It's the weekend, which means it's time for Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Jimmy Koska, sports director here at Civic Media.
Thank you for joining us.
We've got a lot planned for you today.
Going to talk, as you might expect with it being September.
A whole lot of football.
Frank Gargano is going to join us.
He covered the Wisconsin versus Notre Dame matchup at Lambeau Field this past weekend as someone who got the cover of the Wisconsin LSU game on the Badgers radio network 10 years ago.
I can tell you what a really fun experience that is and how unique it is to have the Badgers playing at Lambeau.
It is such a cool thing.
We're going to talk to Frank coming up here in just a bit about the Badgers opener against Notre Dame.
Later on in the program, we're going to deep dive into the Packers Vikings matchup.
We'll get you set for that.
will do a sports week in review late in the show and then of course we'll do our weekly high school football roundup where we go through all the civic media station games and then of course take a look at all the top 10 matchups from around Wisconsin but here in the first segment we have a chance to do some headlines and well before we get too far along I can't do this by myself after all we welcome aboard first of all member of
Upper management, it is Greg Gunderson.
Greg, what's up, man?
Yeah, we, uh, we definitely don't need the booming boys over us, telling us what to do at every single given moment.
Great.
All right.
And also, and the man who's producing the show and making sure we are on the, on the air and doing all the right things.
It is Parker vertical Olson Parker.
What's up, man?
I'm just trying to get out from under the boot of gray, you know, impressive leader.
You know, that's why he's two of us.
There's
two boots.
He can, he can stop on us equally,
right?
That's why we need Frank later.
I'll give us reinforcements.
Gray is awesome.
So are you, Parker.
And we are here.
I'll make the call.
And we have some headlines to get to.
And I think the headlines this week all kind of scream Milwaukee Brewers because I tell you what, the sweep of the Cubs really kind of kind of changed the tone of it for the month of September.
You were hoping maybe with the Brewers that, you know, okay, well, if they take like four of seven, they got that good lead and then they're playing for first place.
But they sweep the Cubs, they put them in a bad spot.
And now they are multiple games ahead.
for the number one seed in the national league in the playoffs, giving them that first round buy.
And I got to tell you, you know, regardless of which magic number you're looking at, things are looking really, really good for the Brewers going in.
And I'm going to start with that.
I just wonder with the record, the way it is here in the month of September with it's seeming like the injuries are starting to kind of slow down a bit.
Have your expectations changed at all going into October for the Bers?
Do you see this team as maybe a greater threat to take home a World Series title?
Has anything changed for you guys this month?
I don't think I've really seen a lot of change in my expectations.
I think I've maybe changed a little bit, and I know that I probably ebb and flow with the team a little too much with this take.
I think I've gotten a little more comfortable with the fact that they might go deeper, but I don't necessarily expect them.
to go deeper in the playoffs.
And what I mean by this is we've seen them hit a couple of home runs that have been pretty big in the last couple of games against the Cubs here.
And I mean, most people are proponents of you need to be able to hit home runs in October if you want to win a World Series, right?
That's just how you win in the postseason because pitching gets so much better.
But something that I think is actually
Then really, really exciting for me is that the Brewer's bullpen.
Remember a couple, I don't know, maybe two or three months ago, and probably two, close to the deadline, and a little bit before we were saying, you know, the Brewer's have got such a definite A bullpen and B bullpen.
We heard about that a lot for a couple of weeks there.
I was like, yeah.
If you dip into the B-Bullpen, you've got problems, right?
We're not really seeing that right now though.
Everyone is firing on the cylinders they need to be firing on, they sent, and unfortunately that does mean making some moves.
Sprout had to get sent down the other day because frankly you couldn't deliver an 8-1 9th inning, and if you can't deliver an 8-1 game.
You're not gonna be able to deliver in the postseason, apparently.
Unfortunately, that's just kind of how it goes.
But Gray, is there anything in particular that stands out to you that makes you think maybe this team is gonna get a little bit further than...
NLDS or NLCS?
And it's less that there's anything that's necessarily changed to change our perspective on it, at least in my case.
It's more that some of the things we hoped would happen do seem to be materializing.
Like Jimmy mentioned, the injury bug seems to have slowed down a little bit.
And when you're approaching the postseason and injuries are on that downward tread.
There's no replacement for availability when it comes to your best players.
The other thing, the top heavy nature of the bullpen seems to have ironed itself out a little bit.
We've got guys adding pitches to their arsenal, using them effectively in games in the short term.
I loved, I absolutely loved hearing multiple members of the Cubs.
roster and staff talking about the nasty change-ups that they had to deal with, which just wasn't part of the arsenal before.
So, I mean, just in particular cases, but you have a less top-heavy
of pitching rotation.
You have more available people.
Awesome.
