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
November 5 Hour 2: Packers, Bucks and NFL Picks
We dig into why the Packers’ offense feels predictable and how to fix it fast with under-center runs, real play action, and a defined identity. Then we pivot to the Bucks’ encouraging start, Rollins’ rise, and a measured take on the NFL trade deadline.
• Musgrave’s value after Kraft’s injury
• Defensive bright spots amid a bad loss
• Shotgun overuse and stalled run game
• LaFleur’s play calling and predictability
• How to help Jordan Love with boots and slants
• Roster choices, injuries, and accountability
• Keys vs Eagles: trench tone and secondary matchups
• Bucks shooting profile and two-guard looks
• Ryan Rollins’ two-way impact
• Kuzma as a potential swing piece
• Trade deadline winners, losers, and lessons
Text me: 715-990-4914
I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here for hour number two of the show here tonight. I hope you guys are enjoying your Wednesday. And if you guys want to be involved in the show at all, make sure you're doing it. Text me, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. We'd love to hear your thoughts and your opinions on anything Wisconsin Sports or elsewhere tonight here on the show. And make sure you're following us across all social media platforms. Search me up, Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trade, across Facebook, X, Twitter, whatever you want to call it, over there, across all social media, you can find it. Ummer is stopping by. We're gonna talk little packers here. This next segment is brought to you by Badger Tree Care, the local tree care company doing tree removal, tree trimming, pruning, full cleanup, uh, small lot clearing, storm cleanup, they do it all. Trevor Barth, call them there. 715-937-3276. That is 715-937-3276. Call Trevor there for all of your tree removal needs. So, Amr is here tonight. Umer, how are we doing? It's Wednesday, the Packers. But before we get to the Packers, I don't let's not talk Packers yet. How are you doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_02:I'm good, man. I'm good. I can't complain. It's uh no of the week. Uh, I'm slowly getting over what happened on Sunday. I'm looking forward to Monday night in a way where I'll be very indifferent. And all in all, uh work is going pretty good, still crazy, but I can't complain. How about you, man? How are you doing?
SPEAKER_04:Oh, doing great, doing great right now. Better, way better, a hundred times better than the Packers. Hundred times better than the Packers. I I know that for a fact. Yeah, there is so much that went wrong, so much that went wrong. Some that went, I mean, we just in the game wrong, and then after the game, finding out wrong, just so many things that wow, it was just a bad couple of days for the Green Bay Packers. So let's just start out with this game here. So, looking at this game, I mean, let's just start with the good, bad, and the ugly. Was there a good? Was there really a good is there was there a good in this game for the Green Bay Packers?
SPEAKER_02:That's a hard that's hard to do. That is a very, very good.
SPEAKER_04:When was the last time we came off of a game and we said to ourselves, was there a good?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, I got a good. I got a good uh after Tucker Kraft uh heard his name because Sean Ryan can't do anything right. Um we got to see extended look at Musgrave, who kind of hit the ground running, was very instrumental in that final drive. And you know what? I was impressed. And I think that even though he is no Tucker Kraft, he does have value, and I feel like he will be able to hopefully change the office up a little bit instead of being so run focused, but maybe more pass focused, and allowing Jordan to cook a little more with a big target like that.
SPEAKER_04:People forget that Luke Musgrave was the guy before Tucker Kraft was the guy. Like he was supposed to be, he was he was way ahead of him on the depth chart, and then all of a sudden he got that what he had that liver laceration there, he was out, and a last yeah, yep, and then ended up he was out, so then Tucker Kraft stepped in, he's been fantastic and has actually taken that next step ahead of Luke Musgrave. So I I would agree. I I did like what we see what we saw out of him in that one. I thought, I mean, X played a pretty good game, Xavier McKinney played a pretty good game out there in the safety spots. You could say him, Cooper didn't have a bad day. Outside of that, I mean, I mean the defense only gave up 16 points.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, that's like the that's how we look at it, right?
SPEAKER_04:That's not terrible. I mean, you look in total. Carolina, I mean, this is the I guess the ugly. Let's just look at the ugly here for a second. The Packers had 369 yards of total offense. The Panthers had 265. The Packers ran 63 total plays. They were two for three on first down, or fourth down, seven for thirteen on third down. They had seven rushing first downs, third. Well, they had 20 first downs in total. Let's go with that there. There were 26 for 37 in the air. If I gave you all those numbers and I told you they played the Carolina Panthers, would you believe that they lost?
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely not.
SPEAKER_04:I wouldn't have believed they lost. Like, that's those numbers. I mean, they aren't like and not blow you out of the water numbers by any means, but pretty darn good numbers in total for the Green Bay Packers. And yet, this is the outcome we're looking at right now. This this was the finishing touch. What was wow, just a miserable, miserable day, especially with the injury that you just mentioned there with Tucker Kraft. So let's just look straight at that ugly right there. I mean, what was your, I guess, what we just talked about the good. What was your bad? What was your bad coming off this game? Well, I guess what was your worst bad that you had coming off this game?
SPEAKER_02:I think my worst bad is the lack of attention to detail when it comes to everybody on the team. This includes Matt LaFleur and his play calling, and maybe trying to be too scheme, too designing, and not just trying to, you know. I think a couple of people said it today were just, you know, just you know, line up and play football. Stop trying to get cute about it. And then, of course, attention to detail with the blocking scheme, with Savion knowing not how to get down or not how to run around his own blocker, and like just man on defense, just every time they called a play, it was the opposite play of what they needed to do when they you're looking for Ron. They are they they passed it when they when they passed it, they were you know, when they were it's just opposite time every single time. And it just it just reminded me of the games where we I felt like that San Francisco 49ers game in the NFC Championship in 2019. Like it felt like no matter what we did, it was just all wrong. And man, they just had this vibe of the second that game kicked off, it just felt like something was off. So, yeah. That's that that and just honestly, just the offense as a whole. I'm just not very I I'm starting to get on your wagon about LaFleur and certain things. Not firing, but he is annoying the hell out of me right now.
