Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
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Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers vs Eagles Showdown, Brewers' Weekend Series, Badgers vs South Dakota Preview – Wisconsin Sports on the Go with Trag
What does a fresh mustache have to do with Wisconsin sports? Join me on this episode of Wisconsin Sports Talk as I explore my new look and its potential to bring good fortune to our local teams! We gear up for the Green Bay Packers' highly anticipated game against the Eagles tonight, a matchup that's sure to keep fans at the edge of their seats. The Brewers' recent heartbreaks against the Cardinals and the pivotal series against the Rockies, Giants, Diamondbacks, and Phillies are also up for discussion, with playoff hopes hanging precariously in the balance.
The Milwaukee Brewers are at a crucial juncture, and I'll share my insights on their standings and what needs to happen in the series against the Rockies to secure a comfortable lead in the division. We'll tackle everything from fan reactions to player assignments, particularly focusing on bullpen roster decisions involving key players like Hobie Milner, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Bryce Wilson, and Parades. As we look forward to some positive results over the weekend, we also shift our attention to the Wisconsin Badgers and their matchup against South Dakota.
Do the Badgers have what it takes to overpower South Dakota? I'll dissect South Dakota's strengths and weaknesses, zeroing in on their season opener performance and key players like Aiden Baumann and Charles Pierre Jr. But it's not just about defense; the Badgers need to step up their offensive game. We'll discuss strategies for making big plays to exploit the defense and drive the ball downfield, crucial if the Badgers want to assert their dominance in the Big Ten and beyond. Don't underestimate the potential pitfalls as we aim to ensure the Badgers look formidable against tougher competition ahead.
Thank you, how we doing everybody and welcome in to Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trage. I'm your host, trage. It is Friday, september 6th, a fantastic Friday. Oh man, oh man. I've been waiting. I've been waiting for this Friday for a little bit now, a little bit, a little bit. It's exciting. It's exciting. Why is it exciting? We got everybody cheering right now. I don't know why. Why is everybody cheering?
Speaker 1:Football is officially back in Wisconsin. Not just Kansas City Chiefs versus the Ravens. We watched that game happening last night there. We have the Packers taking on the Eagles tonight. It is wow. I mean, I am, I'm ready, I'm ready, got to go to work first. Right, you got to, you got to, you got to pay for Peacock. So I got to go to work just to be able to afford Peacock to be able to watch this game tonight. But I can't wait, I can't wait. It is super. I mean, man, man, oh man, can't wait to get into it. We got Brewers getting today Badger preview for the South Dakota game coming up this weekend. I want to get into that before we get into the Packers Eagles matchup there.
Speaker 1:I had a last night. It was a night right, so I've been, I've been, you know, kind of tinkering with a mustache. Look, for a little bit now I've been kind of tinkering with it. I didn't want to shave off, you know, I didn't want to just have the stache, right, you know, the handlebar stache, I didn't want to just have that. So I was tinkering with it. I was leaving it a little bit long for the beard and I was just going a little bit, you know, leaving it long for the mustache, right. Well, you know, the other day one of my buddies, he goes well, you gotta, you gotta, shave it a little bit more on the sides there, so that way you really emphasize what you're going for. People don't notice it right away. So I was like, oh yeah, no sides everything, when I usually do it everything. Right, well, decided last night I was going to drop it down a guard. So I'm looking through my guards, I'm like I don't got a two. Well, there's a one. I was like, okay, maybe I'll just, you know, use the one. Well, I used the one and I did not realize it was going to take it all the way down. So if you're, if you're seeing this on TikTok or anything like that, because I'm going to have, you know the videos, all some of the videos, clips, everything like that, get posted to TikTok. So if you're seeing the set of the Dirty Sanchez, as I like to call it, on there, if you're seeing it on there, there you go.
Speaker 1:There's a little backstory into it. I wasn't going for it, I wasn't exactly going for it, but we're riding with it now we're seeing. It's a test ride. Maybe it's going to bring the Packers, badgers, brewers some good luck. Maybe that's what it's going to be. I don't know. If it is, I'm going to have to keep it. I'm going to have to keep it there. We don't know, it's a trial run right now with it. It's a trial run. So that's enough about that.
Speaker 1:Let's get into some Wisconsin sports. Why we're here? Why here? Not to talk about mustaches and everything like that, but we want to talk about right away.
Speaker 1:I want to get into the Brewers real quick because Brewers, coming off of a tough series loss there, two extra inning losses to the St Louis Cardinals, and I mean both gut punching losses, if you ask me, because both games Brewers have run they back. They have runners in scoring position late in these ball games and they can't find ways to bring them in and I talked about the other day, that was the, for me, the Achilles heel of this team. You know, heading down the stretch into the playoffs. Every team has that, that thing that they struggle right, they struggle with, and that was my one thing that I mentioned the other day with this Brewers team is that struggle. Right now they're in a little bit of a funk. They're in a little bit of a funk here. You know they had that loss to Cincinnati on that Sunday game, bounced back with a nice win versus Cardinals, but then two straight losses.
