JuranBoldenRules

When was his "head wrecked" to begin with? If it was there's no chance in hell he would have been on the field at practice on Monday.

Beyond anything he tweets, writes or says, the fact that Friesen has the gall to tweet that he's uninterested and essentially negligent in doing his job (watching sports, watching the Bombers practice) just kind of sums up why I have zero respect for him.

I agree, but it would be very difficult to increase the number of young officials given the way football is scheduled in Manitoba. If you're playing football, it would be very difficult to also officiate it because basically all the games are on the weekend. They've started to get a little more creative with scheduling, but mostly due to lack of fields. I don't think there would be many teenagers who simply wish to officiate a sport and not play it. They should go hard at the guys playing majors (18-22) and push it as a way to make extra money.

About as good as they can do after the fact. IMO they should look at allowing the officials supervisor or the replay official in Toronto to buzz the head ref to make that call and other player safety/rough play calls if he misses it. Otherwise you're creating an atmosphere where all QB's are fair game.

After watching a bit of the hammy game and most of last night I have to agree with you... but it is only week 2... it literally takes half a season before we get a true grasp on every team in the CFLThe number of hot starts turning to crappy falls we've had recently, I'm more than happy to sit and wait for a team to play .500 ball as it grows together and starts to click around Labour Day. People really gotta chill. This site sucks after a loss....Are fans supposed to be happy after a blowout loss at home? Even when this loss is just all more of the same from this team? Just saying...this really is justified though. I really wish it wasn't. When you're 4-15 at home in a new stadium, I think it's fine to criticize. Seems the brass are not too worried about providing a quality product to their fans. Hard to be excited for home games when we're a joke at home. It's not the losses, it's the blowouts where it looks like the team gives up. This is incredibly irrelevant to today. What do you want them to do? Build a time machine and win some of those games? All they can do is work their asses off to win the next one. Bringing that up is meaningless to the team practicing today.

No offence, but that's up there with the 3 point convert among bad rule change ideas IMO. If anything the game needs to be simplified and less complicated to officiate.

Or Cato's game was a fluke. Guess we'll have to see if he threatens Calvillo's records. Cato was in Montreal's training camp so it was more like 5 weeks.

"I'd rather they force teams to go for 2 from the 5 than any other change they've made, but personally I'd just leave it how it always was and let the players decide the games, not the kickers." This whole chain of reasoning sounds frustrated and self contradictoryy Let me simplify: Creating more opportunities for kicking to influence the outcome of a game which is already heavily influenced by the kicking game is the opposite of exciting for me.

IMO the new illegal contact rule has had minimal impact in the actual game. They aren't all that strict with it, and pass interference is still wildly inconsistent in how it is being applied. Biggest impact has been the shift to zone defense in preparation for the perceived change.

Thinking about the Toronto-Saskatchewan game, would you have liked to see it end, after Toronto drove the entire field to score a major, on a missed 1 point convert? I wouldn't and that's why I really dislike the new convert. Kicking is already a HUGE part of the Canadian game without adding to the difficulty of the convert. I also think moving the 2 pt convert to the 3 just devalues points, and I'm not sure why teams aren't going for 2 more. The Bombers are a good example. That triple option with Marve, Cotton, Marshall that they run on short yardage would probably be about 80% on 2 pt converts over the long haul. I'd rather they force teams to go for 2 from the 5 than any other change they've made, but personally I'd just leave it how it always was and let the players decide the games, not the kickers.

They just did it in Regina. Regina wasn't brining the house every other play like the Cats They were sending 5 or 6 on most passing downs, and they have probably the best pass rushing end and tackle in the league. Hamilton didn't send much more than that, the Bombers just had the wrong gameplan. The Bombers handled it in Regina by using the backs just beyond the rush in the passing game and hitting hot routes with max protect on. Took way too long vs Hamilton to get into max protect even as it became obvious that just leaving 5 in to block was not allowing Willy to even get his eyes downfield. Ended with Willy out of the game. Greaves chasing guys and leaving his inside gap wide open did not help, along with Picard being unable to take on anybody when he gets isolated by a blitz or stunt.

Good news on Twitter right now. Mike Ritchott is coming back to town to play for the Rifles from the VI Raiders. Andrew Harris, Nic Demski potential there. Most dominant WHSFL running back since Demski for sure. Hell of a rugby player too for Grant Park. Bombers can use a territorial exemption on him if he doesn't end up in CIS. Had two 100+ yard kick return TD's in the same BCFC game last season as an 18 year old. Over 9 yards per carry last season. Would be nice to see the Bombers develop him as BC did Harris. Bring him in for training camp, keep him on the PR, have him practice with the Bombers while he plays his last couple years of junior. Pretty easy since they are in the same stadium.

