Now That Green Bay's Preseason Is Done...

It might be a good time to address what we've learned. I've learned that I don't have the stomach for preseason football.

I've also learned that it's relatively futile to try to gain any insight from preseason games.

How's this sound? I'll write what I learned from the preseason after Green Bay's Week One game against Minnesota....

Things I'm Most Looking Forward To

1. P.J. Hill's first broken tackle;
2. John Clay's first real carry;
3. Allan Evridge's first complete pass;
4. The first tackle-for-loss by a d-lineman (allowing me to, momentarily, exhale);
5. The first linebacker gang tackle;
6. David Gilreath with the ball in his hands;
7. Bucky.

Four days to the Wisconsin game...four days to the Wisconsin game...

Holy, Curmudgeon

Man, talk about a "I said cut those sideburns, Mattingly" moment....

Wisconsin's Super Sweet Sixteen...er, Twenty Nine

Wisconsin's depth chart, ladies and gents. Shocking to no one in particular is Evridge at QB1. Scanning through, I see that Mo-Mo's ahead of Kyle Jefferson for WR2, though given all the reports of Jefferson's continued ball-droppery, I guess that's no shocker.

Guh, how are there still nine days until this season starts? At least I've got the BTN! Here's to being able to watch the Badgers' first two games at home!

That's a bold statement.

Some dude at NCAA Fanhouse linked to some other dude's blog post about overrated teams in preseason top 25s. < sarcasm >Shocker,< /sarcasm > Wisconsin gets included on the list. Granted, Tommy Rider is pretty reserved in his "criticism" of the Badgers:

I'm on record as saying how much I respect Bret Bielema as a head coach. When you have a guy like that, your team always has a chance to compete. Having said that, no way is the 12th best team in the country heading into the season. They have concerns at QB, DL and WR, while their special teams are uncharacteristically weak this year as well. The Badgers also have a tough schedule with road battles against Fresno State, Michigan, Iowa and Michigan State, while playing host to Ohio State, Penn State and Illinois. That's doesn't set up for a team with quarterback concerns to have a lot of success. I hate to underestimate the Badgers but my early guess is they won't even finish in the Top 25 this year. I know one thing for sure: They won't finish in the Top 12.

I can agree with Wisconsin not being the 12th best team, but have a hard time swallowing his prediction that they won't finish ranked. Of the "road battles" listed, the only one that really concerns me is Fresno State. Plus, Wisconsin should be able to take two of three of the "host tos" (Penn State and Illinois, likely). Worst case scenario, Bucky finishes the regular season 9-3, missing the Rose Bowl and pulling a mid-level SEC team in a Florida bowl (a-fucking-gain), predicted as woefully overmatched, either winning or losing by less than a touchdown with a final rank of 12ish (with a win) or 19ish (with a loss).

And there you have it.

Beers To You, Wisconsin

A shout out to Wisconsin from EDSBS, for my money the cream of the crop of college football blogs. (It is to college football what Free Darko is to NBA basketball. But way more hilarious and waaaaay less dense; am I the only person that would love to read FD regularly but feels that Cliffs Notes are required?)

In the spirit of the post, when I get home today, I'll drink ten beers in honor of EDSBS. Cheers!

16...It's a *Horse* Race (LOL) To The Season....ugh

Not for nothing, it's only two weeks aaaand nine hours and forty five minutes 'til NC State/South Carolina get the season going. Well, technically Vandy/Miami (OH) start a half hour earlier (ESPNU), but let's be reasonable.

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Breaking News

Looks like Wisconsin got a verbal commit from Josh Peprah, Packers' safety Charlie "Pep" Peprah's brother. I'm not sure how many other "news" outlets have picked this up yet, but based on no evidence, I'm going to say I'm the first getting the word out.

From Yesterday, But Still...

If you're a Badgers fan, I dare you to read this and not start salivating at the fact that we're just barely over two weeks away from the start of the season.

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Whoa, whoa. I'm going to caution you against doing a Google Image Search for "eighteen" or "18" without turning your Safe Search on....

Scenes From (Well, Of) a Preseason Game

I'm purposely writing this before reading anything else about the game. Therefore, it'll be mostly impressions with few actual facts. I'll admit that, because of a DVR'd Mad Men, I missed the first one (and a half?) series for the Packers. As such, I didn't see Rodgers's interception. And if I'm not mistaken, ESPN didn't show it again throughout the telecast. All told, the first string offense looked pretty sharp. It would have been nice if Rodgers had kept the touchdown pass to James Jones down a little - I wasn't to hype to see him hung out to dry - but it was pretty awesome to see him break free, helmet-less, and rumble in for six.

In fact, that capped a series that should pump up any Packer fan: Brandon Jackson broke out of a few tackles to turn a three or four yard gain into a twelve yard gain, Driver took a short pass in the flat upfield for a first down before delivering a knockout shot to a tackling d-back, and Jones went up high for a pass that he cought off a bobble before spinning out of a double shot that took his lid off and taking the ball in for a touchdown.

The line seemed to be getting off the ball pretty well, and it seemed that they were creating some usable running lanes. Jackson, Herron, and later Lumpkin, seemed to be running decisively. I guess the receivers dropped some balls they shouldn't have, but they seemed to be quick into open areas of the field. The second string guys were decent, although I was a little concerned with Brohm's insistence on chucking it into coverage. And it was the first I heard of him, but I'm now officially intrigued by Taj Smith.

