The Wisconsin Sports Rant

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Time has been scarce to work on the blog lately. Still, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been basking in the amazing season Brett Favre and the Packers are having right now. It is very exciting to see the 38 year old Hall of Fame QB perform like an MVP. It will be hard to beat out Tom Brady with the numbers he is putting up, but honestly, is there a player that is more valuable to his team right now? I am not suggesting that Brady is not valuable, or Peyton Manning for that matter. Still, Favre is the reason for all but one of the Packers’ wins this season, and that is the true measure of an MVP. The Pats and Colts very well could have 5 or 6 wins without their star QBs. That being said, I don’t really care to debate the issue anyway. The bottom line is the winning is such a pleasure to watch, that any accolades for the players really don’t matter. The time left in Favre’s career is an unknown, and though he is playing some amazing football right now, it is still unreasonable to expect that he will have that many more chances to win another Super Bowl ring. The last best chance was blown in 2003, but with a weak NFC, and a team that has made major mistakes and still has managed to accumulate 6 wins against 1 loss, this year presents as good an opportunity as any. All you have to do is make it there, and if you are peaking at the right time…who knows how far they can go. I just love that the Packers are relevant again!

Moving on to quick topics:

• The Badger football team really proved they were terribly overrated earlier this year. They can really get back to a respectable team by knocking off the Buckeyes this weekend, but if I were a betting man I would wager heavily against that possibility.
• The Bucks opened the season tonight in Orlando. Does anyone really care? I have been such a huge Bucks fan in the past, but I just have a very hard time getting excited about this team, Yi or otherwise. Besides, tonight, it was a tie game in the third quarter when I stepped away to take care of a few things. When I returned just before the end of the period, the Bucks deficit had ballooned to 23 points. Nice.
• I wanted to post this when the regular season ended, but does anyone else find it interesting that of the 4 expansion teams to enter the league since the Brewers last winning season, 3 of them have reached the World Series, and 2 of them have actually won the whole thing (the Marlins even did it twice). Also, most teams wore pullovers and elastic-waist pants the last time the Brewers played in the post season. Ouch.

Hopefully I will be able to return to a regular posting schedule shortly. With NCAA basketball right around the corner, I will have to anyway.

I have nothing insightful or intelligent to say except that this loss was truly ridiculous. Just when I thought I finally had at least ONE team I could follow that wouldn’t fall apart, I was proven wrong. Our neighbors to the South took both games this weekend, and that is an embarrasment. Turnovers. Penalties. Play-calling. Way to beat yourselves guys. From the coach on down, this was a colossal collapse (wow, haven’t we heard that term used a lot lately?) There was NO way the Packers should have lost that game, but they did. There goes the honeymoon. Now I guess we can all return to earth and watch the imperfections mount. To play defense like that and lose is just horrible. If McCarthy was a good coach (which is extremely debatable after that game), he would spend a good deal of tomorrow’s practice on football 101: if you have the football in your hands, HOLD ON TO THE FUCKING THING! Then he can go sit in his own 101 course on play-calling and learn how to call plays that make sense, because God forbid in the second half you run any plays that have the potential to actually gain more than 4 yards (not including the desperation drive at the end). Just like the playoff loss in 2003, a lot of things had to go wrong for the Packers to lose, and lo and behold, they all did! Congrats boys, you overcame incredible odds to lose a game you had no business losing.

I guess last week’s post came at the right time, because that was the last time I would have been able to post it. It just wouldn’t be a sports season for Wisconsin fans if there wasn’t a disappointing loss in there. It’s been a vicious seven month cycle. Badger Basketball ends abruptly with a bad loss….to the Brewers slow and painful self destruction…to today’s reality check in Champaign. It just doesn’t end. We can’t get through a season without a deflating defeat of some sort. Let’s hope the Packers buck the trend.

There are a couple of things that really piss me off about this loss today. First of all, to where has this team’s defense disappeared? In all honesty, they have won games this year in spite of, not because of this defensive unit. This was the side of the ball that was supposed to carry us through the year. Instead we watch a team run for a ridiculous amount of yardage against us. Way to go D! Another thing that annoyed me was the lack of carries for PJ Hill. Now I will admit, I did not get to watch the entire game, but from what I did see at the end of the first half through most of the second, they were throwing the ball almost every time. I just don’t understand that. There was plenty of time to keep the running game going, but they seemed to have abandoned it early. This team should rely on the run, not the pass. Case in point. At the end of the first half, when the Badgers got inside the 10 on the catch by Luke Swan, why not try a run or two? The had the time but they didn’t call a running play. The third thing that annoys me is losing by way of the turnover. The Badgers got knocked down early, and trailed by a good bit in the first half. Yet they maintained their poise and came almost all the way back. But to beat yourself with the interceptions is just frustrating as hell. We are all very aware of how interceptions can kill you, as we have watched the soon-to-be king of the INT during the lean times. You just can’t afford to make those mistakes when you have the chance to climb back into a game. Tyler Donovan has done more good than bad in his short career as starter, but you just can’t give the game away like that.

