bluto

place your bets... Hamilton, Toronto, Saskatchewan...? an eastern team looking to rip-off Burke's playbook? or nobody willing to take in a problem child?

what if i told you that coach Jones is not a great fool and was actually employing a dumbed-down, vanilla version of his defence last Wednesday?

close... what they do is play a dumbed-down version of their own defence. playing an entirely different one wouldn't work at all.

new TV deal ought to have us out of the bail-out zone. must've been all the corporate sponsorship dollars from the prairies that prompted TSN to write the big cheque.

with the new TV deal, we're expected to break even... which would be remarkable since it would be the only time in many, many years that the Argos don't post a loss (aside from hosting GC years)

as i suspected. thanks for the clarification Smokin

i) my compy (as you know) is on about 24 hours a day ii) i'm committed to the success of this board

we didn't see the game and don't know this. frankly, i doubt very much that the blitz stopped. perhaps it was unsuccessful from then on or maybe the Bombers handled it better. in fact, i'm fairly sure that a Toronto sack by a LB happened in the 2nd half.

yeah. Jones sends pressure from anywhere at any down and distance. his DEs aren't given the greenlight to passrush whenever (hence Ricky Foley hating our system and wanting out). it's unconventional and leads to weird situations (like DEs covering a tailback's route 20 yards into the secondary), but minding the gaps on the D-Line always trumps passrushing and risking leaving a hole. so we blitz. the pressure is coming from somewhere almost every play. and not doing it in an exhibition would be a waste of a plane trip to Winnipeg.

in that case, perhaps Jones should've just had his rookies and backups play a completely different defence to the one that he'll have his squad play all season... ...he wouldn't be able to see if they could play and understand his schemes... but at least he wouldn't hurt anyone's feelings and maybe Pierce could have stayed on the field for a sixth or seventh play.

you don't see what is to be gained by evaluating players in the mode that you'd be employing them in an actual game?

no denying it. but the rules allow for hitting as the ball is released and slightly after. our D certainly makes use of that.

you made my point for me PE. the Jones D doesn't generate sacks. but it brings pressure from different places and disguises where it's coming from. and though we were low in sack totals, i believe that if anyone kept track of how many times a defence hit a QB, we'd be right up at the top.

no prob. keep thinking that the Argos went into a preseason game without 20 of their starters with the intent of getting Crowton to reveal his super secret protection packages that everyone is so intimidated by.

i don't buy this at all. i doubt Jones cared at all to see Crowton's protection packages. he was busy doing his own thing, which is to attack the QB from different directions at different times. it's how they practice, it's how they scrimmage and it's how they play. it's the only way his D rolls and to be fair about it, coach Scott told Burke ahead of time.

exactly that. ever business owner knows about loss leaders for market share.

those stats count sacks... but they don't count QBs hit, hurried, rushed or how hard they get nailed. i never buy 'em.

by comparison to the GMs on the prairies? betcher ass he is. and let us not forget his prophets, The Holy Jones, The Blessed O'Shea and The Righteous Brady.

gives Argo fans some perspective too

lol @ Rod and Duane trying to tell us the game was full of interesting moments...

sorry. disagree completely. i saw Bomber QBs taking more and harder hits than any other team's QBs. no, that's not all on the O-Line (the QBs and Crowton/Lapo can share the blame), but nobody can tell me that Bomber QBs were protected well.

when a QB gets pulled for fear of OMG BLITZES! i think that the line still may be a work in progress...

yup... kinda makes you want to go hit someone, doesn't it? when a nice little feller like Pinball starts yelling about VIOLENCE!

just a butt-ugly game really.

Agreed. Jermaine Gabriel proved that at the regional and main CIS combines. He has acquitted himself admirably in camp so far too. With Younger's surprise retirement and Matt Black stepping in at Safety, Gabriel may make the team as his backup.