In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers are getting ready to take on the Bears this Sunday in Green Bay. While we are still in early December, the Bears are somehow sitting at the top of the NFC. Who would have thought at the beginning of the season that the Bears and the Patriots would be the top teams in football this year? If the playoffs started today, they would be getting a bye while the Packers would take on the Eagles. But the playoffs are not starting today, and before we get to that point the Packers and Bears will face each other twice.The Bears are winning games against hard-to-beat teams, but at the end of the day Oates doesn’t think they’ll be on top for the rest of the season. Caleb Williams has been doing alright for himself under Ben Johnson, especially considering the Bears’ long history of squandering quarterbacks, and the Bears have a decent running game. But Jordan Love showed some really great stuff against the Lions last week, while LaFleur made some gutsy calls that paid off. While losing Devonte Wyatt is a big loss, says Oates, they’ll still put up a good fight against Chicago.

Meanwhile in Minneapolis, the Badgers ended their season on a whimper of a loss. The axe will stay in Minnesota for another year, it seems. This year racked up very few wins with an offense that’s at the bottom of the pile. They garnered a little bit of good will after a few wins, but they lost it all on Saturday once again. Oates has a big statement to make: Luke Fickell has botched up the two most important things in college football - the quarterback and the offense. Why wasn’t Carter Smith utilized more in the second half on Saturday? We can say that it’s because we don’t know how well he does passing back from the pocket, but still.

Finally, the Badgers men’s basketball team will make their Big 10 debut this season on Wednesday night when they take on Northwestern. They showed a few weaknesses against TCU last week, mostly in their inability to react when under defensive pressure. But after Northwestern comes Marquette in a Saturday afternoon game. Marquette coach Shaka Smart has a philosophy not to use the transfer portal too much, a move which is respected by Oates. But it might still kill the team, as it is vital to college basketball today. Either way, it’s always an exciting game when Wisconsin takes on Marquette.

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers are coming off a victory over a weak-looking Vikings to take part in a time-honored tradition: facing the Lions in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day. It is, at this point, a staple for late November. We can’t even remember when it started. It was a yearly thing until around 1962, when Lombardi’s Packers were probably the best they’ve been in history. They won every game that year but one: the Lions on Thanksgiving. 10 Hall of Famers were on that 62 team! And while the number of Bart Starr sacks is still debated, it did have one effect: Lombardi decided to put an end to the tradition. For a while. These days, while the Packers and Lions don’t play every year, it’s regular enough. The Lions’ fans have made a tradition of showing up loud, likely before going home for the turkey, and how are we to deny that. The Packers dominated the Lions earlier this year, but Oates says don’t count on that happening again on Thursday. That said, the Lions haven’t been playing their greatest in recent weeks. Their o-line has taken a turn for the worse, and their defense is not looking great either. Add in a few unfortunate injuries to Lions’ skills players and Detroit is definitely beatable. It will, however, be a tougher game for the Packers than their victory over the Vikings on Sunday. JJ McCarthy might be something in the future, and it’s still too early to make any real decisions on who he is as a player, but he certainly is not up to snuff quite yet. That said, it’s important to remember how Jordan Love played in the first half of 2023… Turning to Madison, fans stormed Camp Randall field once again on Saturday as the Badgers beat the ranked Illinois. Fans will react to anything at this point in the year; they went from nothing but doom and gloom to a little bit of a spark of improvement. They’ve been playing tough football for a few weeks now and it’s starting to pay off. Carter Smith is starting to show a little bit more of his stuff, and while he is still a freshman he has shown immense growth over the past few weeks. The question now is: can he continue to show growth against Minnesota and help the Badgers take the axe on Saturday? 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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Badgers take on Illinois in Camp Randall on Saturday evening, in a game that’ll bring some familiar faces to the field. On top of the handful of defensive players and some assistants too, most everyone will recognize Bret Bielema standing as Illinois’ head coach. He’s done pretty well for himself in Illinois, and even with that history this is still not going to be seen as a rivalry game. Why is that? In professional sports, it’s always a big deal when Wisconsin takes on Illinois, but not in college and especially not in football. There might be some individual squabbles, sure, but at this point Northwestern is seen as more of a rival than Illinois.

Saturday’s game will be the first Wisconsin-Illinois game in Madison since 2022, when the Badgers played a miserable second half and Paul Chryst got sacked the next day. Think that’ll be on Fickell’s mind? Probably not, especially as it seems he might have saved his job. Yes, they lost badly to Indianna, but the team played hard. Pair that with the win over Washington (and the handful of votes of confidence), and we can be sure that Fickell will be back as head coach next year. The real question will be: is Carter Smith going to be the future of the program? It’s too early to say, says Oates, but we’ll know more in these last two games. One thing we know for sure is that he shows promise and we still don’t know anything about Billy Edwards anyways.

