I doubt the Grey Cup ratings go down if the two best teams in the league are battling it out, even if they are both from the West or the East for that matter.
Arbuckle - Young with tons of upside. Looked great in Calgary's offence. Question is, will he look as good in another teams offence.
Streveler - Young with a bunch of upside. Needs to learn to read defences quicker.
Masoli - Expensive. Coming off a non-contact injury.
Nichols - Average at best. Coming off of an injury to his throwing shoulder.
Colaros - Was good 4 years ago. Huge concussion issues.
Using this years (ATM) Standings
Ticats
Stamps
Riders
Bombers
Als
Esks
Lions
Argos
RB's.
Round 1:
Ticats and Stamps get a bye
Riders vs Esks
Bombers vs Als
Yah.. that's fair and better than the current system.
I agree that sometimes the obvious answer is the right one, but Nichols going down isn't the obvious answer.
The obvious answer is we played bad teams in the first half of the year. Now that we're playing better teams, our offence and defence are getting exposed for who they really are.
Call it positive spin all you want. Youre 'Unrealistic take' turned out to be wrong. I wish I could say I was surprised that you think positivity for positivity's sake is what a fan is, but sadly, I'm not.
IMO What we are seeing is growing pains with Streveler.
Young QB's make more mistakes. More risk. More reward. More picks. More runs.
Nichols didn't throw a good deep ball until this year. It's going to take time for Streveler to get there too.
Had is the operative word in your first sentence.
Were is the operative word in you second paragraph.
The fact is we are currently in 3rd and we need to win our last 2 games to get a home playoff game. Possible? Sure. Probable? I don't think so.
I understand your excuse. You've used it hundreds of times before.
6 years isn't 'drop of a hat', neither is 4 years for that matter.
Just making the playoffs doesn't really do much good. When was the last time a 3rd place western team even made it to the Grey Cup, let alone won it? 2nd place teams have a better chance and 1st place teams have the best chance. That's what we need to be doing.
Patience my ass. We're antsy after 6 years, not 4 years. We not only don't have a cup, we only have 1 playoff win and 1 home playoff game so far. One and done in the playoffs this year should mean changes and no, I don't mean just PLAP.