The Wisconsin Sportscast

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, laryngitis can’t keep Lucas down as he and Oates take a look at the highly anticipated matchup between the Packers and the Lions this Sunday. It’s a shame that both teams are facing some big injuries, but even with the Lions’ dominant victory this weekend, Oates says the Packers still have a chance. The Packers are a good team, even if they still need to pull everything together. But the Lions are a major threat, with one of the best offensive lines in the NFL. Add in Jarod Goff, who has had a real career turn around since joining the Lions, and their record starts to make sense. Still, Oates thinks the Packers have a chance this weekend even if Malik Willis is on the field.

Why could Willis be on the field? Jordan Love saw a groin injury on Sunday, but thankfully it doesn’t seem to be too serious and he’s still a hard maybe for Sunday. But while nobody is saying Love is injury-prone, his MLC sprain may be coming back to haunt him throughout the season. If he does sit out this weekend, it may be for the best as the Packers have a bye week after taking on the Lions. 

Meanwhile in Camp Randall, the Badgers fell to Penn State on Saturday, and are set to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend. The Badgers need to up their passing attack, says Oates. Braedyn Locke is good when he’s protected, but he needs work when he is under pressure. Locke needs to start learning from his mistakes and upping his passing game if the Badgers want to be competitive against these bigger teams. 

Finishing things off, the Badgers Men’s Basketball team makes their season opener on Wednesday night against River Falls. They’ll take on some smaller teams before taking on Arizona on November 15. That night, they’ll be raising the Bo Ryan banner, an honor he 100% deserves. But looking at the team this year, while nobody’s seen them play a game quite yet, Oates has seen a few practices and says not to count them out this season. The Big 10 doesn’t have a ton of great players this season, and the Badgers have a few guys who could turn out to be real breakout players.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Tony Bennett has announced that he is retiring as head coach of the University of Virginia basketball team. His reasons? The same complaints that Lucas and Oates have been making: NIL is changing the game, and not in a good way. Or as he put it in a press conference last week, he’s become a square peg for a circle hole. Most college coaches, in both football and basketball, are getting frustrated by the entire system, and Bennett seems to be no exception. The frustration is especially clear when you look at the millions of guaranteed money he is walking away from. 

NIL is hurting all of college sports, says Lucas and Oates. The system is squeezing out the developmental programs, like in Virginia and in Wisconsin, because it’s hard to build up players over four years if another school can throw millions at them at any time. And with schools putting their focus on NIL, that leaves the sports that aren’t football and basketball fending for themselves. Don’t believe Lucas and Oates? Where are the Badgers Track and Field Team practicing this winter? Those sports are also important, if maybe not as popular, but they are going to be left to the wayside to prop up an industry that’s getting as much money as both the NFL and the NBA.

The show isn’t just doom and gloom. The Badgers football team has a big game this weekend as they take on the big Penn State. The Badgers are on a three game winning streak at the moment. Are those wins against objectively terrible teams? Yes. But, they’ve dominated each of those three teams, as they should do if they want to be taken seriously. But this weekend will be the real test for the Badgers, and they will need to truly turn a corner if they want to continue to be taken seriously. Either way, Oates thinks it’ll be a great game as the Nittany Lions play under the Camp Randall lights.

The Packers had another good showing this weekend as well, taking down the Texans thanks to a fieldgoal from the team’s newest kicker: Brandon McManus. But while everyone’s eyes were on one kicker this weekend, another took home the game ball, as punter Daniel Whelan consistently flipped the field. It was a game ball well deserved. The final question as they go against the disappointing Jaguars this weekend is: will Jaire Alexander ever shut up?? 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Bo Ryan is added to another hall of fame in the Naismith Hall of Fame, to a very warm audience. He even gave a great speech, says Lucas! At least for Bo Ryan it was a great speech. He was gracious, he was humble, he was even emotional at times. But that makes Lucas ask the question: who was Bo Ryan the coach?

Oates says that Bo Ryan, to him, means consistency. When he had the star players, his teams were great. But even when he didn’t have the stars? He still had a really good team on his hands. Bo’s players play to his vision of basketball, and that’s what makes him such a great coach. Even when he was coaching in Platteville, he was great at developing players and could win a conference title in just a few years. Even just sticking with the Badgers, taking a team to the Final Four twice in a row is unbelievable, says Oates, and his induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame is well deserved. 

