mbrg

I did not know it worked like that. Interesting that an element of strategy could be used in making those decisions.

There's a lot of great stuff in that article. To me its value comes from the writer existing outside our fishbowl. And the Belli comment " Osh, when the lights came on, he looked arthritic, but would rip your tongue out. ", now that's just gold.

Since this theme has come up in multiple posts, I feel it should be noted that the original tweet only said that they have begun discussions. As in, with a month and a bit left till the regular season ends, "waiting to see how the season ends" seems to be the likely outcome of the timeline anyways, whether or not it is done with that intent.

Absolutely desperation should be a reason to throw a challenge flag. Just don't act like an ass and chew out the ref when you lose the challenge. Frankly I don't see why in certain situations coaches don't throw a challenge flag when they want to call a timeout. They're going to get charged a timeout anyways. (obviously entirely situational in nature - wouldn't do it when a review could negatively affect you, or when you still have that potential got-a-perfect-record-on-challenges bonus challenge at stake) Over the last few years I've seen multiple instances of coaches calling a time out so they can take a longer look at a play so they can decide if they want to challenge the play. It's the coaching equivalent of not being able to tie your own shoes. Even if you win the challenge you still burned a timeout. Do it the other way, maybe, just maybe something positive comes out of it. And you probably end up with a timeout longer than 30 seconds. And at worst it only costs you a timeout, the thing you were going to use anyways.

Thankfully there is balance here since you fault him for everything. Kudos.

Possibly. Brass tacks is simply that Willy's contract made it almost certain that he'd be released in the offseason. The only way that wasn't going to happen was if Willy got back in this season and lit it up. And the only way that happens is if Nichols starts sucking eggs or gets injured. By getting Glenn for depth, the hole Willy's loss creates is already filled, so Willy to Toronto became the right trade. There's a few reasons I suspect Willy can rediscover his mojo in TO, but even if it happens that won't make this not a good trade, because it wasn't going to happen here.

The three options should be running a rotation on defence, rotating on offence, or returning to 3 starters on the Oline. The last option is the one I like the least - a big part of our success is how clean we've kept Nichols. Don't mess with it. We have a lot more NI talent on the defensive side of the ball than the offensive side. Rotate a bunch of players in there. To me it's that simple, you go where the most talent is.

Thinking outside the box? Not always all it's cracked up to be.

That's all it is. Need a NI receiver, Kohlert has to be on the roster. If Fogg is nicked up, McDuffie has to be on the roster. Smith, Dressler and Sheppard are positional decisions. Denmark as a DI? Not likely. But they will make the final decision on all of this closer to game time when they know who can go and who can't, so it may all change on paper five more times before Saturday.

Not to be difficult as well, but there is no place on earth where he would be under more pressure to perform right now than at IGF. In the eyes of some fans his leash wouldn't be short, it would be fashioned into a noose. I'd also need to see a first round pick, and a decent NI roster player as the starting point in a conversation. Trading Willy right now is like shooting our foot off to save some money on shoes. It's such a questionable idea that Toronto would have to be making the great sales pitch, not us.

Tangentially related to this tangent, I have to tip the hat to MTS for their recent trend of using local acts to provide the music in their commercials.

The dicketies was such a great decade for the Bombers. Legendary teams.

One Republic? They're pretty famous. That's a decent pickup for the CFL. Oh wait, I'm thinking of One Direction. One Republic? I think I've heard of them.

Closes eyes, scrolls to bottom, immediately declares dissatisfaction with the choice. What was the CFL thinking? Alright, let's scroll up and see who it is.

Didn't see the game yet; have only seen the gif of the play that the Rider blogger dude on that CFL forum put up. For 14 yards - from the Bomber 51 to the Rider 47, Cox has his arm over Dressler's and is applying leverage. Not much leverage, but some. The entire time it is his arm over Dressler's. Not hand fighting. And it is all totally unnecessary on Cox's part. It is pass interference. It is the bare minimum of pass interference. I'd prefer something like that never gets called against any team. If it has to get called, I'd prefer it get called against the Riders when playing the Bombers to cause a heart-crushing loss. Guess I'll have to settle for my second choice...

And the cat inside the box? Chris Jones?

There are things Nichols does better and things Willy does better. Nichols has pretty good escapability (drops shoulder to avoid tackles, slides around in pocket, quick feet) while in the pocket; Willy has almost none. Willy is more accurate downfield and doesn't rifle balls at receiver's feet. Until this year. Now Willy's best attribute as a QB has failed him, and Nichols' biggest weakness as a QB isn't as big a problem as it was in previous years. I wasn't very high on Nichols getting re-signed this year (while he's the best back-up we've had since Glenn was behind Khari, I want the bar to be a bit higher than "at least he's better than Goltz") but it made sense given the options. He sure didn't look like a different Nichols during training camp, and I would have had Davis ahead of him from the few practises I saw. But he got his shot and has been accurate enough that the keys stay in his pocket. Willy was inaccurate enough that the keys got taken away from him. This is probably the best version of Nichols we can expect to see. The best version of Willy has a much higher ceiling than the best version of Nichols, but we haven't seen that version of him all season. And that's the part where I would disagree with Doug Brown. Certainly the Oline wasn't as good before Bond was in and Hardrick was on the right side, and certainly our defence and special teams picked up steam through August. But Willy's struggles existed outside of those factors. Even on plays where he was clean, he was inaccurate past 15 yards. So while this is a very different team than the one Willy got to play with in July, he doesn't get the keys back until it's necessary. Hopefully he's got some of his mojo* back by then. * nebulous concept

I don't think the Riders get properly acknowledged for their humility as a franchise. Putting those 4 stripes on their pants as a constant reminder that they have won fewer Grey Cups than every other team in the league? Now that's humble.

Like I said... (Will happily write it off as part of taunting Rider fans.) (Have yet to hear people screaming "BLUUUUUUE!!!" at Jets games. Just saying.)

The same kind of person who screams out "TRUE NORTH!!!" at a football game, I would imagine.

Looks like Birch Hills, just south of Prince Albert. You can see the Co-op gas station in the background.

So....like 29 year old Nichols became this year? You have the option to behave better, you know?

If they do, they'd better get a king's ransom. Even then, the risk/reward on something like that might still not be enough for my tastes.

Prior to the 2014 season, Burris said he wanted to play for 3 more years (my recollection on the phrasing wasn't that he wanted to retire after 3 more, just that he felt he easily had 3 more good years in him - either way, this is year 3). My understanding of the Harris contract is that he's taking a lesser salary this year with a bump up to 400k or more in the following years. He went to Ottawa willing to be the backup in 2016 for the opportunity to be the starter in 2017. Toronto wasn't willing to make a similar quasi-promise.

The only team we get to play in a given week is the one on the schedule...