These are things that we mentioned.
Like you said, Parker, a couple of months ago, this is what we hope to happen anyway.
So it's not as surprising as it might be.
It's just, hey, cool.
That muscle in my shoulder has kind of relaxed a little bit because we were worried about these things and they're coming around a little bit.
I think too that you mentioned the home runs and everything like that.
I mean, the Brewers have a great run to differential.
in baseball.
They've scored runs.
They do it unconventionally in the modern game, but they do get runs.
I do think that some of my worries about that too, because I mean, I was right with you guys pounding the table at the trade deadline, like, hey, you know, we've got the number one farm system.
Go find a bat.
But then you look at the prices for some of the bats that were available.
You're like, well, maybe they were smarter than this.
And, you know, the prospects coming up are going to be the bats we need in the future.
I mean, you look at Luis Lara, who, you know, just had, you know, a big moment, a couple, you know, back in the Cubs series earlier this week.
And I really feel like in the playoffs were runs are at a premium that if they're still able to manufacture runs without having to go yard, you know, maybe that helps them too.
They're kind of going against the grain and something's working to the point that other, you know, MLB organizations are a little frustrated by the fact that the team with, you know, the 19th or 18th or whatever their payroll is, you know, they're out here at the best record baseball.
And, you know, to the point that, you know, the Mets have hired their former GM to the point that other teams are trying to emulate this, you know, this pitching lab that the Brewers have.
I just, I think that
the ability to score runs in the postseason, the fact that they can't hit on runs.
Well, they're able to find other ways to do it.
And as we saw this week, you know, aside from the, the, the, you know, the Cheerio homer gets the Cubs or get the goosebumps, right?
Like that's crazy.
You know, three, one, now there's, now you're tied.
Like that's awesome.
But there's still really fine runs.
And I guess for me, that takes a little bit of the anxiety away for the postseason.
Although once you get to the playoffs as you all know, anything can happen.
Anything can happen.
And.
Frankly, what needs to happen for the Brewers is they need to be hot during the playoffs.
We say that about every team.
I think I've said that about every team in the last couple of years is like, well, they were hot.
It's like, yeah, the Brewers swept the season series against the Dodgers last year.
I think they beat them, I don't know, 10 times, seven times of whatever games they played in the regular season.
And then they got swept in the NLCS, right?
It's like, it doesn't really matter if you're not winning in the playoffs.
But.
Doctors got hot with the birds got to do they got to get hot and frankly they're starting to get there I was a little concerned during the first cup series the four game series I was a little worried that they were kind of just I want to say losing their edge But just they couldn't get anything quite to go their way the way that it needed to and I'm saying this about a series that they split two to two, right?
I'm not I'm we're kind of picking its draws a little bit here But they got hotter in this was second series against the Cubs and that's absolutely huge because
Those are games that matter from a standpoint of pride.
It's the rivalry.
The brewers want to beat the Cubs.
But that was basically it.
For the Cubs, they have that and they need to win games right now because they're trying to chase the brewers.
They're not going to catch the brewers, I don't think, but they're trying to.
And they also are starting to maybe feel a little bit of heat under their seat from the teams below them trying to get into the wildcard slot.
So anyway,
The burrs didn't face a lot of pressure in that series, I don't think, but they still delivered and they're playing with that edge that, I mean, you referenced that Jackson Shurio home run to Tyler Gammum in the 9th inning.
He walked up with so much swagger.
I can pick a few times in my life where I've seen a guy walk into a batter's box and I could tell you he was going to hit a home run.
That was one of them.
He walked in there knowing that he was going to hit that home run.
And if the Brewers, if all of them can play like that, maybe they'll get hot and they'll actually do something in this postseason, Jimmy.
The Brewers heading for the postseason, currently best record at baseball.
Of course, games you can hear across the Civic Media radio network.
You can hear them on several stations across the state.
We'll talk more Brewers later on in the program and our sports week in review with Mike Clemens.
Coming up next though, we are going to switch over to football.
Talk to Frank Gargano here at Civic Media.
He was at the Badgers Notre Dame game at Lambeau Field that we're going to talk to him next right here on make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media.
Welcome back.
This is make the call in the civic media radio network to the Cusco, Greg Anderson, Parker Olson with you as we dive in now to talk about the Badgers as they played in a showcase game that had 8.1 million television viewers.
Number one by far rated game on TV for college football in the first week of the college football season.
It is crazy that the Badgers were more than two million above like the second place game, but they were most watched this week.
And I don't know how much of that was the Badgers and how much of that.
just happened to be the fact they're playing Notre Dame on Sunday night when people are already starved for football.
In this segment, we welcome in Frank Argana, who here at Civic Media is representing us at Wisconsin Badger's Games this season, and he was on hand to take in the game at Lambeau Field.
