Tracker

Simmons was a standout in a very bad defence last year with Ottawa, and anyone who give his flat-out best in a consistently losing team rates highly in my books. Whether or not he has personal conduct issues is a whole 'nother matter and we will see when he gets here. If memory serves, KD Williams (he of the gold teeth) had some baggage as be bounced around the CFL but did well here, so who knows about Simmons? I love Simmons' speed. Hurl has been better in the last couple of games, but hardly dominant and if Simmons can us that, great. We can fit Hurl in somewhere or trade him for value.

Tracker I musta missed something here....is there a rumour going around that he was hung over?? I saw them putting a cold towel over his head a few times, I'm assuming he was having trouble with the heat, which was, as we all know, outrageous at game time. A friend of mine does security there and was on the field, he said that it was much hotter on the field than in the stands. I have a seriously hard time believing that he was hung over. If you read back a page or two, the poster who said that in the gameday thread indicated that he posted that report as humour.

That would make him the UnambaBomber.

Following your train of thought, Huffer should never have signed with Calgary, Austin with Hamilton etc, etc

A thought: if public money is going into something like this, why not have that money become an investment with the principal owners having an option to buy the government share for market value? If the ownership is manging well the operation ought to become profitable, but there ought not to be sweeheart exhorbitant "management fees" that Shenkadow et al got with the old NHL Jets.

Its difficult to separate where Bellefeuille's culpability ends and O'Shea's begins. O'Shea chose Bellefeuille and decided to keep him at the end of the season, and ought to be on Bellefeuille's case about the anemic offence which has been too obvious for too long.

Riderfans website has confirmed that it is not Simmons, so I take back what I just said. So there.

Wouldn't surprise me, dammit.

Walters is taking heat right now and deserves at least some of it. However, he made a lot of good moves but some of them have not panned out as all had hoped. The O-line in particular should be way better than it is and there are several players there who deserve to be singled out for criticism. In horse breeding, even with known bloodlines there are no guarantees-you breed the best with the best and pray for the best.

We lose this week and we are going 2-16 or something nasty. We win and we are right back in it. Personally have my doubts, but I'll be there cheering like always. Good on you and all there in Pile 'O Bones. Still hope you are trounced, though.

Odd, isn't it? Somehow sports franchises (corporations, really) are some sort of sacred cows and deserving of massive public funds as opposed to individuals who are reviled for being temporarily (for the most part) down on their luck. As an example, in Detroit, the city agreed to give over $200 million plus iinfrastructure improvements of an undetermined value to the very profitable Red Wings owner (who is worth some 5.8 billion) to build a $660 million new arena. And the city did this a week after declaring bankruptcy. Sort of a reverse Robin Hood thingie.

So, Simmons has the possibility of being either a messiah or a pariah?

I can accept that playing center and calling the line blocking assignments involves a learning curve but I cannot see why they are not giving him field time, particularly when the line as a whole has struggled and Picard as well.

I do not expect any significant upgrades to our quarterbacking this season. What you see is what we got, and we don't got no Willy and probably not this year.

I think comparing Goossen and Chungh would be valid. Chungh is not yet a dominant player by any means, yet he was deemed good enough to start right out of the draft, but Goossen is still not ready for prime time. So what does that say about him?

YESSS!!!

Thomas has been a pleasant surprise- better than he was expected to be. In boxing it would be called "punching above your weight class".

With all these injuries and problems on our O-line, if Goossen cannot become a starter this year, he ain't ever gonna be.

Huh? Where did that come from. I heard he was battling the flu, not the hung flu. Where did you hear this?? Someone in this forum posted it as (alleged) fact in, I think, the game day thread.

Greaves, who is supposed to be a natural RG should be given a shot with the understanding that this is probably his last shot at being a starter. Still, it all comes down to protecting the quarterback, and I am disappointed to hear that O'Shea may be considering starting Brohm next game. The caveat is that if Marve was upchucking last game because he was hung over, that changes everything, but I would want some significant proof of that before believing it. If this is true, then it would mean that our first three choices at QB are all unfit for duty and that would set off all kinds of alarm bells.

Simmons seems to be a pretty good fit for the Lions with Elemimian gone for the season and Huffer is probably tired of the drama but may want to make a point by keeping Simmons around for a while. It would be a bad precedent to allow a player to kvetch his way off the team.

Smith is getting better with every game and Marve should get a lot better next game, what with not barfing on the sidleines, having more than a half-practice with first-team reps and fewer butterflies in his belly. It all comes down to who has the highest ceiling and who gets there first.

Bo Levi is now involved in this twitter mess/entertainment. So it could be called "Twittertainment"?

Can you do a C&P for the rest of us?

Seems MB can't/won't/doesn't know how to adjust in the 2nd half. How many times has our O come out, looked pretty good if not great only to slow down and then come to a complete stand still as the game goes on. I get that Defenses can and do adjust. But why doesn't the Offence adjust to them as well? They do. I lean more towards the rookie QB puking his guts out and injuring his throwing hand having a huge impact. He had a hell of a time going downfield and seemed a lot less willing to both stand in the pocket and extend plays after he hurt his hand. One thing I've noticed Marve do when he hits a wall in every game he's played for us including pre-season is the chuck and duck. At a certain point the hits change how he plays. Apparently the problem with Marve's had was a heat-related muscle cramp. That would tend to impact his throwing motion, so we are still not seeing his full potential.