O2L

Carter has also dropped several catchable balls which is uncharacteristic of him. I understand Montreal taking deep shots since Edmonton has a poor secondary, but I don't get what Edmonton is doing at all.

I can't believe that Montreal would actually be winning right now had they made the kick at the end of the first half. This really is a game of "who wants to lose more?"

Is Edmonton's o-line really as bad as they've looked? What's crazy is that even with all of those hits, Reilly still has huge numbers.

Agreed, but in this case the callers were complaining about Willy's play and Irving and Brown were citing his stats as proof that he was playing well.

CJOB in particular. Whenever a caller would mention Willy's poor play, Bob Irving and Doug Brown would basically tell the caller they were out to lunch and list off Willy's stats. I heard this on the postgame for weeks on end. Bob constantly saying things like, "it seems no matter what Willy does people won't be happy with him."

He did have a fumble on a kick return in Hamilton that started their (futile) comeback attempt.

I have a Charles Roberts Puma navy with white sleeves, press on, but I think it's a youth size (probably youth large as it fits like an adult small). I also have my royal (from a few years ago, sadly not the new one) Bolden jersey and a navy Nick Moore from a couple years ago that was a gift that I've not worn once. Really want both a new home and new away jersey, I love the look of both of them. Have no idea what names I want on them, though.

I'm with you. I was annoyed at the delay at first, but being outside yet dry during that lightning storm was incredible. Never experienced anything like that.

Lots of teams giving up 300+ yards passing to Edmonton these days, how's that working out for the Eskimos with their three-game losing streak (and even their two wins were only by three and four points again Sask and us)? I'm in the "stats are for losers" camp. For the first five games all I heard were people defending Willy by using his stats but anyone watching him play would have seen how ineffective he was. So far this season, Nichols has two wins, zero losses, four TDs, zero INTs. I'll take those stats over any number of yards.

Banks gets a decent amount of plays his way on offence, lots of plays specially designed for him as well.

And even though the Esks have a game in hand, even if they were 3-4 right now we'd still be sitting in third because of our point differential with them. We're also in good shape having not played BC yet because those games can be four point swings for us if we were to win them. It's just a shame that we gave up two early-season losses to Calgary as catching up to them would be mathematically quite tough (especially with them having two games in hand). But maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself talking about ways to get to first or second place...

Great synopsis! I'm hoping Henry will bounce back and Ottawa will take this one. Gotta keep the west tight!

Last year Nichols wasn't in a Paul LaPolice offence, had o-linemen with a year less experience, didn't have Andrew Harris in the backfield, had one of the worst receiving corps in the league, and had a kicker that did everything in his power to lose games. I think we're now seeing what he's actually capable of. Let's remember that without Matt Nichols winning five games for them, Edmonton is not likely to be the defending Grey Cup champs. Let's also remember that with the exception of the season opener last year, against the worst team in the league, Willy didn't look spectacular prior to his injury. Travis Lulay agreed to take a pay cut to stay on as the backup in BC, maybe Willy will do the same. Could we have won these last two games with Willy at QB? Maybe. But it's not mechanics, players, or anything else that's caused his poor performance this year, it's fear and indecisiveness. When Nichols rolled out of the pocket yesterday and threw a completion down the sideline (much like he did last week after avoiding a sure-sack), I was confused. I didn't realize that Blue Bombers QBs were permitted to do that, since it's been so long since I've seen it happen. I was as excited as anyone to have Willy back this year, I believed him to be the answer. But as with Buck and Khari before him, he's a shell of his former self post-injury. Maybe he'll get it back, maybe he won't, but with how often QBs go down in this league I wouldn't be surprised to see him back on the field this year, and I agree that having him as our second option is pretty solid. Everyone forgets that Nichols was battling Reilly for the starter's role in Edmonton before an unfortunate injury. By the time he was healed it was Reilly's job, and this is the first time since then that Nichols has another shot. I'm not saying he's the next elite QB, but let's remember that it took Anthony Calvillo some pretty bad seasons before he became the hall of famer he is today. Nichols is winning us games - can we stop making excuses for why that's happening and just be happy that he's getting it done? (Apparently I want everyone to remember a lot of things. Time to expand my vocabulary!)