The Packers, meanwhile, got a tight win over the Giants on Sunday. The game was tighter than it should have been, but don’t put that on Jordan Love. He played pretty well, says Lucas, especially in the game-winning drive. Most of his missed passes were actually drops thanks to the young receiving core the Packers still struggle with. If Love could just learn how to slide, and when, maybe he’d be seen more for the quarterback that he is.

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers lost to the Eagles on Monday night in a frustrating game that might have Matt LaFleur and Jordan Love get the same treatment as Luke Fickell in recent weeks. Is a vote of confidence needed? And if so, for who? The offense was awful, both on Monday and in recent weeks. A troubling trend has emerged where the Packers seem completely unable to score in the first half of any game. Oates says it’s because teams are starting to get a handle on what the Packers offense is going to do every play. That’s hard to argue when the Eagles defense yells out exactly where they’re going to run the ball, and then the Packers run it right where they said they would. If the defense calls out exactly what you’re going to do, why would you not take a timeout and make a change?

Whether that falls on LaFleur or on Love, one thing is for certain: this offense isn’t working. The national pundits want LaFleur to take the handcuffs off of his quarterback and see what he can do, and Oates agrees. Love has regressed in recent weeks, and is making more and more bad decisions. But LaFleur has this notion that offense needs to be all about the running game, and he forces it to the point where Love is barely a factor. Sure, he can make some bad decisions and he has his good throws and bad throws, but something has to change. Oates thinks the Packers need to leave their gameplan every once in a while and just let Love take the reins and go. It’s not like we’re scoring points now anyways!

In a surprising twist, the Badgers were the football team to score a big win in Wisconsin this weekend, taking down Washington on Saturday night. It was such a big win that fans stormed the field, and while some people might turn their nose up as some behavior, at least the fans are engaged. After the season that Badgers have had, a win against a ranked opponent is more than enough reason to celebrate. Not that Madison was without its issues; it’s never good when your punter has the most passing yards of the game. But the freshman Carter Smith looked good, Oates says, and we shouldn’t judge his passing ability on his performance on Saturday. What he did show is that he can run and he can show aggressiveness. We hope to see more of the young freshmen this weekend!

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates spend some time looking at how Badger’s athletics has changed over the years before diving into the mess the Packers made on Sunday. There have been Fire Fickell chants for a while, and now those chants are switching to Fire LaFleur. Both he and Jordan Love had an awful day on Sunday as both of them seemed to be making bad decisions all day. On LaFleur’s end, why would he go for big points with 12 minutes left in the 4th instead of just taking the field goal? On Love’s end, why is he throwing 50 yards downfield to someone with three defenders on him on a first down? Love is, and continues to be, a great quarterback, and is the future of the program. But he has a tendency to make some questionable decisions, especially when he’s up against the clock. That said, LaFleur seems to want to run the ball as much as possible instead of letting his great quarterback throw the ball. The team was simply not ready to play on Sunday. Did LaFleur underestimate the Panthers? Who knows.

LaFleur seems to act like he has a Super Bowl caliber team at all times, even though they aren’t playing like it. Oates says that yes, the roster itself is capable of a Super Bowl, but there are a handful of Super Bowl rosters in the league right now. And while the roster might be there, they aren’t playing up to snuff. Penalties are killing them, especially holding and motion penalties. These sorts of stupid mistakes are costing the team in a real way, and while they show some signs of greatness here and there they still fall to teams they should easily beat. It’s hard to blame great players every week, which means that the blame has to fall to LaFleur.

Meanwhile, the Badgers look likely to start a freshman quarterback on Saturday when they take on the Washington Huskies. Carter Smith is a freshman from Florida, and at this point why not play him. It’s not like the job is getting done on the field anyways, worse comes to worse it’s more of the same. We don’t know too much about Smith, but we hear from his coaches in Florida that he’s a dual-threat who can run the ball. We’ll see on Saturday if he can actually live up to that. The real question is: does Luke Fickell know anything about his quarterbacks? Why hasn’t he been playing already? Was it to save a red shirt year? And where’s Billy Edwards? We wish Carter Smith the best, because anything else can’t be worse than what the Badgers are already dealing with. And if he does perform well, that could give the team some momentum through the end of the season and beyond.

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates lasted all the way until the 17th inning during the marathon Game Three of the World Series on Monday. 19 pitchers hit the mound between both teams, throwing over 600 pitches over the course of six plus hours. The game was long, Lucas says, but it also cements Shohei Ohtani as maybe the greatest baseball player ever. He was getting the Barry Bonds treatment, drawing four intentional walks, but still delivered a great performance. Did the marathon of a game convince Oates that baserunners in extra innings is a good idea? Of course not.

