Whatever week this is - Non B2B Champs games

[Noeller]

They are every bit of exactly who we said they were as soon as Jones bolted and they had no choice but to let Dickie coach. Smoke and mirrors is exactly right. So stoked that it's finally come to light... 

[SpeedFlex27]

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

Without question they need to fire Dickenson and O'Day no questions asked.    Need at least 2 olinemen.  Maybe Masoli is free from Ottawa and grab him?  

Imagine if Jeremy O'Day had dedicated $275,000 to improving the Riders OL instead of paying an undisciplined & selfish douchebag of a receiver that money instead. Just for that, O'Day should be gone. 

[GCn20]

On 2022-10-22 at 9:27 PM, Arnold_Palmer said:

Well as much as I despise the Riders it’s always more entertaining seeing them lose in the post season. Especially to us. I can’t believe they didn’t address their o-line situation all season. 71 sacks.. ouch. As much as Cody is a fraud. You’re not going to have much success if you can’t keep a pocket around your QB. They should clean house this off season. No excuses when you’re hosting the Grey cup not to make any moves to make your team better when it’s not working out. 

Blows my mind that for most of the season they started more NATs than necessary, but never even once gave a thought to dressing 3 IMPs on the OL. Just terrible coaching and management.

[Mark H.]

5 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Blows my mind that for most of the season they started more NATs than necessary, but never even once gave a thought to dressing 3 IMPs on the OL. Just terrible coaching and management.

Exactly. There were also good, young American OL sitting on other practice rosters.

[GCn20]

11 hours ago, greenrider55 said:

Just a different feel to this season’s team. Like there’s no direction, leadership, etc. 

That's because Jones filled your locker room with crap attitude players, because Jones is pretty skilled at handling those type of players and can generally keep them in line. If not, Jones has no issues with roster churn if it doesn't work out. However, guys like Gainey, Marshall, Purifoy, Duke, AC Leonard, Marino and the list goes on....poisoned that locker room to the point that the Riders might as well release everyone and start from scratch. Then your management picks Mr. Ferley, probably one of the wishy washiest HC choices ever, to try and handle an insane asylum. Made no sense then, makes no sense now....but I guess JOD was clearly over his head as well because EVERYONE outside the big rectangle knew that your OL was an absolute disaster before this season even started, hell it was a disaster last year and wasn't particularly good in the past few years....but hey let's keep drafting receivers and dbs in the 1st round and hope that scrubs like Bandy, Johnson, and Ferland are ready for primetime because they come from the big rectangle. Makes no sense. You guys don't honestly have a single OL good enough to make our PR.

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[GCn20]

7 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Exactly. There were also good, young American OL sitting on other practice rosters.

Honestly, they ran it back week after week with the 3 matadors in the middle and two IMP OL that were just brutal as well. Ferland, Bandy, and Johnson are not CFL calibre starters, may not even be CFL calibre players period. Every week they trotted out their trio and then looked befuddled when every single team turnstiled them. Game 9 before they finally cut ties with Rodgers who was getting beat just about every play, and they never did move on from the local trio of awful in the middle....just sign a damn IMP OL to stick in the middle to help.

[greenrider55]

11 hours ago, 17to85 said:

That's because you all bought the crap about them being a contender. The problems were there to see in 2019 if you cared to see them. The smoke and mirrors just ran out this year.

I don’t think I bought into any “crap”. There were minimal issues in 2019. Last year’s issues carried into this year, and continued to get worse.

2 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Honestly, they ran it back week after week with the 3 matadors in the middle and two IMP OL that were just brutal as well. Ferland, Bandy, and Johnson are not CFL calibre starters, may not even be CFL calibre players period. Every week they trotted out their trio and then looked befuddled when every single team turnstiled them. Game 9 before they finally cut ties with Rodgers who was getting beat just about every play, and they never did move on from the local trio of awful in the middle....just sign a damn IMP OL to stick in the middle to help.

I think Ferland will be fine, he’s still young, and can hold his own. Evan Johnson is a turnstile. 

[GCn20]

12 minutes ago, greenrider55 said:

I don’t think I bought into any “crap”. There were minimal issues in 2019. Last year’s issues carried into this year, and continued to get worse.

I think Ferland will be fine, he’s still young, and can hold his own. Evan Johnson is a turnstile. 