SPEAKER_04:I don't think you fire him, but I think there has to be this serious conversation of this the play calling of this team needs to change, and we need to we might there might need to be a change at offensive play caller. Now, I'm not saying it's gonna be a guy in-house at this very moment, but there might need to be that conversation because if you look at this, I saw a stat it was 25% of Jordan Love's pass attempts over the last six games have been from behind the line of scrimmage, second behind, highest behind only Kyler Murray there. Only 13% of his pass attempts in that span have been in the intermediate area, 10 to 19 yards, which is the third lowest. What defenses are doing to the Green Bay Packers right now, and I'm going to tell you, I'm gonna tell you my opinion why, but what I think they're doing to the Green Bay Packers is they're what what I know they're doing is taking away the deep ball. They're not allowing Jordan Love to uh blow the field open right now, and they're taking away what is at the line of scrimmage, they're making him throw behind the line of scrimmage and they're just blowing it up in the backfield. How many times do we have to watch Matthew Golden get a flip pass out there and just like pray that our guy can beat their guy? Why does that why is that the scheme? Why on a third down are you drawing up a screen pass for Manuel Wilson going on the outside or Savion Williams? Why are we scheming up plays for Savion Williams, but we can't scheme up anything for Matthew Golden? I don't understand that. But either way, back back to my point was.
SPEAKER_02:That's what I'm asking.
SPEAKER_04:The run game, I we mentioned this. We said it. We said it. We didn't believe the run game had to be the total the total focus of this thing. I lied. I lied. I lied. I'm in the opposite now. I believe because the Green Bay Packers cannot run the ball consistently, and Josh Jacobs, and and we can sit here and say, oh, Josh Jacobs is having a rough year. No, the offensive line has just at times just been it's just bad. They're just they've just been pitiful. They're not opening up yards. But when you look at a guy like Josh Jacobs and he's averaging three yards of carry right now, there's your problem. There's your problem. This offense cannot flourish unless Josh Jacobs flourishes. So you know what? You know what I'm saying? This offense needs to find Josh Jacobs again. Because I said, and I think you can put the you can put the load on Jordan Love's shoulders and say, go win me a football game. You can put the load on his shoulders and say, we got to throw the ball. But you can't open up the you cannot open up the passing game unless if Josh Jacobs can find something in the run game. Because right now, the lack of the run is killing him. And why do they lack the run, Amar? Why do they lack it? Why do they run so much out of shotgun? That is my biggest problem. They're running so much crap out of shotgun right now. You want to know why Josh Jacobs, one of the bigger backs in the league, a big fella, he's just got a bruiser of a method of running the football, why it's so hard for him to get going. You're handing him the ball while he's standing still and saying, go for it, buddy. Give him the ball going downhill, but add the deception of wow, Jordan Love's backs turned to me. I wonder if he's gonna keep it. I wonder if he's gonna run play action. I wonder if he's gonna hand the ball to Josh Jacobs. There's so many things that can happen. Right now, all defenses have to do because they can see it all, because you're standing right in front of them, is they can just send the house. They can send everybody down. Guess what? When they send the house, you can do those little things with the play action. You can boot a guy out, you can do all that kind of stuff, but you can't from the shotgun. You can't. You can't exploit defenses the same way when you're so one-dimensional and vanilla, like you're telling me. Like you, like you just specifically told me there, Almer. I mean, you said it. This team was, they come out so flat, they come out so vanilla. There's nothing there. Matt LaFleur seems uninspired. The play calling, the scheming. You don't have to scheme it up sometimes. Like you said, line it up, play football. That's not what they're doing. They're running shotgun. They're trying to scheme it up so much. He's got to get all crazy with it because he's so one-dimensional with the way that he's setting it up, where he's not allowing Jordan Love to play under center, get his back to the bat defense there, and make some of that misconception. What's he gonna do? What's he not? I wonder why Aaron Rodgers shut his headset off, why he couldn't hear him in his helmet. I wonder why. I really do. Umer, to you. I'm going crazy over here. To you. What are your thoughts on the things? What are your thoughts on the run game? I mean, what are your thoughts on what we're seeing from this offense right now? You kind of alluded to it before, but it's just driving me nuts. It is the amount of shotgun and the amount of, I mean, just nonsense that we're running right now. If you're the Green Bay Packers.
SPEAKER_02:No, I was gonna say the shotgun thing drives me absolutely insane. And listening to certain people break it down, I can understand there's some positives with it, but at the end of the day, I feel like he has get he's getting way too he, I don't know if he's he's trying to go into his bag way too much and trying to just do things that are a little bit unconventional. And then when he sees teams do certain ways when they do their defensive scheme, like you know, keeping two eyes shell and things like that, he almost feels like he has to get them out of it. Like he it's almost like, okay, if it's this, it's this. If it's this, it's this. Like if I see this defense, I do this. If it's this type of play, I I call this. And it's like if I feel like he has a very hard time adapting out of his normal decision making. And because that he's here stuck trying to, you know, consistently almost do the same thing. Like I'm watching him literally repeat plays from game in and game out to the point to where if I'm seeing that on my couch and I can get an idea of one, you know, first down, they're gonna run the ball, second, second and short, you know, second and long, they're gonna either run it, they're gonna pass it, and then on third and short, they're gonna run or they're gonna throw it deep, and they're not gonna try to get the first down. And like people are literally playing their Joe Berry defense against us right now, and we're struggling. And I'm sorry, like Vic Fangio, for the most part, Floor and Rogers have had his number, but now with Love, I think Love can still get it, but man, like the way Fangio plays that defense. I know Philadelphia is not what they were last year, but they're still a very good team, and that defense the front is still nasty. And we made the Carolina Panthers look like you know the 2001 Baltimore Ravens with their defense, it was insane. And so, like, I feel like on offense we need to find an actual identity because if you and me can agree that the last year and a half have felt like a herky jerky, we don't know consistency, no rhyme, no rhythm, it's just all over the place, and it just doesn't feel there's no flow. And he used to be really good at that.
