AKAChip

Saying that this offence isn’t designed to be high-flying makes it so Nichols will get off the hook for any performance as long as the team wins. This isn’t how football works. Do you really believe the gameplan is to barely outscore the opponent? This isn’t hockey where you can sell out defence for offence. In football, defence and offence have almost nothing to do with each other outside of occasional field position improvements.

Streveler isn’t anymore reckless with the ball than Nichols. But I meant down the stretch of the season. He hardly played outside of the game he started.

You’re making false equivalencies.

For all the talk this offseason that there will be packages in games to get Streveler a meaningful number of reps over the course of the season, I’ll believe it when I see it. When the team was struggling on offence down the stretch, Streveler paradoxically got less and less time on the field. It’s hard to fathom why outside of Lapo being a stubborn mule and it hurting Nichols’ feelings.

Scoring more points, which you would do with better QBing. This offence is going to score a reasonable number of points regardless of who is at QB. Hell, Streveler put up points every game he started last year and he was a 24 year old rookie literally forced into action. More than you can say about Nichols.

Just to put this in perspective and while I like Fenner, I’m not defending his performance but it’s amazing to me that there can be people who think Nichols is untouchable or at the very least capable of regular, capable QB play and should be given the benefit of the doubt as long as the team keeps winning while at the same time want Fenner benched. It’s comparing apples and oranges but Nichols was at least as bad as Fenner was yesterday and Fenner has historically been one of the better players at his position in the league.

He will.

I mean, I’d argue it’s the opposite of nitpicking. He was somehow worse in the second half that he was in the first half, despite only completing five passes in the first. This is a stacked offence and one of the few teams in the CFL who both chooses to, and is capable of running the ball consistently. Last year, the Bombers lead the CFL in some offensive categories but faded in a massive way down the stretch. Every other Nichols season, they’ve been middle of the pack. We literally had a 75 yard scoring drive last game where Nichols threw for 0 yards. If you want to make the argument that because the Bombers in recent years win more than they lose and thus Nichols can’t be that bad, I don’t know what to tell you. Do you think he’s purposely sucking for most of the game except for the one or two plays that make up the point differential? This isn’t even getting into the specifics of all the things that Nichols is simply incapable of doing at this point, like JBR has mentioned on more than one occasion.

Somehow Toronto is even worse than Montreal. The bottom three to four teams in the CFL are historically bad.

Okay, and how many great teams have been brought down by mediocre or worse QB play since 1990? For every Burgess or Crandell, there are a ton of Drew Tates, Jon Jennings, Nealon Greenes, etc. That’s the whole point. Just because crappy QBs very occasionally win Grey Cups doesn’t mean you should count on it to happen. I recognize there’s a shortage of great QBs in this league but when it counts, the better QB usually wins. Nichols at his worst is as bad as any terrible QB in the league. And his best is light years worse than the best QBs.

It’s a legitimately good point that Black on the call is bad for the growth of the CFL. The guy is the dictionary definition of clueless. He jumps to conclusions during the play (he called a play incomplete because the defender was waving his arms while the referee was signalling a catch), sticks to his narrative (constantly made reference to how well Masoli was playing despite throwing three picks, and basically ignored an endzone pick of Masoli’s because it came directly after Black stated that this play could be a dagger for the Als), gets players wrong, obsesses over minute and unimportant details but most importantly he just talks and talks and talks and never once has anything interesting to say. Literally never.

That was your point? Sure as hell didn’t seem like it. Like I said earlier, this isn’t going to be productive. I completely agree this is a terrible era for CFL QBing. I suppose with a good enough team, any QB no matter how bad is capable of winning a championship. That doesn’t make me comfortable that Nichols won’t blow it. The Bombers had four(!) first downs last night that weren’t caused by an Edmonton penalty. Nichols completed five passes in the first half. It’s not sustainable in the CFL to have your defence not allow a single touchdown. Do not misconstrue this as being unhappy with winning a game. But Nichols isn’t even good enough to be considered a “game manager”, a term he clearly takes offence to. For every game where he’s unspectacular but good enough, there’s at least one where the team literally wins in spite of him or loses because of him. That’s what happened at the Banjo Bowl, it’s what happened in the WSF and it will certainly happen again. It wouldn’t be as big a big deal if we didn’t have a 29 year drought and a roster that is likely the best in the league at nearly every other position. We’re 2-0 and I’m very happy, but yesterday’s game is a blow out with competent QB play. Even with the two Harris fumbles. You lose that game 9 out of 10 times but because the D was amazing and we hung on for dear life Nichols can’t be criticized for a terrible performance?

Very bad. Don’t confuse reasonable skepticism with a desire to be a fan of a bad team. But those teams are going nowhere and they know it. If they had the roster we have with their current QBs, it would be a different story. And great, Nichols is better than Antonio Pipkin and Vern Adams. Talk about a low bar.

Not sure how Masoli is allowed to viciously headbutt a defender on his way to the end zone and it’s called a great play. Tables turned and the defender gets obliterated for it. Headshots are gross on either side of the ball.

Very interesting how Hamilton isn’t taking their foot off the gas.

He’s worse than Harris too, but Harris is still bad. Everyone else is either absolutely terrible or broken. Sad state of QBing in the CFL right now. That being said, while I am not convinced that Streveler is the surefire answer, he would without a doubt be at least as effective as Nichols.

Love the team, love the win, hate Nichols.

I’m always happy when we win. I just don’t ignore all the things to be concerned about when it happens.

Harris and Maas sucking too doesn’t give me any solace.

Since it’s not getting any more productive, I’ll shut up about Nichols for awhile after this post. That being said, if any of you are genuinely satisfied by that Nichols performance and think that if he continues to play that way that the Bombers can beat the legitimately good teams in the CFL consistently, I don’t know what to tell you. The Eskimos are bad and Maas is clearly terrified to take any chances with Harris as their QB. It’s hard to fathom watching Nichols play last night and being convinced that everything is fine because he leads the CFL in “QB efficiency”

People outside of me who know a hell of a lot more about football than you and me agree with me here. Granted, that’s a low bar.

Disrespectfully, you have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s a shame you have the blinders on that you can’t even answer an extremely simple question.

What did you like about Bighill today. By all means explain. Great players can have bad games, whether he’s your favourite player or not.

Tevaughn Smith is brutal. Sam Giguere 2.0

The sliding is not an issue. The rest, sure.