Happy weekend to you.
It is make the call in the civic media network as you heard the big voiceover guys say there I'm Jimmy Cuska the sports director here at civic media and this week I am joined as always by Parker vertical Olson hanging out in the capital city.
What's up, Parker
Jimmy?
I hate to bring up old arguments, but I won last weekend
Do you know that
you did the miners X is back in whitewater or it's staying for another year.
Uh, that was, uh, that was quite a game last week.
I think we'll talk about that later in the show, uh, just because of, uh, the, the state of college football in Wisconsin and, uh, some very exciting things coming this year with college football.
So we'll talk about that in just a bit.
And, you know, not to be left out of all that fun discussion is up in the north.
What's Greg Utterson?
What's up, Greg?
I'm here, but I'm going to have to just recuse myself from that one.
You guys got your whitewater Platteville slap fight going on.
I just, I love watching that one.
I'll have my peanuts ready on that
one.
Well, the slap fight was one in a pretty fantastic game last week.
We could go today as you hear it here on Saturday.
We could talk about that a little bit later at our college football discussion, but yeah, it was
It was fun to, you know, you live as a broadcaster to be able to call games like that, you know, games that have so much on the line, you know, number one ranking in the nation on the line conference championship.
all that, everything, you know, rivalry game, a trophy on top of it.
You couldn't ask for anything better as a setup and a lead in into a broadcast.
So it was pretty cool to be there in Platteville last week.
And, you know, Parker was there as well, just with slightly different accommodations as I had, you know, catered food and a nice heated press box.
And Parker had to wait in line for 37 minutes for a bag of peanuts.
Dude,
it was so bad.
Platteville.
Platteville, I love you.
I really should not need to wait in line and have the people in the concession stand yelling at me about how you're running out of food.
I'm sorry.
I wasn't prepared for that.
That's
because it was all delivered to the press box and that's what I was enjoying.
That's 100% the reason.
That's two minutes before we got derailed today on Make The
Call.
That's like a new record for us, man.
All right.
Well, we bet we're back on track now because we have a lot to talk about today.
We're going to talk college football, the Badgers college football playoff.
There's a lot to talk about right there.
Probably going to sneak in some other odds and ends as well as we make our way through this hour.
But obviously what's on everybody's mind is that we have, speaking of rivalry games with a lot at stake, the Packers play the Vikings this weekend.
And this is a game of huge importance because
Not only is the NSC North absolutely stacked with teams that are all with winning records and everything like that, but you've, you've got a chance now to avenge an earlier loss against a team.
You don't get to see this team again until potentially a playoff game.
So this is a big game this week for the Packers.
And once you know it, they're going to see a whole different quarterback this week as well in Kirk Cousins.
This game is.
Fascinating on a number of levels, but just all of the movement, even in the past week for both of these teams, has been really interesting to watch.
Jimmy, I think we have to throw one of my favorite words in there just to cover ourselves on this one, have some plausible deniability.
Allegedly, we're going to see Kirk Cousins this week, but I much like Matt LaFleur and everybody else in the entire state of Wisconsin.
fully expect that Kirk is out there starting on Sunday.
At the time of this conversation, it's actually not technically confirmed.
But I was talking to Mike Clemens on Friday morning, and he had a great quote from Jonathan Gannon, who was walking away from the stage as his presser was ending earlier this week.
And somebody asked him if he'd been watching tape on Kirk Cousins as a bit of a joke.
Jonathan Gannon threw back over his shoulder.
I bet my car on it.
Now, I don't know what kind of car Jonathan Gannon drives, but on an NFL salary, I'm guessing it's not your average.
95 Honda Civic.
So everybody's pretty confident and there would be no excuse.
It would be malpractice to start anybody on their roster right now.
But it is still fair to say that that's not only is the question, will Kirk be there?
Yes, he absolutely will.
But what will the offense look like under Kirk Cousins?
Guys, I've got a pile of stats that will kind of illustrate a little bit of that point.
But before we get to that, before I bore everybody in the room,
Parker, what was your reaction to hearing that they got cousins for nothing but a third round pick?
In a way, I was surprised that it was that much, but also in another way, I was like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, they probably were going to get more, right?
They should have got, especially if I.
If I'm the Raiders and I'm thinking about trading away Kirk Cousins to a team that A has had him before wants him and is really desiring him because he knows that offense, I don't know how I don't absolutely bleed you dry.
I mean, if I'm the Raiders, I'm sure I'm excited about Mendoza, but I don't know that I necessarily want to just
throw him out there right now.
And I would definitely like to have gotten more out of it.
So that, yeah, that surprised me.
It was a third rounder was all.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't think her cousins is a fantastic quarterback.
However, like I said, he's been, he's been there before Minnesota.
He's familiar with that.
And he can definitely do pretty well.
So I mean, gray, an old friend comes back to Lambeau field and, uh,
He's had success against the Packers.