Frank, first of all, welcome aboard.
We have a special brand of sports talk on this show, which my mom is very supportive of because she thinks it's great.
I'm having this outlet for my creativity, but
We like to have some fun.
So I got to ask you, what was it like going to a Badgers game at Lambeau
First of all, thanks for having me guys.
Really excited to be talking sports with all of you.
It was really cool.
I have some interesting thoughts about it.
One, I thought the game day atmosphere was great.
I've never been up there for an NFL game.
So this was my first time at Lambeau Field outside of the parking structure.
And I won't get into that with my beef with that Parker knows.
I almost got into it with a parking lot attendant.
But other than that, it was great.
Um, atmosphere is great.
Tailgating was great.
I think the respect between both fan bases outside and inside the stadium was really great to see what's what was really interesting.
And a lot of people, their ears kind of perk up when you tell them this was a shamrock series game.
Wisconsin was the away team.
And let me tell you.
it felt like it because Notre Dame fans were loud.
And I think they just edged out Wisconsin fans inside that bowl.
Frankie, we've seen the Badgers play against a lot of top 25 opponents in recent years, obviously being in the Big Ten, because that's kind of just the nature of how the Big Ten works, you know that.
But we haven't really necessarily seen them get blown out, really.
They've kind of hung with them for the most part, like they've played Oregon.
Sort of close a couple of times and
get absolutely murdered by like Penn State or Indiana and like that 41 13 final here.
Is that really what it sounds like though?
I don't think it was statistically, right?
You know, I mean, when you look at the stats and I think Luke fickle said it perfectly when he said, I don't have a great explanation for that final score because I mean, even just looking at the first half 13 to 10, I thought.
I thought at the line of scrimmage and the trenches, I thought both were pretty evenly matched.
I think that's the first thing you look for is Wisconsin getting blown off the ball against a team that had a lot more talent with Notre Dame.
And they weren't.
I thought the defense played really well until Mason post a suplex to guy and kind of put Notre Dame.
Justin Rout, so CJ Carr could throw an easy swing route out to the left and put six on the board.
I thought, I thought Colton Joseph played decently well for, you know, coming in from old Dominion and your first game is you've got to, you've got to play Notre Dame in a neutral site game at Lambeau Field.
I thought he played okay.
He wasn't great.
He also wasn't the biggest embarrassment in the big 10.
That'll go to Bryce Underwood.
So.
I don't know what to make of this game.
I think the biggest thing is we came in with a lot of question marks, and Luke Fickle said this as well, is what team do we have?
What identity do we have?
And I don't think we got a single answer from this past game.
My first thought when I see a game that starts that way, Frank, it didn't look like the kind of game, at least at the half, like you mentioned, 13 to 10.
It didn't look like the kind of game that might end up with any sort of garbage time situation.
So just looking at the box score, the questions become,
Well, I mean, a suplex is something ridiculous, but did something ridiculous happen that then snowballed?
My first question comes down to conditioning.
Did you see a big disparity there between Wisconsin and Notre Dame that might explain how they just got left in the dust late?
Because even that would be pretty extreme, but at least it would generally logically tract.
Does that line up with what you saw at all?
And I think there's a little bit of conditioning, but also when you're going against an elite team like this, I think when I was sitting up in the press box, I was like, really, let me do my research here on recruiting.
And I know the transfer portal's a huge thing now, and that kind of evens things out.
But when we're looking at the past four years, recruiting rankings, Notre Dame was sixth, 12th, 10th, and 12th.
Wisconsin was 69th.
26th, 20th and 65th.
When your skill guys are going against top level recruits for four quarters, you can only hang with them for so long, especially when you're, I think Wisconsin's an okay team.
I thought they were decent enough in the first half, but when you're trying to hang all four quarters, Gray, it's.
the talent disparity just starts to widen.
And that's what we saw.
Talking to Frank Gargano from here at Civic Media about the Badgers game against Notre Dame in the Sunday opener, you mentioned just kind of the recruiting part of it.
When we have Jake Kokorowski on, we talk a lot of recruiting.
And, you know, one of the things that's been kind of a highlight the past few years under Luke Fickle is that there hasn't been really an emphasis on in-state recruiting.
So when you see a guy from Green Bay score a touchdown for Notre Dame, it's really weird.
When you see on their offensive line, they've got, you know, three, four star offensive linemen from Wisconsin.
You know, it just makes you wonder like what if those guys were here?
But more of the point you mentioned the first half and I know that the first half people are kind of climbing this is some kind of moral victory where hey, you know We had him there in the first half.
We're doing pretty good and then you know, there's the pick six and everything in the second half But I still look at you know kind of the first half is more of a feeling I'll think week one is weird in college football.
