Matt Flynn stepped in for a concussed Aaron Rodgers and threw three touchdowns, evaded Patriot defenders, and showed poise and confidence in his first start.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough, as the Packers lose a close one to the Patriots 31-27.

First off, huge props to Flynn for showing poise and making smart decisions when they mattered most. Kudos to Brandon Jackson and John Kuhn for running hard and opening up the passing game.

The Packers defense, which has been labeled “bend but don’t break” all season, finally broke on many plays tonight.  They gave up a 39 yard TD run to Ben Jarvis Green-Ellis in the first quarter, and were plagued  by bad tackling on many plays.

Special teams also laid an egg tonight, achieving next to nothing in the return game and giving up an embarrassing 71 yard kickoff return to Dan Connolly to set up another Pats TD.

Overall, it’s hard to hang your head too

much after this loss. Considering how New England went into Soldier Field last week and ripped apart a highly-touted Bears defense, this game could have been much uglier.  I’m sure we’ll discuss this further during the WST podcast tomorrow night, but clock management towards the end of the game was, in my opinion, horrendous.  I’m curious to see how Mike McCarthy defends that call.

Despite the fact that Matt Flynn was starting his first career game, there’s no reason to waste your final timeout with only a minute left in the 4th. Further, there seemed to be ZERO sense of urgency getting to the line in the final seconds of the game; How can nobody on the offense start jumping and hollering to get a play rolling.

Lastly, in a game when the defense absolutely needed to create turnovers, Charles Woodson drops an easy INT that could have been returned for 6.  If you want to beat a team like New England when shorthanded, plays like that can make a huge difference.

All hope is not lost, however. With Tampa Bay and the New York Giants both losing, the Packers hopes of making the playoffs remain alive.  And with New York coming off a heartbreaking loss to Philadelphia today, they could be vulnerable coming into Lambeau next Sunday.

Good effort Pack. But as is the story of our season, not quite good enough.

- Recap of the Badger v.s Wildcat match-up last weekend.

- Badgers in the Rose Bowl?!?! Probably, is TCU their likely opponent?

- Re-visiting the SEC v.s Big Ten debate.

Part 2:

- Badger Talk- if the Badgers were in the Rose Bowl who would be a potential match-up?

- Do the mid majors belong in the BCS gowl games?

The Marquette men’s basketball team (4-1) continues to show a ton of potential every time they suit up.

That didn’t change in Monday night’s loss to the #1 ranked Duke Blue Devils. The young and, in large part, inexperienced Golden Eagles fought very hard and it seemed that they might be headed for another upset of the Duke Blue Devils in the same tournament (the CBE Classic Championship in Kansas city) that they defeated them in four years ago.

A few reoccurring problems reared their ugly heads in the end as our Golden Eagles fell victim to the top ranked team in the country, 82-77.

The Negatives

- The MU basketball team, at least in recent memory, has always struggled with skilled big men due to their lack of interior size and skill.

6’10, 240 lb Junior Forward, Mason Plumlee absolutely dominated the game on both ends of the floor last night. He consistently caught the ball deep inside and finished strong around the hoop all evening.

Plumlee went 12-16 from the field (mostly on lay-ups and dunks) and he also found his teammates on a few very nice passes in route to a three assist performance. Plumlee also dominated the glass and the defensive interior adding 12 rebounds and swatting five shots.

Plumlee is one of the better big-men that MU will face all season but I know many MU fans had loftier expectations for the improved underclassmen, Chris Otule and Freshmen big, Devante Gardner.

- Darius Johnson-Odom (DJO) and the rest of the MU basketball team’s love affair with the three ball has to cease when your shooting a putrid 20% from deep. DJO didn’t even record a field goal until the second half and him, Dwight Buycks, Vander Blue, Jae Crowder and even Jimmy Butler seemed content settling for jumpers during points in the game when they needed a bucket.

