TBURGESS

What the heck do you think that has to do with the conversation? I never suggested that we give back our wins. Arguing that we are playing our backup QB when anyone whose been watching the Bombers knows that Nichols is our starting QB is just playing silly buggers. Willy was our starting QB due and he played himself out of it. Nichols took the job by the end of his first game and has been our starter ever since. Context: The title of the thread 'Is it real?' Vacuum: I posted several facts about our wins, not nothing. Logic: I left folks to make up their own minds what the facts meant. Failed to mention: Yup, no need to repeat what others are repeating. Freaking backup QB: Nope he's our freaking starting QB, where you been for the last month?

Nor does it change the fact that choosing to go to another better QB is way different than being forced into play a vastly inferior QB. Just sayin.

Different situations. We chose Nichols over Willy. Toronto didn't choose Kilgore over Ray and Hamilton didn't choose Masoli over Calaros. No one in their right mind would.

Lots of folks around here have posted all good things about the Bombers. No one questions them. BTW: It's just a bunch of facts, not logic. I'm well aware of our issues and there's no need for me to repeat them as others have already covered them. The question was 'Is it real'. How does only discussing the yes side of the question make any sense? This isn't the Riders Fan forum.

It's as real as a .500 team can be. We've beaten 1 above .500 team and they didn't have their top 3 receivers, started a rookie center and a QB in his 2nd start who threw 5 Ints. We got 6 turnovers in 3 out of our 4 wins. We lead the league by a wide margin in takeaways. Not sure if we can keep this up for a whole season. Kind of reminds me of the first half of the season in the swaggerville days. We beat backup QB's in 3 out of 4 wins. All of our 4 losses came against starting QB's. We play 3 below .500 teams in a row with their starting QB's and we should be favoured in each one of them. After that it's going to get tough and we'll really be able to gauge how good we are against the top half of the league (And Edm).

Thanks. I guess I should have kept looking after I found the first answer.

Source: http://www.cflapedia.com/Players/b/brown_doug_c.htm

We gave up a 3rd rounder for Doug Brown in a similar situation. We used a 3rd rounder on Bilukidi. I'd ask for a 2nd rounder and settle for a 3rd.

That was a lot of fun. You can't count the Ticats out anymore now that Collaros is back. He scraped the rust off pretty quickly and played well in the second half. The Ticat defense held the BC offense off the board for most of the second, until they tied it up, then the Lions marched down the field and won the game. Only in the CFL could you be up 32-12 at the half and be tied with 3 minutes to go in the game.

Ton of big plays in this one. It's fun to watch.

It certainly has been more than just the QB change, but WPG/HAM with Willy and 6 turnovers ended up 28-24. Nichols under the same circumstances ended up 37-11 because he took advantage of the turnovers.

The best thing that Nichols did last night IMO was not letting the pick affect the way he was playing. It might be because the defense gave it right back, but Willy has a tendency to go into a funk after he makes a big mistake. We're winning right now mostly due to turnovers (14 in the last 3 games). Nichols has made the other teams pay for their mistakes which we were unable to do a just few short weeks ago. I agree with ISO. He reminds me a bit of Tom Burgess in that he won't win the game for you by himself, but he won't lose it either.

There is no place for Macho right now. We need to start an additional NI because Neuf has been replaced by an import. Best Macho can hope for is a DI spot which will become very hard to get once Adams and Randle get healthy.

TO also has 1 less game played and has played both Ottawa and BC, 2 of the best defenses in the league.

Pretty much what I expected... A fine, no draft picks and no suspensions. 86K is the biggest fine in CFL history, so yah, it is a big one. I loved the speeding fine analogy... Put it in perspective for me.

This one shouldn't have been close. Edmonton owned Montreal for most of the first half. TOP was hugely in their favour as were every other offensive stat. Edmonton fumbled twice on the 1 yard line and had a TD called back on something that wasn't challengeable by challenging something else on the play. Refs should only be allowed look at what the HC is challenging, not the whole play to stop HC's from challenging just to see if the refs find something else in the play. It should also speed up challenges. Pretty boring but close game until a great pick by Sherritt, a great punch out by Montreal then Glenn comes back in an throws another pick to seal the deal. Those are 2 of the 3 teams we need to make the playoffs. We lost to Montreal and split with Edmonton. I don't know if it's just my blue coloured glasses or have I forgotten how badly we looked in the first 5 games, but I gotta say we look like the best team of the three right now.

Pretty interesting. Players who are cut but asked to stay around while they recover aren't allowed to go to meetings, film sessions or even be physically present at a practice or conditioning exercises. I'll go on record as saying that every team has ignored this rule more than once. Furthermore the CFL knows about it and has turned a blind eye for years. 20 players in this situation (Thanks Atomic for some clarity) is way above normal so I expect the CFL to step in and take action. I don't think they will suspend Jones at all, let alone for a long time. I expect they will add the money the Riders are spending (If they are stupid enough to do it on their books instead of through a secondary person) on extra players to their SMS and to fine the club as per section 8 that Mike posted. If that pushes them far enough over the SMS limit they'll have their 1st round draft pick taken away from them.

I picked against the Bombers in the last 2 weeks and for them this week. Does that make it my fault if we lose?

Who knows how many additional players they have? 10 was just a wild guess just like 95 probably was.

It might be 10 players too, cuz even that would be a lot. I believe that Jones is pushing the limit and the number of players is more than other teams are 'hiding' so it's become an issue. Even the CFL admits to knowing it's happening.

I'm saying getting players jobs that they may not even have to show up to has happened forever in the CFL, even Winnipeg has done it. They used to call it the Taxi Squad. You might want to chat with players we cut but asked not to leave town in case we need them to see how they manage to pay the rent and eat regularly without a job. Most of them are US players. It's a wink wink, nudge nudge situation that everyone knows about. Having unsigned players practicing with the team is where I draw the line. They wouldn't be insured if they got hurt. They wouldn't be protected by the CFLPA. They shouldn't be on the field. BTW: I don't believe the 96 players story. That number doesn't pass the sniff test.

I suspect they are being housed, fed and 'given jobs' by 'Riders Supporters', not technically the team itself. Gives the Riders some plausible deniability. If they are practicing with the team, that's way over the line.

I'm not sure why folks are so surprised. Milt said the Bombers got him a job his first year in the Peg. He thought it was just a job by name, like in college, but they came and woke him up to make sure he made it to work. Maybe Jones is overdoing what other teams have always done. I don't know or even care if they keep extra unsigned players in town. If those players were good enough, they could get a shot on another CFL team. I'm sure it would be more money than they are getting 'off the books' in Regina.

Congrats. You're now the second idiot to do that.

I think we took on significantly more salary than we dropped. You seem to disagree. Yes, I made a mistake with the 250 number for Moore (180) + Denmark (170). (I wonder if some idiot will cut half that line out and use it as their tag line this time as in TBURGESS - I made a mistake.) No one can provide specifics about what to do with the SMS savings. That doesn't make it a bad idea. BTW: 100K of it could go to Nichols playing bonuses if Lawless is correct. I doubt the Bombers accounted for Nichols starting while Willy wasn't on the 6 game. Lets agree to disagree once again. You think it's stupid to get rid of Willy and his stupidly large salary. I think it's stupid to keep Willy with his stupidly large salary. Neither of us is going to convince the other that they're wrong.