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Now, it's time for Make the Call, the Civic Media Sports Production.
Indeed, another weekend is upon us.
It is Make the Call, the Civic Media radio network.
I'm Jimmy Cuskas, sports director here.
And along for the ride today are Greg Gunderson in the Northwoods.
Greg, what's up, man?
Bad
Is that why the Packers' flag
down?
Okay.
Well, we'll bounce back from that.
I'm sure there is some glowing optimism coming from Parker vertical Olson in the capital city of Wisconsin.
Parker, where's that?
I need the glowing optimism
right now.
I'm in distress, Jimmy.
That's why the flag is upside down.
We're distressed.
United
in distress.
Clearly.
We need, we need something to get us right.
So, you know, I was going to sit here and talk like, Hey, let's recap the Packers game.
Let's get, get ready for bat.
I think we need to cheer up a little bit here at the start of the show.
So how about this guys?
The Milwaukee Brewers for the first time ever, and the first MLB team since 2023 have won 100 baseball games.
Furthermore, the Brewers.
I've clinched the best record in baseball, and they have home field advantage through the entirety of the postseason.
That's got to lift your spirits a little bit, guys.
Come on, let me know.
It's lifted your spirits right a little
bit.
That helped a lot.
Yeah, I definitely watched the Boers win their honours game rather than the Packers for the start of it.
Well, it is exciting for the Brewer's.
I think there's an interesting dilemma there with the Brewer's because now the weekend series with St.
Louis becomes more or less exhibition.
They don't need to win any more games.
They've clinched.
But on the other side of that, they don't play until
next Saturday at the start of the NLDS and I guess that at that point you're kind of managing rest versus rust in a way but regardless the weekend series all of a sudden
you know, you don't have to, you know, get up and down with every run.
I mean, the Brewers have clinched everything they needed to.
And I would say going into the year, I don't think anybody would have expected that not only with the Brewers, you know, I think maybe we thought they'd be playoffs, but to be over 100 wins and have the top record in baseball, that's crazy guys.
Yeah, I mean, they have definitely overperformed because I think we were thinking, yeah, at best, it'll be as good as they were last year, probably.
And this is even better than they were last year.
And they've got the
pitching to kind of make you think, ooh, they might really do something in postseason here.
I am pretty interested though in this.
these last couple of three games that don't matter really at all.
I'm interested to see who gets any time pitching, right?
Because we've kind of seen auditions for guys like Dustin May.
Other guys are going to probably get to pitch a bit more earlier the last week or so.
We heard that Mizorowski would have a kind of a longer start than his previous one, which is only three innings.
I'm interested to see if the plan has changed at all now that they're not playing for literally anything.
Well, the Brewers will have, again, home field advantage throughout the entire postseason.
They'll start with the NLDS.
That'll be a week from Saturday, depending on when you're listening to the show.
So about a week that they'll be back in action.
They're playing the Cardinals, of course, this weekend.
But we'll have the Brewers on our
Milwaukee Brewers Radio Network stations here in Civic Media.
We've got five of them, so pretty much any part of the state you're in, you're going to find the Brewers on the radio dial.
We'll have all that coverage for you here again with Civic Media, and obviously we'll be locked in here this postseason.
We'll bring in some guests.
We'll talk a lot of baseball as the Brewers make a push for their first ever World Series.
title in the show today.
Jay Kokorowski, a Badger observer will join us.
We're going to talk a lot about the Badger's football team off to a two and one start after beating up on a couple of directional schools.
They get Penn State on Saturday.
If you're listening to us after the game Saturday, you'll get a glimpse.
I guess you're going to go into the past and do a time capsule and see what we had to say about that matchup going in.
And of course later in the show, because the Packers had a Thursday night game, our green and gold recap, and we'll do all of that here later in the program.
as well as a sports week in review with Mike Clemens.
This is Make The Call, part of the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media.
Welcome back.
It is time now to talk a little more football and we are going to dive right in on the Badgers probably talk a little other badger sports here in just a second as well, but obviously we'll start with football because right now Wisconsin getting ready for big 10 play and we welcome back to the program after a couple of weeks away Jay Kokorowski of Badger Observer and badgerobserver.com Well, I guess the easy thing here to talk about first right away.
Jake is that
We were looking at this third Badgers game, kind of wondering, you know, hey, when's the team, you know, what's the offense going to click?
When are we going to start seeing, you know, maybe some shades of a dominant performance?
And, oh, they certainly got a lot of points and yards against the directional school against Eastern Michigan in their most recent outing.
What were you looking for in their final non-conference game to maybe lift the confidence a bit of what the Spadgers team might look like going into the big 10 portion of their schedule?
Well, certainly not the first quarter where it was 7-3 at the end of it.
