Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag is a podcast aiming at bringing you Wisconsin sports news and opinions everyday! Follow the podcast and check out the Facebook and instagram page!
Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Brewers' Roster Moves and more, Packers' Brazil Trip, and Badgers' Offensive Problems?
Ever wondered why the Milwaukee Brewers sent down high-performing reliever Brian Hudson despite his stellar stats? Tune in to find out the strategic reasons behind this surprising roster decision and how workload management and injury prevention play critical roles in shaping a successful season. We'll also give you the inside scoop on Brewers' rising star Jackson Chourio, whose confidence and performance are sparking excitement across the team. From his grand slam prediction to the dynamic atmosphere in the clubhouse, you'll see why Chourio is quickly becoming a fan favorite.
Switching gears, we dig into the fluctuating performance of Bryce Terang in the leadoff spot and explore potential lineup adjustments to optimize the Milwaukee Brewers' batting order. Learn why defensive strength and strategic player rotations are essential for maintaining team balance and alleviating pressure on key players. Plus, get the latest updates on the Green Bay Packers, including their revamped strength and conditioning staff and the injury report that could impact their upcoming games. We even touch on the Packers' safety concerns as they prepare for an unusual trip to Brazil.
Wrapping up, we reflect on the Wisconsin Badgers' recent struggles against Western Michigan, with a particular focus on quarterback Tyler Van Dyke's underwhelming performance. Could it be time to evaluate backup options and make some strategic changes? We'll ponder this and more, including the team's need to balance their offensive strategy before facing tougher opponents. Finally, we express our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and encourage your feedback to help keep the Wisconsin sports community thriving. Join us for an engaging and insightful discussion that promises to keep you informed and entertained.
Thank you how we doing everybody and welcome in to Wisconsin Sports. Time to Go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. It is Wednesday, september 4th A fantastic Wednesday here in the great state of Wisconsin, or I hope it's a fantastic day. Wherever you are tuning in today, I hope the weather's nice, everything like that. Who knows Wherever you're at right now I'm not keeping track of all that kind of weather. I got enough problems keeping up with what's going on outside here.
Speaker 1:So lots of good stuff to get into today. Yesterday, if you didn't hear it great show yesterday there with Aaron from Brutally Honest Sports. That was a great show. We had yesterday A lot of insight on the Eagles. You know something that we don't get a lot of. You know it's always my perspective on an opposing team or a Packer fan's perspective, getting the perspective from an Eagles fan. I thought that was big and a lot of interesting stuff, a lot of things we learned out of that. So got a lot there. A lot more to get into today.
Speaker 1:We didn't get into full recaps. I want to get into that Western Michigan game with the Badgers a little bit. Didn't get into that a lot yesterday. Didn't get into the Brewers. Brewers had a big weekend. We got into the baseball a little bit there, but not to an extent. So I want to get into the Brewers today. Talk a little, packers, get into that Badger football team. See how that you know what we really thought about that Badger football game. Now that we've had a couple of days to, you know, decompress, go to therapy, talk about our problems, maybe drink another beer, I don't know yet. You know we've had a couple of days now to try and get back from that. So I want to get into that today here on the show. So right away I want to start with the Brewers because the Brewers right now, to me they are one of the biggest headlines in Wisconsin. You know, packers coming up this weekend, that's going to be huge. But the Brewers right now, I don't want them to get lost in everything that's going on outside of that right College football coming back, packers starting up. I don't want the Brewers to get lost because the Brewers have been nothing but fantastic this season and I want to get into a little bit of that today.
Speaker 1:Talk about some of the stats and some of the moves yesterday. The Brewers made a move yesterday that kind of surprised me, but thinking about it more and more, I guess I got to an understanding. So Hobie Milner came back from the injured list, spent some time down in the minors rehabbing. He was healthy, ready to go. They brought him back up. Okay, milner's back. Paguero comes back. Okay, paguero's back up. I never thought he honestly should have got sent down to begin with, but gets brought back up by the Brewers there. This is where the interesting part comes in. And well, bryce Wilson goes to the injured list. That was the Puguero move.
Speaker 1:So what the Brewers did was they sent down Brian Hudson. Now I saw a lot of people over social media. Everybody was upset about it, even me, you know. Right away I saw it and I was like what's going on? Like why, why, why are the Brewers sending down Brian Hudson? We're talking about a guy in 43 games who has a 6-1 record, a 1.73 ERA. He's got 62 innings pitched and 62 strikeouts. You're sitting there thinking, okay, so he's not hurt.
Speaker 1:Why did Brian Hudson get sent down? It doesn't make sense. You get on the. You know you get sent down. Usually it's because you're struggling or you know you have options. You're young, you haven't been in a lot of games. We're going to find a way to get you into games down to the. That's not Brian Hudson's problem.
Speaker 1:What Brian Hudson's biggest problem is is his lack of usage over the years. You look all the way back, I mean you can look at his minor league seasons there from 2015 on to this season. Here I mean on to 2023. We'll go as far as that. The most games that he appeared in over that stretch was 46 games in 2023 at the AAA level. That's the most games he appeared in this season. Now we're talking about 43 games entering September. So Brian Hudson is one of your high leverage, high situation relievers and he is already maxing out in that innings department. You look at his innings over the years. He pitched 55 innings there in 2023.
