USABomberfan

This, our team is as good as any of the best in the league and is showing why. Smart QBing, allowing the playmakers to do their thing, and perhaps maybe even my own underrating of how effective our special teams are are huge ingredients to this. Now does this mean we're going to go undefeated? Absolutely not, but the path to the west so far is going through Winnipeg. So long as we don't get ravaged by bad untimely injuries, or become subjected to too many brain farts by our head coach or offensive coordinator, I believe the West Final will be held right here in front of a packed crowd at IGF.

I believe his position is that Nichols needs to throw a game winning clutch TD in the WF or the Grey Cup for him to be a believer in him. And if so, then fine, his prerogative. But the point still stands that the deep ball myth has been debunked.

For the record, Edmonton arguably has the toughest defense he'll face all year. Maybe the TiCats, though that's debatable. But the 2018 Stampeders aren't out there anymore.

Are we moving the goal posts again?

Exactly, and bringing up plays where the WR had to put a bit of effort out there to make the catch just sounds like a lame attempt to minimize his completions. It's why that kind of garbage gets countered with the lines about Nichols debunking the deep ball myth and being able to go through his reads just fine. There is absolutely nothing that should be offensive about saying such things.

Well I mean, best way to say it is sure, you could just throw out the simple explanation that "bad throws is on the QB," but that doesn't get into the meat and potatoes of a play. It doesn't address what formation and alignment the defense was running on that particular play and whether or not the OC's play call would have gotten a good matchup against it. It doesn't address whether all the receivers ran the right routes or the RB picked up his block as he was supposed to. Did Nichols miss any receivers on timing routes at all in that game, or miss when a receiver may have broken open on a particular side of the field? I'm sure he did, and if so, yeah you can blame him for that. But there were other plays im more than certain where he had to throw it away because the play calling was bad and the defense took away everything. The Stamps had a D that could do that. See, if you're going to say all bad plays were bad throws, let's see some meat and potatoes on that explanation.

Yup, cuz his playbook certainly doesn't determine what routes the receivers run, how the RB is utilized, or whether or not the QB is rolled out or all the things that setup the throws and execution.

And Lapo's faulty game plan in which Nichols had to vacate the pocket and look around for non-existent WRs was explained over and over again. But apparently the Nichols detractors just aren't going to hear it cuz no, that's not hanging him out to dry.

Well sure, you could try dancing around the pocket and Johnny Manziel winging it up there where the WRs are running around with Stamp defenders all around them in the bland routes of Lapolice's playbook and hey yeah maybe they come down with it. Of course the odds are only maybe 10:1 the defender does, so no not that bad, not that bad. Take a gamble, you might get lucky. Here's another idea. Let's get a running QB out there to go running for first downs cuz you know what? Yes, he'll outrun the Stamps defense for first downs. I mean, don't let that Alex Singleton guy waiting for him out there scare you. Nah, he might just only flatten your guy or steal his lunch money, but that ain't so bad is it?

I know, that Paul Lapolice, he's never called a bad game or put together a bad game plan. Oh no no, he never ever called bad plays in the WF or left Nichols and Harris hanging out to dry there, nope nope, that never happened. Nope, nothing to see here on Lapolice folks, and why? Because we, the Nichols detractors say so. Yup, that sums it up.

Well what kind of audibles does Nichols have at his disposal? Whatever they are they'd be in Lapo's playbook

Well let's see now ... wonder if that game is on YouTube so I could go back and see how many times he kept calling much of the same predictable plays that I saw him call. Wonder how many times we tried to get the Stamps defense caught off guard with different motions or play actions as they keyed in on Harris, or if jet sweep play actions with Demski or company were used to try and draw pass rushers off of Nichols? Looked like much of the same old bland stuff all game long to me, so perhaps 17to85 has a point.

