On Wisconsin...

What an emphatic win what was for Bucky today. I mean they took Indiana out behind the woodshed, gave them a whipping, restocked the woodshed, then whipped them some more.

How odd is it when a team wins 52-17 and the game was not even as close as the score indicated? Just total domination by the Badgers. Let's look at some numbers:

Stocco 15-17 304 yards 3 TD. That's a QB rating of 158.33, in other words: the highest rating possible.

PJ Hill 23 carries 129 yards 3 TD. He was pulled after 5 minutes into the 3rd quarter.

The Badgers had 539 total yards to Indiana's 264.

The Badgers punted on their first drive. They then scored on 8 of their next 9 possessions and only punted again with 6 minutes left in the game.

At halftime, about half the crowd had left the stadium, embarrassed by their team. I told you the Badgers were going to win this easily. That is why I am the great Oracle.

Bucky to get back on track

The loss to MI was not unexpected by any Bucky supporter last weekend. It was actually encouraging that they hung with MI for 2.5 quarters on the road.

This weekend the Badgers go to Indiana to take on the pathetic Hoosiers. Last line was that Bucky was favored by 27.5 pts. Last week Indiana was outrushed by UConn 257-0, at home. I kid you not, here is the box score to prove it. PJ Hill is going to go off for about 175 yards and 3-4 TD this game for the Badgers prior to being pulled out after 3 quarters as the score this weekend should be laughable.

This game begins a streak of 3 games where the Badgers should go 3-0 as their schedule has some weak teams on it with Indiana, Northwestern and Minnesota. The Badgers should beat all of these teams. Honestly, I expect a win by 3 TD this week.

That's much better

Your Green Bay Packers win their first game of the season against the De-toilet Lions 31-24. Brett Favre had his best game ever against the Lions going for 340 yards (for the 2nd straight week) and 3 TDs for a 127.1 QB rating. While the running game was rather poor, the passing game more than made up for it and the pass blocking was as exceptional as my mother-in-laws country-style ribs (oh, they're gooooood).

One of the blocking schemes I saw and loved was with going with a 3 WR set, 1 RB and TE. Franks then comes in motion and sets up as a quasi-FB. He, along with the RB stay in to block if there is a blitz, otherwise they go out on delayed, short pass routes. This worked perfectly all game. Favre had lots of time to throw, even when the blitz came. This formation puts a lot of pressure on the defense and gives Favre a bailout option. It really looked like the WC offense of old.

Once again the Packers pass defense was atrocious with multiple blown coverages. DB coach Kurt Schottenheimer is an absolutely horrific coach and proved that the last time he was in town. Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, well, SHAME ON YOU!

Another issue with the defense is the ineptitude of the blitzing. It only worked a couple of times and the Packers were burned repeatedly when the attempted it.

However, the D came through big when they needed to in the 4th quarter so let's give them credit there. Hawk was great all game long and is showing on a weekly basis the reason he was picked #5 overall. He is well on his way to being the defensive Rookie of the Year.

It was a great win for all of Packerland, we should celebrate it. It may have been against the Lions, but a win is a win.

All good things...

Today, I'm going to take a break from the WI sports that I so poorly write about and talk about something else. One of my best friends and the inspiration for me to start my own site has decided to call it quits. My neighbor Shane, author of the Greet Machine, has decided to hang up his keyboard (well, not literally hang it up mind you).

Shane blogged about getting a new Twins (and Vikings) stadium for the past 3+ years. He knew more about the bills and voting patterns of the legislature than anyone else, including the legislators I believe. His voter's guide of how those legislators voted was a work of art and one of the more impressive documents I, or many others, had seen. He wrote with a fantastic blend of humor, common sense and intelligence that I will never achieve (and am highly jealous of). Even his posts about chickens at the MN State Fair are better than anything I've done. His obsession with these creatures still disturbs me though.

He had developed quite a following with his site and found out during the process of writing that the Twins organization themselves were reading him on a daily basis. They also had reps come and visit him to go over his voters guide and how he came up with how the legislators voted. He was always glad to help them out and never asked for anything in return, such was his humble nature.

This past summer, Shane's dream came true: a new, outdoor Twins stadium. He was like a kid at Christmas time. You couldn't wipe the smile from his face for quite a while.

