TBURGESS

Interesting games last night. Ottawa looked very good again. Montreal took way too many penalties which cost them the game IMO. Carter made a great TD. Campbell shouldn't have been on the field and he should get an Oscar for his 'fall', but Carter did initiate contact and fines at a minimum are still coming for that play. Toronto scored 2 TD's before the Riders even showed up. One on a great punt return, the other on a blown coverage. Looked like it was going to be a long night for the Riders. Toronto also scored when the Riders fumbled the snap on a 3rd down gamble. Durant, despite not playing for almost 2 years, working with a new OC, and only having 1 receiver that he'd worked with before still looked good until he ran out of gas in the second half. Considering the number of changes in Regina, I was expecting them to be worse. If Durant stays healthy, which isn't likely IMO, they'll be in the mix. I have to admit that they looked better than we did in their first game.

I've been wondering that since May. Would be nice if we got an injury update on him.

1. Get the ball to Harris early and often. He wants to put this team on his shoulders. We should encourage it. 2. Attack BLM. We've got the D line to do it and they don't have a great O line to stop it. Every QB will make mistakes if you hit and hurry them enough. 3. Get the entire team ready an hour earlier. Hopefully it will mean they are ready to play from the start of the game instead of the start of the 4th quarter.

Player wise, last years O line was better than it performed as a whole, which comes down to coaching. We decided we didn't want Sorensen or Greaves and they got Grey Cup rings on Edmonton. Those kind of decisions rarely are on the GM. The coaches tell him what players they want and don't want. The GM gets as much as possible for players that aren't wanted anymore. Better OC would have helped the offensive performance even with a below avg O Line and an average receiving core... the OC decision is O'Shea's. QB depth is on Walters scouting department and on O'Shea/MB's talent assessment. Walters did make a trade mid-season last year to try and fix it. The fact it didn't work isn't on Walters. He got the best available QB he could.

I like Walter's work, other than his scouting, much better than O'Shea's. I do think we had the player talent last year to do better and the player talent this year to be a playoff team. Walters has an extra year on his contract and GM's usually get to fire at least one HC before they get fired.

This sucks. Hopefully he's ready for the next game.

Fixed it for you.

Take the C train. Drops you off right across the road from the stadium. Don't have to fight the traffic in or out, not the car traffic anyway.

CFromhttp://www.oddsshark.com/cfl/power-rankings Team Name Rank Last Week Change Power Schedule Adjusted Power Ottawa 1 2 +1 +32.16 0.41 +13.32 Calgary 2 1 -1 +23.16 0.43 +10.04 Hamilton 3 4 +1 +11.99 0.53 +6.34 Edmonton 4 3 -1 +13.34 0.46 +6.10 British Columbia 5 5 - -2.25 0.53 -1.19 Montreal 6 6 - -9.69 0.49 -4.71 Toronto 7 7 - -22.61 0.48 -10.93 Winnipeg 8 9 +1 -22.56 0.53 -11.92 Saskatchewan 9 8 -1 -27.32 0.53 -14.44 FL FOOTBALL - POWER RANK

Nope. He was playing great. He had a hand injury and the way Harris was playing, there was no reason to put him back in the game.

Owens

There are also a group that only shows up after a win, generally to shout 'I told you so'.

Then he'll tape Willy up and throw him out again to take more beatings. (The story of Willy's first season in a nutshell.)

16 players on our roster weren't born when we won the Grey Cup lay time.

Willy's been in the CFL since 2012 but only has about a seasons worth of starts under his belt. He's a 29 year old sophomore when it comes to starts and that means he's still pretty green. He started out great in his first season with us, but has been on a downward trajectory ever since and that has to give thinking people pause. He had one of his worst games against Montreal last night. No touch on his deep throws and taking too much time to make his decisions. He'll hopefully get better, but he's certainly not earning his 400K+ salary right now. (Thanks Mr. Walters for paying top dollar for potential instead of for experience.)

Patience my ass! We blew our best chance for a win in the first third of the season and we didn't just lose it, we were owned in our own stadium by Montreal who everyone is picking for last in the east. Montreal made a bunch of mistakes that woulda/coulda/shoulda cost them the game, but we never took advantage of any of them. Our $400K QB played like a $100K QB until the game was out of hand then threw a couple of bombs that made his stats look decent. Our shiny new OC who was supposed to lead us to the promised land finally unveiled his new offence and it totally sucked even tho it wasn't vanilla. Much more of this kind of play and the O'Shea death watch will be on if it isn't already.

http://www.bluebombers.com/game-day-position-charts/ go to today's game and click on Depth & Roster

It's a very interesting match up tonight. Our suspect O line vs their excellent front 7. Their suspect O line vs our excellent front 7. Both QB's should be running for their lives, getting hit or getting the ball out quickly. Both offenses are based on quick throws and the receiver or RB making folks miss. Our QB is coming off a huge injury and is very inexperienced. Their QB is one of the most experienced QB's in the league, but's been the definition of average his entire career. Both teams have a good receiving core, although I'd give the Als an edge here. Both defenses are starting two rookie DB's. Our 2 are beside each other which is a disadvantage compared to the Als who have them both at Corner. We have home advantage. They have more experience. I'm hoping we win and that it's an interesting game unlike last nights which was pretty much over at the end of the first quarter.

Losing Harris is a massive drop off in RB and the quality of our starting NI's, especially in PLAP's offence where the RB is involved in so many plays (20-25%). If he's out for a while, it's likely that BC or Montreal will end up with the last playoff spot instead of us. He's just that important.

Duron Carter, SJ Green, Stafford and Giguere will be going against 2 rookie DB's too assuming that Adams doesn't play and he hasn't practiced since May.

East: Ottawa - Best 1 2 punch at QB. Their D looked good in preseason. Hamilton - Collaros out for the first month slows them down, but they are a team to be reckoned with. Toronto - If Ray stays healthy, they could have a good year. If not, out of the playoffs Montreal - They were a decent QB away from the playoffs last year and Glenn's more than decent. Their receivers will scare a lot of defenses and their defense has always been good. Cross over or 3rd in the east possible. West: Edmonton - Lost a lot, but still have a lot of talent. Reilly's one of the best QB's in the league and I expect him to play more than last year. Calgary - Won a bunch by the skin of their teeth last year. Will lose more than last year. Winnipeg - Best off season player signings in forever. Better D line should help the back end so we won't have an 8th ranked D. O line is our Achilles heal again which will likely result in breaking our Willy. If it happens before mid-season, expect BC to take 3rd. BC - Will be better than lots of folks think. Wally's a great HC. Jennings looks like the next young starting QB but will be up and down which will cost BC some games. Regina - Huge turnover. Oft injured QB who hasn't played much in the last 2 years. Poor NI's. Jones will get them on the same page and they'll win more than last year, but not many more.

Duron Carter

I'd take Franklin over DeMarco any day of the week, especially on game days.

Can't practice for the first 4 weeks of the 6 game. Still need a 3rd QB for the game day roster.

Not only that, but they cut Brett Smith, leaving them with only 2 QB's on the roster and the CFL mandates 3. Durant's missed most of the last 2 seasons, so it's even worse IMO.