Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
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Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers vs Eagles in Brazil, College Football Kickoff, MLB Wild Card Race – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Aaron from Brutally Honest Sports
Welcome back, sports fans! After a brief hiatus due to Labor Day and some unexpected basement flooding, we're hitting the ground running with an action-packed episode featuring Aaron from Brutally Honest Sports. We cover the excitement of college football's kickoff, the MLB's regular season coming to a close, and the NFL season just around the corner. You'll also get our take on the fresh faces on College GameDay, with Pat McAfee and Nick Saban adding their unique perspectives to the mix. But that's not all—we're diving into the much-anticipated Packers-Eagles game in Brazil, addressing air quality and safety concerns, and discussing how the game will be broadcast on Peacock.
Ever wondered what Saquon Barkley's move to the Eagles means for the team? We break down the Philadelphia Eagles' defense, spotlighting rising stars like Isaiah Rogers and Eli Ricks while pondering if Darius Slay can keep up his performance. We emphasize the importance of creating pressure against the Packers' youthful and speedy wide receiver core and explore the high expectations surrounding Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni. Are Philly fans expecting too much, or can the team rise to the occasion? Our critical analysis answers those burning questions.
Finally, we turn our focus to Green Bay, discussing the potential of players like Jordan Love, Quay Walker, and Rashan Gary. With the Packers' offensive line playing a crucial role, we'll delve into their strategy against the Eagles' revamped defense. As we preview the unique challenges of playing in Brazil, we also touch on the intense competition in college football and the MLB wild card race. Don't miss this episode filled with deep insights, bold predictions, and all the enthusiasm you need for an unforgettable sports season!
How are we doing everybody and welcome in to wisconsin. Sports time to go with trage. I'm your host, trage, we're back today. Took a day off yesterday. It was labor day. You know we labor intensive work. We got to take days off. I guess not really had a flood go on in the basement, musty smell. Didn't want to be down here, so got it all cleaned up, took a day off. We're back today. And I couldn't come back today because there was so much going on in the world of sports. There was college football. Packers are kicking off this week and I needed the guy the Eagles fan to come on here and tell me a little bit about the Eagles. So I got Aaron from Brutally Honest Sports. He's here with me today. Aaron, how we doing. It's Tuesday. Holy crap, it's already Tuesday. Right, great day today. How we doing on this Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I mean I can't complain Back. I mean you can argue. You know, March might be the best time of the year for sports. This is very close, if not the best, for some people Like myself, I would say honestly, just because of the college football starting up. We're in the home stretch of the regular season in baseball. So you know, with October around the corner, that'll be fun. And then you know, later this week, I mean be fun. And then you know, later this week I mean you bring it up. The eagles, the backers, you know ravens chiefs play on third. You know we're, you know, two days away from ravens chiefs, so even closer to the nfl regular season. Just a lot going on. So I'm here for it, it'll be fun. Um, college game day is absolutely a riot, like it's just. It's almost like too much, but uh, it's, uh, it's fun and sports are just in full go right now.
Speaker 1:College game day is not like college game day. It used to be fun. It was fun. But Pat McAfee on there, it's something else. It's something else with McAfee on there. I think Nick Saban brings a whole boatload to that college game day now too. He brings a lot of perspective that a lot of people don't think about. Being a coach who's been there, done that, been successful over the years, I loved hearing Nick Saban on week one there.
Speaker 1:They're heading to Texas and Michigan. That's a big game coming up this next weekend Should be a very good one. I'm hoping Texas just runs Michigan out of the building. But we can all hope on one hand and we get what we get on the other. Right. So we want to start the biggest game for us coming up this week. That is Packers-Eagles happening in Brazil. I saw a lot of reports coming out of there about the air quality. Apparently there's been fires going on down there and they were talking about the air quality down there being terrible. And then I saw the packers official report and they said the air quality isn't bad. So I don't. Were you, did you hear anything about that? Were the eagles mentioning or anything out there about the air quality down in brazil?
Speaker 2:I haven't, honestly, I haven't heard that. I saw that they were asking the eagles players, all these, you know, what are you guys going to do outside of practicing football or playing football? And almost every person on the Eagles has said we're not really going to hang around or, you know, kind of just mess around down there. It's kind of a business and everybody says it, right, it's a business trip and whatever. But as far as, like, the crime and I'm sure the Packers are probably taking the same approach, like they're not going to be just out and about clubbing or, you know, even going out, the rest, I like it sounds to me like it's very uh, sketchy, to say the least. You know, just like a dangerous type of environment, which then I kind of questioned the NFL a little bit for this.
Speaker 2:But, um, you know, no matter who the Eagles play or who the Packers, like like I want everybody to be safe, like I hope nothing actually comes of that. Or you know these guys are, at least you know, aware of what's going on. You know they're high profile guys obviously. So, yeah, I didn't hear much about the air quality thing, but I'm sure you know I will, or that'll, get brought up and talked about more up until the game, but sounds to be like uh, just not an ideal environment as far as uh like I mean, these guys are millionaire, high profile people, so it's a little I you know, eyebrow raising, to say the least. But yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:That's what I've heard about so far well, yeah, you know, the amount of like complications that they've had with this just seems unreal, like you wouldn't? You wouldn't think we're heading to Brazil. The NFL is telling you like this is where the game's going to happen, everything like that. And there's so many like you can't wear green. First off it was you couldn't wear green, nobody could wear green. Well, we're sending the two teams down there whose main color is green. That makes sense. We'll send them both and and then the Packers. They're taking the bullet for you. Don't worry, we're wearing green. That's what I hear. Packers will be wearing the road green. So you're welcome. Eagles fans, we're gonna take the heat for it. But I mean just so many complications leading up into this game. It's actually baffling. And then the game's on Peacock, right. So I know a few local stations will carry it here in the state of wisconsin. I don't know how it is in philadelphia.
Speaker 2:You guys got local stations for the eagles there where you know these people don't have to go get peacock usually, uh, usually it's on like we call our station like fox 43, but that's usually a fox broadcast, so I don't really know, I haven't heard a lot. I mean, I I am guilty of using bootleg streams and I find a way to watch. If I'm gonna be at home, I find a way to watch. The game might be freaking 10 minutes behind sometimes, but you know we we get it on there no matter what. But yeah, it's uh, this whole peacock thing, I mean the amazon peacock, you name it like it's it's. I see why they do it, but it is it's. I feel bad for, like the older generations, right, that are like, well, you know how, how in the world am I supposed to get this on? It's just, it adds another layer of like complications, which I mean I get it, like I said, but at the same time it's a little bit excessive, I think, at times.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of money to be spent in streaming services these days just to watch I think I brought up the number the other day, I can't remember what it was it was over a thousand dollars you would have to pay to watch every game that you wanted to this season between red zone and getting uh peacock, getting what the heck were the other ones netflix, because netflix has games now too. You know, all those different streaming services added up over like $1,000 for the whole darn thing. That was like holy crap. That is a lot of money to be spending on just watching football game. When it used to be, you could turn on Fox or you could turn on CBS, and it was whatever game was in your area was the one that was generally on that station. Nowadays it's hard to find it. So getting into this game, though I wanna know. Hard to find it. So getting into this game, though, I want to know a little bit about this Eagles team. I got you on here. I want to know a little bit about this Eagles team here.
Speaker 1:So, right away with this Eagles team, the biggest thing last season with them was that defense. The defense for the Eagles was, I mean I don't know what a good word to say outside of rough. It was rough to watch that secondary. Like giving up long balls left and right, like it was Oprah handing out cars, like it was like you get a touchdown, you get a touchdown. You get a touchdown all over the place, right, so they made some improvements in the off season, right, and they go out in the off season, I believe, didn't they get? They got Devin White there in that linebacker room. Now they got some guys in there. They've added pieces in the secondary this, this defense, now for the eagles. Do you think that they've revamped it enough that now we're talking about the eagles defense being one of the better defenses in the league, or are we still sitting? We're down in the 15 to 20 range and we're going to count on our offense to be able to make up for it.
Speaker 2:I think they've. So last year, I mean it was Sean Desai, to start the year, who was never a defensive coordinator before. He was a Seattle assistant defensive coach. I think he was a secondary coach to be more accurate. But you know, as they started struggling, you know they got lit up by Dallas. I think Dallas dropped like 47 or some crazy amount on them and down there in in Dallas and then after that, you know, questions started getting asked. You know, is this the guy? Does he know what he's doing and, granted, it's his first year as the defensive coordinator.
Speaker 2:But, like the Eagles are the opposite of like a Pittsburgh Steelers type of franchise, like if things are a little bit and not so good, like they stick with their guys, like this front office is like, even if there's a little bit of, you know, struggle, it's like okay, who can we get rid of? Or what change can we make? I do like that to a certain degree, but sometimes it's a little excessive. So then, long story short, they, they, they, they, they keep the sigh on the staff and they put them in up in the uh, you know, up in the box, basically, and then they have matt patricia calling plays. So it's like you, you strip the guy of defensive play calling halfway through his first year. And then you know you, matt patricia, to me I mean sure he had success with new england, but really that was belichick's defense, like you know. At the end I mean he went to Detroit absolutely flopped, and you know pretty much everybody did in Detroit up until Dan Campbell. But still I don't think, matt Patricia, really makes your team that much better. And then you know they're changing everything mid-year.
