17to85

I prefer to think of it as getting a chance to save up a giant bag of "**** you"s to hand out when they do eventually win.

No he really didn't... he had that good first game because Toronto was not able to get in his way, but he was running even worse early in the season than he was later in the year. Guy was a puss from the get go.

I just don't see the hype with Reilly. He's got a great defense backing him there... now that being said I've never liked the crappy passers who can run, but Reilly strikes me as just too chaotic.

There is this thing called a life that people have and have more time for than watching football. No one is talking about that, people are talking about giving up on season tickets because the team isn't winning, that's the mark of a bad fan. Not surprised a Rider fan is OK with bandwagon jumping though.

Moore ... Denmark ... Cotton ... Leggett ... Turner ... Anderson ... Washington ... Stoudermire ... Hajrullahu ... You know, I'm really starting to notice ... as much as people say we have homers, we sure do have a ton of gloomers as well. Moore ... Denmark ... Cotton ... Leggett ... Turner ... Anderson ... Washington ... Stoudermire ... Hajrullahu ... in addition to my mention of Randle & Wild That's a list of our better players but how many are going to be a western all-star (or 2nd team) this year: Hajrullahu possibly... Randle surely I think ... Leggett will be beaten out by Breckenridge but he is good ... Stoudermire might be the best in the league but won't get the votes this year ... Moore has been a bust this year ... Denmark might get in on stats but he has not been a dominating player ... Cotton is still unproven as promising as he looks ... Turner & Anderson & Wild will at best get honorable mentions ... Washington I hope My guess is we get 3 on the western all star team this year ... how many of the rest would be on a 2nd western team is how many are "above average" ie 1st or 2nd out of 5 teams Do we get more than 3 out of 26 or so players as western all stars? if you're expecting a lot of all stars from the team with the worst record in the west you're going to be disappointed... but that doesn't mean that we don't have our share of good players here. Part of the problem is the depth and what we lack in addition to those good players.

and do you understand why that was? You know how undesirable a place you are for coaches when the average head coach gets 2 or 3 seasons before being fired and coordinators are lucky to get 1? Which proven coordinators do you suppose would want to come here if we fired the ones we have this year? You guys know that the lack of stability in the coacing and GM ranks is the reason guys like Stubler decided not to come here? This happens in other cities and yet they have no problem hiring quality coordinators and coaches afterwards. Ie Toronto, Hamilton, Montreal, Edmonton, Saskatchewan...pretty much the whole league actually. Does it? BC has been pretty stable with Wally as GM and his guys taking over after him, Hufnagel has been in Calgary for a long time running things, Popp has been in Montreal forever, Barker in Toronto for a long time... Saskatchewan had some turmoil for a while and it got them into a tricky spot but now it's stable again. The Bombers though? 4 different Gms in the past 7 seasons and 5 head coaches in that same time frame. You wonder why we can't get anyone with a proven track record to come here? It's basically been a guarantee to have your reputation trashed.

yeah you're opinion on which qb should start is oh so valid right? How's your boy Doege doing lately? So much better than Sunseri right? So you're going to judge my opinion on who should start for Winnipeg based on something completely off-topic from what we're talking about here? Now you're just finding reasons to bash my opinions and trying to bait me into an arguement. I had a good reason to back up what I said (about Winnipeg, not Saskville). But to answer your question about the Rider QBs, I really cannot answer, because both are too inconsistent. what I am saying is you have shown that your judgement on qbs is bad and your opinions aren't worth listening to because of said bad judgements. I'm just working with what you give me.

and do you understand why that was? You know how undesirable a place you are for coaches when the average head coach gets 2 or 3 seasons before being fired and coordinators are lucky to get 1? Which proven coordinators do you suppose would want to come here if we fired the ones we have this year? You guys know that the lack of stability in the coacing and GM ranks is the reason guys like Stubler decided not to come here? No, I don't know that Stubler decided not to go to Winnipeg based on the lack of stability, and you don't either. Stability when you're winning is great. It's bad when you're losing. It creates an atmosphere of losing and it's incredibly hard to turn that around. Giving coaches more time to screw up doesn't make Winnipeg a better choice for other coaches. A winning team with a winning attitude makes it easier to sign coaches and players. Win or be replaced is better than we'll keep you around no matter what. and this is why it's been so ******* long since we've had a championship team and why we have had so many tire fire seasons. But hey I think you would honestly be happiest with lots to complain about. You're very much like Paul Friesen in that regard. Not even close. It's been a long time because of the coaches and players we've hired. The only way the fans effect the team is by not buying tickets and merchandise. That happens when we aren't winning. Quite frankly, Bomber fans are some of the best in the league for putting up with constant mistakes the organization makes. You're only happy when you're arguing. it's not about fans, it's about management that has had the same attitude as fans like you. Oh Dave Ritchies team took a step back, better fire him, the resutls aren't there. Never mind that his successor was far far worse. Doug Berrys team took a step back one year? Better fire him the results aren't there and we need to win because it's been such a long time since there's been a championship. Never mind that his successor was the worst thing to happen to the team. Lapo went to the grey cup and had a bad start, better fire him, wins and losses are all that matters never mind that it caused a wasted season and a half with Tim Burke. You see how this nonsense of constantly firing guys digs the team deeper and deeper into a hole? You need stability in order to entice good people to want to come here. Right now the team has a **** reputation for job security, and rightly so. Like it or not that's just the way it is. Firing coordinators this year isn't going to help improve that reputation so we'll be stuck with has beens at best, never were's or hoping a rookie who is desperate for a chance to come here. Being impatient got the team into this mess, continuing that trend is not going to help. Patience is required. Forget all about how long it's been since the Bombers won a championship. Look at where this regime started and where we are now and you will see things are progressing. GIve it time and time is more than this season and next.

