Reaction Formation: Everything is Awesome!

Author's Note: Throughout the season, I'll be sitting down with my sports therapist to chat about the latest in Wisconsin athletics. We're not going to be touching on much technical info here. This is a safe space, everyone. It's time to open the vents. [G] denotes something I said, [T] denotes something my therapist said.

[G] You out of breath yet, Doc?

[T] Why is that?

[G] You wasted a lot of it last week helping me make no sense of anything, and all you needed to say was "Winning makes everything awesome".

[T] Would you have preferred your $200/hr went to me saying things like "everything is awesome?"

[G] Well, obviously not. But last week was such a confusing time for me, and I just felt that you weren't helpful in getting me answers...

[T] Did the answers matter that much to you?

[G] I guess not. Whatever happened is whatever happened. It was weird and kind of nice to chat conspiracies for a couple days, but once we got to Saturday I just wanted the Badgers to win.

[T] So winning changed everything for you?

[G] Not quite. Did you see that first half? Woof. Didn't take long for me to start saying mean things to the television. I was bored. I even texted a friend that if Tanner McEvoy didn't orchestrate a touchdown before the half, Gary Andersen was basically required to bench him. They were gross in that first half. Our best player was basically shut down. I was ready for a Bart "The Cannon" Houston second half...

[T] Do you really believe that?

[G] ... Well, no. I want McEvoy to be good. He's supposed to be talented. So I want to see that. Melvin Gordon and Corey Clement can't succeed if there are nine guys in the box every down. The whole team can't succeed if we're one dimensional.

[T] Why the lack of patience then?

[G] We looked so bad!

[T] What happened in the second half, Greg?

[G] We lit up the scoreboard... McEvoy looked pretty good. We actually had a receiver step up. Man, did we look good! We actually had a passing game. We used our tight ends! The defense looked unstoppable! We almost covered the spread! It was awesome!

[T] Greg... what did we talk about last week... regarding expectation?

[G] Oh come on, we have a bye week coming up... if I'm not excited about it now I'll have nothing to go off of for the next week.

[T] All the more reason to temper expectation through the bye week. This team is growing. They will need time to gel. There was a lot to build off of this week, but don't let that cloud your judgement.

[G] Ah right, the whole "I must question everything I know before I can know the truth" thing...

[T] Something like that, but alas, our time is up. I have to research the story of Samson before my 12:30 with the young man with the yips.