11/7/23 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Tuesday
7 November 2023 Sports
The Chicago Cubs hired manager Craig Counsell away from Milwaukee on Monday in a surprising move, replacing David Ross after the team slipped out of a playoff spot in the last part of the season.
Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed the move to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because there had been no announcement by the Cubs.
There was no word on the status of Ross, a favorite of President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer. Ross could move into the front office after Craig Breslow left to run the Boston Red Sox.
Counsell has led the Brewers to the postseason five times in the past six years. Counsell’s contract with Milwaukee expired at the end of October, but the Brewers allowed him to look elsewhere while also hoping they could re-sign the coveted 53-year-old.
Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio has said on multiple occasions the team wanted Counsell back in 2024.
Milwaukee went 92-70 this season and won the NL Central title before getting swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Wild Card Series.
Counsell took over as Milwaukee’s manager during the 2015 season after Ron Roenicke was fired. The Brewers had made a total of four playoff appearances before Counsell took over.
The longest-tenured manager in the National League, Counsell is 707-625 with the Brewers, giving him the club record for wins and games managed.
The Packers were back at work on “Victory Monday”, which often means some extra down time for the Packers. This year that’s not the case with a young squad.
Green Bay may be coming off a 20-3 win over the Rams on Sunday, but still have plenty to clean up after snapping their four-game losing streak. “I don’t think we’re in any position right now to take an extra day. We have a lot of players who need to come in. Just making sure when you do have success and win, how critical can you be of yourself. there’s always something. When you have success, you have to be the most critical,” said head coach Matt LaFleur.
“The mentality is to duplicate what we did this week, and whatever we need to fix, we looked at it, we’ll clean that up. Have a really good game on Sunday, maybe minus a lot of penalties,” said tackle Yosh Nijman.
Jordan Love certainly made progress in the second half of Sunday’s victory. Completing 12 of his 13 pass attempts for 160 yards and a touchdown. One thing that also helped open up the Packers offense as a whole was running back Aaron Jones. Seemingly off a snap count, Jones finished with a season-high 20 carries for 73 yards and Green Bay’s first touchdown in a first half since week two.
“We had more opportunities. We did a better job on third down, we were staying ahead of the sticks. When you’re running the ball effectively, you’re more apt to call more runs. I think it’s a combination of a lot of things,” said LaFleur.
As always, there’s plenty to correct on the offensive side of the ball. Starting with penalties after having being flagged twice for offsides on the fourth down “tush push.” Also, being sound in pass protection.
Green Bay allowed just two sacks per game heading into Sunday’s game, but gave up four to Aaron Donald and company. This week they face another tough test against T.J. Watt and the Steelers.
The Green Bay Packers signed RB Ellis Merriweather to the practice squad and released RB James Robinson from the practice squad. The transactions were announced Monday by General Manager Brian Gutekunst.
Merriweather (6-1, 220), a rookie, was originally signed as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Massachusetts by the New Orleans Saints on May 15, 2023, and had a short stint on the Saints’ practice squad before being released on Aug. 31. In his final college season (2022), Merriweather played in 10 games, carrying the ball 150 times for 575 yards (3.8 avg.) as the team’s leading rusher and was named to Phil Steele’s College Football All-Independent second-team. He will wear No. 32 for the Packers.
In Monday Night Football the Chargers won on the road beating the New York Jets 27-6. The Chargers were only able to muster 191 yards of offense but their defense came up big.
Austin Ekeler found some early success and scored two touchdowns, but finished with just 47 yards on 14 carries. Keenan Allen led the Chargers in receiving with 77 yards, while Justin Herbert posted a passer rating of 65.4. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win, one Los Angeles can be proud of for the way its defense (and special teams) rose to the occasion.
The Chargers saw three players record multiple sacks in a game for the first time since Week 16 of the 2012 season. The 2.0-plus sacks recorded by three players (Joey Bosa, Tuli Tuipulotu, Khalil Mack) also tied for the most in a game in franchise history.
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson was sacked eight times and lost two fumbles. The Chargers improve to 4-4 while the Jets fell to 4-4.
The Milwaukee Bucks won on the road over the New Jersey Nets Monday night 129-125. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 36 points and Damian Lillard added 21 as Milwaukee had seven players in double figures. The Bucks improved to 4-2 in the Eastern Conference.
Kam Jones scored 20 points and No. 5 Marquette beat Northern Illinois 92-70 on Monday night in the season opener for both schools.
Marquette entered with its highest preseason ranking since 1977, when it was coming off a national championship and started out at No. 3. The Golden Eagles return four starters from a team that won the Big East’s regular-season and tournament championships last season.
Tyler Kolek had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists for Marquette, which shot 52.2% from the floor. Oso Ighodaro had 13 points and seven assists, and Chase Ross added a career-high 12 points.
David Coit scored 14 points and DePaul transfer Philmon Gebrewhit had 13 for Northern Illinois. Yanic Konan Niederhauser had nine points and 11 rebounds.
Chucky Hepburn scored 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting and Wisconsin beat Arkansas State 105-76 in a season opener for the teams on Monday night.
AJ Storr scored 15 points, Max Klesmit 14, and reserve John Blackwell 12 for Wisconsin, which had 12 players enter the scoring column. The Badgers made 39 of 60 shot attempts (65%) including 6 of 12 from 3-point range.
Wisconsin scored 56 points before halftime. A year after averaging 65.3 points per game, the Badgers reached 50 points before halftime for the first time in almost three years not making a 3.
Freddy Hicks scored 21 points, Caleb Fields 17 and reserve Dyondre Dominguez 14 for Arkansas State.
The Red Wolves have a roster that has 337 career starts but is still learning a faster offensive pace under former Alabama assistant Bryan Hodgson. Arkansas State shot 4 for 21 from 3-point range and had 17 turnovers.
Wisconsin hosts No. 9 Tennessee on Friday.
ISU scored 27 points off of 16 Phoenix turnovers, secure a 85-44 win to open the season.
The Phoenix had two players finish in double figures, led by Noah Reynolds with 14 points. Foster Wonders added 11 points off of the bench while freshman Marcus Hall finished with seven points and seven rebounds.
Green Bay is back in action Thursday for its home opener at the Kress Center against St. Francis out of Illinois. Tip-off is set for 6 pm.
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