Meanwhile in the NFL, the Packers beat the Cardinals in Green Bay on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean that Lucas was super impressed. Still, the Packers and Jordan Love are starting to find their rhythm. Their defense is getting better and better, especially when it comes to takeaways. Oates thinks that Sunday was Love’s best game this season, and he’s hitting ten targets in a game. It’s great that Doubs is getting back in the mix, and Watson is proving to be a bit of a difference maker, but the receiving threats are everywhere and the Packers are starting to look like they did at the end of last season. Next up, the Packers take on Houston in what should be a fun game. They’re two young teams with young quarterbacks, and it should be a good game down in Texas. 

Finishing things off for the day, the Badgers stomped once again, easily taking down Rutgers. Did they take down another crappy team? Sure, but the team is continuing to improve. Most importantly, they looked physical against Rutgers, which is what we’ve been wanting to see out of them all season. Next weekend they take on Northwestern on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. The problem? The field is a converted la crosse and soccer field, thanks to Northwestern tearing down their old Ryan Field. While that’s ultimately a good thing to see that dinosaur go away, it will present an interesting challenge for the Badgers. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Brewers deliver their yearly postseason gut punch with a last minute loss to the Mets. There was a lot of chatter about Devin Williams and Pat Murphy’s choice to use Williams as a closer, but what was he supposed to do? Williams might not have had it in him in game 3 against the Mets, but if you’ll forgive the cliche, that’s baseball. He’s still a fantastic closer, and putting him in was really the only call. Is it devastating that he couldn’t pull through? Yes, but sometimes, that’s what happens. Williams doesn’t seem long for the Brewers, not because of the loss but because he’s only a year away from free agency and looks likely to go to the Dodgers sometime soon. For now, we can only look ahead to next season, where Lucas has two questions: will Yelich be ready to go next spring and what is Chourio’s ceiling (high, says Oates). 

Turning to the NFL, the big news on Tuesday is the firing of Robert Saleh as head coach of the Jets. Did Rodgers have anything to do with it? We in Wisconsin certainly know that he isn’t exactly easy to work with, and he does have pull. But who knows, Rodgers likely didn’t have too much to do with it, though he probably didn’t help Saleh at all. 

Turning to the Packers, they defeated the Rams on Sunday without the help of Romeo Doubs. He was sitting at home after facing suspension by the team last week for an unmentioned reason, though the rumors are he walked off practice after causing a fracas over a lack of targets. If that is the reason, then Oates says he acted selfishly, putting himself over the team. That said, he seems to have come around and is expected to play the Cardinals this weekend.

Back to the Rams though, there was some good and some bad. The good came from Tucker Kraft, who is checking all the boxes for a great tight end. The bad came from Love’s horrible pick 6 for a touchdown in the endzone. It was a meathead play that gave the Rams a free 7 points, but it might not be all bad. It might have been what Love needed to wake up and get back into the game and learn from his mistake.

Finally, the Badgers finally looked like a great team crushing Purdue on Saturday. It’s about time! The Badgers have played a few teams they should have crushed, and this is the first time they’ve actually done that. They are starting to find some real playmakers, and several players showed the explosive power the Badgers offense needs. Now, this was still Purdue, so don’t get too excited, but still, it shows improvement. Maybe Coldplay can cheer on the team and give them the encouragement they need to keep this power going.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Love had his big comeback on Sunday in a tight loss to the Vikings, and he played about as Lucas and Oates expected. Well, other than the picks at least. He did limp a little bit here and there, but overall he looked like a guy who’s played one game this season and has been out for weeks. Should he have waited another week to come back, and have his big return be against the Rams instead of taking on the red hot Vikings? Should they have had Love play one half of the game and Willis play the other? No, says Oates, at least on the second question. It would only feed into the extremists who say Willis should be our new starter.