Speaker 1:Now in 2018, that was when he was a starter. That was when he was a starter. That was when he was a starter. So it's a little bit different being out in the bullpen now, but when he was a starter he had 124 in 2017 and then 113 in 2018. But being predominantly out of the bullpen, which started up really in 2021, I would say, is when he transitioned more to that bullpen role. He had 35 games out of the bullpen there. 2022, he had 39 games out of the bullpen, so hasn't had a lot of time in the bullpen pitching a lot of games, right.
Speaker 1:So the Brewers are just being cautious. They saw the velocity start to drop a little bit, which, if you really paid attention to it and I had to look back over his last couple of outings, watch some of the video off of there and it has His velocity has been a tick down. So they're worried about the usage of Brian Hudson and not trying to injury could happen because of the excessive usage. I mean, you look at Garrett Crochet, right, the biggest thing with him at the trade deadline for the White Sox and why teams didn't jump on him so fast. A lot of teams wanted Crochet, but the biggest thing was his usage. There was talk about him being shut down, you know, and that was a problem. He hadn't been used a lot in the role that he was in. Now, the same thing with Brian Hudson here. He's been used a lot, you know, 62 innings already, impressive baseball that he's thrown so far, impressive off the mound.
Speaker 1:But the Brewers having that big lead in the NL Central, which you know, leads can always diminish, right, but give them a few days off. You know, it's one of those things where now they can bring Milner back, they can bring Poguero back. You're not having an arm out there. Who's just unavailable? Right, because you don't want to waste a roster spot with that. You don't want to waste a roster spot with, well, you know this guy's unavailable because he's, you know, he's pitched a lot of games. We're not going to use them, so we're going to leave them on the bullpen, right? You don't want to be at that spot. You want to have fresh arms out there in the bullpen. You want to be able to mix and match if you have to. So the Brewers traded a lefty and a righty for a lefty and a righty.
Speaker 1:This isn't, you know, brian Hudson isn't going to be back pretty darn soon. I would expect probably a week. Honestly, I would say a week. Brian Hudson will be down there, maybe he'll. You know he's going to get in a few games down there, but less high leverage situations, probably no multi-inning appearances or anything like that. They're going to keep them fresh. They're going to keep them throwing in games down there, but they're going to take the pressure off. They're going to let him slowly. It's almost a rehab, but not a rehab, they just want that arm, the velocity and everything to come back for him and then they'll bring them back up. Right, and that's what they're hoping. Just a little bit of rest, everything like that. Get them ready for the stretch run. Because at this point, the way that this Brewers team is playing, they're thinking to themselves you know we're going to be a playoff team, right, and we need our bullpen to be fresh. We need everybody, they need everybody to be fresh down the stretch, right, but they want you, they want their bullpen arms, their starters, everything like that, to be fresh down the stretch there. That's what they're trying to get with Brian Hudson here, because they know the high leverage that he is, they know how important he really is to this Brewers team.
Speaker 1:So right away I was upset with the move, didn't understand it, thinking about it more and more, hearing what Pat Murphy had to say. He said point blank, like it was one of the toughest conversations he's had to have, because he's like you know, this guy has done nothing but good. You know he's been fantastic, downright fantastic at times for the one of the better relievers in baseball, if you really look at it over the collective season. And to tell that guy like hey, just so you know, we're going to have to send you down here. It isn't a conversation you would normally have with a guy like that, so it was definitely one of those things where hard to do for Pat right Trying to explain the situation, and hopefully Brian Hudson was good with it. He understood it, everybody in that clubhouse in the bullpen understood it and everything's good when he comes back Because, like I said, he's going to be back soon. He will definitely be back soon.
Speaker 1:It's just a matter of when, and I think you know within a week, week and a half, we'll see Brian Hudson back. I don't think it's going to be like three days, I think it's a, I think it's a max. You have to be down there. Uh, I was just going to look that up, how long you have to be in the minors when you're sent down, because I thought I really did think there was a number. Upon being optioned in the minor leagues, a position player must remain there for a minimum of 10 days before he's eligible to be recalled to the major league roster. So Brian Hudson will be down there for at least almost a week and a half, right, and then we'll probably see Brian Hudson back up. So in that stretch you would expect him to get in some games, but for now he's probably going to be maybe three, four games down there. You know, in that stretch maybe five, and then that's it. You get some rest, get ready to go get them back up and then see how it goes from there.
Speaker 1:So definitely, definitely an interesting move by the Brewers, but understandable if you think about it in that perspective. Now, if this if I mean his spot comes around in the bullpen and we can't figure out how to shut down games, okay, then it then it becomes a problem. Then it's like, well, why did we do it to begin with? But as of right now, understandable move. Until he comes back, hopefully this Brewers team can find ways, as they have all season long, to be able to put together wins and everything like that. So that's what I got out of that move there.
Speaker 1:I I saw a stat on jack centurio. I just watched him uh, hit a double there, scored, uh score a run for the brewers and put it at a 3-3 game. He's been nothing but fantastic. But I saw you know I'm talking about jack centurio, it seems like all the time now and I saw jeff pass and actually tweeted it earlier today or yesterday there and it was his stats over the last three months. So batting average in the last three months he has a 319 batting average over the last three months there, seventh in the mlb. His on base percentage is 372 that's good for 12th. Slugging percentage 542 that's good for 14th. Ops at 915 that's good for 12th. He has 13 home runs in the last three months, 13 stolen bases, 51 rbis and his k percentage is at 15.8 percent. That's pretty. I mean, the strikeout numbers came down drastically for him.
