Badgers Try to Stay Relevant, and Quarterbacks Fall Across the NFL

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, there’s one big question on the minds of Madison sports fans these days: can the Badgers Football team stay relevant? After their loss to Alabama this weekend, Oates thinks they look no better off than they were last year. Sure, they’ve made some changes and added some veteran players, but that didn’t pay off on the field. We weren’t expecting them to beat Alabama, but their blowout loss was tough. Sure, they are down their starting quarterback, but that doesn’t excuse everything. Oates says it all comes down to recruiting. Wisconsin high schools are great at making really good offensive linemen, and the Badgers pursued none of them this year. Instead, the state’s top prospects went to Notre Dame and Minnesota. If they want to run the ball, which we assume they do, they need a good offensive line. To not recruit Wisconsin linemen means their entire offense is going to suffer.

This weekend the Badgers will take on Maryland in their first Big 10 matchup of the year. Maryland might hold a 3-0 record, but the Badgers are still favored. It might be the last time in a long while they enter a game favored, maybe even the last time this season depending on how Minnesota and Washington shape up. If they beat Maryland on Saturday, then we can breathe a sigh of relief and start to really look at the rest of the conference matchups. If they lose, then everyone has to be on notice. Because after Saturday, the Badgers will be facing a murderers row of tough teams for weeks. They need to start developing a winning attitude, and to do that you need to win some conference games.  

One thing on the Badgers side is that nobody seems to have turf toe, which can’t be said about the NFL. Quarterbacks have been going down across the league, including Joe Burrow who will be out for months at least with turf toe. Jayden Daniels, Justin Fields, and JJ McCarthy are also out with injury. The Packers understand just how hard it is to play competitively when you lose your starting quarterback. At least the Bengals have moves to make, signing former Packer Sean Clifford onto their squad. Speaking of, the Packers will take on the Browns on Sunday after another dominant victory last week. Still, Green Bay shouldn’t take them too lightly. They have some good players in Cleveland, they just make a lot of bad quarterback decisions. Add on the mounting injuries the Packers are already facing, and they can’t assume an easy victory on Sunday. 

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.

A weekly podcast with insights and analysis on the Wisconsin Badgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Bucks from two of Wisconsin’s most experienced sports journalists. Mike Lucas is a veteran sports columnist for the Cap Times and was a Badgers radio color commentator for over 25 years. Tom Oates was a sports reporter and columnist for the Wisconsin State Journal for 40 years.