#19 - really?

Before going into my Packers game rant that Jimmy was looking for, here's a short one modeled after the Seth Myers-Amy Poehler Weekend Update segment: Really?

So Wisconsin loses, on the road, by five to a team that was favored to win by 3.5, a team that is ranked 18th in this week's poll, and the Badgers fall 14 spots to #19. Really? It's not like we lost to Stanford at home.

Mind you, this is in the AP poll, and we all know how sharp sportswriters are. ;) We're #15 in the USA Today and Harris polls. And, as I discussed several weeks ago, there's a very good chance that we are, indeed, only the 19th best team in the country. But for rankings' sake, that loss did not warrant that far of a drop. It's a reflection of just how badly voters wanted to drop UW.

Again, none of this matters in the grand scheme of things - if we win things will take care of themselves, Big Ten- and BCS-wise, but you really wish the voters would put more thought and consistency into it.

Overall, I'm getting a kick out of the poll and all the non-traditional teams in it: Kentucky, South Carolina, Hawaii, Cincinnati, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri. It's good for the sport.

Week 6 Big Ten recap

Well, like everyone said the conference is down this year, and much like the Brewers failed to take advantage of a weak NL Cenral this year, I fear the Badgers will not seize the opportunity at hand. A rundown of the teams following yesterday.

Ohio State: Beat Purdue convincingly. During the broadcast, Herbstreit said this could be better than last year's team. Here's a thought for sports broadcasters: don't hire analysts who are sooooooo close to their alma mater that they can't think clearly and let them cover said alma mater's games. Here's who the mighty Buckeyes have beaten this year: Youngstown State, Akron, Washington, Northwestern, Minnesota, Purdue. Wow, a real murderer's row. Up next: Kent State. And this team will be ranked #2 or 3 later today? All that said, this is clearly the best team in the Big Ten at this moment.

Illinois, Wisconsin: see yesterday's game report.

Michigan: They're back? Why is that again? Because they beat a 2-4 Eastern Michigan team by 11 in front of the most consistently quiet 100,000+ crowd on the planet? Their other victims since being embarrassed to open the season are Notre Dame, Penn State, and Northwestern. Impressive.

Indiana: Better than I thought, I see them finishing 4-4 or 5-3 in conference.

Purdue: Just not ready for prime time yet. Are they ever?

Penn State: Came back nicely yesterday after back-to-back tough losses, should be favored by about 5 over us this week. Will lose another couple games in conference.

Michigan State, Iowa: Those heart-stopping wins we had to open the Big Ten don't look so good any more, do they? Oh well, it's good for recruiting.

Northwestern: Didn't see that one coming yesterday, Michigan State's defense is atrocious.

Minnesota: Big stretch against Northwestern and North Dakota state will determine whether they finish with one, two, or three wins this season. My guess is they win one game. NDSU is #2 in Division 1-AA; their running backs coach is a guy from Iola, Tim Polasek.

Long way to go. If you made me bet right now, I'd say Ohio State wins the conference with one loss, to Wisconsin.

UW-Illinois postgame thoughts

Just got back from my weekly post-game run around the beautiful village of Scandinavia, where, swear to God, I came within 5 feet of getting trampled by a family of four deer:

-The 14-game winning streak is over, let's stand back and enjoy it. What a great run! The kids showed guts coming back on the road, and had a shot near the end. Let's face it: no one in the Big Ten is as good as Ohio State or Michigan (or even Wisconsin) were last year, so we're still in it. Lot of football to be played.

-Illinois is good, and will definitely factor in the conference race. But their lack of a passing game will eventually cost them. Beyond "Regis" Benn - what a terrible nickname - they've got nothing, and Benn didn't even do much today.

-But, the Illini can really run the ball. Juice is a terrific runner, and ripped off a couple big ones today. Mendenhall is every bit as good as I thought. For all the big runs he had today, the most important in my mind was the 3-1/2-yard run after they recovered our onside kick late - he should have been stopped for 1 yard, but kept his legs churning for a few more yards, and McGee gets the first down by a foot on fourth down. Game over.

-Once again, we can't stop the spread. Got a text message from Scooter Burch during the game: "Blog topic: our defense has no nuts, this is like watching the Holy Angels Royals tackle Scott Tappa." Ah, 1989, what a year for the 0-5 St. Frances Cabrini Warriors and their finesse tight end. But seriously, if I were an opposing offensive coordinator, I would put in a spread package the week before playing the Badgers.

Side note for Burch: As I type this, "Dreams" from Van Halen comes on the radio. Sign of good things to come? Well, the last 100 times we've said that it hasn't happened ...

