Tracker

Bombers announced this morning that Matt Nichols will be starting in Edmonton. This kinda feels like a trap- starting Nichols in a game wherein the Bombers have low chances of winning. Thus, if Nichols does not win (probable), O'Shea can say ,"See? I told you." Still, change has to start somewhere and we can hope that Nichols plays well enough to keep the game close throughout the whole 60 minutes.

Masoli's performance in Edmonton was amazing and who knows, he may never play that well again. However, Kent Austin is a very good judge of talent and if he has kept Masoli around, it was surely because he was capable of this sort of thing. I don't think Edmonton's defence fell apart in the second half, but the turnaround sure appeared to be the result of someone finding the "on" switch on Masoli and a Hamilton attack plan. Many of the throws Masoli made were pinpoint darts and the receivers caught darned near everything thrown near them. The only game I can recall that was near this sort of miraculous was a Montreal Alouette game waaay back when Sonny Wade came off the bench after half-time and filled the air with footballs, erasing a huge deficit.

A win in Edmonton is likely just a stay of execution for O'Shea. He has been poor enough as a head coach to warrant firing.

Don't think so- he was at a Stampeder training camp trying out as a linebacker, was cut and was so low that he considered suicide.

Neufeld is not an all-star but he is serviceable when used in the right scheme plus he has the right passport. Considering the struggles of the O-line, I am beginning to wonder if Wylie is as good as he is supposed to be.

That's setting the bar really low for comparison.

We are probably not going to see Bennett on the field this year and we haven't seen enough of Nichols in a good (non-Bellefeuille) offence to tell if he is better than Masoli.

God, the game against the Esks is going to be a bloodbath.

Why was that not a Hamilton TD?

I was hoping no one would mention that.

An amazing classic CFL game and you weren't the only one who bailed.

How about just firing him?

Masoli is on fire.

Wow. I don't know what they shot Masoli up with at half-time, but he has bumped Willy down to 16th best quarterback in the league.

Despite the mess on the field, the Bomber organization and finances have been managed well.

I do not know how involved he has been in the day-to-day affairs of the team. To my knowledge, Miller is supposed to oversee the finances, and hire the GM, but at this point Walters is not the acute problem, although he ought to have sacked O'Shea at the end of last season. Muddying the waters there is that O'Shea appears to be a good guy and that cannot make bringing the axe down easy or comfortable.

IIRC, he got soused in the Calgary airport and could not be found, leading to his nickname "Drunken O'Mahoney".

Edmonton running away with it with 11:00 to go in 3rd quarter and might as well play the whole bench. We'll probably see Franklin real soon. To think we could have had Reilly, Bowman and Watson...but I can't think about that right now...tomorrow is another day...

I fear the upcoming game against the Esks. They are hardly breaking a sweat against the Tabbies and mopping the field with them.

How dare you bad-mouth Rod Black so severely.

I would hope that, given our quarterbacking, if Boyd showed any significant potential he would be on his way here already.

The game could have gone either way, but that call sure made me wonder if someone was spoken to to give the Rider fans a thrill.

Nichols was playing behind a line with two starters gone plus Calgary did not have to respect the run. Nichols' record last year was nothing to write home about but this team appears to be significantly upgraded on offence. Willy has had his kick at the cat and lets let Nichols show that he belongs or not.

That was then and this is now.

Yup. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.