But I think the things that give, should give Wisconsin Spadger fans more hope or a little bit more hype is
the explosive plays.
And yeah, we saw the 72 yard run by Abu Sama, you know, the third against Western Illinois.
Same thing with Darian Dupree with his touchdown run where he was able to break it there against the Leathernecks.
But for me, really, it is a, I would say,
you know that the passing plays like we've been wanting to see Colton Joseph start airing it out a little bit more uh just you know because he had a great he could air it out deep at Old Dominion so as a reporter like okay how's it gonna translate in Jeff Grimes offense and how is it gonna translate to you know obviously a little bit more enhanced competition and so you saw that from him you know
It was a little underthrown, but the conditions weren't great.
The 75-yard touchdown to Chris Brooks, Jr.
You saw the ground, he was helped a lot by, you know, Jacob Harris.
He placed the ball nicely, but Jacob Harris had that one-handed catch.
And Jacob Harris nearly averaged 30 yards per reception against Eastern Michigan.
So those are what you wanted to see.
You still want to see a little bit of, I would say, a little more accuracy on those deep balls.
But we all know, I mean, it's tough.
And it was pretty rainy there in Madison on Saturday.
But I think also the other part would be the turnovers.
And I think that that's a big key there.
You had the interceptions there.
You had the strip sack that turned into a Cooper Catalano touchdown in the third quarter that really put the game away even further.
Even the block kick at the end of the game, which I mean, that whole end scenario was kind of goofy.
But hey, you block a kick.
Freshman, Donovan, Denmark, go run that, man.
Go get your first touchdown, you know, three games into your collegiate career.
So that, you know, so I think that.
adds more right.
The only other thing I'll say though is the special teams, I mean Gavin Loms seven for seven this year's place kicker for field goals.
You also have a, you know, their block, they have three field or three punt blocks and then a field goal block within the first three games of the season.
I think that you, I don't know what more you can ask for that and they are putting pressure and that's going to be big going into an atmosphere like Happy Valley to see if they can tread ups at Penn State.
Yeah, Jake, we saw the Badgers actually kind of start to do what we've expected them to do and start to look like how maybe you would expect them to look against a directional school like this.
But obviously that's slow start, but a lot of good positives out of that.
As you do walk into Happy Valley, that's going to be kind of tough.
Very good football team over there and obviously not a caliber of team that the Badgers have gotten the last couple of weeks.
The first game against Western Illinois for sure was a lot left to be desired.
What is this game against Eastern Michigan kind of signal for the Badgers as they move into Penn State?
I think it's they did what they're supposed to do.
And there wasn't pretty, I mean, it wasn't pretty, you know, one the first quarter, but also the run game didn't really get going.
Now Eastern Michigan really could have sold out against the run, which.
You know, you're going to stack the box.
You're going to run blitz.
You're going to try to stop what Wisconsin's been known to do and what they're trying to reestablish.
And, you know, they're also all without Abu Sama the third.
But I would argue even Darian Dupri might be the best back to run between the tackles for Wisconsin right now because you've seen Sama try to bounce out, especially against Western Illinois, trying to continually bounce out to the outside where he could have gained four to five yards on certain carries.
So I think, you know,
They took care of business the way they should have.
I mean, the 28 unanswered points in the second quarter where they go crazy there.
I think that's a huge, huge win there for Wisconsin.
I mean, and the biggest thing too, I'll say it was complimentary football.
Yeah, it wasn't complimentary with the run game and the passing game, but you'll take what you get, what Eastern Michigan gives you.
And so I think that's big, but the offense scoring points, allowing the defense to rely.
get rest on the sideline and then the special teams, you know, playing really well.
I mean, that's that's what you want to see.
And that's what we've been really looking for consistently from this Wisconsin program since Luke Fickle took over.
And so that's the thing, I mean, and it's a very tough environment in Happy Valley.
And, you know, it's going to be more of a nighttime game, right?
It's going to be, you know, five o'clock Eastern time, four o'clock Central time.
So I think if you carry it over the complimentary football, the creation of the turnovers, you know, that, you know, special teams play that those are all recipes for success for Wisconsin on the road.
And for any team that's going up against a top 25 program.
Jake, looking at it on paper here, it stands out that this is a, well, not necessarily a thin defensive secondary for Wisconsin right now, but relatively compared to other position groups, like a massive defensive line and linebackers that have been overperforming a little bit, perhaps, or at least playing as well as you'd hope they would.
Coming up against a Nittany Lions passing attack that is not just efficient, but has thrown up some big plays.
I think they're averaging over 10 yards per attempt right now and playing some really clean passing football.
Are we going to be relying on the defensive secondary and testing
that or do you think it's going to be more about pass rush to get this get this locked up this weekend?
I mean, the pass rush has to get better.
I mean, I'll start with that.