Speaker 2:So at the end of the day I still think, with bringing in Vic Fangio, a guy that's been there, done that as a defensive coordinator not like it's his first year or he's, you know, like this guy knows how to coach a defense at the very least. I'm not saying he's, you know, the best defensive coordinator of all time, but I at least have confidence he knows what he wants to do. And, like you know, there's a strategy in place. Last year it was just like, okay, everybody's out of position. You know nobody's. It just looks like a, an absolute cluster. Insert the blank. You know what I mean. So I think just that alone will make this defense better. Um, and I think the defense will like trust him more than you know these guys coming in, that don't? They just don't have as much pedigree as a Vic Fangio.
Speaker 2:Now I mean losing a Reddick who, reddick, hasn't even shown up for the Jets yet, which that's a whole other situation, but that looked like a horrible thing. You know, trading him for Huff, but I mean, as long as Bryce Huff is like okay, like just how he's been the last couple years productive, I'll take that just to get rid of the headache that seems like Hassan Redick has kind of turned into, but it's really to into, but it's really to me it's going to come down to the secondary. I mean you brought that up darius slay. I mean this is probably his last year. I know the ravens really tried to go out and get him and and he was like out the halfway, out the door to baltimore, and then you know, comes back to philly for, you know, probably, probably the money, whatever it was. But at the end of the day I mean it's it's slay, then it's Kaley Ringo. I mean you're going to have quite I always say it wrong Kaivon Mitchell, which I know I said that wrong but I can never pronounce it. So, whatever First-round draft pick, he looks promising. Now, you know we'll see when they line him up in the regular season. But Isaiah Rogers, eli Ricks, like all these guys need to play a role because I mean Slay, he's not going to get targeted nearly as much as these other guys will. And then with Slay, he's getting older, so like, like I said, this might be his last year as an Eagle. I mean I think he'll still play a couple more years in the league, but he's not like prime Darius Slay and you know that there's that concern.
Speaker 2:So, long story short, the linebacking core probably is a little bit better. I mean, I could go into everybody that's in the linebacking core, but we don't need to do that. I think they'll be maybe like 10th or 12th or something like that. I think they have the potential. I should say I don't think they're going to be like horrid like last year. I don't think they're going to be horrid like last year. I don't think they're an elite defense by any means. I still think they have their holes and the Eagles have kind of under ownership that they have. They've built the offense and then defense is always kind of a second thought, which I don't absolutely love. That, but it is what it is and I just think they'll be better. I don't think they'll be great, I don't think they'll be horrible, but I think they'll be better and the offense is going to have to carry this team at the end of the day.
Speaker 1:You know, the big thing they did in the off season the Eagles was they added a lot of youth. They added youth and speed. That was their big thing. I mean, look at last season, 31st and past defense that is wow. I mean the way they started the year on defense playing. I mean you watch this team. I mean what did they start? Were they undefeated to start the year or they had one loss to start?
Speaker 2:the year. I mean it was an unreal start.
Speaker 1:And then it just went just like that, all downhill. Everything just turned into a disaster. And the youth, that's what I'm talking. Cooper DeGene in there. You mentioned Mitchell in there he's 23. You have a couple of 20, eli Ricks he's 22. Blankenship and McCollum are 25. Gardner, johnson and Rogers they're both 20.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of youth in this quarterback room. That's something that I think is a curse and it's also great. You have a lot of youth, you have a lot of speed, but you also have a lack of experience out there and you're going to face some talented wide receivers who have been there, done that against some of the best and they're going to they might burn you. They might burn you a couple of times. I think the big thing for the Eagles you know game one it might be there's a lot of youth on the Packers too. I mean you look at the wide receiver core. They're young still in that wide receiver core. They might've played a year or two now, but there's still a lot of youth around that receiver core, so they're still learning. These cornerbacks will be learning. It's going to be a heck of a fight between those guys because you look at the Packers, their wide receiver core, you look at Reed, you look at Wicks, you look at Watson. There's some speed in that room, so having some speed out there at cornerbacks is definitely going to help out this Eagles team on defense.
Speaker 1:The thing that I look at, though, for the Eagles, a big thing that I'm looking at, is the pressure. Can they put pressure on teams? Because I saw the stat there just before. Ah, where was it? I just had the stat up on their defense. Oh, right, here Got it. Last season they were fourth in the NFL with 24 sacks through seven games, and then they ranked 29th the rest of the year 19 over those 10 games. Just to see the decline there in that defensive line. You know they're going to have Jalen Carter Hopefully. You know he's got. That's everything that happened is behind him Now a little bit. The outside noise is gone. Maybe he can finally develop into the full prospect that they thought they were getting there. It's going to be a. Can Josh Sweat return to what he was in the first half of the season last year, because the second half he was complete garbage? I mean, he disappeared the last 10 games.
Speaker 1:So for me it's the defensive front for this Eagles team, because you look at Green Bay, they bring Josh Jacobs in. Matt LaFleur is a smart coach. He's very smart. He knows when he needs to throw the ball around. He knows when he can take advantage of an offensive line or a defensive line. He knows when he's got to call play. He's an offensive guy. He draws up the plays in his head and he throws them out there and he's like just run it, we'll make this thing work. So, looking at that Eagles front there, that's where my worry would be as an Eagle fan. I guess If I was looking at the perspective of an Eagle fan, I'd be looking at can they create pressure, especially in this first game against Jordan Love, to rattle him? Because we've seen what Jordan Love can do when he's not rattled, when he has all the time in the world it looks good, everything looks good. Can they put pressure on Jordan Love and this Packers team? So my next question to you Saquon Barkley comes to the Eagles now they lose DeAndre Swift.
Speaker 1:Saquon Barkley comes in to replace there is that I mean from an Eagles fan. You've seen him with the Giants, right, we saw him with Penn State. You saw him with Penn State. You saw him with Penn State. You're a Penn State fan. So you're a big Saquon guy. He's coming to the Eagles now that's got to be some cool stuff there seeing him basically come back home to you. What do you think about the addition of Saquon Barkley? Does that change this offense? Is that that little bit of a boost that Jalen Hurts needs? That's going to just it's going to be like that safety blanket. Every quarterback has that safety blanket. That guy they can turn to, whether it's coming out of the backfield. I mean you look at Dak Prescott with the Cowboys, it's the tight ends right. Jake Ferguson down there, that's his safety blanket. Is Saquon? Does he turn into Jalen Hurts' safety blanket? A guy that coming out of the backfield, he's a good pass catcher, he can get you yards after the catch.
Speaker 2:Does he turn into that kind of guy for the eagles and what is his impact in your eyes going to be on this eagles team? Yeah, I mean I I was even okay with them bringing back swift, like I I didn't think they needed to go, as you know, balls to the walls as far as to get like a guy like saquon. My concern is, I mean any running back can get hurt. I'm sure you've seen a pack of running backs get hurt. Ezekiel Elliott went down for a while. Countless guys. Adrian Peterson played through. I mean I think he tore his ACL at one point, so to say, oh, saquon Barkley's injury-prone. I mean you can make the case right. I'm not one of those guys that, oh my God, saquon, like I love Saquon, he's coming to the Eagles, he's going to be a 2000 yard back. Like I like to be realistic, but you know there's two ways to look at it, because I mean, without Saquon, the Giants really had no offense. So now you're inserting Saquon into an offense that was already has the potential. I'll say it like that has the potential to be very good if Jalen Hurts can play well and like same thing on this side of the ball.
Speaker 2:I think they were hampered last year by the play calling by. I mean, brian Johnson was not an offensive coordinator before they. They promoted him from within the organization just didn't work. I mean, nick Sirianni, I think, had his hand in that offense and whenever he has direct contact with the offense it's never good. It's just they never run the ball. If it was up to Sirianni they would not run the ball, they would throw the ball. It could be third and inches and they probably wouldn't even do the touch push, they'd throw a 45-yard slant route. It's just stupid. But the thing is with Brain and Kellen Moore. If you look at Kellen Moore's offenses there in Dallas, they utilize the tight end a lot. Even with Herbert last year they utilized the tight end a lot.
Speaker 2:Dallas Goddard last year was completely forgotten about. I mean, so many times he was wide open last year. If I had a dollar for how many times he's wide open I'd be a rich man. But I think between bringing in Saquon and the impact he can have in both, like you said, the passing game and the running game, but then incorporating Dallas Goddard back into this offense, that's where I think it could be a hard offense to stop. Obviously, obviously, aj Brown and and Devontae Smith are what they are like. We know that by now. But if, if, if, you can utilize these other guys like Dallas Goddard, like it's going to be harder to stop everything right, like that's what the 49ers do so well, I mean they have Brandon Ayuk, uh, you know, mccaffrey, george Kittle, like the list goes on and on and on. So that's what I think the Eagles are trying to be as far as you know, making everybody involved, and I think Kellen Moore is better at that than what they had last year. So I think all that combined turns the Eagles offense into a very it could be like a top five offense.
