TBURGESS

Don't complain about what the Riders fans do if you're going to do it yourself. Whining about the classless Riders doesn't give anyone the 'right' to be classless too. Karma's only a ***** if you are.

Quite the hair splittin' you be doing.

What a classy group around here. Yukking it up because Collaros got hurt again. These are the same fans who were rightly upset when some Riders fans yukked it up when Nichols got hurt. Don't like it when others do it to you, but it's OK to do it to them? Yet another double standard. IMO: It sucks for the CFL and their fans that any of Nichols, Collaros or Ray have been hurt. More beatdown weekends are likely on the horizon.

BO LEVI MITCHELL CGY THIS WEEK: 1 | LAST WEEK: 2 If Bo Levi Mitchell was looking to make a statement in Saturday’s Grey Cup rematch with the Argos, the message was delivered loud and clear. The pinpoint accuracy was impressive, but equally noteworthy is Mitchell’s 10.7 average yards per attempt throughout two games. With a healthy shoulder, No. 19 has reclaimed the top spot in the QB Index over Mike Reilly — for now. MIKE REILLY EDM THIS WEEK: 2 | LAST WEEK: 1 After picking up where he left off a week ago, the reigning MOP encountered some problems against the Ticats over the weekend, completing just 20 of 30 passing attempts for 286 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The Eskimos scored just 21 points against Hamilton, their lowest total since Sept. 30, 2017 vs. Winnipeg. TREVOR HARRIS OTT THIS WEEK: 3 | LAST WEEK: 3 Trevor Harris set aside any fears about his pre-season knee injury, carving up the Riders’ defence to the tune of 345 passing yards. Harris made it look easy against the same defence that gave Ricky Ray fits, with the feared pass rush tandem of Charleston Hughes and Willie Jefferson failing to record a sack. JEREMIAH MASOLI HAM THIS WEEK: 4 | LAST WEEK: 5 With Jeremiah Masoli leading the way, the Ticats have led after seven of eight quarters this season. Most recently it was a wire-to-wire win over the Eskimos, in which Masoli threw for 332 yards and rushed for 59 more to outduel Mike Reilly on the road. You can safely set all Johnny Manziel talk aside for now. RICKY RAY TOR THIS WEEK: 5 | LAST WEEK: 4 It was an eerie moment at BMO Field when Ricky Ray, after suffering an apparent neck injury, had to be taken off the field on a stretcher. The Argos have since said that Ray has movement in all his extremities and is free of concussion-like symptoms, but when Ray returns to the field — if he does decide to continue playing — is in the air. JONATHON JENNINGS BC THIS WEEK: 6 | LAST WEEK: 6 Jonathon Jennings’ solid Week 1 performance looks less impressive after the Alouettes’ defence struggled in Week 2. Still, Jennings has a chance to continue distancing himself from a forgettable 2017 campaign, as he goes head to head with Mike Reilly and the Edmonton Eskimos in a key divisional battle. CHRIS STREVELER WPG THIS WEEK: 7 | LAST WEEK: 9 Chris Streveler is the talk of the CFL after his performance in Week 2, in which he rushed for nearly 100 yards, scored four total touchdowns and completed 22 of 28 attempts in a win over the Montreal Alouettes. Paul LaPolice has made it look easy for the true rookie coming straight out of college and Streveler has taken advantage. JAMES FRANKLIN TOR THIS WEEK: 8 | LAST WEEK: NOT RANKED After a highly-publicized quarterback competition throughout training camp for the backup job, it appears James Franklin is the next man up in Toronto following an injury to Ricky Ray. The Argos are off in Week 3, but Franklin’s first start as an Argo could come against his former team on July 7. ZACH COLLAROS SSK THIS WEEK: 9 | LAST WEEK: 7 After a highly efficient debut, Zach Collaros didn’t have the best night in Week 2 for the Riders, completing just four of 10 passes, throwing two interceptions and eventually leaving the game injured. Collaros’ status for Week 3 is up in the air and so could be the Riders’ quarterback situation. DREW WILLY MTL THIS WEEK: 10 | LAST WEEK: 8 Drew Willy shouldered much of the blame for Montreal’s 56-10 loss to Winnipeg, but the truth is the Als’ quarterback received very little support. The veteran was under siege most of the game while the team failed to establish much of a run game, making Willy an easy target for Winnipeg’s front seven. Willy’s hold on the No. 1 job may be tenuous at this point. BRANDON BRIDGE SSK THIS WEEK: 11 | LAST WEEK: NOT RANKED Brandon Bridge is on the board for the first time in 2018, and could start for the Riders this week following an injury to Zach Collaros. Bridge has often been on the brink of a starting job, but a strong performance vs. Montreal — should he get the opportunity — could open up the door for him to take the starting job on a permanent basis for the first time in his career. Top 4 look right. I'd drop Ray below Streveler and Jennings.