That's how that you can really help a secondary that
you know, Kai Bates announced on, you know, his Instagram and injury that, you know, and Wisconsin listed them and is out on their availability, you know, their first and second availability reports already this week.
So you have that, I would argue, you know, and then, yeah, I mean, you have, you know, Javon Robinson, who, you know, he gave up that 18 year touchdown to start the game against Eastern Michigan, but he's, he's still a leader in that group, you know, Jameer Scott.
Really good.
You can play both the field and the boundary sides of the cornerback spot so you can do both.
You like what someone like Eric Fletcher Jr.
can do on the field side.
He's speedy.
He's the one that blocked that field goal at the end of the game, but that's on special teams, obviously.
So you need to help those guys out.
I feel like Matt Young and Marvin Berks Jr.
and Kairos Gaines have played pretty well as safeties, but you're going to need, I mean,
This is a very, you know, yeah, Matt Campbell is a new coach in Penn State, but he brought over so many Iowa State players that there is some, you know, continuity taken over from his old Iowa State days.
And Robert Steeples, remember the Wisconsin's cornerbacks coach, you know, he worked underneath Matt Campbell last year.
And so, you know, so that'll help, but you have to get that pass rush going.
You have to, you can't just have Sebastian cheeks, you know, and he's had a
Deller start like we all saw it during spring ball and fall camp Sebastian cheeks I mean he's played himself in NFL contention just because of the just how we can get off the ball how we can you know and he just off the edge like that now who else can do that who got you know we've seen denigral Cooper the transfer defensive lineman from Appalachian State get some pass rush on the interior but you need someone else on the outside can Nick Clayton can they can Wisconsin start pass right you know utilizing him more and pass rush because
him and cheeks are kind of one, two in terms of that, those capabilities.
The other part two, I would say is, yeah, I mean, can you get Cooper Catalano or Mason Posa involved off the outside or through the A gaps on or B gaps on Blitz is to, you know, can they use some stunts up front where they, you know, in with the defensive line.
So those are some of the things that we're, you know, that I'm watching for tomorrow or, you know, or, you know, Saturday, we're just, hey,
this team, you know, like you need to have more than just one main pass rusher.
And so, and especially during big 10 play, and you get the pass rush, and that only helps secondary and allows them to make more plays.
Talking to Jake Kokorowski, BadgerObserver and BadgerObserver.com where you can find coverage of all things Badgers, recruiting, games, everything else that you need to know about Wisconsin.
Make sure you sign up for that.
Hit a big milestone lately, Jake.
I think you topped a big nice round number of subscribers to that.
Congrats on that.
I am curious though on your thoughts with Wisconsin heading into Happy Valley and just the atmosphere and that.
We've talked a lot already about what's going to happen
position by position and everything but you know this atmosphere is one of the more unique ones in college football and it could be pretty overwhelming especially for wisconsin after you know playing a neutral site game and a couple of home games against uh i hate to say it inferior opponents uh and now they get to face a team on their level uh on the road and a stadium that can pack in you know 100 000 plus
absolutely i mean it's going to be a tough environment that's just the way this goes when it comes to you know big ten play and it's also
It's Wisconsin.
This is one of their, you know, Notre Dame was the big one.
You have Penn State.
You have USC.
You have, you know, you're going to add Iowa and Halloween, which that may be the only road test that's more difficult than this one.
But this is a, it's a formidable environment.
So many fans pack into Beaver Stadium.
And this is also, I mean, you're going up against the team where, you know, a lot of people were wondering what Matt Campbell could do at Penn State.
And, you know, it was a great hire.
It's one of those really stumbled into it.
Uh, at the end where, you know, they, you know, they're obviously the reports of Connie Sataki from, uh, BYU and then other things like that, you know, and then just trying to find their coaching such an old Matt rules name was thrown around, you know, with, uh, uh, it was a Scuttlebutt.
If that's the right terminology, the rumors and rumblings, but, uh, you know, Matt Campbell is a really good coach and, you know, it's also for me, you know, trying to get something going on defense, uh, an offense, I should say where.
You know, Wisconsin passed well.
Well, that defense is only allowing like 90 yards per game passing through through games.
Again, cupcakes, right?
For for Penn State, but all signs point to having another, you know, just because they change a head coach doesn't mean the defense is really changing what what the standards are.
So, you know, they're going to have to deal with the noise.
They're going to have to deal with, you know, yeah, just the fans going, you know, it's a hostile environment.
And so some of the Luke Fickle referred to during his Monday press conference.
So it's there's a lot for Wisconsin.
But again,
If you can win the special teams battle, if you can win, you know, you get turnovers, I think you need to be at least have at least two to three turnovers generated.
And if you win, you can't beat yourself up on those penalties.
And oh, it's very cliche.