That's kind of the annoying thing, is I don't know that he's gonna be that great, but he has had success, so I'm more weary of him than I am of anyone else on that roster.
I completely agree.
Historically speaking, Kirk Cousins as a starting quarterback against Green Bay is six, four, and one with one tie to speak of.
And his play in basically all of those 11 contests had just about everything to do with the final outcome.
In the wins, in the six wins Kirk Cousins has against the Packers, he hasn't thrown a pick.
Whereas in the four losses in the one tie, he's thrown something like five touchdowns and nine interceptions.
So the turnover battle is going to become a huge thing this weekend.
And it looks like the Packers are in
perfect position to capitalize on that kind of weakness.
That said, speaking of weaknesses, Kirk is 38 years old, so he's not the same quarterback he was last in 2023.
So I know that's only a few years ago, but in NFL years, it's like dog years.
It's kind of like 15 or 20 years ago.
So hopefully he's lost a little bit of a step.
Of course, the injury was relevant there too.
Quick note on Mendoza, by the way, the Raiders are really showing they believe in Fernando Mendoza because his next two defenses he faces this weekend and next Seattle and Denver.
two absolute monster defenses.
So really quickly, I just wanted to give you guys something I spent this morning going full up north egghead here.
And I looked at the offense in Minnesota under Kirk Cousins for the last five years of his career.
And let me, I got two key stats.
The Vikings in Kirk Cousins tenure averaged 248 passing yards per game.
The Vikings this season
161 passing yards per game.
That's over a 50% increase.
As far as offensive yards, you're looking at almost 100 yard difference per game from 285 this season to 380 yards per game.
And of course, a lot of that is how the run and the pass can play off each other, much like the Packers haven't been able to accomplish.
The Vikings have historically have been able to, but the question becomes, is their run game going to be able to open up their passing game?
We know it's just going to be feed Justin Jefferson time, but it was actually pretty astounding.
The other stat that jumped off the page to me, guys, the Vikings this season averaging 18.3 points per game under Kirk Cousins.
24 and a half that's almost a touchdown so we're gonna have to bring it guys we need the Packers to be in the same mode that they've been here's one thing to mention though one thing that might just be enough to tip the odds in our favor aside from the crazy hot streak the Packers are on these last few weeks Blake Cashman
defensive captain for the Minnesota Vikings is out.
He's in the concussion protocol this week.
He leads the team in tackles.
He's also tied in tackles for loss and passes defense.
He leads in solo tackles.
He's second place in sacks.
He's there every single defensive play.
That's the hammer gone from the toolkit for Brian Flores.
How afraid of Brian Flores are you guys when he's missing his single most valuable weapon?
Because I'm still sitting here thinking, cool, someone else is going to step up.
Yeah, I think that when you look at the blitz rates and you look at just what happened in that first meeting with the Packers and Vikings, there's a lot of concern about what the Packers are going to do.
Keep in mind that they have mixed and matched every week on the offensive line gray.
You've talked about this before, just how many different line combinations they've tried.
Yeah, and that's something that we haven't gotten much definitive answers on.
Again, at the time of this conversation, we don't know for sure what
guards guards are really the question guys because anthony belton that right tackle has been solid jordan morgan's been performing a little higher than people expected i think but the guards have been mitch mick
mixed and matched, excuse me.
And we've gotten every level of performance out of them.
A lot of people are clamoring right now to have Aaron Banks benched.
But of course, like we talked about last week, he just signed a massive extension.
And I worry that the coaching staff is kind of saying, hey, we paid him, we have to play him.
And that frankly just isn't true.
I see why they'd think that, but that might not be the best product.
One thing that is worth mentioning here, it looks like we're probably going to see John Williams at center again with Sean Ryan not practicing Wednesday or Thursday this week.
So you get John Williams in the middle, you get Belton on the right, you get Morgan on the left.
I would love to see Lakin Tomlinson at left guard and Kevin Zeitler at right.
And if Zeitler can't play the full game because he's still ramping up, cool.
We've got some guys who can rotate in and use them rotationally.
I think we've used 12 different combinations of offensive linemen.
And well, do you guys, Parker, do you believe that there's a scenario where the run game is successful with our current offensive line roster at all, regardless of who's there?
I'm worried.
That's funny, Grae.
That's a good one.
I mean, I'll tell you this, the Packers did get over 100 rushing yards for the first time all season last week, so we are seeing improvement.
That also took one of the absolute greatest games probably ever by a Packer quarterback.
what I'm not going to put it in the top five or anything, but like it's in that conversation of that Jordan Love was one of the best Packer passers ever on Sunday against Patriots Patriots.
It's a meme now.
Like him just standing there.
It's a meme now.
He bounces around and he tosses it up and then boom, Watson or Golden's down there somewhere.
But I mean, which is backwards, right?
Because.
We always talk about the run establishing the pass, but really for the Packers, it's the opposite way.
It's the pass that establishes the ability to be able to maybe run.