Speaker 1:You get over it. You move on. All good with life, right, we move on. We get into this Rocky series. We take care of our business. We have an off day yesterday. Take care of our business against the Rockies back at home.
Speaker 1:Then we have a little bit of a tough swing. This is where the tough swing is going to be the Giants, followed by the Diamondbacks, then we see the Phillies, then we see the Diamondbacks again, followed by Pittsburgh and the Mets. That little stretch there, with the Diamondbacks, the Phillies and the Diamondbacks again, is the one where I want to see this Brewer team fully in full stride. Right, because those are playoff teams that you're playing in those scenarios, the Phillies, that could be for the two seed in the National League at that point. That could decide a lot of that. So I want to see what they can do in that game or in that series against the Phillies. And then followed with, you know, sandwiched around is the Diamondbacks series. So that is going to be an interesting little I mean over a week stretch there for this Brewers team to kind of see where they are fully sitting, see where they are fully sitting in that right.
Speaker 1:So Brewers open up with the Rockies coming up tonight here, 5-10 start for that one. Glad it's starting a little bit earlier, you know, for me, honestly, glad it's starting earlier because the Packers will be, you know, packers playing in Brazil. Maybe you know that's probably one of the main reasons why I don't know, maybe it wasn't. I guess I didn't completely look at the schedule to see when this game was supposed to be, if it was supposed to be a 5-10, if it was potentially supposed to be a 6-10, whatever. I would assume it's a 5-10 because usually Friday night games I can't remember many that were at 5-10. So my assumption is that they put it at that time to try and avoid the Packers. Try to get both in there. That's nice. That's nice. I don't want to be. You know I'm going to be watching the end of the Brewer game with the start of the Packer game. That's okay with me. Right, that's okay with me. You get to watch the Brewers Rockies opening game.
Speaker 1:We're going to see a little bit of Frankie Montes taking on Fentner for the Rockies there. He's 1-10 with a 5-11 ERA. Montes 6-9 with that 4.70 ERA. But Montes has looked good since coming to Milwaukee and that's something where you look at a lot of these guys that the Brewers acquire like Montes. Savallee has gotten better, but Montes is the big one for me.
Speaker 1:When you look at Frankie over his last I mean ever since coming to the Brewers there, looking at his last starts against St Louis no runs. Against Oakland, he gave up four. Against Cincinnati he gave up four. Not stellar by any means, but pitching solid four runs. I can live with four earned runs. At the end of the day you hope your offense can bounce back there. Frankie Montes is my top half of the rotation. He's my bottom half of the rotation. If he gives me you know that that four earned runs in the fifth day. I'm good, I can survive. So Frankie Montes will go in game one for the Brewers there. Game two. I believe it's Tobias Myers, if I'm not mistaken. I believe we're going to see Tobias Myers in that one and then game three of the series there against that Rockies team, we're going to see Freddy Peralta. Not sure who's going to be pitching for the Rockies game two or three, yet we will wait and see. On that one, we know Fettner's going game one, not sure about the other two as of right now.
Speaker 1:There, the Rockies heading into this series, they're 52-89 on the season. They've struggled I mean we know this the Rockies have ever since about 2018 when the Brewers beat them in the playoffs. It seems like the Rockies have slowly but surely gone downhill there. Chris Bryant went out there. I mean he hasn't been impressive in a long time. There, the Rockies coming off of a series with the Atlanta Braves where they won one of three games in that series. As of right now, just looking at the Rockies in their last 10 games, they are 4-6 in their last 10 games. Not much to really write home about. They're negative 215 in the run differential right now, runs allowed, two runs scored. There. They've allowed 811 runs. Now it doesn't help playing at Coors Field. You're going to give up a couple more long balls here and there and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But this Rockies team definitely the Brewers need to find a way. I mean definitely need to win this series, definitely need to win this series here. Get right before you have to play Giants and then you have that big three-series stretch there with the Diamondbacks, the Phillies and the Diamondbacks. Again, these are two series here with the Rockies and Giants. So you've got to win some games here to give yourself that little bit of a lead there. Because as of right now, the Cubs are sitting nine games back of the Brewers for first place Brewers. I mean nine games up. You're still looking good. You're definitely looking good.
Speaker 1:I would love to see that after this weekend be at like 10 games, 10 or 11 games. I'm feeling comfortable, I'm feeling solid, like that's where you want to be, that's where you want to be heading into the home stretch. You're in the home stretch but you're getting midway through, right. Getting midway through that home stretch. I want to see the Brewers at that 10 game lead into that 11 game lead. That'd be awesome. That'd be awesome. Now is that going to happen? I don't know, I'm still good with it if it doesn't. But I'm just saying for me I feel comfortable 10, 11 game lead there. You're sitting solid, you're definitely sitting solid there. So Brewers Rockies big weekend series coming up here for the Brew crew Got to get right, got to make things happen here. It was, I mean, like I said, it was a tough series versus the Cardinals.
