Eternal optimist

Scary thing about that Hughes article is it indicates not only that he was driving drunk, but that he was non-responsive towards police. How do you get that drunk and decide to drive behind the wheel??? He's lucky he didn't kill anyone.

While any level of 'Rider ineptitude is hilarious, we can't reliably expect to do that against teams that do have some semblance of an offense. I think that BC game was a learning point for our coaching staff. As for the idea that we have late-game collapses, we've won 75% of the games in which we led at the end of the 3rd quarter, which is pretty much right in the middle of the league (5th) - best is CGY/SSK which are undefeated there when leading after 3. It could certainly be better, but its' the CFL - lead changes happen. What I do find interesting though, is Calgary is only 1-3 when they trail after 3 quarters. For a team that has looked very mortal as of late, it appears they don't have the backbone to comeback from deficits. If we do have an opportunity to "go for the throat" so to speak against the Stamps, it appears that may be the answer on how to break them.

What I can die happy now I proved Tburg wrong.

I'm not saying Nichols is a ridiculously stellar QB, I'm just saying he's doing what is asked of him. LaPo's playcalling is for more short passes with longer sustained drives, then so be it. 1. Ottawa rushes alot: What? No they don't, they pass a lot. We run the ball a lot, we lead the league in rushing (2,103 yards on 375 attempts). OTT by comparison has just 1,453 yards (7th) on 296 attempts (6th). OTT doesn't run a lot, they rely exclusively on Powell, which is why he has such high rushing yardage. This just shows Powell is a good back. 2. Nichols compared to T. Harris - Nice cherry-picking here - OTT has the most pass attempts (575) in the league. Harris has 553 attempts compared to Nichols' 359 attempts. Of course he's going to have more yards per game (and overall) - he has 194 more passing attempts than Nichols this year. You throw more, you get more passing yards. Also, I find it funny in one breath you argue OTT rushes the ball lots, then talk about how good their passing offense is. 3. Streveler numbers - his numbers in 3 starts, let's take a closer look: his combined numbers over those starts are: 54/86 (62.7%) for 570 yards, 6 TDs, 2 INTs and 2 rushing TDs and no +300 yard games. Pretty impressive, until you consider half the stats he piled up include a 56-10 win over MTL (he was 22/28 for 246 - 3 TDs, 0 INTs). As for having more rushing TDs than Nichols - of course he does, he's our backup and runs the short yardage unit. 4. I don't think anyone will dispute Reilly is a better QB at the long ball, but he also leads the league in 20+ yard attempts that have been intercepted (10). PLAP is not calling deep balls. If he was calling deep balls we'd have more deep passing attempts, currently we are tied for last in the league in that category, and we've played one more game than some teams. 5. Scoring off Turnovers: Of course we have lots of points off turnovers. A good offense is better at scoring on short fields - and they're even better at it when they start in good field position. 6. "It's not about Nichols playing great. It's about the team around him playing great." - TBURGESS That's kind of my point here, Nichols isn't ever going to get MVP or the passing title, but Reilly can have those. That's all he won in 2016 and 2017. He's done well in a system that's designed for him, and that system includes a heavy run offense that doesn't pass often. When it does, it's shorter, high completion passes that allow the offense to march down the field.

One day we should get a bunch of MBBers to cobble together a debating team. We would be unstoppable... or at least we could argue about how we could be unstoppable, or should be unstoppable and why we're not unstoppable.

Trade him back to the 'Riders for Roosevelt.

Matt Nichols doesn't have a 300 yard game Well - we run the ball, a lot, we lead the league in all-purpose rushing yards (1,979, 2nd is SSK with 1,608). We're also 1st in rushing attempts (348, 2nd SSK with 318) Nichols never throws TD passes He has 15 TDs (5th in league), and the Bombers run the ball often in the red zone, his lower TD pass total is attributable to the fact we lead the league in rushing TDs (19, 2nd is TOR with 16). Also he has only played 13 of 16 games due to injury this year. Nichols can't throw deep Can't, or LaPo just doesn't call for it? We are dead last in team attempts of 20+ yards (70, most is CGY with 115), but to be honest, besides Adams, who is our deep threat? As for being unable to throw them - his completion % is 30.8%, Reilly on the other hand is 42.0% (best is actually Masoli with 46.7%), Our offense leads the league in scoring and TD's and is 2nd to only EDM in 1st downs (339 vs 336) and you're calling for the head of the guy who runs it? I don't understand how Nichols draws such criticism and ire from his own fan base, especially after we hang 31 points on arguably one of the better defensive units in the league.

