Dragon37

Rich said they would be chosen from the middle of the road so not one to either end of the spectrum. You are arguing that you would choose anyone. Well, really you just like to argue with anyone that doesn't think you are the bees knees. My point was always that this forum can laugh all they want at the Rider forum but if the Bombers were as hot a mess right now this forum may well be in the same position. Never get complacent.

Heh. I'm not a Lawless fan at all but he does actually know some things (more so hockey than football). Pedersen is about as clueless as they come though.

So you would not choose a critic. That confirms then what I said. There really is no middle of the road all the time position. The people chosen are almost always going to be aligned with the views of the rest of the moderation team. That's how it works at every forum. If we agreed most of the time on topic here I would have a better opportunity at being a mod than someone who disagreed with everything you said. Ultimately though it isn't who is chosen and why. It is how they enforce the rules if they are applied fairly and across the board. I have been a moderator and it can be thankless, yes. I don't know about posting less. Never stopped me. It just took away my freedom to speak honestly about some topics that the admins were sensitive to.

It's the same position as Ed Tait. A SOMEWHAT journalist position. Most teams have them and most them are not too bad at it.

While the few tweaks they were forced to make on the line helped I still think Willy was his own worst enemy. Far more than the o-line. The biggest difference between Nichols and Willy is that Nichols has been able to execute the offence the way it was designed Willy wasn't. Willy often held the ball far to long and he just wasn't progressing through his reads fast enough. If you are holding the ball on three the you more often doomed ... Unless you can scramble. I don't blame Willy for his issues though I blame that on those who refused to see and properly deal with them.

Bah! I only conspire against the fans and Rod Pedersen I am not a fan of them. I prefer the team itself to not completely suck. It is much more enjoyable when our neighbouring rivals push us to do better. It is also not good for a nine team league to have one team doing so poorly.

I visit spottily throughout the the year win or lose. I just don't have as much interest in sports team forums. I don't stop by enough to notice when the most people are posting. It is much more fun reading when the team is doing well though. People are far less "tense".

I wouldn't move Willy for Durant. Durant may be a proven quantity but he is approaching the end of his career while I remain hopeful that Willy can overcome his current woes. I don't fault Willy for having issues I fault those above him for not recognizing the issue sooner and either pulling him out sooner or doing something more to help him work through his issues. To be honest though I had not expected Nichols to return to his pre-injuries form. I am still very impressed at how damn efficient he has been. He is so different from the Matt Nichols of the last two years.

Point taken. lol. I wonder if the one genius in Saskatchewan ghost writes for Rod? I doubt he really does his own writing.

I am not sure why anyone would employ Rod. I get the whole fan thing but if you hire some for a somewhat journalist position they should operate with some mode of decorum. He does no service to the Riders or the league. If they wanted a cheerleader they should have just put him on the field in the Gainer costume.

I don't post much on any Bomber forum any more either probably because it is just to polarizing to be on a team fan forum. No matter which side you fall on there is really not much we can do and the more we argue more both sides become jerks. I don't think you should be too surprised that more people come out of the woodwork when things are not going right. That is the nature of many fan forums. They are much like comment sections after news articles. People are far more interested in talking about what drives them nuts than what they love. Take a look at this forum in dead winter pretty dead when there is something to discuss that requires an opinion then people start popping by. When the team is winning what is there to talk about? Forums thrive on debate if we can all agree on something that's not much reason to post. (It can work the same way if the team is continually crappy eventually all the arguing over how crappy or not the team is eventually just wears one out and people step out.)

I am sorry that you don't see groups of posters here on this forum. They are here the fact that you don't outright deny there are pro and critic is confirmation. I think too, if you go back and read some old threads emotion is not just on the side of "critics". The grouping or clique forming is not usually an intentional thing so don't view it as a bad thing. As for, choosing moderators. Who you guys choose is up to you and no business of mine but of the people you see as "critics" are there any you would have no problem at all as having as a moderator? Paint me as skeptical of your claims but if you can indeed say yes then I most certainly apologize if you can't think of one then ...

Well from what I have seen both fan and critic have been quick to pull out insults. And you are completely right often there may not even be an insult contained in a post.

Yeah I can't get emotionally involved much in any of these Bomber forums any more. Case in point I could get all up in arms about the three replies that quoted my first post but I can't be bothered. They chose to take it negatively when it was just stating that this forum can be and is likely seen differently depending on your POV. I did mention that I found the forum moderation not bad, I have seen far more poorly moderated forums than this one. I do appreciate that they rarely lock threads and generally step in at appropriate times. By no means are they perfect and the rulers of the forum should always be aware that they should never become complacent or lean more to one side or the other. It is the interwebs and glory days can evaporate very quickly .... Sometimes due to factors they cannot control such as, in the case of this forum the Bombers imploding or doing something to alienate the community. I have seen it happen before to many "good" forums.