SPEAKER_04:He's got this obsession right now where he has to try and be so creative and try to be smarter than everybody and try to draw up this magical play. When at some points it's just how am I gonna get the ball to Josh Jacobs and how am I gonna crack off seven yards? That's all you need to do. Not how am I gonna get the ball to Matthew Golden behind the line of scrimmage and how am I gonna get him to bust off for 15 yards there? Because that is not it. That is not it on a third down when you need some chunk yardage there. I I really said, Why are you not throwing a slant route to Romeo Dobbs? It's like your bread and butter, what you go to every time. And if they try to double that, then there's somebody else open. There's so many other ways that you can draw this up right now. Yeah, and yet Matt LaFleur decides, well, nah, I don't want to. Let's let's get crazy with it. Let's get let's run a screen pass to Savion Williams because that'll be fun. It's it's that it's the obsession with having to do all this creative stuff. Where, like you said, he digs so deep into this bag of tricks when work. I mean, everybody's saying the most simple thing. It's like we've sat here, and I I know, like you said, there's like so many people out there say, Well, there's so many benefits to running out of you know, shotgun. You can see the field better, you can do this. Okay, great. I I don't care. We've watched enough football where we've watched Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre, and everybody else, right? We've watched them all play underneath the center for years and have success. Now, I'm just crazy, crazy to think this, but Hall of Fame quarterbacks might have been on to something. These these Hall of Fame play callers might have been on to something. Football has gotten faster, guys have gotten quicker. I will agree with that. But it does not mean that there is not still a way to run underneath the center, that there is not a need for play action because it works. It works when you have a mobile quarterback. Get Jordan Love out and running, get him out and running. When was the last time we saw Jordan Love's legs? Just utilize his legs where he is that threat to throw the ball because we know the arm talent that he has, where he can make some throws, where he can throw the ball in the run, but also he can take off and get you a couple, where also he can you know hand it off to Josh Jacobs while he's turned around. There's so many options that you can go with that Packers are just avoiding by running at the shaka. It just drives me absolutely nuts. It just does.
SPEAKER_02:I feel you, I I couldn't agree more. I think it's one of those things where we find I feel like we just shoot ourselves in the foot over and over and over, and it's just like, hey, like at this point, year seven, like there's things you just gotta get out of your system. He doesn't, he's still making repeat mistakes. I mean, we can't we can't we talk about play calling, but I'm gonna talk about some of the roster decision making when it comes to having three, we're now having two losses in a tie, primarily because our kicker is missing field goals, and then you have you know Lucas, the substitute teacher, right there on the team, and this guy's still supposedly working for something in his leg, and I'm like, we're still trying them out there. Just some of the stuff defies logic. I posted about it. It's like you have players that are continually hurt that are currently hurt, and you you give them the benefit of doubt to be out there, but if they're not performing well, you don't take them off the field, you just keep them out there. And I don't know why they lack the common sense to defy logic. Like, okay, if he's banged up, I don't care what he's saying. If he's not 100% and he's like 80 or 70, I'd rather get the guy who's healthy. He may not be as good, but at least he's healthy and he can run with someone, or he can block properly, and or in this case, kick a field goal. Like we lose games like by three or or you know, by three or more, and or I'm sorry, three or less, three or more. And why? Because of things like that. That's just mm-mm. It easy to be AO right now if we had you know just a kicker that was semi-consistent.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, yep. I know I agree. I agree 100%. I was I was watching earlier, I think it was a uh a Nate Hobbs that were showing some of the highlights of him off this last only.
SPEAKER_02:I still I know exactly what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_04:He looks lost, like it just he looks lost. Like, I don't understand. It looks like worse than in the preseason where we were watching um Isaiah Simmons, and I was really at high hopes for him. And it was like watching him out there in pass coverage, and I know and I understand, and and maybe I don't know, I don't know what his you know work ethic or like understanding is of defenses, how quick he catches on, because I know he's been injured, right? He's been out for a while, so I don't maybe maybe it's a guy who just doesn't understand the scheme that they're trying to run at the moment or what it is, but he's doing worse for you being out there than he is sitting on the sideline watching and maybe understanding. I don't know, I don't I don't know the inner, like the inner workings, right? I don't, I'm not in the room, so I don't are I don't know if maybe it's like it's not clicking, the schemes aren't clicking in his head because we've seen it before with other guys like Koy Walker, right? Right now, teams will just run at him because like that's just I mean, run the football like Koi Walker. Either he's gonna blow it up in the backfield or you're gonna go right past him. One of the two. I mean, and I take the chances on going right past him, but it's like that right now with Nate Hobbs, like, well, when he's out there, throw to his side of the field, he just looks lost. And I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is. If it's him, if it's because he's hurt. I he was hurt, I have no idea, but it's just it's it's not there with him at the moment. So he's doing worse for you, like you said, with like McManus. He's doing worse for you on the field right now than he is not. Maybe keeping him on the sideline, maybe working through the scheme a little bit more because he's been out. So I don't know if it's because he just hasn't had a lot of time in practice to be able to practice the scheme. Like it just looks like when he dropped back in coverage, he's there, and then he just doesn't know what, like he doesn't know what zone he's in, he doesn't know where he's supposed to go. I don't know if that's just a lack of understanding, the concept, what I have no idea. I I don't know. You can only make so many excuses for a guy. I just I have no idea. But like you said with McManus, if it's going to be a problem having him out there, it's not worth it, and that's where you have to move on from that, move on from that and try to make that problem lesser by putting somebody else out there, maybe a lesser player, but still somebody who is going to be in the right spots and do the right things.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say Nate Hobbs, don't worry, he's already he's out for another one to two weeks because of MCL injury.
SPEAKER_04:So there you go.