Not a specific quote of "I told you so", but I gotta say, this is pretty darn close. Your words, not mine. Also fun fact, you can see all posts from a specific member by looking at their profile.

That Streveler run was almost identical to Nichols run last year in the 41-40 1:40 comeback win against Montreal in the dying seconds of the game whilst Nichols was in a pressure cooker.

I would love to see a QB throw Matt Nichols for around 200 yards... that guy would have to have one hell of an arm.

I think like most things in life - there are some people that will always find something to complain about. Hopefully the bye week does the Bombers good and they are fresh when they face Calgary.

Sure, I understand this game was much more important for Winnipeg, but if you were the 'Riders, you can't tell me that team wouldn't want to lock up second place (and gain ground on Calgary) by knocking off your biggest rival, in their barn? Yes the 'Riders have clinched a playoff berth, but they play Calgary in Calgary, and close out the season against a BC team that has won 5 of 6 and will in all likelihood be playing desperate football, it is not unreasonable for them to back into the playoffs.

I'd love to agree with you - but Nichols went 4 of 8 for 41 yards in the 3rd quarter, which means he was pretty much averaging 50 yards passing per quarter.

You guys have an odd obsession with this.

For those interested, historical regular season records of crossover teams, to date: Year - Team - Record (W-L-Ties-OT loss) -> Playoff result (in bold) 2017 - SSK - 10-8-0-0 | 1-1 (Lost East final) 2016 - EDM - 10-8-0-0 | 1-1 (lost East final) 2014 - BC - 9-9-0-0 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) 2012 - EDM - 7 - 11-0-0 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) 2009 - BC - 8 -10-0-0 | 1-1 (lost East final) 2008 - EDM - 10-8-0-0 | 1-1 (lost East final) 2005 - SSK - 9-9-0-0 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) 2003 - BC - 11-7-0-0 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) 2002 - SSK - 8-10-0-2 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) 1997 - BC - 8-10-0-0 | 0-1 (lost East semifinal) Combined: 90-90-0-2 | 4 - 10 Things of note: (1) There has never been a crossover from the East to the West, for most of the leagues history, there have been five teams in the West versus four in the East, making a West->East crossover more likely than an East->West crossover. (2) To date, no crossover team has ever advanced to the Grey Cup - let alone win it. Personally, just based on historical results, I'd say through the West is best... for starters because I want to see this team beat Calgary in their own barn, and secondly if they were to somehow become the first crossover team to win it all, 'Rider fans would always put an asterisk beside that win "well yeah, but it's because you took the easy path through the East..."

Well - if the script was flipped and the Bombers got steamrolled by their rivals 31-0, I think most of us here would be pretty crotchety and irrational too.

Fecal matter is also everywhere, what's your point?

No you're missing my point - the announced attendance was about 26,000 people, that's how many seats they sold. In terms of actual people at the game, I would be surprised if it was 17,000.

Well, unfortunately the 'Riders already have the season series. Add to that the terrible weather - and that's what you get. It's not the Bombers attendance is dropping off, the announced attendance was still about 26,000+.... just too bad the season series wasn't tied, otherwise that place would've been rockin'.

HH to the Bombers equipment staff for supplying the 'Riders with a broken bench heater for most of the first half. Both hilarious and effective.

I don't care how cold my wife (she's always cold) and other fans will be. I love outdoor cold weather games... just fantastic to be at.

WHAT'S THAT? I'M SORRY I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER BEING SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN AS THE LOUDEST FANS IN THE LEAGUE.

By definition, in order for it to be a trade, we'd have to give something back to Montreal. Could Jackson improve the team? Maybe. But this isn't the time of year to be rolling the dice with an unproven player. Also, don't you think that might cause some dissent among the ranks? As for the internal workings within the Bombers - absolutely we're kept in the dark. For all we know they may have tried to make some of the trades suggested in this thread, but we'll never really know.

This is the atypical argument of change for the sake of change. Also - why would you gamble on him? We've got three games left - time for the team to gel and gear up for the playoffs, if you're bringing someone in you're desperate.

The thing that's really nice is we hold the tiebreaker over BC, and we'll get the season series against Edmonton if we win in the last week, or if that game ends in a tie (since we currently are winning the point differential in the season series with EDM).