1/10/24 Hometown Broadcasting Sports Wednesday
10 January 2024 Sports
The Packers return to the practice field today getting ready for Sunday’s game in Dallas against the Cowboys. The Packers enter the game at (9-8) while the NFC East champion Cowboys are at (12-5).
Green Bay’s defense will be tested by a Dallas offense that scored a league-high 29.9 points per game during the regular season. A defense that allowed Tommy DeVito, Baker Mayfield and Bryce Young to move the ball at will in December has allowed just one touchdown over its past two games.
It’s a stunning transformation for a unit that struggled so much that coach Matt LaFleur was fielding questions last month about the possibility of firing defensive coordinator Joe Barry before the end of the season.
“Joe B’s been dialing it up,” outside linebacker Preston Smith said Sunday after the Packers’ 17-9 victory over the Chicago Bears. “He gets a lot of hell in the media. But we’ve come together. We play for Joe B. just like he comes every day to coach us. He comes with the energy that no matter what’s going on, we’ve got this together and we are all together.”
As for the Packers offense, it performed well enough that the Packers didn’t punt all day. Green Bay gained 4.6 yards per carry against a Chicago team that was leading the NFL in run defense heading into the game. The Packers outrushed the Bears 124-75.
But the offense struggled as Green Bay reached the red zone three times in the first half, but had just seven points to show for it.
The Packers missed a field goal after a third down sack on their opening drive, and they missed a shot at a field-goal attempt just before halftime when a completion near the sideline resulted in time expiring before they could run another play.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys are asking fans to make AT&T Stadium a white-out, meaning Cowboys fans are encouraged to wear white.
The Tennessee Titans fired coach Mike Vrabel on Tuesday after back-to-back losing seasons and although he might have had trade value to other teams with a head-coaching vacancy, the team’s owner said she didn’t want to wait out such a scenario.
Vrabel’s firing comes a year after the Titans made a change at general manager, hiring Ran Carthon.
Vrabel, 48, led Tennessee to four consecutive winning seasons after arriving in 2018, but the Titans have experienced back-to-back frustrating seasons, finishing multiple games under .500 both times.
The Titans finished 6-11 this season.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers denied he implied comic Jimmy Kimmel was a pedophile and condemned those who do, but he stopped short of apologizing for his role in escalating their burgeoning feud.
Rodgers returned to ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday for his weekly appearance and addressed comments he made the week before that appeared to suggest Kimmel’s name might appear on a list of associates of Jeffrey Epstein, a millionaire accused of sex trafficking involving underage victims before he died by suicide.
“Any type of name calling is ridiculous and I’m not calling him (a pedophile), and neither should you,” Rodgers said on the show Tuesday.
The feud between ABC’s late-night star and Rodgers, who regularly appears on the daily ESPN show, has proven embarrassing for The Walt Disney Co., the parent company to both television networks.
Rodgers criticized Mike Foss, an ESPN executive who oversees McAfee’s show, for saying that Rodgers had made “a dumb and factually inaccurate joke” about Kimmel.
“Mike, you’re not helping,” Rodgers said. “You’re not helping because I just read earlier exactly what I said. This is the game plan of the media and this is what they do: They try to cancel, you know, and it’s not just me.”
Rodgers last week said a lot of people, “including Jimmy Kimmel,” are really hoping that a list of Epstein’s associates doesn’t come out publicly. Kimmel, who has denied any association with Epstein, threatened Rodgers with a lawsuit for the comment and said the NFL star was putting his family in danger
Rodgers suggested that people were reading too much into what he said, that he was not stupid enough to accuse Kimmel of being a pedophile.
Kimmel made the first appearance of the year Monday on his late-night show and laced into Rodgers. He said he would accept an apology from Rodgers but didn’t expect one.
“A decent person would apologize,” Kimmel said. “But he probably won’t.”
In men’s college basketball action Wednesday #15 Wisconsin is at Ohio State with the tipoff at 7:30.
Ripon College (3-11, 1-4) is at Lake Forest College with the tipoff at 5:30.
UW-Platteville is at UW-Oshkosh (7-6, 0-2) with the tipoff at 7:00.
In women’s college basketball Wednesday Northwestern is at Wisconsin with the tipoff at 6:30.
Ripon College (8-6, 5-0) is at Lake Forest College with the tipoff at 7:30.
UW-Oshkosh (10-3, 1-1) is at UW-Platteville with the tipoff at 7:00.
Boys and Girls Basketball 1/9/2024
***Games cancelled because of the weather***
Boys and Girls Basketball 1/10/2024
Boys:
Kaukauna at Kimberly
Girls:
Kimberly at Kaukauna
Indiana Pacers All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton strained his left hamstring during a victory over Boston and will begin receiving treatment immediately, the team said Tuesday.
Team officials did not provide a timetable for Haliburton’s return in the announcement and said updates would be provided as warranted.
The 23-year-old point guard was injured in the first half against the Celtics on Monday when he slipped while driving toward the basket. He immediately reached for his hamstring and teammates carried him from the court to the locker room. An MRI confirmed the injury.
He is Indiana’s top scorer at 23.6 points per game, the NBA leader in assists at 12.5 per game and the catalyst of the league’s highest-scoring offense (127.0). Haliburton also would have won last year’s league assists title had he played in enough games to qualify and appeared to be a lock to play in his second straight All-Star Game, this one in Indianapolis on Feb. 18.
Indiana (21-15) is currently tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference and is 6-3 against the conference’s top two teams, Boston and Milwaukee.
Former San Diego Padres catcher Austin Nola has agreed to a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers that includes an invitation to major league spring training.
Nola, 34, batted .146 with a .260 on-base percentage, one homer and eight RBIs in 52 games with the Padres last season. He has a career batting average of .249 with a .326 on-base percentage, 24 homers and 136 RBIs in 345 games with the Seattle (2019-20) and the Padres (2020-23).
Although he’s primarily a catcher, Nola also has made appearances at first base, second base, third base and in the outfield.
The Nola deal came two weeks after the Brewers signed catcher Eric Haase to a $1 million, one-year contract. Haase, 31, batted .201 with a .247 on-base percentage, four homers, 26 RBIs and four steals in 89 games with Detroit and Cleveland last season.
Haase’s deal includes $250,000 in performance bonuses for games; $50,000 for 25 and each additional 25 through 125.
Milwaukee needs to find a new backup catcher to replace Victor Caratini, who agreed to a $12 million, two-year contract with Houston. Milwaukee returns William Contreras as its starting catcher after he hit .289 with 17 homers, 78 RBIs and an .825 OPS last season.
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