Last two games, imo. They needed a pick late in the Edmonton game to seal that one. However, it was a much stronger game than the first Hammy win.

I may greatly dislike many of the fans of Saskatchewan and the league/TSN/whoever go on and on about how "great" the fans are but I think people are forgetting the only reason that this and any other Bomber forum isn't a hot mess right now is because the team is on a win streak and is looking much better. Four weeks ago we were heading more and more to hot mess. While the moderators/admins are not bad here they were definitely aligned with the pro-team boardies who were prone to using personal insults as a means to try and "win" discussions or force the critical folks off the boards. So I have no doubts that if the bannings had started it would have been critics being the banned first and more commonly because, face it, admins and mods and the pro-team side are all the same clique. You never see admins and mods chosen from the ranks of the critics or those who are not of the clique. Now I do like seeing the Rider nation in an uproar. Maybe it will knock some reality not only back into the fan base but into reporters and broadcasters who love to pump the egos of Rider nation. They do have a good fan base, they definitely turned it around because 10-15 years ago they were absent from the stands and the product on the field was a hot mess. Until we see what happens if they ever go into a long lean period again can we truly label as "best in the league". My guess is, like most sports franchises, the seats would start to empty. /rant

All I have to say is that we will find out. I am now cautiously optimistic that's it. They get a pat on the back but no parades, extensions, etc. yet. Three wins does not wipe out two and a half years of total suckage. No one's job is safe and no one has earned any more money or any more time (other MOS and Walters to the end of the season). There is still a little over half the season left if anyone wants to earn their way into more time with the organization they have to keep up the winning. Losing is not acceptable. there has been far too much of that in the last 26 years.

There are lots of good QBs that could be classed in that group too then. Burris has more championship rings and maybe even playoff appearances than Winnipeg has had.

Yeah. My brain clearly wasn't functioning very well. I stand corrected.

It really is a moot point but it may have helped Willy get over his struggles. Then again maybe not. IMHO I did not expect the change at QB to have this much effect. Nichols has actually shocked me with his play. He's not tearing up the field or anything but he has played far better and been crazy efficient and he had never really shown that before. Only two TDS but no picks and really, really good execution. Paint me very surprised and pleased.

With respect to Medlock's punting, depth is nothing spectacular but have you seen his net? The other night it was just above 40 yards. That is freaking awesome. He was out averaged by Hammy's kicker but he out netted him by a bundle. I really like Fogg on returns. However, McDuffie is the wiser choice back there because if he gets hurt on teams it doesn't directly affect the offence. If Fogg goes down on teams that is a decent defensive starter out of action.

Burris has been successful where ever he has gone. He has earned the right to talk trash. More folks have talked crap about him than he has been critical. I don't know how many times folks here have dissed him only to have him prove he isn't just some schmoe. Yeah he can be a bit self absorbed but there are a lot of players that are very confident of their abilities.

Well he did help turn team's fortunes around. Why would anyone dispute this?

Efficiency can count for a lot. While I wouldn't call Masoli's yardage "garbage time" it was spent largely in their end of the field. In this game their STs sucked balls and ours didn't and that gave Mazola a long field to deal with. So field position was a factor BUT you also need to have your D working. If you needed an example of this just look at the first Calgary touchdown in the fourth quarter last night. they had a long field but Sasks D collapsed and Calgary ran the field to score. Game over. Of course you want to give up as little as possible but you can win giving up 300 yards passing.

I honestly wasn't too concerned about the offensive production in the second half. They could have switched things up a bit but for what little production there was they still managed to burn a fair amount of time when needed. Let's face it it was 34-0 and while "being more aggressive" would have been cool it also put players at risk for more injuries and turning the ball over. Winnipeg is also not the first to employ such an approach with a massive lead coming out of half time. The onus was on Hammy to make the adjustments and while the D stepped up and did so the offense and STs still pretty much crapped the bed. Yeah Masoli logged some good stats, so did Willy, but the end result was that they only got close enough to score twice the rest of the time they coughed the ball up. Our D gave up a lot of yards in the second half, sure, but it isn't like they ran roughshod over us. They got the stop or turnover when they really needed it. 3 picks and one fumble tells me that our D wasn't in any real danger.