Sports : Thursday, October 6th, 2016

The Packers continue preparations for their Sunday night game against the New York Giants this week. Head Coach Mike McCarthy was asked if the team has to change language, calls or more with former Packers assistant Ben McAdoo on the other sideline as head coach. He said that they’re not going to change how they communicate, but they’re aware of the possibility McAdoo may know some of it.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers talked about facing the Giants’ blitz-heavy defensive scheme and said that it’s a very sound scheme and he’s expecting them to be aggressive and come with pressure and the Packers will have to plan for it.  

Bears wide receiver Kevin White has been placed on injured reserve with a fractured left fibula. The second-year player was injured in Sunday’s win over the Lions. In addition to the broken bone, White suffered a high ankle sprain as he was tackled during the third quarter. White leads the Bears this season in receptions with 19, and has 187 receiving yards. The seventh overall draft pick in 2015 he went on IR during the preseason last year because of left shin injury

Connor Gillaspie hit a 3 run home run in the top of the 9th and Madison Bumgarner continued his October dominance on the mound as the San Francisco Giants won the National League Wild Card game over the New York Mets on Wednesday night. Bumgarner threw a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits and striking out six in the victory. Bumgarner outdueled Mets ace Noah Syndergaard in the win. Syndergaard tossed 7 shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out 10 Giants batters. San Francisco advances to the NLDS to face the Cubs in Chicago. Game one is set for Friday night.

Attendance at Major League Baseball games dropped 1.1 percent this year from 2015. The 30 teams combined to draw 73,159,044 fans for an average of 30,169 per game. Those numbers are down from last year’s total of 73.76 million and average of 30,517. The Dodgers led in home attendance at 3.7 million followed by St. Louis and then Toronto.

Badger Men’s Hockey opens the regular season this weekend with games Friday and Saturday against Northern Michigan at the Resch Center in Green Bay. Badgers assistant Mark Osiecki is the former head coach and general manager of the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers and is back with the Badgers as Associate Head Coach to Tony Granato.  Osiecki was on the bench for the most famous Badger game in Green Bay, the 2006 Midwest Regional Final against Cornell.  Jack Skille scored in triple OT to send the Badgers to the NCAA Frozen Four in Milwaukee.

Osiecki says he’s excited to go back to Green Bay, he has strong roots there both with his family and as a coach and is looking forward to coaching there this weekend.

Thursday Night Football tonight, Arizona at San Francisco on KFIZ. 7pm pregame time.