TrueBlue4ever

Need to apply “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” principle. BC is more of a threat to challenge us for first, so 🤢go Riders 🤮

1. Castillo - in a one point win, if the other guy misses 2 and your guy hits them all, he deserves recognition 2. Willie J - knockdowns from the line killed drive after drive 3. Holm - the waif just keeps getting it done. Knockdowns from the back end, covering for others, sure and solid tackling, and enough physicality to draw a bogus roughing penalty. Not bad for a teenage girl, eh? H.H. - Kolankowski and Hardrick - when we needed a clock killing first down from our own 15 yard line on the last 90 seconds, Brady was going to be stuffed, but Kolankowski drove his man back with Brady riding his hip, and Hardrick pushed the pile from behind to get us a 4.5 yard gain out of nothing to salt the game away. Pure grit and will from the o-line to seal the deal.

I think you just answered your own question in the second sentence.

Commentary on another roster management debate, or prediction for what we will see tonight? You decide.

Explain to me why O’Shea is to blame for Castillo signing as a free agent with Edmonton and being given only Liegghio and Mourtada as options at camp. Those are contract decisions and that falls squarely on Walters.

Prukop

You both misspelled “thorax”.

Movie opening - tough call, some very groundbreaking ones but not one definitive I can pinpoint. Among the memorable ones: 2001 Dawn of Man scene, Star Wars title crawl and spaceship chase, Goodfellas, Scream (and I am not a horror fan), Lord of the Rings pre-history re-cap and battle scene, and any number of James Bond openings (Skyfall and Spy Who Loved Me are at the top there). Closing scene: Shawshank Redemption beach reunion, Usual Suspects reveal TV opening: maybe Lost plane crash aftermath TV closing: Newhart’s dream parody, or M*A*S*H’s simple “Goodbye”. Great call, can’t believe I overlooked that. Sam Jackson’s diner speech should have won him the Oscar that year.

Next question(s): Beat opening and closing scenes of a movie? (Also TV show if you are so inclined).

The sign or the food?

I am kind of the opposite. Past failures remind me how good we have it now, which is why I shake my head at what I consider is “roster management” B.S. O’Shea is not above criticism, and no one has suggested that, despite what the naysayers accuse the defenders of constantly to make their point. But those who want to turn on him and say we are winning by luck or that it will surely bite us in the loss column, despite no real evidence of same for the past 6 years, would do well to remember what we have and what might replace it. Everyone bitched about Cal Murthy’s tight pocket book and curmudgeonly attitude near the end when we lost talent and had an inevitable backslide, and rather than let him re-build again, the club jumped on the newest shiny object and bought the snake oil and sizzle of Reinbold when there was no substance behind the sales pitch. Then after that black hole and the Ritchie resurrection, fans turned on him, then Taman and Bauer, despite success, because Ritchie liked vets and Taman preferred proven talent over draft picks, and were left in another re-build with Mike Kelly’s arrogance and then Joe Mack’s arrogance and incompetence, both with disasterous results. We finally have stability but some want to find a reason to nitpick O’Shea and find a reason to turn on him, making mountains out of molehills and looking for excuses to dump on him and be the first to say “I told you so” if he gets the axe. I’d prefer the Pittsburgh Steelers model where a coach is allowed to re-build over and over if he has a past track record of success, and it’s the players who are accountable if they fail. There is a limit to it of course, and all coaches have a shelf life, but maybe pump the brakes on all the hate about O’Shea’s inability to manage a roster until he actually starts to have a losing record AND can’t climb out of it with an attempted re-build. JMO.

Sorry about that, was not trying to be literal with the visual, just couldn’t find a gig of a guy just standing there watching, lol. Seriously though, appreciate the clarification. Would Zach do any mimicking of the footwork or read progressions by turning his head and body, or is it purely a watching exercise?

Some Bombers do their share of celebrations. After a turnover the whole defence runs to the end zone and poses for the cameraman, or even grab the camera and film. Oliviera does a ball spin or flex or first down signal. Willie J does a somersault or guitar windmill after a sack or stop. And the Bombers were one of the first to pioneer the dance celebration choreography back in 2000 and kept it up for a long while. Personally I don’t care. I prefer the “act like you’ve been there” but no reason to be bothered by it. You don’t like the other team celebrating? Stop them. But let’s not pretend we are above it all and the only team that doesn’t do it, and only the other teams are participating.