Speaker 2:Really, I think it's just, you know, losing Jason Kelsey obviously is a big one, but we knew that was going to happen one of these years, it's. It's not like it was a shell shock, like okay, he's actually gone. And then when you were talking about the defense, I forgot Fletcher Cox is no longer in the middle of defense. So there are some. Like you know, this is a weird. The only guy left really from you know, the core of Eagles really is is Brandon Graham, and he doesn't give you a lot anymore, but kind of like a leadership presence type of deal. So it'll be interesting. Like you said, they went all youth. I mean there's some youth on the offensive line now too. So we'll see. But I have high expectations, but I'm a little bit cautiously optimistic, just because with new coaching changes sometimes there's growing pains and we could see that against the Packers.
Speaker 1:Like I don't know. I I don't know how they're gonna mesh week one, I just don't know. So I guess my big thing with the offense is Jalen Hurts. Last season, I mean, he looked like he was lost. He looked like he didn't have a clue what was going on at times. And this year, I mean, people were talking about Jalen Hurts being a top 10 quarterback. After they went on the run, everything was great with the world. Jalen Hurts was a top 10 quarterback. It was taken to the bank. A lot of teams were like why didn't we draft this guy? It was all the talk of the town. And then all of a sudden last season happened and now it's like he's forgotten in the world.
Speaker 1:So you bring in, like you said, kellen Moore comes in. It seems like, from what I've heard, those two have a good relationship between the two guys. Everything seems to be going well. Do you think? Okay, this is going to be a double-barrel question for you, because I got another guy who he's got a lot to prove this season too Nick Sirianni and Jalen Hertz. Both those guys. To me, when I look at it from the outside, looking in, those guys seem like they have a lot to prove to me this season here, because we're hearing about this improved defense. You add in Saquon Barkley. You've spent money now. Yes, you do have some youth across the board and Fletcher Cox is gone, jason Kelsey's gone. You do have some youth in the room now, but this is still a solid core.
Speaker 1:And this is an Eagles team. Where you look at the experts, you know if you want to put in quotations, experts, whatever you want to say about them. They say this Eagles team is a contender for the NFC championship, for a shot at the Superbowl. They're one of the top teams out there. Okay, well, that means if they're going to get there, jalen Hurts has to be Jalen Hurts from the first couple seasons, not what we saw last season. He's got to be that Jalen Hurts we saw before and Nick Sirianni's got to figure out how to coach this team to that potential.
Speaker 1:So, as an Eagles fan, what does I mean? Jalen Hurts' production this season is going to pretty. It's going to. I think that's going to decide how this I mean yes, it's pretty easy to say how the starting quarterback does is going to tell you how the entire season is going to go. But I mean we saw Peyton Manning with the Denver Broncos and the defense carried them all the way, so it really had nothing to do with him. Looking at Jalen Hurts, sirianni, how much do you believe they have to prove this season before you're like maybe we have to be looking in the coaching carousel now, maybe we have to be looking, maybe to bring in a backup quarterback that we can slowly start to develop, just in case we want to move on? Like, where are you at with those two? How much do you have to see out of them this year to say that's my franchise quarterback and this guy here, he could be the head coach for another five years.
Speaker 2:I mean definitely last year. Like I already kind of talked about how the Steel, I mean I'm not trying to discredit Mike Tomlin, but I still think if Mike Tomlin was the coach, like, let's just say, for sake of conversation, like Mike Tomlin was the coach, like, let's just say for sake of conversation, like Mike Tomlin was the Eagles coach and every like he's got the Super Bowl ring in his pocket, sure that carries a lot of weight. But it's like, if you're just kind of, you know, winning season, losing the first round, winning season losing the first round, uh, that type of thing, I don't think that would fly in Philadelphia. No pun intended, I just don't like this city has, you know it's, it's turning into like how the Yankees fans think about where it's like championship or bust, like it's. You know we're close right. Like you, you know we two years ago lose the Chiefs in the. I mean they blew a game in the second half. They had that game won, you know. But that's why they play two halves right, like it's, you know. But that's why they play two halves right, like it's the.
Speaker 2:For Sirianni, I've never, like it took him. I'll never forget this. Like, yeah, he's a rookie head coach, you know coming in, but you know, seven weeks in the fans are saying run the ball, run the ball, run. Like literally the entire stadium is yelling run the ball. They start running the ball and they ripped off like six of the last eight games and you know, and sneaked into the playoffs. So it's like I don't know if it's, I'm starting to think maybe it's an organizational problem, not even his himself, whether, because I know the owners, like he talks about all the time, oh, I want this to be such a good passing team and sure, like I'm sure, the Packers want their team to be a good passing team, the Chiefs are gifted with Mahomes and they're gonna be a good passing team. But like the, just the little things in football that make, like you, you and I could like scheme up stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Now, is that sirianni's fault or is that like the ownership and the organization's stepping in and saying we're gonna, we're running our team this way, like I, I don't know, that's it. I, I don't I'm not inside the building to know, but it's. I mean, when you start out 10 and 1 and then you what, you finish, 10 and 7 or whatever, like whatever it was right, um, and you lose that. That I mean. Once again, it had to be tampa. It seems like every time we go to tampa bay in a playoffs it it's never going to go well.
Speaker 2:And right on cue, like Baker Mayfield looked like you know Tom Brady times two, so it's just the way that season ended with the turmoil. It wasn't even so much like players, not you know, dropping a ball here or you know Jalen Hurts missing a throw. It just looked like an absolute mess. Like on both sides of the ball the team didn't look like they were into it Mentally. It looked like guys were checking out. That's when coaches do get fired quick because you have no control of how much desire these guys have.
Speaker 2:So I don't know. I mean Jalen Hurts. I don't want to say I give him the benefit of the doubt because I'm not a type of guy I'm like put up or shut up. You get paid millions of dollars to be the guy, be the guy. But I mean I just think the play calling was so bad and they had no idea what they were doing. So this year I mean he's got to play well. I'm not saying he has to play at an MVP level, but he's got to play well. You got AJ Brown, devante, smith, dallas, goddard and Saquon. Like if you don't play well, as long as the offensive line isn't trash, like that's on you, then like that's completely on you, and then you know you bring in Kellen Moore to try and fix this too. So I still think Sirianni's more so in the hot seat, just because I really don't know.
Speaker 2:If he went somewhere else I mean coaching stuff like maybe if he went to like a Dallas situation, that's a bad example. If he went like San Francisco, like maybe they would be fine because it's like they have talent everywhere. But I don't think, like if you drop Sirianni in, like Detroit, when Dan Campbell went there, like I think they'd probably be god awful. Like I just don't know if he can take, you know, a team that has nothing. Like he came in and he even said it like the eagles had a great offensive line and a great defensive line coming in. Like that's. In my opinion, that's how you have to build a team, because if you don't have an offensive line, you have no offense, and then if you can't get past rush, everything else is going to look worse. So he got gifted a good situation, but but I still don't know from like a schematic standpoint.
Speaker 2:If he's, if he knows a whole lot, I really question that because just when it seems like he's the one with you know coaching responsibility, like now, he's an overseer. He's like James Franklin at Penn State. He doesn't call play, he just he's a CEO, like that you hear that term in sports and there's other guys like that. But it's put up or shut up for Sirianni. I mean, fans are going to start the Jalen Hurts hate if he doesn't play. Well, for sure, saw a little bit of that last year, for sure, but it's yeah, I'm curious to see. Like I said, it's a lot of changes in one offseason, so I'm curious to see how so we got I mean, we Packers Eagles week one, right?
Speaker 1:so how much weight? I guess we could do both. Answer this one for respective teams there. How much weight do you put on a week one matchup like this? How much? You know this isn't going to decide the entire season, right? You can lose week one and you could go on a burner then and win out like I'm not saying that week one loss is the end of the world. But you know, knowing, you know what I've seen with this Packers team last season, what I saw at the end of the year.
Speaker 1:I want to see week one win or loss. I want to see Jordan Love play like Jordan Love, like he did in those last 10 games. Because you look at him last 10 games he was phenomenal like MVP stuff, leading the league in a lot. 10 games. He was phenomenal Like MVP stuff, leading the league in a lot of categories to end the year I mean you're talking about this year a lot of analysts out there are like this guy could win MVP. You know we've seen guys already say this guy's going to win the MVP and the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl. Well, if that's going to happen, he's got to play like he did.
Speaker 1:I want to see just shut up Everybody who is, you know, the bear fans, everybody like that, who is saying, why would you sign this guy off of 10 games? Because the Packers they saw something they liked. I don't know what it is with Brian Gutekinds, but he just has this way. Gm for the Packers. He's got this way where he just sees these guys I mean Carrington Valentine, seventh round pick, is one of the best cornerbacks the Packers have Like he just has this way going into a draft where he just sees talent that nobody else does. I don't know how he does it. I couldn't do it. I get upset watching some of the guys he drafts and then all of a sudden, jordan Love. I mean I was. Who the heck is this guy? Why are we drafting Jordan Love Like this is a bad pick. We could have added a weapon for Aaron Rodgers. Instead we went with this backup quarterback. Why'd we do it? Now we're here. I mean it's just got that way. So I want to see Jordan Love come out and just shut everybody up. I mean, if the Packers lose in a gunslinging fight where it's you know 30-something to 20-something Packers, just the Eagles just outlast them, like that's just what happened in the game. I could live with that. I, at the end of the day, I could live with that.
