bluto

Finished my Re-watch. It was a lot less of a gut-wrenching rollercoaster the second time through it, thank Flutie. Montreal found some ways to successfully attack the Argo D and to slow down our offence... No doubt that OCs & DCs around the league were taking notes. The game started the way pretty much every single game has for us. We were moving the ball easily and it looked like we'd cruise out front to a solid lead and lock up the points... but then after we were up 7-3 our offence went stone cold. Like, glacial. We set up to play them on D in what pretty much looked like a reaction to how we'd seen them before: we tried to take screens and deep balls away from them. Largely, this worked. Best I can figure is that Montreal switched to having 2 Mikes. Sankey came in. Sort of a jumbo package? This neutralized the Argos run game and without that being as reliable as it has been, we started seeing a lot of 2nd & longs. And The Chad started missing targets. Pretty bad misses on a few. Still had a 10-3 lead at HT and figured like the half came at the right time so we could figure this out... But it was the Alouettes who benefitted from the break. We got a quick FG, but they finally started having some time for Fajardo to operate. In the first half he had no time at all. Couldn't set himself, no chance to read the D before he was flushed or brought down. But now he had time and they had a new plan: They took the time which they'd found for Cody and went after the receivers who had HBs and CBs laying 7 yards off of them. (That's a typical setup for the Argos, and when we have a two TD lead, like normally we do, we can sit back and go after them aggressively and force a turnover while they are rushing to try catching up to us.) Once the Alouettes changed their focus to just taking the free yards that were on offer, they marched downfield at will on us and Fajardo went on a crazy completion streak. And then we were behind. And it felt a bit Playoff-y. Nobody has pushed us yet or forced us to dig ourselves out of trouble. Peters' interception (and he needed to do something for us after that stupid misconduct he took for flexing over a player) happened because of the hit on Fajardo's backbone by Pickett who, yet again, had a monster game. And yeah, the blocked kick (Sorry if it triggered any PTSD) we actually had two guys come through that gap... shame on their blocking. The Chad: our "rookie" QB looked deadly in the No-Huddle. I wish we'd do that more, but maybe it is so effective for us because we only break it out now and then. He basically came out with the game on the line and engineered 2 straight touchdown drives (not his fault that the first one was called back by a senseless, unrelated to the play penalty). Poise & confidence. Particularly on that 2nd TD throw to Coxie (the one that counted). That looked like it was his third read and he launched it sky high to let his man run his way underneath it. The Takeaways It was a really good weekend for the Argos overall. We lock up 1st on September 15th and don't have to play a game that matters for almost 2 months. Great news for a team with some key injuries/niggles that need to be given time to heal. No more Bye weeks, but we can strategically "make" a few of them. conversely, the Als and Tabbies are 6-6 each and will be killing themselves just to win the right to come play us. and the West is still a fight for top spot too. Bonus Takeaway: Tommy Nield is gonna be good. Already is.

I think you're partially correct about some things, but a mile off on others... I'll do my post mortem Monday. Was interesting to watch because we weren't blowing a team out, we had to come back and it was the last game we'll play for real stakes untill November 11.(Nice sunny day on a Saturday so we're out for a ride.)

Not going to defend how he hit Fajardo, that was bad. But he was being pinwheeled around. Difficult to hit precisely at speed that way.

No disrespect to him. But Pickett has been unearthly this season.

The best defensive player in the East may have had something to do with that soft serve.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/plot-armor

The Chad is a rookie. He'll fold when the pressure is on.

What an awful penalty to take. Game killer.

D looks like it is winding down. Offence hasn't sustained a drive in the second half and it is showing.

Did the Argos even come out of their locker room at half time?

We got away with that one...

Needs moar horns.

Just as I finish complimenting their playcalling, the Als go and do that on 2nd and short.

Nice playcall on that draw. Argos looked totally caught out.

It's rare that we'd sweep these guys. If I were them I'd go back to their "screen-play all-day" thing that they did to us in week 6. It wasn't flashy, but they had a halftime lead on us (if memory serves).

Doubt it. Osh is all about head games.

Not every definition. It's his second year in the CFL. Floated around the NFL trying to catch on for 5 seasons. He's 29. Not a kid we're talking about, And this is his team. But to try this whole thing from a different tack, if you were Dinwiddie and you won the East with 6 games to go, have no Bye weeks, banged up starters and you play an away game at your most likely Grey Cup opponent (presuming you both make it)... What would you do? Play your starters and show Winnipeg exactly how you'd play them? Don't be silly.

Respectfully beg to differ. He's sorta a rookie but he really isn't. And keeping our undefeated at home record may prevent us from rotating and hiding the book here, but not the road. 10 weeks is a long time with no Bye week... so you'd have to figure that we'll just make our own Byes in the remaining 6 straight games. It'd be madness to grind the guys down in the run-in.

Most likely scenario, imo.

Disagree. Dinwiddie keeps "developing" new wrinkles each time out against an opponent or a particular setup. Really enjoying watching him make me eat crow, because he obviously has a lot going on football IQ wise. As a football nerd, it's been fun watching opposing DCs repeatedly get caught with their pants around their ankles when the thing that they weren't prepared for happens to them. I think we go if not full Vanilla, then at least Neapolitan after we lock 1st. Certainly on the road anyways. I recall in years past when we needed a rest before the playoffs and we'd clinched to late how we'd play all 2nd and 3rd stringers at our last game at home... Sucks to sit in the cold stands with the wind off the lake for those stinkers!

If the Argos pull out the win tomorrow in Montreal (the Als always play us tough there), we lock up our place in the East Final. If that happens, there is every chance that what the Bombers will see at IGF is a Toronto squad that is resting a lot of banged up players who don't have a Bye Week in the second half of the season. They also would likely see a "dummy" version of our offence where we just do a bunch of formations to see how the Bombers defence reacts. I'm not saying that we won't try to win or anything, just that after we lock 1st, then our road games in particular will be heavily rotated teams. But first, we need to win tomorrow and then watch Montreal, Hamilton, Ottawa and any Crossover hopeful kill themselves for the remainder of the season for a chance to play at BMO on Remembrance Day.

I know, I know... But they did approve it in this country without all the tests. So please forgive me if I can't get past this sort of word-wizardry: Do what you reason to be right for your situation and I'll still be hopeful for everyone's best outcome. Just praying that they don't lock us down again.

FDA approves new monovalent shot based on "manufacturers data" and no clinical trials. They also approved it for 12+ year-olds and authorized its use from 6 month to 11 years. I'll sit this one out. Good luck everyone and stay well.

Not all that different than what we paid to extend Nicastro. And he (Korte) is Edmonton's hometown boy.

Kerry Fraser wouldn't blatantly ignore Gretzky high-sticking Gilmour directly in front of him.