17to85

It's too bad it took until the playoffs had basically slipped away for them to see it. Oh well I chalk it up to a learning experience for MOS.

O'Shea didn't make the significant changes on his own volition, injuries and Grigsby's release determined those changes. Oh yeah Dunn was hurt that's why Unamaba got a starting spot... Grigsby asked to be released because O'Shea played Cotton ahead of him and was going to do it again... Come on now let's think before we say things.

ughh no to Lapo. Didn't like the offense he ran either time he was here. 2002/2003. Felt that one only worked because of the sheer talent of Jones, Stegall, Roberts, Sellers and Bruce, and we all saw how effective his offense was 2010-2012.

oh you rider fans. Careful you don`t fly right off the face of the earth with how hard you`re spinning.

yeah that Eskimo team Allen started on was pure crap right? Get real.

23 years you say…is that just a coincidental number? Let's face it. 23 years for an athlete to compete in any professional sport is an amazing feat. To do it successfully is pretty good. To exceed at it, in some years, is the ultimate goal, is it not? A 17% success rate (4 in 23 years) doesn't seem like much, but it's a lot more than a lot of QBs. Average to above average? I'll take it. is the best way to describe Damon Allen. No one is trying to downplay his career, just where he ranks all time. I mean let's say Glenn had won the Cup in 2007 with the Bombers and won one with Calgary... would people start looking at him as an all time great? He's got good career stats and would have had a couple championships in this what if world... or would people still say he was just too average at best?

I actually don't see O'Shea as all that stubborn. I'd say reluctant to make significant changes when they were playing well, but after a couple back to back big losses he damned sure changed things up.

How many of those people have four grey cup rings? I know Lancaster finally got one. Putting him ahead of a guy that has four is nonsensical. The reason Dan Marino is NEVER mentioned in discussion of the great NFL quarterbacks, is cause he has Zero Super Bowl rings. The greatest NFL quarterbacks are always the guys with the most rings. with one exception. For some reason here, 4 league championships means little. You can think up every excuse you want, name any shortcoming real or imagined, you're still wrong. four rings. You guys are hilarious. 4 grey cups in 23 yeas is not that impressive. 4 rings in a normal 10-15 year career for a qb? That's impressive. 4 in 23 not as much. It is acknowledged already that because of that longevity and because he did have good showings in big games that Allen had one of the best CFL careers of all time... but there was only one year where you could say he was the best quarterback in the CFL. Most other years you could point to 3 or 4 or 5 others and say that they were better. That's why Damon Allen played for damn near every team in the league. Teams always wanted more from him in the regular season. He is very much like Kevin Glenn in that regard. Only difference would be that Allen actually performed in the big games.

Might that not indicate that they were unsatisfied with Dyce as OC and went on the search for someone better? Just as likely probably more so! Except that everyone from the Riders has basically said that when Cortez came available they recognized a chance to get one of the best in the game and moved Dyce to STs. They didn't go looking to upgrade, but an upgrade was there and they took it. Perhaps...but if they were truly satisfied with Dyce...they would have stuck with him. No the point was they did something that a lot of teams are reluctant to do with coaches, they saw a chance to get one of the best and jumped at it because it made them better than sticking with someone else. Teams do it with players all the time, more should probably do it with coaches as well.

He was a hell of a lot better passer than Nealon Greene. Greene was an awful passer plain and simple.

Damon Allen had a great career no one will deny that, but when I go through a list of Damon Allens contemporaries I have a hard time picking him ahead of many of them. Look at the qbs who played in the CFL during the same time frame as Allen did... the only thing Damon Allen did well was play for a long time without having his play dropping off. That is good enough to get him into the HoF, his career warrants that, but in terms of actually being a high level quarterback? Nah there were always several players better than him in the CFL, they just didn't play for 23 years.

Might that not indicate that they were unsatisfied with Dyce as OC and went on the search for someone better? Just as likely probably more so! Except that everyone from the Riders has basically said that when Cortez came available they recognized a chance to get one of the best in the game and moved Dyce to STs. They didn't go looking to upgrade, but an upgrade was there and they took it.