Speaker 1:Defense plays good. I mean, you know, if they have 30 points not a great day on the defensive side, but you know just one of those days for Jordan Love where he's having a good game. The defense isn't having a good game. But on the flip side of that, I want to see this younger cornerback room for Green Bay, some of the young safeties in there. I want to see them get into this game and I want to see them stand toe to toe Like you were just talking there. You got Goddard, you got Devante Smith, you have AJ Brown. I would assume we're going to see a little bit of Jair Alexander with AJ Brown there. So that's going to leave Devante Smith and Goddard especially there with the safeties and the linebackers. I want to see big play out of them in this game coming up, because that's going to tell me a lot about this defense when you get against talented wide receivers. I want to see the effort that these guys are giving out there.
Speaker 1:I know McKinney I mean McKinney coming over. I think he's very underrated. You know a lot of people talk about him but they don't put him up there with the top defensive players. I think after this season we're going to hear a lot about McKinney and how well the Packers did in free agency, because I thought he was a huge signing the linebacker room for Green Bay, quay Walker, taking a huge step forward. He has been okay over the years. He's shown flashes of being brilliant this season here. I want to see Quay Walker just take that step, just be that linebacker that Green Bay needs. You know, you look at Fred Warner out there with the San Francisco 49ers. It seems like he makes every play, like he's all over the place on every possession. It's unreal. I want to see Green Bay get a guy like that. That's Quay Walker for me.
Speaker 1:And then that defensive front I got to see these guys take a huge step forward. Kenny Clark I want to see him keep doing what he does. And then looking at the rest of these guys there Devontae, wyatt, rashawn, gary Gary injured two years ago last season coming back from injury, it was a slower year for Gary. I want to see Gary just I mean completely just light the world on fire this season. That was another guy who everybody thought the Packers reached on. I want to see him come into his own this season because Rashawn Gary has a boatload of potential coming off the end there and I think that's if he, if Rashawn Gary and this defensive front can play up to what I believe they can, this pass rush for the Green Bay Packers will be great. I really do think it can be great. They need to play great for that to happen. Lucas Van Ness, recent draft pick there, if he takes that step forward just to add some depth in there, will be huge for the Packers.
Speaker 1:So you know, like I was just saying there, I don't have to see the Packers win to find out some things that I want to find out, because now you're seeing it all together, you're seeing it out on the field in a live game. I know preseason you're still hitting and it's still guys going balls to the walls, but now you're playing in a regular season down in Brazil. It's a different kind of atmosphere. How does this young because the Packers are the youngest team in football I thought it was like 25 years and 11 days or something like that, I don't know they break stats down. I don't know who has time to break down these birthdays and everything like that to figure it out? But the Packers are the youngest team in football. They are the youngest team. How does this team go in to Brazil to play? I mean, the Eagles? Yes, they struggled last year, but that's still a daunting team. You know the Eagles are still going to give it to you. You know the Eagles are still one of the perennial powerhouses in the NFC. That's just how it goes. How does this young Packers team step up to that occasion? Jordan Love this offense, I think.
Speaker 1:Josh Jacobs coming over from the Raiders. A lot of people look at his stat lines and they say, well, he didn't look that good with the Raiders. He didn't look that good. The Raiders sucked, they sucked. I don't know who needs to hear that, but the Raiders sucked. How is he supposed to look good on that team? He could have had 800 yards and he would look like he was the best player in that entire roster, top to bottom, and Mason Crosby's on there too. Yeah, solid players on that team, right? Devontae Adams on that team, right, devontae Adams on that team too. But Josh Jacobs coming to Green Bay I think that's huge for Green Bay. I really do Getting it. He's young. I mean you went younger with Josh Jacobs he's still got room to develop right with this offense, with this young receiver core here.
Speaker 1:And then you know the big question mark for me, the last question mark I'm going to have before I flip it to you and get your opinion on how much is this way the offensive line for Green Bay? Because you do have some returning pieces in there. Elton Jenkins, you have Zach, tom, josh Myers, rasheed Walker all coming back, jordan Morgan, the rookie, right now he's been banged up over the preseason but I expect he's going to play. Everybody was a full practice as of Monday, so I expect he's going to play there. How does he play there in the guard position If he doesn't do well? How much do we see of Sean Ryan? Because Matt LaFleur said they have a plan. He never lets you know what they're going to do. So they have a plan is what he said. So we don't know who's going to get the start and how they're going to flow and how they're going to work guys in.
Speaker 1:I do hate when we keep mixing the offensive line game after game. That irritates me. I get pulling one guy and putting a different guy in at times, but when you're just rotating to try and find something, you can't get a mesh. That irritates me because you just got to get a mesh. Somehow you have to find a mesh between your offensive line. It's a group down there, it's a group in the trenches, and when you start mixing matches pieces in there, some guys aren't on the same page as the next guy, they don't flow as well as the next guy and it leads to trouble. So I want to see this offensive line come up big, slow down this front from the Eagles, which we talked about before. There they struggled last season, but I believe they're going to have more of a presence there now.
Speaker 1:How does this offensive line for Green Bay protect Jordan Love, open up holes for Josh Jacobs and give them time to make throws down the field in this game and try and exploit this young cornerback room for the Eagles in this one? So I guess okay, I flipped the script back to you. I went on a long little spiel there, but flipping it back to you there looking at this first week. How much weight do you put on this first week and what are some of the things you want to see out of this Eagles team against this Packers team. Both teams are predicted to be, I mean, top teams in the NFC. When it's all said and done, what do you want to see out of this Eagles team in week one to really say, ok, we're good. You know, maybe we took a loss, but we're still solid. That was a good team we just played. That's a solid game. We can move on from this and we're going to be good throughout the rest of the regular season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean going to the question of how much does this game, how much weight is this game or whatever it might be. I'm not going to put a tremendous like if they lose this game. It's not going to be like, oh my goodness, the season's over, even if they get blown out. I'm not going to jump off that quick. I mean, if they get blown out, there's going to be a lot of it's going to turn the heat up, that's for sure. But I want them to look like they're in sync. Obviously I want them to look like they're in sync. Obviously I want them to look like, you know, kellen Moore knows what he's doing, like I just want it to look like the offense and the coaching like it's on the same page, like there's not guys. You know Jalen Hurts is thrown to a spot and then there's nobody there and the Packers picks it off, picks six, like some stupid. You know stuff like that. So I mean the fact you know you throw it in Brazil, I mean maybe that I'm not going to say is a disadvantage for both teams. Like I don't know, I don't know if it's an advantage or not. I just literally was just on X while you were touching on the Packers there reading about this a little bit. You know, now Darius Slay comes out and says the NFL themselves have told the Eagles I'm sure the Packers, anybody that's over there for this game associated with the NFL, to not really go outside their hotels. So I mean, maybe they're going to have so much time to watch film and to like dissect each other that you know, I'm sure the Packers are watching Kellen Moore tape. You know, even with the Chargers and the Cowboys, obviously he hasn't coached in Philly yet. But so you know, just with the Chargers and the Cowboys Obviously hasn't coached in Philly yet. But so you know, just tendencies, right, like maybe these teams are going to be all over each other's tendencies and stuff like that and we could see a very even matchup, even more so than normal.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm reaching there, but it's just something I thought about there because I was reading up on I mean, and then I read in the the same article, darius slay was told not to, uh, not to bring any family over, nor, like you know, any of these guys bring family with them. That's how much of a security threat I guess it truly is. So I mean that that sucks. I mean I don't know how else, I don't know how to flip that to a positive like that's. That seems a little bit just not the best idea idea here. But if it spreads, I mean mean, the NFL is about money, right, the NFL is about making cash. They're a cash cow. I mean now college football has gotten so big that, like, college football is almost a minor league for the NFL and they don't even have to pay for it. Like I heard somebody talking about that I was like dude, the NFL is is just, they have such a genius way of making the game massive, like it's just, it's massive. But I was pulling up, uh, you're real quick.
Speaker 2:The so the packers lead the all-time series, but quite, quite a good margin 20, 28, 18. I don't know if you remember about. It was about two years ago, uh, november of 2022. There, eagles won 40-33 in Philly. That was a pretty good game, though. Jordan Love really actually tore us apart a good bit in that game. Not surprising. I mean, the Eagles never. I would love to see an elite defense from this team. It just seemed like we're never going to be the Ravens. It feels like we're never going to be the 49ers, but on that side of the ball, but that was a really good game. I remember that game pretty well. But yeah, I mean this is, you always want to start on a good note, even if you lose. Right, you lose by a field goal, okay, you're right there, right. But if you do get smoked, it's like, man, I mean for the Eagles, they come back home, play the Falcons. I mean for the Eagles, they come back home, play the Falcons. I mean I would hope that's a win.