We saw some just
unbelievably bizarre things to the point, the NCAA had to change the timing rule because of what happened in the Michigan game.
So, you know, how much do you read into a week one game where, again, you're playing a top notch opponent?
And how much does that really apply to what we think about Wisconsin kind of moving forward?
As you said, you know, they're still kind of trying to find that identity here early on.
You know, and Jimmy, especially the fact that it's kind of that neutral site game at Lambeau, I mean,
We really don't know how much of that first half was just adrenaline, you know, going into Lambeau field, playing against Notre Dame, most watched game of the week, very hyped.
It's on a Sunday night.
How much of it is adrenaline?
How much of it is our defense is really good.
We really don't know.
I mean, if we're looking at quarterback play, Colton Joseph was 19 for 30.
CJ Carr was 19 for 29.
And CJ Carr is supposed to be one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football.
So that's, I think that's really good to see.
I think it's good to see that the defense did show up in that first half.
And I thought the offensive line and the defensive line
both played really well in that first half.
So I think the encouraging part is when you look at the schedule, there isn't Notre Dame still on that schedule.
I don't think there's too much.
There's not going to be a huge talent cap like we saw this past Sunday against Notre Dame.
USC is going to be a tough opponent offensively.
You never know how their quarterback is going to react.
But if Camp Randall is loud and the defense plays like they did in that first half and give them fits,
I think it's more of a coin toss game, but we really just don't know what this team is yet.
Are you getting the sense that the Badgers are going to be bowl eligible?
Frank, if you look at the schedule, because that's kind of been our base when we've talked about what is a successful year for the Badgers this
what's improvement for the Badgers.
The baseline kind of is getting back into a bowl game.
Are you getting the sense with that schedule that they're going to be able to rack up that many wins?
Yeah, I mean, assuming they beat Western Illinois and Eastern Michigan, which should be wins at Penn State, that's going to be a tough one to draw out Michigan State.
I mean, that program is really trying to recover.
They almost lost it to Lido.
UCLA, USC, those are question marks.
Iowa looked really good week one, but that back end of the schedule Parker, you've got Rutgers, you got Maryland, you got Purdue, you've got Minnesota, all winnable games.
So I think bowl eligible is very much in reach for this season.
It's definitely not out of the question, but we don't know which Wisconsin team we're going to see show up.
If we see that first half Wisconsin team, I think they're going to be pretty decent this year.
When you can score that much, 14 points in the first, was it six or seven minutes of the third quarter?
I mean, any football game, people are going to talk about halftime adjustments.
I refuse to accept anybody who's doing any six, seven, anything right now.
I'm sorry, that was my bad.
I won't do it again.
But is there something to worry about there with getting out coached and losing the adjustment battle there?
Or is that overblown after just one game like this?
Wisconsin had no business winning this game.
If you look at the recruiting, you look at the resources, how both teams have handled NIL, Luke Fickle against Marcus Freeman.
Did any of you think Wisconsin was going to play a close game?
hoped they were going to play a close
but did
with that.
No.
Now, if Luke Fickle goes out and gets outcoached by and I can't even pull the name off against Western Illinois and they're really struggling in the second half against adjustments.
Yeah, I think it's time to press the panic button.
But neutral site game Lambo week one under the lights with the transfer quarterback against Marcus Freeman and the fighting Irish and national brand.
I wouldn't put too much stock into getting outcoached.
Not
yet.
Talking to Frank Gargano from here at Civic Media.
He'll be covering the Badgers for us this season at many of the games.
This week, as he said, Western Illinois is the opponent.
It's an FCS game.
It's one of those get-right games, right?
What are we looking for when they take it on an FCS school this week?
You want to see them blowing people off the ball on the offensive line.
You want Colton Joseph making smart decisions.
I think that's where you're at with your transfer quarterback.
You want to see the right decisions.
You don't need anything too flashy from him.
You just want a good convincing win.
This is a tune up game for a reason.
You don't have to go into your bag of tricks.
If you're a Wisconsin Badgers fan, I want to see a good dual threat display from him and just a dominant line.
our dominant game in the trenches.
Because let's be honest, Western Illinois, I mean, last year, three and five in conference play, they just lost to Illinois State 41 to 10.
This is a should win, must win, can't lay an egg game.
Yeah.
I think watching Colton Joseph is going to be really interesting, especially in this game, because you said it's a tune up game.
It's a get right game.
That is when you should like be able to execute for who you are and what you want to be.
Do you have you had a sense yet of what they want Colton Joseph to be?
How much do they want to use that dual threat ability?
Because that was something that was really exciting when he got recruited in from Old Dominion.
It was like, oh, okay.
As we have said every year with the Flakal era, we've got a really good quarterback coming in.
This is exciting.