I don't know if the Packers have what it takes to be that good running the ball against a Brian Flores off defense, excuse me.
I'm not gonna say that the Packers are going to abandon it, but...
I'm also pretty aware of the fact that Josh Jacobs is out for a couple of weeks because he needs surgery on a broken finger.
That's gonna
hurt.
Well, it absolutely does.
But honestly, I don't think we've seen an offensive line configuration that's even allowed any of our running backs to demonstrate who's going to rise to the top.
You know, when Josh Jacobs has played, he's getting eaten alive behind the line of scrimmage a lot of the time.
And we never saw him necessarily look better because I don't think anybody I think if you put a tank, an Abrams tank behind our offensive line right now, it will get swallowed alive one and a half seconds after the play.
So actually, guys, that kind of becomes my question is can whatever offensive line we put up
there.
Stop the pass rush and the defensive line of the Minnesota Vikings from penetrating on a regular basis into the backfield because no matter what we want to do, whether they want to keep going bombs away like they did against New England or they truly want to establish the run, rumor has it Caleb Johnson might get some starting reps.
This might actually get the starting nod this week.
But again, it might not matter if the offensive line can't hold up against whoever's there in the defensive line and the linebacking core for that matter with the blitz rate that they have.
The whole
Model for Green Bay might be pretty non functional and it gets ugly if the two if that if the bombs away button and the run don't work There's nothing else for us to really turn to so is it fair to say would you guys agree that it's fair that the offensive line kind of becomes yet again?
The potential bottleneck the make or break position group this this weekend
I think certainly against a Vikings defense.
Yeah, we've seen how brutal that was against them.
And I believe that was week one.
Absolutely.
Just got to hit bad it around.
I mean, they didn't, they didn't do enough.
And obviously you, you mentioned earlier, I believe 12, what was it?
Different combinations for the Packers-O line so far this year.
You're going, it's going to be very different.
However, at the end of the day, it is still, I'm going to guess, a Zeitler list.
or offensive line, and I don't know how well that can hold up.
I would really like to see him get more playing time, and we've had that conversation too about Aaron Banks and his contract, but I don't see them doing quite enough to not make it be a problem against the Vikings.
I don't know necessarily that they're not going to be able to overcome that, but it's going to be a big problem, I think, in this game.
No, I completely agree with you.
Even if the Packers have a good day and the Vikings have a bad day, the relative performance levels create problems for the Green Bay offensive line.
I don't think it's unfair of you to kind of identify that Zitler potential play or not as really the kind of linchpin.
The best thing I can say about that, having Zitler on the field against the Patriots, was his performance was boring and it was such a relief.
A boring performance from our right guard is...
chef's kiss if we can manage it again against the Vikings.
You know, the one big thing here, it's at Lambo.
I think three-point favorites, if you look at the betting odds right now, that's basically the home field advantage betting odds wise.
And I hope there's, you know, I'm not a gambling man, but I kind of agree with the odds makers, if only because we just don't know what Kirk is going to look like.
I'm really just hoping he looks like a 38-year-old against a high-flying set of defensive backs.
Let's touch on injuries for a second, guys.
One piece missing potentially from the defense.
Again, at the time of this conversation, we don't have final injury reports out.
But guys, Javon Bullard.
has not practiced this week.
He's not the safety who's attracting all the attention, but he's absolutely a critical piece at the nickel position for Green Bay.
And I don't know, I think it's Keaton Oladapo who steps up after him as the next safety up on the list.
And yeah, I know there's a lot of people out there who said, who be whatty?
Like, yeah, Oladapo's seen the field a little bit, but usually only in extreme relief scenarios, like at the end of the Patriots game, aka garbage time.
And if it's McKinney and Williams,
That's a lot to lean on, but McKinney, Williams, Oladapo, suddenly we have a question mark where we need a critically good performance this week.
I think we've spent a lot of time talking about when the Packers have the ball against the Vikings defense, but I kind of want to flip it around and talk a bit about when the Vikings have the ball and the Packers are on defense because those are two pretty banged up units and where some advantage might be held there.
But before we do that, we're going to pause just for a second.
We'll come back.
We'll talk a little bit more about the Packers Vikings matchup.
Going to get into college football a little bit later in the program as well.
Oh, by the way, Brewers,
a little bit of note today with Jake Bauer signing with the Red Sox for four years and $58 million.
So whether or not there's a lockout, that's one piece of the Brewers World Championship team that has gone away.
So we'll talk a little bit more Packers Vikings on the other side.
This is Make the Call on the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media.
Welcome back to make the call on the civic media network.
Repeating with the big voice guys said, of course it is time now to take a little bit closer.
Look at the Packers and Vikings.
They play on Sunday, another border battle matchup.
We've talked a lot guys about how the Packers offense might fare against the defense.
I think that's certainly everybody's been watching that matchup.
That's the, that's the, that's the.
title card, right?
That's, that's right here.
