Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
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Wisconsin Sports on the go with Trag
Packers' Gritty Win Over Colts, Badgers' Tough Loss to Alabama, and Brewers' Playoff Tactics – Wisconsin Sports on the Go
What if a single game could pivot the fate of a season? Tune in as we dissect a thrilling weekend in Wisconsin sports, starting with the Green Bay Packers' gritty 16-10 victory over the Colts. Malik Willis steps into the spotlight with an effective debut, supported by a relentless running game and a standout defensive performance led by Valentine, Jair, Evan Williams, and McDuffie. From the offensive hiccups to special moments like Josh Myers’ unforgettable dedication, we pull no punches in our play-by-play analysis.
Next, we turn a critical eye on the Wisconsin Badgers' tough 42-10 loss to Alabama. Despite the scoreline, we identify glimmers of hope in their strong opening and highlight key plays that could have turned the tide. The early injury to Van Dyke and the subsequent challenges faced by backup quarterback Braden Locke are scrutinized. We dive deep into the Badgers' defensive shortcomings, ball security issues, and strategic missteps, while also acknowledging the offensive line's resilience against Alabama's formidable defensive front.
Our episode wraps up with a look at the Brewers' playoff aspirations and tactical maneuvers. As they prepare for crucial games against the Phillies, we evaluate their recent road trip, bullpen decisions, and offensive efforts. Whether you’re a die-hard Wisconsin sports fan or just love a good game-day breakdown, this episode promises insightful analysis, candid reflections, and a hopeful look towards future matchups.
how we doing everybody and welcome in to wisconsin sports. Time to go with trage. I'm your host, trage. We're gonna try something new. I haven't gone live very often. I'm gonna try to go live more often here on twitch, on twitter, gonna try to get the facebook a little bit there. But all in all, a great, a great weekend of wisconsin sports and not so much for the badgers, but packers played well, brewers watching them. Right now here they tied up in the ninth. Not a great uh end of this game for the brewers, but all in all, a good series out there on the west coast for the brewers. So I want to get into a little bit of everything today here. I want to start with the Badgers. Though the Badgers Alabama.
Speaker 1:It started out a lot better than what the end was. I mean a lot of people, and myself included, heading into this game. I was sitting there like this is not going to be much of a game. We knew this coming in. We tried to talk ourselves into it. We're like you know it's possible. We watched that LSU game a few years back there. Badgers pulled off the win there. We all remember back to 2010 when Ohio State came to Camp Randall and we felt like, you know, maybe, just maybe there's a one, maybe a 1% chance the Badgers somehow find a way here against Alabama. And well, not so much. 42 to 10 was the final in this game. Not a great game, but there were bits and pieces of it that I liked. There were bits and pieces of this game that I was like what could have changed, what could have gone differently, maybe to make this game look more respectable? Right now you're looking at this game 42 to 10. You're like Badgers were never in this game. Right, they were in this game. I mean end. Right now you're looking at this game 42-10. You're like Badgers were never in this game. Right, they were in this game. I mean end of first quarter. It's 7-3, right, that second quarter. There was a moment in that second quarter. Now I'm going to get more into this game here we're going to look at the box, we're going to look at everything coming out of here. But there was second half in this game and the Badgers will be trailing. Let's just say like 14-3 or even 14-10, right.
Speaker 1:At one point there the Badgers had the ball, they were driving down the field and a couple missed plays here and there Badgers couldn't capitalize, ended up. Alabama got the ball back after the missed field goal. They go down and score within like what 10 seconds. Seemed like it took like 10 seconds. They were in the end zone and now we're looking at double dipping. Then Badgers go down big and from there on it was a rout, right. So let's get into this one.
Speaker 1:Let's get into Badgers versus Alabama. Let's see what we thought of this one. So the Van Dyke injury early on in this game right, he had the leg injury. The Badgers were driving to start this game, got the ball first. You were like, okay, let's see what this Badger team can do against this defense and the Badgers right off the bat. I mean first down, nice run play there. And they slowly started to work this ball right. And then all of a sudden Van Dyke gets injured. He gets a good gain right Five yards there gets injured Braden Locke comes in, the drive halts right there.
Speaker 1:The drive halted right there. They end it in a field goal and there's the start of your game. So if it wasn't bad enough heading into the game where you were worried, now you're bringing in your backup quarterback who has zero time this season. Right, my big thing after watching the Western Michigan and South Dakota game. The problem was you know those games were close. That was the biggest problem, right. But another thing that I felt was I needed to see, like a Braden Locke come into one of those games, get some in-game reps, right, because you can have all the scrimmages in the world, you can have all the in-game. You know you can have the joint practices whatever you want. You can call it the NFL, the joint practices. You know you get these moments where it's not quite game level yet. So Braden Locke coming into this one, especially against a pretty good Alabama defense, it worries you. So Braden Locke comes in drive halts. There's your first kicker in this one. Not a good start to the game, right, van Dyke goes out there. The mistakes that happen in this game. So they had the turnover on downs on the second drive of the game.
Speaker 1:What killed me the most was not the fact that it was a turnover on downs. Yes, it was a killer, it was a backbreaker right there. Right, you had a fourth. It felt like a fourth and inches. It said fourth and one. It was a fourth and inches. You ran it out of the shotgun. I don't understand that that play call to me. I don't even know what it was. That was a terrible play call. It was terrible. Why are you setting up in the shotgun on fourth and one at midfield? You have the ability here to I mean, smash it right down the I mean QB, sneak right, put Braden Locke under center, have him fall forward right, it's a fourth and inches. It felt like, honestly, fourth in inches because where they lined up that ball, heck, the ball might have been over the first down marker when it got snapped. So why are you running out of the shotgun? That was my first issue with that whole thing. So the turnover on downs, that was terrible. That was terrible play calling. At this point I don't know if it's Phil Longo, I don't know if it's Luke Fickle telling Phil Longo what to do, but that was a terrible play call. Whoever called that play. So the turnover on downs was huge.