At a celebration party after the legislation passed at the Summit Brewery (which is now my favorite beer), the man who owns the site where the stadium will be built got up to speak and said that Shane was a major reason that the stadium bill passed and gushed about how great he was. Never saw anyone blush as much as Shane did that night.

He accomplished the one thing that many bloggers go into the "business" for, to make a difference. He did so and asked for nothing in return for himself (well, except for the stadium, but not that it's actually "his"). I have more respect and admiration for Shane than just about anyone else I can think of. He had a dream and through hard work helped make it happen. He'll say he was simply a blogger and didn't have all that much to do with it. His readers, the developers and the Minnesota Twins all beg to differ.

Needless to say that his blog has served it's purpose and he's off to new adventures. I just know that my internet surfing is now a bit less interesting and enjoyable.

Thanks for being an inspiration Shane.

It's Official

The Brewers will have a losing record, again. Just a disappointing season for the Crew and their fans. If the pitching staff can stay healthy next year, they should be able to get over that hump. Obviously there are some question marks with the offense, but there seems to be some bright spots that can step up next season, plus I'm dying to see what Fielder can do next season. As has become the official slogan for the Brewers: "There's always next year".

Better, but still bad

That would be a rather apt way of describing the Packers game yesterday. They were able to pile up over 400 yards of offense and score 27 points, but blowing a 13-0 lead after the first quarter at home to lose 34-27 is inexcusable.

I put up a six pack on what the Packers needed to do to win. Let's see how these stacked up:

1 - Third Down Conversions: 9-18. 50% is real good. However 2 big ones they missed were on the early FGs. They convert and score TD's there, this game would have been over early. Overall: Succeeded

2 - Secondary Coverage: Woodson and Harris did a good job. Some early miscues, but for most of the game held up strong. Manuel, Collins and Carrol were burned for 3 TDs and were atrocious in the passing game. Overall: Failed

3 - Kick return game: Robinson was average and seemed more willing to fight with the Saints players after the tackle than fight for yardage. Nice job there Rocky. The blocking for kick and punt returns is not all that great either. Overall: Mediocre

4 - Taking Poppinga out on passing downs. They put him on Joe Horn! Horn then gets a 57 yard catch on a 7 yard slant. Poppinga was once again torched on passing downs. Overall: Failed

5 - Green needs 100 yards. There was absolutely no running game from the Packers which forced Favre to throw over 50 times. So much for MM saying they were going to stick with the run. Overall: Failed

6 - Franks in the offense: Bubba dropped far too many passes and was outdone by fellow TE Martin. Bubba was the reason for several failed drives and is starting to look like he's on the downswing. Overall: Failed

That's 1 success, 4 failures and 1 mediocre. Not too good there.

The biggest problem on this team is the pass coverage. It's bad. Real bad. Like Rosanne Barr singing the national anthem bad. If teams can complete over 65% of their passes and get tons of yardage, which is going to result in lots of points, this team has no chance of competing, much less winning.

On the bright side, it was nice to see McKenzie get absolutely schooled by Driver and Jennings. That juke that Driver gave him on the reverse was just filthy.

Once again, it's going to be a long season and hopefully the Pack can beat Detroit this weekend, if not, then I don't know who they are going to be able to beat.

Hey, they're 3-0

The Badgers got the job done ugly again this week with a 14-0 win against the San Diego State Aztecs. Not exactly a dominating performance for a team on the cusp of the rankings, but a win is a win. Redshirt Freshman PJ Hill once again has an outstanding game with 26 carries for 184 yds and a TD. WI has used their seemingly never ending magic to create another monster in the backfield. If the WR's could get open and stop dropping passes when they are, this team could do some serious damage.

But that is the weak spot on this team, the passing game. The WR's are too unreliable and there is no TE prescence to bail out Stocco. This is going to be their undoing during the Big Ten season as teams are simply going to load up on the run and simply dare the Badgers to pass.

Their next opponent is Michigan, and given how they whipped #2 Notre Dame like a red-headed stepchild today, this could be seriously ugly for the Badgers next Saturday.

Yep, they are 3-0 right now and that's all well and good, but the real season starts next Saturday and the Badgers are going to get a huge dose of reality. Let's just hope the Wolverines have a let down after their big win so it's not that bad.

Saints Six Pack

Time for another edition of The Six Pack. I'll go over 6 things that need to happen for the Packers to beat the 'Aints.