Speaker 1:He's not chasing the. It seemed like early on it seemed like a lot of breaking balls were giving him issues Chasing pitches. Right, it seems like he and we knew it he's done this at every level. It takes him a minute to get kind of situated, get himself moved in, everything like that, and then all of a sudden he finds it right and then it's like this is why this guy's the top prospect in baseball there and that's what we've seen. It took him a little bit to get settled in. Once he did, once he found the confidence right and I think it has a lot to do with Pat Murphy and the rest of this ball club, the younger guys in there who have been there just recently and being able to help him work him through it. You know, the help of Willie Adamas and William Contreras with Jackson Churio getting him on the field, working with him out there, the work ethic, the timing, getting there on time every day, doing the little things in between, that has been huge for him Having those leaders in that locker room or in that clubhouse. So Jackson Churio, yes, are in that clubhouse. So Jackson Churio, yes, I mean he is a fantastic ball player.
Speaker 1:But I got to say his success is just as much him as it is what Pat Murphy has meant, because Pat Murphy could have given up on him. He could have said we're going to go with, we're not going to play you today, we're going to have Yelich out there, we're going to have Sal, we're going to have Perkins and you're going to be on the bench. Because you struggled as a plate and he could have just let him ride the pipe but he kept putting them out there and putting them out there and maybe that was, you know, matt Arnold and the ownership telling him to do that. But I truthfully believe, listening to Pat, he believes in his guys. He kept putting them out there. Confidence is going to get there. He's going to get the confidence. He's just got to see it. He's got to see it and it slowly went like that for a while.
Speaker 1:We saw spurts, we saw moments, but it wasn't like the guy we're seeing now, where it's like every at-bat you're stopping what you're doing, you're turning up your TV, you're stopping what you're doing, you're turning up the radio, don't stop on the middle of the road driving. But you know what I mean. His at-bats have been just amplified. You just get more excited when he comes up to the plate because you don't know right, just like we talked about there yesterday when he hit that grand slam before anybody was on base. He told Willie Adamas and Frankie Montes there that nobody's on base yet and he goes if I get up to bat I'm going to hit a grand slam. Nobody's on base, nobody's on base. They loaded the bases. He walks up there, he hits a grand slam. He's smiling, pointing them at the dugout, like that is the fun baseball that the Brewers have and the confidence that not just the clubhouse puts together but Pat Murphy, everyone on this coaching staff, ricky Weeks, everybody down has instilled in these guys because, like I said yesterday, I mean this team they're not supposed to be this team, they're not supposed to be this good.
Speaker 1:This I mean you look at the trade deadline moves they made for Aaron Savali and they get Frankie Montes. And you're looking at those two deals and you're like did we get better? Did we truly? I mean you look at them at the time. You look at Jacob Junis right, he had a two ERA and you traded them off for Frankie Montes right, and you're like, well, frankie's got a five ERA. Did we get better, honestly? And then we get Aaron Savali. Now, that was only for it was pretty good prospect right there. But Gregory Barros, I believe, is the prospect that the Brewers ended up dealing there. But you look at that trade and you're like did we get better in that deal? Right, and Savali has been solid. Has he been great for the Brewers? I don't think he's been great, but he's been solid. Right, he's been serviceable. And same with Montes, has been solid. Has he been no-hitter? You mean a fantastic ace of the staff? No, but he's been solid, he's been serviceable.
Speaker 1:I mean the moves that they made point you in a direction of this is a team that's saying, well, you know, we're in the ballpark of doing it, but we're not quite there, so we're just going to make small moves and see what happens. This team just took that and ran with it and they said, well, you know, we can do it. Right, aaron Ashby, he comes up, he's in the bullpen now and he's pitching like Corbin Burns in 2018 out of the bullpen, right? I mean, if that's the case, if that's what Aaron Ashby is going to be good at, is you throw him into the bullpen and everything's right with the world again? Fantastic, I'll take that.
Speaker 1:I mean, yeah, I wanted to see Aaron Ashby turn into this great starter. I wanted him to be a top of the rotation guy. When they gave him that money and said, hey, run with it. He hasn't been that guy, but in the bullpen he's been solid. He's been solid for him ever since coming back up. He's been solid. He's been solid for him ever since coming back up. So I mean, all in all, what Jackson Churrio has been able to do, what this Brewers team has been able to do over the last month, over the last couple months, over this season as a whole downright fantastic, has been nothing but fantastic.
Speaker 1:So my last thing that I want to talk about with the Brewers there, my last thing that I want to talk about with the Brewers there Bryce Terang. They keep mentioning him in the leadoff spot and should they move him, should they not? Bryce Terang has struggled this season, not this season. Right Early on he was perfectly fine, but down the stretch here after the All-Star break, bryce Terang has kind of went downhill. No, and a lot of Brewer fans are like, okay, why is this guy, why are we still messing around with him in that leadoff spot? We should probably move somebody else up, like Jackson Turio or Blake Perkins. What should we do in this situation? So you look at, terang actually has been hitting better Over the last seven games he's at 292. Over the last 15, he's had 292. Over the last 15 he's been 264.