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say, like he's hurt anyway. Meniscus coming in, MCL now. I'm like, again, this is the thing that we knew about him coming out of uh Las Vegas. He's oft injured. Like, you know, you weren't really gaining or losing anything with replacing Jair with him because you know, neither one of them really playing much right now. But again, at least when Jair was out there, he may not play much. When he was out there though, he knew what he was doing. At least on our team, he did. So I'm with you on that. Like, so it's just one of those things where if he's not healthy, or for that matter, if he doesn't know what the heck he's doing out there, you gotta get him off the field because they they sometimes keep doing it. Oh they'll keep him out there, they'll they'll figure it out, they're gonna work through it. No, I'm sorry. If if that was the case, we should have benched Kevin King the moment he gave up that touchdown. Because clearly he didn't have it, right? Because he gave up another one. And I'm just like, why bring Shramon Williams? This is the same thing in this case. Like, if you got if you have that guy out there who you could see doesn't know exactly what he's doing, there's sometimes you can't work through it. And when you benched him, it was probably the best thing you could have done.
SPEAKER_04:Nope, I agree. I agree 100%. So we're gonna come back here, we're gonna wrap up the Panthers talk, we're gonna preview the Eagles, and then we're gonna get we're gonna get Almer out of here for the day. We'll be right back here. Welcome back into Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. Hey, this next segment here, we're gonna wrap up the Packer talk there, wrap up with the Eagles here. 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 were doing, feeling better than ever. So Ummer is back here. We're gonna quick go over what we want to see here in this Eagles matchup. As we always run long with our segments, so here we are. We gotta we gotta buzz through the Eagles game here coming up. So, Ummer, let's talk about this Eagles game right away. Keys to the game. What are some of your keys that you're looking at in this game? Packers, what do they got to do to pick up a win here against the Eagles on Monday night?
SPEAKER_02:I think we we've noticed with the Eagles and some of the losses that they've had this year, have been teams that have not been really scared to run their game plan, try to run the ball, be take advantage of the aggressiveness on defense and on offense. You know, for the longest time, their OC or their Kevin Potrillo did not know what he was doing at all. Hence why that looks so disjointed. And right now, even though they are coming off of bye weeks, they're gonna be extra prepared, extra rested for us. You have to take advantage of a few things. You have to be able to take advantage of Jalen Carter's aggressiveness and try to get him ejected because that seems to work multiple times now. Uh, also uh Saquon Barkley, you gotta make sure that he's not 100%, so you have to take advantage of that, not like hurt him, but just make sure you take advantage of his not being as fast. And again, it is one of those things where on defense, I feel like we'll be okay. My concern is how is Jordan Love and his offense on the floor bounced back from that really putrid uh demonstration on Sunday.
SPEAKER_04:I agree. I agree with that. I, you know, looking at that run game for the Eagles, I think it's gonna be a lot on Devontae Wyatt, Carl Brooks, those guys, they got pushed around on Sunday against the Panthers. They were opening up holes and they were moving. There was that backup guard form. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but they were he was pushing them around. Yeah, he was he was pushing them around like no other. He was owning the trenches. So this is a game where the the defensive line needs to come up big and they need, especially guys like Parsons and Gary on the outside there, but up the middle, you know, you're talking about a guy like Saquon who's a little banged up coming into this one. Those guys have to set the tone at the front end of this for the Green Bay Packers. So I'm right there with that defensive line, having to be good in this one. And I'm kind of looking at the secondary in this game. I you know, I don't know what AJ Brown's gonna be because nobody knows at this point. Is he gonna be reading a book? Is he gonna be there? I have no idea what what the heck's going on with that, but you still have Devontae Smith, you got to steal it. Dallas Goddard always seems to have the Packers' number when it seems like they play him. So this is the game where you got to be watching out for those guys. This isn't the same Eagles team that you saw last year, but there's still a good team. This is still a good team with a good quarterback and a good running back or great running back that can get the job done if you allow it. Like you said, you got to go in here with a plan. Not this, and it just seems like I don't know if you play the Packers, just play down to teams or what, but you have to come into this game and you have to be fired up. You you have to. I I don't I truthfully don't understand how the Packers came into that game against the Panthers so dull because they hadn't been to Lambeau in so long, they were away from Lambeau for so long. You get in front of your home crowd again, and that's the performance. That's the the like guys on the sideline looked dead. There was no energy. You had guys waving towels on third down, but that was about it. Nobody on the field looked like they had it. It just looked like a team that lacked juice. So when you come out on a Monday night under the lights at Lambo against the Eagles, a team that you expect and you you expect to beat that you you're gonna have to beat. You're gonna have to beat this team to end up where you want to be. What are you gonna show me? Yep. That's one of my big questions gonna be. And a key for me, too, is without Tucker Kraft, who else is gonna step up in that uh, who else is gonna step up in the blocking game to take over what Tucker Kraft did? Because it's gonna be tough. He was all he was everything, he was a lot of things. Who's gonna step up to be that guy? Can Luke Musgrave step up and be a better version of himself in this time that Tucker Kraft saw? Will it be an offensive lineman? Those are the things I'm looking for. It's gotta be the run game. The run game has got to set the tone for the Packers in this one because the defense for the Eagles, the Eagles are good enough that if you can't get the run game going, they're gonna exploit, they're gonna take advantage of what they know they can with Jordan Love. And that's where when he has to start throwing the ball a lot, he sometimes gets dangerous. He sometimes gets reckless, and he gets reckless with the deep ball, as we saw with that silly pass that he made. So that's something I'm worried about there. Amir, last thing. What do you got there? What do you got there? One last thing to wrap us up here with this.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I have I have no expectations. I just want them to come out and just show like they care and they actually put up a good game. I, you know, I'm just I'm so still blown from Sunday. I don't even know. I can't even really like I'm just looking forward to the game to get this taste out of my mouth. That's it.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, yep, no, 100%. One, I mean, just just to wrap it up there. I mean, yes, I that game more or less surprised me because they had already been a part of a trap game with the Browns that they got trapped again. I guess that was my biggest surprise with that game against Carolina. So, Amor, let the people know where to find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, man. Thank you so much. I was gonna say you can find me on uh on Twitter and X at AMAR3455, Coast Coast Packers. We go every Thursday night or Thursdays and Fridays. Um, we might even start doing an after game. We should have done one after that game that we needed it. Um yeah, just find us at Coast to Coast Packers or you can find me on Twitter.
