TBURGESS

The CFL wants more offense. They'd be happy if all the games ended up 55-54. They've been changing the rules to help offenses and ignoring holding and offensive interference for years. Heck, they even call defensive PI when the receiver initiates the contact.

Vancouver's not Winnipeg or Calgary. Folks don't get into their cars to go to the stadium. They take Skytrain right to the door. If they live past the last station, they take the car to the closest station and still take Skytrain downtown. Downtown Vancouver's got lots of races in it from all over the world, not just Asian's. The biggest group IMO, and I used to live there, are gay. I used to work in Downtown Vancouver and just stayed downtown, went to the game, then hoped on the train back out to Surrey.

The Lions need to do something about that O line. Not only bad blocking but penalties that took big plays off the board. Jennings won't throw for 5000 yards, let alone 6000, this year if he can't get comfortable in the pocket. He still looked very good considering he only had a couple of seconds before he had to get rid of the ball. Rainey is still one of, if not the best, returners in the league. Would have had a 90 yard TD return if not for the holding call. Long was terrible last night. Punted 3 into the end zone when he was trying to pin Edmonton deep. Hit an upright. Got a a convert blocked. Missed another one. BC needs to shore this up if they want to be elite. Edmonton is already better than I thought they'd be by mid-season. Benevides has the defense looking like it did in the stretch run last year despite the changes and losing Sherritt. William's looks like the next great receiver, but he's going to get called on the push off sooner rather than later. Reilly looked great, partly because he was comfortable behind his O line. That 76 yard pass and run play almost looked like the Milt miracle, but Zylstra got caught.

The default position is to go with the call on the field if there isn't irrefutable evidence to overturn it. I'm guessing that's what they did for both calls last night. Personally, I thought it was a strip at the goal line and that Nik was down by contact, but my opinion isn't the one that matters.

Montreal doesn't look that bad on paper right now. I expect them to win more games than last year, but their Achilles heal is the health of Durant. I don't see him playing more than 10-12 games and then they are back to where they were last year... playing an inexperienced QB. Add in the fact that they aren't as good, personal wise, on defence as they were last year and I can see them losing most of the games that Durant can't play.

It's an easy trip all the way from Winnipeg all the way to Tofino. Mostly good roads. Mostly good drivers. Try Vancouver (All the way down the west coast, across the country to Corpus Christi, TX then south) to Merida Mexico if you and a gnarly drive, especially after you cross over into Mexico. Federales with 50 cal machine guns pointing at your car, while they search it. Topes (Speed Bumps) in the middle of highways that are 8" to a foot high, square, not rounded, with no signs to tell you where they are and their could be 8 or 10 of them in a row. (Gotta slow down to 10 KMH to go over them without scraping the bottom of your car) Roundabouts with no lines on them that the locals make into 3 or 4 or 5 different lanes depending on the amount of traffic. Few, if any, signs unless you're on a big highway. Tons of fun!

Tons of things are broken in Kodi these days. I hadn't used MIC since last year, so I checked it out this AM. Big update May 31 broke it on my system. Un-installed/Re-Installed using notes from: http://koditips.com/made-in-canada-kodi-iptv-addon/ and it's working again. Note: Don't install F4MTester before Kodi, kinda mucked things up for me and I had to start over. Note 2: I didn't install SportsDevil (Used to be in fusion, which isn't working anymore) even tho it said to. I didn't need it to make the TSN's work. As for VPN... I'm using PIA (Private Internet Access). It's fast and cheap, but it doesn't work with Netflix and crashes almost once a day on my laptop causing 2 minute outages. Not sure I can recommend it to anyone who's non-technical.

Kodi with 'Made In Canada' add on is a pretty good way to watch TSN.

What do you do when Neuf goes down again in about 3 weeks?

You might be able to use a VPN to 'pretend' your in another country and get the stream to work. Just depends on how smart their IT folks are.

Matt Dunigan said Riders will get 10 wins. Check out the video: http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/huddle-up-week-1-lookahead~1150099

Ernest Jackson

Not surprised that Willy got cut. He was one of, if not the biggest mistake that our current regime made. I was and still am astonished that we got so much for him in trade value. I'll never understand what Toronto saw in him.

The following players have been placed on the practice roster: National offensive lineman Qadr Spooner National receiver Derek Yachison National linebacker Frank Renaud International defensive lineman Padric Scott International linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox National kicker Felix Menard-Briere International defensive back Abu Conteh International receiver TJ Thorpe International defensive back Robert Porter

I thought he did pretty well for a 3rd stringer. Dickenson and Huffer should know something about QB's, but it looks like a pretty big gamble to me.

It wasn't just their offense. BC's defense held the Riders to 6 first downs, 2 in the first half.

BC sure beat up on the Riders last night. Looked way better than we did against them in all 3 phases.

Hurl may be 'assignment sound', but knowing where to go and getting there in time are two very different things. So are getting there in time and being able to make the play. Hurl's a gap filler because he isn't capable of being anything more than a gap filler. Hardly a great attribute for a MLB anyway.

Saying he's average isn't taking away his right to try. It's simply pointing out the obvious.

I never it isn't a team game. I never said that the only way to judge a QB is by their record. It is one of things I look at. BTW: Are you really trying to put Nichols in the same company as some of the Bombers great QB's? At best it's too soon. At worst, in your own words, it's ridiculous.

What's ridiculous about expecting to win a playoff game or even the Grey Cup? That's what everyone works for every single year. You're making stuff up. I don't expect that from you. I didn't say win or the seasons a failure. I didn't call Nichols a loser. I called him an average QB at best because he's not a top 4 QB. You really think he is? Nichols had a career season last year. It was his first and only winning season so far. If he can recreate it or get better, then I may change my opinion on him. It depends on if the wins are because he played really well or if they are due to turnovers like most of our wins last year. Jacobs is before my time, but he did win playoff games in more than one year and was in 2 Grey Cups. Jonas is the only one on your list that didn't at least win playoff game and he only had 1 winning season in Winnipeg. He was a great guy to talk to... a gunslinger who threw more Int's than TD's. I liked him, but I wouldn't call him a great QB, just one who had one great season. Brock took us to the playoffs 8 times. After his first time, I don't remember, but I likely wondered if he could do it again. Jones took us to the playoffs 2000-2003, winning 3 playoff games.

The Don was one of the best coaches in CFL history. He'd tell you as much if you asked him. Would have loved to have him as the Bomber coach. RIP

It's a QB driven league and Nichols isn't a top 4 QB, which make him average at best. I get that most folks around here are just happy we finally made the playoffs last year and assume that were going to win at least as many games this year as we did last. Personally, I think the bar should be raised from just making the playoffs to winning a playoff game or two.

He got us to the playoffs. I'll be satisfied if/when he wins a playoff game or 2, gets us to the Grey Cup and wins it.

I'm not sold on Nichols yet either. Last year was the first time in his 5 year CFL career when he looked like a starting QB. He was invisible for major parts of a lot of games. He was was the 3rd luckiest QB in terms of catchable INT's vs real INT's. Our Turnover ratio gave him the ball back 59 times, the best in the league by far. Our redzone problems meant we ended up leading the league in FG's, not TD's. It will be really interesting to see if Nichols can keep up last year's level of play, if he improves or if he goes back to the way he was before last year.