Speaker 1:What I would do is exactly you know and I guess I'm just you know going with the crowd here in murphy. I trust I would do what murphy is doing right now and when there's a lefty on the mound, to rang bats in my nine spot. When there's a righty on the mound, I lead off with terrain. Terang bats in my nine spot when there's a righty on the mound, I lead off with Terang. He's one of your best gloves right in the infield, if not the best glove in the infield, and you don't want to lose that. And then I mean, all in all, you look at him from a base running perspective. When he gets on, he's a threat, right. I mean last night we watched him double down the left field. When he gets on, he's a threat, right. I mean last night we watched him double down the left field line and it was just a little dribbler. But putting the ball in play, he still puts the ball in play. That's the big thing is he's still putting the ball in play. The strikeout numbers have gone up a little bit as the season has progressed here, but all in all, I mean I I would honestly, you know, to answer that question which I've seen a lot of people asking with Bryce Terang I would keep it exactly like Murphy's doing right now.
Speaker 1:I would cycle it lefty and righty. He's at top of the order against righties. When he faces that, the lefty there, he's at the bottom of the order, maybe in the eight, maybe the nine, but he's in one of those two spots when you know the lefty's on the mound. Then I'm floating up the names of, let's just say, jackson Cherio, blake Perkins in that leadoff spot. Those would be the two guys I'd float around in that spot there because those guys I mean they're guys who. I mean Jackson Cherio's on a burner right now. I'd keep him in the two hole. But Perkins is a guy who could put the ball in play. And so I mean you look at that leadoff spot if you wanted to. You know, move it around against righties. You could throw Sal Frelick in that leadoff spot.
Speaker 1:Now I know a lot of people aren't impressed by Sal. I think Sal's a solid ball player all in all, solid ball player. Puts the ball in play. Yeah, is it always solid contact? No, I mean he's one of those guys who he just seems to poke the ball out there and over the last seven games he's batting 320. Over the last 15 games he's batting 283. And over the last 30 games he's batting 277. Sal Freilich has been good for the Brewers here. The strikeout numbers 12 strikeouts in the last 30 games that's impressive, right? Not striking out at a high clip, putting the baseball in play, making things happen. And he's a guy when he gets on, he can steal bases for you.
Speaker 1:So I would not be opposed to if you do decide, if the Brewers do decide at some point like, hey, let's move Bryce Terang out of that leadoff spot, I would not be opposed to seeing Sal Frelick get moved up to that top spot in the order. Is he going to give you the long ball threat at the top of the order? No, no, he's not. I don't think Terang gives you that. You know, unless the bases are loaded right. We saw him go on a torrid pace there with the bases loaded, hitting grand slams. But you know, is he going to give you that home run threat? No, I think the only one right now that we've seen. Well, besides Contreras or even Gary Sanchez or Reese Hoskins, if he gets going, you want those guys in that top half, you want those guys who are on base guys. Sal Frelick is that guy. I mean, if you do throw Jackson Turi up, he's definitely that guy. Bryce Terang can be that guy.
Speaker 1:I'm not completely throwing in the towel on Bryce Terang. Nobody get me wrong. I'm not throwing a towel. What I'm saying is you can cycle this lineup between Sal and Terang in that leadoff spot. Take some pressure off Terang. Maybe if he goes down to that five spot or six spot, wherever Sal usually bats there, and you move Sal to the leadoff spot for a little bit, maybe that takes some of the pressure off Terang. He finds that bat again, finds that stick and everything's good. I mean those are the ways that I would do it right now. To be honest, like I said, I mean you don't want to mess with what's working and it's working right. It's working right now. I'm just saying there's little tweaks, there's little tweaks you could make. Those would be some of the little tweaks I would make. Nothing major. Nothing major. Maybe flip Sal and Terang around, but right now if he rides with Terang at top of the order, I'm good with it, because if Terang finds it, he starts getting on. He's definitely a stolen base threat. He's definitely setting the table for the rest of this lineup there. So with that I mean let's get to the sponsors of the show here quick before we move on.
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Speaker 1:So let's get to the Packers here. Just a little bit on the Packers for the day we did see the first injury report come out and I guess one of the not surprising ones as of right now, marshawn Lloyd, running back, still out with that hamstring injury, has not practiced Tuesday as of yesterday, did not practice there For the Packers. Outside of that we did see Edrin Cooper was on the injury report. He was limited participation there in practice. Romeo Dobbs with a hand injury, limited. Karenton Valentine with a hamstring, he was limited. And also Emmanuel Wilson with a hip injury. He was limited at practice there. Minor injuries, minor injuries for the Green Bay Packers. There I mean nothing crazy, right, that's the big thing. Nothing crazy there. I would expect to see everybody but Lloyd, unless if something else happens. Everybody but Lloyd on Friday for the Green Bay Packers there Looking at the Eagles injury report AJ Brown, wide receiver, he was resting.
Speaker 1:He's a resting player, is what they call it Limited participation. Landon Dickerson, the guard for him there, he was limited. On Tuesday, isaiah Rogers, cornerback, was limited and so was Devin White, linebacker, with an ankle. He was limited. How does he have an ankle issue? I don't think he played in the preseason. How is Devin White out here with an ankle injury right now? What did he do? Step out of the car and roll it. I mean mean, okay, I guess you know practice injuries do happen. But Devin White also on that injury report for the Eagles there, I mean I you know what?