-Donovan had a nice game. I like him much more than I thought, he can throw the ball, and he avoid sacks better than anyone since Bollinger, maybe better. But his relative lack of arm strength showed up several times in the second half, on one incompletion to Gilreath and his two interceptions. Can't get away with that against a good secondary. Juice, on the other hand, has a big arm but needs to work on accuracy, or his receivers aren't getting open.

-I thought the announcers, Dave Pasch and Andre Ware, were good, like good refs - you didn't notice them much - except for when they kept insisting Beckum's awesome catch was an incompletion. I thought it was a catch, or at the worst the replay was not conclusive enough to overturn. (Funny comment from Olson on Erin Andrews, who unfortunately was a relative non-factor today.)

-Well-officiated game, didn't see any horribly blown calls.

-Last week I made a comment about our depth being better. This week the losses caught up with us. From the preseason roster, today we were missing Cooper, Hubbard, Hodge, Swan, Ware (?), Smith, and PJ had a groin problem today. Good job hanging in playing that many backups.

-In this morning's MJS Potrykus made a reference to the Badgers' little mistakes, and they showed up again today with some ill-timed penalties. Not the reason we lost, though.

-Consider these three plays: Mehlhaff misses a 38-yard FG, their kicker makes a 50-yard FG, and we miss on a two-point conversion. That's a seven-point swing in a game we lost by five. Those plays and decisions have gone our way the past 14 games.

-This team reminds me of the team two years ago. Ever since BB arrived we've been less points-more points-less points-more points every other years. If you need a full explanation of that last sentence, ask someone who sat through Tucson Monsoon '04. Thought this year we would put it all together.

-We have the best group of tight ends in the country. Beckum is awesome, best TE in the country, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him play strictly at wideout if/while Hubbard and Swan are out. Graham, Turner, and Crooks are a good trio themselves, Graham is an NFL player in the making.

-Another big time of possession advantage today, which is both positive (good ball control offense) and negative (defense gives up lots of big plays).

-A week after telling a co-worker about how reliable DirecTV is, I lost reception twice today, including on Illinois's drive after the onside kick. Something about sun outages. Hmmm.

Prediction recap:
-Jefferson has a big game - 65 yards, 1 TD, big enough.
-PJ is going to carry the ball 40 times - nope, half that, that's what happens when we play from behind.
-Any runs that aren't from PJ will come from Gilreath or Beckum on end-arounds, and if they go single back when PJ is resting, it'll be Pressley or Rentmeester as the lone back for pass protection - 100% wrong.
-Crooks is back this week, should help the running game, should be an upgrade over Mickey Turner - didn't see any evidence of that.
-Ike has a shutdown game - on Benn? - pass defense was good, Benn had only 51 yards receiving.
-Casillas does a good job shadowing Juice Williams, but Hodge and the safeties struggle to contain Mendenhall. - no one contained Juice (92 yards rushing) and no one contained Mendenhall (160 yards).
-Wisconsin 26, Illinois 22 - wrong, but for a minute there the final could have been 26-24, which I would have been damn happy with.

At least, checking uwbadgers.com, I see the volleyball team won last night ...

Jury duty?

Not sure what's worse:

-The way I feel about the defense's performance this year and today (although the last Illini possession of the half was encouraging).

-The fact that I just opened a letter informing me that I need to be ready for jury duty in November. No! Jana says that I'll really like it and probably end up being foreman. "The jury will come back and everyone will say 'He's guilty, it's obvious,' and you'll be like 'But what about this? How can we be sure?'" she says. Just like Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men, a great old movie if you haven't seen it.

Anyone else have to serve jury duty? How was it? A guy I play basketball with was supposed to serve last week, but the trial got canceled the night before and he didn't have to go.

Here's hoping for a strong second half. Going to be tough if Swan is out.

second half thoughts

Nice pass to Jefferson and we're back in it! Now we go stop, score ...

Didn't get the stop, but got the score! Like the play calling, don't give up on the run. Good running by Brown. Didn't like the two-point try even before it failed.

So Swan is out. Big chance for some young receivers to step up.my jersey jinx continues:

Brent Moss - career goes up in a cloud of coke
Bubba Franks - stops catching the ball (although he's playing better this year)
Jarvis Minton - no longer in program (okay, this was. #88 throwback Pat Richter jersey)
Swan - hope this isn't serious

I think, even if his numbers aren't quite the same, Beckum is playing better this year - he's still the main guy even though he's a marked man.

Have a feeling we're going to see Evridge today, hope I'm wrong, TD is impressing me.