Ferland is the best of a bad lot. It's not saying much though. If you must pick the best smelling turd I guess he might be the one. He doesn't start on any other CFL team and really has a low rent upside as a starter imo. Johnson got turnstiled a ton more than Ferland but Ferland had his hold my beer moments when you though the Rider OL couldn't get more incompetent. For some reason though you guys are all giving him a free pass. Must be his birth certificate.

Also, the cracks were there in 2019 as well. The OL was already inconsistent and began trending downwards in a big way in the 2nd half of the year. The RIders and Cody Fajardo looked like world beaters in the first half of the year but really were average in the 2nd half and winning very ugly, when they did win. Fajardo was very pedestrian in the 2nd half of the season. Smoke and mirrors. We've been saying it over here for two and a half years now. I know that fan bases often have the blinders on when it comes to chinks in the armor of their own team, but we were talking about many of the same issues you saw get downright ugly this season, in the 2nd half of 2019. History has proven us right in that regard.

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[greenrider55]

13 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Ferland is the best of a bad lot. It's not saying much though. If you must pick the best smelling turd I guess he might be the one. He doesn't start on any other CFL team and really has a low rent upside as a starter imo. Johnson got turnstiled a ton more than Ferland but Ferland had his hold my beer moments when you though the Rider OL couldn't get more incompetent. For some reason though you guys are all giving him a free pass. Must be his birth certificate.

Also, the cracks were there in 2019 as well. The OL was already inconsistent and began trending downwards in a big way in the 2nd half of the year. The RIders and Cody Fajardo looked like world beaters in the first half of the year but really were average in the 2nd half and winning very ugly, when they did win. Fajardo was very pedestrian in the 2nd half of the season. Smoke and mirrors. We've been saying it over here for two and a half years now. I know that fan bases often have the blinders on when it comes to chinks in the armor of their own team, but we were talking about many of the same issues you saw get downright ugly this season, in the 2nd half of 2019. History has proven us right in that regard.

They went 6-2 from Labour Day onward in 2019 but that’s irrelevant as it’s now 2022.

As for Ferland, I didn’t say he was going to be an all star, but do think he could be a serviceable starter if properly coached, he’s 25. Sorrell is a terrible OLine coach, and would hinder any player’s development. 

[GCn20]

15 minutes ago, greenrider55 said:

They went 6-2 from Labour Day onward in 2019 but that’s irrelevant as it’s now 2022.

As for Ferland, I didn’t say he was going to be an all star, but do think he could be a serviceable starter if properly coached, he’s 25. Sorrell is a terrible OLine coach, and would hinder any player’s development. 

Yes, your coaching leaves a lot to be desired for sure. I can agree that Ferland has an upside of being serviceable. Yes, the RIders went 6-2 from LD onward, but it was an ugly, wart filled 6-2. Only 2 of those wins came against teams fielding their starting QB. Fajardo did manage to outduel CFL legends like Chad Kilgore, Jermaine Franklin, and Danny O'Brien but I don't suppose that is saying much. In fact, looking back over the entire season of 2019, the Riders only had 4 victories that came against teams starting their starting QB. Lots of lipstick on the pig that season. 

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[Noeller]

Everyone outside of Riderville could see that it was a smoke and mirrors show after Jones left them in the lurch. It was only a matter of time before they realized that the emperor had no clothes...

[Booch]

Yeah a smoke and mirrors 6-2...a lot of luck in that...people were saying it then...people outside the organization but they were called rider bashers

Ferland...he can be average...possibly but not an oline anchor

My assessment is he needs some quality coaching to get him there...and needs some size to get more brute power...but that alone may not be what gets him there...he may be what he is strength wise...and all.honesty the rest of that line is bad...like the best of the lot and dont know who that even is to.be honest looks to top out as a good 6th olineman at best..and scanning their PR and recent drafts...I see no immediate help coming...its a mess

[GCn20]

14 minutes ago, Booch said:

Yeah a smoke and mirrors 6-2...a lot of luck in that...people were saying it then...people outside the organization but they were called rider bashers

Ferland...he can be average...possibly but not an oline anchor

My assessment is he needs some quality coaching to get him there...and needs some size to get more brute power...but that alone may not be what gets him there...he may be what he is strength wise...and all.honesty the rest of that line is bad...like the best of the lot and dont know who that even is to.be honest looks to top out as a good 6th olineman at best..and scanning their PR and recent drafts...I see no immediate help coming...its a mess

7 games. That is the number of times that the Riders faced the other team's starting QB in 2019. I would imagine that most teams would have a pretty impressive record if they had the same kind of luck with the opposition roster. Now I can hear everyone in Riderland saying but Fajardo was our backup...nope, not the same thing...he took over the reigns a half minute into game 1 and took every offensive first team rep after that. 