Speaker 1:Then you have the Chesma Lucy fumble. This one. I mean you just get started here. You're on your own seven. Your first play goes for two yards there. Then Malusi breaks one open right. 21 yards. Great run by malusi. And I mean more malachi. More is a great save. He's a great secondary guy for alabama breaks down, knocks the ball out, malusi fumbles it, recovered by alabama, results in a touchdown. Backbreaker, that was a backbreaker. Right. There you, you're sitting in a game, you're 7-3, right, you just forced Alabama to punt. So your defense did its job. They got off the field, forced Alabama to punt the ball away, gave your ball not great field position to start to drive, not by any means great field position to start to drive, but you have it. You get a big chunk play there from Malusi. Lose the.
Speaker 1:The ball fumbles were a continuous problem throughout this game for the Badgers. You look at that one fumble there, then the missed field goal that I just mentioned there earlier. Late in that first half, the fumble there ends up a quick touchdown for Alabama heading the other way. It's 10 seconds. It was like maybe 10 seconds, I don't know. I'd have to. I'd have to look at that drive as a whole. Oh, let's see. Right there, two plays, 17 seconds. Okay, 17 seconds. It took 17 seconds for Alabama to get past your secondary. Now, my biggest question with that secondary was it seemed like early on in this game the Badgers were doing the right thing. Right, you had to take away something from Alabama.
Speaker 1:The big chunk plays were the thing where that was going to be the back break, right, and it seemed like I mean Alabama in this game. I had a note they had five passes for 20 or more yards in this game. Three of those resulted in touchdowns. So five passes for over 20 yards, three touchdowns out of those drives, those are back breakers. You can't. If you're playing Alabama, the biggest thing that you have to, one thing that the Badgers can do, that Alabama can do the big chunk plays.
Speaker 1:You had to limit those chunk plays in this game. If, um, if you got beat by Jalen Milrow going underneath, if you got beat by him and you had guys in front of you, guys in the box able to help tackle, it was fine and dandy, right. You wanted Alabama. If Alabama was going to beat you, you wanted them to play slow, methodical, work, the ball down the field, not be able to break off those big plays, right, that was complete opposite, right, alabama was able to get the big chunk plays against Wisconsin. They opened up holes, they found ways to beat the Badgers in more than one way, right, but you wanted them to beat you.
Speaker 1:Slow, methodical, limited. You wanted the time possession to be cranked up there. You didn't want your defense to stay on the field but you didn't want to be off the field within seconds because you got beat in the secondary. So that was a big issue that I had was watching, seeing that, seeing that out, seeing that on defense was it wasn't even. You know you don't want to play a preventee, right, but you still. You can't let guys get over the top.
Speaker 1:I know Alabama's got really athletic wide receivers right. They have some very good wide receivers out there and you're going one-on-one with them. You don't have safety help at time over the top and when you do have safety help, some for some reason they're playing a bubble zone that's below the deepest guy. So, issue upon issues there in the secondary for the badgers. That's something that I think trestle's got to clean up here in the weeks moving forward, because alabama exposed things with wisconsin and that secondary in this game that I believe penn state will be able to capitalize on. O Oregon's going to want to do it, rayola and Nebraska Nebraska's finding their groove now, so you got to watch out for them. And USC loves to sling the ball around. That's what the Badgers have going up next. They love to sling the ball around a little bit.
Speaker 1:You got to be watching for those big plays. So the big plays were definitely backbreakers in this game for Wisconsin. I mean, like I said, fumbles, turnovers. We talked about it in the pre, in the pregame show, in the preview for the weekend show. There Turnovers were going to be backbreakers. They were going to be those ones where you could not afford to turn the ball over against Alabama. I mean, that's plain, plain and simple. You could not afford to turn the ball over against Alabama In this game. You had four fumbles. Two of them came from Braden Locke, one from Malusi and one from Cade Giacomelli. Now you did recover the two from Braden Locke, so it wasn't like those were the end of the world, but protecting the football. One of those I remember he got smoked in the backfield, he got blindsided and those happen. I'm not going to say those don't happen, but the one by Malusi, the one by Gaka Mele, both of those led to touchdowns. Not good news. Not good news.
Speaker 1:The turnover battle. You could not afford in a game like this to turn the ball over and the Badgers did and that set up good field position for Alabama. It killed momentum, any kind of momentum that the Badgers actually had in this game. It killed that, squashed that right off the board. So Wisconsin loses the turnover battle. That's something that it couldn't happen if you wanted to make this thing look close.
Speaker 1:And well, we saw the outside of that. The offensive line for Wisconsin. I thought they played well in this game. I really did. I thought the offensive line over the past couple of weeks I haven't seen what I've wanted to see out of the offensive line for the Badgers and heading into this one, just from knowing and kind of seeing what I did against South Dakota and Western Michigan, I went into this game and I was like that defensive front for Alabama they're going to feast Like you're. It's going to be hard for Malusi or Walker or anybody else, katie Akamele or I mean anybody coming out of that backfield to find a hole to make anything happen. And I honestly thought that the offensive line did their job. They played well against this defensive front for Alabama. They opened up holes for the run game. They held their own in the pass game.
Speaker 1:I thought at times Braden Locke actually held onto the ball too long, if that's the thing right. For me, it seemed like he held onto the ball too long. You, if that, if that's the right. For me it seemed like he held onto the ball too long. You gotta. You know you have that split second to make. Your offensive line can only hold for so long, right, it's not like it's it's a. It's not like it's a wall, right, they, they're going to hold for so long. And then you got to make a decision.
Speaker 1:I thought Braden Locke at times was shaky making those decisions. He wasn't quick with it. Right, either you got to find somebody or you got to bail out of there or you got to throw the ball away. You have options right there. But you got to be quick with it. You got to make quick reads. You got to do that.
Speaker 1:Now, that could be a lot, like I said, with Braden Locke getting little to no in-game reps right. Going back to last year, I mean you look at Brad, he's been tossed in. Now Tanner Mordecai gets hurt, van Dyke gets hurt, brayden Locke gets entered in mid-game, whatever it is, he's got to try and figure it out from there on. Getting thrown in against Alabama, that's a different kind of animal. So, right away, him trying to adjust into this game definitely slowed down Wisconsin. It wasn't like they were moving the ball at will. Right, I'm not out here saying that Wisconsin was just flying down the field, but Braden Locke, there was some momentum there.