SPEAKER_04:Make sure you guys check him out. He's got tons of great stuff there. Make sure you guys check out Coast to Coast Packers coming up this week. It'll be probably Thursday, Friday there, like he said. But make sure you're checking out Facebook. We'll I'll share the live out there on Facebook and on Twitter. And then when we go live, you can check that out. We do tons of Packer Talk on there and we'll preview this game, talk more about that Panther game, and then preview this game coming up. So Ammer, thank you as always. When we come back here from the break, Kyle's gonna stop by. We have some bucks talk to get to when he comes back here. So we're gonna come back here on Wisconsin Sports and Google. I'm your host, Trage, as we come back here on this Wednesday. And hey, this next segment here, Kyle's stopping by. We're gonna talk a little NBA. I want to talk some bucks, and then we got some NFL trade deadline talk to get to. 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 it leveled for less the less than half the cost of the replacement. That's all you need to know. Call our friends down there, 715-897-6790 today for a complimentary estimate. Get this thing done before winter is here. So Kyle is here tonight. It's Wednesday. Kyle, how are we doing on this Wednesday?
SPEAKER_01:I'm good. Yeah, it's November. So NFL teams are starting to make that push to the playoffs. College basketball's underway. So it's it's a good time.
SPEAKER_04:And baseball is officially done yet not done, right? It's never done. It's never truly done. It's like this World Series ends, and then everything starts up. Guys start getting kicked out. We get to see who gets to become a free agent, who's gonna go to arbitration, everything like that. So craziness. That is the MLB season. But Kyle, as always, we gotta roll it into the mellow yellow minute. The trivia portion of the show here in honor of my grandpa. He loved trivia, he loved mellow yellow. We call it the mellow yellow minute here. And if you want to get involved in Mellow Yellow Minute, hit us up. Get this number ready, 715-990-4914. That is 715-990-4914. If you get the answer before Kyle does, we'll get you a t-shirt. We'll get you something. We'll get you some swag. We'll get you some swag. That's all you need to know. We'll get you something over there. Text it to me, 715-990-4914. So here is the mellow yellow minute question of the day, the top five. And our top five, Kyle said college basketball's ad. Back, we had to do a college basketball top five here. So this is the most times a men's basketball team has opened the season in the AP top five. So your options, Kyle, and they're the options that most people would probably guess here. You have Duke, Kansas, UCLA, North Carolina, and Kentucky. So that is our top five. Now, Kyle, you have to put them in order. If you guys out there want to get involved, 715-990-4914. If you think you have it, text it to me right now. Give me the top five. We'll let you know if you're right. If you get it right, hey, you get entered into our drawing for the Ace Hardware Rewards gift card. And then you also, you also get some swag. That's all you need to know. So hit me up right now. Kyle, what do we got? Top five.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Um, I think I know number one. I'm gonna keep to the tradition, go five to one. So five, I'm gonna say North Carolina.
SPEAKER_04:Not North Carolina. This is a team, the last play. I'll give you this one. Number five was a team that was really good for a really long time, and as of late, they've gone away.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. That's gonna be Duker, Kentucky. I'm gonna say Kentucky.
SPEAKER_04:Not Kentucky. Really good a long time ago, but they went away. They went downhill. They not downhill, I shouldn't say downhill. They they've had a program change now, they've learned a little bit better now. UCLA is number five.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I should have Bill Wallon Days.
SPEAKER_04:That top five, most appearances in the top five. Remember that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so now Kentucky, Kansas, Duke using all right. I'll go UNC.
SPEAKER_04:Not UNC. Oh my god, this is crazy. Is it is it Duke? Not Duke, it is Kansas. Kansas is number four. Kansas comes in at number four. So you have Duke, North Carolina, and Kentucky left.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Uh maybe I'll maybe we'll hit a stride here. Alright, so three. Give me North Carolina.
SPEAKER_04:Don't try to kill North Carolina so much.
SPEAKER_01:Because I feel like okay, okay. It's not North Carolina. That's fine. I don't want to just, you know. Alright.
SPEAKER_04:So three. Duke. Duke is number three. Duke is number three there.
SPEAKER_01:Because I'm assuming Kentucky's number one.
