Tracker

Good. For all the hype, Fenner is not as good as Moe. And Moe is an asset to his community as well as his team.

Khari did himself no favours by signing onto a sinking ship, and his career may be permanently derailed as a result. I don't know if Wally Buono has enough fire in his belly for an overhaul of this nature, Kent Austin and Danny Barrett have burned a lot of bridges, but would Maccocia want to leave a comfy, secure job for the chaos in Montreal?

It happens. Some athletes never come back at all from career-threatening injuries, and some are never quite the same again. I would think this would apply to great majority.

And Wally seems to have lost most of whatever mojo he used to have.

Much as I detest him, I would think Tillman would be the best choice, but he is not available. I respect Higgins and I think he and Popp butted heads when Higgins fired an assistant coach for showing up to meetings drunk and drinking, and the players were still grieving Trestman so were not open to doing things Higgins' way.

That, and the death vigil for Reed and Sherman.

Spit. Leggett seems to have gotten a lot more brittle of late. If he cannot go, that is a significant setback for the defence.

Because Chris Jones got himself an all-expenses paid trip to an NFL Hall of Fame induction back to the Excited States where he belongs, plus some free publicity and the Riders got bilked out of a few thousand dollars. And Canada's average IQ went up for a couple of days.

At least four, by my count.

The Lions and Als are in pretty much the same situation. The players on both teams have to know that they are boned for at least this year and are not going to make the playoffs or even compete in most games. You can talk all you want about pride and professionalism, but looking ahead to three more months of getting your butt kicked and having little to no confidence in the management and/or coaching to fix things has to make coming to work real difficult. You can celebrate small victories, but those ships are sinking.

The issue that many big-name athletes who have excelled at the amateur level have is that they assume that they know it all and thus are reluctant to accept coaching, and that has to be true for Manziel moving "down" to the CFL from the NFL. That would explain why he was criticized in Hamilton for being late to and missing team meetings, but bodes poorly for his future here unless he undertakes a major attitude adjustment.

What we are seeing in Montreal is a nauseating replay of the Gliberguys regime during those dark days in Ottawa. Incompetent owners hiring incompetent people on a whim or by personal like and that is filtering down all the way to the field. There is no easy or quick fix for this and the well has been poisoned for any GM or coach who comes next.

Nice thought, but not freaking likely.

For all the questions about Manziel and his personal conduct, considering the steaming pile of mess in Montreal, he did show some raw talent. He can scramble and has a pretty good arm but the question whether he can adapt to the CFL and thrive is still unresolved. No question the season is lost to the Larks, so they have to decide how to manage their quarterbacks' game time to their best advantage. And BTW, Willy is a dead man walking.

Or a command to a male child who was standing in shallow water.

Isn't it glaringly obvious to all?

And we Bomber fans know what childish coaches and GMs look like, don't we?

Ironically, over at Riderfans, there is anger and outrage at Jones but little bile directed at Carter.

Getting open consistently would probably help his cause considerably, but he may be wearing out his welcome in Gopherville.

Considering how close the two previous games this week have been, we ought not assume a lop-sided win for Hamilton, although I wouldn't be shocked if it was.

Not Sonny Wade?

This sort of thing is not new for the Riders, and is a good indicator that Jones is just not a good head coach or GM.

Maybe Trestman knows what he is doing and maybe Bethel-Whatisname is a good quarterback.

Wonder of wonders, the Riders actually resembled a football team and Collaros looked like a decent quarterback, not a gibbering imitation of a hunted rabbit.

Maybe, but the upgrades over the old stadium (which had a lot of memories in it for me) more than offsets the nostalgia.