Speaker 1:Braden Locke comes in and it's like the timing wasn't there, he wasn't in rhythm, he wasn't seeing it right away and it just all halted. It just all halted early. I thought he found his groove. It took a while, but he found somewhat of a groove there, and once he did, it wasn't as bad. But the badgers were already. It was falling behind so fast they couldn't keep up and it was just a disaster. So that was a struggle.
Speaker 1:That was a struggle, but the offensive line as a whole, for me, I I was impressed. I was impressed by the offensive line against a very good defensive front who I mean alabama was throwing different schemes, different. They were putting pressure in there. They were blitzing up the wazoo against Wisconsin. They were putting pressure on Locke in this game. They were throwing different schemes and pressures in there and the offensive line held their own. So I loved what I saw out of Wisconsin's offensive line in this game. Yes, there were some pressures, yes, there were some hurries. Like I said, though, I really think that part of that situation was Braden Locke holding onto the football too long for me. For me it was Braden Locke holding onto the football too long, so there was my offensive line wrap up there.
Speaker 1:Well, in the first I mean first quarter, they had some moments throughout this game where the defense did play well. You know. They got themselves off the field a couple times. They set up the offense with some decent, some decent, decent field position, decent situations. They forced Alabama to punt a couple times there in that first half. I mean, you look at them right away. They kicked a field goal, then miss field goal by Alabama. So you're like, okay, here we go. And then came the turnover on down. So you had the momentum, you're up 3-0. It's not a big lead by any means, but you get the ball back. Your defense creates a stop, gets Alabama to kick a field goal. They end up missing it. You start your drive, you turn the ball over, turnover. Start your drive, you turn the ball over, turn over on down. Then you give up. Alabama goes down, scores a touchdown 7-3. But then you punted away. The defense forces Alabama to punt it right back to you. But what happens? What happens right after that? A fumble by Wisconsin which leads to a touchdown by Alabama.
Speaker 1:The defense held its own for a little bit in this game, and in those moments the offense could not find a way to sustain drives, to be able to put something together and be able to put points up on the board. In this game, I thought Will Pauling for me. Will Pauling had a good day for Wisconsin Looking at his stat line coming out of this one. He had nine catches, 83 yards, one touchdown. He actually, I thought Will Pauling, and he actually impressed me in this game created some pretty good separation from a very good secondary, a young but good secondary for Alabama. Will Pauling was able to make separation, he was able to make things happen and I was ultimately impressed by Will Pauling in this game. He had one. It was on that drive, with the missed field goal, that he was just overshot by maybe a foot, and otherwise that's a touchdown.
Speaker 1:We might be talking about a different first half for Wisconsin. Instead, quick turnaround, alabama goes down and scores, and the route was on. So Will Pauling to me, good day for Will Pauling there. All in all, though, I mean the biggest backbreaker to me in this game, because there was, I mean 42 to 10, there's not a lot of good that happened. But the biggest backbreaker for me in this game was Alabama end of the first half, being able to punch it in the end zone and then coming out in the second half touchdown, right. You had basically boom, boom. You were down big time. Then 28 to 3. At that point the route was on, it was over, right, you were not scoring at will, you couldn't find a way to drive. It was over at that point and the badgers did get it 28 to 10. So at that point you were like, okay, maybe we can make this game look respectable. Downhill slope, downhill slope in that one. So let's look at the box. Let's check out the box for this game, see who played well, who didn't play well for wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So braden lock he goes 13 for 26, 125 yards and a touchdown did it for the most part, a decent job coming in there for Tyler Van Dyke. The crappy part is Van Dyke was 5-for-5 with I'm getting Brewer updates as we go here, I'm getting Brewer updates. They're playing well right now. They got the lead there in extra innings. But Tyler Van Dyke he was 5-for-5, 16 yards through the air. Not a great. A good start, like I said. Like Tyler Van Dyke came out, he looked good to start. You were sitting there like, okay, here we go, here we go, we might be able to sustain a first drive and then, bam gone. So Van Dyke has a decent day before getting injured. Brayden Locke, he has a okay day, not a great day, but an okay day.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to tell you right now that Brayden Locke played the greatest days ever, but what I can say is that Brayden Locke, he's not terrible. You know, I I saw a lot of people there you know Brayden Locke, this Brayden Locke, that he's not. He's not good at all, blah, blah. It's like I. I truthfully don't think that the Brayden Locke story is done. I think he's a good quarterback. I just think he got tossed into a situation where it was. We haven't seen this guy get any in-game reps yet he's getting thrown against one of the better defenses in college football, a powerhouse in Alabama. The pressure is all there, right, and yes, you can say, well, the greatest quarterbacks don't feel the pressure. He's not the greatest quarterback, right, he's a quarterback at Wisconsin. When was the last time we had one of the greatest quarterbacks at Wisconsin? I'll wait.
Speaker 1:He came in in a tough spot and tried and I mean had to try and figure it out and you would want him to be more ready to go. I get that. But maybe, just maybe, I don't know the Tyler Van Dyke complete, like when he's going to be back, anything like that. But Brayden Locke comes in. If, if this game, if he can slowly get more in-game reps as we go you know this next week coming up at USC, he gets. You know, he knows he's a starter, he's getting the reps with the ones during practice. He goes out there against USC, shows us a decent game and then he just progresses as the season goes on. You feel better right now. If it's the flip side, he comes out against usc and it's just a complete dumpster fire. Okay, now we're like, yeah, we might need to go back and go to the third string. Now we might have to drop it even farther here and go to the freshmen. But as of right now, I'm not sitting here telling you that braden lock needs to be gone, like we got. It's gonna take a minute. Maybe he finds himself. We'll wait and see that.
Speaker 1:So, looking at the running back room Malusi 11 carries for 66 yards. Not a bad day for Malusi there. He had that big run but it ended in a fumble. Cade Iacomele 8 carries for 39 yards. Tyree Walker 11 carries for 26 yards.