1 - Convert their 3rd downs, especially early in the game. Last week they were 1/11 in this category and their inability to convert them in the 1st and 2nd quarter severely hurt their chances of doing anything the rest of the game.

2 - Hey secondary, cover someone! Woodson and Harris need to have much better games in coverage and Manuel needs to get his head out of his ass.

3 - Kick return game. K-Rob has the spotlight directly on him, and this time it's not from a cop car. The Packers offense is such right now that they need every yard they can get. So decent field position is crucial for the team.

4 - Take Poppinga out on passing downs. His coverage is awful. He was burned by a mediocre TE last week time and time again. We cannot just gift their TE 7 catches for 70 yards this week.

5 - Green needs another 100 yard day, but not on draws with the team down by 20 points. GB needs to pound the ball consistently and successfully.

6 - Get Franks involved in the offense. Need 6-8 yards? Throw it to him and he'll get it for you. He is a great short-yardage TE in catching the ball. No reason we shouldn't throw it to him at least 6-8 times/game. Favre seemingly doesn't think about him unless they are in the red zone, which they won't be unless he starts using him more before then.

If we can do these items, we have a real good shot at winning. If not, time to use this six pack to help forget about the game.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Reggie Bush. The Packers likely will not be able to contain him as he simply is faster than anyone out there, plus, our LB cannot possibly cover him. They just need to do a lot of other things right to offset the Bush factor.

Paging Dr. Gado

Paging Dr. Gado
You're wanted in the Houston ER Dr. Gado

The Packers traded Samkon Gado to Houston for Vernand Morency yesterday. Gado was a feel-good story and a fan favorite especially after his performances last season. This season though, he was having problems with the new running system and was tentative and unsure of himself. He also was not all that great on kickoff return duties either for the same reasons. In Morency, the Packers get a back that can spell Green on 3rd down passing situations and frankly, is a bit quicker than Gado. We finallyreplaced Tony Fischer, who was the key man to all our successes (note sarcasm here).

Is there a great upgrade here? Only in that there is a more reliable backup to Green, but nothing that I can see that will make this team go to the playoffs. Especially if the OL doesn't open up any holes, it doesn't matter who's got the rock.

Another sponsor

Another company has decided that they want to be part of the Oracle of Cheese. We welcome Vivid Seats to the fold! To show our love to our readers, if you go to the Vivid Seats site from the Oracle, you get $5 off each ticket you buy. Not bad huh? Just shows the power that can be wielded by the mighty Oracle! So go ahead and check them out.

Desparate times, desparate measures

Well, nothing like a quasi-kneejerk reaction to the game by our beloved GM TT as themanthedrunkthecopflee-er, Koren Robinson to a 2 yr deal.

TT says that this is not a desparation move, bullshit Ted! Call it what it is and be straight up with us. Say that you are not impressed with the return game and Koren would provide that spark. Say that Jennings is not ready for the #2 WR role yet and that Ferguson never will be, but K-Rob can do this. Say that you had your hopes pinned on Cory Rodgers being your return guy and 5th WR, but his holographic hands made him a draft day bust and you messed up and you are trying to remedy that mistake. Just be straight with the Packer fans.

Robinson has a drinking problem, and apparently there's no chance he'll have a lapse here, not in WI, the drinkingest place in the entire world. Yeah that's right Germany, we Cheeseheads can drink you under the table! Ehem, sorry about that, where was I? Ah yes, the latest drunk addition to WI. Plus, we don't even know if he will be able to play the entire season thanks to him already violating the league substance abuse policy once already.

This moves smacks of trying to capture that Andre Rison magic of years ago. If it works and K-Rob is the second coming of Rison and the Pack suddenly start doing well, TT will be considered a man of vision, and be well on his way to building a status like Wolf. But, should K-Rob experiment fail (which is the much more likely scenario) TT will look foolish and be closer to being shown the door.

Just embarrassing

Packers lose 26-0 to the f'ing Bears in their opener. Thank goodness I wasted my afternoon watching that pile of garbage.

What went wrong?
Where o where to begin? Let's start with the defense. Both Harris and Woodson got torched repeatedly during the game and Manuel blew his coverage 2 minutes into the game. Continuing with the trend from last season, the Packers make mediocre QB's look like Pro-Bowlers. For an offense that was one of the worst last season, the Packers made them look like Colts.