The real blow to the Packers on Sunday came from kicker Brayden Narveson. When Narveson misses two field goals and the Pack ends up losing by two, it’s hard not to think that they might have won if he had made even one of those two kicks. The Packers are working two kickers this week, but we won’t know for sure what our kicking is going to look like until Sunday when they take on the Rams in what should be an ego boost. But Oates says that the loss to the Vikings was not just on Narveson or on Love, it was a systematic failure on the part of the entire team. At least Aaron Jones had a good game.  

Turning to the Badgers, the team played one of the best first halves they’ve played this season. Unfortunately, they then played one dreadful second half, leading to a loss against USC. They continue to play as a team with no real identity, causing USA Today to call them one of the biggest losers of the season so far. While Lucas isn’t ready to throw in the towel on the entire season yet, it’s hard to argue that they aren’t flailing. This weekend they take on Purdue, who they have a 17 game winning streak against, so hopefully they can really show who they’re going to be this weekend.  

Finally, Lucas and Oates end the show this week with two obituaries: Joe Wolf, one of the best athletes to come out of a Wisconsin high school, and Pete Rose, a great if problematic, for lack of a better term, ball player.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates are feeling the buzz for this Sunday’s Packers game against the Viking. Did anyone expect this game to be so anticipated before the season? Nobody was expecting the Vikings to be great, and now they are a truly formidable team, thanks to both a great coaching staff and good players on the field. While people thought the Packers would beat the Titans and Colts at the beginning of the season, did anyone expect them to beat them again with Willis? The Packers have been playing good ball, and it’s not just all on Willis. The defense has stepped up and has played aggressive all year. That aggressiveness on the defensive line is paying off, but will it be enough to take out the Vikings?

Not only will it be a great game on Sunday, but Aaron Jones will be returning to Lambeau, though this time in a purple uniform. It’s hard to really dislike Jones though, Lucas and Oates agree. He’s a great player, a great guy, and even great with the media. He’ll be a hall of famer in Green Bay, Oates thinks.

Meanwhile, the Badgers return to the field this Saturday facing Southern California. SoCal took a beating from Michigan last weekend, which showed the Badgers exactly what they need to do: pound the line of scrimmage. If the defense can hammer that offensive line, the Badgers have a chance.

Over in Milwaukee, the Brewers have secured their spot in the playoffs, which means the next step on the ladder is one of three teams: Diamonbacks, Mets, or Padres. They are three of the hottest teams in all of baseball, and will pose a hurdle to their chances. While they don’t have any real star players like Shohei Ohtani, they still have a very strong team for the playoffs. But that then creates the questions: is Pat Murphy the National League MVP Manager this year? There’s a good argument to be made, Oates thinks. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the boys start the episode the same way they started last week with an injured quarterback. Tyler Van Dyke went down in the game against Alabama. Van Dyke suffered a torn ACL in what Oates thought was a nasty no-contact injury. He’ll be out the rest of the season, which is a blow to everyone. It’s a blow to Van Dyke, who’s going to miss what could have been a great comeback season. It’s a blow to the Badger’s, who now have to rely on Braedyn Locke as their quarterback the rest of the season. And it’s a blow to Badger fans who were hoping for an identity to emerge around Van Dyke. 

Would Van Dyke come back to the Badgers next year? He should be ready to hit the field by the fall camp next year, but would the Badgers be able to afford him? He might be able to make it into the NFL, but with the state of the NIL today, he might be taking a pay cut. 

Switching to pro-football, the Packers beat out the Colts on Sunday, thanks to a great coaching job from LeFleur. Willis looked promising, and he was put in a position to succeed. The Packers’ running game was strong, and they stuck to it, even when things hit a wall in the third quarter. The team ran the ball creatively and stuck to a great game plan, which paid off in the end. Plus, Badger fans were given something good to watch as Jonathan Taylor played a good game back in Wisconsin. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it’s hard to lead with anything other than Jordan Love’s injury. In the final seconds of the Packers opening game in Brazil on Friday, Love went down that Oates and everyone else thought looked like a horrible leg injury. But LeFleur says he has an MCL sprain, meaning he’s only expected to be out for 3-6 games. LeFleur is even leaving the door open for Love to return this Sunday against the Colts, though that’s almost certainly him being coy to psych out Indianapolis. Still, the team doctors are known to be a touch conservative and er on the side of caution, meaning Love likely won’t be back until he’s ready. 

