Tracker

We enjoy trashing the Riders, but few here are strangers to loss and grief. For guys, the loss of a close Dad really hits home, and the next twelve months, the first Christmas, the first birthday, the first parental anniversary all all reminders of who is no longer a part of our lives. Your kids are watching you and how you are handling this.

Wild has the speed and instincts to play in the middle but too often he was road kill after being buried by a 300lb lineman. Maybe Bass can do better.

I'm surprised that the semi-desperate Riders didn't chase Butcher. He has to be a way better gamble than Reaves.

Fogg looked OK so far, Posey not so much. If Posey starts, they will pick on him right away and Glenn is just the quarterback to do the quick slants and curls.

This is the most unpredictable start I have ever seen for the Blue. Every team leans heavily on their starting QB, but no one more so than the Bombers. If Willy gets his poop together, we ought to be looking at 10 and 8, but if Willy is as tentative as he did in the pre-season outings, or the O-line and/or game plan let the team down, we could be looking at 8 &10 or even 6 &12 followed by a bloodbath in the coaching ranks. We have to be at or very close to .500 after the Labour Day game, or the sharks will start to circle.

Well, at least we're not going to be the laughingstock of the league this year.

LaPolice has a lot to prove, as does Willy. O'Shea has been cut a lot of slack and there are few GMs who would have kept a coach with that record. There's a lot riding on the first 9 games, and the natives are getting restless.

Jones is peeing on all four corners of the team to make his bones and mark his territory. Ought to endear him to his players and fans alike. You can get away with that sort of stuff if you are Don Matthews or Wally Buono but it ain't going to be well received in Riderville.

Winning the game is not essential but the team must, must look better than last year- particularly the O-line and Willy. No doubt the opposition will try everything to hit and rattle Willy right from the first snap, and that might include a late hit or two.

The history of football is littered with good quarterbacks who had all the tools to become great but lacked that certain something to take the final step. And we have had a lot of them here. Willy has the physical tools and the training but that last step is all up to him, and no one can do it for him. O'Shea and Walters have been patient but they cannot hold the door open for Willy much longer.

Please Lord, let the Bombers play a decent game to open the season and not one which looks and smells like 2015, 2014, 2013 etc etc.

In my opinion, what makes any thing or place great is all the history attached to it. Any new place will be nicer, more convenient in many ways, but it will devoid of any emotional attachment until there are memorable events occurring there, and that takes lots of time. For your sake, Ripper and those of the other Rider fans, I hope that your team doesn't stink the joint out when they begin to play there.

The day after the game on 1290, Walby was equally scathing in his criticism of both the Bomber interior linemen and Willy. He cited Goossen in patricular as having his lunch eaten and Willy for looking confused most of the time. The offense under Willy had a grand total of ONE first down for 14 yards in the first quarter. Yes, it was a pre-season game, but Lawless reported that whispers are creeping out of the locker room that Willy just doesn't have what it takes. Not a good start to the season.

I thought during the times Butcher was on the field, he did well, especially considering his inexperience at the pro level. Big, mean, strong Canucks are pretty rare and I wouldn't be surprised to see him again and soon.

I should think that all the urine stains in various parts of the stadium would qualify as "leaving a personal mark" on the structure.

One of Willy's liabilities is that he is a natural pocket passer and usually means such need more time than a roll-out/scramble QB. If Willy expects to survive in this league he has to adapt to a moving pocket and maybe even run a couple of times per game to keep the opposing D-line honest. Kent Austin could get away with being a drop-back passer but he had the arm, smarts and game plans to succeed. I am not sure Willy has yet established that he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Austin.

On 1290 radio this morning (Darren Bauming) reported that Richie Hall has enough talent on defence that he has begun to incorporate all kinds of defensive wrinkles that out to keep the opposing offenses off balance. Apparently its largely due to improved NI talent.

A rush is always preferable to a hurl.

Disagree to some extent. What you say is true almost 100% but there are exceptions like Calvillo and McManus who were geniuses in getting the ball away quickly, and at least some of their successes were due to their offensive coaches designing plays to compliment those talents.

I tend to think that Kelly's personality would have produced the same result, even if he had won more games. There is no rehab for stupidity.

I am normally pretty sympathetic to CFL players and even coaches and GMs, but I'm afraid I will take delight in watching Chris Jones implode and get pilloried by the Roughies' fans. His arrogance and abrasiveness ought to alienate the team supporters in no time- even faster than Mike Kelly.

It really doesn't matter to me what the specific problems were last year that got Willy beaten up. It matters that the coaches and our GM have identified the guilty party or parties and have done what it takes to fix it. We ought to know when the curtain falls on game three if we have hope or resignation for the season.

So far Willy has been given the benefit of the doubt due to his own injuries, a porous O-line and very questionable coaching by our departed offensive coordinator. However, its been two years, a lot of the moving parts have been replaced with better ones and we have LaPolice back. That means more of the onus to perform has to fall on Willy's shoulders, and we have been wandering in the wilderness for a long time. Even the diehard fans need a reason to keep believing and empty optimism isn't going to do it for very long this year. If we have another repeat of the two-and-out steady diet for more than two or three weeks, the pent-up wrath and frustration of the past 20+ years is going to be directed first at Willy, then O'Shea and maybe even Walters.

We can attribute that to a lovers' spat.

On 1290 radio this morning, there was a bit of surprise about Collins- he had the size, experience and right attitude but apparently he has lost a step.