many self-inflicted wounds, and we just settle for it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We just say to ourselves, well, yeah, I agree. That's self-inflicted wounds again. Yeah, if they just fix that, if they just fix that, right? If they just fix that, when are they gonna do it? Because these same self-inflicted wounds are the reason why we have to question the Green Bay Packers every single year at this moment. Yeah, because they haven't put together a complete game in a couple years, 49ers game in the playoffs, maybe. Even if you didn't trust that one, you go back to the Cowboys game. Maybe you could say like a Cardinals game last year, but I don't even I think it was the Cardinals last year where we said that might have been a complete game. But either way, it's been a hot minute. So I gotta that's my question to you is why do we sit here and we just accept that? It is it getting to the point where that's old news. I'm done with that. We have to get past that, and the only way to get past that is for this to improve.

SPEAKER_02:

I I think I think I agree with you 100% because like there's like you look at Jacksonville last night against Kansas City, you know, they were down 14-0. They had a lot of self-affected wounds. They had PI, they had uh OPI that was, you know, they had like you know, all these things that went wrong for them, but they still found a way to come back and win that game. Even if you have self-afflicted wounds, it's not an excuse. Yeah, there's never gonna be a perfect game. Like you could have an offense, defense, and special teams do their job for the most part, but they're still gonna make mistakes. We're all human. That's not there's this is not Madden, right? You don't turn off, you know, injuries, you don't turn off you know penalties, you don't turn off mistakes, right? Like things are gonna happen, right? And because of that, I do agree with you that you can't keep going back to that because it gets to a point to where like you have to overcome that adversity if you want to be the one that's holding that trophy at the end of the year. Because if you can't, you can't find a way to adapt, you can't find a way to get around those things. You know, Bill Burr says you got to work through those things, right? You gotta find a way to work through it, right? And I couldn't agree more where I that excuse, he's seven years now as a head coach. It's like, all right, well, that's fine. Either you fix the problem or you you find a way to get around it, right? If you know your offense line's not playing well, you game plan a way to you let pressure off them, quick game, run game, whatever you gotta do. Your defense isn't playing well, then you push the issue on offense, right? You're out your and that's another thing, too. I think the floor needs to go back to the all-gas no break.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_02:

Understand, like you're gonna make mistakes, there'll probably be fumbles, it'll be interceptions, it could be you know, fourth downs, or you don't get it. Fine. You have a defense that's supposed to be able to make up for that. Like you, like when they were over the 50 and they punted in the first quarter, you and me text each other, I'm like, yo, what are they doing right now? Why are they punting, right? And I agree with you. Like, again, if you're over their 50, you should have enough confidence in your defense to make a stop, and you should have enough confidence in your office to get that first down. And doesn't and like even like when I watched that San Francisco 49ers game against the Rams, and the Rams called a running play on fourth and one, right? And took the ball out of Stafford's hand, and they didn't get it. I I think the same thing. You if you got a quarterback that's got you that far and got you in the game, you keep pushing it with that quarterback and saying the good Jordan. Jordan was the reason was one of the main reasons why we were still in that game. You don't take the ball of his hand, nor do you keep you, as you said, keep the train wheels on him, yeah. You let him ride.

SPEAKER_01:

No, yeah, I 100% agree with you. And it gets to the point where if the problem is, and as we get allude to every single season, somebody has to. We have the youngest roster in football. If that continues to be the excuse of why the self-inflicted wounds are there, maybe you gotta switch it up then. Maybe you have to get over this younger, young roster. Stop trying to turn over the young guys and try to get some veterans in then. Do something different. You can't just stick with the same and go, oh, well, this is good enough. We're winning some games. We just can't the self-inflicted wounds come back to bite us in the you know divisional round. No, it can't continuously be the same excuses over and over. 100% agree. So I am all with you there. If you guys have a comment for us, make sure you're texting us. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. We're gonna come back here. We're gonna continue this Packer talk on the backside of the ad break. We're gonna talk about the next question I have here, and this is a big one leading into this Bengals game. If this Packers team can't take care of the Bengals and stop them like we think they should, are we worried about this team as they have Super Bowl aspirations? Are we worried about this team moving forward? That's our question. We're gonna answer it when we come back here from the quick ad break. We'll be back here on Wisconsin Sports. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment, Kyle's stopping by. We got some NFL to talk about, we got some MLB MLB to talk about. This next segment is brought to you by BH Concrete Lifting. Tired of tripping over sunken driveways, patios, or sidewalks with BH Concrete Lifting, you can ditch the trip hazards without breaking the bank on new concrete and have. Have it leveled for half the cost of brand new concrete. That's all you need to know. That should be the selling point right there. And if that wasn't, well, they give complimentary estimates. So I mean, just call them. Give them a call. 715-897-6790. What's it gonna hurt? Give them a call. Complimentary estimate. They'll let you know half the cost of new concrete. Get that stuff changed before winter comes around here. So Kyle is here. Kyle, how are we doing? It's Wednesday. MLB playoffs in full swing, NBA preseason, right around. I mean, everything is happening right now. How are we doing on this Wednesday?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good. You know, can't complain. Like you said, the if you find yourself sitting around, need something to watch, there's something on. That's always good for me.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the best. That is the absolute best right now. And Kyle's happy because the Yankees are sucking. It's it's he's he's got his own joys right now. We're gonna get to all that. We're gonna get to all that tonight here in the segments. But right away, as always, as always, Kyle is here, which means we have our mellow yellow minute, the trivia hour in honor of my grandpa. He loved trivia, he loved mellow yellow, the mellow yellow minute here. So, Kyle, tonight we have an interesting one. I am in the baseball mood tonight. As everybody knows, I've been hooting and hollering about the brewers all night tonight. So I am in the baseball mood, which means we have a baseball trivia question. Can you name the rulings for a batter to reach first base in baseball? So there are actually seven ways that a batter can reach first base in baseball. And this goes for everybody out there. If you want to be involved in the trivia, if you think you can get it before Kyle, let me know. 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. You get it before Kyle, we'll get you a prize. We'll get you a prize if you get that thing before Kyle. If you get the seven ways before Kyle does. So, Kyle, what do you got for me? The seven ways someone can reach for a space invasion.

SPEAKER_00:

So you have base hit. Base hit. You have a walk.

SPEAKER_01:

Walk. Okay, we got two. We got two.

SPEAKER_00:

You have hit by pitch.

SPEAKER_01:

Hit by pitch, we got three.

SPEAKER_00:

Catcher's interference.

SPEAKER_01:

Catcher's interference. That's four. There we go.

SPEAKER_00:

So now this one, do they count intentional walk as something different?

SPEAKER_01:

I do not think so. No, they do not think.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, that's fine. Fielder's choice. Five. An error. Six. Okay. I was kind of hoping intentional walk was a separate one. Okay, so seven would have to be.

SPEAKER_01:

Um think about this one, Kyle. Think about this one. You got this one. It involves the catcher. It does involve the catcher. Or pitcher, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, I guess uh oh yeah, uh pass ball on uh strike three.

SPEAKER_01:

Drop third strike. There's seven. Boom! Boom! Kyle got it. He got it. And if you got it before him, well, you're just that much better than Kyle. But he tried. That was that was a heck of an effort. You rattled the first like four or five off. I was when I first read that question, I was stumped. I looked at it and I was like, oh man, it's seven ways to reach first base. And I was thinking to myself, like, I'm a brewer fan. I know all those ways because they just do those silly things to reach base. It's not like we're the Yankees, they only they don't reach first base. It's home runner bus with them Yankees. It's like, oh yeah, I know, I know how to get there with the catcher's interference. Sal Frilix taught me how to do that all season long. So I know all about those. So that was a great one. That was a great mellow, yellow minute there. So, Kyle, this NFL, the NFL weekend that it was, no undefeated teams left. No undefeated teams left, Kyle. That was a crazy weekend in its own way. But we have to do Kyle's power rankings for the week here. Kyle, coming off of that week five.

unknown:

Right?

SPEAKER_01:

Week five. Yeah, we're on week, we're on week six now. Holy crap, it's already week six of the NFL season. That's how crazy it's been. Coming off of week five, what do you got? AFC top five. Who are in your AFC top five for the power rankings right now? As there's no undefeated teams left in the entire league right now.