Speaker 1:I would really hope that's a win. That's a good team. That's a good team now.
Speaker 2:The Falcons? They are, but you know, it's Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's Kirk Cousins. Yeah, Regular season, kirk, regular season.
Speaker 2:Kirk, he can't beat like. We absolutely own that guy. He might as well just live at Lincoln Financial Field because we just own him, but it's no. I mean you can't look past this game at all. It's going to be cool on a Friday night. It's going to have maybe a college football feel to it just because it's a Friday night. But yeah, I really don't. I keep going back and forth. As a Packers fan, I'm sure you're probably feeling pretty stable, just because the way the season ended, jordan Love played really well down the stretch. You don't really have major changes coming in the Eagles. It's the complete opposite, right? Yeah, two new coaches, the team fall, you know, folded down the stretch like nothing I've ever seen before. So all the question marks, I would say all the pressure, really is more so on the eagles in this game. But uh, I mean, they'll lace them up and see what happens. I, I, just I, I keep going back and forth, I really, and that's what I do anyway, but this more than that than ever.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you know you were just talking about what slay had to say there and it. It really dawned on me after I heard the stuff about the green and then I saw the air quality and everything like that and I was just sitting there like are they gonna like call the eagles and say, hey, can we just play this game in philly? Like I just kept getting to that point where it's like they're gonna try and move this game. There's just so many variables in this. And now you're saying like, don't bring your family down. Well, why would want to go down? And I know you don't want to endanger your family or anything like that. I completely get that. I'm not going to endanger my family by having them come to that, but why would I want to go? Then, you know it's like, why am I heading down here? You guys say that you're going to protect me, but now you're telling me that I can't even leave my hotel without, you know, armed, can't even leave my hotel without, you know, armed security guards getting me to the bus. Or I can't do this with you know it's man. I mean, there's a lot of outs, you know you're talking about being more focused, leading into it. I agree. You know not being able to have the nightlife and be able to go explore. Well, you know you still want to have your players being able to, you know, go get dinner or something down there in Brazil. You're down there, you're in a foreign country, be able to go and experience it. But now you're like you guys have to stay here, you're on a schedule, you can't go anywhere else. Now you have that outside noise of like okay, can I go to sleep tonight? Is the hotel safe? Do we have guys at the front door? It just seems like there's so much wrong with the picture. But, like you said, money's money. They're going to make the game happen. Whether they got to hire I don't know the entire FBI to go down there from the United States or what, they're going to make this game happen, whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to get this one in there. So, packers, eagles we'll get more into that as the week goes on here. We're going to get depth chart. We're going to get injury reports. We get depth chart. We're going to get injury reports. We're going to get into the Packers as we go on here.
Speaker 1:But we got to get to college football. We ran long on the Packers there we got to get to college football. I would. You know what? I'm going to be honest with you right off the bat here.
Speaker 1:Week one, there wasn't really a game, I mean outside of Notre Dame and Texas A&M, which was a close one, and then USC and LSU which ended on that long touchdown by, or well, long touchdown catch by USC there late. Outside of that I mean Clemson got throttled by Georgia. That wasn't even a game 34-3. Ohio State completely kicked the crap out of Akron. Idaho and Oregon was surprisingly a game 24-14. Oregon did not impress me. They did not impress me. Week one, it could be the week one jitters, but did not impress me whatsoever. Texas they take care of business.
Speaker 1:Alabama completely destroys Western Kentucky. Ole Miss won 76-0 over Furman. I feel bad. You want to feel bad for Furman, but they got a pretty good paycheck out of going to get throttled, so I guess that's okay. Michigan they had a scare. They had a scare with Fresno State there, but able to pull it off late.
Speaker 1:Tennessee completely throttles Chattanooga. Oklahoma State wins over South Dakota State. Kansas State got the big win. Miami throttles Florida. Arizona won 61 to 39. Iowa put up 40 points on Illinois State. I don't know if their defense just completely didn't show up or what happened, or if Illinois State's got the worst defense in college football, but Iowa doesn't score over 15 points. So to put up 40 in a ballgame, illinois State's defense is just trash. That's what I'm getting at. Illinois State's defense is just trash. So let's get to the games that mattered to us.
Speaker 1:I picked West Virginia to beat Penn State. I'll be honest with you. I picked it. It was in Morganstown, west Virginia. You know the atmosphere was primed up for it. I thought, honestly, I didn't see enough out of Garrett Green in that game for West Virginia 15 of 28, 161 yards Not a great game. I expected him to be a little bit better. I thought he was actually going to be one of the better. I thought he was going to be one of the most underrated quarterbacks in college football from West Virginia. There Nobody was really talking about him.
Speaker 1:I thought he was going to have a big year. Nothing really there. Drew Aller didn't have to throw a ball. The whole lot there. Three touchdowns, big game out of them there, 216 yards. They were just torching them. That's what I'm getting out of this, the little bit that I watched. They were just torching West Virginia there. So looking at this game, aaron, you're the Penn State guy. Did Penn State impress you week one here? I mean this was. It's not a bad West Virginia team. Nobody really talks about West Virginia being that great of a football program, but this is not a bad team that Penn State had squaring off. Actually, I think the betting line had West Virginia winning this game. So how did you feel about your Penn State Nittany Lions coming out of week one there against that West Virginia Mountaineers team? Take me home. Country roads took them right back, they said all week long I heard this.
Speaker 2:I mean so you know, I don't know, maybe they're doing this on purpose, like last year it was west virginia, penn state week one, but it was in in happy valley, you know in at beaver stadium, you know in in penn state, um, so you know much different atmosphere, right, like much the advantage, like the that's a huge home field, like one of the better home field advantages in college football in my. I mean, that's not just my opinion, I think you know people can pretty much agree with that. Uh, that place, the whiteout, scary, yeah, it goes, it goes hard, but yeah, um, you were not the only one drinking the west virginia kool-aid. All week long I heard oh my god, this is you know, and and don't get me wrong, I get you know I'm pessimistic. I've seen penn st louis to illinois a couple years ago, nine overtimes illinois, is that that. Ever since then I'm like you know what. Anybody can beat this team, but really the last couple seasons they've only really lost to you. You know Michigan or Ohio State, like they pretty much run everybody else. So I I wasn't like fearful they were going to lose this game.
Speaker 2:I thought West Virginia would make it a game. To a certain degree I thought they would hang around, right. I thought in the second half that Penn State I called it, I said thirty eight, twenty one, but really I mean it was worse than that for West Virginia. I know it's college football and it gets hostile and rowdy and people on X get crazy, but I mean McAfee getting guys on there just saying that West Virginia is winning this game, there's no questions at. I'm just like come on, man, they're not a bad team. Like you said, they're not a bad team. But the line did close at about seven and a half in favor of Penn State on the road. So I mean Penn State was still the favorite, but the line opened up at about 12 or 13. So towards kickoff there was a lot of money going towards West Virginia and and I think people started drinking the Kool-Aid to a certain degree. But I I really thought this game, um, you know, once again now we're going to talk about coach every, every team I like is just going through coaching changes, right like now. We have a new offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for, uh, penn State. Um, basically on the defensive side of the ball, because Manny Diaz got hired by, uh by Duke to be their head coach. But, um, on the defensive side of the ball, because Manny Diaz got hired by Duke to be their head coach. But on the offensive side, you know, they let go of Mike Yuricich, they bring in Andy Kotelicki, which that's going to be hard for me to get all year long, I think.
Speaker 2:But what I liked about him in this game is last year. I mean he has one game, let's not go crazy. This game is last year. I mean, yeah, it's one game, let's not go crazy. But last year our uh like the yards per attempt were in the seven to eight range, somewhere along that those lines. Uh, this, this game. In particular he was like 15, 16, so double the yards per attempt.
Speaker 2:Like this guy has a good, he's got a cannon. He's got a cannon strapped to his right arm, why not at least try and use it? Last year it was like let's try and throw, you know, outside posts, to the, to the sideline. Every single time he drops back, like you're throwing it in tiny windows all season long, like and, and the kid only threw two picks all year last year. So I I really think the sky's the limit with this offense, as as long as I mean the offensive line was just dominant and that's the first time I've said that in years about penn state. I mean their offensive line has been a turntable to say I mean just like oprah letting everybody get a car, I mean you get a sack, you get a sack, you get a pressure. I mean it's just like kid has no time in the world.
Speaker 2:But I love, I liked what I see. I mean uh, garrett green had I, the guy was getting just trampled all day long. Really I mean I don't want to go. Penn State will probably start out four. I expect them to go beat the next two, three teams. Illinois is in like four weeks because they have a week off in between Bowling Green and the next some other small school. But yeah, I loved what I saw. The defense really didn't skip a beat either. I mean you know they were one of the best defenses in the nation last year.
Speaker 2:And and tom allen coming in, I wasn't the biggest fan of that hire. I mean he sucked at indiana, absolutely was, but I guess everybody does at indiana football. But it's I, I don't know. I mean we'll see how it goes. I have higher expectations now just with with Andy Kotelicki coming in. I love that hire, just because they needed a totally different approach on offense. And I think that's what you saw and you know he had massive success over there at Kansas. So we'll see. I'm not going to, like I said, I don't want to drink the Kool-Aid yet, but I think this team has the potential. It's just putting it all on the field. You know that's the question mark. How much can they do that this year?