UW-Illinois in-game thoughts

Had a feeling Mehlhaff was going to miss his first FG attempt today, no matter where it was from.

Can't win with this field position.

Have we been down by more than seven yet this year? The offense has done a great job answering scores, but not this year.

Carter not playing well again. Time to try Royston there?

They're selling out to stop the run - where are the play actions and screens?

Really like how DeCremer is playing, Levy too.

Defense again can't get off the field on third down - maybe the biggest difference between this year's team and last year's.

Their fullback makes a circus catch - oh my god - and they go up 17-0 next play. This is about to get ugly.

What an awesome catch by Beckum. Interesting that they seem to be covering him with Davis - good coaching move by Illinois. Even more so if Swan can't go in the second half.

Missed a couple plays. Any word on why Hodge isn't playing? Injuries, or just not a good matchup against this offense and personnel?

Dilemma

Every Saturday morning Will and I go to Pick n Save in Waupaca for some time together. We eat muffins, sausage and a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, while Will drinks apple juice and runs around and I drink coffee and read the papers.

Over time I've developed something of a friendship with another guy with a similar routine, a UW alum named John. This morning John was there with his wife, and they told me their son, a UW senior, was in Champaign for today's game. John was also in Vegas like we were - he stayed at the Stratosphere, his son at the IP like our group.

Here's their son's dilemma: the family is organizing one last big vacation, to Puerto Rico, over the holidays. Our family did the same thing 10 years ago, trip to Mexico.The son's response: What happens if the Badgers are in the Rose Bowl, or another BCS game?

After thinking about it for a week, the son signed on for the family trip. John told him he could always go to the Rose Bowl when he was 40, but we all know that's far from a given.

Did the son make the right choice?

Ugly high school fans

At my first job after college in Fremont, Ohio, I liked to cover football games sitting in the stands rather than the press box ... better for my back, closer to the fans. I remember one team we covered, St. Joseph Central Catholic, had one parent who paced around the field during the game, listening on the radio. Couldn't understand it.

Now I can. When Will, God willing, becomes involved in competitive athletics, and I'm not coaching - especially on the high school level - I'm not going to be able to take it. Not just the nerves, but the fans. There are some really disgusting human beings in the stands during high school sporting events.

Take tonight. Our local high school hosted a conference rival in their homecoming game, and Jana, Will and I made the 500-yard walk to the field for the game. The home side of the bleachers was packed too full to find a spot for three, so we sat on the line separating the two cheering sections, in front of some opposing fans. Nothing we haven't done before.

First play of the game, our star running back - who I believe is getting recruiting letters from the UW staff; every week or so a Badger game recap addressed to this kid is posted on the bulletin board outside the coach's office - rips off about a 40-yard run. This sets off the guy sitting behind me on a rant that is probably still going on now, as he drives home after his kid's team lost 57-13, and continued when he put on his mesh hat with "Scotch" in big block letters and flips on that Larry the Cable Guy movie.

"Well what do you expect, they've got adults playing!" Many of our starters have been starting since they were sophomores, and this kid has been playing varsity since he was a freshman, so it does seem like he's been around for awhile. But nothing shady. "Hell, they ought to let me put on my jersey and get out there."

After our guy's next big run, the guy lets out a sarcastic "Nice run, young man!"

Then: "No wonder it's 21-0, they're playing adults!"

Then, after a touchdown: "Pfsts!"

Then: "I wish (the guy's son) would just lay that kid out, just plant him on the ground."

"I can't believe the WIAA is letting him play, he's been in high school for six years."

Then, the guy next to him chimed in. "I bet if he plays in college he'll only make it for two years."

Then our kid got shaken up, and as trainers worked on him on the sideline: "See, his teammates don't even like him. They didn't even want him on the team."

The visitors did not have many on-field highlights - after beating us the last two years, they seem to be in a bit of a rebuilding mode - but even the few they did have were not cheered for their boys' success, but for our kids' failings on a given play. As far as I could see, our kid wasn't showboating, trash talking, or anything like that.

Every once in awhile, Will - dressed, like me, in our team's colors and clearly cheering for this kid - gives the guy a look like, You should be in timeout!

After about eight minutes of this - yes, all this happened in about eight minutes of action - Jana took Will to get popcorn, and I became that Geek Who's Listening to the Game on the Radio, mainly to block out the guy. After Jana and Will got back, the guy was still going, and since Jana is the type to get in people's face at the theater if they're talking during a movie (and I love her for it), we moved so as not to become an interesting sidebar to Homecoming '07.