I have no issue with guaranteed contracts. But having the management cap in place and tying non-employees to it seems silly. Let teams be stuck with old contracts on the books but make the operations cap a “currently on staff” cap. The intent of the cap was to avoid teams having 25 coaches in place, not handcuff them in the event they fired someone. Or do like the NHL and have a buyout where only a portion of their salary applies to the current cap. This way teams are stuck with their bad contracts, but not crippled by them indefinitely into the future. Just a thought.

So why is it that coach/GM salaries are guaranteed but players aren’t?

Yeah, didn’t mean to hack on him too hard. He’s one of the few who puts effort into keeping track of league history through stats, and he does not have a database like Elias sports tracking stuff for him. The transition to the new stats website cannot be helpful for him. Would be good to have more like him working to compile a full statistical history of the CFL.

On August 17, 1959 Edmonton lost to BC 12-0, and the following week they beat Sask. 55-0. 67 point swing. Not even sure that’s the record, but this took me one minute of digging to find this. Either the “CFL stats guru” is in the wrong job, or I am. *UPDATE* So after some more digging, I am certain that the point swing record in Canadian football belongs to Montreal and Hamilton. On Oct. 20, 1956 the Alouettes beat the Tiger-Cats 82-14 (the 68 point margin is still a record), and the following week Hamilton won the re-match 50-14, so both have a point swing record in consecutive games of 104. In the CFL era (since 1958) I believe the record is 83 points, by the 1999 Hamilton Tiger-Cats (lost 52-19 in Montreal then beat Winnipeg at home 65-15 the next game). Next best is 80 points, by Hamilton in 1981 (57-13 win over Toronto followed by a 41-5 loss to Edmonton) and again by Winnipeg in 1991 (68-14 win over Hamilton, then a 46-20 loss to Ottawa). For biggest point deferential in consecutive wins, Edmonton technically holds the record for consecutive regular season games at +102, but it is spread over two seasons (beat Toronto 61-7 in their final 1981 regular season game, and then beat Ottawa 55-7 in their 1982 season opener, but they played playoff games in between those matches). Those aforementioned 1999 Tiger-Cats also hold the single season record at +92 in consecutive wins, beating Edmonton 54-8 and then Saskatchewan 63-17 for back-to-back 46 point victories. Calgary is next best at +88 (54-15 and 52-3 over Sask. and Tor. respectively in 1994). And Saskatchewan holds the record for largest point differential in consecutive losses, losing 55-0 to Edmonton and 61-8 to Winnipeg in consecutive weeks in 1959 for a -108 differential.

Was anticipating this counter-argument:

Went to the CFL rule book to ensure this. In fact, the determination of offside and the line of scrimmage is altered depending on the player. For a passer, GCn20 is absolutely right, and a forward pass is legal if at least the back foot is on or behind the line. But for a snap, here is the rule: Article 3 – Offside At The Snap Team A players must be completely behind the line of scrimmage, except that the head, arms and hands of the Centre and Receivers may be in advance of the line of scrimmage. By the wording of that rule (FYI “Team A” is the team in possession of the ball in all rules situations), we were offside and got away with one. Unless the offensive player is allowed to re-establish themselves onside pre-snap if no player on the other side moves, just like a defensive player can. Hard to get in the ref’s head to figure out their judgment. One other thing I have been confused by in the past two games was why the refs sometimes blow a play dead if the defensive player jumps pre-snap and does not come in contact with the opposing lineman and tries to get back to an onside position, and other times let’s the play go. I always thought if no contact was made the play would run, and the defensive player could either re-establish themselves onside pre-snap, or the offence snaps while he’s offside and gets a “free” play. So, according to the rule, if the defensive player goes a yard or more past the line of scrimmage when encroaching the neutral zone, the play is blown dead regardless of whether or not contact is made. Also any contact and the play is blown dead immediately. So the refs can apply judgment to kill a play if they deem the offside to be beyond one yard from the line of scrimmage.

And what was Osh’s response?

What did he say? Was it praise or “the MBB crowd must be losing their minds down 22-0”?

Some random stats from tonight. Beyond the home losing streak, Edmonton has now lost 14 straight overall. Third longest streak ever in league history. The 22 point comeback is not a Bomber record (that would be 27 points in Hamilton) but is the “second” largest shutout deficit comeback ever in CFL history (3 teams were down 24-0 and came back to win, two of them road teams, the 22-0 comeback is the next biggest).

As O’Shea has said, “they’re all starters”. Has got them believing in themselves and each other. One of his great strengths.