It's in the marquee.
That's what people are here to see.
But you go to the undercard a bit and now what happens when it's the Vikings with the ball?
Who's the quarterback?
Who, you know, what are they going to do about all their injuries?
And you look at the Packers defense and you're like, wow, there's a lot of entries there as well, especially at linebacker to the point guys.
I'm curious, were you at all surprised at all this week that the Packers didn't really make a move in the trade deadline?
You know, honestly, no.
I mean, the big position group that people pointed to was linebacker at that point.
If there had been somebody available on the offensive line, that would have been one thing.
But linebacker wasn't as scary as even earlier on Monday when we did our Packers recap from the Patriots game.
McDuffie and Hopper, two linebackers who have been performing very highly this season, went out and didn't return or Hopper didn't return to that game.
McDuffie actually did return in late special team snaps.
So the question was, hey, do we suddenly need a linebacker?
Turns out the answer is no.
both of them are expected to be just fine this week.
For that reason, again, without offensive line available.
I wasn't too surprised.
They were never going to get Jonathan Taylor, and Jonathan Taylor would have just been the next running back, eating alive behind this offensive line.
So for me, it was OL or nothing, really.
Parker, what have you got on free agency there?
Or excuse me, on the trade deadline?
I mean, when I think about the trade deadline, I think about that old press conference with Mike McCarthy and one of the beat writers asked him, what's it like a trade deadline around here?
And McCarthy goes trade deadlines this week.
I thought it was next week.
Yeah, that's what it's like.
I have never expected anything really at a trade deadline for the Packers, especially when there isn't much of a market.
There's not a whole lot of alignment that are up there for grabs.
And frankly, the Packers did do a pretty good job in the right before the start of the regular season after preseason.
They went out and they got a couple of guys online in tight end, I believe, as well.
And they did that after a couple of weeks in the regular season.
I believe that's when they got Zeitler.
They've actually probably made more moves in.
what I will call this season, playing season, then I can remember in a long time.
I've never been really huge on following that kind of thing, but it feels like there's probably been a pretty good amount right there.
But to go back to it, no, I'm not all that shocked because I think that the Packers are pretty content with the fact that guys are going to get healthy when we're talking about Linebacker.
I think they're going, you know what, we're going to have
Bullard back in X amount of weeks.
It'll be okay to go a week or two without Yeah, I just I don't see that being a thing for the Packers to go Oh God panic alarm because we've seen how slow they can be to respond to stuff Was not on my radar for something they would do Especially with knowing that they're gonna get a Kirk cousins that they're probably gonna be okay with I think you've got Williams and you've got McKinney
I've got to think that they're pretty excited about those two guys going against the old man Kirk Cousins.
There's
some
context to not having to make a move at the deadline.
And that's that they don't play that much this month.
I mean, between last Sunday's game and the game they play against the Saints in December 6th, they play exactly two games.
They play the Vikings on Sunday.
That's, you know, tomorrow if you're listening on Saturday or if you're listening on the Sunday morning replay today.
And they play the day before Thanksgiving.
That's it.
They don't play any other time this month besides those two games of the game they played last week.
So there's all this time kind of built in.
They get their bye week.
They get the weird odd week with Thanksgiving.
So all this talk about injuries and
and everything like that.
I feel like that having essentially kind of two buy weeks in one month is going to help
that out a lot.
Completely agree.
You need that get healthy time.
And I think I was really glad when this when this schedule was released, by the way, seeing a week 10 buy last year, I believe our buy was around week five, which is what I think the Vikings had this season.
So it just that is the most unenviable.
I think that's as early as it can be.
So it was
Yeah, it was a pleasant surprise to see that we were so late in the season, and it's very clearly coming at an advantageous time.
Parker, to your earlier point, I think you're correct, by the way.
The Packers have been very active.
They actually traded for running back Caleb Johnson from the Steelers.
They traded for Titan, Mark Redman from the Rams, though I think that might have been in the offseason.
And it was after the atrocity that was week three that they went out and got Tomlinson and Zeitler at the same time.
And then they've just kind of been able to keep Zeitler by, but here's hoping that this is the week they unleash the offensive line of all of our dreams.
That said, Jimmy, to your point, talking about the Vikings offense, it all really depends on how Kirk is looking and how he's feeling.
But I'm sitting here wondering what's the over-under on targets?
for Justin Jefferson, and notably TJ Hawkinson too, by the way.
If you guys play fantasy football, you just saw TJ Hawkinson vanish off of every board where he was available, which is basically every league.
Nobody had TJ Hawkinson.
Everybody had Justin Jefferson because he's just that good.
But all of a sudden, both Kirk and TJ get fantasy boosts, and that's gonna reflect in betting odds too.
That's the exact same kind of confidence score, I think.
So until we see the actual game prediction betting odds flipping, I'm not too concerned, but TJ Hawkinson,
and sin.
he bothers me.