But if you have those three things, you're going to give yourself a good shot on the road against the top 15 team.
Better football walking into Happy Valley.
Obviously a really hostile environment.
Also a hostile environment is Wisconsin's own Fieldhouse Badger volleyball off to a nice start to the year.
I believe sitting at seven and four right now.
Jake, they just got their first match up against a big 10 opponent taken down Oregon the other nights.
I believe three sets to one.
The Big 10 obviously is such a gauntlet in volleyball.
It feels like practically every team in that conference is ranked.
And obviously, their schedule reflects that, that remains, but it kind of looks like that as well from their non-conference schedule.
There's so many ranked opponents there.
How prepared do you think the Badgers are for this really, really tough schedule that they've got?
I mean, they got number 10 Purdue, number 18, Indiana, and number 15, Minnesota.
That's just their next three games, Jake.
Are they ready for those opponents right now?
I mean, it's a great question because we saw at the end of the two non-conference matchups against Marquette and Milwaukee, you know, Kelly Sheffield was not pleased after that Milwaukee match.
And so, you know, Wisconsin came out, yeah, Oregon won the first set, but they're also the number 20 team in the nation, according to the ABC rankings for a reason.
And you saw them, I mean, Thursday gives more hope.
Because they came back, you know, and then that first set they could have taken that first set, you know They came back and almost won that first set against Oregon But they they come out pretty much dominate that second set third set they were down 2215 rollback, you know and in great serves by Charlie Furbringer and Isabel Hoppe and then
Desolese champion when that set point for Oregon to go up to one has two huge kills and then you know organ falters with two errors thereafter and then Wisconsin just dominates the fourth set by hitting over 600 which is an astronomical number in volleyball and so for in my eyes, I think that did a lot especially against ring to point out Purdue obviously top 10 team, you know, yeah, this is a I mean, it's a
I'm not going to call it a murderer's row because you're not seeing Nebraska in there or even Penn State at this point.
But yeah, you have to play Purdue on the road.
That's going to be a rough one.
I mean, it's going to be televised in the Big Ten Network so they're going to be able to see just what this team's made of in another hostile environment.
The thing that makes me intrigued in this, guys, is just the fact that
The non-conference really prepared them for this.
They went on the road at Texas and at Texas A&M.
They won at Texas A&M.
I think that's the one that really stands out to me like that.
And they've got up against top 10 ranked Florida program too recently.
And so then granted I was at home, but they've found ways like against Florida.
like against Oregon, like against Texas A&M to pull out gritty type wins.
And they've responded after, you know, even getting swept after Kentucky in the season opening match at the ABCA first serve in Milwaukee, they come back less than 24 hours later and they sweep Louisville, who's, you know, a top 10 team right now.
So, you know, but it's also just, there's a lot of youth.
There's a lot of, you know, inexperience in, you know, this is a group that has nine freshmen on the roster.
So I think the big thing there is really just, you know,
It may not be as consistent.
I think Wisconsin, you know, towards the end of this season could be a juggernaut just with Desley's champion coming in and instantly inserting herself five matches in.
And you have Audrey Flanagan, who's getting a lot better on the as an outside hitter as a freshman.
You know, Charlie Furbringer is one of, if not the best setters in the nation, if not the best setter in the nation.
And you also like with the middle blockers we're seeing
you know, JL August, when she starts coming back, you know, in the, you know, more match play, I think that's going to be huge too.
And, but there's a lot of youth on this team, so it could be a little uneven, but it's one of those things where I think like last season where we saw the team really gel, that's, that's, it could be a really positive team, you know, just, yeah, there's a lot of positive things going on at the end of the year, but this.
Stretch is really going to tell a lot about this team in big template.
Jay Kokorowski, Badger Observer and BadgerObserver.com.
We appreciate all of your insights this week.
We'll be bugging you again next week ahead of Homecoming, which I'm sure you've got your own float plan for all that and the big parade and everything.
Looking forward to talking to you for football next week at Michigan State.
Thanks for your time.
And again, as always, appreciate the awesome insight into the program.
I got a budget for float.
What did you do?
You just had a thousand subscribers, right?
You can tell me this.
But no, you guys have a great week.
We'll talk to you guys next week.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Thanks, Jake.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
We are halfway past here in Make the Call on the Civic Media radio network, and we transitioned from Badgers football, which we are feeling slightly better about after a couple of wins.
Now to Packers football, which we are decidedly not feeling too great after three games to start the year.
The Packers, by all rights, should be 0-3 right now.
The comeback against the Jets
The Jets handed that to them on a silver platter.
And it's looking more and more like after the Thursday night loss to Atlanta, like things might not be going so well in Green Bay.
October football as they posted is up next for the Packers, but the September football was very decidedly bad.
So let's start with the negative because we got to get all of this out of the way.