Speaker 1:Tyree Walker sometimes when I watch him and I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes when I watch him it's like he has trouble navigating. His vision isn't as good as what you would hope because he has trouble finding. You know, the offensive line will open up a hole here or a hole there, and it's like he has trouble finding the hole right. That's basically all I can say there. He's got trouble finding the hole. I was trying to avoid that, but he's got trouble finding the hole right. That's basically all I can say there. He's got trouble finding the hole. I was trying to avoid that, but he's got trouble finding the hole at times, it seems like. So. Tyree Walker he goes for 11. 11 carries for 26 yards. Dupree got in there a little bit 8 carries for 24 yards. Good to see.
Speaker 1:These are some promising backs that the Badgers have coming in. I thought Dupree is going to have a good career at Wisconsin, so I can't wait to see what he starts to do there. Brayden Locke bad day rush in the football. Two carries for negative 15 yards. I'm just kidding, that's not, he just was scrambling. But not a good stat line to have there, not a good stat line right Outside of Pauling. I mentioned Pauling before Vinny Anthony goes for two. He has two catches for 29 yards and then Bryson Green with one catch for 12 yards there. Malusi had four catches for 12 yards out of the backfield there. So there was not a lot going on either side for offense yards wise.
Speaker 1:In this one I thought Leon Lowry stepped up big for the Badgers on defense. Five tackles, four solo. He had a sack in this one. He had a tackle for a loss in this one. I liked what I saw out of Leon Lowry in this one. Aaron Witt played a good a loss in this one. I liked what I saw out of Leon Lowry in this one. Aaron Witt played a good day for the Badgers there. Five tackles, four solo, two tackles for losses in this one. Solid day for him there. All in all the defense.
Speaker 1:I mean there were moments in this game where they looked decent. You know like we had questions about this defense After South Dakota, after Western Michigan. There was questions about the defense up front. There was questions about, you know, the linebacker core for the Badgers secondary, a little bit here and there. I thought you know for the most part in this one the Badgers didn't play bad on defense there. It wasn't bad right, it wasn't like they were complete run stoppers. You know the past game they were like blanketing this entire team. It's not like we saw that, but from what I saw week one and two, what I saw against Alabama, if that's what we have moving forward with slow growth in there, I think this Badger defense could be pretty good. I think they could be a good, respectable, a good, respectable defense down the stretch.
Speaker 1:So I liked what I saw out of the defense in this one, outside of the big plays, outside of allowing the big plays, I thought I, I really did think Wisconsin did well. You know, looking at the run game for Alabama in this one 181 yards on the ground, not great to be giving that up. Jalen Millrell ran all over him. I honestly, you know the one thing, the one thing that I looked at and I said, why didn't Wisconsin do this? Was put a QB spy right. I don't know who you would have put, maybe Leon Lowry, maybe you would have had when Jake Chaney finally, I believe Jake Chaney did come back in and play in this game. Uh, he did play in this game.
Speaker 1:When Jake Cheney got in there, you know I don't know who you were going to put as a QB spy, but I thought you know putting a QB spy in there because there were moments in this game where the Badgers did get pressure up front and Jalen Milrow, all he had to do was step up, get out of the pocket and he was gone Right and the Bad right and the badgers, they would tackle him 15 yards downfield or whatever it was. He had his biggest carry there was for 26 yards. So that would be my one thing looking at wisconsin's defense in this one, why there was no qb spy, I would have put a qb spy in there. Try to keep milrow, try to keep him on milrow, try to keep him in that pocket and make him make a decision in there and once he does go to bail the run, you have a guy in pursuit right away. That would have been one of the things I was looking at there with uh, with Wisconsin's defense.
Speaker 1:All in all, I mean you look at the uh pass defense for the Badgers, it was the big plays. It was the big plays that really made the pass defense look bad. I mean, you had the Ryan Williams had a 47-yard catch. You had the one for Bernard, who had a 26-yard catch, and then Chivas had a 37-yard catch. His only reception on the game was a 37-yard touchdown from Jalen Milrow. So that's where you look at the pass game.
Speaker 1:The pass game for Alabama is the big plays that made that. It was the big plays that made this pass offense for Alabama look like they just torched Wisconsin like 226 yards through the air. Their average was 14 yards. The big plays right, wisconsin had to avoid the big plays in this game. They didn't avoid the big plays. So that's where the issue came in in that front. So that's enough with the box there. That's enough with the box.
Speaker 1:I mean, all in all, I'm not walking out of this Alabama Wisconsin game saying you know, a lot of people are like fire fickle. A lot of people are saying like Wisconsin is a dumpster fire. I'm not saying that Wisconsin isn't trend. They're not trending in the direction that I thought they were going to be. I'll agree with that. I'm not going to say that this team is looking like they're improving from last season. But what I'll say is that this game, the final score in this game.
Speaker 1:There were a couple plays in this game where I look back on and I say this would look a lot more respectable if Jez Malusi didn't fumble that football, if Braden Locke doesn't overthrow Will Pauling by a foot, and then it's a touchdown instead of a missed field goal which led to Alabama scoring in the first half. There were so many ifs in this game that if this would have changed, if this would have done, if this play would have happened right, if that catch would catch would happen, if the missed field goal wouldn't happen, we could be talking about a different, a different outcome probably still a loss, but maybe a little bit more respectful, right? So I'm not coming out of this game saying the badgers got completely destroyed, but I'm coming out of this game saying the badgers there is a big margin between what the Badgers did to start the year versus you know, they played Western Michigan and South Dakota. Right, barely beat them. They played Alabama, got routed. There's a big separation there. I don't know where the Badgers fit into it right now. I really don't. I really don't. You got routed by Alabama. You barely won against two mid mid-level fbs, ones in fcs school. You got routed by them. So lots of question marks, yet lots of question marks moving forward for the badgers as we watch the brewers bases loaded.