I hope he's really good.
How do you think they deliver on this one?
I'm not even sure they really know what to do with him yet.
I feel like it's weird seeing somebody under center with that skill set still playing for Wisconsin football, at least in my eyes.
It's probably kind of weird for you guys too, having grown up watching Wisconsin.
From what I saw last Sunday, I think they'd like to get him active a lot.
And when you're going up against the front, that's not nearly as good as Notre Dame.
You want to see them moving bodies and kind of open up that game for them.
And it's, and you know, increase the run game too.
They had what?
49 rushing yards for Abu last week.
So you want to see him get a lot of carries too and just win handedly.
Talking to Frank Gargano, he'll be covering Wisconsin and Western Illinois in the next matchup for the Badgers.
We talked about the dual threat quarterback.
We talked about the opponent, talked about everything.
I gotta ask you those, our final question for you is what was it like now that you get to be kind of on the beat now with the Badgers?
How much fun has that been getting to see all the, you know, meet some of the other reporters and just be around the program a bit?
You know, I, for those of you that don't know, I got to cover, uh, Michigan from 2017 to 2021.
So like my last game was watching Jim Harbob win his first big 10 championship with Michigan.
So it's, you know, learning a program, it's, it's a big learning curve because you've got to learn all the history and kind of get all that insider knowledge, but everyone's been so nice.
Everyone's so great with media access.
I love the department there.
The facilities are great.
I loved coming to Camp Randall whenever Michigan would play there.
It's one of my favorite places to be.
So really excited to see what this team kind of grows into.
So, when you get there for jump around, just be ready when you're up there in the press box.
It's disorienting the first time you're up there, but I promise you it won't fall down.
It hasn't yet, anyway.
Frank, thank you so much for your insights.
Glad to have you on board for this throughout the year, as we'll be covering the Badgers as we do.
Every week, we've got games on several civic media stations around the state, and we're happy to provide that coverage here of the Badgers.
Thanks, Frank.
Take care.
And again, Frank Organo,
from here at Civic Media covering the Badgers for us and select games this year.
We will still, of course, talk to Jake Kokorowski for some badgers insight on odd weeks as well.
But great to have so much coverage of the Badgers as you're part of the make the call on the Civic Media radio network.
We are going to talk more football because once you know what this weekend is the start of the NFL season for the Packers, they get to take on the Vikings.
We're going to take a deep dive into this coming up next.
This is make the call part of the Civic Media radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Staying on the football subject here on Make the Call, we are going to talk about the Packers.
They open their season against the Vikings, a game you can hear across the Civic Media radio network in not one, not two, but three different states as we have the Packers radio network in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
And then of course, the Vikings radio network on our station in Ely, Minnesota.
So
three states, same game, and it's all here on civic media.
Seven different stations are broadcasting this game.
I'm pretty excited for that here within our company.
That being said, though, we have a very interesting week one matchup because not only is it a road game, but it's a road conference game.
So, you know, and you got that bitter rivalry with the Vikings to get started.
Before we get there, because it's a season opener, I didn't get a chance to ask this last week of Greg Anderson and Greg, and also Parker Olson, who's with me, who was here last week.
start by, by my saying, I don't know that there were any really true surprises with how the Packers constructed their 53 man roster.
But I was pleasantly surprised to see J. Michael start up and make it because boy, he looks like a special team stud and maybe something more down the road.
It was cool to see another undrafted guy make the roster.
That's, I think, a streak.
I don't even want to speak to the number, but it's kind of a tradition now for the Green Bay Packers to roster somebody who's undrafted.
And so, agreed.
J. Michael Sturdivant on the roster.
I know a lot of people were pining to see Will Shepard there after a punt return touchdown in the preseason, but that said, these coaches see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reps that we never see.
And Will Shepard showed up big under the lights, but clearly what they see in J. Mike is what they want to see.
when it actually matters, when you're playing for the record that you need to play for and get into the postseason at one point, they believe a little bit more in this.
And Jimmy, I agree with you.
There's nothing super surprising here, but there are a couple things, one in particular that I really like to see on this roster construction.
First of all, 10 offensive linemen on that roster is not at all a surprise.
But if you look at the depth chart, both the unofficials and the officials that have come out to this point, there is a difference from the last few years, which is that it's a one
to one starter and backup where before you'd see the same name in several backup positions.
For example, if the right tackle went down and if the left tackle went down, we've got a problem because the listed backup at those positions was the same guy.
And now you get those weird reshufflings that you see in the postseason last year and just a little too often in years past.
Whereas right now looking at it, you've got five in the front line, five in the second line, which means that guys can focus on the position they play.
And of course, if you have two offensive line injuries, you're going
to cause problems anyway, but that's a less scary situation than before.
Then it might have been last year, for example.