On offense, it's nice to see that Favre is still able to just overthrow the ball and make stupid decisions to completely ruin any chance of respectability in the game. Also, what the hell happened on the 3rd down conversions, especially the short ones? 1-11 conversions on 3rd down is downright pitiful. The early conversions where we blew it on 3rd and 1 twice early in the game were especially hurtful. Both Clifton and Tauscher, the supposed rocks of the line were outplayed by the rookies. For the most part, the OL looked lost.

Special teams were dreadful. Why can't the Packers find a decent special teams coach? I mean, it's been what, 7-8 years where we have had a decent punt/kickoff returns or coverage?

What went right?
Not much here. Ahman Green looked good and had that explosiveness and power back, he just has crappy blocking. I thought that the pass rush looked good overall. Far more pressures than last year. Barnett and Hawk had a decent game each, especially when blitzing. Pass coverage for both were spotty, although Barnett did get the INT. The run defense was real good. The Bears are known for being a run team and the Pack only allowed 3 yds/carry and 109 yds rushing overall. Last year, this team would have given up about 160 -170 yds rushing in a game like this. They also did a nice job in the red zone of not allowing a TD (hey, I'm trying to find some silver lining here).

Another Badger win

The Badgers easily handled the Western Illinois Leathernecks 34-10 yesterday. The moniker or Leathernecks is simply moronic. Have some pride West Ill, call yourself the Fighting Insurance Salesmen or something like that. Anyway, back to what matters. The Badgers had another great game from freshman phenom PJ Hill with 101 yds and 3 TD. Some would like to point out how sloppy the Badgers played. While yes there is some room for improvement I view these games as the Badgers pre-season. What matters is getting players the experience and not getting anyone hurt. The Badgers are clearly looking ahead to the Big Ten season opener against Michigan at The Big House.

Let's not forget, the Badgers beat a team they should have and did it easily, even with sloppy play. Western Illinois' only scores came off of stupid Badger mistakes: a fumble on the opening kickoff and a 17 yd INT return for a TD thrown by our BACKUP QB. I'm not too worried as I have tempered expectations for this club. I'll let others get worked up over pre-season. We won and did it convincingly.

It's Prediction Time!

I neglected to do this prior to the Badger game last week so figured I'd put both the Packers and Badgers in the same post.

Badgers
Their non-conference schedule is pretty damn weak. They should easily go 4-0 in these games. The Badgers do not play Michigan State and Ohio State this year as both teams are ducking us again. The Badgers should go 5-3 in the Big Ten with losses to Penn St., Michigan and Iowa. The only other game in question is the one at Purdue, but I think the Badgers can take that one.
Prediction: 9-3 and another Capital One Bowl birth.

Packers
Luckily the Packers are in the NFC North which is still one of the worst divisions in football. They could actually go 3-3 in the division and throw in some wins against the 49ers, Bills and Jets and that's 6 wins. I think they can beat the Saints and possibly the Patriots (yes I said that). The Pats defense is terrible and their offense has shown nothing yet. The Pats are not the same team that won those SB any longer, they are on the downswing.
Prediction: 7-9, maybe 8-8 and no playoffs.

Anyone got a problem with these?

This is too good

The Lions, already one of the laughingstocks of the NFL, actually reached a new low. Their DL coach gets arrested for driving around in the nude. This is frickin' priceless! I simply cannot stop laughing about this. Thanks Detroit! Thank you for helping me remember that the Packers, regardless of the record, are NOT the worst team in the division.

Nice Job Bret!

The Badgers win their season opener against Bowling Green 35-14 on Saturday. Very nice game all around for the Badgers, with a blocked punt scoring a TD. Man I love blocked punts. Nice to see PJ Hill just dominate on the ground with 128 yds, and he's just a freshman gang. Guy runs with power and simply lays into defenders. That type of rushing is the kind that as the game gets further and further on, 2 and 3 yd runs turn into 6 and 7 yard runs as the defense is tired. Say what you will about the quality of the Bowling Green defense. Bottom line is that the Badgers beat a team that they should have and did it soundly. Excellent way to start the season. I still think this is an 8-4 team, possibly 9-3.

So, what's the over/under?

The Packers play thier last pre-season game today at 3pm CST. I'm just wondering, when will the first comments in the online forums or websites be that the Pack's performance is a miserable failure. I'm setting it at 3:10pm. Any thoughts from other Packer fans out there?