OK, it IS Willy ...

[Mike]

1 minute ago, White Out said:

So is the narrative now that the OL finally showed up, just in time for Nicholls?

... It was an entirely different OL.

and yes, Bond DID make that much of a difference.

[Goalie]

People are making this to much about Willy vs Nichols. It's not that simple.  It's having an OL that establishes a run so you can pass. Without the OL and Harris Nichols isn't nearly as good as he was. We established the run so Esks had to respect that. 

Edited July 29, 2016 by Goalie

[Mike]

Quite honestly there's no reason to think Willy would have played as well as Nichols did tonight but Nichols really didn't play all that well either. 

Looking forward to seeing him continue with this momentum, but the search for a QB is still on and I'm certainly not getting rid of Willy.

[White Out]

Just now, Mike said:

... It was an entirely different OL.

and yes, Bond DID make that much of a difference.

That wasn't the question though. If we're just going to say this was the OL, and, Willy would have been just as good behind it, then we're just starting at the result and moving backwards.  

Nichols clearly had better protection but that also can be a function of him releasing the ball faster, looking off receivers, and pushing the ball further downfield. It's never just one thing. It's a combined effort.

[wbbfan]

1 minute ago, Mike said:

Quite honestly there's no reason to think Willy would have played as well as Nichols did tonight but Nichols really didn't play all that well either. 

Looking forward to seeing him continue with this momentum, but the search for a QB is still on and I'm certainly not getting rid of Willy.

Pretty much. But unless a massive rash of injures come up around the league all we could do is cut willy for the cap savings. Short of bringing in another vet and a few more wins by nichols i dont see that happening any time soon.

Willy might have thrown the game away, he might have choked. Who knows. But he beat hammer and that D is better then edmonton. I wonder how much of our OL play was our guys, and how much was the worst pass rush in the cfl. 

[Goalie]

OL looked very good. Just looked more engaged this game. 

[Mike]

1 minute ago, White Out said:

That wasn't the question though. If we're just going to say this was the OL, and, Willy would have been just as good behind it, then we're just starting at the result and moving backwards.  

Nichols clearly had better protection but that also can be a function of him releasing the ball faster, looking off receivers, and pushing the ball further downfield. It's never just one thing. It's a combined effort.

The difference in the OL wasn't pass protection tonight at all. It was as bad as ever

the difference was in the run game. Bond opened up the biggest holes Harris has seen all year and he feasted on it.

I will give Nichols credit where it is due - he did the important things that don't show up on the stat sheet. Looked off receivers, sold handoffs, all the little details that sometimes get forgotten by fans. Nichols pulled those all off tonight.

He still is what he is though. A backup quality QB. He's not starter material because as much as he provided a spark, he also folded like a cheap tent when he got hit with adversity which has been his calling card all CFL career long.

Nichols did a lot of things Willy wouldn't have done tonight but he also did a lot of things Willy did that he gets crucified for around here, but Nichols is the fresh face so people are blind to it. 

 

 

[Blueandgold]

4 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

With that ol yeah. But maybe chemistry needed a shake up. But the production is in huge part to the ol and harris more then nichols. He could have easily had a couple picks. 

Bond over Neufeld was a big help, I don't think anyone is arguing that. But Nichols tonight, with an average to above average performance was leaps and bounds better than Willy in any single game this season. You're seriously out to lunch if you think we get the same kind of production with Willy starting.                                            Please don't use that Hamilton game as an example for Willy either, we scored 19 points offensively off of 5 turnovers( unless you want to give them credit for Leggetts pick six). Not to mention, on the one touchdown we scored we started with the ball on the Hamilton 30 due to Recovering a kick. I'll give 50% of the credit to the Oline and the other 50% to Nichols for tonight's win.

[Fatty Liver]

12 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

bond wasnt healthy earlier in the year though his coming in and hardick sliding over was huge. 

Perhaps, but we don't know if Bond was injured or not.  Hopefully when Neufeld comes back he is relegated to backup and they stick with 3 Imports.