Speaker 1:I saw a lot of people over social media kind of it's like what I do, I like to overreact. You guys know that. You know you got to overreact sometimes and people were kind of overreacting to that series. You know the Brewers can't score runs, the Brewers can't do this, they can't do that. And it's like, and you know we shouldn't have sent Hudson down, we should have kept Hudson up this and that. And it's like I get it right, I, I I'm the first to say I am not a fan of Hobie Milner right now.
Speaker 1:If he gets a playoff roster spot over, let's just say DL Hall or Aaron Ashby, as good as those two have been coming out of the bullpen that'll piss me off. I'll be honest with you. That'll piss me off. That'll drive me up a wall, paguero, I believe when Bryce Wilson comes back, I don't see Paguero sticking around in that bullpen, unless if somebody else goes down with an injury. Then I can see things changing. But with Bryce Wilson he's going to come back. I could see him getting sent back down with options. Parades would be a guy that I would tinker with bringing back up. Like, I'll be honest with you, when he went down I thought the Brewers lost a good one with parades. Now he's down in AAA. He's been working his way back slowly, slowly but surely. Hopefully I mean hopefully everything's going right with him down there. Everything's still feeling good and we can get Paredes back in there, because that is a solid arm to have out of the bullpen too and a deadly arm at times.
Speaker 1:Right, we watched him. I mean he had right around a one ERA he wasn't giving up many hits and went down with an injury. It seemed like the Brewer at that time. It was like the Brewer thing was like guys pitching well and then going down with injury. Rob Zastrinsky, right Another guy who was pitching very well for the Brewers goes down with an injury and then we lose him too. I mean it's just, it was like a Brewer thing for a while there and now we get I mean I mean finally, like we knew in the past, like what has happened, we get down Williams back, mcgill goes down, mcgill comes back. Now you have, you know, some pieces back there. You get Jared Caning back after injury. Brian Hudson's been solid for you, so you're slowly starting to put this bullpen back together. I just want to see it with all the pieces that have gotten us to his point. Right Parades back there.
Speaker 1:Bryce Wilson at the front end of that bullpen too, the little tinker, I mean Pajams, has looked better for me too. Y'all Pajams, from what he started out this season as, and a lot of people calling for him to be released or sent down, whatever you want to do with him, to where he's at now. I, you know I'm not throwing pie umps in in like a McGill spot or where we'd usually see Brian Hudson, but what I can, I can confidently say if I want, if I need a, a 10th inning guy and I've already exhausted the rest of my bullpen I am feeling comfortable with pie umps to be able to throw them out there and make things happen. Now he's had his own problems, right he's. He's given up a walk off. You know he's had his own problems, but I definitely had. I felt more comfortable with Pions from what I saw early on to now. To be honest, let me completely honest Like I am feeling a lot more comfortable with him at this point there.
Speaker 1:So Brewers open up this weekend. Set with the Rockies leading the division by nine games. I'm hoping series win, if not a sweep. We're talking Monday about everything happy with the Brewers. That's what we want coming out of that series Everything happy, everything flowing right, good stuff there. So with that, let's get into the Badgers here.
Speaker 1:Let's get into the Badgers South Dakota. A little bit of a preview Talk about this South Dakota. A little bit of a preview talk about this South Dakota team. What, how they've been doing so far this season. So South Dakota 1-0 in the FCS. They opened up their season with Northern State.
Speaker 1:I can't say I've ever heard of Northern State. Where is Northern State? That's an interesting one. Where is Northern State? I'd ask my phone but it would get confused. It's in South Dakota. Well, that makes sense. That makes sense. They just had a little cross-state game there with Northern State there to open up, won that game. 45-3 was the final score in that one.
Speaker 1:What makes you nervous, I would say, about a South Dakota team, is that they're an FCS school, right? They got nothing to lose in this game, more to gain than they got to lose, right? So they're going to come out balls to the walls giving you everything they got right off the bat. And how does this Badger team come out? That's going to be a big thing there. How does this Badger team come out?
Speaker 1:So, looking at this South Dakota team, from that one game they played so far, quarterback for them, aiden Baumann not a lot of passing happening against Northern State. Not a lot of passing. Nine for 12 for 85 yards. He did not record a touchdown or an interception in that game. Charles Pierre Jr he had 13 carries for 136 yards. Travis Tease, running back, had 12 carries for 86 yards. Pierre went for two touchdowns, tease went for one touchdown and then Phillips, another running back for him, added one touchdown there. Nothing really to talk about in the wide receiver core because, like I said, not a whole lot of balls being thrown around in that game. I mean nine for 12, nine completed passes of the entire game, so not a whole lot to write a home about on that one looking at the defense for him there. Uh, gary bryant's linebacker's I mean the force in the middle of that defense, the force in the middle of that linebacker core and looks out in their first game, out he tackles for him there he looks good.