Speaker 1:my biggest question was Aller drew Aller heading into it. I didn't know what to expect out of him at the quarterback spot and he did what he had to do. You know, like I said, 11 for 17, had a bunch of yards, three touchdowns, good game out of them did what he had. It almost was if he could play the season like JJ McCarthy did for Michigan, just doing what he has to do. You know, jj McCarthy was not like this over the top, I'm gonna carry this offense kind of guy. He did what he has to do. You know, jj McCarthy was not like this over-the-top I'm going to carry this offense kind of guy. He did what he had to do, made the throws that were there, handed the ball off when he had to hand the ball off, like it was simple. It was just a simple way to run it. I know you don't like Michigan, I know you don't like JJ't be my guy, but I think he's good enough to win football games and at the end of the day, that's all that matters is he can do enough to win football games.
Speaker 1:Looking at Penn State's schedule I mean you were talking the 4-0 start you know they have what I think is going to be a tough stretch and that's going to be. We're going to talk about Wisconsin here in a second. But they play USC, who did look very impressive versus LSU. Now LSU they always have this slow start and they always look rough. So who knows with LSU yet, but they played well against LSU. Then they have Wisconsin and then they play Ohio State.
Speaker 1:That's a tough stretch of games right there. That's a tough little three-game stretch there, especially because two of those games USC and Wisconsin are on the road for Penn State. I know it's not the whiteout, but Camp Randall is a tough place to play. I mean, a lot of people say it, it's a tough place to play. We've been throttled there too, so it doesn't really matter. We've been throttled at home in games. So it happens, it definitely happens. So, getting off the Nittany Lions, let's look at the Badgers here for a second, because well, badger fans, week one was not it wasn't pretty, let's go with.
Speaker 1:It wasn't pretty, that's the best way I could put it. I'm going to take the most optimistic look I possibly can at this game, as I was yelling at my TV at multiple times throughout this game radio, tv, wherever I was listening. I was flipping between everything just trying to bring some good luck. I'm that kind of fan. My grandma, she used to have two TVs in the house. She has one out in the kitchen, one in the living room. Well, we're watching the Badgers, brewers, whatever, and I need to get that good mojo right. I'll pace, I'll go TV to TV. I'll go to the kitchen. Grandpa's sitting out there. I'm watching with him. Something bad happens. I go back in the living room. I'm like I'm going to fix the mojo here at some point. If they're doing good on this TV, I stay by this TV. I don't move. So I'm I'm cycling throughout this game Cause I'm like I can't watch, I can't watch. I got to listen on the radio. So I mean this game. I was scared Badgers went down late in this one and I was like oh boy.
Speaker 1:I was like oh boy, here we go, 14-13. All the momentum is heading towards Western Michigan right now. Badgers go three and out the Badger faithful most noise they made in a while. They're booing the Badgers off the field. It's bad. It's bad news. They punt the ball away goes off. The Western Michigan returner's leg Badgers recover. It was off. The Western Michigan returner's leg Badgers recover, score a touchdown. It's all good in the hood. They get a two-point conversion. It's 21-14. Now they go on to score another touchdown late, make it 28-14. A little more respectable, I guess you could say. But this game was a lot closer than 28-14. This was a dogfight, this was a Western Michigan is eating us alive on the defensive front. We don't know what to do right now. We can't slow them. We can't slow down this defensive front from Western Michigan. They look faster, they look meaner.
Speaker 1:The offensive line looked out of sorts at times. It was rough. Tyler Van Dyke I'm going to be honest with you. I was super optimistic about Tyler Van Dyke coming into Madison. I was like he's coming from Miami. He was already in an air raid offense. Phil Longo, he's an air raid guy. He's already going to be in tune with this. He's going to be a gunslinger. That's what we need. We have the weapons. We just needed the quarterback Was not impressed, was not impressed.
Speaker 1:Week one Now could have been the week one. Jitters Could have been. That it happens. I get that. But when my quarterback has eight carries for 21 yards and he is not a running quarterback this is not like we're talking about Lamar Jackson right now. This is not a running quarterback when he has eight carries in a game.
Speaker 1:I don't think my offensive line did good enough in that game. He's running too much. Yes, there were some read options put into there. That's fine. And dandy Also a Tyler Van Dyke run with two hands on the ball. You're not a runner to begin with, and then you're hanging with the ball down in one arm. Don't do that crap. You're not a runner. Tuck it in, run a couple yards, slide. Be like Tom Brady, be smart about it. That did not impress me, that fumble that he had Wisconsin. All in all, I thought the defense wasn't bad. I thought the defense played well. Lowry did some good.
Speaker 1:Jaheim Thomas is a dog. They got him from Arkansas in the transfer portal. He actually started with Luke Fickle in Cincinnati, ended up going to Arkansas. Now he's back in Madison, so that was an impressive little tree that he just went through to get back with Luke Fickle and also Trestle, because Trestle was his defensive coordinator at Cincinnati. Now he comes back to Madison. Trestle is once again his defensive coordinator and Luke Fickle is his head coach. So quite the turn of events there for Yaheem Thomas, but he has a fantastic game.
Speaker 1:I thought Thomas was great for the Badgers in this one. Chesma, lucy and Tywee Walker those two are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the backfield. The Badgers always seem to find good backs. These two are going to be great Both of them. 19 carries for Malusi, 74 yards. Tywee Walker had 15 carries for 66 yards. You put two and two together that's a solid game out of both of them. I mean you're splitting the carries between the two guys. They had a great day at the office there Receiving-wise.
Speaker 1:It took a while for Tyler Van Dyke to get on the same page as any one of these wide receivers. Will Pauling had six catches for 60 yards. They could not get on the same page in this game. Looking at Bryson Green four catches for 39, same with him. Nowakowski was fantastic in that tight end room. He looked good. Ashcraft looked good. I mean they had good moments in this game but there is a lot to improve.
Speaker 1:I mean, I got to see some improvement from now to South Dakota because I watched Alabama play this last week and, yes, they were playing a garbage team, but Alabama looks good like Alabama looks like they aren't quite. They're not led by Nick Saban anymore, but this is a good Alabama team like. This is a watch out. The train is on the tracks and you might get hit. Kind of Alabama team.
Speaker 1:Georgia is gonna have a run for their money. I'll be honest with you. Right now I'm looking at Alabama. They will have a run for their money again. Georgia's good, alabama's good too. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Does Alabama and Georgia play each other this season? Do they square off in the regular season? They have to. They have to almost. I'm intrigued now, that's something I need to know. But all in all, all in all, to wrap it up, a win's a win.
Speaker 1:You win the games you got to win. The Badgers took care of that. They got the win against Western Michigan. Now it's about the improvements they saw week one. What the heck happened? I mean, it was a rough one, but now you move past it.
Speaker 1:You get to week two. You have South Dakota. You get to week two you have South Dakota. Now you get yourself ready because you have Alabama coming to camp Randall week three you have a lot to get ready for in that game. South Dakota is a big. It's not a huge game but it's a game where you got to get right. You got to get definitely got to get right Because otherwise if you play like you did against Western Michigan, against Alabama, that game might be over in the first half, like that is just going to be a rough game to watch. So this South Dakota game is a game where everything has to start looking right for the Badgers and everything needs to start flowing to get ready for that Alabama game. So big game coming against South Dakota this week, because man, oh man, that Alabama game is daunting on the backside of that there. Did you find out? Does Georgia and Alabama play each other?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't want to cut you off there. Uh yeah, oh, shoot now I got wisconsin up here. Uh, just that, there we go.
Speaker 2:Georgia, alabama, september 28th so I mean end of this month already, and and the interesting thing is it is in um is in alabama. I'm drawing a blank tuscaloosa there. It is Tuscaloosa, there it is Tuscaloosa, because it seems like they always play in Georgia lately. So that will be a massive test for the Bulldogs. I mean everybody's picking the Bulldogs to just kind of run away with this thing. I don't know if that's the case. I mean, alabama is kind of due. I mean, shoot, penn State and Wisconsin are due, right, like man, we're waiting. But Alabama, shoot, shoot, penn state and Wisconsin are due, right, like man, we're waiting. But Alabama has a one, one in what? Four or five years, or whatever, three, four or five years, something like that. Uh, so it seems like they're due cause just, they were ripping off chips every other year there for a while, or or every year. So yeah, I mean that'll be that I'm not going to say it's easy to coach Alabama right now, but you've got to think most of all, these guys are Nick Saban guys, right, they're coming in. So for the head coach of Bama now, there could be worse situations. I'll put it that way.
