Well, for a change this season the Badgers showed up for a big game and sent the Wolverine’s home with their tail between their legs.  And, they did it without their starting CB, DT, and WR.  An all around performance that beat a good team.  I heard a lot of trash from Michigan fans this week as well, about how the Badgers didn’t stand a chance.  How is it, that after losing to Appalachian State, any Wolverine fan can talk trash?  But, I digress.

This was the Badgers team I was expecting to see week in and week out this year.  This was the Badgers team I thought would contend for a national title this year.  But, a loss to Illinois — hats off to Juice Williams and his cohorts knocking off the Buckeyes in the horseshoe this weekend — and another to Penn State pretty much smashed those hopes.  Yes, I know, we also lost to the Buckeyes but they are regarded as a top team in the nation and that could’ve been overlooked were it not for the other 2.  The worst one had to be the Penn State game as the Badgers didn’t even show up for that game.

But, now with a chance for a New Year’s bowl on the line they showed up and whomped the Wolverines.  If they do the same against the Golden Rodents this week, I’ll get to watch them on the national stage this New Year’s.  And that, is always a good thing.

Whoa!  Was that every bit of ugly that I thought it was?

The Badgers have yet to put together an impressive first half this season.  They come out in games looking flat and they let other teams hang around too long.  This weekend, they let Illinois get a big enough lead that they couldn’t come back from it in the second half.  I don’t know what Bielema says or does during halftime, but he really needs to start doing it before the game starts.

Conversely, Mike McCarthy needs to stick with what’s working.  Check these stats 19-22/243 yards/1 TD/0 Int.  Those are nice QB stats for a game, right?  Okay, how are those stats for a half?  Pretty freakin’ amazing!  So, you’re the head coach.  You’re ahead by 10 coming out of the half and you should be ahead by 24, but your rookie WR can’t seem to find the handle on the ball today.  What do you do?  Is your first reaction to take the ball out of the hands of the guy with those stats?  Neither is mine.

Granted that was one ugly and stupid pass Favre threw to Urlacher.  But, he shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place.  Your ability to run the ball in the first half was an aberration and you as the head coach should realize that.  The Bears expected the Packers to pass so the runs worked.  When the Bears expected the Packers to try to chew up the clock, they couldn’t run the ball to save their lives.  Favre attempted a mere 5 passes in the 3rd quarter.  The momentum was lost and offense was stuck.  Go with what brought you there.  The Bears certainly weren’t expecting pass in the second half and Favre was hotter than a snake’s ass in a wagon rut.  Give him the damn ball!

Not that the Packers in general deserved to win that game.  5 turnovers (last one really doesn’t count other than Driver miss timed his jump because he was there and the pass was on the money), a boat load of penalties and some boneheaded moves by the guys on the sidelines.  The fact that the Packers still could’ve won that game shows you how bad the Bears actually are.  That defense can get slice up with the short passes and that offense is horrible.

So both teams have a loss now.  Maybe it will be a good reminder to both of them that nothing is guaranteed and they need to start early and finish strong.  The talent is there in both (although the Badgers defense needs some help) teams.  Can the coaches harness it and use it properly?  Post season aspirations depend on it.  We’ll see if Bielema and McCarthy are up to it.

I spent a lot of time this weekend swearing at the officiating of some of my favorite teams games.  It started with the Badgers on Saturday night.  An inadvertant whistle in the end zone ?!?!?  Are you kidding me?  Why would you blow the play dead if you weren’t sure it was dead?  Fortunately, the Badgers still scored the TD a couple of plays later.  Then there was the Iowa TD pass.  Watch the replay folks.  The reason he had to make a one-handed grab is because he’s pulling Ikegwuonu over by his shirt with his other hand.  Fortunately, the Badgers added another TD and won the game.  Good team, bad officiating.

That brings us to my favorite sports team of all time, the Pack.  Early in the game Driver (maybe it was Jones, but I think it was Driver) is running a slant and gets his left shoulder ripped backwards by the defender with no call.  That was a 3rd down play, so the Pack has to punt.  On the Chargers subsequent drive their guy runs into Woodson who gets flagged for interference.  Later, Donald Lee gets called for interference for basically doing the same thing — probably a correct call but certainly inconsistent.  Then, you’ve got the James Jones almost TD at the 1 inch line.  Yet, the Packers scored on the next 2 possessions for the win.  Good team, bad officiating.