Winner post right here

I do not believe that is how he is dissecting Lapolice's playbook

1. Ummm exactly how many times has that happened this season? What are all these one handed diving catches you speak of? 2. For the record that was a joke I was cracking about Marshall Ferguson just happening with noticing the chart pulling up in the middle of the thread taking off after the Ottawa game. No I don't think he's actually on this site ragging on Nichols, I was just ****ing around with that. I don't care if Nichols is ranked number one or dead last on his accuracy chart. My main beef with it is I don't like using limited amounts of passes to do it such as Streveler not throwing enough varieties of passes and only 8 to be exact to be graded number one. If you think that's good enough, fine, but I don't. There, does that clear up any of the assertions you been making?

Correction, #ESODINF (Every stalled out drive is all Nichols fault) to you

I stand corrected then as ... Well I could see how a player like Calvillo would have earned such a contract. But I still haven't heard of this actually being the case in what we gave Andrew, but if so ... Well it is what it is.

It's interesting conjecture and an idea I'm willing to entertain. But I very much doubt it as this would be wildly unheard of and unprecedented. I do believe utilizing split loads in the backfield between multiple backs to keep your main workhorse fresh for late in the season is something that should be done as it is utilized in most of football today. But it could be O'Shea/Lapolice have gone a bit more old school with what they done with Harris and decided his taking the bulk of the load is what they want. Sure, maybe Harris wasn't too happy about his role potentially diminished in BC's offense, though I don't know what the stats on the load sharing between him and Logan were to say whether that assertion could be proven. But as I believe with the Nichols Streveler playing time decisions, I believe as well that MOS and PLAP are still the sole authorities on Harris getting the bulk of the touches or not. Little disappointed Flanders didn't get more though.

Oh and one other consensus that I mentioned a bit earlier but perhaps could serve well to mention again ... Look, I know we all wanted to see more of Streveler this last game, especially me personally. I'm sorry it did not happen, and hopefully next time we start "smoking" our opponents it will. But please ... And I say this kindly, please let's do away with the notion that Nichols is at fault for this in any way. This is head coach Michael O'Shea's call 100℅ and should be football 101 here. I'd suggest to those who are still upset about this to call in on his coach's show and tell him you want him to play Strev more when he has leads. Who knows, maybe he'll take your requests into consideration.

Yup, and I sometimes like to use examples to expound upon points

Or, as gets pointed out, we'd rather the issues on our team that get criticized be real issues and not manufactured ones. It may be at times a matter of perception as to whether or not certain issues are manufactured, but I do believe they do get manufactured out of thin air at times. Some people thought Richie Hall's defense 2015-2017 or first half of 2018 was a manufactured crisis, but I disagreed because I felt the results spoke for themselves. 17to85 also noted this in bringing up Nichols dealing with bad defensive play in his first 2 playoff games. In the points that TBurgess made about Nichols not being good at throwing deep balls last year, it may have been better to discuss why that was and why it's improved. To me, I say it's because he did not have the talents of Whitehead and Matthews to throw to at the time and hence couldn't trust his guys apart from Adams to go get them. I myself would never trust Lankford to run a route or make a catch, and neither do the Redblacks right now it seems. And then of course as was mentioned, Nichols played poorly in the West Final, but the reasons for this were also discussed. But either way, where would the fun be if we suddenly ran out of claims to debunk?

The disagreement would be whether Nichols play would be one of those things. To me, it's not. To others it is, but that's where a lot of subjective talk comes in about his style.

One other reason I think he could this time around is because along with Adams, I believe he might have the best plethora of weapons to go up and make a clutch TD catch in playoff time. For example, now we got Chris Matthews and Lucky Whitehead, 2 weapons that are upgrades over say Ryan Lankford and Clarence Denmark. If we were behind and needed a TD, I could see him throwing it up in the endzone and allowing Matthews to come down with it. You have to consider that one as well.

Obviously he's not as high on Nichols as I am, but he's a reasonable enough guy that I can engage in discussions about that subject.

Well, I sometimes wonder if Marshall Ferguson watches the games either given the goofy setup he has for his QB accuracy chart.