Speaker 1:They have a few pieces that I was keying in on there. They added some pieces in the transfer portal. I had it pulled up. They had a couple pieces that they added in there. One was cornerback, out of Michigan State, I believe. I believe he came out of Michigan State there they returned. I mean okay, so they got two safeties coming Returning, starting safeties Joshua Guns and Dennis Sh shorter, both coming back there, and then shahad barrows is also in that room, a couple of other pieces to talk about for them there. Oh, here we go, got it. I got it here.
Speaker 1:So they got a few pieces coming in from the FBS. We saw Marquee Lowry Jr coming in from Michigan State there, bradley McGowan, defensive lineman from Washington, carter Hooper from UConn. So they got some decent pieces in there. Some decent pieces they brought into this room, you know, looking at their last season, some of their all-conference players, some of the guys to watch out for on this team. Travis Tease just mentioned him in that running back room. There he was second team as a fullback Honorable mention as a running back. So he plays both positions for them there. They also had Joey Lombard, their offensive lineman, receive second team honors. Carter Bell, wide receiver, he receives second team honors there also.
Speaker 1:And those are some of the keys I have for this game for the Badgers. So number one for the Badgers here for keys for this one, I have the defensive line for Wisconsin in this one. The defensive line for Wisconsin needs to step up in this game and create pressure and clog the middle. Clog the middle in this one. Looking at that game against Western Michigan, they had, I believe, one sack on the entire game and it came. They had one sack in that entire game and it came late. From Elijah Hills it was like two minutes left in the fourth quarter. That I mean to me that's. That tells you that, yes, western Michigan had an experienced offensive line but Wisconsin was not doing a good job on getting into the backfield, disrupting Western Michigan and getting them all out of sorts. That should have been a game where the Badgers defensive front because I mean James Thompson Jr Got injured for Wisconsin early on defensive lineman got injured and I expected him to have a big season for the Badgers.
Speaker 1:When he got injured, I did start to question. I did start to question you know, what is this Badger team going to be able to do to replace him up the middle at the defensive line spot? And I kept circling back to, okay, barton Neal, they're going to be solid, we're going to be able to find a way. Right, wisconsin seems to find a way. That first game out, I was not impressed by the defensive line.
Speaker 1:So in this game Wisconsin's defensive line needs to step up, disrupt plays, slow down that rushing attack from South Dakota, because they're going to try to set the tone. I mean, that's what you have to do If you are a mid-major team, an FCS school playing in Camp Randall against the Badgers. You need to set the tone early. You need to let the Badgers know like, hey, our playbook's wide open, Like we're running it all against you. We're running the ball, we're going to set the tone on the ground, we're going to punch you in the mouth and then we're going to go for, you know, deep hitters, whatever we have to do, but this South Dakota team, as we saw last season from them and what we've seen this season. They want to run the football, they want to pound it down your throat. They're like a Wisconsin team from the past. That's what they want to do. They want to get out, they want to run. So the big thing for me defensive line slowing that down, disrupting that, causing traffic, causing chaos in that backfield and not letting South Dakota get into a rhythm in this one.
Speaker 1:Looking at Wisconsin's offense and I mean I've had a lot to say about the offense what I need to see out of Wisconsin's offense is the big play, right? I'm not asking for the Badgers to constantly be trying to chuck the ball down the field, like we're playing Madden 25 right now and we're playing against our buddy and we're just airing it out, like I don't want to see the Badgers just come out and just start slinging the ball around like they're crazy, right. What I want to see in this game and what I talked about, you know, yesterday on the show, was when you think about the air raid offense or whatever the heck. This is a hybrid or whatever you want to call this offense. I don't know what it is. And then, from everything that I've heard, listening to radio shows and other podcasts and everything like that. Nobody knows what this offense is. I don't even know if Phil Longo knows what the offense is called, but when I look at this team, I say what's missing? Right, you have two good backs Chesma, lucy, tyree Walker. Are they Jonathan Taylors or Melvin Gordons or John Clays? No, no, they're not Ron Dane out there running around, but they're two solid backs who get the job done.
Speaker 1:What the Badgers are missing is somebody to exploit the defense, extend the field right and in the play calling in, scheming it up. They're missing that big play. Can they hit a big play in this game, multiple big plays? Can they blow the top off of this defense a couple of times and add some respect there deep down the field? Because if you can't against a South Dakota team, how are you going to do it against Alabama? Because if Alabama, if, if DeBoer and Alabama sniff that all you can do is run the football straight ahead and all you can do is stroll little short routes because you don't want to stand in the pocket or you don't want to let a play develop. Well, I'm going to tell you this now Alabama's defense is going to look very good in that game.