Speaker 1:Bottom of the 10, 10, 9, the game here. Oh, bottom of the 10th. Here jared canning's in some trouble. Dev Devin Williams is warming up. Why isn't he in there to begin with? We don't know. But we're going to get to the Packers here. Before we even try to discuss Brewers here, we're going to get to the Packers-Colts.
Speaker 1:Recap from this weekend Packers win. I mean, we were hoping right, but there was always that question mark heading into this weekend about the Packers-Colts. What would Malik Willis look like in this game? How are the Packers going to do without Jordan Love? What was the defense going to look like? Well, 16-10. Packers pull off the win.
Speaker 1:Malik Willis did just enough. I mean, he did his job. What you expected out of Malik Willis in this game, he gave you right and the Packers game plan from the get-go. You knew what they wanted to do. I mean you're talking about a team. They have 53 carries in this game. You knew right off the bat. The Packers do not want to make Malik Willis try to beat the Colts with his arm. They didn't want that. They wanted Josh Jacobs, the offensive line Maybe it was a combo Jaden Reed getting involved in the run game. Whatever it was, they wanted those guys to back up Malik Willis, to help Malik Willis in his first start. That's what we saw and that was a fantastic game plan. It ended up being a fantastic game plan. Right, it ended up being fantastic. Matt LaFleur what he drew up in this game with the options, with the straight QB draws, with the motions that he had in this game kind of throwing the Colts' defense off a little bit I mean a great game plan I he had in this game, kind of throwing the Colts defense off a little bit. I mean a great game plan.
Speaker 1:I thought in this one from Matt LaFleur and 53 carries for 261 yards on the ground Wow, and most of that was in the first half. Right, most of that was in the first half. I believe all but like 37 of those yards were in the first half. If you're not impressed by running football, I was impressed in this one. The Badgers I was just talking about the Badgers Now, I'm not back the Packers in this one that was smash mouth, stop us football right there. I loved it. I loved every second of it. They dared the Colts to stop them and the Packers just ran it at will.
Speaker 1:I thought the line played well in this game. I thought the line played well for Green Bay. Now we do see Jordan Morgan goes down with injury once again. We just get him back right he's finally getting healthy here and he gets injured once again. And then we see Arshon Lloyd coming back from injury for the Packers they're promising running back having a decent day for Green Bay ends up going down also with an injury, a lower body injury once again. Same thing that bothered him in training camp, same thing that kept him out of week one. Makes his debut, gets injured again not great, not great all the way around there on the injury front. But but I thought Packers offensive line played decent in this game. I thought there was, you know, josh Myers puking on the injury front. But I thought Packers' offensive line played decent in this game. I thought Josh Myers puking on the ball, that was something. As we see Jared Koenig give up a walk-off yeah, fantastic. Why isn't Devin Williams in there? That's what I want to know. But off-topic, off-topic, right, but we see the offensive line play.
Speaker 1:Well, josh myers throws up on the ball. That was a little weird, a little gross, not gonna lie. Uh, that was the funniest thing that I heard was when matt lefleur was talking about that and it was like a third and long or something like that, and he asked malik willis. He's like why didn't you, why didn't you throw the ball there? Like it wasn't a, it wasn't a run play, why'd you throw? Why didn't you throw the ball?
Speaker 1:He's like josh puked on the ball before that and I didn't want to try and throw it. It's like are you serious? Then you watch the video back, it's like, oh man, like straight up, pukes on the ball, snaps it. I mean dedication, man, dedication. He's like well, should we stop it? Then next time, send him off. Like yeah, battle floor is like yeah, send him off it. Then next time Send them off. Like yeah, battle floor is like yeah, send them off the field next time. Like that's a situation where you send them off the field. Just a weird. I mean I've seen. I've seen guys throw up before right on on the football field. I've seen pitchers throw up watching baseball before, but I can't say I've ever seen that one. So that was an interesting thing coming out of there. But, josh Myers, yeah, that situation. But the offensive line plays well. The offensive line plays well.
Speaker 1:There were still penalties. Penalties in this game. The Packers had six of them for 50 yards. A couple of ineligible men downfield, a couple of them were holding calls. Well, you knew it was like one drive. Packers was like it was that drive early on in the game. I think it might have been one of the first drives and it was like first and 10. They rattled off big gate, got called back for an ineligible man downfield and then they had another big game called back for a whole day. It's like are you serious right now? Like first and 20, now it first and 20. They ended up getting some yards back there. But just penalties continue to be an issue for the Packers and something that you got to clean up moving forward there, something you got to clean up. But six penalties on the game there for 50 yards definitely did not help. Did not help any situations, but, all in all, not as bad as what it was down in Brazil. So you'll take a win with a loss there, right, you'll take a win with a loss. So Packers penalty-wise not great there.
Speaker 1:Turnover margin that's a good part of this game. Colts three turnovers, three picks right, mckinney with a pick there, wilson had a pick and I believe Evan Williams had that. Yeah, evan Williams had that pick there to end the game. So turnover battle won by Green Bay, something that you had to see. The thing that I love to see. I love seeing time of possession. Packers 40 minutes, 40 minutes. They had the football in this game. Colts 19, almost 20, right, 19, 49, right Love to see that. And that had a lot to do with like 20, right, 19, 49, right Love to see that. And that had a lot to do with, like we just mentioned there earlier, the 53 times on the ground. Right, they were just playing smash mouth, keep the football as long as we can.
Speaker 1:Now there were different situations right where the Packers could have made this game look a little bit different. Right, the Josh Jacobs. Josh Jacobs had a good day. So when I say this, don't get me wrong. Josh Jacobs had a great day 32 carries, 151 yards, a lot of that happening in the first half. Right, he was a workhorse in this game for the Packers. But the fumble on the goal line was a killer, right, it always is. Fumbles kill, drives, kill momentum. That would have made it 17 and nothing We'd be talking about completely different now Instead. Fumbles it there. Then. Well, we know what happened. Ended up, they kicked two field goals instead. Not great news, right? Not great news there Would have had seven there. So the Josh Jacobs fumble that hurt, that hurt there. All in all, though, josh Jacobs had a good day. He had a good day In total. The run game had a good day right. When you have 261 yards on the ground there. 50-street carries is crazy, right, but 261 yards on the ground, you don't complain about that, right? You don't complain about that.
