Mike

Awesome, thanks for the updates.

What if he plays in week 18 and gets hurt on the first snap? What if he plays in week 18 and is clearly *not* back to normal as Migs suggests he will be? Just trying to clarify.

What is "as planned"?

Lawrence is 6'2 180 out of Northwestern, wearing 18 Wilson is 5'11 180 out of Delaware State, wearing 86 Both added to PR

I don't stick up for officials until the accusations being made against them starting bordering on the ridiculous. Are there times when I get really frustrated and angry with the officiating (in any sport I watch) - yeah, of course. The thing is officials get bashed for making the correct calls/non-calls more often than they are bashed when making a legitimate mistake. Before this season started, the officials were instructed to call certain infractions more closely and then they get bashed for doing it. It's the players themselves who should be taking a lot of blame for the increase, not the officials. Penalties are up but the ones that have seen the biggest increases are ones that the players can control. Objectionable conduct penalties are up 45% and procedural penalties (Offside, Procedure, Time count, Delay, Too many men, Illegal participation/substitution are grouped together) are up 44% - that's on the players, not the officials. Procedural penalties are up 15% not 44%, not sure where you got that from. Objectionable conduct penalties going up isn't a good thing in my mind either, the referees need to put their flags away on a lot of those. I find it very interesting that objectionable conduct calls are seeing such a huge increase while major fouls such as face masking, roughing the passer, horse collar tackling, etc are seeing a small increase if any. In fact, when you isolate just face masking calls, they're actually down nearly 20% this year. Don't you think that is because in many cases the players know they were victimized by a bad call or by a non call? Why so much this year? I just find it interesting that face masks, RTP, horse collars, etc saw a minimal increase (or in some cases a decrease) but penalties for objectionable conduct (i.e. things like unsportsmanlike conduct) are WAY up. You're right with what you thought I was implying - it doesn't seem like the players are getting heated with eachother on the field because of dirty play ... so if they are getting heated ... who is left?

Vanstone also saying they were after Burris.http://blogs.leaderpost.com/2014/09/29/riders-inquired-about-burris/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed Yup they had exploratory talks, just like they likely had with other teams about other QBs. They made an offer. You can rag on Madani all you want, but anyone who knows the history he has with Taman knows that he's likely getting this info straight from the front office. Offer =/= exploratory talks. You can call it what you want but it's already been pointed out to you that actions speak louder than words. They made an offer for Burris where they would have given up a first round pick and then some. That's a pretty loud action.

Okay ... but if they were that optimistic, why would they offer a 1st rounder for Burris? I get that it can happen and that it may happen. But it sure isn't "likely"

I don't stick up for officials until the accusations being made against them starting bordering on the ridiculous. Are there times when I get really frustrated and angry with the officiating (in any sport I watch) - yeah, of course. The thing is officials get bashed for making the correct calls/non-calls more often than they are bashed when making a legitimate mistake. Before this season started, the officials were instructed to call certain infractions more closely and then they get bashed for doing it. It's the players themselves who should be taking a lot of blame for the increase, not the officials. Penalties are up but the ones that have seen the biggest increases are ones that the players can control. Objectionable conduct penalties are up 45% and procedural penalties (Offside, Procedure, Time count, Delay, Too many men, Illegal participation/substitution are grouped together) are up 44% - that's on the players, not the officials. Procedural penalties are up 15% not 44%, not sure where you got that from. Objectionable conduct penalties going up isn't a good thing in my mind either, the referees need to put their flags away on a lot of those. I find it very interesting that objectionable conduct calls are seeing such a huge increase while major fouls such as face masking, roughing the passer, horse collar tackling, etc are seeing a small increase if any. In fact, when you isolate just face masking calls, they're actually down nearly 20% this year. Sorry I had the wrong column. It's Offensive holding, Illegal blocks that are up 44% which is actually rather funny when you consider how much people complain about holding not being called enough. I'll edit my original post with the correction. But in many cases, objectionable conduct is a penalty we can't judge whether a flag should be thrown or not. Players know what they can and can't say when they are on the field and if they are still running their mouths then they deserve the penalties. I find it interesting that you go on to say "they deserve the penalties" after initially saying we as fans cannot judge. Why do you automatically side with the referee instead of the player?

REMAINING Duressler47 (Hamilton) Noeller (Edmonton)

I don't stick up for officials until the accusations being made against them starting bordering on the ridiculous. Are there times when I get really frustrated and angry with the officiating (in any sport I watch) - yeah, of course. The thing is officials get bashed for making the correct calls/non-calls more often than they are bashed when making a legitimate mistake. Before this season started, the officials were instructed to call certain infractions more closely and then they get bashed for doing it. It's the players themselves who should be taking a lot of blame for the increase, not the officials. Penalties are up but the ones that have seen the biggest increases are ones that the players can control. Objectionable conduct penalties are up 45% and procedural penalties (Offside, Procedure, Time count, Delay, Too many men, Illegal participation/substitution are grouped together) are up 44% - that's on the players, not the officials. Procedural penalties are up 15% not 44%, not sure where you got that from. Objectionable conduct penalties going up isn't a good thing in my mind either, the referees need to put their flags away on a lot of those. I find it very interesting that objectionable conduct calls are seeing such a huge increase while major fouls such as face masking, roughing the passer, horse collar tackling, etc are seeing a small increase if any. In fact, when you isolate just face masking calls, they're actually down nearly 20% this year.

