BigBlue

I hear Ricky Ray is taking first team reps in preparation for Montreal .... can anyone confirm that?

Edmonton's 7 wins: +3 BC 30-27 +4 Montreal 23-19 +2 Ottawa 23 -21 +3 Hamilton 31-28 +11 BC 37-26 +5 Hamilton 33-28 +7 Ottawa 27 -20 Impressive? I dunno Didn't we start out 7 & 1 a few seasons back and then fell apart .... all I see here is the Eskies beating up the weak sisters from the east, and getting Wally Buono's goat twice .... not exactly a tower of achievement ..... and all this on Reilly's back ... would have been a very different story if Franklin was at the controls .... With a ton of injuries, both their OL & DL in rough shape I am hoping we will dominate the trenches The only thing that slows down a greased pig is one good thump but I don't know how we can catch Reilly to daze him even slightly .... if we can get to him just once ... till then we have to work on contain Thursday Night: advantage us

how do we change a pick if we our mind on a team?

Whttp://edmontonjournal.com/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-eskimos/danny-groulx-returns-to-edmonton-eskimos-offensive-line-following-gruelling-game-with-back-spasmsith injured Danny Groulx returns to Edmonton Eskimos offensive line following gruelling game with back spasms Almondo Sewell gone for the foreseeable future, the Edmonton Eskimos haven’t just lost an all-star on the interior of their defensive line. They’ve also lost their emergency replacement if things were to ever fall completely apart on the offensive line, requiring a defensive tackle to flip over the line of scrimmage to get them through a game. It almost happened three weeks ago against the B.C. Lions, when Danny Groulx, making his second start in place of injured left guard Simeon Rottier, began suffering back spasms midway through the second quarter. Starting centre Justin Sorensen had already left with a knee injury and was replaced by lone O-line backup David Beard, meaning if Groulx wasn’t able to continue, Sewell would have suddenly found himself protecting the pocket he’s so used to crashing.“I didn’t want that, I didn’t want to put my team in trouble,” said Groulx, a six-foot-six, 325-pound Laval product playing in his third season since being drafted in the first round (seventh overall) in 2015. “They knew what I was battling with, but at the same time, I knew what I was capable of and I knew my threshold of pain and I wanted to finish the game. “Honestly, there were some thoughts in my head that came, like: ‘You can’t anymore.’ But I just started insulting myself. I won’t tell you what I was saying, but I told myself a couple of things to stay in the game. Reader Moe Litman: Gutsy win, given the unbelievable injury situation. However, once again the Eskimos, for a 7 - 0 team, did not look impressive or powerful. That is understandable at this point given the injury situation. But that has been the case since game 1. They have found ways to win but not steam-rolled any team. And, once again, discipline - penalities - have been a significant, disturbing, problem. They will have to elevate their game to win it all. Hopefully, that will happen when either most of the injured return &/or some new blood makes its way onto the team.

MOS tonight when asked about DB Walker said ".... yeah and he is only 21 years old!"

Are you sure that is right ? ahead of Leggett and behind Heath?

anaylze it how you like but on Lankford returns we are frequently scrimmaging from around our 40 and that is the best i can remember in years

SpeedFlex you are the attacker, purposeful & deliberately nasty like an eleven year old brat

Being under attack is personal ..... no way around it

Are you spitting at yourself in a mirror?

look in a mirror

You are grumpier than an old man

You know how MOS used to be labeled as stubborn .... I think that came from a lack of not not knowing, not being sure of himself .... now that is seeming reversed and instead we are getting confidence and sophistication .... the genuine leadership we have expected all along

Now who sounds arrogant?