And we've set it for the last two green and gold recaps that we've done guys, but.
It's the offensive line is where it starts for me.
The offensive line is not functioning.
32, I believe hits or sacks on Jordan Love through three games, which is the most in something like two decades.
That's not sustainable over a whole season if you want your quarterback to be in one piece.
No,
Not whatsoever.
One thing that really stands out to me is at least per pro football focus right now.
Love is currently getting the ball out faster than any quarterback in the league.
And yes, at the time of having this conversation, they've got one more game than any other team out there besides the besides the Falcons, of course.
But even though he's the fastest
to throw the ball right now.
He's among the top three in the number of pressures and the frequency of pressures, which is just another way of saying that offensive line is completely collapsing.
And when things do go well, it's usually because Jordan Love is rushing the offense and still throwing well.
He's got good rapport with receivers.
Matthew Golden, maybe the bright spot of that game.
Tucker Kraft had a catch or two, but absolutely nothing looks viable right now.
Andrew Whitworth was having a conversation with the other talking heads at halftime, and he pointed out that the Packers offense is predicated around a run threat.
And then you take shots when
The defense is adjusting to stop the run.
You take advantage of the gaps they leave.
And right now, there's just no running threat whatsoever.
Caleb Johnson might be having some of the most success, but Marshawn Lloyd is still getting the most touches and below three yards per carry.
It's just a non viable version of the offense.
The other thing right now, it was the fewest Packers rushing yards in a game since I think the year 2000.
And these are only sniff tests.
I haven't looked at the all 22 yet.
But sometimes the sniff test is I mean, we're Limburger levels, guys.
This is absolutely not.
The other thing that threw me off and maybe this is this is what I'd like to hear from you guys about Tucker Kraft was commenting on the booze that came during the home opener.
And what you want to hear when a team leader is reacting to the home crowd booing is it starts with us.
We have to be accountable.
Oh my goodness.
It was it's the response I'm hearing is that Tucker sounded soft.
It's that they weren't talking about accountability.
People were paying over a hundred bucks as a get in price.
And now we're hearing complaints of booze when they were stinking it up.
that much.
Guys, do we even need to look past the sniff test here?
Parker, what do you think?
I mean, if you look past the sniff test, you just see more word I can't say on the radio.
It's not good.
There are so few good points right now in this team to look at that it's just infuriating to watch.
I mean, the Packers have got 146 rushing yards in three games.
Three games, they have 146 rushing yards.
You know how many yards Bijan Robinson had last night?
More than that.
It's just, I can't find anything good right now.
The good things that there are to see are how good the receiving core is.
Well, you'll ask Jayden Reed and your guys are dropping passes right now.
Right, they're looking beautiful standing there, like statues on the perimeter, not even getting accurate throws out of love right now.
And if the tendencies from this pass game are anything to go by, love was a little less accurate than he has been.
And I sit here wondering if those hits that he's taken already are starting to accumulate and show a little bit.
Speaking of, in case we didn't need any more bad news, at the time of having this conversation on the day that we're talking about this, Packer's center, Sean Ryan, currently being evaluated with an X-ray on his right thumb.
Now, I don't want to pile on these guys too much.
They're professionals.
They're good people.
I'm quite certain.
But at the same time, Sean Ryan is the only one performing at a mediocre level or better after Zack Bacobouele was lost for the season.
And now it looks like we might lose him.
So all of my optimism about one-to-one backups, five backups, five starters, most of those backups are going to be starting for at least a significant portion of this season.
And even the starters don't look capable right now.
My question is, Jimmy, maybe you can weigh in on this.
At what point do you think the
start to look at position coaches.
I know everybody's calling for Matt LaFleur's head right now, but there is an offensive line coach and there's a question of whether player evaluation comes into this.
I spoke with Mike Clemens about that on Friday and he said, look, anybody can run block.
You pay guys to pass block and it is just.
not happening right now.
Jimmy, as a high school football coach, what are you thinking when you watch the offensive line, especially in those past blocking situations?
I'm not sure high school football coach is enough of a resume to properly evaluate NFL work.
Give it a shot.
I'll say this first, though.
The Packers offensive line situation, I think people could have seen this coming when two of the five projected starters had injury issues going into the year between the former Zach Tom and then, of course, with
you know, also having injury issues.
So when you compound that with more injury issues, you know, you start looking, well, where are they going to find guys?
Well, the practice squad is mostly linemen, right?
So most of these guys, there's a couple of guys that have experienced, but you're talking about replacement level players at one of the sport's most important positions.
And that is, you know, if it's one, protecting your quarterback, getting the wrong game going, all of that.
So
I think a microcosm, what you're talking about too, with the offense in that the run sets up everything.
I just go back to the fourth and one call.