So let's take a look, so far compared to the same point in the season last year Calgary, is taking 1 penalty per game more for an additional 8 yards per game Sask, is taking 1.25 penalties per game more for an additional 3.5 yards per game Winnipeg is taking .7 penalties less per game for an additional .1 yards per game Montreal is taking 1 less penalty per game for 2.4 yards per game less BC is taking 4 penalties per game more for an additional 26 yards per game Toronto is taking 2 penalties per game more for an additional 24.5 yards per game Edmonton is taking .8 penalties per game more for an additional 4.7 yards per game Hamilton is taking 3.5 penalties per game more for an additional 15 yards per game overall there are 2.8 penalties per game more for an additional 21 yards per game in penalties though 2/3 of this season vs first 2/3 of last season The reffing sucked last year too! Not sure where these numbers came from, but the CFL actually keeps official track of this data and their data shows that penalties are up about 18% (3.3 penalties per game) as of September 22nd. There are penalties being called on roughly 13% of the snaps. Offensive penalties isolated are up 30% from last year, which is where a lot of the hold up in the flow of the game has been in my mind. Dead ball fouls have seen the smallest increase, which again kind of supports what I'm getting at, because they don't result in a play being overturned.

No flow or rhythm to the action doesn't help either. There's no doubt the penalties are affecting this to at least some extent.

I'd keep Watson. We keep talking about CDN depth and how in need of it we are. Let's not get rid of it where we have it.

People bashing Willy remind me of the people who were bashing Reilly last year.

What can't Joey Elliott do? Joey Elliott is the Bryant Turner of quarterbacks that aren't Drew Willy.

Ottawa plays offense as poorly as Tom Higgins coaches. Wouldn't be surprised to see zero offensive touchdowns today. These are not good offenses.

It's not just the depth chart, the club has confirmed that Drew is starting.

I wouldn't be against seeing Renaud let go.

I'm very happy Sears is back in but I'm not thrilled it came at the expense of Johnson. Should be coming at the expense of somebody else for sure.

14 receptions for 154 yards 3 penalties for 30 yards - breakdown: 2 objectionable conduct penalties at Toronto and 1 illegal participation at BC. Was surprised to hear he had that many yards. Either way, although he's clearly not as useless as I thought, he's still useless.

Riders have had very good late round draft picks the last couple years. Steinheurer, Vonk, Anthony, Moore, Webster, Etc. Those aren't exactly "very good" picks. You have to consider where they were picked on the board and the overall quality of the draft.IMO Taman have been pretty average in draft performance but has shined in free agency. He certainly hasnt been the abject failure at the draft that I feared so that is a good thing. Anyway, flipping third rounders for fourth rounders doesn't usually amount to a hill of beans as by that point in the draft it is a crapshoot and usually only depth guys being picked. There are always exceptions (Getzlaf and Bagg for two) but I am more concerned about the neg lister. I'm considering everything. I'm not asking them to be stellar players, but what makes them good late round draft picks? Do they stand out in comparison to OTHER late round draft picks? Not really. They fit right in there with guys like Cam Thorn, Shane Bergman, Elie Ngoyi, Matt McGarva, Derek Jones, Michael Klassen, Neil King, David Menard, Thomas Miles, Alex Dupuis, etc etc. Nothing special, just decent young players who can fit in if necessary. And that's all you can really ask of them. But that doesn't make them VERY good. Derek Jones takes offence to that. True. Some of those names, Jones included, probably deserve a bit more credit than I'm giving them. For what it's worth, I think some of those guys (Bergman, Menard and Dupuis) WILL be very good. I'm just not sure they're there yet.

Riders have had very good late round draft picks the last couple years. Steinheurer, Vonk, Anthony, Moore, Webster, Etc. Those aren't exactly "very good" picks. You have to consider where they were picked on the board and the overall quality of the draft.IMO Taman have been pretty average in draft performance but has shined in free agency. He certainly hasnt been the abject failure at the draft that I feared so that is a good thing. Anyway, flipping third rounders for fourth rounders doesn't usually amount to a hill of beans as by that point in the draft it is a crapshoot and usually only depth guys being picked. There are always exceptions (Getzlaf and Bagg for two) but I am more concerned about the neg lister. I'm considering everything. I'm not asking them to be stellar players, but what makes them good late round draft picks? Do they stand out in comparison to OTHER late round draft picks? Not really. They fit right in there with guys like Cam Thorn, Shane Bergman, Elie Ngoyi, Matt McGarva, Derek Jones, Michael Klassen, Neil King, David Menard, Thomas Miles, Alex Dupuis, etc etc. Nothing special, just decent young players who can fit in if necessary. And that's all you can really ask of them. But that doesn't make them VERY good.

Riders have had very good late round draft picks the last couple years. Steinheurer, Vonk, Anthony, Moore, Webster, Etc. Those aren't exactly "very good" picks.

Name one team that switched out their running back for something other than an injury or a problem with ball security. Toronto You win.

Name one team that switched out their running back for something other than an injury or a problem with ball security. Sask., Edmonton, Toronto, B.C., Calgary, Montreal, Hamilton have all used more than one RB's during games to mix things up. Bombers are the only team that has relied on a single back so as to not confuse their opponents with trickery. Why are you defending the Bombers approach to running? The stats. speak. We've used Paris Cotton, Troy Stoudermire, Carl Volny and MP Pontbriand out of the backfield at certain times this season. I'm defending their approach because the impression you have is wrong.