Mike Reilly

IMO Muamba's hit to Streveler was intended to send a message and was by definition a cheap shot, but the hit on Ray wasn't. Refs gave Muamba a penalty, which is all they can do. I hope the league also fines him. All that being said, I don't want the refs to given the responsibility of trying to figure out intent in real time. They aren't good enough at their jobs to be given that kind of responsibility. Even with several angles, after the fact, it's hard to impossible to prove intent.

Streveler - Great game and not just for a rookie QB Harris - Heart and soul of the team Adams - When a receiver throws for a TD, they have to be one of the 3 stars HH - Simonise - Blocked punt and a beauty of a deep catch

I can't understand using Carter as a DB. He's no darn good there. He's way more valuable as a receiver. What's with rushing 3 all night long? Regina has a good DL, let them go hunt QB's. Add in some blitzes with Hurl, cuz that's all he's good for. Surprised that their OL looked so bad. Neither QB had any time to throw resulting in both getting beat up. Losing a starting QB, even Collaros, in the first half hurt the Riders, just like it would hurt any other team. (No, that's not the only reason they lost)

Best guess is that Carter's the best backup DB they've got and they still have a good receiving crew.

Nothing that I said wasn't true. You and others made up crap I didn't say or mean, then whined about it, which is your shtick. Then you say I'm playing the victim card because I point out that you're making stuff up and whining about it. Repeat ad nauseam.

Bring it. To be clear, I said you were also being stupid with your comments AND that you're acting like a Riders fan. Read it slowly, cuz I know you need to to get it right. All this over saying our rookie QB who threw for 180 yards and 53% completions had a good not great game. 🤣

You're acting like a Riders fan! Comparing a first game QB to Brock is absolutely freaking ridiculous and it doesn't matter which QB you choose. Picking any QB as a comparator after a single game is completely stupid and you should know that considering the number of QB's you've seen in your life. Take a deep breath and wait for a few games before you make comparisons. You once told me that it was great to talk about the bombers without the personal attacks and name calling. Calling me stupid shows that you actually meant it's nice to have someone on your side when you argue with others. Congrats. You're now a member of the Positrons. I hope they accept you unconditionally and completely, cuz I'm done with you dude. Chow.

Andrew Harris

I did watch that game and wasn't impressed with Brock. I wasn't impressed that we traded Jonas either and this story has absolutely nothing to do with our current situation with Streveler. I'm not going bother telling the story's of any of other CFL rookie QB's who had a good game or two then disappeared, cuz they wouldn't mean anything either. Calvillo had a horrible first season and went on to greatness. That story doesn't mean anything to this situation either other than Streveler and Calvillo both started in the CFL after being in college the year before. Comparing Streveler to Brock after 1 freakin' game is exactly the kind of hype train crap that goes on around here all the time. It's also exactly the same thing that folks around here complain about when Riders fans do it with their new players. BTW: Here's the CFL.CA's QB rankings for week 1: https://www.cfl.ca/2018/06/18/quarterback-index-track-back-stardom/

Kind of what I expected when I saw him go down and we signed Gale today.

Nothing I said was inaccurate or negative. Edmonton with backup DB's isn't as good as Edmonton with starting DB's. That's just a pertinent fact as is the weather. The chunk in 1 play was because I knew folks would bring up Reilly's 101 yard shot, which I also included. I included Reilly's stats in the first place in an attempt to stop the whole 'look at the weather' argument, which in hindsight was a bad idea as it morphed into a 'you can't compare Reilly to Streveler' argument. You'll be a lot less angry if you stop worrying about how I say stuff and just deal with what I actually say. Streveler's stats weren't impressive and stats aren't the only way to decide if a QB played well or not anyway, but they are a starting point for conversation. I liked a lot of what I saw from Streveler too, which is why I said he had a good game in the first place. I know that's not positive enough for some around here and I'm fine with that. He played better after the first break, likely because he got a chance to regroup and be coached up during the break. That's not likely to happen again this season. Getting the missed FG return for the TD then getting the ball kicked right back to us also set him up in a way that likely won't ever happen again. IMO that should have been the turning point in the game, but Hall's D let us down again. I hope that Steveler continues to impress and becomes what the 'positive' folks think he can be. It's way to early IMO to start that talk yet.

Nope, wasn't drunk at all. I watched the game on my phone in airports the day after it was played. I was/am pretty positive about the Bombers performance. They did better than I expected. Saying that Streveler was good but not great caused two pages of whining that I was saying he sucked and a few folks pretending that I was expecting him to be as good as Reilly, because I quoted Reilly's stats too. Just par for the course around here. I post. Folks make **** up that I didn't say then complain about it.