SPEAKER_00:

There is some movement. I have a new number five. Ooh. I'm putting the Jags in at number five after beating the Chiefs Monday night. I I've been kind of holding off on really giving them credit, but they they are playing well. I feel like defensively, they're better than I thought. And then offensively, they they have their moments. You know, Brian Thomas Jr. still needs to kind of pick his playup, but look, they're four and one. I gotta give them credit, so I put the Jags at five. I have the Patriots at four coming off of their win in Buffalo on Sunday night. I I think what you're seeing is Drake May looks like the guy at quarterback, and then defensively they bottled up James Cook. A lot of teams can't do that. And they picked off Josh Allen as well. Big win there. I have the Patriots at four. I put the Broncos at three. Love their defense. Um Benito had a good game against the Eagles. They won a tough game against the Philly team that's really good. Uh Bo Nicks is a good young quarterback as well. Sean Payton is coach. I have them at three. I'm putting the Colts at two because they right now they're just playing really good football. You know, Daniel Jones has found a coach and a system that fits for him, and they're they're getting it done, so I gotta put them at two. I still have the Bills at one despite the loss to New England. I still think they're a really good team. It was just that circumstances uh were as they were. Drake may play out of his mind, played really well. Maybe it caught them off guard. And I know that they said I think the the OC, yeah, Joe Brady said like he was surprised by some of the stuff that the Patriots did on defense. So they'll probably be better prepared later in the season, but I have this I saw the Bills at one. So no Chiefs in the top five this week. I I feel like they they showed some flaws again against the Jags that weren't there against Baltimore because Baltimore's just in such disarray right now.

SPEAKER_01:

The the the quickest drop, I would say, is the Chargers. The Chargers out of that top five. It's two weeks in a row of just dismantling losses. I mean, you lose to the Giants, Jackson Darts first game out, you lose to him, and then the commanders they rattle off how many on uh what was that final score that game? 27 to 10, and it was in LA. That's that's rough. That is a bad loss to take at home when you were supposed to be a bounce back game, and it just went sideways on him. So that their charges are starting to struggle. I do, I enjoy what the Patriots have right now. Stefan Diggs, as much as people wanted to say he was a problem, and he might very well still be a problem. He has done wonders for Drake May. You saw a couple, I saw a route that he ran. I was just scrolling through social media, and I saw a route that he ran, and he ended up like working his way back to the ball for Drake May, who's in uh trouble there. It's just a beautiful route. And just those little things that he can do for quarterbacks. So I I love those rankings right there. Bills, yes, they got to stay at one. They the Patriots beat him, yes, but if you looked at it, would you take him nine times out of ten? Kyle Woody's Patriots fan. I don't know if I would take a bet and man, I would take the Patriots over the Bills again, but it happened. So, I mean, that's all that matters. They won the head to head. That's all that matters at the end of the day. So I I do I like those, the Jaguars with the tripperuski there. Trevor Lawrence somehow finds a way to get back up and get into the end zone, and the Chiefs just fall once again. That an old thing, it's I think it's it's Travis Kelsey just needs to get a haircut. I I don't know what's going on with his hair, his hairstyle these days and everything, but the whole Taylor Swift experience is just taking that Chiefs Kingdom and just taking it down right with it. So, anyways, anyways, let's flip over into the NFC. Uh, what do you got? NFC, no, like like we said before, no unbeaten teams left in the NFC. So, Kyle, what do you like? NFC top five.

SPEAKER_00:

So, NFC, I've got the uh Seahawks at five. I I'm big on the Seahawks this year. I I still think they could possibly win that division defensively. I like what they do, and Darnold still looks good despite the loss of the Bucks, who I do have in my top five, so I'm not gonna punish them too much for that. I have the Niners at four. The Niners are doing it with patchwork and mirrors, and they're still winning. You know, Purdy's been out, so what? Kiddo's been out, so what? Juwan Jennings, Bosa, like they're missing a lot of guys. But Robert Salah has the defense playing well, and Mac Jones, you gotta give him credit. He's looked good with Kendrick Bourne.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, three out of the Bucks. I just like what Baker's doing. That you know, Bucks Seahawks game was really fun to watch. And I keep saying this: if you're gonna beat the Bucks, you have to take them out. If you give them an opportunity to win it, Baker's gonna find a way to get it done. Two out of the Eagles. Yes, the loss to the to the Broncos is whatever, but there's still something missing offensively. They can't get Saquon Barkley going. That's such a big part of their offense. So I dropped them down to two. My new number one is the Detroit Lions. I I just like their identity. They line up, they play smash mouth football. If you want to stop that, they can beat you with the precision passing game from golf. They want to throw some fun in there, they'll throw a trick play in there, and they don't care. They'll do whatever, and they right now, to me, are the best team in the NFC.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. I love it. I agree with that all the way through. And it's it's crazy to think that the Packers beat the Lions week one. Yeah. And after that game, we all sat here and said, Wow, the Lions have really taken a step back, and the Packers are now the top they're top cheese, right? No pun intended, top cheese there. And it, I mean, the Packers are still they're still a darn good football team. Like nobody we we can't hold against them. Dak Prescott's playing like an MVP again. I don't know what's up his sleeve down there in Dallas, but he's playing like he could win the MVP. And then the Browns, it's it is crazy to think that a defense could win you an entire game, but a defense can win you a game. And the Browns defense is that defense that can win you a game, and they did against Green Bay. So the Packers loss and tie are against two really, I mean, the the Cowboys defense isn't great, but that offense, when they're going, Zach Prescott played on a different level that night in Dallas. And it was crazy to see, you know, Jordan Love just be able to go toe-to-toe with them in that game. And then the Browns, I mean, that defense is just wow. That that defense is darn good. You give them any kind of offense, any kind of offense. And they are gonna go win some football games. We saw it. I mean, they they probably should have won that game over in London, but ended up losing that to the Vikings there. So, I mean, I just uh it was a good weekend. It was a good weekend all the way around in NFL. But Kyle, as always, I need some fantasy players. Everybody out there is in fantasy football right now. Maybe they're struggling, they're at the bottom right now, maybe they're one and four, oh and five. They need to pull off a win this week. Kyle, what are some players you're looking at this week that you need, fantasy players that you're looking at that's these guys need to pick up?

SPEAKER_00:

So, first guy, Rico Dowdle coming off of a 200 200 plus running game, he gets that Cowboys defense this week. I think for Bryce Young, feed him the rock. See if he can't take some pressure off of you. According to ESPN, he's available in like 41% of the leagues. So why not go pick him up for you know depth at your running back position? Also, with the uh bye weeks coming up and everything, usually guys are like picking up and dropping defenses weekly. Why not go ahead and take that Colts defense? They have my head written down here who they are this week. Um I just lost it. Hold on a second. Oh, they have the Cardinals. Duh, that's what it was. They have the Cardinals this week. Cardinals are coming off that tough loss of the Titans. I I don't know how motivated they're gonna be. They seem distraught, they seem like they might be a team that kind of fades uh towards the bottom of that division and some separation. So take the Colts defense, they're pretty good. Cardinals offense struggling. Why not? And then the last one I will say I'm kind of surprised this guy is still really relatively available. Romeo Dubbs. Ooh, he's available in like 55% of leagues on ESPN. They're facing Cincinnati's defense. Cincinnati, not that great defensively. Why not? Coming off the bye. The Packers should have a good game plan to go against Cincinnati. Take Romeo Dubbs.

SPEAKER_01:

The biggest problem with the Packers is that they have so many wide receivers, and and Jordan Love, and well, it's not that they have so many, it's that Jordan Love isn't Aaron Rodgers. He doesn't have a favorite. He has a lot of guys and he'll throw it to anybody on any given drive, any given play. He's chucking it around. That's what I think makes the Packers so unappealing when it comes to wide receivers, is you could go one game, Matthew Golden could go for 190 yards, and then the next game he's gonna give you 20 while Romeo Dobbs goes for 170. So you got it's a nice mix, but it's not good for fantasy, for fantasy out there. But I agree. This week, Bengals, the Packers have got to light him up. They just have to. This is the week to take some wide receivers from Green Bank. So I love that one of Romeo Dobbs. So, Kyle, let's flip script here. MLB playoffs. As we're talking, as you guys know, pre-recorded, we don't know the outcomes of the you know, Blue Jays and Yankees series and the what the Mariners in Detroit is. That one's gonna be for sure still happening as we're talking today. The Yankees, though, they're down 6'1 to Toronto again. They're not even close in this series. This this thing is turning ugly on this Yankees team fast. So, Kyle, I guess initial reaction off the MLB playoffs so far. What are you seeing right now? Maybe that you like that. I mean, what what are some series that you liked? What are some performances you've liked? You know, what what are you seeing right now in this MLB playoff?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, look, I think the the Blue Jays Yankees are it's kind of going the way I I thought it would. Maybe not necessarily a sweep if it does happen, but you know, the Yankees got past the Red Sox. When you look at that, game two, they luck out. Trevor Story hits like a 395-foot out with the bases loaded, otherwise, they get swept there. And then game three, the Red Sox had nobody available. Remember, Giolito was out, May's been out, so they went with the young guy early, and the Yankees took advantage. This Blue Jays team is healthy, and what we're seeing is they don't miss you know, mistakes where the Yankees struggle to put hits together. The Blue Jays don't. Like Vladdy Guerrero's had a great series. He's the I guess anti-judge. He comes with a big spot, he's getting hits. Judges striking out with bases loaded and stuff like that, which has been the Yankees' issue for years and just reared its head against the Blue Jays. I think Mariner's Tigers has been a lot of fun, even though it comes on later and later at night. But I feel like those two teams are evenly matched. I think whoever comes out of that would make a good opponent for the Blue Jays. I feel like we're gonna get somebody new come out of the American League. I'm always a fan of that. National League, the Phillies are kind of running into the Yankee issues. Big spots, they're not capitalizing. And for a team that was so good all year, they're they're they're gone. And you know, the Dodgers were a team that I feel like you didn't want to necessarily buy into, but it seems like they're hitting their stride at the right time. And then the Brewers are a team that I would love to see make the World Series. I made a joke a couple of times, like I would love to see like Mariners, uh, Brewers, just because I feel like the league office would be like, oh crap, we have to like market players that we normally don't. And I'm like, good, because that's what you're supposed to do. But Brewers also won a game slugging it. We talked about before, like they're gonna play small ball, the speed game, they're hitting home runs. So they're showing you like they can beat you different ways, which is a dangerous thing in October. So the playoffs have been a lot of fun. Uh I feel like we're we're probably gonna get maybe an upstart kind of team that a lot of the country may not watch a lot in a World Series matchup, and I'm that's what I always root for, especially if the Red Sox are out. As long as the Yankees don't make it there, I'm happy, and it looks like they're gonna go out quietly.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the that's the fun. Well, you're hoping for a good series, but at the same time, Kyle's a Red Sox fan, so he doesn't want to, he doesn't care at all with the Yankees. He wants them to get swept out of there. I have a question. So I before I have to let you go here. Yeah. The Brewers, you mentioned the Brewers there, and I think you said it perfectly. Game one, they hit eight to score those first nine runs that they had. They hit eight singles, three doubles. That's how they brought in all those runs. No bounce. They just hit the crap out of the ball. Game two, I don't know if they looked at the media or what, but they were talking a lot of crap. They said, Well, this brewer team can't hit home runs. They can't do this. I don't know, that ticked them off because they said, All right, we can hit home runs, we can do it too. And they slugged their way to a game two win. I am I'm really wondering this. You look at what the Blue Jays are doing. They're hitting the baseball, they're putting the ball in play, doing those things. You look at a team like the Dodgers, even the Dodgers, they aren't hitting bombs to get there necessarily. They're they're putting the ball in play, they're getting on, they're doing those things, keeping the line moving. The Phillies, the Yankees, those are teams built for home runs. Which, and the Cubs. You look statistically, oh yeah, they have a lot of RBIs, they have a lot of home runs, but you look at the averages and you say to yourself, the averages don't look pretty. Do you think there's something to be said about that? They're telling me, oh, well, you can't win in October if you can't hit home runs. I don't think that's the I don't think that's the truth. I just think you haven't seen it in a while because nobody does it anymore. Nobody attempts to just hit the ball and put it in play like the Brewers try to do, like the Mariners, like the Blue Jays. They all think the big the long ball is the way to go. So, Kyle, I mean, is that partially maybe what we're seeing right now is teams who are just willing to just hit the ball, put the ball in play, shorten up and put it out there. Those are the teams taking advantage. And I mean, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 1-1 series tie, leading probably to a 2-1 series there. I think Tigers and Mariners are a little bit equal in that sense there. But you look at the rest of the series, I I'm that's kind of where I'm looking.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I feel like the regular season, yes, home run, the long ball plays in the regular season because depending on matchups, you get weaker pitchers and everything like that, and you just take advantage. Once you get to the postseason, you're usually facing the top three guys in every team's rotation, and that's where the Yankees failed against the Astros a lot. Astros had really good pitching that could minimize the long ball ability from the Yankees, and that's what the Dodgers are doing to the Phillies. And teams like that will get frustrated easily if they can't hit home runs, and then they just start swinging wildly and forcing more outs. Teams that can do it both ways, it's the better way to approach October because with some of these games, you could have like a one-one game in the eighth, and all it takes to win it is a little bloop over the shortstop. You bring in that second run, and if your bullpen is set up correctly, you can win that way. You don't you don't need to swing for the fences every time up. And these pitchers are just so good and they throw so fast, they throw just such a wide array of pitches that they can catch you off balance, and then you're looking crazy at the plate. So give me the Brewers and that type of approach over the Yankees any day. And I've said it, that's why they have gone so long without winning a World Series because those power hitters haven't shown up in October. And when you build your lineup around those guys, then the other guys put too much pressure on themselves, and they get out of their kind of routine and what they want to do. So gotta build your lineup to beat you multiple ways to win in October.