SPEAKER_04:Kentucky is number one, North Carolina comes in at number two. Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, and then UCLA are the top five most winning, most times opened in the top five. Kansas, Kansas is always up in there, but I think Kentucky's been there the most. I really have. And UCLA hasn't been there in a while, but I mean we went through a very long stretch of being out there. So there you go. There is a bell yellow minute, and hopefully somebody else out there got it before Kyle did there. We'll make sure to check that out. We'll make sure to get you surprised if you did there. So we want to get to let's get to the Bucks, Kyle. Let's get to the Bucks. The Bucs have impressed to start this season. Uh, well, start this little bit of run here. Five and two. As we're recording, as you guys know, pre-recorded, we're talking to you on a Tuesday. This is on a Wednesday. So they're playing the Raptors right now. We don't know the outcome of that. We know that this Bucks team has started the season now. What, six and five and two? Five and two. Five and two there. Beating the Raptors once, beating the Wizards early on there, lost to the Cavs. Then they beat the Knicks, Warriors, lost to the Kings in weird, a weird fashion. Like no Giannis against the Warriors. They beat them. Then they have Giannis back for the Kings. They lose. And then they beat the Pacers, which was, I think, big for the Bucs, big for Miles Turner. A big confidence boost there. So Kyle, impressions of this Bucks team to start out this young season.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, look, I feel like they are off to a good start. They're I feel like they're finding out some things about some of these young players that they they have something there. You know, we're seeing Rollins emerge. You have AJ Green as a sharpshooter. I think what you're gonna notice is the Bucks are gonna probably get you with eight, nine guys who can all average around double figures or more. Which look in today's game, you're not gonna necessarily see that in a lot of places. And I think because of that, they'll they'll handle themselves well. And just like every team, as long as you know they're healthy, I think that they can can definitely be a top six team, and they're they're probably doing better than you think in terms of their offense. Because I think a lot of questions before the season was outside of Giannis, who else would step up? They are fourth in scoring, averaging around 123 a game. And yes, we know today's NBA, there's a lot of scoring, but they're only giving up 118. So the the differential is about five points a game. That's that's nothing to you know just gloss over. They're second in the league field goal percentage, so they're efficient scoring, shooting from the field. They're second from three, shooting 41%, which some of that is probably Giannis shooting a little bit higher than he probably will, but I think that's something that they can maintain 41% with the guys that they have shouldn't be too crazy. But today's NBA is shooting the three and defending it. They're top 10 defending the three, only giving up 34%. So they have the the tools and the makings to be a very good team, especially in this version of the East this year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, no, I I like that, and that's the East is waiting for somebody to take it at this point because there's nobody like you're talking the Celtics, they're banged up. You have different teams banged up. The Pacers, no Halburn, he's banged up. So you have all these teams banged up, it's waiting for somebody to come and take it. And the Bucks could very well be that team. So I like that there. Uh, you're talking about the emergence of some guys, right? Talking about the emergence of some guys. Let's just key in on some players that we've seen so far. So the big one for me that I I've loved is Ryan Rollins, a guy who, a journeyman, was with the uh Warriors there, they didn't want him. Now he's with the Bucks, and the Bucs now they're utilizing him to his fullest. And man, he's making it uh an interesting case for himself. When Kevin Porter does come back, how much what is the minute load gonna be between those two? So tell me about what you've seen from Ryan Rollins. Not just, I mean, it's not just offensively, it's defensively, too, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I mean, you alluded to that Golden State game. So if you were just looking at that game and somebody said Giannis isn't gonna play, you'd probably wonder, well, where's the scoring gonna come from? Ryan Rollins led the team with 32 points that game, and you talk about defensively, he's averaging about two, a little over two steals a game. So he's a guy getting out in the passing angles, he's you know, keeping guys in front of him, getting deflections, so he's giving you that two-way play. And even when Giannis is out there, a lot of games, Rollins is up there in assists. So we know Giannis handles the ball a lot, but Rollins has shown that he's a guy who can facilitate the offense, get guys into you know their areas that they like to shoot from and deliver it to them in their shooting pocket and everything like that. So I do think him doing this now, when Porter Jr. does come back, it does now give you that you know security that if Porter Jr. is struggling one night, you can lean on Rollins a little bit more and kind of play off the two of them and see, hey, this guy's hot tonight. We'll give him more minutes if he if you know one of them's cold, you go to the other one. The more depth, the better. So this is this is definitely good if you're Doc, knowing that Rollins can lead the team in scoring if Giannis needs a night off. And if he's playing with Giannis, he can he compliments him really well.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and and we did talk about in the in the offseason, well, before last I think it was last week, maybe week before, we were talking about what rotations might look like. And we had talked about, I mean, could you see the Bucks maybe when Kevin Porter does come back? Because you're gonna have Cole Anthony, who has he's been playing well too. Could you see them going with a two-guard look like that where they go smaller and try to move the ball faster? Try to, you know, I don't know if you want to say like play like Golden State, right? Where they would go with those small ball lineups with Draymond running the five. Could you see the Bucs kind of leaning towards that direction? Where I don't know if you'd say it's gonna be small because you're still gonna have Giannis out there, but playing a little bit of a smaller lineup with two guard look like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it that can work against certain teams. Uh, look, I'm I'm a Celtics fan. You can do that against the Celtics because the Celtics aren't a big team, you can do it against like a Miami because Giannis can cover out of bio, so you're not really worried about you know getting destroyed on the glass. And I I do think, once again, today's NBA where you know teams like the more athletic, kind of smaller, big men that way they can run a little bit more. I think, like you're saying, the Bucs are now equipped to play that way. Last year's team, I don't know. Because you had to work in guys like Brooke Lopez and and well, Bobby Poris is kind of a small five, but when Brooke was on the floor, you would never want to run a lineup kind of like that with him. But now you're more athletic, you're you're you can play that style. And a lot of the teams in the East are playing that way. So I wouldn't be surprised if you don't see some kind of form of that lineup with the Bucs now.
SPEAKER_04:There is one guy that I believe when I look at this Bucs team right now, if they could get him going and find a rhythm with him, this Bucs team could take the next step. Kyle Kuzma. He just seems like he has all the drive, and he he's everybody loves him. Giannis loves him. He's like, this is the greatest guy in the world. I love his, you know, his his the presence that he brings, the leadership, everything. I love what he brings to the basketball court. It's just if he could find the rhythm. You see him make good moves, good shots. He makes great moves. It's just he can't finish, right? It's those little things. So, I mean, is a guy like Kyle Kuzma, if he can come along and he can be, I don't need him to be, you know, like a third, a third guy, like a third option, a fourth option, a fifth option, whatever. If he could be that guy, do you believe this Bucks team, you know, because you were just talking older in the top six, right? If he takes that step for you and becomes a consistent guy, could this Buc team be a top four team this year? Could you see, could you see that kind of elevation just with a guy like a Kyle Kuzma coming into his own?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, yeah, like all you really need Kuzma to do is take advantage of mismatches. Like if he has a bigger guy who switches out onto him, he should be able to take them off the dribble. If he has a smaller guy, you'd like to understand, you'd like to believe that you could give him the ball and he could overpower him. And you know, last season he had issues finishing around the rim. I think with the Bucs, he's gonna have to be able to do that because a lot of times if Giannis is attracting a lot of attention defensively and Kuzma's like in the opposite corner, there's up there's there's gonna be opportunities for him to dive to the hoop and get easy buckets. I think for Kuzma, it's more of like a confidence thing. If the Bucs show him that they really want him, they want him to be part of the future. I think you may get a better version of him. Because if you look at his career, he started with the Lakers. That was supposed to be, I guess he was supposed to be part of the future there, and then LeBron kind of comes in and he's not. Then he goes to Washington, where Washington's a losing situation, so he probably got into some bad habits. Now you're in Milwaukee with a guy like Giannis, who we know has the work ethic that's kind of unmatched, like he's out there, he's giving it it all. I would not be surprised if by mid-season Kuzma is a regular contributor, and Bucks fans are like, Okay, that this is the guy who the Lakers probably thought they were getting. Yeah, like for me, if Kuzma's a 15 and seven or eight kind of guy, I I could live with that.