Speaker 1:Honestly, the Packers completely just getting rid of their uh, strength and conditioning coaches from last year. Moving on from that, I mean you look at the Packers last season and it was like who isn't injured at some point for this team? You know, everybody seemed to be injured and it's like what is going on in Green Bay? It seemed like it's been a trend. Packers can't keep guys healthy, whether it's from the offensive line to the defensive line, in the quarterback room, to the wide receivers running backs, everybody. It seemed like everybody was getting banged up for this Packers team. Well, in the offseason they said enough's, enough with that, if it is the problem. If it isn't the problem, we got to find new guys to try and get these guys healthy and ready to go. So in the offseason, I mean everybody that they had in that room between the strength and conditioning team, they fired them all. They fired them all there. They hired all new guys there.
Speaker 1:I thought that was fantastic. Aaron Hill is the coordinator, todd Hunt is the assistant, marcus Jones is an assistant and Ben Schumacher is also an assistant there. I thought that was the smartest thing, the best thing they did. It doesn't even seem like it's a big thing, but it's big right. Christian Watson finally seems like he's healthy. He's going to be ready to go. Now. He hasn't really played in the game yet. He hasn't seen true contact game situation like that yet, but he's healthy, right, he's ready to go.
Speaker 1:That's a big one for me, because I see a lot of you know analysts out there they talking jordan love for nvp and everything like that. I really do think if jordan love's gonna win nvp, christian watson's got to be healthy, because jordan love's not gonna win this nvp on his legs, right. Right, he's not that kind of mover. He's going to get some rushing yards but he's not that big of a mover coming out of the pocket, so he's going to win it on his arm. And if he's going to do that he needs to have his receivers healthy.
Speaker 1:And a big one is Christian Watson because, like we always say, you need a guy in that room who can blow the top off of the defense, who guys will have to respect out there in the secondary. For that very nature that is Christian Watson. He is, I mean, a freak of an athlete. When he's out there, right, he just seems like he's made of string and beads. There's string and beads out there and if you cut the string, the beads all go all over the place, right, he just seems like he's just all stringy and everything like that. But, as we've seen from right now and what he said, christian Watson feels healthier than ever.
Speaker 1:That is a big note onto a lot of offseason preparation finally trying to figure out what was causing all them hamstring problems and also getting a new room of strength and conditioning coaches that can help boost them, get them ready to go every Sunday and help them recover after the fact. That is huge stuff. So love to see that, especially on an injury report. I mean talking about an injury report where everybody outside of Marshawn Lloyd is active and is participating in practice. That's big. I mean, yeah, the Eagles have everybody there, but having everybody in the room on that 53-man roster is a huge step forward for the Green Bay Packers, something we haven't seen in a while. So great stuff there in the injury report room there. So I mean, we talked about it a little bit yesterday there, but I saw, I finally saw an interesting post and this was from I believe it was from Albert Breer there.
Speaker 1:He reported that the NFL security advised the Eagles and Packers to stay at hotel during Brazil trip. They have been provided with a list of do's and don'ts. They were told not to walk outside with their phones, not to respond to any weird texts. That's I mean mean who's texting us, who is? I mean who's texting, you know, jordan love middle of the night. Jordan loves like what's up, dude. You know, like it just seems this whole thing is just nuts. It is nuts, I mean I have never. You know, they go over to germany or whatever and they go overseas there and I don't hear of any of this, any of this madness, right, and they went down.
Speaker 1:I remember was it the Texans that played down in Mexico City? They played down in Mexico there, and I think it was Brock Osweiler was the quarterback and they had lasers up there in the stands and they were shining it into his eyes and there was all kinds of problems with that. And I mean just so many problems. And if they're true or not, okay, that's fine. If everybody's just trying to make brazil seem like it's the worst place in the world, like I guess so if that's the way you want to shake it. But I look at all these reports like don't wear green, nobody can wear green. That was the first report. And now it was Darius Slay saying he told his family to stay home and they were told to have their family stay home, like it's not safe for him. And now it's don't answer any texts that you can get down there. Don't walk outside the hotel with your phone. Don't do this, don't.
Speaker 1:I mean it just seems like it's a disaster, honestly, like there's so much outside noise leading up into this game here that I don't think it's going to affect the game that much player-wise, but it's just so much I mean craziness, honestly leading up into this where you're like, is it actually safe for the Green Bay Packers to fly all the way down there and play a football game? Is it safe for the Philadelphia Eagles to go down there? Like Aaron said yesterday on the show here Aaron from Brutally Honest Sports there, I mean he was talking about it and he said you know, these are some high-priced guys, right, these are some guys who are worth a little bit of money. They're, I mean, everybody knows him, they've seen him around the world Putting them in a situation like that. If it's truthfully this dangerous man, I mean that's just. I guess you're getting paid big bucks to go down there. The NFL is getting paid big bucks, but when you're risking players, that's a different story there.
Speaker 1:So hopefully I mean hopefully there's nothing goes wrong and every one of these reports is just like, whatever you know, they can just brush it off, but man for you know them to tell, like slay telling his family to stay home and a lot of I guarantee you a lot of these guys telling their families to stay home, don't travel, don't come down to this game. It's just one of those weird situations, weird situations that you hope nothing comes out of it. But you're like, why are we putting ourselves in this situation? Like, yes, I get money, I get dollar signs, I get, you know, cool locations to play and everything like that, and the teams probably get something out of it and everything like that. But you could have this game in Philadelphia and I mean, yeah, we'd have to deal with Philly fans, right, they're all nuts, right, but it wouldn't be as bad. Now we're talking about all the bad that can come out of this and it's like man, oh man. I mean just an interesting storyline that we've been hearing about.