SPEAKER_01:

100% agree. You fall behind like the Yankees, like these other teams do. You try to slug your way back into it. And sometimes that's not the way. That's not the way to buzz through. You got to put pressure on pitchers, defenses, and when you're just swinging for the fences, sometimes it's actually easier to pitch to those guys. So, Kyle, thank you as always. I gotta run here. Thank you as always for stopping by tonight here. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just go to YouTube and Facebook, Chompin at the Bit. You'll find the links to my other socials there. Easiest way to find me.

SPEAKER_01:

You guys gotta do it. Right now, we have ML, or not, we have MLB playoffs happening, so you gotta check him out there. He's talking about that. He's talking NBA preseason, he's talking NFL, he's got all kinds of stuff across there. So make sure you're checking him out, Chomping at the Bit Podcast. Thank you as always, Kyle, for stopping by. We're gonna be right back here. We're gonna wrap up the show here on the backside of the ad break. We'll be right back here on Wisconsin. Back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trade, as we wrap it up here on this Wednesday. And hey, this last little segment is brought to you by Peggy Seue, the lifelong resident of Central Wisconsin. Peggy Sue knows the area and she can get you into your dream home. Maybe she can help you sell a home and get into a dream home, whatever it is your real estate needs. Make sure you check her out there. Peggy Sue with Century 21 Gold Key Realty. Fantastic stuff. She does great work. She can help you find buy, sell, get into a new home this fall into winter season here. So as we wrap it up today, final thoughts for the day. What a day that it was. Talked to a lot of brewers today, talked to some Packers there with Ummer just before, just got into the NFL with Kyle there in the last segment. If you guys missed any portion of the show today, make sure you're checking it out next day across all podcast platforms. Just search Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade. You can also find us out there across social media, Wisconsin Sports on the Go of Trade, Wisco Sports on the Go. You can find us. You just search any variation of Wisco Sports on the Go. We'd love to have you like, subscribe, follow across all social media. It helps us know you guys are out there. If you want to text me, let me know your thoughts on the show, any reviews, anything like that. I'd love to hear it. Text me, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. I'd love to hear from you guys about any of your thoughts, anything Wisconsin Sports wise. Hit me up across social media. And like I said, like, subscribe, follow across all social media platforms. So, with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. Thank you all for tuning in. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday and week. But until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, soon you see.