I mean, when it was fourth and one, I literally shouted across the living room at everybody else that was here with me last night or Thursday night with my wife, my kids, whatever.
I'm like, well, fourth and one, this is not going to go well.
And sure enough, they play faked on it.
They did a play action play and a rollout and threw it to absolutely nobody.
So when your run game doesn't exist, the teams can just tee off on you on the pass.
I think there's where anybody doesn't get to be a coach You don't have to be a high school pro and a college coach to know that you know when when you become predictable in any sport When teams can just key and lock on to things
you know, what are the Vikings do?
They just kept sending the house.
What did the Falcons start doing?
They just started sending Russia.
They were sending six on even the non-obvious passing downs, knowing the Packers weren't going to even try.
The Packers are the most past heavy play call in the NFL right now.
And it's not even close.
They are throwing something like almost 70% of on their play calls.
So there's something
Happening this year early on that is not going to according to plan and to me it feels like if you're abandoning the run abandoning a key part of what sets up the rest of your offense There is no way to have success for that.
So, you know, whether it's your playcaller Which happens to be person of charge, but whether it's position coach I don't know that you can lay this at the feet of even the position coaches because they are doing the most with what they can do with what they were given by you know the front office and
You know going into the year knowing that offensive line was going to be you know a big question mark With all the injuries and everything I just felt like they didn't do a lot to address it Which is why when you guys you us three sat here all through August and talking about training camp set up What position did I keep coming back to offensive line because I just wasn't seeing it
when immediately one thing that comes to mind for me is back in March there was a story that made some waves when the NFL players Association released what might be their last round of publicly available player
port cards.
We talked about it at the time because one of the things that stood out, Matt LaFleur ranked among the bottom five of current NFL head coaches in terms of player respect.
And people were even sitting there asking at the time, what exactly does that even mean?
Well, I think we're starting to see the fruits of that kind of poison tree, if you will.
And it's beginning to look like, hey, or at least the question is starting to present itself.
Does Matt LaFleur have what it takes to get the minds right in the locker room using Tucker Kraft as a litmus test?
He's kind of blaming fans for booing, not blame necessarily, but he's got to be looking at himself and saying, hey, we have to earn the positive reactions from the crowd.
And he should be out there beating his chest saying, I have to do better as a team leader.
The closest I've heard to that is Jordan Love saying, everything has to improve.
And it starts with me when really, if there's anything that if there's any one player that's doing as much as.
can possibly done with what they've got, it's Jordan Love right now.
So that's something that I've seen Parker.
Would you say the Packers have any fire right now?
I mean, the most fire that I see comes strangely enough from the defense, even though they just got absolutely rocked the other night.
Lucas Van Ness is like a man out of a cannon, pretty much every snap.
Lucas Van Ness has become my favorite guy on that defense while Micah Parsons is still sitting out.
And by the way, Micah Parsons, holy smokes, have you been seeing him on the sidelines during these games?
He looks like he's coaching up the guys and I guarantee he is and he's providing a lot of fire there.
So yeah, I mean, that's kind of where my mind goes for who's got a little bit of fire right now because we're all hitting much in the nail and heavy.
Offensive line is not getting it done right now.
And I am going to assign a small bit of blame to the front office right now.
I cannot believe they have not made one move since week one.
You already saw that your offensive line was hurting.
You saw it even more last week that your offensive line was hurt after Zach Bacabalele went down.
I mean, I don't understand how they have not looked at that and gone.
We need to bring in somebody, if it's a free agent, just to give us more depth.
I don't care how good he is, give him some depth, because you're going to need to be able to rotate guys out here and there.
That's kind of where my mind has gone on that.
But I mean, yeah, the defense,
pretty much has had the most flashes of good every now and then Matt LaFleur I think I might have said this last week every now and then Matt LaFleur has a really good drive play calling like he did on that drive where he ended up going for him fourth and one and rolling out Jordan Love on a play action play to throw it to no one in particular that was a pretty well played pretty well called drive up to that point it's just
To me, it seems like the floor is in over his head almost.
Like there's just too much on his plate.
We've seen that with time management in the past, with using timeouts in weird spots.
He did that again last night, I believe, at the end of the first half.
Couldn't decide if he was trying to stop the clock and get the ball back or not.
Yeah, he just seems like he doesn't have it.
There's too much going on for him, I think, to keep his offense going well.
And who knows if that's affecting that?
ranking of guys not respecting him enough or not.
I don't really know, but it seems like a flaw to me and I would certainly like to see what our offensive coordinator is capable of, Jimmy.
Do you see the floor handing over the play calling keys anytime soon here and maybe reflecting it on himself that maybe we just need to try something new this way?