Willy moves around in the pocket fine, trouble is that when he tries to step up into the pocket there's no pocket there. He has been hit so much he started hanging onto the ball rather than throwing it, that happens when a qb takes a beating and the pocket breaks down to that extent. Brohm isn't shell shocked yet so he was still willing to take a hit to make the throw, but it got him on the IR too so what do you do? Marve being a more mobile qb does change things and provide a different element, but you can also game plan to limit the running and then force a guy to beat you with his arm so we will have to see what he does once teams get a read on him.

Yes he looked much better than Grigsby ever has here. I hope his play continues he was very promising in TC but did squat in the regular season up until last night. Nice to see I explained it to you many many times, you actually have to give a running back a chance to see what he can do. Cotton won the job outright in training camp, but got hurt and Grigsby had 2 good games to start the year so they didn't make a change, but Cotton was always the better runner because he was better able to slip through small holes and pick up positive yards. It was never about how many rushing yards each got, it was about one back being a ***** and the other actually being able to get positive yards from some bad situations. They actually gave him a proper chance against Calgary and he had a similar yards per carry as he did in the preseason. Least surprised guy about that is me.

The general lack of respect for Damon Allen is hard to understand. especially coming from people that seem to know something about football x's and o's Well many of us watched Damon Allen play for a lot of years... the guy was average just about every year of his career. I think he had maybe one year, and that was at the end of his career, where you could argue he was the best qb in the league. He played well in Grey Cup games but throughout the regular seasons? Average. Basically Kevin Glenn without the choking. Played a long time at an average level.I'd even go so far as to say a peak Glenn was a better qb than Damon Allen.

Yeah you know what? I was at the game last week too and the esks intensity didn't really dip until the fourth when everyone was just going through the motions. Don't listen to the guy who downplays everything the bombers ever do and over hypes the esks to ridiculous levels. Remember he was talking **** about the bombers pregame warmup let us not forget

In Alberta you get every Flames and Oilers game, it makes sense right? They're the local teams and as long as the NHL is doing regional broadcasts that won't change.

Best thing that happens is that Brohm shows well again and we don`t need to worry about playing a beat up Willy in the future because we trust the backup to get the job done. Willy is the starter and that`s not changing any time soon, but getting trust in the backup... that would be a huge boost.

Well listen to O'Shea's interview. First thing he said is he wants bigger guys there to stop the run.OShea tends to speak diplomatically about all his players. Giving a positive about Unamba rather than a negative about Dunn would be how he prefers to do things.I didn't take "bigger" as a positive. But maybe that's how you interpret it. It's an answer to the question that is both valid and doesn't speak negatively about one of his players. Exactly. And seems to question Etch's defensive philosophy all season. nah just look at it as OShea not coming out and saying "yeah Dunn hasn't been good lately" instead he simply does what he has done all year and protect his players from criticism in public. This really just looks to me like rewarding good special teams play, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Who says they are? The most successful CIS HCs don't want to leave for the CFL, generally speaking. more stability and likely higher pay being a cis head guy than working up through the cfl ranks

That's why PVRs and last channel buttons were invented. I

You didn't mention the Willy trade. Walters has done something that other GMs couldn't - get us a QB. That alone gives him an A in my books. This year was a bit of a different situation though, there were probably 4 different qbs available that would have been a decent pickup, that hasn't happened in a while. Hell when Mack first got here he did a similar thing and grabbed Pierce and Jyles as the two guys who were the best FA pickups in the CFL.

MPI gives me far better rates than the company that I work for (that sells auto insurance in the US). Not sure where this myth comes from. It really all depends. I don't know what MPI charges anymore but I know when I moved to Alberta being an under 25 male I got hammered on my rates. Hit 25 though and it's not so bad with a clean record. I think the issue with MPI is that they seem to turn a pretty healthy profit, they could probably stand to lower their rates. A lot of people don't really like to see crown corporations earning a profit would rather see discounted rates.

The CFL season is short enough as is, why would you pass on any game? Sometimes the ones that look like terrible games are the most interesting. If you're a fan of the CFL I just don't see how you don't watch the game.

looks to me it's more a case of Dunn has been kind of invisible lately and Unamaba has done good work on special teams and earned a shot at linebacker.