Speaker 1:So, last but not least, with the Packers here I just wanted to talk about, you know, jair Alexander was in the news and a good thing, a good thing before I get into this here. It was a good thing, it was a good thing for Jair there and that was so. Packers signed a new kicker right, we all know Narveson is now the new kicker in Green Bay and they asked they were talking to Matt LaFleur a little bit and they got Jair Alexander's take on it talking to Matt LaFleur a little bit and they got Jair Alexander's take on it and Jair said in an interview with uh the athletic, with uh Matt Schneidman there, matt LaFleur said his first kick was a 56 yarder into the wind and he nailed it there. And Jair actually, after a couple of his kicks, came up to Matt and he said man, I love this guy. Their early returns are very favorable up to this point. So I mean for Jair, I mean he's seen enough already. He saw the kicking he saw last season with Carlson, he saw the kicking competition with Carlson and Joseph over the summer. And now he sees Narveson and he's like that's my guy, that's my guy. Like I've seen enough out of this guy right now to say this dude is going to be something right.
Speaker 1:56 yards into the wind, that's impressive, right? So you're hoping that's going to carry over. It's one of those things that carries over into the season. But you love when your players are starting to get behind guys, because when Carlson was kicking I didn't hear anybody, you know, saying well, you know, I didn't hear anybody saying they lost faith in him, but I didn't hear anything like that, like Jair coming out and saying I love this guy right. You didn't hear anything about that Now. It's more amplified now because you know they get rid of both their kickers who they had in the summer and then they end up getting a different guy there in Narveson.
Speaker 1:But it's one of those things where you don't hear a lot of news coming out about a kicker right and guys getting this excited about it. But Matt LaFleur seems like he's loving what he's seeing on Narveson. Nothing bad I've heard from out of camp or anything like that about Narveson. And then also for Jair to say something about it too. That is huge. That is huge to me. So I love that and hopefully Narveson is the answer, because the Packers desperately need an answer there at the kicking spot, especially with what we saw last year with Carlson. For some reason I'm scrolling through the internet and I saw that replay of the Packers were up against the 49ers 21 to 17 at the time there and Carlson missed that kick. 49ers eventually went down, scored, made it out of reach for Green Bay and they couldn't come back in that game. So that was definitely a kick that put the. It was. I mean, well, this we, we see it. Now he's gone right, carlson has gone there. So that's about all I got for Packers there.
Speaker 1:Just a little bit of tidbits there for the day. We're going to get more into the Packers. Like I always say, as the week goes on here There'll be more that happens inside of that locker room and getting ready for the Brazil game. Hopefully, hopefully it's a safe trip for the Green Bay Packers, or the Brazil game, hopefully, hopefully it's a safe trip for the Green Bay Packers. That's all we can hope for, because I want to see you know we paid Jordan Love all this money. I want to see him come back to Green Bay after that trip to Brazil, unless if he sucks. Unless if he sucks, then they can keep him. Then they can keep him down there. They can keep whoever stinks down there. But until then he can come back, he can come back, he can come back there. So with that I want to get to the Badgers.
Speaker 1:We didn't get into much of a a full team recap yesterday there on the show of that Western Michigan game, so I wanted to touch into it today here. So the big thing that I saw coming out of uh, friday, last Friday's game there against Western Michigan was watching Tyler Van Dyke, the biggest thing that I said in my season preview and everything like that, was Tyler Van Dyke was going to have to play like the Tyler Van Dyke that we saw early on in his days at Miami. If he played good, this Badger team was going to look good because they have the weapons in the room. Tyler Van Dyke did not impress me, did not impress me, did not impress me. 21 for 36, 192 yards 5.3 was the average there passing on the day, no touchdowns, no interceptions, a 48.8 QBR for Tyler Van Dyke. Just it was not impressive. Not impressive to me.
Speaker 1:Watching him out there, I thought honestly and I saw a lot of comments on this but the dairy raid or air raid, whatever you want to call it, it's definitely not right. I heard about it. Phil Longo was coming and it was going to be this air raid offense and the Badgers were going to be passing the ball. It was going to be a gunslinging offense and we were going to utilize weapons like that and it wasn't going to be such heavy on the run and it was going to be this and it was going to be that. I haven't seen it. I haven't, and you know a big reason last season was Tanner Mordecai. Tanner Mordecai was not anywhere near what I thought the Badgers were getting in.
Speaker 1:Tanner Mordecai, you know you look at his numbers coming over from SMU. I thought this is going to be a huge boost for the Badgers. Yes, he can run, but he can also sling the ball around a little bit. He did not impress me and my biggest worry right now is this guy in Tyler Van Dyke is Tanner Mordecai 2.0 that's. I mean he's not a runner right, and he's hesitant in the pocket. Stepping up was not on the same page as the receivers. So it leads you to question that.