Speaker 1:Third down efficiency. I thought this was a good number. Third down efficiency for the Packers in this one. 10 for 17 on third down, you love that. You love that Any day of the week, right. Whether it's Jordan Love or Malik Willis, you love that. 10 for 17 on third down. Now, not great was the red zone efficiency 1 for 3 in the red zone. Colts are 1 for 2, so Packers not even allowing them to get the red zone, that was great, right. But 1 for 3 in the red zone, that was great right. But one for three in the red zone not as good of a number but still solid, respectable right. 33 percent there, I believe. Right, not bad. Not bad there, but excuse me there. All in all, packers, solid game plan. Heading in matt lefleur deserves a lot of credit for this win for green bay.
Speaker 1:The offensive line defense, the offensive line defense, the defense in total. I thought the defense in total played well. I mean you're looking at the Colts in this game. Two for nine on third down, one for two on fourth down 338 yards in total on the game there, about six yards per play in this one here, passing 17 for 34 in this one. They had 18 rushing attempts. Still baffles me on that fourth down that they took Taylor out of the game and they had an option play.
Speaker 1:Eric Wilson I mean Eric Wilson had a couple of big plays in this one. He had the stop on that option play, right, had to stop on the option play and then he had on the next drive had the pick for the Packers there. So two great drives there from Eric Wilson. Devontae Wyatt was great. I mean he was great. We talked about this Packers team. What needed to happen.
Speaker 1:On the defense, I said I needed to see more from the defensive front. Kenny Clark, devontae Wyatt, they were big. I thought Preston Smith did well, edrin Cooper got some time in there, lucas Van Ness got some time. I thought the defensive line did well containing Anthony Richardson right, not letting him. There were some times where he got out of the pocket and he did his thing. But all in all I thought the defensive line for Green Bay did a good job keeping Anthony Richardson in the pocket, containing the outside, not letting him get to the outside and run. So I liked what I saw there.
Speaker 1:But Devontae Wyatt, in this one he had a couple of big plays there. He had a sack. He had, I believe. He had a couple of tackles for losses, two tackles for losses in this one. He was a game and he had two QB hits in this one, I believe. Yeah, two QB hits. He had a sack. He had those two tackles for losses in this one. You love that. You love that. Devontae Wyatt, he was a game wrecker. Right, you got to have your defensive front. Whether guys are having good days, sacks, they have a bowl of sacks or they have a couple tackles for losses.
Speaker 1:What I want to see in the defensive front sometimes is not the stat of you know they they had a lot of qb hits or they had a lot of tackles for losses. What I want to see, too, is being wreckers in the game, blowing up the middle, forcing double teams, whatever you have to do right To just negate an offense, to kind of try and you know they didn't want to run at Devontae Wyatt at that point. So they're running away from Devontae Wyatt. You want guys in your defensive front who are doing the little things throughout a game that are making them game wreckers, where they're changing up a game plan for the opposing team because they can't get by him. They don't want to go at him because he's blowing up the offensive line on that part. He's blowing up whoever the lead blocker is and he's blowing up the play or he's stretching out the option going that direction. So it's getting to you know it's heading towards the sideline and then your corners have time to get up there and make the play. It's those things that I love to see in the defensive front and I saw that in Devontae Wyatt today. Those are the things Same with Kenny Clark. He had three tackles, two solo tackles in this one.
Speaker 1:The defensive front for Green Bay stepped up big in this one. I thought they stepped up big. Now the big plays did hurt, right, jonathan Taylor. He had multiple big runs in this one, 12 carries for 103 yards. His long was 29. He had multiple big plays for big yards and you don't want the big plays to happen. But I thought all in all the Packers did well. I mean 140 yards on the ground for the Colts Not great, right, not great, but Packers did well.
Speaker 1:Controlling the run game for the Colts Made. Anthony Richardson try to make decisions in the passing game Did well late in this one, right, I mean Pierce had a good game for him there. They did well with Pittman Three catches there on a. I believe he had seven targets for three catches there, secondary. I thought they stepped up. I thought they did well in this one.
Speaker 1:Valentine had a good day for Green Bay. He had one pass deflection in this one. Jair had a pass deflection. Evan Williams did well in the secondary there I mean you look across the secondary. Mcduffie did well in pass coverage in this game, mcduffie not a guy who's overly fast, but did well in pass coverage there. Jamie Bullard had a good day five tackles, three of them being solo. You know a lot of people would say your safety is not supposed to have a lot of tackles. I agree on that, but Bullard's all over the place. You've got to remember that Bullard is all over the place. So some of those tackles resulting up in front of the first down marker there and then McKinney solid day out of him there. So, all in all, packers secondary plays well in this one, defense plays well. I thought Halfway drew up a pretty good game plan.
Speaker 1:The thing that you got to love, though, the Packers threw a lot of pressure and a lot of blitz packages at Richardson in this one. The thing that I love to see was that they played discipline right. It wasn't like we were, all in all, just bailing out on plays right. The Packers front, the Packers linebacker core, they played discipline, they sat back. They still put pressure, but they sat back. They let Richardson make a decision and then, when he did, now we attack, now we take them, now we try to stretch a play towards the sideline. We try to keep Richardson from blowing up those big plays by us bailing out Right. So I thought the defense played very disciplined in this game and on the front. So I love that. I love seeing that out of them there.
Speaker 1:You don't want to it's never really a thing to say kudos to a punter but I thought Daniel Whelan had a good game for Green Bay. You know, in a game like this, where it's 16 to 10, right, it's a field goal game, it's a defense game You've got to be able to slow a team down. I thought Daniel Whelan had a good game. I thought he did. I really did. He was. I believe he had two punts pinning the Colts back multiple times there. His long was 59. All three of them were inside of the 20 yard line. Daniel Whelan, I mean I don't, I'm not here to say that. You know, the main stat line out of this game is the hunter, right. But Daniel Whelan had a good game. He had a good game. So you love to see that. You love to see that out of Daniel Whelan.