I'm not sure that in a head coach situation that he's going to take things away from himself, but here's the reality and I think
Us three and pretty much anybody who's watched this team can attest to this there's got to be some sort of change that happens here early in the year because Otherwise you're talking about kind of a you know You're talking about a lost season and you know the Packers it's a long year, right?
We're three games in the Packers are one and two It's you know, there's a lot of still 14 games to play a lot can change You know, they could still go on a bit of a winning ride.
They can make the playoffs You know, it's easier to make the playoffs now with more games and more playoff spots, but I do think that
you know, at some point you do have to consider that, you know, there's a lot, like you said, there's a lot going on and whether or not the Packers have the sort of capital to go around and deal with it.
I mean, people are already talking and looking at next year, an NFL draft that could potentially be pretty loaded and the Packers don't have a first round draft pick in it.
People are already looking that far forward, right?
And that's pretty crazy because there's still 14 games to play this year.
But I do think that things will have to change for the better.
And I'm not sure what that change entails.
I don't think it's going to be as drastic as dismissing a head coach.
But I do think that there will be something that ships there or has to be something that ships here now with this week and a half between games that that can get them back on track because
Honestly, what you've seen in the first three games, they should be 0-3 by all rights, what you've seen here in the first three weeks and we can see it right now in the Parkfall studio with the flag in distress there with the Packers there, the flag being hung upside down, something will have to change at some point because honestly, it isn't sustainable to continue as they are.
The way I would put it, if forced to, and I'm not forced to, but I'm going to anyway, is that I think so far the season is defined by how necessary some clear major adjustments really are, which then lends itself to the question, do we have the leadership to make those adjustments?
Matt LaFleur by record on paper is one of the most successful coaches in NFL history over, I think, through six or in especially seven years.
Wait, he's a
highly successful coach, is what you're saying?
You will yeah, no no no by by win record alone your reference for those who oh is it really oh my goodness Yes, I'm a bad packer fan.
I'm afraid I might have been a little bit too young back in the Mike McCarthy days But no, it's it's something that it's something that really just leads itself naturally to that question Do we have the people in place to make the changes that need to be made?
is the culture of Green Bay pointed at making the moves that need to be made, quiet transaction wires and waiting till the off season to make large adjustments, kind of the hallmark of the Packers, you know, developing internally as opposed to bringing people in from outside.
Micah Parsons not withstanding.
I'm beginning to wonder if it's possible to squeeze success out of the same rock they've been squeezing it out of for years now.
And I think the answer is looking more like no than ever before.
The Mike McCarthy reference was at a press conference where reporters were questioning
whether the kind of the same ball Packers were struggling and he came up to the podium and he's like, I'm a highly successful football coach.
was, that's my best Mike McCarthy impersonation.
Um, all right.
Well, we are out of time because we have to get to a high school recap and a sports speaking review, but this has been our weekly green and gold recap here as part of make the call.
There will not be one on Monday because Packers have already played this week.
So.
If you're looking forward to that Monday, it'll return following the game against Tampa Bay on the first weekend of October.
Guys, thank you for your time today.
It's great to talk sports to you guys.
Enjoy.
We've got the Badgers and Penn State on tap.
Whitewater is the only D3 school in Wisconsin.
The WIC going to speak in Parker's thrilled.
Yeah.
weekend and we'll be talking again here.
We know
guys.
This is make the call part of the civic media radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
It's time now for a look at high school football from around the state.
On the Civic Media radio network, it was Gilman defeating Assumption in a matchup of the number one and number two ranked teams in eight player football.
Gilman beating Assumption 44-6.
And a double header on WFHR, Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln took down Eau Claire Memorial 39-25.
On WRCO, it was Plattville blanking River Valley 35-0.
In a game heard on both WJMS and WCQM, it was Hurley all over Shawamagin 58-8.
WRPN had Berlin shutting out RIP and 14 to nothing.
And on WRPQ, it was Reedsburg putting up 74 points, defeating Baraboo 74 to seven defending state champions.
McDonnell suffered a loss to Osio Fairchild 20 to eight.
Kenosha St.
Joseph B. Brookfield Academy 55 to six.
Darlington stays undefeated, getting past Venomore 45 to six.
Mayville over St.
Mary Springs 42 to 12.
Winniconny still undefeated by one point winners over Xavier 17 to 16.
Grafton fell
to West Band West 33-21.
West appears still undefeated, 35-10 winners over Pulaski and Arrowhead shout out Economa Walk 35-0 to stay undefeated as well.
Top 10 upsets include Ithaca Weston over Kashton in overtime 20-14, Nina defeating Appleton North 21-14, Watertown Luther Prep over Lake Country Lutheran 24-21, and Hartford taking down the nominee falls 29-27.