I don't like that man because he only shows up at the worst times when we can't let him have a first down and there he is at the five.
Like why was he open at the five?
And it's, I think it's a good example of what Kevin O'Connell does well.
He'll scheme matchup issues.
Our linebackers are going to have to play really well.
I'm glad hopefully that we have Tehran Hopper back and healthy.
He's the one I want on linebackers because if anybody else is there, Hawkinson's too tall.
He's also too fast.
He kind of reminds me of Dr. Michael Finley, but a diet version.
You know what I mean?
Crazy or back me up Parker.
What are you thinking about TJ Hawkinson and the receiving threats in Minnesota?
No, you're absolutely.
I think you're pretty much absolutely right.
And he does have a way of just kind of twisting the knife when you didn't know there was even a knife in you.
It's just Hawkinson is one of those guys.
Um, but yeah, I mean, I'm looking at guys like Brandon Seasay for the Packers and wondering how are they going to match up with these guys?
I mean, then for the most part, very impressed with Brandon Seasay.
Um, but
Here and there you'll see a time where he gets exposed just a little bit not not ever bad, but enough to make you go Yeah, he's a rookie like it happens and I I worry a little bit about what could happen in this game because you do you do have guys like Hawkinson guys like Justin Jefferson those those are big names in the NFL and You could have a welcome to the NFL moment, baby
here
Parker, you brought up Brandon Cease and it has me thinking of another Packers rookie who's been performing at a very high level.
That's Deny Dennis Sutton.
And this is just a brief laugh I wanted to share with you guys.
Did you see what Deny tweeted the other day?
Maybe?
What was it?
He tweeted.
He tweeted and I quote, is it supposed to be this cold outside already in Green Bay?
Now, this isn't one of the warmest November's I've experienced.
See, here's the thing, though, I'm surprised that he's surprised.
He grew up in Maryland and went to school in Pennsylvania.
You know, that's not Buffalo or New England necessarily, but or what he is in New England.
He should know that it's going to be like that here.
He's going to really have to quickly adapt to hoping that running backs are more scared to get hit than he is to hit them.
That's
Boy, I hope he figures that one out fast.
I was chuckling pretty hard when I saw that tweet.
I always love when
I see the guys who are, oh yeah, I played at Miami, I played at USC and then they come in there playing for like the Packers and they're thrilled when they see like snow.
Like there are guys who have never seen snow before they come and play for the Packers.
Like I always find that just so much fun and interesting, but you know, there's like a kind of a power in like the cold weather games.
Obviously the Packers have enjoyed a great home field advantage over the years.
I wonder, you know, and then cold aside, you know, you're playing
you know, an outdoor game, you know, in November, you tend to think those things will favor the home team.
I'm curious about how this affects other things, though, that go out with the Packers.
We've talked a lot about offense, defense, special teams we haven't really talked about.
We were, I think we were irrationally confident in the preseason guys that things would go well for the special teams unit.
It is, I want to say it's been like a disaster or anything, but it hasn't gone as well, I think, as people expected it to be this year.
Just as a final thought on the Packers Vikings, do you see this part of it as kind of being maybe the coin flip aspect of this game?
If it's close, that if Special Teams makes a break, a player there, is that the difference in this one?
I think it absolutely could be.
I think we're kind of at a point, Jimmy, where any unit critically underperforming, even for just a quarter or a half, let alone a whole game.
God forbid somebody does badly a whole game.
But anybody, if it's the offensive line, if it's the defensive line, if it's the linebacking core, if it's the defensive backs, if it's Jordan Love having a bad day, if any critical component isn't functioning at a high level, I think there's every chance that the Packers lose that game because of it.
But it's also true.
on the other side of the same coin.
If the Vikings aren't firing on all cylinders, if Kirk Cousins doesn't settle in and start piloting it like Luke Skywalker, sitting in an X-Wing for the second time of his life, then the Vikings don't have what it takes.
They're probably going to keep us to a lower score, but we're capable of doing the same to them.
So it might just be, I predict a close game.
I predict a moderately scoring close game, let's say 24 to 21.
Either way, honestly, I mean, Homer Pick Packers every time.
I'll be James Jones in that regard.
But if it was 24-21 Vikings, I'd be like, yeah, okay.
I didn't not see that coming.
It feels very possible, but tight game feels like the only guarantee on this one.
I don't know that Kirk Cousins is going to be able to quite put out that good of a performance in week one with the Vikings.
I think that's kind of...
We've joked about him being kind of an older guy at this point earlier on.
But there is that, but also I think the biggest thing is the fact that he is going to be getting into an offense in week one.
He does know it, but I don't think that he's exactly going to be executing to the top level that you would want to be against a Packer defense that's been pretty solid.
What we've talked about, obviously, this is a very good Minnesota defense.
I'm predicting a fairly low scoring game.
I think I'm going to go 20 to 14 Packers win.
I don't feel very comfortable with that, but I think if anything, I know it's going to be a lower scoring game and we're definitely not going to see what we saw in New England.