Speaker 1:So Packers play good. I mean they don't play good, right. The offense. The offense did what it had to do, right? This was a game where you went into this and we talked about it in the pregame show. You didn't expect Malik Willis to light the world on fire. You wish it could happen, right. You wish you could see Malik Willis light the world on fire. But you didn't go into this one saying I expect the Packers to be able to win this game. Put up 31 points right. This game, we talked about it. It had to be a defensive battle, right, you had to win on the defensive side. You had to win in the trenches. It was one of those games and I thought that's exactly what the Packers did. That is exactly what they did. They won in the trenches. They won their one-on-ones right.
Speaker 1:Everybody loves to talk about team aspect. I want to see guys win their one-on-one right. I thought the Packers won their one-on-ones in this game. They controlled the line of scrimmage times. It got out of hand, right. We talked about the Jonathan Taylor breaking off a few big runs there, but all in all, controlled the line, did their job in there. The secondary controlled a pretty good receiving core for the Colts there for a majority of this right, and I mean offense ran the ball, did their job. Josh Jacobs did his job. It's just a good team win. That's what I look at at end of the day.
Speaker 1:Last, last but not least, last thing I want to say about the Packers Colts for now, until we talk about it more here this week. But all in all, a great team win for the Packers. Now you look forward. Maybe Jordan Love comes back this week. I'm going to lean on the side of probably not. I don't know. You don't know. We're not in the room, we're not the doctors here, we're not telling him what he has to and can't do. But you have the Titans coming up and then you play the Vikings.
Speaker 1:Will Levis played good enough in this one against a Colts team. That, I believe, is better than the Titans. I think they are, in my personal opinion. So you kept him out. I really do think you keep him out next week, unless if he is like 110% ready to go. There's no question marks, no, nothing. You don't have to because you know if you can survive.
Speaker 1:The biggest thing we talked about was surviving without love and what had to happen. And I said if he was out for, let's just say, three games going one and two, or at least winning one of those games in that stretch, or if he was out for four games, not losing, you know, can't go on four in that stretch, right, you got to be able to pull off a win there. They pulled off that win. So if you can survive the Titans game with Will Levis at the QB, you bring Jordan Love against the Vikings, because the Vikings look good I mean I watched them today against the 49ers. They look good. So you want Jordan Love for that game. You want him 110% for that game, right? I might just say, hey, maybe we keep Love as an option in the Titans game. Maybe he's like 95%, maybe we really feel like winning this game against the Titans, right, so he's an option in that game. But I'm looking at Malik Willis and I'm saying, if you're ready to go week three, we're going to start you and then, if it gets dicey, maybe we move on. But until then, until Jordan loves 110%, I can roll with Malik Willis for now.
Speaker 1:Right now, malik Willis got me to the point where I was talking hey, if the Packers want to run some option plays or some like wildcats, formations or anything like that, malik Willis is my guy. Like I would throw him in there in a wildcat formation. I would throw him in there in an option play and just let it run wild, because it's like, uh, almost like, oh, what the heck was that guy's name from the Saints Taysom Hill, right, it's like him. I mean, he's their Swiss army knife right now he's. I don't expect Malik Willis to go out there a wide receiver play running back. Maybe he could right, maybe he could throw him in there running back. But Malik Willis could be that guy that you could throw out there like a taste of mail where he's looking to run. But he's also got that possibility that he can throw the football right. So maybe Malik Willis kind of slots into a position like that for the Packers. I don't know I I thought about that watching him play. Was that the options and everything like that. He impresses me in those situations. So kind of like that. Kind of like that. I kind of like that option there. But Packers get the win over the Colts Great cap on the weekend there after watching the Badgers Kind of struggle there against Alabama.
Speaker 1:Let's look over at the Brewers real quick, because we saw the Brewers. I just watched the final there. Not a good way to end it. Devin Williams looked kind of upset out there in the bullpen to end that one. I don't know why we didn't just decide to throw Devin Williams out there in that one, maybe short rest kind of thing. They just won 15-8, so we didn't use Devin Williams yesterday. I don't know why we didn't throw Devin Williams in there in that 10th and just take the series sweep. But it's okay. It's okay, right, you end the road trip. You end the road trip going four and two.
Speaker 1:This was a road trip where we were talking heading into it made you a little bit nervous, right, because you had the Giants who were playing well, right, you just saw them at home there not too long ago. You won two games in that series. You go on the road, you're facing the Giants, starting a little West Coast swing there Did well in that Giants series. And then you have the Diamondbacks and this is a team in the Arizona Diamondbacks who are still fighting for the West. They're still fighting for that NL West. They're still fighting for a spot in the playoffs. Isn't all around a solid team in the arizona diamondbacks.
Speaker 1:Game one you win that one. Two to one uh, pitchers kind of battle, they're not a whole lot of offense. Game two offensive explosion, right, something that we've been waiting to see out of the brewers for a while now because they haven't had one of those games where the offense just says we got this right. Don't worry, pitching staff, you can give up eight runs, we're gonna take care of it. On the offensive side this game was I mean, adamas hit a grain, a grand slam. He had a two home run night there. The offense was a storyline. All in all offense was a storyline. 16 hits for the brewers in that game.
Speaker 1:Two of that series there. Just about everybody had a hit in that one outside of monasterio, perkins and collins. Monasterio and collins, both coming in in pinch hit rolls outside, had a hit in that one outside of Monasterio, perkins and Collins. Monasterio and Collins, both coming in in pinch hit rolls. Outside of that it was Perkins who did not have a hit, but you're not going to just completely crap on him because he didn't have a hit in that game. Brewers win that one 15-8. They drop the series finale there 11-10 in extra innings. We just watched Jared Koenig. It went south fast on Canning there and Dimeback's able to pull off scrounge and try to make it look a little bit better there in that series.