Meanwhile, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Steelers on Sunday night as Jordan Love played possibly the best game of his life against his former mentor. Sure, the Steelers defense wasn’t the most impressive thing in the world, but he showed significant growth on Sunday night. Love was patient and calm under the pressure of an intense pass rush, and if he continues to play like that the Packers will be in excellent shape. Especially if Love can continue to work with Tucker Kraft, who very well might be the best tight end in football today. Combine him with a returning Christian Watson and the Packers looked mighty tough Sunday night. The Packers play the Panthers this upcoming Sunday before taking on the Eagles in Monday Night Football. A win against the Eagles in November might prove to be very important come playoff time this year…

Sticking with football, the Badgers fell again to Oregon on Saturday. At least this time they managed to actually score a touchdown. The defense actually played pretty well, Oates thinks, effectively shutting down the Oregon defense during the first half. They played tough and competitive, but how many times have we said that this year? The offense looked about as bad as they have been, and they are unable to move the ball either on the ground or in the air. Hunter Simmons has shown himself to be completely overmatched at this level, and Lucas and Oates both think it’s time for a change. Billy Edwards’ future is still uncertain, but why Simmons is still playing over Danny O’Neil is completely unknown. Do the Badgers have a chance at any viable wins left this year? Likely not against Washington or Indianna, but Illinois? Minnesota? Anybody?

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Wisconsin Athletic Director Chris McIntosh has issued a vote of confidence for Badger’s Football Coach Luke Fickell. Is it usually a good thing when you have to give a vote of confidence to your head coach in a public letter to the fans? In the letter that was too long and gave too little specifics, McIntosh promised to pour more resources into the football program in Madison. Which makes you ask the question: how? If you ask any other athletic program in Madison, you’ll hear how every penny is already going to the football program that continues to falter. The letter is being panned by just about everyone, and the whole thing feels desperate. What are people supposed to take away from this letter? Do you really think that anyone is going to open up their wallets after they got shut out two weeks in a row, for the first time since 1977? At least these days, the players aren’t going off to try and fight the fans after the game…

People are starting to tune out of Badgers football. They aren’t renewing their season tickets, and why should they if this is what they can expect again next year? Despite the best efforts of the players, who did give their best effort on Saturday, the student section never filled up. The only reason students go to games now is to Jump Around and boo. Madison is not used to this sort of uncompetitiveness and the benefit of the doubt is running out. If we can give Fickell one thing it’s how he’s been able to handle the media. He isn’t shying away from questions like some coaches in the past, and he isn’t lashing out at the media when they ask tough questions. At the end of the day, Oates says that Fickell will not be the one to turn this program around.

It’s a stark contrast to look at schools like Vanderbilt and Indiana, who are succeeding this year while the Badgers continue to fall. There is actually a pretty easy answer to why that is, Oates says: money. In the era of NIL, the things that used to matter like facilities, tv appearances, tradition, and even academics don’t matter to the players anymore. What matters is which school has the biggest billionaire behind them who’s willing to write the biggest check. It almost sounds like another sport that Wisconsin sports fans are all too familiar with this past week…

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.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Oates is away on business so Lucas is joined by the voice of the Wisconsin Badgers: Mike Mahke! Mike has been the voice of Camp Randall and the Kohl Center for decades, and continued to do his job even during the Badgers’ dumbfounding defeat by Iowa on Saturday. The game started on a high note, with Monte Ball being honored for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Surely at least a few fans were wondering if he still had any years of eligibility left in him… When calling a game like Saturday, Mike says it’s not always as hard as it seems, though it is less fun. He’s there to do a job, he says, and will continue to provide information and optimism in even the toughest times.

After Saturday’s loss to Iowa, many fans are feeling both angry and sad, with some even beginning to tune out. Early in the game on Saturday, Mike says that everyone in those stands wanted to be there and were pulling for a competitive victory. But as the game went on and the opportunities began to slip away, he could feel it. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to tune out, Mike says. Badger fans are fans through thick and thin, and need to stay behind their team. At the very least, they should follow what Luke Fickell has to say: be mad at the coach but not at the players on the field.

Next weekend, the Badgers take on Ohio State at home. It’ll be a tough fight, Mike thinks, specifically for the Badgers’ defense. They’ll need to do more that they showed against Iowa if they want to have any chance of slowing Ohio State. But if you’re still looking for a reason to go on Saturday, there will be a special celebration for the Badgers’ Rose Bowl winning teams, especially for Ron Dayne and Barry Alvarez. Who knows, there might even be a Ron Dayne call echoing through Camp Randall once again…

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.