johnzo

Voyager 1 keeps kicking ass. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/after-37-years-voyager-has-fired-up-its-trajectory-thrusters/ Its control team just fired up some secondary maneuvering thrusters that have been dormant for 37 years and they responded perfectly. This adds 2-3 more years to the V1 mission .. the main thrusters that have kept V1's antennas aligned with Earth so far are starting to crap out, but now they have an alternative. I think I'm going to throw a wake for V1 when it disappears into the void...

yup. I looked at the numbers a year ago and it looks like a typical CFL team will need to start 7-10 different import receivers in a season due to injury and etc. You need great receiver depth to survive a CFL season. Look at the Eskimos -- Hazelton and Duke Williams were depth receivers for them.

The cfl.ca piece about his re-signing does mention a "midseason injury" that cut into his practice time, but doesn't get into specifics: https://www.cfl.ca/2017/11/30/coach-oshea-pep-talk-helped-keep-medlock-winnipeg/

Thanks for breaking that down. I'd put his middle third at pretty good for a WR2/3, that's a 100-catch / 1000-yard pace in those six games. But then he just utteryly disappeared in the crunch time and it was so sudden that I gotta wonder if something else was going on. Funny thing about Denny's 2017 stats vs his career year in 2014 ... he had about the same number of catches in both years (60 vs 65) but his YPC was way, way down in 2017, even during his good middle six. It seems like Lapo wasn't sending him downfield much -- Dressler and Adams and their injury replacements got all those throws. So I gotta wonder if he's a victim of the Lapo offence?

Would love to see him in Blue and Gold, but he's gotta change his number..

Ritchie was the Blue Bomber STC in 1990. I took a spin thru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_Canadian_Football_League_head_coaches_by_team and the only non-Trestmans I can spot who jumped straight into a CFL HC job in the semi-recent past are Bart Andrus, Dan Hawkins, Forrest Gregg, and Daryl Rogers. Not a real distinguished list, and very little to suggest that you can hire a guy straight out of the US and instantly turn your program around. You need a guy with CFL experience. (There's also Jack Pardee, Pepper Rodgers, Ron Meyer, and Kaye Stephenson from the US expansion days. I don't count those guys because they didn't have to play by the same roster rules as the rest of the league. tho Stephenson had an undistinguished year in Edmonton after his Sacramento / San Antonio stint. I think that was the same year that Dave Archer bit a guy's finger. Man, the CFL was nuts in the nineties)

I was gonna say June Jones but he's only had half a season of success and he was the OC of the Rough Riders back in the 1986. Looking at this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_Football_League_head_coaches_by_wins It looks like Frank Clair leaped straight into the Argos' big chair from a college job in Buffalo way back in 1950, but all the other top coaches had time as players, assistant coaches, or both, before becoming CFL HCs.

Funny thing was, he was hitting the endzone like crazy early last year ... then he just stopped getting targets. It happened so suddenly, I wonder if he was playing through an injury?

Yoiks, this taco org structure is really messed up. And then you consider that these are two guys who are really not super good at playing with others....

Inexperienced O'Shea: 12-24 Experienced O'Shea: 23-13

Always been a fan of Ray's. If he comes back for 2018, I'll still be a fan, if he retires, I'll be happy I got to see him play and wish him all the best. It's a super personal decision with health and financial considerations, and since I'm not his doctor, his accountant, his coach, or a member of his family, I choose d) no opinion because it's really none of my business.

gonna give a weird answer and say 2005. I was too young and broke to see any of the Bomber wins in person, and the one Bomber Grey Cup appearance I saw live was 2011. Unlike tacklewasher, I remember the game all too well. We got exposed by a far, far better team. 2005 was an amazing game. Ray vs. Calvillo both in their prime, BC Place was sold-out and rocking, then overtime! A real showcase for the CFL.

Gotta send out an attaboy to Lirim --goes from the Bomber scrap heap to the grey cup-winning kicker in a couple short years. Love those redemption stories.

How on earth do you play receiver with a broken hand? His hands looked just as soft as they always do. Damn, that is warrior.

I think that Proulx is way more chill about holding than the other CFL refs. Now that the CFL is publishing more stats, it'd be interesting to run some numbers on the officiating teams -- whose crew calls holding the most? Whose crew is overturned most often? etc, etc.

Washington had some rookie boners (Suitor criticized the depth of his routes a couple times) but he looked a lot better than he has all year. Got open and caught the ball. And hell yeah, Coates looked real good out there -- we've thrown that deep shot down the wide rail to JFG like four times this year and come up empty each time, but Coates snagged it. Nichols protected the ball real well. I was expecting picks from him, since he was stuck in the pocket all day and was going to see pressure, but he played his usual squeaky-clean game with zero picks on 48 attempts.

Playmaking LB, depth at QB, better import receivers, y'know, same as everyone. Assuming Bond is headed for the NFL for at least half of next year, I'd also like to see us add some national hog depth and roll out three Canucks on the OL. Is Davis going to be back next year? After three years as the designated QB of the future, I was shocked when he didn't start against Calgary. Figure Denmark has gotta be done. When we needed him most, he was invisible.

Yup. Had a great time watching the Bombers this year, had a great time celebrating victories on MBB. Thanks to the gang here for their thoughtfulness and enthusiasm. Didn't like the way it ended, but I am pumped for next year!

Yeah, it'd be cool to merge the assorted spleen vents into a nice clean thread here. Make this thread the Australia of MBB.

https://www.google.com/search?q=nelson+skalbania TLDR: Skalbania killed Als V1.0 and very nearly killed the Lions as well. Then he went to jail for real estate fraud. The Glieberguys, while a big joke, didn't kill the Rough Riders -- there were two owners that followed them (three, if you count the CFL, which paid most of the Riders' bills in 1996) . Feterik left the Stamps in okay shape for the next owners. He paid his bills. And Wettenhall is the guy who saved the Als in the nineties and presided over years and years of success afterwards. Team is falling on hard times now, but he's a long long way from worst owner ever.

Nice pick, TF. Never seen the Maidens but damn from that video they look legit. Sad to see such a limp crowd tho. Here in Seattle we've got Hell's Belles, like the best AC/DC cover band going. They've been at it for almost twenty years now and their singer has some hella pipes.

Speaking of our DL, I think losing Westerman was addition by subtraction. Seemed like when we lost him our DEs got a lot better at playing contain and keeping QBs in the pocket. Especially critical this weekend ... if a guy like Reilly can get outside the pocket and roam around in space, he'll kill us, either with his legs or by extending the play long enough so one of those great receivers of his can shake free downfield.

Naw, gave that one a pass. Figured that BC vs. Toronto might resemble a football game, though.

Been a while since I've seen a team phone in a game like BC just did. No focus, determination, execution. Just some guys running around.

My Happy Honker goes to Jake Thomas, who swept up the field goal kicking area before every Medlock kick. Wins are made of little details!