[White Out]

1 minute ago, Mike said:

The difference in the OL wasn't pass protection tonight at all. It was as bad as ever

the difference was in the run game. Bond opened up the biggest holes Harris has seen all year and he feasted on it.

I will give Nichols credit where it is due - he did the important things that don't show up on the stat sheet. Looked off receivers, sold handoffs, all the little details that sometimes get forgotten by fans. Nichols pulled those all off tonight.

He still is what he is though. A backup quality QB. He's not starter material because as much as he provided a spark, he also folded like a cheap tent when he got hit with adversity which has been his calling card all CFL career long.

Nichols did a lot of things Willy wouldn't have done tonight but he also did a lot of things Willy did that he gets crucified for around here, but Nichols is the fresh face so people are blind to it. 

 

 

I don't get the poo pooing of his win tonight. I know he has this "backup QB" brand burned into his rear end apparently, but, he gave us a quality start and a win in Edmonton. A place we haven't won since Milt was on the team. Harris was a beast and the D was awesome, but our QB also contributed and made plays. 

If Nichols isn't a starting QB then Willy's a 3rd stringer by that measure. 

[Mike]

I'm not shitting on anything. I'm thrilled we won and I'm glad Nichols played as well as he did. I'm just saying he really didn't play all that well.

[Blueballz]

Yes Nichols had a good game...Edmonton's secondary pretty much sucked too. Good game by him though, our O regressed as soon as Dressler went down, kudos to Adams for picking up the slack. 

Oh and notice how Lapo kept moving Adams around and kept their offense guessing?

He and Dressler and Harris could've easily had huge nights.

Nichols was quicker on his reads, and more aggressive...interesting times ahead

[wbbfan]

Just now, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Perhaps, but we don't know if Bond was injured or not.  Hopefully when Neufeld comes back he is relegated to backup and they stick with 3 Imports.

the way he played in the first half of the preseason and not again and then how he played tnite i tend to think he was actually hurt. But maybe not. Short of an injury i cant see them changing up this OL. 

 

2 minutes ago, Blueandgold said:

Bond over Neufeld was a big help, I don't think anyone is arguing that. But Nichols tonight, with an average to above average performance was leaps and bounds better than Willy in any single game this season. You're seriously out to lunch if you think we get the same kind of production with Willy starting.                                            Please don't use that Hamilton game as an example for Willy either, we scored 19 points offensively off of 5 turnovers( unless you want to give them credit for Leggetts pick six). Not to mention, on the one touchdown we scored we started with the ball on the Hamilton 30 due to Recovering a kick. I'll give 50% of the credit to the Oline and the other 50% to Nichols for tonight's win.

It was and hammer is 100% valid. We beat a better team with much worse ol and running.  The difference between willy then and nichols tnite was not that far off. Nichols played very well in the 2nd half and not nearly so well in the 2nd. 18 points kicking because we drove and couldnt finish is as valid.  We also had 2 drops in the end zone. And nichols nearly had 2 picsk tnite.

So none to the D that came up with a game saving pick? Or the rb who had 100+ yards in a half? None for 18 points from the kicker? Lolok 

[Blueandgold]

2 minutes ago, White Out said:

I don't get the poo pooing of his win tonight. I know he has this "backup QB" brand burned into his rear end apparently, but, he gave us a quality start and a win in Edmonton. A place we haven't won since Milt was on the team. Harris was a beast and the D was awesome, but our QB also contributed and made plays. 

If Nichols isn't a starting QB then Willy's a 3rd stringer by that measure. 

If the worst thing that we can say about Nichols is that "he did similar things to Willy" I think we're in significantly better hands already. I can't think of one single aspect where Nichols was actually a downgrade from Drew.

[Blueandgold]

1 minute ago, wbbfan said:

the way he played in the first half of the preseason and not again and then how he played tnite i tend to think he was actually hurt. But maybe not. Short of an injury i cant see them changing up this OL. 