Speaker 1:So I got to see in this game Wisconsin able to make a big play happen. Drive the ball down the field, work all three levels, don't just? We're not dipping and dunking here, right? If I don't know what kind of offense you're running if all that, the only play that you are running outside of a run play or a rpo, is a dip and a dunk, right, that's all we're doing is dipping and dunking. Slow, methodical offense. That's what we saw against Western Michigan. It was methodical. It was like we're going to try and dump it off three times and try and get a first down and when we can't, we're going to punt it away and pray our defense can hold again. I have faith that the defense is going to be able to hold against South Dakota. I have faith in that. I'm not saying that defense can't hold their own against South Dakota, but I got to see something on this offense that we did not see in week one, and that is the big play. I want to see the big play against them.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I'm looking for in this game don't play down to South Dakota. This is a team in FCS school that, at the end of the day, should not be as good as what you are If you want to compete in the Big Ten, if you want to compete in these big games. This South Dakota team should not look good against you. You should look fantastic against them, and if you're not fantastic, that's fine. I'm not asking for the Badgers to blow them completely. Would it be great to see them blow them completely out of the water? Yes, sir, it would. I'm not asking for the Badgers to blow them completely. Would it be great to see them blow them completely out of the water? Yes, sir, it would. I'm not asking for that, but what I'm saying is I don't want South Dakota to walk into Camp Randall and, even for 10 minutes, believe that they have a shot. I don't want to see that. I want to see the Badgers set the tone early in this game and say we're the better team, we run this place, you got it. I mean, you're going to have to do a heck of a lot better to beat us here and then just completely run the table in this game. I want to see that. I want to see that out of this Badger team in this game, because it's going to make me feel a heck of a lot more comfortable moving forward here with this Badger team. So I mentioned Alabama there. I mentioned Alabama in that game. You know Alabama, lincoln, licking their chops. If the Badgers cannot get this offense going right, the Badgers cannot, cannot get caught looking ahead. If the Badgers get caught looking ahead, if they're sitting there in the locker room at home whatever it is right now and they're sitting there thinking, well, we got this game against South Dakota, we should easily win this game. We got to worry about Alabama. You can't do that. Yes, I know Alabama's coming to town. Yes, I know for a fact that that is 100% the bigger matchup. But you cannot cannot get caught sleeping in this game because they might be an FCS school, they might not have the same talent that you have, but this team could beat you if you get caught sleeping, if you play down to their talent level, if you play down to their level, they can definitely beat you in this game. They can definitely beat you in this game If you get beat by South Dakota on your home turf in Camp Randall. Man, I mean I've heard, I've already heard, I have honestly seen around social media people. It's like the fire guard train, right, everybody's in the fire guard. I've seen people saying they don't trust in Luke Fickle anymore, they don't trust in this regime, they don't trust Phil Longo and Trestle to get the job done in Madison. If they lose this game to South Dakota, that's going to go up a little bit. There might be some people who are sitting there thinking to themselves well, you know, end of the day and I thought about this too and I'm going to be honest with you, I am not anywhere near against Luke Fickle. I think he's a good coach, I really do. I think he has a way to run a program. I think he can make this Badger team back to a successful team. But if this continues, with this downhill spiral trend that we've seen with the Badgers and their offense and everything like that, if this continues, what tells you that I mean Luke Fickle and company are better than what we had already right With Paul Crist, with Jim Leonard? What tells you that this regime is better than that regime? If you can't win these games, if you can't find ways to just take care of your business, right? And that's like I said, I'm not saying that I don't believe in Luke Fickle, I'm not saying that I don't believe in this, but what I'm saying is that this is what's crossing a lot of people and a lot of people's minds is that Paul Chris could get you wins over Mac schools, he could get you wins over FCS teams, he could get you to eight wins If Luke Fickle in these first I mean I'm not saying it has to be this season, but in his first three or four years if Luke Fickle cannot get you over that hump three or four years, if Luke Fickle cannot get you over that hump, over that lump right there, I mean, at the end of the day, what could have happened if you would have just left Paul Chris and Jim Leonard running the show and they won you eight games a season? I mean, I've seen a lot of people who have been saying well, you know what's really the difference between what we're seeing now and what we saw before if, at the end of the day, we took care of the bad teams and we lost to the good teams, because that's what Paul Chris did, I mean honestly, he lost the big games right to Ohio State, but he beat everybody else, he beat the bad teams. So this game right here though it does not completely decide or anything for what I feel about Luke Fickle and company. It definitely speaks volumes to a lot of Badger fans out there, because Badger fans want to see this Badger team look like the air raid high, flying, high tempo. I mean better team than what we had before a football team walking into Camp Randall. They want to see that team. I want to see that team in this game. I want to see the Badgers step up big and take care of business against South Dakota. Don't get caught sleeping looking ahead to Alabama. Don't get caught thinking that