In the meantime, it’s almost certain that Malik Willis will be in the position of starting quarterback this Sunday. What does that mean? Who knows, at least until the game is over.  While some have said of Willis as “the arm of Jay Cutler and the playing style of Jaylen Hurts,” he hasn’t been in too many big games. With every game in the NFL being a big game, Willis is going to need to step up on Sunday. While it’s not a must win game quite yet, the Packers can’t afford to lose every game that Love needs to sit out.

Outside of Love’s injury (and the slippery field), Oates says he saw a good number of issues on the field. As LeFleur put it, there were a lot of sloppy plays. You know what could have avoided those sloppy plays? Maybe a preseason game or two. 

In college football, the Badgers are heading up against ‘Bama this weekend, their toughest team yet. SEC teams are fast and ‘Bama are no exception. Still, Oates thinks the Badgers have a chance - the game is in Camp Randall and ‘Bama has a new coach. But they have to play physically, both on offense and defense, and make zero mistakes. Because one mistake, especially on defense, and Alabama will take advantage of it and score. Both teams the Badgers have played so far this year should have been well below them. And they cannot afford to play like that again on Saturday. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas brings up an uncomfortable question: can the Brewers keep Willy Adames? 

Probably not, says Oates. He’s playing great baseball, and every home run he hits helps the Brewers grow their divisional lead. But those home runs are also driving up his price point. While he’s a great fit for the Brewers, both in terms of athletic ability and in personality and his ability to bring the team together, the Brewers would really struggle to afford his floor, and his ceiling is growing every day.

Getting off that topic, the Badgers won their game against Western Michigan on Saturday, and gave us a lot to look at. There was some good: their running game was strong and hard, and Lucas likes the look of the wide receivers. There was also some stuff that looked mediocre. Or maybe that’s just “methodical.” But in the 14th game of the Luke Fickle era, the fireworks offense that was promised still hasn’t materialized. Van Dyke has better running legs than expected, but his yardage isn’t there. Add in some possible communication issues into the mix, and it leads to some worry. But the season is young, and we’ll see what happens with South Dakota next week.

After the break, it’s time to break down what to expect Friday night as the Green Bay Packers head to Brazil to take on the Eagles. Both Jordan Love and Jalen Hurts are a bit of a mystery this season, and the Eagles have been having some back of house issues, but they’re still a tough team to take on anywhere. Brayden Narveson has been named as the Packers’ kicker, and neither Lucas or Oates know much about him. He had a good college and preseason career, but will that amount to success in the NFL? Lucas and Oates give their predictions for what they think is going to happen this Friday in the Packers season opener. 

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, it’s cut down day for the Packers, and while one big name player isn’t cut, he is out for the season. The team announced that AJ Dillon is out for the season due to a neck injury. That’s a blow to the Packers, especially since this might mean Dillon is done not just for the season, but for the Packers. 

The green and gold still have Josh Jacobs to rely on, along with Marshawn Lloyd and Emmanual Wilson, so they do still have options.We may not have seen much of Jacobs, Oates says, but he’s still a high quality player. Wilson is a grinder, says Lucas, and while still a step down from Jacobs he’s still a good asset. As for Lloyd, we just haven’t seen enough, and who knows, he could come through and surprise us.

But Tuesday was still cut day for a lot of Packers, including both Sean Clifford and Michael Pratt, who were both vying for a spot as Love’s backup quarterback. That leaves Malik Willis as the backup QB by default, unless they pick up someone cut from elsewhere Tuesday. But that situation, Oates says, is dire.

Those weren’t the only cuts Tuesday. Kicker Anders Carlson is out, in a blow to the special teams. So is linebacker Kristian Welch. But of course, Tuesday was cut down day, and someone had to go.

Turning to college football, the Badgers are set to face off against Western Michigan in their first game Friday night. Tyler van Dyke will be starting as quarterback, and while the question of who was going to fill that role was up in the air for a while, that doesn’t mean he didn’t earn it. 

But sticking with injuries, defensive lineman James Thompson Jr. could be missing the entire season due to an upper body injury. As one of the most senior players on the team, that hurts. But Oates says that the defense will still take a step up this season.