That's BS. You can be a fan and not have season tickets even if you can afford them. Yeah you're just not as good a fan.

and do you understand why that was? You know how undesirable a place you are for coaches when the average head coach gets 2 or 3 seasons before being fired and coordinators are lucky to get 1? Which proven coordinators do you suppose would want to come here if we fired the ones we have this year? You guys know that the lack of stability in the coacing and GM ranks is the reason guys like Stubler decided not to come here? No, I don't know that Stubler decided not to go to Winnipeg based on the lack of stability, and you don't either. Stability when you're winning is great. It's bad when you're losing. It creates an atmosphere of losing and it's incredibly hard to turn that around. Giving coaches more time to screw up doesn't make Winnipeg a better choice for other coaches. A winning team with a winning attitude makes it easier to sign coaches and players. Win or be replaced is better than we'll keep you around no matter what. and this is why it's been so ******* long since we've had a championship team and why we have had so many tire fire seasons. But hey I think you would honestly be happiest with lots to complain about. You're very much like Paul Friesen in that regard.

and always to Romby Bryant lately and that's just got fail written all over it from the get go.

if you can't afford tickets or don't live in Winnipeg that's one story but if you can afford seasons and choose not to go because the team isn't winning then you're just a bandwagon jumper plain and simple. Try and justify it to yourself all you like you're only fooling yourself.

and do you understand why that was? You know how undesirable a place you are for coaches when the average head coach gets 2 or 3 seasons before being fired and coordinators are lucky to get 1? Which proven coordinators do you suppose would want to come here if we fired the ones we have this year? You guys know that the lack of stability in the coacing and GM ranks is the reason guys like Stubler decided not to come here?

It's OK, not all fans are created equal, some people just aren't as much of a fan as others and can only support a winner. No shame in being less of a fan than the rest of us. All the fans who have purchased tickets for the last 24 years but still want a team that will be at least 9-9 would strongly disagree with your comment. Being willing to accept poor performances and failure every year would never work in any other business and definitively does not make one a better fan. What's the incentive for the club to get better if all were to accept its failure. A company would not wait one and a half year to decide whether you're good or not. Let's face it, we hired HC's that had no experience and have paid them handsomely while they were learning and perhaps becoming good at their job. Seems we never learn so we get stuck having to wait into the next year to see if the training has pay off. If it hasn't we start again with a new rookie and promises things will be better this time. No, those who while not accepting what is happening but still showing up are the real fans, not those who drank the kool-aid because Jimmy Jones told them to. All I am saying is if you aren't buying season tickets because the team isn't winning you aren't that much of a fan. If I lived in Winnipeg I'd be buying season tickets every year and it wouldn't even be a question.

yeah you're opinion on which qb should start is oh so valid right? How's your boy Doege doing lately? So much better than Sunseri right?

It's OK, not all fans are created equal, some people just aren't as much of a fan as others and can only support a winner. No shame in being less of a fan than the rest of us.

Don't you know? to the melon heads the riders ARE the CFL.

That sounds counter intuitive to me. If we lack talent across the board the sensible thing to do is get the best player out there. I'd make sure someone is going to play in the CFL this year but it doesn't matter what position. We used a canadian in the secondary all year, an upgrade there would be great, we need an upgrade on DL more than we need OL if you ask me, we used a linebacker most of the year, an upgrade there would be great. If there's a star type receiver that would be great, if there's an OL that'd be fantastic too. About the only position you don't need to worry about is RB and qb. Good teams are built from the lines out. If we don't upgrade our O line, it will be more of the same next year. Our QB will get beat up. Our RB will need to make yards on his own. Our receivers will have to run short routes because we won't have time to complete the long ball. We'll end up hoping that other teams fail so we can sneak into the playoffs. I'd like to see us pick up a D lineman but I'm hoping that one of our NFL DL's will be available. but we used 3 americans on the OL at times this year and it still sucked. If we upgrade another NI position and have the ability to play 3 imports on the OL we can improve it that way. In this day and age you don't have to hold to the antiquated thinking that you must play 5 NIs on the OL. I would suggest that improving the american content of the Ol would do more to make the line better than drafting an OL. Take the best NI in the draft and I don't care what position he plays. Quite frankly, we need to upgrade both the NI's and the Imp's on the O line. We used 3 Americans on the O line and still sucked. That's hardly a reason not to take our best shot at upgrading the NI O lineman. We don't have 3 starting grade NI O lineman now, no way we are finding 5 starting grade NI O linemen this off season. That being said, it would be a great way to use 5 NI's, if we had them. I suggest improving the import content across the board is better than looking for 3 starting import O lineman, especially considering how badly our O line was starting 3 of them. When we get to the point that we have a good starting 7 NI's, then take the best player no matter what. Until then, we need to fill the spots we NEED to upgrade RFN. Draft a couple each year. Dump the ones who don't work out within 3 years. Rinse and repeat until we have a solid O line with a couple of guys in the pipeline. And I say take the best NI you can in the draft and find your best 7 NIs where ever you can find them and build the rest of the roster around them. If that means 2 NIs on the OL then so be it.

