Is LaFleur on the Hot Seat? And Badger’s O-Line Still Needs Work

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates tear down the Packers loss to the Vikings. 

• The Packers fell 22-39 against the Vikings on Sunday thanks to another collapse in the fourth quarter. The big swing in momentum came when LaFleur decided not to take a field goal after a penalty and instead tried to force a fourth-and-one, which failed. But it’s not all on that one decision, some bad calls and poor performance from Jordan Love after the Vikings struck back was hard to watch. 

• With that big opening lost, Lucas and Oates have to ask: is LaFleur on the hot seat? Oates thinks so, and it isn’t just because of the stupid decision to remove three points from their score. A team that falls apart consistently in the fourth quarter and an undisciplined team creating penalties makes it harder and harder to defend the head coach. 

• The Badgers, meanwhile, defeated Western Illinois as they needed to. We were able to learn a lot on Saturday: Lucas learned that quarterback Colton Joseph needs to figure out his accuracy problems, and Oates learned that the offensive line is still a problem. Still, their running backs and wide receivers showed some promise. We’ll learn more this weekend when they take on Eastern Michigan on Saturday. 

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. The Wisconsin Sportscast is sponsored by Dupaco Credit Union, Ridge Top Exteriors and Fabiola's Spaghetti House. 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.