The uncomfortably predicting a Packers win.
That sounds just about right, doesn't it?
Yeah.
Well, I think too.
The whole playbook won't be available to the Vikings quarterback, whoever it is, when they get to play the Packers.
And that could be a factor as well.
We've got a lot of football on our minds.
We're going to talk more football.
The Badgers have a quarterback conundrum controversy.
What do you want to call it?
I mean, they got something going on there.
We're going to talk about that and a little bit more on college football coming up next as part of make the call here part of the Civic Media Network.
Welcome back to make the call on civic media.
Halfway through, make the call on the civic media network coming up in about 15 minutes or so.
Mike Clemens will offer a sports week in review.
Not as big of a week this week necessarily sports because, you know, we've gone for like the World Series and the Packers now we're kind of in the routine of winter sports with the Packers box, et cetera, Badgers going.
And that's what we're going to talk about here, but we'll talk to some Badgers football.
So.
I know that the playoffs are out of the question for Wisconsin, but decent bowl game is still in the line for them.
Something close to New Year's Eve, still in the line for the Badgers.
And interestingly, they have found themselves in kind of a quarterback discussion dilemma.
I don't know what to call this.
They have a freshman quarterback who's lobbing bombs, and he's kind of in the place of the transfer quarterback who is supposed to be the answer to all things Wisconsin Badgers.
So,
I'm curious where you guys stand on, on where things are with Wisconsin football heading into the homestretch here.
Um, just, you know, a couple of games, you know, remaining, none of them other than the Minnesota game really have any flash to it.
Curious where you guys are at on, on where things stand with Packers football.
Yeah.
I really, I think I said this last week that I was really just.
totally scoffed at the idea of the freshman Ryan Hopkins, excuse me, being the quarterback now for the Badgers.
I thought it was just a outlandish idea that was a weird overreaction to what happened against Iowa.
And then it happened.
And it went well, like quite well, frankly.
I was not prepared for him to do, frankly, anything.
Notable against Rutgers, but here he went 18 for 24, 241 yards, and three touchdowns.
That's a good game.
Like, I don't care who you're playing against, that's a pretty good game for a freshman quarterback.
So I don't know necessarily that I want to keep seeing him, and I'm starting to think that if you do keep seeing him, the Badgers found out something about Joseph, or they decided to themselves, you know what?
This season is not going to be what we wanted it to be, which I think is a is a weird idea because the season has actually been exactly pretty much what I think most people wanted it to be.
But it's possible that they have said, you know what, this wasn't what we wanted it to be.
We're going to hand the reins over to the kid that we're going to put some stock into and say, hey, this can be your team next year, too, if you perform well.
And it's so far he's performing well.
I don't I don't love.
the world of having a new quarterback every year, and that has been the world that the Badgers have lived in for a long time now, especially in this transfer portal era, but it certainly seems that this could be a move that is going to keep this guy here for at least another year.
It's hard to say that anyone will be around for more than a year in college football at this point, but if he's going to be here...
He's looking solid.
Like you said, Jimmy, there is no flesh to these games.
Playing against Maryland today, not exactly an exciting one.
And then, again, at Purdue, not an exciting one.
But I don't know, it's a good time to build some confidence for a freshman quarterback, Gray.
I mean, this is kind of probably the ideal time to put him in, right?
I would agree.
I would agree completely.
You've already gotten your sixth win.
You've gotten that bowl eligibility box ticked, and you've got to keep locked in in the face of the scheduling for that kind of thing.
But that's the only reason that I'm not sure of this kind of experimentalism.
The other reason being that if you look at the rushing stats for the Wisconsin Badgers this season, none other than Colton Joseph currently sits at the top of that if only by a few yards.
So it's tough to say that Hopkins is the same dual threat that Joseph is.
I think he's already demonstrated that he's not.
But when he's completing passes at the level that he is, that you mentioned Parker, you know, I usually prefer to see some level of experimentalism.
I prefer to see, hey, let's try new things, especially if it doesn't matter, you know, especially if you've already achieved some of the season goals that you'd like to.
But the question remains, is there enough
offensive firepower for Wisconsin when your leading rusher was a dual threat quarterback who secretly wasn't really that much of a dual threat.
He was struggling passing.
I think we all saw that.
But is Hopkins going to be able to pass well enough to make up for what Joseph had in the in the offensive run game?
I think that might become the whole question here.
Like you guys said, this one's not one with necessarily a lot of meat on the bone, but it does have that kind of trap game feel to it.
Maryland basically nothing to lose right now.
They technically still have
There's a potential for bowl eligibility there, if I'm not mistaken, unless I'm getting something incorrect here.
Wisconsin's not desperate, and some teams relax when that happens.
It almost feels like you're entering with a lead.
I don't necessarily expect an embarrassment to happen this weekend.
But if it does happen, it'll be Chris Der Jr., the Starwide receiver for Maryland.