 

It was and hammer is 100% valid. We beat a better team with much worse ol and running.  The difference between willy then and nichols tnite was not that far off. Nichols played very well in the 2nd half and not nearly so well in the 2nd. 18 points kicking because we drove and couldnt finish is as valid.  We also had 2 drops in the end zone. And nichols nearly had 2 picsk tnite.

So none to the D that came up with a game saving pick? Or the rb who had 100+ yards in a half? None for 18 points from the kicker? Lolok 

Dude are you drunk? Driving the ball and kicking a field goal still counts as points for the offence. 

[wbbfan]

Just now, Blueandgold said:

If the worst thing that we can say about Nichols is that "he did similar things to Willy" I think we're in significantly better hands already. I can't think of one single aspect where Nichols was actually a downgrade from Drew.

He did similar with much more on the ol and running game. Dont see how thats different?

 

[White Out]

1 minute ago, Mike said:

I'm not shitting on anything. I'm thrilled we won and I'm glad Nichols played as well as he did. I'm just saying he really didn't play all that well.

300 yards, a touchdown, no picks, and no drive killing mistakes. And he helped generate 30 points. I don't get how that translates to "not playing very well".

Bizarre but you're entitled to your opinion. I was only able to catch half the game and from what I watched he wasn't the MVP but he was a huge part of our win tonight.

[wbbfan]

Just now, Blueandgold said:

Dude are you drunk? Driving the ball and kicking a field goal still counts as points for the offence. 

driving the field, with running plays and short yardadge every 2nd down.

[iso_55]

I was thrilled to watch our OL go out & kick ass this evening. They played with fire tonight & finally, finally it was great to watch.

[White Out]

Just now, wbbfan said:

He did similar with much more on the ol and running game. Dont see how thats different?

 

wtf does Harris running the ball better have to do with how well a QB can read a defense and throw a ball? 

Are the pro Willy people here that attached to Drew we're going to dissect this win and critique it and say "well, clearly Drew could have done the same with all things being equal". This is like watching people get into mental gymnastics to defend Pavelec his first 3 years.

[TransconaBomberfan]

If people on here believe we would have won this game with Willy not a chance.

[Mike]

1 minute ago, White Out said:

300 yards, a touchdown, no picks, and no drive killing mistakes. And he helped generate 30 points. I don't get how that translates to "not playing very well".

Bizarre but you're entitled to your opinion. I was only able to catch half the game and from what I watched he wasn't the MVP but he was a huge part of our win tonight.

There were quite a few drive killing mistakes and quite a few close calls that all of a sudden makes his line a lot worse if Edmonton doesn't blow it.

Great stats. But I'm not sure how you're in a position to question how I feel when you admittedly didn't even watch half the game.

[Blueandgold]

2 minutes ago, Mike said:

There were quite a few drive killing mistakes and quite a few close calls that all of a sudden makes his line a lot worse if Edmonton doesn't blow it.

Great stats. But I'm not sure how you're in a position to question how I feel when you admittedly didn't even watch half the game.

What if what if... What if he doesn't miss mcduffie in the end zone or Dressler is able to come up with the one that young knocked away? What ifs go both ways. 

Edited July 29, 2016 by Blueandgold

[wbbfan]

7 minutes ago, Blueandgold said:

Dude are you drunk? Driving the ball and kicking a field goal still counts as points for the offence. 

28 total points 32/42 76% 279 yards 1 td. 13 for 63 from harris. 2 missed field goals from medlock, and a fumble in the red zone. sacked 3 times. 

30 total points 26/33 78% 304 yards 1 td. 22 for 127 from harris with 100+ in the first half. 5/5 from medlock. sacked twice.

Edited July 29, 2016 by wbbfan

[White Out]

Just now, Mike said:

There were quite a few drive killing mistakes and quite a few close calls that all of a sudden makes his line a lot worse if Edmonton doesn't blow it.

Great stats. But I'm not sure how you're in a position to question how I feel when you admittedly didn't even watch half the game.

Coulda woulda shoulda. Normally I hear these excuses from fans when their team losses. Yet here we are after a win....