They've already traded away their 2nd and 3rd round picks. Is there a 33 year old NI who hasn't played well in 2-3 years that Taman can trade the 1st for?

They just did it in Regina.

Who said that? It's a moot point anyway if they don't start apply the UR penalties in-game correctly. Saw another bad one today at the end of the game. Macho Harris ends up on Trevor Harris and pushes down on his head with all of his weight against the ground, gets up and head butts Whitaker when the Argos called him out on it. The "shoulda called it's" should be incredibly embarrassing to the league (particularly when a QB is lying on the field unconscious) and lead to a change in officiating. Guys like Bradbury need to get with it or go work high school football along with the high school basketball he already works.

Cuthbert losing it. Macho Harris should be tossed. Just headbutted Whitaker after he took a late shot on Harris way after the whistle. Player safety?

Not a catch. The ball is clearly laying underneath his midsection on the turf.

Ya, to be honest if a guy is at least making a play for the ball I'd always be fine with the PI being a 10 yard penalty and first down. It's the ones like the PI's O'Shea had to challenge vs Hamilton where the guy doesn't even know where the ball is and is just trailing the receiver and then stopping him from working to the ball that should be spot fouls. Could go to "intentional" (not playing the ball) and "unintentional" (at least making an attempt on the ball) PI.

Contact was about half a second early. At least the DB was going for the ball. Could have gone either way, the 10 yard call was fair.

Brackenridge really blew it there. Covering grass. That's the problem with playing so much zone, guys get passive and forget to actually play the ball.

The Lobendahn play literally occurred in a different era, if the league is serious about protecting players (and they now have to be) they can not let this incident slide by unacknowledged. They either have to take some form of token action against the player involved or at least acknowledge publicly that there should have been a penalty called on the Willy hit. To do nothing sends the wrong message. Yep, a QB in the pocket is extremely vulnerable and very easy to lay a cheap shot on, which is why there's a strikezone in terms of where they can be hit. Bradbury should be in crap too for not blowing the whistle when the QB is in the grasp. That is something that is overlooked with player safety IMO, with QB's and anyone carrying the ball. Blow the damn whistle when forward progress is stopped. The Lobendahn hit on Lemon was in a different era and different AREA as Lemon was out of the pocket, completely different circumstance. Lemon declared late in terms of a hook slide while running outside the pocket and Lobendahn was already fully broken down to form tackle him.

Wonder how long Messam can take this workload. He runs so upright that he takes a lot of shots in the knee/lower leg without his knees being bent to give him shock absorption against those hits.

They've struggled with receivers, linebackers and rush ends for 2 years now. Done relatively well at DB, running back, kick returner and import OL. IMO, they aren't very patient in terms of keeping a guy around for a bit on the PR and letting him develop. That has contributed to the struggles with import receivers and probably linebacker. Bass has been a disaster through two games at WIL, just real bad fundamentals in terms of staying on the right side of the ball to limit gains. Say Denmark goes down, and he didn't look right vs Hamilton after ending the game with a rough fall on the ball in Regina, who's in his place? Jhomo Gordon? The guy who couldn't get on the same page with any QB in either pre-season game? Raw talent there, but I'd like to see someone who could play well with little drop-off from the regular guy in the next game if we have an injury. Rush ends should be easy to find, even if they are lacking in other areas, like against the run. You need a few guys who can just get after the QB in this league. IMO Gibson is one, but they need to turn him loose and get him on the field more. Average overall. Not awful because they are unearthing some very good imports (Cotton, Marshall, Leggett, J Adams, Marve, Stoudermire, Veltung, Davis), but struggling to find good guys at spots like WIL and rush end. I appreciate the move to acquire Davis and get rid of Portis after the pre-season. Portis has basically no upside as a passer, good to have a couple developmental guys with upside.

I agree they have been very soft and inconsistent on the player safety issue, despite having it pretty clearly spelled out in the rules. Don't really see any relation to the objectionable conduct penalties though.

Just like in the Brohm thread how people label them as haters? Unless people fart rainbows they hatin' It's a football board. Becomes pretty crappy when it's a soap opera between posters and basically no football. Being critical and having opinions is the point, but it would be nice if we could stick to football and avoid the soap opera garbage, like labeling and trying very hard to play the role to get the label/reaction, for example.