O2L

Or if their receivers or defenders could make any catches.

After a run of 16 straight Labour Day Classics I've missed the last three. With this being the last one at Toilet Field I'm thinking of making the trip. So, two questions: Who is going? Who wants to go? My old crew have all stopped going so I'm looking to find another orphan, or maybe jump on a bus tour. Any takers?

Kris Adams has a ton of potential if he can just shake the psychological stuff. He's 1/4 on deep passes and could have caught all four. I don't want to give up on him yet, I worry that he'll be another Bowman (or Peterson), in that we'll ship him off to another team after he's gotten all his dropsies out here and then go on to be a star.

Torn as well. On the conservative side, a Rider loss helps with our bid to make the playoffs. On the optimistic side, a Stamps loss gives us a better shot at first, especially since they own the season series. Being that I'm a realist and go with my heart, I'm with Mike on this one. Stamps by 95.

We have a second bye in week 16 though, don't we? I think every team gets two byes now that we're at nine teams, one team each week.

Wonderful as always, DoD. The one and only thing I don't agree with (and the nit pickiest of nitpicks in yet another awesome game), was Ian Wild being his usual studly self. I actually thought this was his worst game of the season (worst for Wild, still better than most LBers). He whiffed a few key plays (hit on the RB in the backfield, go-ahead sack), and it often seemed he was a step away from the receivers in his zone, leading to catch then tackle, rather than a knockdown. Again, I love Wild, I'm loving this team, very little to complain about, but I do think it wasn't his best game.

A broken clock something something twice a day...

Once again I'm disappointed after putting my faith in Glenn. Some things never change.

Carter has also dropped several catchable balls which is uncharacteristic of him. I understand Montreal taking deep shots since Edmonton has a poor secondary, but I don't get what Edmonton is doing at all.

I can't believe that Montreal would actually be winning right now had they made the kick at the end of the first half. This really is a game of "who wants to lose more?"

Is Edmonton's o-line really as bad as they've looked? What's crazy is that even with all of those hits, Reilly still has huge numbers.

Agreed, but in this case the callers were complaining about Willy's play and Irving and Brown were citing his stats as proof that he was playing well.

CJOB in particular. Whenever a caller would mention Willy's poor play, Bob Irving and Doug Brown would basically tell the caller they were out to lunch and list off Willy's stats. I heard this on the postgame for weeks on end. Bob constantly saying things like, "it seems no matter what Willy does people won't be happy with him."

He did have a fumble on a kick return in Hamilton that started their (futile) comeback attempt.

I have a Charles Roberts Puma navy with white sleeves, press on, but I think it's a youth size (probably youth large as it fits like an adult small). I also have my royal (from a few years ago, sadly not the new one) Bolden jersey and a navy Nick Moore from a couple years ago that was a gift that I've not worn once. Really want both a new home and new away jersey, I love the look of both of them. Have no idea what names I want on them, though.

I'm with you. I was annoyed at the delay at first, but being outside yet dry during that lightning storm was incredible. Never experienced anything like that.

Lots of teams giving up 300+ yards passing to Edmonton these days, how's that working out for the Eskimos with their three-game losing streak (and even their two wins were only by three and four points again Sask and us)? I'm in the "stats are for losers" camp. For the first five games all I heard were people defending Willy by using his stats but anyone watching him play would have seen how ineffective he was. So far this season, Nichols has two wins, zero losses, four TDs, zero INTs. I'll take those stats over any number of yards.

Banks gets a decent amount of plays his way on offence, lots of plays specially designed for him as well.

And even though the Esks have a game in hand, even if they were 3-4 right now we'd still be sitting in third because of our point differential with them. We're also in good shape having not played BC yet because those games can be four point swings for us if we were to win them. It's just a shame that we gave up two early-season losses to Calgary as catching up to them would be mathematically quite tough (especially with them having two games in hand). But maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself talking about ways to get to first or second place...

Great synopsis! I'm hoping Henry will bounce back and Ottawa will take this one. Gotta keep the west tight!