SPEAKER_04:I love that.
SPEAKER_01:So he's a little bit, he's a little under that right now, but I think he can elevate his game a little bit more.
SPEAKER_04:I like that. I like that. I like I like the thought of getting a guy like him because he's uh you can tell he's a hard worker. I think I think he is Giannis is starting to rub off on him, I think, because I think he's really settled into his own in Milwaukee. He's just trying to prove himself. And I you love guys like that, especially on a team like this, where that's what they want out of him. So love that, love that they're Kyle. We gotta we gotta hit a commercial break quick. Do you want to come back here? We'll get you back on the backside of the ad break here. We'll talk a little NFL trade deadline as we wrap up the show here. How's that sound? We'll get you back on the backside. There we go. Kyle, we're back here. We're gonna be back after the quick commercial break. We're gonna wrap up the show. We're gonna do some NFL trade deadline talk, and then we'll wrap it up on the backside of the ad break. We'll be right back here in Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, Trage, as we wrap it up here on this Wednesday, November 5th. Wow, it is Wednesday, November 5th. That is absolutely baffling sometimes. But hey, this next segment, Kyle and I were gonna talk a little NFL trade deadline. We're gonna do our picks for the week. This next segment is brought to you by Peggy Sue Baelish, a lifelong resident of central Wisconsin. Peggy Sue with Century 21 Gold Key Realty knows the area and the market. Whether you're buying or selling residential or commercial, Peggy Sue has the knowledge and experience to deliver results. Check her out there. 715-305-4345. That is 715-305-4345. Don't trust anyone else with your commercial or real or residential needs than Peggy Sue there at Century21 Gold Key Realty. So, Kyle, let's talk about this trade deadline. It came and gone. It's came and came came and gone, came and went. Came and went. I don't know. It's a it's late in the night here already. Anyways, anyways. So we see the NFL trade deadline. See, words are starting to slip me. This is where we're at. This is where we're at. I'm just I'm just gonna get we're just gonna end it. We're just gonna end it right here. We're done. We're done. We're out of here. We're done. So the NFL trade deadline has come and gone. There you go. I got it now. I got it. See, I figured it out. Words, words are tough sometimes. Um surprising moves, Kyle. Who okay? Let's go like this. Who are the surprises? Were there any surprise players to get moved and surprise teams to make those moves? I guess. Was there any of those that you saw?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, look, I guess if we're gonna be honest, I was a little surprised by the Sauce Gardner deal.
SPEAKER_04:That's true.
SPEAKER_01:I know the Jets have had their issues. I just thought Sauce Gardner was one of those guys that they were gonna keep no matter what. Like he's under contract until I think 2030. He's still young. He seemed like he'd be an Aaron Glenn type of guy on that defense. So that one did shock me. They got look, they got two first rounders out of it. Oh, sorry, no, that's the Quinn Williams. No, they did. They got well, they got they got two picks out of it. They got a fourth and a fifth. No, I'm gonna get the wrong trade again. They did get two first rounders. I'm I guess we're in this together. We're we're just two first rounders and a wide receiver and Adonai Mitchell, who we all know ran's game, let go of the ball before he scored. So I feel like both teams kind of got something that they wanted. I do think the Colts are taking a risk here, though, because Sauce Gardner's game has slipped a little bit. But if you're the Colts and you had an opportunity, why not? So that was a surprising move for me for sure.
SPEAKER_04:I do, I agree. I was surprised to see Sauce move. Um, but I would agree with the the take of his play has gone south. Now that could be the Jets also being uh because you watch like Daniel Jones. This is a team of a guy who knows what it's like to play for a bad organization, go to a good one. Now it looks a little bit better. So maybe Sauce finds it with a better defense there where he isn't you know relied on so heavily to it, you know, stop whatever mess they're in right then. So I I could see it working out, but also at the same time, I mean the Colts got they got a pretty good bargain out of this. There, his contract's only gonna cost him about 26 mil for the five remaining years on the deal, which isn't terrible. So the Colts kind of made out decent. It's it was a I think it was a good move for the Colts. They got some at least depth, right? If it isn't the greatest corner in the world, they got some depth. Now moving on from two first rounders, that's a different story, but that's what happened there. Um, a weird one. Let's go with weird. What do you think about the cowboys making moves?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, look, Quinnen Williams is another guy that I I guess I was a little surprised the Jets moved off of him, but it's like Jerry was kind of telling us that they probably won't be active because there isn't a move that necessarily does anything for them this year, and then they go and get him and you know move off Mazzy Smith in the deal. They got two picks as well. So if you're the Cowboys, you're gonna have to you're gonna have to hope that Quentin Williams becomes a dominant force in the middle of your line because that defense needs a lot of help. So you need Quentin Williams to be like a game wrecker to help the guys on the back end. And if he's not that, then this move doesn't really do much of anything for me.