Speaker 1:Okay, was it just that first game jitters when we get to South Dakota. Is it going to be better? Because if it's not better against South Dakota, you guys think it's really going to be better. When he goes and faces Alabama like he's just going to all of a sudden and maybe that's the truth, maybe it does happen. Some guys are better in big games. Maybe it's going to take the big game for him to figure it out, but my worry is okay, he struggled against Western Michigan. I mean, honestly, the Badgers struggled against Western Michigan on the offensive side. Some of it was play calling. I am not going to let Phil Longo and Luke Fickle off the hook in this game here.
Speaker 1:I thought play calling wasn't good in this game. Honestly, the defensive front for Western Michigan ate the offensive line for the Badgers alive. They were faster, they got around the Badgers and this line for the Badgers wasn't holding up, wasn't holding up for me. So was that part of the issue too, because the pocket did seem to kind of collapse on Tyler Van Dyke a couple times. There Was that an issue? You know the offensive line giving Tyler Van Dyke the time Now that could be. You know the lack of getting real competition there for the offensive line full-on game speed, different players coming up against them there. You know kind of younger guys in the room not as much experience altogether. Was that part of the problem in this game for the offensive line? Because I did not think the offensive line was that great in this game. They had moments right, but they weren't great. So that would be one of those things where, okay, you can't blame it completely on Tyler Van Dyke. I thought the offensive line wasn't completely held together. Phil Longo struggled in the play-calling department and then also I mean you can't let Luke Fickle off the hook then because he is, I mean, overseeing it all, he's the main man. So Tyler Van Dyke struggled.
Speaker 1:We got to see something more against South Dakota and this is my honest opinion. This is just me being honest. If the quarterback competition in spring, in the spring, in the summer, into the fall, here now leading up into week one, if the quarterback competition between Braden Locke and Tyler Van Dyke was that close, if they go into that game against South Dakota and Tyler Van Dyke is struggling, I want to see Brayden Locke. I'll be honest, I want to see him because if he comes out and if Tyler Van Dyke comes out against South Dakota and he's struggling, if he's struggling like he did early on against Western Michigan there, I want to see Brayden Locke for a drive, for two drives, see him get in there, see what he can do If he impresses. Now, you know, because you're going to face Alabama the week after and if your offense looks like they did against Western Michigan, against Alabama, that won't be a game at halftime.
Speaker 1:You are lucky that Western Michigan was Western Michigan in that game, that they didn't have the dynamic offense, that they didn't have that top defense in the SEC, that they weren't one of those teams. You were lucky for that. You were lucky for that muff punt there, because if that punt doesn't hit off that guy I don't remember exactly which player it was, from Western Michigan he probably feels like a doorknob at this point, so I don't want to mention his name. I feel bad for him. But if that ball doesn't go off his leg, what are we talking about today? Right, what are we talking about today? What are we talking about after the weekend was over and we're like the Badgers lost? Right, because the offense wasn't good and Western Michigan just found ways. A win is a win. I said that point blank on social media and everything like that. I said a win is a win. You know, you find ways to win games. That's what you got to do, right, this was a solid Western Michigan. They weren't good? Right, they weren't good.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to say Western Michigan could have stood toe to toe with Alabama. I'm not going to say they could have stood toe-to-toe with Alabama. I'm not going to say they could have stood toe-to-toe with Ohio State. What I'm saying is Western Michigan's a solid team. They're not a great team. They went toe-to-toe with you and I mean, at some points in this game looked better than you were.
Speaker 1:South Dakota can't do that. They can't. I mean, honestly, if South Dakota makes you look like this game, if you see a repeat of this against South Dakota close game Badgers struggling to move the football the offensive line doesn't look great. If you see this against South Dakota, alabama's definite loss. Usc's a definite loss. Oregon's a definite loss. Penn State looked good, definite loss.
Speaker 1:It's one of those things where I want to be as optimistic as possible. But if this struggle that they had in week one continues throughout the season, it worries you. But you look at it from the opposite perspective, which is the way I want to look at it, and that is it's week one. Right, it's week one. You played a solid team. They weren't great, but they're a solid team. In western michigan they gave you everything you could handle. You found a way to win that game. Whether it was by pure luck or whatever it is, you found a way to win that game. You move on. You know you have a. You have a notepad, a big old notepad. Now, right, you got a notepad sitting there and it is. I mean, there's 100 pages, and about 98 of them are filled with things that you should be talking about this week if you're luke fickle to adjust, to fix on this offense, on this defense. I mean defense was.
Speaker 1:I thought defense was pretty solid in this game. Honestly, I thought four queens showed up. Jaheem thomas was fantastic, uh, jay cheney was solid for him there also. Also, hunter Wohler was Hunter Wohler I mean there's nothing more you can say about him there. And Ricardo Holman I mean you didn't hear his name, ricardo Holman, I believe. If I'm not mistaken, if he was targeted, he was only targeted once in the entire game there. So that was impressive, right, ricardo Holman's being Ricardo Holman. The Badgers, defensively, I thought were solid. Now, it's one of those things where it was Western Michigan, so you got to see it against a good team. Now see what this defense can really do. But for a first time out, I thought defense was solid.
Speaker 1:I'm looking for the South Dakota game see another solid performance out of the defense and the offense to take a big step forward. Plain and simple. The offense I got to see them in that passing game, in this air raid offense. I have to see the air raid offense because right now I am lost at the offense. If they call it an air raid. It's not an air raid in my book it is.