So if something happens like Zackbaco-Bewaley doesn't end up playing the whole game, like he's clearly confident that he's going to do, well, that's okay.
We've got a guy whose only job is to back up Zackbaco-Bewaley right now, and he doesn't have to worry about anybody else.
Similarly, in the trenches, seven defensive linemen, that brings to me a level of relief.
That depth means fresh body.
later in the game and of course all of that happens under the mystery of what Jonathan Gannon's defense is going to look like.
But I just see reassurances.
No surprises, but definite reassurances.
Of course, the one big remaining question with quality linebacking play that we've seen recently, hopefully adapting well to that new scheme.
Elite defensive backs, at least in the safeties.
Some questions at cornerback still.
It's running back.
It's running back all day long.
What's going to happen there?
Chris Brooks is a pass blocker.
Marshawn Lloyd hasn't existed until this coming weekend.
And we just grabbed
a trade from the Steelers and Caleb Johnson who hasn't necessarily shown that, well, there's a reason he was available for the Packers.
Let's put it that way.
I wouldn't be surprised if he surprises us.
That doesn't make any sense, but I think you get the idea.
If Caleb Johnson overperforms a little bit, it'll only be so surprising, but that might be the single biggest question as long as the offensive line can hold up.
We know that
Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores can take 11 warm bodies and make a competent defense with some scary blitz potential.
So that then becomes the question.
Can the offensive line make the passing threat real?
Can the running backs do the same as long as Jordan Love is able to do what we need him to do because of the offensive line in that running game?
I like the Packers all day long going in as 1.5.
One and a half point underdogs.
That was a little bit of a surprise to me.
Sure, the home field advantage at US Bank is pretty wild with the sound level there, but that half a point feels like a little bit of an insult those odd makers wanted to throw our way.
How did you guys feel?
Parker, what was your reaction when you saw those odds earlier this week?
I actually, I think I read that for the first time just before we started talking before the show here.
I don't know that I would have guessed that.
Ever to be perfectly honest, maybe I'm just not well educated enough on the Vikings this year to What I could here's why I tell you about the Vikings They've got the revolving door of their quarterback position and trying to figure out if Kyler Murray is gonna be the guy when frankly I'm a little bit excited for Kyler Murray for the Vikings this year because he's pretty much facing a maker break year I think for his career So I think if they're ever gonna have a quarterback really stand out it might be him this year But anyway, yeah that half the one and a half point
Spread and favor the Vikings that really did surprise me.
I'm sure I'm trying to think of what factors into that, right?
And my number one spot uncertainty at running back obviously with just shake-up situation.
And then as you were just talking about there, what is this defense going to look like?
And frankly, kind of a two, two and a half here is
Mike Parsons not can be in there and edge rusher a little bit of an experience there.
Jimmy, what are you expecting to see in this game?
So I just on the odds part of it.
I think the number one factor is that there, you mentioned it, the uncertainty.
Who do the Packers have?
I mean, they have a lot of solid but not spectacular guys kind of across the board.
There's not really a position that's a glaring weakness.
I mean, running back certainly, you know, has a lot of untested improvements there.
But like when you're when you're setting odds as an odds maker, you know, they're looking position by position.
They're looking at who's a difference maker?
Who do we give?
You know, more, you know, for lack of a way of putting it more points to in a game to set these odds.
And, you know, and Vegas is pretty right on this.
They don't they don't lose money for a reason, right?
And I think when you look up and down the Packers roster, you know, yeah, quarterback is pretty solid, you know, got a good receiver, got a couple of good defenders, but like you look up and down the roster and yeah, there's a lot of solid, but unspectacular guys.
And I think that's kind of the biggest factor in this is that they have, they have guys that are certainly serviced both their positions, but you know, it's not like the Packers are walking into the off season saying, Hey, you know, there's like nine guys that could be all pro.
That to me is the factor.
That and the Vikings are kind of in that same boat.
Yeah.
The quarterback situation kind of a mess.
Don't want to deal with the Vikings.
quarterback situation, much like the Packers never want to deal with it, like the Bears have, or even the Lions have had to do.
Packers have been pretty fortunate quarterback over the years, I think, historically lucky at that position and how they've managed it.
But back to the point, I just, I look at the roster construction, you look at the guys that are there, and that's kind of where the big thing is.
There's a three point home field advantage for every team when you go into odds making.
So that's, that's kind of the deal.
I think that's why, you know, you see such a close spread.
And by the way, the Packers are once again, one of like the
three or four youngest teams in the NFL.
And youth, those are some weird things, especially when we're in week one.
I think you're exactly right about that.
A solid but unspectacular, mostly across the board.
There are a couple of things specifically on defense that stand out.
What is Zaire Franklin going to bring in his replacement of Coy Walker?