Jimmy and Jae both finished with pretty strong offensive performances (22 pts, 15 pts respectively) but this team is clearly best when they are attacking the hoop. In their defense, Mason Plumlee’s dominance in the paint may have deterred them from continuing to go to the tin.

- My final gripe is the offense when Dwight Buycks is running the offense. Dwight has clearly improved his overall game since arriving on campus at MU, but I’m not sure he’s the distributor that this team needs this season.

This team is clearly loaded with offensive talent and a PG committed to running the offense and finding the open man would definitely help the flow of the offense. I’m not saying that I don’t think Dwight can be that guy, but I do think there may be better options for that job on the current roster.

The Positives

- MU fans have got to be more than encouraged with what they saw from sophomore PG, Junior Cadougan last night. Junior was an excellent change-of-pace floor general against a tremendous basketball team. He was a huge reason for MU’s run that tied the game early to mid-way through the second half. Junior finished with seven assists and took what the defense gave him offensively as he finished with 5 points on 2-3 shooting.

These numbers aren’t flashy, but again, if you can find a PG committed to getting the talent around him the ball where they like to receive it; this team could be very scary.

- Creating turnovers. That’s how our Golden Eagles stayed in the ball game. They baited Freshmen standout, Kyrie Irving and National Championship holdover, Nolan Smith into a whopping 11 turnovers just between the two of them (19 overall).

Vander, Dwight and especially Jae displayed excellent hands as they stripped the ball from Duke’s studs several times.

Otule and Gardner will improve MU’s interior defense this season but Buzz Williams will have to preach play-making and staying opportunistic for this defense to be considered strong.

- Interior scoring was ample against a tough interior opponent. Devante once again displayed  a pretty good offensive arsenal inside (nine points, 4-7) and Chris Otule was average which is pretty much all you can ask from him when hes going against Mason Plumlee. Jae Crowder has also shown the ability to score inside and out.

- The Talent! I know the experience and chemistry isn’t there yet, but you’ve got to admit that this team has the potential to be something special.

MU didn’t play their best game and they stuck with the best team in the country. They will only get better from here on out.

The Golden Eagles have another chance to make some noise against the # 18 ranked Gonzaga Bulldogs in the consolation round of CBE Classic Championship tonight at 6:45.

Gonzaga (2-2) has lost to two very tough teams in Kansas State and San Diego State.  Gonzaga’s 7 ft Center, Robert Sacre may give Marquette problems but I see this being another close game.

I don’t make score predictions but win or lose, we’ll see some encouraging things from this team.

If there has been one constant during MU Coach, Buzz Williams’ tenure as Marquette’s head coach it’s been that the Golden Eagles exceed expectations—at least the expectations of the national pundits.

Take last year for example; everyone in the national media knew that MU would finish near the bottom of the Big East. They had just lost their 3 best players in Jerel McNeal, Wes Matthews, and Dominic James. They had lost their best recruit, Junior Cadougan to an injury (torn achilles tendon) that would keep him out for the majority of the season. Players that were coming in to replace these guys—players like Darius Johnson-Odom, Jimmy Butler, and Maurice Acker—were complete question marks at the time. Acker, initially, wasn’t even apart of Marquette’s roster.  On top of all that, Buzz Williams found a way. He led the Golden Eagles to the big dance, took them deep into the Big East Conference tourney (semifinals), and finished with 22 regular season wins.

This year is similar. Lazar Hayward, an NBA first round pick, and unquestioned senior leader of the team is gone. There are some apparent holes to fill in the low post and at point guard.  Once again, the national media isn’t giving the Golden Eagles a lot of respect. Most publications are picking MU to finish 8^th or 9^th in the loaded Big East (which, this year,  may not be good enough for the tournament). But there is still reason to be optimistic about this squad and there is reason to think that MU will once again exceed expectations.