Which brings us to the Brewers.  Ned Yost blamed yesterday’s loss on the officiating.  While the officiating really was pretty bad — come on, that was an out at second base when Weeks tagged the guy! — to blame a loss on officiating is what losers/bad teams do.  Good teams figure out ways to win despite having bad calls go against them.  It explains why the Brewers lost 4 of 5 in the middle of the pennant race.  As exciting as it has been to have the Brewers in it at the end, they just aren’t that good of a team.  Good teams find an extra gear around playoff time.  Good teams find ways to win rather than finding ways to lose.  Right now, the Brewers don’t fit the definition of a good team.

The Badgers have beaten everyone they’ve faced this season.  They’re 3-0 and they shouldn’t apologize for any of that.  Unfortunately for them, people think they’re worse now than when the season started.  At one time they were ranked 5th, now they’re 9th in the AP poll.

Why?  I guess they didn’t win by enough points.  They beat Washington State 42-21, UNLV in the closing minutes 20-13 and The Citadel 45-31.  In case you’re checking the numbers that’s 117 points for and 65 against.  I guess that’s not good enough.  Let’s checkout how these teams did against other opponents shall we? 

Washington State is 2-1 with 111 points for and 87 against.  The Badgers were the only team thus far to hold the Cougars under 45 points.  They play USC this weekend and that might set an interesting measuring stick.

UNLV is a young team with a freshman QB and brand new coach and the Badgers should not have been eeking this one out at the end.  They are 1-2 with 50 points for and 85 against.

The Citadel is 2-1 with 132 points for and 59 points against.  Granted they are considered 1-AA, but they are fully capable of putting points on the board.  They average over 40 points a game.

I guess the common denominators in all of these games have been a slow start by the Badgers followed by a different team in the second half.  But, if you concentrate on running the ball and playing defense, you’d expect that.  You spend the first half wearing down your opponent and you put them away in the second half.  The teams they’ve played also all run a pass happy, spread offense which will certainly give any Big Ten team fits since they’re designed to smash it out with their opponent as that works much better when the snow starts to fly.

Apparently the voters in the AP just don’t think the Badgers are as good as advertised — probably because most of them only look at the final score — but if they continue to win the games on the schedule the voters will eventually come around.  The nice thing is the voters may actually be doing the Badgers a favor.  They’ve always  done better as an underdog with no respect because it puts a big chip on their shoulder.  Badger fans take heart and see where this shakes out at the end of the season because I have a feeling you’re gonna like it.

The Badgers eeked one out in the desert, the Brewers are in first place and the beloved Green Bay Packers won their first home opener in 4 years.  Does it get much better than that?  Well my fantasy NASCAR team could be doing better and I’d like a few more points in my football league before going into tonight’s games, but that’s all fantasy.  In this case, reality is much nicer!

I must admit, the Badgers gave me a bit of a scare.  I don’t know what coach Beliema was thinking with all that passing in the first half.  The one drive they got the TD on was almost all rushing except for the last play.  But, a win is a win.

Which brings me to the Packers.  The defense looks better than advertised and the Eagles special teams look worse than advertised.  Add it up and the Packers get the W.  The offense had some problems, but there are way too many things to say about that in this post.  The defense should keep them in games and the kicker might be their best scoring threat.  Now with the aged one’s skills declining he finally has a defense and special teams to help him out.  Too bad the offense is no good anymore.

The Brewers on the other hand don’t seem to have that problem.  Back-to-back-to-back home runs to start a game has got to make your starting pitcher feel safer.  Sheets didn’t have a great game but he gets the win because he was good enough.  There was so much offense on Sunday that they didn’t need much defense.  This after the come from behind win on Saturday and a Cubs loss has put them back into first place.

Seems to be a theme here, eh?  Grinding out wins anyway you can get ‘em.  Good teams win close games and bad teams find ways to lose them.  None of these three teams found a way to lose which is what you might be used to.  The Badgers have the longest winning streak in the land, the Packers have a better record than the Bears, and the Brewers are still relevant in September.  Wow.  I can’t remember ever being able to say all of that at the same moment in time.  What a great weekend for sports in the land of cheese.