I mean, you're the better team, you don't need to come out firing. The Badgers need to come out firing in this game here. They need to win in the trenches on both sides of the ball and they need to. I mean, like I said, come out firing, do their thing and don't get caught off guard. Come into this game with a fire, some kind of fire that shows everyone that you are the better team, that you have that fire in you, because you've got to come out with that fire against Alabama. You need to come out with everything you've got against South Dakota here to set the tone. Set the tone early, make things happen and, last but not least, when they get into the red zone score. They had troubles in the red zone against Western Michigan. When they get in the red zone against South Dakota, put the ball in the end zone. I'm not saying that you feel goals don't win games too, but I mean I want to see this Badger team get into the red zone, scheme up some plays, right, have some solid play calling, put the ball in the end zone and walk away with seven points. That would be great, that'd be great. So South Dakota, wisconsin coming up this weekend here should be I mean should be a game where the badgers show us, show everybody, we're not to mess with, we're still good, watch out for us, set the tone here and then get ready for alabama, because after that you got usc. So these are a couple this game here. You got to take care of your business, you got to look, you got to get everything going in the right direction before you have Big Red Machine in Alabama coming to town next week there. So 2.30 start for the Badgers coming up here on FS1, for that game against South Dakota Should be a good one there. Outside of the Badgers coming up this weekend here, we're going to see number three, texas, taking on Michigan. I'm going to say Texas is going to win that game. The spread right now is at negative 7.5. I think Texas is going to win this one in a blowout. I really do. I think Michigan is going to be able to hang with them for a little bit. I just don't think, offensively, michigan can hang with Texas. I think their defense can for a little bit, but I think they're going to get tired. And when they get tired that's when I think we're going to see Texas take over. Texas wins that game there. Not a whole lot of big matchups coming up Penn State taking on Bowling Green, oklahoma State and Arkansas, kansas State and Tulane, georgia Tech and Syracuse. Not a lot of big matchups coming up this weekend here. I believe there was one of the ranked matchup, tennessee versus NC State. That's going to be the night game on ABC. I think I'm going to give Tennessee the win in that one. It's in Charlotte. I'm going to give Tennessee the win, but I would love to see NC State pull off the win. That's the Duke's Mayo Classic. There we have the trophy for that too, the Duke's Mayo Bowl. I think Grant Mertz broke that. I'm pretty sure he broke that trophy there. But I mean good weekend of college football. It's the first couple of weeks. There's no massive matchups yet before we get into week three, because week three we're going to see a few more ranked matchups. We've got the Badgers in Alabama. There's going to be some good hopefully good with the Badgers in Alabama, but some good matchups coming up in week three there. So that is some of your week two slate games there for college football. So with that let's get over into the Packers. So with that let's get over into the Packers. Packers-eagles squaring off. Second game of the NFL slate right, kansas City and Baltimore opened it up. We're going to see this Packers-Eagles game kick off at 7.15 is supposed to be the start time for that one. They're on Peacock and Sao Paulo. For that one they have the Eagles negative two right now with the spread. So ESPN bet right now likes the Eagles in that one there. So let's look at some of the keys for this game. My first key to the game is going to be and it's a simple one, it's real simple. I'm not going to confuse anybody, I hope, with this one. My first one is slow down Saquon Barkley. They are going to, I believe, lean on Saquon a lot this season to try and open up defenses and for the Packers to win this game it's going to be heavily reliant on. Can we slow down Saquon Barkley? The run defense for Green Bay struggled a little bit last season, struggled a little bit in the preseason. I want to see this defense for Green Bay in the trenches there up front Devontae Wyatt, kenny Clark on the outside there with Gary and even guys like Lucas Van Ness stepping up in there, clay Walker in that linebacker, core McDuffie you know guys like that. I want to see them stepping up big for this Packer team there on the defensive front trying to control TJ Slayton's. Another guy to watch out for there Kingsley Aginbar. I really do think I expect good things out of Kingsley Aginbar and Carl Brooks. I thought you know Slayton Brooks Aginbar. I want to see them guys take huge step forwards this season. I think in this game they're going to be needed. You know, you never know with injuries and everything like that. Knock on wood, right, you don't want to see injuries, but these guys are going to be leaned on in this game here to try and help slow down Saquon Barkley. Can they do it? That's the big thing. Can they do it. Can they slow down Saquon Barkley in this game? Saquon, you look at last season there 962 yards on 247 carries. He had six touchdowns Solid year. Saquon. You look at last season there 962 yards on 247 carries. He had six touchdowns Solid year for him there. Season before that he had 1,300 yards. Before that, I mean he had injury-riddled seasons there, but in his healthy seasons he's a 1,000-yard rusher, right around 1,000 yards. So slowing down Saquon Barkley will be big for Green Bay. Force the Eagles to throw the ball. Force the Eagles to throw the ball, excuse me there To throw the ball in this game. And when you force them to throw the ball in this game, that leads me into another thing here and that's putting pressure on Jalen Hurts. A big thing that we saw last season there with Jalen Hurts was in that last game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were able to put pressure on Jalen Hurts. He was under