Here's the scary part: some of the things the guy was saying sounded like things that have come out of my mouth before, just with different names and uniform numbers. Specifically, I thought of how mad I got during the Badgers' loss to UNLV in the NCAA tournament in March. If I had a dime for every time "f#$@ing grad student" came out of my mouth in reference to the Rebels' star point guard, I'd buy some brand name dental floss, the nice stuff with extra wax. Also last March, I may have called Michigan State's star guard a skinhead; will have to check with Andy, Nick and Dad on that one. On more than one occasion when bemoaning the Brewers' fade in the pennant race this fall, I referenced the Cubs' "$8 billion payroll" and "their leadoff hitter that makes more than our entire lineup." All of these are either excuses, or ways of demeaning your conquerors, even if it is just in your own eyes. At first they may be a little bit clever or funny, but as they are repeated they just sound bitter and mean.

The big differences are:
1. I'm usually at home in front of my TV when yelling this stuff, not potentially sitting next to these guys' family.
2. I realize I sound like a jackass when this horrible persona emerges, and I'm working on it. I swear, Dad. Best behavior in Indianapolis this year.
3. This is the big one: the guy was yelling at and disparaging a high school kid, not a pseudo-professional athlete generating millions of dollars for his school and used to being scrutinized by a large number of fans and media. The guy sounded like he really hated this kid. A high school kid, who was shooting hoops at a local park with friends last Saturday at dusk when I went for a run after the Badger game, just like we did at that age.

If you've made it this far in the post, bravo. Please share with the group (cheap therapy) your irrational rants that you may have felt bad about later, if only to make me feel better.

This is what just several weeks of blogging has done to me - instead of moving away from this jerk, I hung in there to gather more of his lines for use in this post. That and the popcorn.

Wisconsin-Illinois predictions

Have a few minutes before the Iola-Scandinavia homecoming parade starts - day care takes Will and the kids down to watch, and it's fun to watch them ... the parade, not so much. Wanted to throw out some predictions for tomorrow's game.

-Jefferson has a big game. Illinois has a good corner that I think is going to limit Swan.
-PJ is going to carry the ball 40 times, or at least I hope so, because that will mean we're either winning or close. But I'm not predicting a 200-yard game or anything like that; as much as J Leman looks like a linebacker cliche/prototype (in the same sense as AJ Hawk or Brian Urlacher) - distinctive haircut, interesting name, talks a good game - I think the fellas are motivated to establih the run game after they took PJ out of last year's game, and Leman is held in check.
-Any runs that aren't from PJ will come from Gilreath or Beckum on end-arounds, and if they go single back when PJ is resting, it'll be Pressley or Rentmeester as the lone back for pass protection.
-Crooks is back this week, should help the running game, should be an upgrade over Mickey Turner.
-Ike has a shutdown game - on Benn?
-Casillas does a good job shadowing Juice Williams, but Hodge and the safeties struggle to contain Mendenhall.

It seemed like I had more thoughts than this while drifting off to sleep last night ... will add them later.

The fact that Illinois is favored in this one is getting a lot of play nationall, and it should because this sort of thing doesn't happen often. That, plus the fact that Illinois dominated us for a half last year in Madison, should provide all the motivation the Badgers need.

Wisconsin 26, Illinois 22

You need awesome lessons

Tonight's episode of The Office reminded me of something Olson whispered to me about 10 years ago, either drunkenly or just using his keen sarcasm:

"The key thing to the future, it's going to be big, Taps, you'll see - the computer!" This while we worked on the Greenfield computer in the Cardinal offices.

Good to see Michael Scott fighting against that inevitable future. Makes me feel a little bit better about my current career path.

Tonight's episode was another too-longer, not-enough-laugher - we'll give it a C+ - but you can bet your ass a million losers like me went right to their keyboards after the show and typed in http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/. But even that strangely funny faux commercial gave way to disappointment - what, you need to be a myNBC member to login and see this site? I'm not that big a loser!

(Interesting aside: type in http://www.dundermifflin.com/, and you get an automatic redirect to http://www.5minuteswithwichita.com/, and I'm not ready to go there yet.)

Best moments of the show:
1. Andy's line to Jim: "... well, then you need awesome lessons."
2. Angela to Dwight: "I can't look you in the eyes." Dwight: "Look here (right above the nose), it's an old sales trick."
3. Jim's screen showing the original DM website - under construction, coming Christmas 2002.

It was interesting that Carell had one of those freak-outs he does so well, I don't remember him ever doing that on the show before. Him driving into the lake was terrible, it's like something Homer Simpson would do ... but Homer is animated and has done that every week for 18 years. Come on guys, let's not go there.

Was it just me, or did Creed look like Christopher Walken?