Speaker 2:The thing I kept thinking about in my head, or kept popping up in my thought process is I wouldn't really want to be the guy that replaces Nick Saban. Like that is because if you, even if you lose like two, three games, like people are going to be like we want Saban. Like Saban was even at this game and I'm not faulting him for that. Like you know, he's probably a mega super fan of Alabama for life now, but it's like he's in your, he's literally in your shot, like he's right behind you. You know what I mean. And and to think, oh, he'll never coach football again. Like you know, I think a lot of the reason he stepped away was this nil stuff. And you know, things are just getting like weird in college football right now and I I still don't think they have the quite the solution for that. Uh, but I mean to say he would never go.
Speaker 2:Like, let's say, alabama lost four games this year. I mean that fan base would probably be irate. Like you're literally expected to not skip a beat. Like the expectation has not changed, might be a new year, new coach, but it's now they're. They're kind of the golden standard for a football program in college football. I mean you can make the case ge, georgia's been that the last couple years, but Bama's been that longer, more consistently, so I don't envy that. As cool as I'm sure being Alabama's head coach would be, that's one of the best jobs in college football in general. But it's win or else, Literally, you have to win, you have to win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and I think DeBoer's got Nick Saban in his ear too. I think Nick Saban's still in that program a little bit. He calls them. He's like, hey, what would you do? What would you do in this situation? Definitely one of those kind of deals there.
Speaker 1:But I mean great, it was a great opening weekend of college football. It was great. College football was back. Fantastic college football was back. There just wasn't a lot of good games to watch. I mean there wasn't like these great matchups. There were supposed to be great matchups that turned into. I mean what the heck am I watching right now? I mean we're watching Boston College and Florida State right now and Florida State's down 21-6 to Boston College, like that is. I can't even remember the last time Boston College was winning a football game against a good supposed to be a good team and Florida State's on their track to 0-2 to start the season. So some storylines to start the college football season there. But let's get to some real storylines. We got to get to baseball. We haven't talked baseball in a hot minute. Let's get to baseball. We haven't talked baseball in a hot minute. Let's get to there before we got to wrap up here for the day.
Speaker 1:So grand scheme of things. Brewers over this last weekend. Here I mean, it was the brewers. All I can say is they're at 81 wins right now and they're predicted to have 80 wins on the season. So let's just put that into perspective for a second. Like the Brewers are just balling out when they shouldn't be balling out. That's what's going on. And Jackson Churio has been unreal. I saw a quote. He had a grand slam yesterday there against the Cardinals. Put them up nine to three in that game and that was it. And apparently Frankie Montes said that Jackson Churio went up to him and said I'm going to get an at-bat with the bases loaded and I'm going to hit a grand slam. That's what he told him in that sixth inning before he walked up and hit a grand slam for the Brewers. Just one of those things right now. He is on one of those burners for the Brewers right now where it's like he can't do it wrong at the moment. He walked three times to start that game and then hits the grand slam. Just unreal moment for him.
Speaker 1:Willie Adamas, he's got more. I mean, we were laughing about this before we started the show here. He has more three run home runs this season than the Rockies, the Giants, the Mariners, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Pirates, the White Sox and the Cardinals do as a team. Willie Adamas has 13 three-run home runs. That's ridiculous. That is ridiculous. I mean, you put, I think his batting average with two guys on is like 338. So if you want Willie Adamas to get you a hit, just put two guys on base, because he is going to get you a hit and odds are it's going to be a three-run home run. That's just how it goes with Willie Adamas.
Speaker 1:This Brewers team is hitting their stride right now. It is, I mean, awesome to watch. I got to say I've had feelings about the Brewers in the past. I've had, you know, 2018. I had that feeling and you know 2019. Even I had that feeling 2021, I had that feeling about that team. This Brewers team is different. When I watch them and I'm just the atmosphere, everything around this team it just seems like they're built different. This team is, I mean, not supposed to be doing what they're doing and they're doing it. They don't know they're supposed to suck. That's the only thing that I can say. The Brewers don't know they're supposed to suck. I don't know if anybody's walked in that clubhouse and said hey guys, you're supposed to only win 80 games this season.
Speaker 1:Has anybody told them that? Because it doesn't seem like they were told that. They're out there and they're playing like the Phillies, they're playing like the Dodgers. They're that big team. They aren't that big team. There's no household names on this team, not yet. I think there are some guys, some young guys, on this team who could become household names, but there's no household names. Christian Yelich is on the IL.
Speaker 1:The season was supposed to fall apart. Devin Williams was out for the first half of the season. I mean they had. Corbin Burns got traded. Brandon Woodruff was on the shelf for the year.
Speaker 1:This was not supposed to be what happened and this Brewers team just finds a way every day to win ball games. They have the best run differential in the National League. They have the best run differential. You're talking about powerhouse lineups like the Dodgers and the Phillies and I mean the Braves before they were injury prone. But my mistake. They have the best run differential in baseball, but my mistake. They have the best run differential in baseball. In all of baseball, the Orioles, the Yankees, the Brewers have a better run. They're at plus 139 right now. Plus 139 in run differential. Second place team right now the Yankees 121. That tells you how well this Brewers team is playing offense wasn't supposed to be good. The pitching staff, I mean it's just unreal to see what this Brewers team is doing right now. So that's enough about the Brewers, that's not about the Brewers, let's look, grand scheme of things right now.
Speaker 1:Your Phillies. Right now they got hot again. Right, they, they were falling off a cliff. I actually thought for a second there I I was like this is great, this is great. The Brewers can catch up. I mean, they had a demanding lead in the National League, like there was nobody within sight. Everybody was in the rearview mirror about five miles back and then, all of a sudden, the Phillies just went on this little decline. The Dodgers caught back up. The Brewers caught back up. Actually, the Dodgers are ahead of them now by a game and a half. The Brewers are two games back, so they're a half game behind them. Phillies, right now, for that two spot.
Speaker 1:Right now, how worried are you as a? I mean you, you gotta. I mean, if you're a baseball fan, you want to see. If you're not on the outside looking into the playoffs, just wanting to get into the playoffs, if you're at the top half, you want to see your team, get that first round by. You don't want to mess around with the wildcard round. I know that as a Brewer fan I don't want to mess around with wildcard round. I want to get automatic into that divisional round. So how worried are you right now as a Phillies fan? You're looking at the Dodgers ahead of you now. But you're also looking in that rear view mirror and you're saying, look at Milwaukee, they're two games back, two games back. They're half game back of us right now. We have a series with them pretty soon, but this team is hot like how worried are you as a phillies fan right now, with that little bit of a lead over the brewers and now trailing the dodgers?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's concerning. I mean it's not, it's not ideal. I'll put it that way, like you either, if you're the, if you're the number one, it's ideal, right, everybody, you know it's good to be in the lead of your individual division, yes, but ideally you want to be the number one, like that's just, that's the best position to be in. You know, hands down. So you know the fact that I mean the Dodgers, the Dodgers have kind of not gotten that much. It's weird. This year it looks, you know, there's a chance. There's no 100-game winner of any team in the league. It's a bizarre. There's good teams, obviously. Brewers are good, yankees are good record-wise, phillies are good record, there's good records, but there's no like, oh my God, this team is 115 and whatever. It's a lot of like. You know everybody's packed around. You know I'm looking at the Brewers 81-57, phillies 81-56. You flip to the or excuse me, I forgot the Dodgers there at 83. And then in 55, then you go Yankees 79-58, orioles 80-59. And then you know the Guardians at 79. And then I mean mean it's crazy.
Speaker 2:I, I, you know, I kind of called that the mariners were going to collapse. Uh, they always like I, I can bet on that and I would be a millionaire just because I have no faith in the mariners ever. But uh, you know, very quietly, the astros have marched up to the number one spot, like it's the after the start and the injuries they've had. Like, yes, I get, the braves have had injuries, but I mean I think the astros were in a worse position than the braves were. And granted, they don't have the astros don't have to worry about, like the phillies, um, to compete with in that division. But I mean the, the, the mariners were playing well and the fact that they've snuck into that, that top spot at seven, I I mean it's 75 wins. We're. We're talking, you know, they're only six wins off of what the Brewers are. There's six wins off of the Phillies. Like this team was hot garbage for you know, three months. It felt like so that that team is on the AL side. That team is like I would not be shocked if they went to the World Series. I really wouldn't be the way they've resurgent, reinvented their season there, I should say. But I mean, yeah, the Dodgers are the class of the NL right now. The Phillies have owned the Dodgers this season, for whatever reason that is, I can't point to it so far Could mean nothing come postseason time.
Speaker 2:I mean, really the regular season is just get yourself in a good position for the postseason. You know, if you're one of these Phillies, brewers, dodgers, yankees or like those caliber of teams, right, but I mean the yeah, the Phillies playing the Brewers, like that'll be a. I hope everything's just as tight then, just because it would make that series even more. You know there's just more on the line. You know that's now, that's yeah, september 16, 17, 18, uh, they're in in the great state of wisconsin, there for you. So it's uh, that'll be fun. Uh, yeah, I, I I'm kind of getting to the point where I just want I shouldn't say I want to get the regular season over with, but we're so close that it's like, okay, let's wrap up September and see what happens, right, and yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I just keep I don't know, I just keep thinking about the Astros for some reason, but I mean I could. I hate to be that guy, that pessimistic, half you know glass, half empty guy, but I could see the Phillies, it's all who's hot. If the Phillies play the Brewers in the postseason, there's no saying that they couldn't lose that series. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:We saw the Diamondbacks last year and they weren't even a division-leading team. Come in and go all the way to the World Series. The Rangers, yes, they were good, but like they just totally knocked everybody out of the way in the AL and then went on to win the whole thing. So it's you never quite know. And this year feels especially kind of weird because, like I said, there's no. Like you know, we've seen years the Yankees win 110 games, or you know, baltimore won 100 games last year. There's no like, oh my god, that team is, you know, goliath out here. There's no, it's a lot of like you know, line these guys up against these guys and see what happens. Because, yes, the dodgers are stacked, but the dodge, the dodgers, have faltered in the postseason so many times.
