Packers Need Their Head in the Game, and the Badger’s One-Game Winning Streak

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers lost to the Eagles on Monday night in a frustrating game that might have Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love get the same treatment as Luke Fickell in recent weeks. Is a vote of confidence needed? And if so, for who? The offense was awful, both on Monday and in recent weeks. A troubling trend has emerged where the Packers seem completely unable to score in the first half of any game. Oates says it’s because teams are starting to get a handle on what the Packers offense is going to do every play. That’s hard to argue when the Eagles defense yells out exactly where they’re going to run the ball, and then the Packers run it right where they said they would. If the defense calls out exactly what you’re going to do, why would you not take a timeout and make a change? Whether that falls on LaFleur or on Love, one thing is for certain: this offense isn’t working. The national pundits want LaFleur to take the handcuffs off of his quarterback and see what he can do, and Oates agrees. Love has regressed in recent weeks, and is making more and more bad decisions. But LaFleur has this notion that offense needs to be all about the running game, and he forces it to the point where Love is barely a factor. Sure, he can make some bad decisions and he has his good throws and bad throws, but something has to change. Oates thinks the Packers need to leave their gameplan every once in a while and just let Love take the reins and go. It’s not like we’re scoring points now anyways!  In a surprising twist, the Badgers were the football team to score a big win in Wisconsin this weekend, taking down Washington on Saturday night. It was such a big win that fans stormed the field, and while some people might turn their nose up as some behavior, at least the fans are engaged. After the season that Badgers have had, a win against a ranked opponent is more than enough reason to celebrate. Not that Madison was without its issues; it’s never good when your punter has the most passing yards of the game. But the freshman Carter Smith looked good, Oates says, and we shouldn’t judge his passing ability on his performance on Saturday. What he did show is that he can run and he can show aggressiveness. We hope to see more of the young freshmen this weekend!  The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.