It's short sighted and doesn't take into account the starting point, and it's part of the reason why we've had this 25 year drought. Too many people have been fired because the instant results weren't there, or the team took a slight step back. All these knee jerk reactions because people only looked at wins and losses has done more damage to this team than anything. Name the people over the past 25 years who were fired because instant results weren't there as you put it. You will notice that I added a 2nd qualifier there as well right? The whole point is that a lack of patience has resulted in good people being fired too soon. Dave Ritchie, Doug Berry, even Lapo was fired prematurely. The worst part is they usually followed it up by hiring worse people after. The reality is that this team doesn't give coaches or GMs enough rope.

Then the problem you run into is that you won't be able to recruit anyone worth a damn because it's just further instability. No coach wants to go to a place where they're going to be fired after one season. And really why are we firing Etch again? The D has been ok this year. The biggest thing we need on D is some better defensive linemen in there. people are taking this dislike of Etchevary to ridiculous levels. He's not my ideal defensive coordinator but he certainly hasn't done anything to warrant being fired. He was better than I expected him to be and you don't fire a guy after one year when the D wasn't the big problem on this team. If I was putting the 3 phases in order of concerns about them it would be special teams > offense > defense. The payoffs for Etch's gambling were at least apparent in the early to mid-season but they dropped off the map later in the season. No real pressure on the QB's was sustained from the D-line of his blitz formations and they were burned heavily on both the run and the long pass. and did we notice that it was right around the time Anderson got hurt that the pressure really disappeared? This teams DL has been weak all year and losing a guy like Anderson meant that we could not generate pressure. Let's get some playmakers at DL for next season and see how the defense looks. The CFL is pretty simple, if you get pressure your D usually looks pretty good. Look how much the Riders D slipped when their pressure was negated just a bit.

It's short sighted and doesn't take into account the starting point, and it's part of the reason why we've had this 25 year drought. Too many people have been fired because the instant results weren't there, or the team took a slight step back. All these knee jerk reactions because people only looked at wins and losses has done more damage to this team than anything.

That sounds counter intuitive to me. If we lack talent across the board the sensible thing to do is get the best player out there. I'd make sure someone is going to play in the CFL this year but it doesn't matter what position. We used a canadian in the secondary all year, an upgrade there would be great, we need an upgrade on DL more than we need OL if you ask me, we used a linebacker most of the year, an upgrade there would be great. If there's a star type receiver that would be great, if there's an OL that'd be fantastic too. About the only position you don't need to worry about is RB and qb. Good teams are built from the lines out. If we don't upgrade our O line, it will be more of the same next year. Our QB will get beat up. Our RB will need to make yards on his own. Our receivers will have to run short routes because we won't have time to complete the long ball. We'll end up hoping that other teams fail so we can sneak into the playoffs. I'd like to see us pick up a D lineman but I'm hoping that one of our NFL DL's will be available. but we used 3 americans on the OL at times this year and it still sucked. If we upgrade another NI position and have the ability to play 3 imports on the OL we can improve it that way. In this day and age you don't have to hold to the antiquated thinking that you must play 5 NIs on the OL. I would suggest that improving the american content of the Ol would do more to make the line better than drafting an OL. Take the best NI in the draft and I don't care what position he plays.

If he's healthy your starting qb starts plain and simple. Especially when he's still as young as he is in terms of experience starting. Starting Willy is the right move. If he struggles though they should give him a break.

and yet Willy has a better completion percentage and more yards than Bo does... Bo plays on a better and more talented team with the best coaches in the league, that's the real difference at this point.which proves nothing other than you judge a QB more by his completion percentage than his overall ability, alas Damon allen.. What it proves is that for all the shitting you're doing on Drew Willy and despite all the issues he's had he is still performing pretty well all told. BLM is playing with the best coaches in the league, on the best team in the league. He's got a lot of support that Willy doesn't have. The fact that Willy is better in some statistical categories should tell all you haters to pump the brakes on the hating just a little bit.

Did you go to the Grey Cup in Calgary in 09 was it? Was one of the highlights of my CFL viewing experiences to witness first hand all those annoying as **** Rider fans having their hearts ripped from their chests on the too many men penalty. Just amazing.