Last year Nichols wasn't in a Paul LaPolice offence, had o-linemen with a year less experience, didn't have Andrew Harris in the backfield, had one of the worst receiving corps in the league, and had a kicker that did everything in his power to lose games. I think we're now seeing what he's actually capable of. Let's remember that without Matt Nichols winning five games for them, Edmonton is not likely to be the defending Grey Cup champs. Let's also remember that with the exception of the season opener last year, against the worst team in the league, Willy didn't look spectacular prior to his injury. Travis Lulay agreed to take a pay cut to stay on as the backup in BC, maybe Willy will do the same. Could we have won these last two games with Willy at QB? Maybe. But it's not mechanics, players, or anything else that's caused his poor performance this year, it's fear and indecisiveness. When Nichols rolled out of the pocket yesterday and threw a completion down the sideline (much like he did last week after avoiding a sure-sack), I was confused. I didn't realize that Blue Bombers QBs were permitted to do that, since it's been so long since I've seen it happen. I was as excited as anyone to have Willy back this year, I believed him to be the answer. But as with Buck and Khari before him, he's a shell of his former self post-injury. Maybe he'll get it back, maybe he won't, but with how often QBs go down in this league I wouldn't be surprised to see him back on the field this year, and I agree that having him as our second option is pretty solid. Everyone forgets that Nichols was battling Reilly for the starter's role in Edmonton before an unfortunate injury. By the time he was healed it was Reilly's job, and this is the first time since then that Nichols has another shot. I'm not saying he's the next elite QB, but let's remember that it took Anthony Calvillo some pretty bad seasons before he became the hall of famer he is today. Nichols is winning us games - can we stop making excuses for why that's happening and just be happy that he's getting it done? (Apparently I want everyone to remember a lot of things. Time to expand my vocabulary!)

That makes a lot of sense. No longer worrying about signing guys that'll run to the NFL. (Hell, Dickenson, Ray, Burris, and even Casey Printers all got NFL looks after good CFL performances).

Good point. I also think it has a lot to do with the relative youth/inexperience at QB league-wide right now. Consider early 2000s: Khari, Dave Dickenson, Henry Burris, Ricky Ray/Jason Maas, Damon Allen, Danny Mac, Anthony Calvillo vs. Willy, Reilly, Jennings, Collaros/Masoli, Mitchell, Harris, aging tired Ray. Basically, there's Burris, Glenn, and Durant. Glenn is serviceable, we don't know where Durant is at yet, and Burris is injured and in his twilight years. Ray a shell of his former self. In the early 2000s, 400+ passing yards in a game by most teams wasn't an unreasonable expectation. Now, breaking 300 is considered pretty big (and I don't think that defences having gotten better, just look at the BC/TO game tonight and the huge holes all over the field). Not saying that Collaros, Harris, Reilly, and Willy aren't good, just that maybe their best years are yet to come. Jennings is a question mark to me - I don't think he's all that great right now, but he's also incredibly young, so if he sticks, he could play for two decades.

Agreed. BC isn't remotely as good as their record. At this stage in the season, Ottawa is the only team that really looks like a contender (keeping in mind that Edmonton has only played that same Ottawa team, so they're still a bit of a question mark). Right now I think the east is Ottawa, then Montreal. TO and Hamilton are pretty much equal, and neither look very good to me. As for the west, tomorrow's Edm/Sask game will reveal a lot. Assuming Edmonton wins, I'd say they're alone on top with the other four teams looking relatively weak (yes, even with Calgary's big win against us, I just don't think it's a true reflection of that team). It's kind of weird to say this in such a small league, but it just seems like most of the teams aren't very good. The quality of play across the league feels like it's much lower than in years past (and has been trending towards this over the last five or so years). Of course, just my opinion!

Just throwing this out there, while I absolutely hate BC's Halloween home jerseys, that black helmet with the reddish-orange retro lion logo looks fantastic. That said, I think it's pretty fair to say that our home and away uniforms are objectively the nicest in the league.