I know they've got questions at quarterback.
I haven't seen at this moment whether their starter is going to be able to play this week.
So if somebody can feed the ball to Chris Der Jr.
and his 765 yards entering this game, their offense can churn.
And if the defense for Wisconsin is relaxed, they might get bit in a way that they've kind of invited.
But that's the only way that anything's going to necessarily go wrong this weekend.
I think if they don't keep
heads keep their discipline and that as much as anything I think would speak to Luke Fickle's performance once that sixth win has already been put into the W column.
Well the Badgers are celebrating bowl eligibility which used to be kind of a given and we took it for granted for so long so now that they're back after a few years away from it I guess that's something to look forward to there.
The Badgers will get Maryland, they follow that with Purdue and then of course Minnesota on Black Friday.
College football playoff, that is being expanded to 24 teams.
I'm at the point where just make it like the other divisions already and just quit, quit slow drip in this man.
Just, just do it already.
Just make it all in or whatever you want to do with like the other divisions and just stop with this nonsense.
I don't know what they're trying to preserve here.
The bowl games already aren't a whole lot of incentive when, when star players are saying, yeah, thanks, but no thanks at playing in them.
Yeah.
The whole post season.
situation in Division 1 FBS is, oh gosh, what's a good word for that?
Frustrating as all hell?
Is that a good way to put it?
I mean, it's just, last year, when Notre Dame threw a hissy fit and said that they weren't gonna play in a bowl game because they got left out of the playoff, I kind of knew that we were gonna be coming to some kind of an end.
I didn't know what end we were coming to.
But I think the end that we have found is a reasonable playoff.
Moving it to 24 teams is just, you're going to have a lot of teams that don't
matter.
Well,
there's that.
Are they doing it because they want to preserve the famous Idaho potato bowl?
Are they doing it because if they let too many teams in, does it create
whatever strain on student athletes must be real here.
FBS, you're going to school for football.
It's Cardale Jones, right?
You're not there.
You're not there to play school.
You're there to play football for, for most of these teams, right?
Especially in FBS.
I'm just saying, like, I don't understand why we're, we're going from, you know, it's two, then it's four, now it's eight, now it's 12, it's 24.
Just make it like the other divisions in every other sport.
in college sports and just make a true playoff already.
I completely agree with you, Jimmy.
I'd prefer that quick commitment and to
rephrase something I said earlier.
I like when teams and coaches and players experiment with what they're doing.
I don't like when leagues and associations get weird with it, like, hey, make a definitive call, commit to it, stick with whatever the results are for a season or three or five and some defined period, and then go back to the way it was if it goes poorly.
I could think of a lot of unkind terms.
Stop messing around.
Stop beating around the bush.
dive in head first.
And if you crack your skull, cool, it'll heal up.
You can try again later.
I'd rather just see, I agree with you, Jimmy, 100%.
See,
I just look at division three.
I think it's a great model.
You've got 40 teams that get in, they play, they get through it.
There's a handful of bowl games to the side for teams that just.
get there but just aren't quite there.
And it's just a handful of bullet games, right?
And I get to broadcast one of them.
Wisconsin's going to host four of these things.
You know, the state of Wisconsin will have four college football bullet games for D3 now.
And I feel like that's kind of the right thing.
You've got your best teams playing in the playoff spots.
And then you've got teams that maybe, you know, there's an upset loss, the conference you're in, you know, maybe you're in a conference that's only got like a couple of good teams in your strength, the schedule is lower or whatever.
And you still get that opportunity for postseason play.
Obviously, I'm contractually obligated to say that as the broadcaster for a bowl game, right?
I'm not even saying this because of that.
I'm saying it because there is value in playing postseason football if your team has played well enough to earn that spot.
And I feel like teams that are generally over 500 by a few games in college football at any level have earned the right to play at least one more game.
The thing that I think is interesting and that actually gives me a little bit of hope about expanding to 24 teams.
Because there's never been a year in D1 college football where there have been 24 teams who could win a national title.
There's never been the case.
That's not ever going to be the case.
But I think of this, and this goes along with that bowl game thing.
You get to earn another week or so of practice.
You get your guys who are there right now, they get to get better for another week or so as they prepare for that bowl game.
We're moving.
those opportunities into a playoff now.
You're preparing for more games.
You're preparing to better yourself and you are bettering yourself.
I think that that could raise the floor a little bit.
It's never gonna be though that 24th seed is flirting with beating the number one seed.
That's just not gonna happen.
I would really like to see
Fewer bowl games frankly and I kind of hate to say that because then I know that's contradictory to what I said just now But there's just so many teams.
It's getting to be too much
You're seeing five and
seven and
four eight make bowl games.
There's no
yes No, it's not good and everyone moves around so much.
It doesn't do anything anymore
Well, we got to get out of the way for Mike Clemens for a sports week week in review, guys.
So thanks as always for another week of hanging out, being knuckleheads, fucking football, and we'll be back at it again right here next week.