In those 7 games, 3 of them were against the 2 worst teams in the league. The RIders record in those 7 games....4-3. Smoke and mirrors.

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[Geebrr]

There were/are serious talent issues, but their team character is trash. They don’t have a winner’s mentality from top to bottom.

Their management are under skilled and arrogant and so are their players. 

[Booch]

Yeah the core character and in house leadership is flawed...and to be honest the high character guys that are there...I wouldn't be surprised to see them leave in F.A

[GCn20]

2 minutes ago, Geebrr said:

There were/are serious talent issues, but their team character is trash. They don’t have a winner’s mentality from top to bottom.

Their management are under skilled and arrogant and so are their players. 

I think you take a lot of their players out of that toxicity and show them a character built dressing room you might see a difference in their character with the exception of some guys that have been there too long to salvage. I can't imagine guys like Nick Marshall, Duke Williams, etc ever really getting the whole FIFO concept.

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[Geebrr]

1 minute ago, Booch said:

Yeah the core character and in house leadership is flawed...and to be honest the high character guys that are there...I wouldn't be surprised to see them leave in F.A

They are leaving 100%

[GCn20]

1 minute ago, Geebrr said:

They are leaving 100%

Riders may have to throw stupid money around this offseason like BC did and go with a cheap QB to make it work.

Edited October 24, 2022 by GCn20

[Geebrr]

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

I think you take a lot of their players out of that toxicity and show them a character built dressing room you might see a difference in their character with the exception of some guys that have been there too long to salvage.

Maybe, because it is top down. When you get away with bad behaviour there is no reason not to do it for a lot of guys - if you don’t take the game seriously.

Some guys are cashing cheques. See:2012-2014 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 

[Booch]

6 minutes ago, Geebrr said:

They are leaving 100%

I would say Dean and Sankey are out of there as soon as possible...prob cant leave fast enough

 

5 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Riders may have to throw stupid money around this offseason like BC did and go with a cheap QB to make it work.

Yeah this off season will take a lot to keep any returnee deemed essential...and good luck attracting any new FA's there...they will really need to over pay...especially if that trifecta of coach/management is still in place

[Geebrr]

15 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Riders may have to throw stupid money around this offseason like BC did and go with a cheap QB to make it work.

You will attract a guy looking to cash cheques though more than anything. Nothing about that organization would be appealing to a Stanley Bryant type guy - who won’t even make it to FA if they exist. 

12 minutes ago, Booch said:

I would say Dean and Sankey are out of there as soon as possible...prob cant leave fast enough

 

Yeah this off season will take a lot to keep any returnee deemed essential...and good luck attracting any new FA's there...they will really need to over pay...especially if that trifecta of coach/management is still in place

Dean really slowed down in the second half of the year- I think he may hang them up, but he definitely won’t be back.

Sankey sure as **** won’t be back. Unless he loves losing. 

[Tracker]

There is a myth that Jones can keep problematic players in check, but the Elks are examples that whatever he does is strictly short-term if/when it works. Jones is much like Tororella in the NHL who, except for one season cannot sustain a competitive team for long. Had Jones stayed in Regina, the outcome would have been the same sort of mess we see there now, differing only in detail. 

[Jesse]

7 minutes ago, Tracker said:

There is a myth that Jones can keep problematic players in check, but the Elks are examples that whatever he does is strictly short-term if/when it works. Jones is much like Tororella in the NHL who, except for one season cannot sustain a competitive team for long. Had Jones stayed in Regina, the outcome would have been the same sort of mess we see there now, differing only in detail. 

That said, we don't really know either way because he's never stayed long enough to test it out.

[greenrider55]

42 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I think you take a lot of their players out of that toxicity and show them a character built dressing room you might see a difference in their character with the exception of some guys that have been there too long to salvage. I can't imagine guys like Nick Marshall, Duke Williams, etc ever really getting the whole FIFO concept.

I give Nick Marshall a pass. He’s never been super problematic aside from a stretch last season after his brother was shot & killed. I’d be okay to keep him around.

The others can kick rocks.

[Booch]

Just now, greenrider55 said:

I give Nick Marshall a pass. He’s never been super problematic aside from a stretch last season after his brother was shot & killed. I’d be okay to keep him around.

The others can kick rocks.

He has seemed to mature a bit this yr...I will give him that