Top 10 matchups around the state, number one freedom over number two little shoot 49-29,
Hamilton gets by Catholic Memorial 48-14 Homestead over Whitefish Bay 42-20, Muskego Downs Franklin 31-6, Delaware Vendorian over Evansville 32-22 and River Ridge beating Iowa Grant 39-26.
Now it's time for a Mike Clemens Sports Week in Review.
Thank you for listening to Make The Call.
Troubles in Titletown.
Hi, I'm Mike Cummins with the Wisconsin Sports Week in review.
NFL, the Green Bay Packers off to a rocky start.
They're now one and two for the season after being outmatched by the Atlanta Falcons.
35 to 14 on Thursday night football.
Packers quarterback Jordan Love after the loss.
Couldn't execute and couldn't make plays out there.
So a lot of stuff that wasn't good and you know, we couldn't get into a groove, I feel like.
And obviously there's a lot of stuff that we need to improve on myself.
to start with for sure.
Packers wide receiver Christian Watson led the team in receptions and scored the first touchdown and was asked what is the most disappointing aspect of this right now in Green Bay.
The kind of team that you know we you know want to be the team that you know we work so hard enough season to be you know obviously just you know not you know seeing that right away.
I mean it's just the fact that we're putting you know stuff like that on film I think is the most disappointing part to me.
By
the end of the second quarter
The players and coaches could hear the 76,000 fans of Lambeau Field booing as the Packers headed to the locker room at halftime.
Tight end Tucker Kraft asked about this after the game.
Tucker, how hard is it to hear the fans boo?
Yeah, it's pretty tough.
You know, like everyone pictures Lambo Field and not booze.
I don't picture booze.
I picture my home stadium.
That's tough.
It's pretty disappointing.
Especially for a home opener.
Especially for a home opener.
It's not going to help us win.
I don't know.
People think that's going to rally us.
It would be much easier with the 70,000 people behind us rather than opposing us.
Do the players understand how frustrated the fans are right now?
Rookie Defensa Beck, Brandon Cise.
I understand the frustrations, but in the day everything that matters in here is internal.
It's easy to look at the game from a fan's perspective and you see a play bus or you see something come up off the sideline and you don't know the call, but you just see the person that's closest to it.
So that's the quick first thing for you guys to blame.
that's just kind of.
It's just kind of like frustrated because you don't really know the game, but you but you see it from a fans perspective.
But you know, it's obviously frustrating for us.
You know these fans, they pay a lot of money to come watch us play.
So we need to make sure that we play better in the future and this is our home.
So we need to be better.
The Falcons dominated the time of possession as they're running back.
Bijan Robinson, just 24 years old is one of the very best in the league.
He rushed for 194 yards against the Packers Thursday night, scoring two touchdowns.
He had one run of 55 yards.
them with their quarterback now back Michael Penex after recovering from a torn ACL does that make things easier on him as a running back
most definitely most definitely when he gets going
They have to start dropping a little bit.
And if you drop one, that's when we start rolling.
They got to respect the past.
They got to respect it.
And if you don't, then you'll get beat in the errors.
And then we'll come and we'll come in the run game and get you two.
The Packers' new defensive coordinator, Jonathan Gannon, is known for trying to move players around to confuse a quarterback, I.S.
Falcon's quarterback, Michael Penix.
The cream-based defense tries to run along the disguises.
Yeah, no, they did.
They did run a lot of disguises.
They showed a lot of different looks.
and what we were doing in the run game, you know, it made them have to show their hand.
They had to bring an extra guy in the box and then that started opening up things in the past game.
The Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski a year ago was the head coach of the Browns who upset the Packers in Cleveland.
Stefanski says the Falcons game plan Thursday night was to stop the Packers kick returner to make sure that they created a turnover and to run the ball.
to control the clock.
You know, had to be resilient on a short week.
I thought we were and then very, very proud of the complimentary ball that was out there.
It starts with our special teams.
I thought we covered kicks really well and then just feeding off of each other.
Our defense gets a huge stop there in the second half in the third quarter and our offense goes 90.
Just showed that we're, you know, that's something that we can do.
Take the ball, whether it's by turnover and downs or otherwise and and go score touchdown.
So now the Packers have this weekend off before they begin to travel to Tampa to play the Buccaneers.
Where do they go from here?
defensive end Lucas Van
Ness.
to come back and go to work.
Last Thursday night marked the first time in over 13 years that the Packers lost their season home opener
at Lambeau Field.
It was a butt weapon.
I'm not going to put it on one thing.
Certainly we definitely have to respond better, but that was at least three-quarter butt weapon right there.
That's Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
Baseball, the Brewers' incredible season continues wrapping up the regular season schedule at home this weekend against the St.
Louis Cardinals.
On Friday night, they beat the cards eight to four.
for their 100 and first victory of the season.
with the Wisconsin Sports Week in Review.
I'm Mike Clemens.