That makes a lot of sense. No longer worrying about signing guys that'll run to the NFL. (Hell, Dickenson, Ray, Burris, and even Casey Printers all got NFL looks after good CFL performances).

Good point. I also think it has a lot to do with the relative youth/inexperience at QB league-wide right now. Consider early 2000s: Khari, Dave Dickenson, Henry Burris, Ricky Ray/Jason Maas, Damon Allen, Danny Mac, Anthony Calvillo vs. Willy, Reilly, Jennings, Collaros/Masoli, Mitchell, Harris, aging tired Ray. Basically, there's Burris, Glenn, and Durant. Glenn is serviceable, we don't know where Durant is at yet, and Burris is injured and in his twilight years. Ray a shell of his former self. In the early 2000s, 400+ passing yards in a game by most teams wasn't an unreasonable expectation. Now, breaking 300 is considered pretty big (and I don't think that defences having gotten better, just look at the BC/TO game tonight and the huge holes all over the field). Not saying that Collaros, Harris, Reilly, and Willy aren't good, just that maybe their best years are yet to come. Jennings is a question mark to me - I don't think he's all that great right now, but he's also incredibly young, so if he sticks, he could play for two decades.

Agreed. BC isn't remotely as good as their record. At this stage in the season, Ottawa is the only team that really looks like a contender (keeping in mind that Edmonton has only played that same Ottawa team, so they're still a bit of a question mark). Right now I think the east is Ottawa, then Montreal. TO and Hamilton are pretty much equal, and neither look very good to me. As for the west, tomorrow's Edm/Sask game will reveal a lot. Assuming Edmonton wins, I'd say they're alone on top with the other four teams looking relatively weak (yes, even with Calgary's big win against us, I just don't think it's a true reflection of that team). It's kind of weird to say this in such a small league, but it just seems like most of the teams aren't very good. The quality of play across the league feels like it's much lower than in years past (and has been trending towards this over the last five or so years). Of course, just my opinion!

Just throwing this out there, while I absolutely hate BC's Halloween home jerseys, that black helmet with the reddish-orange retro lion logo looks fantastic. That said, I think it's pretty fair to say that our home and away uniforms are objectively the nicest in the league.

While it's extremely hard to feel excited these days (I used to jump out of bed on game day and have trouble falling asleep the night before, not so much anymore), I can't help but think of the underperforming BC Lions that started 0-5 and turned their team around when everyone had written them off. I'm not positive, but wasn't that actually the 2011 team that won the cup? We started off 8-1 and went on a losing streak to fall backwards into the big game and they started off 0-5 then finished strong? Or am I confusing seasons? Regardless, that team played terribly for five games then turned it around. I'm not saying we'll do the same, but knowing that it's happened in recent history is about the only straw I have left to grasp.

Pretty scared to see what Simoni Lawrence does against our oline and slow release QB.

Montreal has a better roster over all, Sask has a better head coach. So it comes down to a coach getting his players to play beyond their abilities (Sask), or players to show well despite a poor head coach (Montreal). I expect Montreal to do better than Sask because you can't draw water from a stone. Sask got weaker during free agency, not stronger. I wouldn't be surprised to see Montreal finish second or third in the east, I'd be shocked if Sask is anywhere higher than the bottom in the west.

Andrew Harris please and thanks.

Oh I thought I had, but Shaw let me down. I even called them two more times talking to different reps hoping I'd convince one of them to bump me up earlier. Offered them cash to expedite the process!

I just moved and Shaw isn't coming until Sunday, so I need somewhere to go watch the game. What's everyone's plans?

Bowman

Tried PMing you but it said that you cannot receive new messages, not sure if you're inbox is full. Regardless, here's what I've got: Here are my picks: Winnipeg (if you don't want to include it, I understand, but we are down by 7 right now. I've picked Winnipeg every single game and always will as I don't pick against the Bombers). Edmonton Hamilton Saskatchewan Toronto