He earned himself a starting linebacker spot, but that's less to do with construction than personnel.
Keeping with that same theme, Kishan Nixon seems to have earned himself a position as a starting quarterback again, opposite rookie Brandon Ceasey, the second round pick from earlier this year.
So that's pretty awesome to see the confidence in Ceasey, but to see the same defensive staff turn around and say, all right, we're going to put Kishan on the other side.
Not that Carrington Valentine has ever shown that he should get that spot, but I almost thought Benjamin St.
Juiced might stand a chance at that.
That is kind of my pick for a later season upset, by the way.
If I see Benjamin St.
Juiced kind of take on the starting role away from Keyshawn Nixon, first of all, Keyshawn is going to be apoplectic, but I don't think many of us are going to be incredibly surprised.
Other than that, though, everything is about what we expect with the absolute elite safety duo and Javon Bullard at the nickel, Kamal Haddon.
scooping up the backup nickel position.
I'm super excited there.
I'm just really worried that, I don't know, it's just from not having seen what Jonathan again is going to do back in a position as a defensive coordinator.
Again, like he's been with success before, maybe he'll just be a little more effective in that role now that he's not head coaching an entire team.
But yeah, I almost wonder, hey, if he does look good this week, is it just because he knows Kyler Murray so well, having been his head coach before?
Parker, I see you nodding.
Does that sound like something there might be something too?
Or am I wishful thinking right now?
I
mean, there's always, it's the NFL, it's a chess match.
There is so much going on that the casual fans don't think about.
Any inch that you can get, you're gonna take two feet, right?
If I know anything about Kyler Murray, if I'm Jonathan Gannon, I know a ton about Kyler Murray, and you better believe that I'm gonna use
everything that I've got on him.
And I'm gonna use it to my advantage and I'm trying to turn the ball over.
The Packers, they need to generate more turnovers.
I think kind of is a rule of thumb.
We could say, we could have said that about the Badgers we were talking about Frank earlier.
Need to generate more turnovers.
I think every football team ever, Jimmy, you're a coach, you know, every football team wants to generate more turnovers.
And they would absolutely love that against Keller Murray.
And Jonathan Gannon, hey, maybe in this game he's got a little extra edge.
awesome.
We got a few seconds here, but I do think the Packers are going to get off to a good start with the Vikings.
There's just a lot on resolve with Minnesota.
What do you guys think?
I'm expecting Jordan Love to have a pretty good nice game.
I think that we're going to see a little bit of a coming out party in year two for Matthew Golden is kind of my expectation.
I think they need to keep him the ball a ton more and they might lean on him more because.
as much as I saw that made me happy with those running backs earlier on in the preseason.
I'm not sure how I feel about him in a full season, so we'll see.
But I think Jordan will have a big game.
So we're all expecting Packers to do good things.
We're going to take a look back on the weekend sports with Mike Clements.
He'll be at the game and he'll go over with us next week as well.
Mike Clements sports weekend review comes your way here in just a couple of minutes.
Also going to flash back to high school football this week as well.
Packers Vikings though, you'll find it on the Civic Media Radio network in three different states.
this week.
This is Make The Call, part of the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
It is time now for a look at high school sports from around Wisconsin.
On WPFP in Park Falls, it was Phillips 46 Shawanagan Nothing.
Heading over to the southwestern part of the state, it was Ithaca Weston 12th Bangor 8.
On WRPN, it was Rippon defeating Wapan 2828.
In Wisconsin Rapids, it was Assumption defeating Athens 54-20 on WFHR.
And on WRPQ, the host Baraboo Thunderbirds,
falling to La Crosse Central 56-17.
Let's take a look at defending state champions now.
Defending eight player championship winner, Chip Will Falls McDonnell, got a win over Elmwood Plum City, now playing in Division 7, 30-16.
Kenosha St.
Joseph, shut out, Kingdom Prep Lutheran 47-0.
He was Darlington, staying undefeated, defeating Nuglarus 47-10.
Mavill over North Fondalac 56-7.
Winniconny, still on beaten, defeating Fox Valley Lutheran 22-14.
Grafton over Nicolette 49 to 28 West appear 4-0 on the year after beating a Schwabin on 38 to nothing and Arrowhead also 4-0 they beat Brookfield East 45 to 21 some top 10 scores from around the state Whitefish Bay defeated Menominee Falls 22-18 in southeastern, Wisconsin Mosquigo Blight Catholic Memorial 28 nothing in northeastern, Wisconsin freedom over Denmark 49 to 7 it was brilliant with an upset win 41 to 7 over New Holstein Valley Christian defeated Algoma 31 to 14 and
Hamhurst over Marathon 50-18.
An upset winner for DC Everest over Marshfield 10-9.