" as all-star defensive tackle Almondo Sewell left with an upper body injury in the third quarter before defensive end Marcus Howard was carried off the field with a leg (maybe both legs?) injury in the final minute. They were two key cogs on a well-oiled machine of a D-line that has been putting opposing quarterbacks in a pressure-cooker game in and game out. Of course, it doesn’t help any having starting defensive end Phillip Hunt already placed on the six-game injured list. “It’s been definitely devastated tonight,” Maas said of the league’s top pressure front four. “To have Mondo go down and Marcus go down, Marcus filled in great for Hunt already, so obviously we’ll have to regroup and bring guys up and bring guys up quickly. “It’s just a hard thing when you have these injuries to big players, but our mentality in the locker-room is ‘next man up.’ ” That’s how they survived decimation in both the linebacking and receiving corps, at running back, on the offensive line and in the secondary so far, and now it’s the D-line’s turn, finishing out the game with Da’Quan Bowers on the interior and drafted rookie Kwaku Boateng on the edge. If things remain that way and they’re the next up to start, the Eskimos will have a chance to change the ratio elsewhere, such as at receiver or linebacker, after having made the switch to an all-American starting defensive line this season. And why not? Especially with the way Boateng has been playing with eight tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble since being drafted in the fifth round (41st overall) out of Wilfrid Laurier, where he was the program’s all-time sack leader. The Esks had already positioned themselves in case of that very situation by bringing in a second Canadian defensive lineman with last week’s signing of Eastern Michigan product Kalonji Kashama. “We had two guys go down on the D-line. We hope we can get them back next week,” said defensive tackle Euclid Cummings, who earned a sack Thursday along with Bowers and defensive end Odell Willis. “We’ve got the next-man-up mentality. We’ve got two more dogs ready to go. “That’s what we do around here. We work hard every day and we just all feed off of each other, so when my boy (Sewell) went down, we had to pick it up that much more.” http://nationalpost.com/sports/football/cfl/edmonton-eskimos/double-whammy-to-edmonton-eskimos-defensive-line-could-prove-devastating/wcm/68561228-cc24-4f1f-acdb-9d81b928321d

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/stegall-i-would-truly-be-surprised-to-see-ricky-ray-back-in-the-cfl-this-year~1182133 Milt Stegall calls it ... Eay out for the season http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/ray-expected-to-miss-4-6-weeks~1182118 Naylor not so sure .... if separated shoulder or day to day .... how fast does a 38 year old make it back?

One of our posters said MOS is getting more involved in the defensive scheming, intruding in a bit on the Ritchie Hall philosophy of bend, bend and bend some more , just don't break .... So far MOS has been pretty "laissez faire" hands off when it comes to his coordinators ... if this is changing I think it is a wonderful development in terms of both team morale and defensive common sense .... not to mention all the fan complaining about the coordinators may be coming to an end. Is MOS gaining in confidence and with it leadership?

The facts of life in this league is that each team has one decent QB .... if they get injured that team is toast .... unless they are an elite team .... then whoever is QB on the elite team looks good ... the great backups just have an elite team

Could it be that we should be discussing being an elite team instead of whether we have an elite QB ..... the two go together and are basically inseperable .... you can't have one without the other

Do you know the difference between Heath & Fogg? Between 23 & 3 .... one returns interceptions, the other returns punts

I would like to know who outside of Saskatchewan actually called for Regina to win tonight .... is there anyone on this board or for that matter in this country that had that much insight?

And what does that have to do with Ricky Ray or Edmonton's report on losing two more starters .... quit being so grumpy and appreciate things for their own merit ..... When we forecast the coming picks for this week I would like to know whether we will have a Ray led Toronto or that other thing we saw this week .... teams are tight lipped about their injuries so we do need rumor and speculation i.e. those sources need to be to easily find the questions they have answers for

As Solomon said vanity of vanities, all is vanity like the blowing of the wind ... lets all get depressed because nothing satisfies ..... or else we can be endlessly curious about the interesting little things

Anybody know the chances of Ricky Ray starting against Montréal next week? I didn't notice any nicks or scratches to the Bomber personnel from last night's game in Hamilton. Who is hurting? Will we get Brandon Alexander back for the Edmonton game?

We were all a little frustrated that we had to settle for field goals instead of touchdowns in the early part of the Hamilton game. Do we lack the killer instinct? Were we just unlucky? Were we calling running plays when we should have been passing downfield? Where the Tiger Cat defensive backs playing tighter as they got closer to their own end zone? Was Nichols taking less passing risk when we were in field goal range? I for one think that Lapo is turning out to be a pretty decent offensive coordinator. I don't think he gets too conservative. I do think he was brilliant in shutting down the Montréal blitz with his dink and dunk. Yes. Lapo loves the short game but there has been more than enough downfield passing as well I don't think Nichols lacks the ability to pick out a receiver downfield and he doesn't seem to be running for his life from the defensive lineman. We have been getting plenty of YAC from our flat passes and halfback dumps. Is quarterback Nichols perhaps just a cautious protect-the-ball type that keeps the number of interceptions very low? Does he need more of a sense of abandon, a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" attitude when we get near the oppositions goalposts? Or do we need to change our strategy and schemes once we get inside the opposition 30 yard line? Do we even feel the need to do that? One thing for sure, neither our players ability nor attitude changes as we get close to the opposition goal line. But something changes; I just don't know what it is. Could it be a confidence thing? I just don't have answers for any of these questions .... Perhaps we could get a little help from our armchair gurus, please ....