pressure in less than 2.5 seconds 13 times in that game and that led to a lot of problems with Jalen Hurts and the offense for the Eagles. They couldn't get anything going. They were struggling all season anyways, right, or at least the second half of the season they were struggling. You add that pressure to that in this. In that playoff game, jalen Hurts the offense struggled. I'm not saying the Packers have to do it 13 times where they put him under pressure within 2.5 seconds, but the Packers need to find a way to put pressure on Jalen Hurts, make him anxious in that pocket, make him have to make some questionable throws, and then let your cornerbacks do the rest, let your safeties do the rest in this game. That will be a big thing for me is how this Packers pass rush means, or what this Packers pass rush does against this Eagles O-line. No Jason Kelsey in there. They still have good pieces in there. How does this Packers pass rush look in this game? Because it's still going to be a good offensive line there for the Eagles and, like I was talking about with those guys before there, this is the game where they got to step up, put pressure in there. He's got plenty of weapons. He's got plenty of weapons in there. But if you can disrupt them in that backfield, make them have to make them air and throw the questionable throws, throw the ball away, slow this Eagles team down, make them have to slowly work their way down the field instead of just being able to boom, boom, boom, punch their way because you can't put pressure on them. Put pressure on them make them have to make quick decisions there in that pocket. So that's a big thing that I'm looking at there is putting pressure on Jalen Hurts in this game. I mean that goes along with my other key, which was winning in the trenches. So the Packers interior offensive line going up against this Eagles defensive front no Fletcher Cox in there, but Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter will both be in there. They're going to be taking on some bigger roles this season, especially with no Fletcher Cox, elton Jenkins, josh Myers probably going to see. I don't know if we're going to see Jordan Morgan or Sean Ryan start in that right guard position. I would expect we're probably going to see them both, maybe a little bit more of one than the other. But how does this offensive front for Green Bay on the interior, how do they match up on those defensive tackles for the Eagles in this one? Because Jordan Davis, jalen Carter I was impressed with Jalen Carter last season there a little bit. I think he's going to take another step forward for the Eagles this season. How does Jordan Morgan if Jordan Morgan gets in there right as a rookie going up against a very talented defensive tackle there in Jalen Carter or if it's Jordan Davis that lines up on that side, I'm guessing it's going to be Jalen Carter how does he stack up? How does he stack up against a very good defensive tackle or two pretty good defensive tackles there for the Eagles there? So that's something that I'm watching there winning in the trenches in this one, and that doesn't exclude the tackles right, I'm not excluding tackles, but I think it's going to be one up the middle there. I mean that's a big thing for me with Josh Jacobs too, with that interior line, being able to control those D tackles for the Eagles, opening up holes for Josh Jacobs to run through. That is only going to benefit, right. You can't. It's not going to really hurt, right. It's only going to benefit Jordan Love and the receivers to. I mean, if you can exploit the middle with the run game, you're going to be able to exploit on the outside there with some of these weapons Green Bay has in that receiver room. So that's something I'm definitely keying in on in that. One Another guy I'm keying in on is Eric Stokes, out there at cornerback. Now we haven't seen much of it out of Eric Stokes right. It's actually his first healthy start since week nine of the 2022 season. So it's been a while. It's been a while there. Eric Stokes is going to be matching up on the opposite side of Jair Alexander. I don't know if Alexander is going to, if Halfley is going to have him stacked up on Brown, if that's going to be the plan, if he's going to be on Brown, and then we're going to see Eric Stokes having to match up with Devontae Smith. So, in that sense, how does Eric Stokes match up with either one? How is he going to match up with either one in this game? Because, did you know, he's been injury riddled. Are those injuries going to impact the speed that he had coming out of the draft, because that was a big thing for green bay? Was the speed eric stokes possess? Is the speed still there? That's, I mean he's going to have a lot of questions going around him this season here because he's looking for a second contract. Does Eric Stokes? Can he step up in a game like this against two talented they have a talented receiver core. Can he step up in this game and come up big for Green Bay? Because they need to be big in that. I mean, you're talking about controlling the trenches, you're talking about controlling Saquon. You got to be able to slow down this receiving core for the Eagles to not letting anybody get over you, not letting the big hitters happen, because the big hitters are what's going to kill you in this game against Eagles. Something that, like I said, you got to make this Eagles team try to move the ball methodically. You can't let them get those big hitters and go boom, boom, boom down the field. Now we're in a deficit. You got to be able to control those guys out there on the edge. Another thing I'm looking at in this game how do both teams come out in this one right? Are they going to come out guns, a blazing right, or is it going to be a slow game to start? How does this game start out for both teams in this one? That's going to be a question. I got that question actually dialed up. Tomorrow we're hopefully going to get into a pregame show there with Aaron from Brutaliana Sports. There Eagles fan everything like that. Hopefully we're going to have a pregame show coming up tomorrow on Facebook, on the webpage. So make sure, if you're around, make sure you're tuning in to that because we're going