Spencer Marshfield Columbus 20.
Waiawaga Fremont 14.
That's also an upset win.
Edgar defeated Mondobee 15-8.
It was Regis over Elk Mountain 22-21 in Western Wisconsin.
Fafnallma 39.
Melrose-Mendoro 13.
Benton Scales Mountain Schulzberg 31.
Fenimore 28 in double overtime and upset.
Another upset Iowa Grant over Blackhawk Warren 56-32.
Evansville defeated
Now it's time for a Week in Review in Sports with Mike Clemens.
The Brewers are headed to the playoffs.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with the Wisconsin Sports Weekend Review.
We begin with the Milwaukee Brewers who've had the most wins in Major League Baseball all summer ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Last weekend, the Brewers, in the middle of a long stretch of games, got off to a rough start in Cincinnati against the Reds, beginning with a transportation holdup in Chicago, manager Pat Murphy.
You don't take any pregame.
It's an emotional series off the Cubs.
And the Reds had just beaten the Cubs two out of three.
They're a very talented team.
We know that.
Very capable.
They know us well.
Played good in this yard.
It's a very offensive yard tonight.
And yeah, we just kept pecking away.
The kid robs the Alba Homer.
Great catch.
They're playing with looseness and freedom.
You know, it's
a tough game to win.
The Brewers would end up losing this series to the last place Reds two games to one.
Then on Monday, they returned to Milwaukee to begin a three game series against the second place Cubs.
The Brewers winning that night four to three in front of a sold out crowd at American Family Field with a mix of Brewers and Cubs fans from Chicago.
Christian Yelich after the victory.
You know, it's obviously not the playoffs, but it's a mini playoff atmosphere.
It's probably the closest you can get before the postseason and, you know, anytime our teams get together.
no matter what time of the year it is.
It's big games, big series and they're usually pretty closely contested and you got to execute
and you know guys got to make plays to win.
Garrett Mitchell.
with a key RBI and catch in center field.
Yeah, I feel like a lot of those games against the Cubs have a playoff atmosphere either here or there, but a testament to the guy just sticking
through it all the way to the end.
Then game two Tuesday night went into extra innings.
Pat Murphy saying a few words of support to rookie Luis Laura before he swung at the first pitch in the bottom of the 10th to drive in the winning run.
Brian Anderson with the
call.
The Brewers beat the Cavs!
They walk them off in tenonies!
Then on Wednesday, the Brewers completing a three game sweep of the Cubs.
They held on to win eight to six to end a long stretch of 16 game days in a row without a day off.
On Friday night, the Brewers clobbered the Reds in Milwaukee with home runs from catcher William Contreras.
Bryce Terrang.
and Garrett Mitchell, who hit the Brewers' first grand slam of the season, the final score, Milwaukee 20, Cincinnati nothing.
And with that, the Brewers clinched a playoff spot for the fourth year in a row on New Brewers' franchise record.
In college football, the Wisconsin Badgers are at home this weekend.
They've got two non-conference games this week.
They host the Western Illinois Leathernecks.
Next week, they play Eastern Michigan at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison before going on the road at the end of the month to Penn State.
The Badgers...
opening up the season in a nationally televised game against Notre Dame at Lambeau Field.
They kept it close in the first half, 13 to 10.
Before mistakes like turnovers, a lost kick return led to a 41 to 13 loss.
Badger's head coach Luke Fickle.
Well, obviously a tale of two halves.
I don't have a great explanation for the second half.
I get a lot of credit.
You know, I thought that, you know,
we kind of held the energy and create a lot of momentum in the first half and the second half we could do none.
They physically got after us in the second half.
NFL, the Packers kicking off the season in Minnesota this weekend against the Vikings.
Now with Josh Jacobs out after pleading no contest to domestic violence charges in court on Thursday, third year man, Marshawn Lloyd takes over as the number one running back after dealing with injuries his first two years in Green Bay.
I'm excited.
This is my first real week one game.
So it's a dream come true.
I've always wanted to play the NFL and now my dream baby come
true.
Packers court.
back Jordan Love on what he told Lloyd before Sunday's game.
That's what they brought you here to do is to
might have seen that, but he's been working.
The Vikings head coach, Kevin O'Connell, was asked, how did the team decide to make Kyler Murray their starting quarterback?
I think it's kind of been in alignment with how we're evolving and adapting as a team with some of the changes we've made on the staff, personnel-wise, that Kyler's comfortable.
So the Packers go into this game at U.S.
Bank Stadium in Minnesota as one and a half point underdogs.
This is week one NFC North rival.
I mean, this is the one staring us right in the face.
So it's absolutely important that we get off in the right foot.
That's the Packers head coach Matt LoFlor with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
I'm Mike Clemens.