Speaker 1:So, brewers, I got the Phillies coming up next right and this is a series. It means a lot. I know I've said that in the past. I've said it. It seems like every talk we have I'm talking about how much this series is going to mean to the Brewers. This series for the Brewers means a lot because right now the Brewers are in third place in the NL race. Right now, phillies, dodgers, brewers, brewers four games back. This series against Phillies, you can jump teams right now. Well, not jump, because the Dodgers would have to lose three straight right. But if you take two out of three from the Phillies, the Phillies drop back Dodgers able to hop up or whatever it is there, and Brewers are in very good position playing the Diamondbacks yet after that because they have another series with the Diamondbacks on the docket. So this series against the Phillies it means a lot because you have the Phillies Diamondbacks, but then you have the Pirates and Mets. Now the Pirates, they're out of the playoff picture.
Speaker 1:It seems like I don't know if it's just me, but every single season the Pirates play spoiler to the Brewers. They love to play spoiler to the Brewers. They love to pull off wins late in the season against the Brewers. So I'm looking at that Pirates series and saying, eh, I don't like that one, I don't like that one late in the year, but they have that series against the Mets. They have three road games left, so you're going to have 10 games at home yet to end this season. Here you got the Phillies, then you play the Diamondbacks at home and then you're going to go on the road for the Pirates but then come back home for the Mets to wrap up the season there. If they get two or three from the Phillies, you can win that series against the Diamondbacks. I really do believe I'd have to look at the Phillies schedule because I don't know who the Phillies got left on the docket here. The Phillies got the Brewers, the Mets the Cubs and the Nationals the Cubs it's Craig Timber, right, maybe the Cubs pull off some wins against the Phillies there and then we see the Mets rattle off some wins because they're playing for a playoff spot, the Brewers-Phillies series.
Speaker 1:I mean, I say it a lot, but this could be one of those series where you could set yourself up for getting in that two seat. Right. The brew. I want a two seat. I really do. I don't want the wildcard route.
Speaker 1:The wildcard round for me with this Brewers team makes me nervous. It makes me nervous. I don't like it. I don't want to see it as much as I think that the Brewers could. You know, it's like a double-edged sword for me, because I don't like having such a long gap between games, because it makes me nervous with this offense, because the offense for the brewers is like it goes hot and then it goes cold. Right, it goes hot, it goes cold. I don't want to stretch where we don't play games, where this offense starts to go cold. So I'm looking at this series, this you know, if they get the two, you get the buy, you get the automatic pass, the wildcard round, but also you have time off. If you get the wildcard round, maybe you play like the diamond backs or something you play. Well, your offense gets going. You go into a divisional round, then your offense is cooking. Now you're good. Right, we watch the diamond backs. Their offense got hot last season in the playoffs, beat the brewers right and then went on all the way to the world series. Offense got hot last season in the playoffs, beat the Brewers right and then went on all the way to the World Series.
Speaker 1:It's one of those years, you know, it feels like one of those years where the Brewers, they have a shot. I just think that the NL picture the Dodgers are the big bad Dodgers right, they're the scary Dodgers. And the Phillies are a great team. I think they're a great team, right. But this season, more than any, I just feel like it's wide open. I feel like this season we're going to see a team that we didn't expect go to the World Series. I really do the records, everything like that. What we've seen so far this year, everything's close. I mean I can't remember. I mean it's requiring me to think a lot, but I don't remember a time where I've looked at the standings this late in the season and I've said, wow, that's close, like you, it's just almost like.
Speaker 1:I mean you look, phillies two and a half games back of the Dodgers, brewers, their game and a half back of the Dodgers. There they're four games back of the Phillies. Then we see the Padres five and a half games and a half back of the Dodgers. There they're four games back of the Phillies. Then we see the Padres five and a half games back, they're right behind the Dodgers there, and the Diamondbacks they're seven games back of the Phillies. The Braves eight and a half Mets, nine Cubs at 14. I mean they're all right there.
Speaker 1:Then you look over at the AL picture Yankees there Then you have the Royals five games back, five and a half for the Astros, seven and a half for the twins. Everything is just so jumbled together and there's no record that you look at and you're like this team is dominating, this team is. You don't have that. You usually when you look at these leagues, you look across the AL and the NL. You have that one team where you're looking at and you're like this is a dominant team. Like nobody.
Speaker 1:I don't expect them. If you were a betting man you would not go into that series and say they're going to mop them. But you know there's always the chance. But you feel confident. I don't feel confident right now in any one of these teams that they would go into a series against. If the Phillies played the Brewers, I would not feel. If I was a Philly fan, I would not feel 100% positive that my Phillies could pull off that series. Same with the Dodgers. I would not feel that way this season.
Speaker 1:The Padres are a dangerous team. I'd watch out for them. Padres, they're finally starting to put it together. Same with Diamondbacks. That's a dangerous team, right, braves you never know with the Braves, as much as it seems like they're out. Everybody gets hurt and yet they're still cooking along. So you got to watch out for them.
Speaker 1:Braves, the Mets Same with them. I don't know where they came from. Frank was bailing on them. Frank was coming to Milwaukee to throw out the first pitch. He was done with the Mets. They're nine games back. They're in the playoff picture. It's just like there's nobody that's pulling away that.
Speaker 1:That. That is that dominant. And you're sitting there and you're saying to yourself there's a chance. Right, the door's wide open for the brewers. What will they do with it? So I mean, we got lots more to talk about with the brewers. I'm going to get into them this week here on the show. We got more packer talk, uh, to get to. We got more badges talk definitely more talks to get to as the week goes on here.
Speaker 1:But with that this has been wisconsin sports on the go with trades. Thank you guys for listening. And next, and like I always, we're starting to go live. Now make sure you guys are commenting in everything like that. If you miss some of the show and you want to go and listen to it, you can go on the podcast sites. Any podcast site. There is apple, google, youtube, whatever it is. You can check out the podcast there. Leave a like, subscribe, follow, leave a review, whatever it is. You can check out the podcast there. Leave a like, subscribe, follow, leave a review, whatever it is. Let me know anything that you guys thought of the show or anything that you would like me to do moving forward here, anything we can change on the show, because I definitely am open to opinions and everything like that. But with that this has been Wisconsin Sports. Time to Go with Trades. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your night, but until we talk to you guys again tomorrow. Deuces.