The Weekend in Wisconsin Football

First and foremost, let me say how glad I am that no more Wisconsin games are going to start at 10:30 pm (Eastern). I started watching games at about noon (starting with the DVR'd fourth quarter of Friday's Kansas/USF game) so by the time the Wisconsin game got underway, I was damn near sick of being on the couch. By halftime I was exhausted, but rather than record the rest to watch Sunday morning, I decided to power through.

The game reminded me a lot of Wisconsin's bowl game against Tennessee. Both teams were kind of slugging it out. Neither offense could take control, but it seemed less due to defensive prowess and more due to the inability of the offenses to deviate from what they were doing. After Wisconsin was up 10-0, I was hoping they'd be able to take control. Instead, it was a healthy diet of run up the middle; run to the left; run to the right; punt.

Similarly, I'm not sure why Pat Hill seemed so reluctant to spread the field and open it up (though, I'm grateful he chose to play the way he did). Given Wisconsin's thin d-line (which did a great job of generating pressure, regardless), a spread passing attack likely would have given the secondary fits in the second half.

Still, though, like was pointed out elsewhere, a "seen-from-a-mile-away" goal line play on fourth and goal early, the bobbled punt that was blocked, and the "now it's a fumble, now it's not" play really kept Fresno State in the game.

At the end of the day, Wisconsin traveled across half the continent into a stadium that was amped for an upset and came away with a W. 3-0 with an actual test headed into an open week before a pretty brutal start to conference play is definitely a best case scenario.

As for the Packers, since I don't have Sunday Ticket and didn't feel like going to a bar, I relied on the ticker, game breaks, and halftime/postgame highlights to keep me informed. While I'd have preferred that the defense (ive secondary) didn't let the Lions back into the game, they seemed to right the ship late and then put it to bed with two pick-sixes.

Rodgers had another solid outing throwing for 300+ and 3 touchdowns. Most importantly, he didn't throw any interceptions (although he apparently fumbled twice, losing one). Not turning the ball over is the key to success this season for sure, and so far so good.

After watching last night's Cowboys/Eagles game, I'm sure glad next Sunday's game is going to be in Green Bay. I hope the corners and safeties were playing especially close attention to how much Dallas likes to chuck it downfield....