to get you prepared for that game there. But I want to see how both teams come out in this game. I want to see how the Packers offense comes out in this game and see if Jordan Love continues to be that rising star that we saw last season Down the stretch there. He looked like that dude. Right, he looked like that dude. Can he be that same guy moving forward here for the Green Bay Packers? I don't think he's going to take a step back. I don't. I don't think he's going to take a step back, but can he continue to rise, right? Because right now you look at a lot of quarterback ranking lists and everything like that, he's in that tier. They have their superstar right With Patrick Mullins and you put probably Lamar in that same category. Can he get to that category with those guys at some point? I want to see him continue to trend up and if the Packers are going to be successful in this game, jordan Love needs to be good. Jordan Love needs to look like that guy we saw down the stretch there. So both teams coming out of the gates flying in this game. I want to see Jordan Love come out of the game flying in this offense, looking good there. According to the injury report and this is going to help out Josh Jacobs a lot in the Packers run game, according to the injury report, devin White has been ruled out of the game, so losing a I mean one of the big linebackers that they brought in there to help fortify that linebacking core for the Eagles there, that rebuild defense that they had missing him in this game. That's going to hurt. That's going to hurt Josh Jacobs and his Packers team definitely need to exploit that in this game here. Looking at the injury report as a whole, also Rodgers is going to be out for this game. Cornerback for the Eagles there. I mean everybody else AJ Brown, landon Dickerson they were both full participation, good news for the Packers. Edrin Cooper and Romeo Dobbs were both full participation on Thursday and also Carrington Valentine was full participation there. So look for Carrington Valentine to get some big minutes in this game here for Carrington Valentine to get some big minutes in this game here. Emmanuel Wilson, marshawn Lloyd and Tucker Kraft were all limited participation at practice. I do expect them. I expect at least Emmanuel Wilson and Tucker Kraft to be out there. We don't know with Lloyd yet with that hamstring injury, but we will see. Hopefully Packers are fully healthy at that running back position going into this one here outside of AJ Dillon. They are ready to go there. The injury report looks good right now. I talked about it the other day. The injury report looks good for the Packers heading into this one. All in all, this is going to be. I mean, I could honestly this could be an NFC Championship game preview right here. This could be an NFC Championship game preview. It's hard to I've seen a lot of people say that same thing. It's hard to completely say that just simply because it's week one know there's gonna be bumps, there's gonna be bruises, there's gonna be. You know guys not fully ready to go. You know you have all them issues when saying that it's going to be a preview. Right, it's going to be a preview. So I expect a good game here. I really do. I think both teams are going to go through their lumps in this game. At the end of it, though, if the Packers come out of this with a loss and it's a close loss I'm not concerned If the Eagles run them out of the building, if they're running the football all over again. It looks like the 49ers did with Mozart that year. If it looks like that, then I got issues, then I got issues. But if it's a close game, a gunslinging battle, if it's a low scoring affair, I'm good with that. At the end of the day, if the Packers lose, I think the Packers are going to win this game. I mean, I do, I'm optimistic. I think the Packers are going to win this game. I think it's going to. It's a 24-21 game and the Packers ended up losing that game. I would not be Unless if they had a wide open guy late in the game and they missed the throw or something. Okay, then maybe I get upset. Outside of that, I think there isn't much that could come out of this except for a blowout where I am completely like Whoa, whoa, whoa hit the stop button. We need to reassess what we thought about the Green Bay Packers heading into this season here With that. That's about all I got. We got the Badgers coming up this weekend 2.30 start on Saturday. We got the Packers coming up tonight here 7.15 start for that one. We got the Brewers coming up tonight here 5.10 start for that one. We got the brewers coming up tonight here 5, 10 start for that one man, oh man, is a fantastic weekend because there is so much going on in the world of sports and I cannot wait. Got a great birthday present already birthday's coming up next tuesday. Got a great birthday present there the other day from the wife. She got me a green egg. I got a traeger already, but a green egg I get to go. I'm gonna, but a green egg, I get to go. I'm going to go outside and I'm going to. I'm going to smoke something. I don't know what I'm going to smoke to get prepared for this Packers game, but I am going to smoke something and it is going to be great. I'm going to tailgate in my backyard, I'm going to go to the living room, I'm going to sit in front of the 75 inch TV and I'm going for some Packer football. It is an exciting time of year here. So with that, like I always say, if you can go down like subscribe, review, rate the show, do whatever you got to do. Go down in the bio, click send us a text message. Go on there, send me a text message. It sends you to a link. You can send us direct fan mail. Let me know what you thought of the show. Any other segments that you liked didn't like everything like that. Definitely would love your feedback on that. But with that, this has been Wisconsin Sports. I'm the Go Witch Rage. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy this fantastic weekend. But until I talk to you guys again on Monday, deuces yeah, my lord, watch me sway.
Speaker 2:Darkness falls and we all hoping for the light of day Down to the river. I have held the devil's hand, felt the weight of my own sin, burdened by the heart of man Down to the river.