You don't think it's good to compare our QB to any of the other QB's in the league? 😂 I guess that's cuz his stats aren't that good when you do make the comparison. Compare stats from this year to Calvillo way back in 1994? What use would that be? It was a different game back then and he was on an expansion team. Streveler is on a GC contender with a good to great OC and a lot of weapons at his disposal. Find me another rookie QB starting his first game on a GC contending team against another GC contending team, who is missing half their DB's, on a monsoon day, with 2 long stoppages of play, no half time, in the longest single game in CFL history to compare with and I'll happily find the stats. I'm pretty certain we would have won if Nichols started, so a better QB would have made a difference. All I said, was he was good, not great. That shouldn't start an argument, but of course, around here it does. 😬

I showed the 2 QB's stats on the same night in the same conditions.That's not at all the same as saying we should compare Reilly to Streveler straight up. I didn't say that Streveler didn't play well at all. In fact, I said he had a pretty good game for a rookie and he wasn't the main reason we lost (That would be Hall). I see that you read something that wasn't there then complained about what you read into what I said. I expect that from a bunch of fans on this site, but didn't expect it from you. My bad for expecting you to see both sides of the equation when it comes to our QB. I checked the QB stats for everyone in the league week 1. Streveler was 8th in yards, 7th in completion %, 9th in Int %, 7th in Avg yards per throw, and 1st in TD's thrown. That's how he compared to the rest of QB's in the league. My point is that one game doesn't make a career. Now isn't the time to say that Sreveler is the best player that Walters has brought in or that we can shop Nichols and that's what some folks have been saying. You've been watching the game about as long as I have so I know you've seen a bunch of QB's come along and play a good game or two then fade away to obscurity. IIRC a bunch of them had their one good game against us. If we're talking potential, and we weren't up until this point, then I agree that Streveler has the potential to be a good to great CFL QB. His ability to run, which would be spun as 'can't read a defense' on any other team, gives him a weapon that some other QB's don't have and he has a good arm. Physically, he has everything you need, but that's not always enough. Based on what I've seen so far, I'm more of a Streveler fan than I ever was a Willy fan.

Read slowly. Then read my reply to you. You're obviously reading something into what I'm writing instead of what's actually there.

That's not what I was doing and you know it. I don't expect Streveler to have Reilly's stats or game. I do expect he will get better with reps and experience. I don't think that 1 game in a monsoon against a team without half it's DB's is a realistic yardstick for any QB. Good game or not.

If you think that about 50% completions, under 180 yards, 3 TD's with 2 INT's is a good to great game for any pro QB, that's fine as long as you use the same criteria for other teams young QB's. I suspect you'd be laughing at the Riders or the Als if one of their young guns lost a game with those stats.I know folks think that Jennings sucks. His stats are better. Willy sucks. His stats are better. Bridge runs hot and cold. His stats are better. I like what I saw in Streveler, but I've seen young QB's have good first games then not be able to keep it up. Lets not suggest, like one poster, that we look to trade Nichols. Lets not suggest that he's our Franklin or the best player that Walters has brought in. Lets wait for a few weeks to see what we have before we overload the bandwagon.

Almost everyone is saying what a great game he had. I used Reilly as a comparison of what a good to great QB's stats look like on the same crappy wet night. I see the first pick differently. Surprise eh? Both Woli and Sherritt came back to the ball. Sherritt made the better play and took the ball away. That being said, Streveler tried, unsuccessfully, to force the ball into a very small spot. The second INT didn't make any difference to the game, but it was still an INT. I'm sure everyone can agree that Willy, a QB that is universally considered to be bad, had a bad game against BC. He threw for 100+ more yards, had 1 less INT and a significantly better completion % (71.4% vs 53.6%). I'm simply saying that we should hold our QB to the same standards that we hold other teams QB's to.

Streveler did OK against the Esks, who were without half of their DB's, but lets not pretend that he was great. He threw 3 TD's, 2 INT's, was 15/28 for a 53.6% completion average and only managed 178 yards, 37 of them on one pass into a blown coverage. Pretty darn good for a rookie QB in his first game, but not a world beater. I'd suggest that he'll have a tougher night against Montreal because of their DC and the fact they aren't starting 3 rookie DB's. JFTR: Reilly threw for 408 (101 on one play), 1 TD, 1 INT and was 32/46 for a 69.6% completion avg, in the same conditions.

I don't think that Leggett, LeFrance or Wild are coming off the IR this week. It will be interesting to see how Montreal defends Streveler now that they have some film on him. Rich Stublers defenses are bend don't break, so Streveler will have to put together long drives without mistakes to win, not just a few big plays. Our big advantage should be our defense or Willy if you prefer. Gotta assume we're going to blitz often to force Willy to make mistakes. Should be enough for a win IMO.