Take a look at this team. The two returning stars are Jimmy Butler (14.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg last season) and Darius Johnson-Odom (13 ppg, 58.2 ts% last season). These guys were integral parts of last year’s success. The team brought in JUCO (Junior College)  player of the year, Jae Crowder, who appears to be a Lazar Hayward clone. This freshman class is also one of the best MU has had in years . The state’s best player, Vander Blue, signed on and figures to be a big part of the rotation. The same can be said for highly touted recruits, Reggie Smith, big man Davante Gardner, and Jamail Jones. Senior, Dwight Buycks figures to play big minutes at the point guard position. At center, 6-11 Chris Otule, who has been hit by injury the last couple years, is set to see more time and is expected to make a contribution as well.

DJO and Butler will be fixtures in the starting line up and Jae Crowder will most likely be a major player at power forward. If Buzz Williams can get big contributions from two or three of the afore-mentioned freshman and holdovers aas well as returning players, Joe Fulce F and Junior Cadougan PG, this team will again exceed expectations. A big positional battle will be minutes at the point guard position.  Dwight Buycks is holding off newcomers Reggie Smith, Cadougan and Vander Blue (who is really more of a shooting guard). It should be interesting to see how that shakes out, as Buzz Williams has lots of options. In the low post, expect Crowder to be a big re-bounder and a scrappy player in the paint. Wide bodied, Davante Gardner has also been very impressive so far with his ability to both shoot and bang down low. If Otule can come in and get some rebounds and block/alter shots, it would be huge for the Golden Eagles, who last year, lacked any significant size inside.

The regular season starts off with some tough competition with non-conference games against the likes of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, and a mini-tournament in Kansas City where the team plays defending national champ, Duke, and either Gonzaga or #3 Kansas State. Then the real fun begins when Big East season basketball opens up on January 1 vs West Virginia.

Look for this team to lose some disappointing games like they did last year, but also hang tough against the elites (like Duke, Villanova, etc.). They will be playing in and most likely winning some big games this year. My prediction is that they exceed expectations and finish better than 8^th or 9^th in conference.

In this week’s second section, the guys talk about the Badger Football Team’s 83-17 shillacking of the Indiana Hoosiers on Saturday.  The guy’s briefly revisit their debate about the strength of the Big Ten and talk about the Badgers’ final two games with Michigan and North Western.

The WST Guys talk briefly about the Badgers’ upcoming Saturday Match-up with the Indiana Hoosiers (4-5 (0-5)).  Then the guys debate the how the Big Ten stacks up against the other power conferences.  The WST crew closes with some Shout Outs!

The NFL has officially changed its overtime rules… But only for the playoffs. The world is coming to a change, with health care reform and overtime reform in the same week. However, unlike health care reform, this new change should have few opponents for the following reasons.

1.)  The old rule was straight up unfair. Whichever team won the coin toss in overtime had the clear advantage of winning. All the team had to do was get inside field goal range. “Evens or Odds” or a game of “One. Two. Three. Horsengoggle!” made as much sense as the old rule.

2.)  The Packers and other teams will not have to frantically pray for a “Heads” or a “Tails”. One example I can think of is a Detroit Lions game a few years ago. In overtime, the Lions won the toss and for whatever reason not know to man, they decided to kick! The Lions of course being the losers that they are, lost the game.

Why does this rule only take effect in the playoffs you ask? Well the official explanation for that was player safety. The NFL fears that if they were to extend the game by one drive, players might get hurt. Kind of stupid I think, but better safe than sorry.

Profootballtalk.com is reporting that Packers TE/Swiss-Army knife Spencer Havner was arrested for a DUI early last Saturday in California following a motorcycle accident. Havner sustained a fractured scapula and lacerations to the back of his head and arm. He was not wearing a helmet.

According to TheUnion.com, Havner was driving a Kawasaki motorcycle around a cul-de-sac at 2:45 am. It was there that he lost control and suffered the injuries.

Definitely not the ideal way for Havner to start his offseason training. He scored four memorable touchdown’s for the Packers last year, and I figure that he could at least play an enhanced role on offense this season. These injuries and DUI charges definitely put that scenario in jeopardy.