Thanks, Jimmy.
Thanks, Jimmy.
This is make the call part of the Civic Media Network.
Coming up next, Mike Clemens has a sports week in review.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
The Vikings are coming.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with the Wisconsin Sports Weekend Review from Green Bay, where the Vikings will face off against the Packers here at Lambeau Field.
More on that coming up.
We begin with the NBA.
The Bucks losing streak continues Friday night.
They lost to the Magic in Orlando 107-99.
Milwaukee now 1-12 for the season.
Their worst start in franchise history.
What's it going to take for the Bucks to get a win at Coach Taylor Jenkins?
Yeah, I mean, I think it really starts with we've got to play a perfect game for 48 minutes.
So obviously limiting us in the pain and, you know, our ability to, you know, try to knock down shots there.
We got to play with more force early in the game, not let them get going.
We talked about that before the game, but we got to play perfect for 48 minutes.
The Bucks actually fought back and outscored Orlando in the second half, Cal Cusma.
We had a pretty solid fight in the second half after a lackluster first.
It's all about growth and baby steps right now.
Men's College basketball.
Wisconsin Badgers are having fun there at 3-0 to start off after beating Fairfield University Wednesday night 89 to 42.
Greg Gard pulled his annual prank on one of his new players when he quizzed him on what was the score at halftime.
That's an old trick from a long time ago and I got one of them to tell me what the score was.
52-20 at half and the older guys, shame on the older guys for not queuing in the younger guy that it's 0-0, right?
every time.
Every year I get one of the guys with it.
The
Badgers host Coastal Caroline this Sunday night at 7.
Men's hockey, the number one ranked Wisconsin Badgers over Ohio State Buckeyes five to two on the ice at the Coles Center Friday night.
Coach Mike Hastings on what he's seeing from the hockey team so far.
I've really liked it.
It seems like there's some consistent chemistry.
We're a better hockey team when we can roll four lines and to have them have some success on the score sheets important for them because they put a lot of work into preparation for this week.
Ohio State's a good hockey team.
Football, the Wisconsin Badgers have bounced back with a win over.
Rutgers, thanks to the new starting quarterback, freshman Ryan Hopkins, who threw for three touchdowns in his debut at just 18 years old.
Did he feel ready to take over at quarterback?
Yeah, I think even before I got here, I, you know, I knew my capabilities come from, you know, Southern California where there's a lot of high level competition and a lot of good talent surrounding me.
So that definitely helped me prepare for, you know, the college level.
And, you know, just going into spring, I just, I wanted to show who I was, wanted to show my capabilities.
And, you know, I thought I was able to compete well at a high.
level and show my teammates who I was.
So the
Badgers six and three as they head into this weekend's game in Maryland, Luke Fickle says the season is winding down.
It's about climate.
It's about growing.
And I think we got a great opportunity to do that this week going on the road to Maryland.
Matt and the Packers were the top story of the week in the NFL.
They beat the Patriots in New England.
45 to 27 before a national audience, leaving last year's runner-up in the Super Bowl.
Now at five and four, Packers six and three, Patriots head coach Mike Rabel after the loss.
We got our asses kicked.
There's no two ways around it.
That's what happened tonight.
I give them credit.
Jordan Love connected on several deep passes one after another 372 yards three touchdowns was named the NFC offensive player of the week and said he was in the zone or as they call it
flow state.
It's one of those things when you're flowing, you're not even thinking about it.
You know, it's just stuff's just happening, plays are being made, and it feels good in the moment, but it feels like you're just trusting your training, trusting your technique and just playing fast.
And I asked Stan over about it, and he said, you know, it's also execution.
Definitely.
I mean, that's where it starts.
Now the Packers host the Vikings, who after losing to the Bills on Monday night football are desperate for a quarterback.
So they traded a third round pick to the Raiders to bring Kirk Cousins back to
in Minneapolis.
Cousins asked, did he ever think he'd be back wearing purple again?
was.
going to happen.
Baseball, Brewer's pitcher Jacob Mizorowski named the National League winner of the Cy Young Award.
At just 24, he was asked, what was it like earning the trust of Brewer's manager, Pat Murphy?
You know, I think the, I think the easy answer is saying that, you know, just going out there and doing my job, but no, there's, there's a lot to it.
And Pat Murphy, making history,
named manager of the year for a third year in a row, we connected with him.
in a hospital bed in Milwaukee recovering from hip surgery.
I asked Murph about this incredible year for him.
I got a feeling in 20 years from now you're going to say, wait a minute, I went through all that stuff in 26.
We won a World Series and I had the hip surgery too.
Back surgery,
back surgery.
Think of it, back surgery, hip surgery, but your life goes on.
and you can't live looking backwards or you're getting a crash because you're not looking forward.
That's the Brewers manager, Pat Murphy.
With the Wisconsin Sports Week in review, I'm Mike Clemens.