Speaker 2:I don't. I mean, yeah, they have a great chance of going the whole way, but they, they're a prove it team to me, they're a prove it franchise to me. They're like, it's like Kirk Cousins, oh, everybody. Oh, his numbers are good, who cares, though he doesn't win anything. Where the Dodgers have the COVID world series. That was a stupid season, if you ask me. And then they haven't done anything since or before that in recent time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I agree, I agree it is crazy. You know, looking at the records right now, how close everything really is, how close these teams really are at the end of the day. But I mean, okay, so we just talked about how nervous we are, you know, race-wise, everything like that I want to look. Okay, let's just say hypothetical world, we'll just, we'll do. The brewers are the three, the phillies are the three, the other one gets the two. You know, we're just going to go that hypothetical world. Right.
Speaker 1:There you end up in a wild card game. Which wild card team right now? So the wild card teams at the moment would be the Padres, the Diamondbacks and I believe the Braves would be the last wild card spot. They're right ahead of the New York Mets right now. So that'd be your last wild card spot. Who would you least like to face? Who scares you the most? The Padres, the Diamondbacks or the Braves? Who scares you the most as a Philly fan, where you're sitting there, like, or the Braves? Who scares you the most as a Philly fan, where you're sitting there like I don't want to see them in the playoffs? That is the one team in the wildcard round where I'm like I don't know if this is a for sure. We're going to the divisional round right now.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a tough one. I think if they played the Diamondbacks, that can go either way, because the Diamondbacks knocked them out, you know, in the NLCS and I don't have like that hatred for the Diamondbacks, only because they they came out of nowhere and and it really was on Craig Kimbrell that killed the Phillies last year. So I can't like sit there and say, oh man, I forever hate the Diamondbacks after that moment. Like they got the better of you. They were the like I said they were the under. Like no one expected them to do anything, they just capitalized. So I think that could either be like you know, we're gonna be so juiced up to beat this team because of what happened last. Like they don't players don't forget about that type of they could they might come to the media and say, oh, it's just another series. No, it's, in my opinion, you don't think like that because it's like you. That is literally the team that took your chance away from going to the World Series. So I kind of like that for the simple fact that it's like okay if we get through them, like nothing's stopping us.
Speaker 2:But in recent times it's almost been more intense like Phillies Braves than Phillies Mets. Usually it's Phillies Mets that are just chaos and people getting hit. Arcea talking trash on Harper. It's just gotten crazy there with the Braves and Phillies. I have no fear of the Braves, absolutely none. I just don't. I think the Phillies have shown that they can just handle them lately. It's not a concern.
Speaker 2:Could the Braves win? Obviously yes, and the Padres? That may be the number one pick, though for me is because the Padres are literally you know who's in the NFL Like the Bills, right. How many times have the Bills gone to the playoffs in the last six, seven years with Josh Allen? They haven't even sniffed the Super Bowl, right. And now the Padres are the same way. They go to the postseason.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. Look at their lineup, look at their roster. They never do anything Like they literally are one and done or wildcard and out, like they just. And Tilly, they're another team. Tilly showed me they can do it, but in Philly fashion. That would be the type of team they would lose to, though that would see that would be something stupid like that. But give me the padres just based on the fact that I I mean they just don't win in the post. They, they're not a winning pedigree team. The braves at least usually can, you know, win, not win world series, you know, rip off world series like that. But and then the yeah diamondbacks are are like a team that you don't ever expect them to be that great, but they can put it together. So give me the Padres, though. Long story short.
Speaker 1:I agree. Yeah, the Padres. You know the Braves. The only thing that would make me nervous is the pitching staff. The pitching staff for the Braves. Chris Sale I mean Morton figures it out. I don't know, he's a playoff performer. He might be able to throw nine in a playoff game with his walker getting them back to the dugout. I don't know. You know he's that kind of guy. That would be the thing that makes me nervous of the Braves.
Speaker 1:The Diamondbacks last season were the brewers of this season. Like they didn't know they weren't supposed to go to the world series, they just did it. You know, it was just one of those things where it was youth, it was speed, it was everything. They're starting to figure it out. I think the any, any team from the NL West right now with the Padres diamondbacks, either one of those teams. They're dangerous. Those are some dangerous ball clubs. They're right on the Dod' tail right now. So I mean you look at either one of them.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I agree, I would say that Padres team, just because I mean that was perfect. The Bills, like the Bills could beat you. They could. If Josh Allen ever figured it out, they could beat you. So it's the same thing Looking at. I mean looking at that Padres team. If Manny in a playoff game, if Xander Bogart shows up, if they stay healthy, if they you know it's all these ifs with the Padres If it all comes together that's a dangerous team. So, yeah, I would agree there with the Padres on that one. So I mean anything else we got, we got anything else here for the day. I think that's it. I mean we talked about a lot.
Speaker 2:We got a lot in today. It's a good time and and I love college, I mean don't get me wrong, I will, you know the nfl being back, great. But I mean, hey, this, this, the, the energy around college football is just it's unmatched to me. Like it is literally. I mean you could probably make.
Speaker 2:I don't watch as much college basketball so I maybe I should, maybe I should just like really try to invest some time in it this year, you know, this season I should say, but like with mac and I'm, I'm a I don't know about you, but I'm like a 50 50 on mcafee like sometimes I really can't stand him. Sometimes I'm like man, this guy is just like it's hard to hate him, like it. But just, I mean he is literally like a shot glass to college football or college game day, I should say, and it's like. And then you bring Nick Saban, like it's just bonkers, like it is absolute, like craziness. And I can appreciate it because like college football is just wild, like it's the NFL is a lot more like buttoned up and but college football is just like whatever it literally will throw anything at the wall and see what sticks like, and I I love it for that. Some people think it's corny or stupid for that, but I'm I'm all here for it. I'm all here for it no, I agree.
Speaker 1:I agree. Right now florida state is not a fan of their receivers, or dj uyanga. I mean, I'm watching this. This is a disaster. Wide open drops pass Like it's just mass chaos out there right now. You're talking about chaos on college game day. This is chaos. But I agree, it's a great time of year. I mean, like you mentioned early in the show, like there's only one time of year that rivals this time of year and that's March. Just because of March Madness and baseball's right around the corner there too. Now you've got baseball wrapping up, you've got NFL starting. You've got college football starting Pretty soon here, you've got college basketball starting, you've got the NBA starting. It is just that time of year where everything is slowly starting to heat up. But I mean, that's about all we've got. Aaron, you let them know. Let them know where they can find you out there across social media and everything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as always, I appreciate you, trajan, for letting me come on the Wisconsin Sports On the Go side of things here. But yeah, I'm trying to be more active on TikTok. Actually, I don't know if I've ever mentioned that on here, but Brulianis Sports on TikTok. I can't remember where the underscore is, so just look for the logo. If you ever see the logo on my Spotify or on my Twitter, but yeah, brilliant Sports, spotify, twitter, apple Pods, all that type of stuff.
Speaker 2:But yeah, just trying to give a quick analysis here and there. I've just been jammed up, but I'm trying to throw out at least little clips here and there. Obviously, get on with Trajan as much as I can and just keep plowing away. Especially with the football season coming around, I try to do the daily coverage of baseball. I give you all the credit in the world you are a hardworking person in this space, man. Because keeping up even on series of baseball sometimes is like there's so many, what? There's 81 series or whatever. You know what I mean something like that. Football is like at least there's one a week. Sometimes I there was two, but it's uh, it's easier to cover that way.
Speaker 1:I'll put it that way oh yeah, oh yeah, I mean this. It. It's a tough world. It's a tough world to keep up on. It's a tough world. This guy is one of the busiest dudes out there, though. I mean, he is working non-stop and he's still giving you great sports stuff. That's all you need to know. That's all you need to know is, if you need some sports info, that's the guy to go to. Brutally honest sports there, all across the platforms, tick, tock, everything you got to get them there. So with that, that's about all we got for today. It was a great day, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you to Aaron for coming on today. Hopefully, if his schedule pans out, we can get him on later this week. Maybe we'll do a live on friday, I don't know. We'll see how the week shakes out. If we can get on live friday for that game packers eagles that'd be awesome. Otherwise, we'll definitely try to get him back on here for a preview show before the game coming up on friday there. But with that, this has been wisconsin sports on the go with trage. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your Tuesday, but until we talk to you guys again tomorrow, deuces, thank you.