SPEAKER_04:No, when you look at that secondary, that secondary needs like an overhaul. They they need to just clear house with what they got, and I think he's that's the problem, is he wants to say Jerry Jones. My problem is he wants to stay so relevant that he actually makes it worse because he can't just blow it up. Sometimes you just gotta blow it up, you just gotta blow it up, but bite your losses. Go. I mean, they got draft picks galore right now at the Packers, right? The Packers sent them some draft picks there, so they they have those picks. You don't need those picks. Go get yourself some back end defense, guys. Draft correctly, which is sometimes a difficult thing, but draft correctly, especially if you're Jerry, because Jerry's the only one in the room making that decision of who to take. But it's just it seems like they're trying to force something that isn't there. Isn't there? You're trying to add on pieces when you should be moving pieces, move off of some of these guys on that defense. Do do something out of the normal, try to back, get some picks because look at your defense right now. They're a mess. They're they're a mess. I mean, could you realistically right now look at the cowboys defense and say I would want that defense? No, no, maybe like Kenny Clark, because I still like Kenny, but outside of that, it's a mess. Um, let's Jacoby Myers. Jacoby Myers, what do you think about that move? If we figured he would get moved off, what do you think about him?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, Jacoby Myers is a you know, he he's not a flashy wide receiver, he's he's kind of like a chain mover, like he he can get you first downs, he has reliable hands. I mean, he won it out of Vegas, so you you feel like you'll probably get a more motivated guy right now. And for Jacksonville, it seems like their season's kind of on the ropes, and this is a move that they're hoping can kind of give them some juice uh to pair along with Brian Thomas Jr. Uh it's it's kind of like a nothing trade for me, but I guess I see why the Jags are are just pulling straws here and hoping for something great.
SPEAKER_04:Who would you say is the biggest trade deadline winner and who's your biggest loser? If you had to give me one of each, who's your biggest winner, who's your biggest loser?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I think the winner has to be the Eagles. I mean, they made a lot of their moves kind of before, but I'm I'll kind of work that in. You get Jalen Phillips, who's a good uh pass rusher, Michael Carter is a good depth corner, and Jay Alexander, we'll see. But it's it was a need for them. You know, anybody but a Dory Jackson, so they're kind of stacking people ahead of them. I I think you have to give it to the Eagles. Losers, it might be it might be the Jets because they probably should have sold off more than they did. And you could probably throw the Dolphins in there as well. Like those are two teams going nowhere. There's a lot of speculation around their team, and they kind of did a little bit, but I feel like they could have done more.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, yeah, I like that. I like that. I it's it's so easy to take like the cop-out answers. You could have said, you know, the Patriots, you could have said, you know, a bunch of these um Packers, right? A lot of people will probably say the Packers because they thought, oh, Tucker Kraft's injury happened, they need to go find themselves a tight end. Well, it's hard to which they did, it's just it's hard to find a guy where you're gonna bring him in for a year, and you're gonna find a really good guy that only wants is a is a year, and you're not gonna have to sell the farm for him. So that's where you run into that problem where you're reacting off of what just happened, and it just so happens that an injury just happened as a trade deadline was, you know, a couple days later. Well, that doesn't work out so well. So there's always that instant, well, we should have gone and got this tight end. They should have went and got a corner. I've always said that they should go get a guy. Guten Kins has proven that he won't. So, I mean, that's just yeah, that's just the Packers and the Packers being the Packers. So, Kyle, we're gonna do three quick pick-ems. Kyle's gonna pick his three games of the weekend. I'm gonna pick my three games of the weekend and winner, and then we're going to say, winner, I don't know. The winner wins. I don't know. We'll we'll keep track at the end of the season. The winner will win something. I have no idea. So, Kyle, pick your top three games. We'll go, we'll go you, then me, then you know, back and forth. But what is your first pick that you're gonna pick for this weekend?
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so first pick of the weekend, I am going to take the Rams on the road against the Niners.
SPEAKER_04:Rams on the road against the Niners. I like that one. I like that one. Let's see here. Kyle took the Rams. I am going to take. Give me. Oh, this that game could be ugly. Jets Browns could be ugly. Oh, give me the pa give me the Panthers. Give me the Panthers at home against the Saints. I'll take the Panthers at home. They just beat the Packers. I'll take them. I'll pick them. I'll take them.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. I will go. There's some interesting ones here. Okay. So I'll take the give me the Texans at home against the Jags.
SPEAKER_04:Texans at home against the reeling Jaguars. Kyle said their season's teetering. The Texans may put it away.
SPEAKER_00:Hmm.
SPEAKER_04:Let's see here. You went with a little bit of a better game there. So I'm gonna have to go with a little bit of more of a bold game. Give me the Ravens to go on the road to the Vikings and win. Give me the Ravens on the road.
SPEAKER_01:That's an interesting game. Those are two teams that not really know who they are right now.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they both need it desperately.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Last pick here, Kyle. Okay, we gotta go with the bold ones. There's some big ones. Wait, what do we got here? Some big ones on here.
SPEAKER_01:I will go bold. Give me the Giants on the Road to beat the Bears.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, I was gonna say that one too. I was thinking that one. I like that one. Giants on the road, Bears. Everybody's like, well, they won last week. And it's like, yeah, but when I turned it on, it was 49 or 47 to 29 or something. And I was like, this should be over. And then all of a sudden they're like, oh, the bears are just squeaking it out. I'm like, what? What happened? Like there was like four minutes left. Like, what happened in this game? Oh, give me the bold. Wait, I need a bold one. Let's see here. Sunday night football. Give me the Chargers over the Steelers. Give me Chargers over the Steelers on Sunday night football. I like that one. I don't want to take Packers Eagles. That was my next bold pick, but don't want to do it. Don't want to do it there. Can't have the announcers check. So, Kyle, thank you as always for stopping by tonight. Let the people know where to find you out there across social media.
SPEAKER_01:Just look me up on YouTube or Facebook, Chompin at the Bit. You'll get the links to all my other socials there. That's the easiest way to find me.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you, as always, Kyle, for stopping by tonight here. Make sure you guys are checking him out, Chomping at the Bit. You can find he's got all kinds of NFL content. He's going to talk about this trade deadline. He's got NBA stuff right now. He's got a whole mess of things going on over there at Chomping at the Bit. So make sure you're checking him out there. And thank you guys, as always, for tuning in tonight here to the show. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Wednesday and the rest of your week. But until I talk to you guys again next Wednesday, sure.