So where does this put the Badgers? Unlike Michigan, whose losses came against non-conference foes, we now have a loss that knocks us out of the national title picture, but also deals a serious blow to our conference hopes. We will need to basically win out (including wins at Ohio State and at Penn State) and hope Illinois loses a couple of games. This scenario is unlikely to happen. Thus, the endgame for the 2007 Badgers will probably be at some minor bowl game that will make us yearn for a trip to Orlando once again. Last season, shitty rules prevented the Badgers from having a chance to play in a truly meaningful bowl game. This season, when UW “controlled their own destiny” since they started so highly ranked, they threw it away. It’s too bad that the winning streak couldn’t cover an entire single season instead of spanning parts of two. but I suppose that is too much to ask for.

It won’t last forever, so now is the time to take a step back and think about how good we have it with regards to the gridiron right now. That’s right…this mostly grouchy Ranter experiences a moment of sports Zen every once in a while, and after a weekend like we just had, you all should as well. Let’s start with the Badgers. Say what you will about this team. They play ugly…their defense is not living up to its potential…PJ Hill is not getting enough carries…the injuries are insurmountable. It doesn’t really matter what you say. There is one truth, and it is the only truth…the Badgers are undefeated. Look at all of the so-called “elite” teams that lost this weekend, including Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma, and of course, Florida. Each suffered a devastating defeat with Texas and Florida adding insult to injury by doing so at home. Meanwhile, the Badgers went about their business, and while not delivering the knockout blow until the very end, still came out with the win. Michigan State is no cupcake either. They had been undefeated coming in, and we all know how the Spartans treated Wisconsin last time they played (for those of you who need the refresher, back in 2004 we were 9-0 going in and got dismantled 49-14). Still, it was a game we were supposed to win, and did. Now unfortunately, since this is college football, and the B(C)S rules, I can’t really say that winning is the only thing that matters, but I can say that winning is the ultimate goal every time you take the field. So in that respect, the Badgers have done nothing but since the visit to Ann Arbor last season. They belong in the top 5, as they are ranked this week, because that’s what they do…WIN.

Moving on to the pro ranks, it seems as though the Green Bay Packers didn’t get the memo about how they were only supposed to go about .500 again this year. Obviously they could still end up that way (or worse), but the odds at this point are quite good that they will surpass the 8 wins they recorded a season ago. Why? Dare I tempt the football deities, but Brett Favre is playing like an MVP, and the defense is doing what it needs to do to win games. Just like the aforementioned Badgers, this football team is far from perfect. They made some ghastly errors at the Metrodome this weekend, highlighted by a fumble at the end that evoked memories of a Badger loss to Northwestern a decade ago. However, unlike Packers teams of the last two seasons, they were able to overcome these mistakes and come out of a dogfight (pardon the term Mr. Vick) with a beautiful 4-0 record. Green Bay has posted wins in four of the last five trips to Minneapolis, so this is getting eerily familiar, but it is still a historically challenging place for Favre and his mates to win. This game, however, was all about Brett. By now, only the most sports-averse persons in the USA are unaware of the records number 4 set under the Teflon ceiling, and without getting closer to the interception record to boot. Favre stated ad nauseam that the win was the real story of the game, not the records, and Green Bay fans are no dummies either. I truly believe that all of us wanted that win more than we wanted to see him set the record, but the fact that both occurred against our bitter rivals to the West makes them all the more sweet. In fact, I can’t believe I am going to say this, but I was actually impressed at the classiness of the Vikings fans to stand and cheer when Brett set the record. However, that didn’t make me feel any empathy for them when Atari Bigsby (what a great name by the way…maybe he should change his last name to 2600) picked off Kelly Holcomb’s final pass to seal the win. It put the exclamation point on the football weekend for fans across the state.

So I remind all of you, that in the 9 pigskin contests we have witnessed this season so far, coming out on top in all of them is something to truly appreciate. Who knows when that first loss will come for either team; but chances are, it will come, and when it does, it will not feel good. So take that step back…reflect on how it feels to be at the top…and hope they don’t have blasters.