Another good sports weekend

It was another great sports weekend in the state of Wisconsin as the Badgers and Packers won and the Brewers took 2 of 3 from the Reds.

We’ll take them team by team:

Packers – Thus far, I’m thinking they are one of the big surprises of the NFL season, though much of the NFL is upside down. The Lions, Redskins and Texans all started 2-0 and the Eagles and Saints are 0-2.

Certainly things aren’t going as many thought they would and I think because of that, the Packers are running under the radar. This weekend’s San Diego game will obviously show more of the chinks in the Packers’ armor, but might not be the beatdown everyone has been expecting. LT hasn’t had a breakout game yet, but with the way our defense looked on Sunday, I can’t imagine he won’t stack up the yards against us.

Clearly, the Packers have to find a run game. Though there were the occasional glimmers of hope (heck, I’m trying to claim DeShawn Wynn off waivers in my fantasy football league) I think the running game (or lack thereof) is what’s going to cause some major stumbles.

Brett Favre passed Dan Marino and now holds the record for most career wins. He is just one away from the record for more interceptions and three away from the record for most TDs. We’d all love to see him break the TD record first, but I’m sure that’s just wishful thinking.

Speaking of TDs, Favre threw his first TD pass in a very long time. And Bubba Franks scored his first TD since (I think it was) the 2003 season. It’s nice to see that Green Bay remembered they had TEs this week.


Badgers – Once again that Badgers failed to impress anyone and lost ground in the rankings. I’ve been thinking on it for days now and I can’t seem to put my finger on what seems to be the problem with this team.

The QB question was answered, as Tyler Donovan has been more than stellar in his first three starts of the season. His accuracy is on, he’s proven he has the arm and he’s the most mobile QB Wisconsin has seen in a long time.

Luke Swann has certainly been the go to receiver, which I found a bit surprising after all the pre-season hype surrounding Travis Beckum. Now that we’re getting into a meatier part of the schedule, I’d like to see if Beckum’s getting double-teamed and that’s leaving Swann et,al open. If that’s the case, well I’ll take it. Sure, Beckum has a lot of hype, but if his hype means other guys are open and those guys are stepping up, I’m all for it.

I didn’t sweat the Citadel game as much as I did the UNLV game. I didn’t really doubt that we were going to wear them down and be able to outlast them. That’s part of Wisconsin’s MO and it’s something we’ll be working on doing to teams all season long. I’m not sure this past game was as discouraging as people would like you to believe. Everyone is pointing to the fact that the game was tied at half, but I think that’s something Badger fans need to get used to seeing. This isn’t a team that’s going to blowout it’s opponents.

Obviously everyone is looking to the Penn State game, but I have a feeling this week’s game at home vs. Iowa isn’t going to be a walk in the park. Iowa’s going to be pissed about the loss to Iowa State (go Iowa State!) and there’s the whole Bret Bielema connection. I think non-technical factors are going to be the issue here. It isn’t going to be the team that performs their plays the best that wins, but the one that goes out there the most fired up, I think. That sounds cliché, but with the vulnerability Wisconsin has shown in the first two games, I think everyone coming into Camp Randall is hoping to play Giant Killer.

Though I don’t think it’s the only issue, I think passion is something this team’s been missing. They’ve looked flat and lackluster at times and it isn’t from lack of talent. Every time Citadel made a stop or a completion, everyone of their sideline was going nuts and jumping up and down. Clearly, I don’t want us to be celebrating every little play, but it was be nice to see some enthusiasm. UNLV came out pumped for their game and we looked like we were asleep.


Brewers – This team is making itself hard to ignore. I’ve been trying to distract myself with football, but I can’t help being excited and waiting to see what will happen with our division race. I’m fairly certain this can only end in heartache for me, but really, I just can’t stay away. It’s like a train wreck. I just keep staring.

Last night the Brewers should have been able to tie things back up with the Cubs, but the Cubs scored in the bottom of the 9th to win their game, leaving the standings exactly as they were heading into yesterday.

There’s still two weeks of baseball left and it’s obvious that we are going to be biting our nails on this down to the very last game. I’m too afraid of eating my words or jinxing things to say which way I see this going. Clearly, it’s going to be an exciting September.