Speaker 1:I mean, you look at this last game 46 carries in total to 21,. 46 carries to 36 passes. That's heavy on the run, right, and that's what was working. I mean, chesma Lucy 74 yards, tyree Walker was 66 yards, but you got to be able to spread the field right. You know, the biggest thing that I always heard from Badger fans over the years was when they were that heavy run team, was that you're so one-dimensional, how are you going to, you know, get past Ohio State or any of these teams if you can't throw the ball around? That's what my, when Phil Longo came in, I got excited. I was like, you know, we're going to get to this more pass heavy, some shotgun pistol handoffs, right, so that kind of stuff, but heavy in the pass I pass. I haven't seen it right.
Speaker 1:And some games you can't be heavy in the past, some games you need to be able to run the ball, but they need to be able to throw the ball consistently. And I mean the big hitters they don't have. I mean, look at this last game, there was no big hitters in that game. You look at the longs in this game. Uh, the long was 17. Will pauling had a pass for 17 yards. That was the long on the game. Outside of that, I mean you're talking 14 yards for Ashcraft Kiyowana. He had a 14-yard pass. Nowakowski had a 13-yard pass, green caught an 11-yard pass. I mean that was your longs on the game.
Speaker 1:That's not an air raid offense, air raid. We're trying to blow the top off the defense and when we have to, we're bringing it back right. You know it's a mix, it's a mixed bag of chocolates there, but you constantly have routes that are running down the field. I mean you look at Wisconsin, there's constant routes where there's a guy heading down the field, across the field, deeper down the field there, trying to find openings because you want the big hitter. That's what you're looking for. Is the big hitter? That's not what we saw, that's not what we've seen. So can Tyler Van Dyke be that guy? And if he can't, if he can't be that guy and you don't want to completely throw away the season, you don't want this season to end up like we saw last season there, because I did not.
Speaker 1:I was not impressed by Mordecai. You might have been, I wasn't. You have to look at your options, then If Braden Locke was that close with Tyler Van Dyke in the camp, I want to see some Braden Locke against South Dakota, because you might need to change it up. You might have to Now. That's getting ahead of myself, right? Because Tyler Van Dyke's only one game into it.
Speaker 1:Like I said, I want to see him against South Dakota. I want to see him against South Dakota. I repeated myself there. I want to see him against South Dakota. I'm not saying to completely just switch it up right now. What I'm saying is put him out there First half.
Speaker 1:If he's anywhere near shaky or if it's a performance like this, I am telling you right now I want to see Braden Locke in there. I want to see Braden Locke get some minutes. I want to see him get some downs in there and see what he can do. Because if he runs the offense better than Tyler Van Dyke does when it comes to game situation, why not play him? Why not give him the football and give yourself the best chance you could possibly have to pull off a major upset against Alabama at home? It's already going to be tough as is. Why would you make it tougher by rolling out your starting quarterback, who you wanted by a third week. You want him out there to the third week.
Speaker 1:After he struggled week one and two against two subpar teams, you're going to roll him out week three against Alabama. What do you think is going to happen? Right, I want to see him step up big in this game. I want to see Tyler Van Dyke play well. What I'm saying is, if he doesn't, I want to see the Badgers work through their options.
Speaker 1:I want to see them work through their options all the way around. I want them to get to the point in this South Dakota game, which we're going to get into more later on this week, about South Dakota, a little bit of a preview for that game and everything like that. But I want to see some of the running backs, see some of the cornerbacks, the linebackers, defensive linemen, everybody like that. I want to see them work through alignment, everything like that, and try to find bits and pieces that maybe would fit better, you know, in some of the schemes, in some of the situations, or even all in all on first team outside of second team, because I believe there's guys who could step up and fill voids in there. So, with that, that's about all I got for today. Right, that's about all I got. It was a great day.
Speaker 1:Brewers will be in action today here. I believe I was just going to double check on the time of that. Uh, to start time for that game as they wrap up this series here with the Cardinals, that'll be a 640 game between the Brewers and Cardinals here coming up tonight, and then they'll have the day40 game between the Brewers and Cardinals here coming up tonight and then they'll have the day off and then the Rockies coming up on Friday there. So big week Packers coming up here later on this week, friday. We're going to get more into the Packers. We're going to get more into the Badgers against South Dakota. Lots of good stuff to get into this week here on the show.
Speaker 1:So with that, like I always say, if you can like subscribe, tell your friends about the show. That definitely be appreciated if you let everybody know. Hey, this is where I heard. This is where I heard this. That definitely be great, because I'd love to hear some of you guys thoughts on everything. Leave a review underneath of the podcast here. Otherwise, go in the bio, click, send us a text message. Uh, in the bio, there in there, it'll send us directly to us here on the show. There we'll be able to answer questions, thoughts, everything like that that you had about the show, improvements, anything you're thinking, wisconsin sports and anything like that there.
Speaker 1:So 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 Wednesday. But until I talk to you guys again tomorrow, deuces Watch me sway, darkness falls and we all pray, hoping for the light of day. Down to the river, I have held the devil's hand, felt the weight of my own sin, buried by the heart of man. Down to the river. Down to the river, oh, oh, bury me, carry me Down to the river. Down to the river, oh, bury me, carry me, oh, far beneath. Oh, fire and water me Going down deep. Say oh, bury me, carry me.