Recovering From A Great Sunday For Packers And Badgers

Wow!  What a Sunday for the Badgers and Packers.  The Packers winning the Super Bowl in the top story but the Badgers beating Michigan State by almost thirty is no slouch on its own.  Because I spent my entire Monday recovering from the Super Bowl win by watching as much Packer coverage as I could, and re-watching the game through DVR I will start there.

Packers Win Super Bowl 31-25

This was as satisfying as it can get for a fan of a team.  The Steelers wanted another Super Bowl win but the Packers and the fans needed this Super Bowl win.  For all of the years of frustration of being good but not good enough, the 4th and 26, the NFC Championship loss to the Giants, even the Super Bowl loss to Denver, this win made it worth it.  I cannot ever remember being that happy over a win as just a fan.  Here are just some of the people I am additionally happy for with the win.

• Entire Packer Organization – Things change when you win a Super Bowl.  Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy especially will be looked at differently but from top to bottom the Packers are one of the classiest organizations in sports and really deserved the ultimate recognition.
• Ted Thompson – He has been hammered like no other for all of his personnel moves, and that was before the Favre stuff due to letting Rivera and Wahle walk.  There is not a Packer fan alive that has not been frustrated by Thompson at some point.  I am all for the draft and have always believed in building through the draft but I had doubts growing that you can ever get over the top with that approach alone.
• Mike McCarthy – I have always wanted to like McCarthy and continued to defend him, up until the Detroit loss this season.  That is when I had finally lost faith.  Was McCarthy just a glorified quarterback coach with a nice scheme?  Then I saw some footage after the Packers qualified for the playoffs in the locker-room and some articles started surfacing regarding how much the players respected and feared him.   You could see the admiration the players had for him.  I am so glad I was wrong, this win will entrench him as a top head coach for at least a few years.
• Packer Fans – We are ridiclously loyal, I am a season ticket holder and get to see first hand several times a season just how loyal.  I know other teams claim they have sellouts for games but we actually do.  There is never an empty seat and hasn’t been for a very, very long time.  Every once in a while it is nice to get rewarded with a championship.
• Aaron Rodgers – Now all of this talk regarding is he elite or not can end.  He is, drop it now.
• All Veterans – I am happy for all of the players but guys like Charles Woodson, Donald Driver, Chad Clifton and Ryan Pickett do not have a ton of years left.  Winning a Super Bowl changes your legacy.
• Favre Mess – There are so many factors that go into the Favre divorce but this should finally end it.  No true fans ever hated Favre, we just hated that he went to Minnesota.  The move has caused so much division that until the team was actually validated with a Super Bowl win for their decision to move forward with Rodgers that only now do I actually believe everything can be healed and we can truly move forward.  I know of people that have actually lost friends over the disagreement on how the team handled Favre, hopefully this win helps fix those relationships.  Nobody was 100% right, or wrong.  It is over, we won the Super Bowl.  Enjoy!

Badgers Pound Michigan State

It is too bad the Wisconsin game could not have been Saturday so they could get more due.  It is always nice to beat Michigan State but it is even better to pound Michigan State.  I respect Tom Izzo for what he has done but I feel no coach in the country throws tantrums on the sidelines quite like him and this only seems to get magnified when he plays Bo Ryan.  Bo is the one guy in the country who has Izzo’s number and it drives him crazy.

The Badgers had their third most efficient game offensively of the season, against Michigan State.  I know the Spartans are stuggling, but that is impressive.   Here are some of the highlights.

• The Badgers shot a ridiculous 73% Effective Field Goal %, their highest of the season.
• The Badgers out rebounded the Spartans according to the % of offensive rebounds they got themselves, and the % they allowed on defense.  Michigan State’s strength has always been rebounding under Izzo.
• The Badgers had their second best Free Throw Rate of the season at 66.7.  This is a stat that needs to continue moving forward.  The Badgers are a great free throw shooting team but do not get there often enough.
• For Michigan State this was their worst game of the season for defensive efficiency, worst game for defensive Effective Field Goal%, and second worst game for defensive Free Throw Rate.  Simply put, they were dominated.

Coming up this week the Badgers are at Iowa on Wednesday and then host Ohio State on Saturday.