Defensively, the first unit seemed to be playing well. The linebackers were all over the place, which is awesome. I would have preferred the line to get a little more push, but I guess they exhibited everything you'd expect from a unit missing two out of every three players with injuries. I was a little dismayed by Bigby flying over the top of Utecht on the Bengals' first touchdown. Granted, it would have been unlikely that Bigby would have kept Utecht on the half yardline (which is where he'd have made contact), but he was zoning in for a decapitator and just kind of missed. That's the kind of mentality that could get you beat bad.

On special teams, it was heartening that coverage looked pretty good on both sides of the return game, but man, what was with Ryan's six yard punt? Cripes.

Lastly, the Favre/Rodgers talk wasn't any worse than I'd expected, but it wasn't any better. I'm amazed the Bengals players weren't pissed that their sideline interviews were predominantly, "How do you think Aaron Rodgers performed?" Granted, I missed the first fifteen minutes of the telecast, so I also missed Kornheiser's intro. I did like that Jaworski called him out on his, "dalliance of vanity and pride" or whatever, not because he didn't understand it - as TK tried to imply - but because it sounded ridiculous.

So, all things considered, I'm starting to get really excited for the regular season to start. If the team can get healthier (or at least not more injured), Green Bay should be strong out of the gates and one step closer to - dare was say it, Jaws? - a shot at starting a dynasty.

M'n'N'n'F

Preseason's been going on for a little while now, and the snippets I've seen (about 10 minutes total of four or five different games) have made me happy to see football on television again. But not happy enough to watch a full (or most of a full) game. Yet.

Tonight's Packers/Bengals game is a different story, though. Really, the only thing that could drive me away is Kornheiser's (probable) non-stop jibber jabber about the Favre situation. It's an unfortunate perfect storm for TK: he'll be able to lead the telecast with an over the top monologue, rich with melodrama and hyperbole, and then proceed to completely ignore anything that happens on the field to beat the dead horse (that he'd killed by about five minutes into the game).

It kind of makes me ill just thinking about it....

21, 20, 19

On the short side of three weeks, it's time to start getting excited.

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Flying in the Face of My Own Advice

I was thinking, earlier this summer, about writing a post wondering aloud (well, if you read this blog out loud, I guess) whether Kissing Suzy Kolber's schtick was getting stale in the doldrums of the off-season. Like, this time last year I didn't seem to recall every post being some sort of screenplay. Then, I reconsidered, because what point would it serve "calling out" a blog that shit-tons of people read and, presumably, really enjoy when this blog has a readership of two (four on a good day!) and has about one one hundredth the amount of effort put into it (and that's proablaby a liberal estimate). But, you see, by writing about what I'd decided not to write about, I've totally written it! How crazy!

Anyway, today there's a post that reminded me why I fell in love with that site in the first place (awww). Not only was I delighted with the prose and tone of the post, but I started to get all kinds of excited to read KSK again after the season starts and there's, you know, stuff for them to write about.

Thank God That's Over

As everyone surely knows by now, Favre was traded to the Jets (no linking, because good luck avoiding this story) for either a draft pick or a ham sandwich. Either way, a big win for Green Bay. Though the position may be in the majority for Packers Nation at large, support of Favre like my boy Dawg's seems to be in the minority in the Packers Blog World. In case I needed to state my stance re:Favre, I posted a comment to his post (I forgot comment moderation is on on his blog, so I can't copy and paste).

The gist is that while both the front office and Favre made missteps along the way, Favre's missteps outweight the Ted Thompson Trio's and that, in my eyes, is how Favre pissed away his good standing.

Ultimately, this whole saga is going to take the quarterbacking bar for Rodgers from high to almost impossibly high. There are scores of knee-jerk, loudmouth Packers fans that are bound to seize on any mistakes Rodgers makes and play "the Jets are always greener" game. (Like the parents of the little kid that told Rodgers he sucks.) Without naming names, I know one guy who, before Favre came back last time, spent the entire season saying he was done, over the hill, and a hinderance to the Packers progress. He surprised me when he admitted he was dead wrong after last season's success, but after Favre retired this time (psych!) he was already doomsdaying next season, rational thinking (young, talented team; still improving defense; Rodgers' showing against Dallas) be damned! I wonder how many people that will be shouting about how Favre should be the Packers' starters this season were shouting that he should be benched midway through the '06 season....

At the end of the day, I'm pulling for Favre in New York. I'll damn sure watch more Jets games than I would have, and cheering is so much easier since he's on an AFC squad. Still, for as much success as I wish him, I hope Rodgers starts off with a strong win against the Vikes and, win or lose, Favre throws a couple of back-foot picks against the Dolphins....

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I'm Some Sort of Soothsayer....

Well, anybody with half a brain coulda predicted it, but my prediction was made truth, as Lance Smith got his ass booted from the Badgers.

Too bad, really, because the kid had a ton of talent. Of course, he must be kind of an idiot, so I guess Wisconsin's better without him. Bielema seems to be doing a lot of legwork to get Lance on with another program. They're trying to find an FCS fit so he doesn't have to sit a year.

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28, 27, 26

Big Ten/SEC

It should hardly come as a surprise, but the ol' Big Ten/SEC talk has begun (does it really ever end?).

The thing that got me about the story, though, was regarding Lloyd Carr's advice to Bielema to spend some time away every year, Bielema says, "[Y]ou need to get away from the city you live in, thus, Madison...."

Am I the only person that wants a "Thus, Madison" shirt now?

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