GCn20

Right on cue the Rourke fan club arrives. Bottom line is that we forced him into a ton of mistakes and made him look ordinary. Of course, beating up their OL and giving different looks is how we did it but he can expect a lot of that from opposing DCs now. Time will tell whether he figures it out. Fact of the matter is the book on him will be that he doesn't handle the heat well, teams are going to bring the heat. We can all be thankful that their offence is so vanilla that we were able to game plan and execute without much practice. Sayles needs to look in the mirror, his team's offence was run the ball and chuck it deep....we took one away and it all fell apart like a house of cards.

No doubt. Based on what I saw last game that OL was overachieving the first few games though. Last year's OL probably shatters his confidence by now.

Possibly even after this year. For sure. I did not mean to imply that he will not be a gooder, just that expectations based on the first 3 games are a little lofty. He really needs to be a little less loose with the ball though.

It will come to him the more he plays, he's not there yet.

Dude can sling the ball...no doubt about it....best long ball I've seen in many years. The game will have to slow down for him though. It will take a while. He reminds me a lot of Zylstra.

No sure can't and if we signed him who knows what happens to Kenny Lawler or Dalton Schoen. I like where we are at with the choices we made.

For sure. I did not mean to indicate he doesn't have a bright future. I just think opposing DCs will make life a lot rougher for him now and he will experience the inevitable growing pains.

Rourke has officially been figured out. Kinda figured it would be Hall who did it, as he was the one who did it to Fajardo too. Teams will be throwing all kinds of looks at him now and he will struggle through it until he figures it out. In Rourke's defence, he is a much better ball thrower than Fajardo. We are 5 games in and riding a rash of injuries, even though Riderfans suggests we are completely healthy lol. I like where we are at, I liked it before the BC game too. People were over reacting about some non-divisional games being too close for comfort but I knew they had another gear for divisional games. All teams do to some extent, just ours is more impressive. We barely beat Ottawa or Toronto....blah blah....these are not the games that get our players juices going fully. Simple as that.

The Riders will NEVER win a championship unless they play disciplined football and develop a team first, not me first, culture. So to those Rider fans thinking this isn't an issue...guess again. The Marinos you have, the egos in your locker room,and your coaches inability to address them will be your team's downfall. Keep up the great work Dickie and O'Day...we will thank you in November for helping us to a three- peat.

Racist slurs. Gone. Get this clown out of the league already.

That is my recollection as well. Overthrowing him, underthrowing him, and just not being in the groove together.

Why would you blame Lapo for Willy? He wasn't even here. He and Nichols just had zero on-field chemistry together. They went to Lucky a few times deep early and Nichols just couldn't locate the ball to him so they abandoned it. I would not blame Lapo for that, nor would I blame the players, just a matter of they couldn't get on the same page. For sure. Lucky and Nichols just didn't jive together. Would have loved to have seen what Lucky and Zac might have done.

In fairness, they are all dumpster fires right now. The fact that the CPC is leading in the polls right now by an increasing margin should have the Libs looking inward as well.

I have not heard one inkling of a rumor that Awe is a locker room problem of any sort. Is he dirty? Perhaps. Is he a good football player? yep. FIFO is more about fitting in the locker room. We have had players who are a bit dirty before. This is not new and they fit FIFO just fine. I don't see Awe as being a head case, or taking dumb penalties because of brain cramps. His dirtiness is more a result of being nasty, and coaches and team mates can overlook that.

We are 4-0 with 14 games remaining. I am very confident that the holes we are seeing right now will be addressed and we will enter the playoffs firing on all cylinders.

We played a team with a good collection of talent, that got embarrassed last week, on the road...and we won to go to 4-0. Maybe its just me but I'm not seeing the problem. We are going to play some ugly games, every team does, getting a W out of them on the road, in a place we dont often win....I'll take it. The other West teams haven't played us either. I like our chances when we do.

I'll take the win but this feels a lot more like a Rider win then a Bomber win.

I am pleasantly surprised by Leggs over the past couple games.

Well in the dark times of covid, while on the eve of WW3, and inflation eating at our retirement funds some of us find it extremely cathartic to look at the Riders and their fans and think how crappy things have been but how glad we are that we are not them. It's like counting your blessings.

Sorry, I misread your post. I didn't get the context that you were jabbing at TB.

Hughes was only suspended after playing that week when the league nudged them to do it or they would. Leonard was a league mandated suspension. Jones announced he would play then the league told the Riders if you don't take him out we will. A league suspension is loss of salary, but a team suspension is at the discretion of the team so the Riders reversed their decision so that Hughes would not lose salary.

Fair enough Mike, but in a thread that has seen him compared to Doug Flutie, it's pretty safe to say that those trying to reign things in are correct too. The kid is going to have a long career. His arm is too good, and he see the field too well, providing of course that he stays healthy. However, he's going to come down to Earth too. It's his rookie season. He's not going to throw for 400 yards a game, and 4 TDs, every week. He'll struggle at times. No rookie wouldn't. It is exciting to see him get off to a red hot start and show he has all the makings of a good CFL QB but let's be honest his chances of keeping it up over the course of a season are slim. Defences will learn about him, and what gets him off his game, and he will have to learn his way through it. It's the same for any rookie QB.

For sure. Off field character issues are big with this team as well. You have CodyFaj crying in the media telling everyone his receivers aren't good enough, (Shaq Evans basically shut down after that), and then you got me first guys brawling at Earl's lounge 2 days before a playoff game. Granted that player is no longer with the team, but he played that week....NO CONSEQUENCES. Every player in the room noticed that you can say anything you want, throw your team mates under the bus if you need to, cry like a man-baby, and fight, brawl, pass out behind the wheel of your car and nothing will be done. Then they wonder why they have discipline issues. lmao

This is indeed the problem. Marino, Marshall, Duke Williams etc. are all impact players who I am sure other players look up to in their position groups and they happen to be 3 of the most undisciplined players. This trickles down their lineup, as younger players see them having on field success with no repercussions for their lack of discipline. Personally, if I were Dickie, next time Marino screws up I would cut him and send a message to the locker room. This likely would not be a popular move, but it might get the other hotheads and prima donnas to think twice before being stupid and he is the loss they could mitigate the easiest. They could cut a lesser player for lack of discipline but it doesn't send much of a message at all except to set up tiers of acceptable behavior in the locker room based on player profile. Penalties are just part of the problem too. The players are me first over there from the QB on down. They have no team culture and it shows. A QB that throws his receivers under the bus, players doing their own thing on the field....it's top to bottom...and O'Day wears this as much as Dickie. They have a really good collection of talent, amongst the top of the league, they have a mediocre collection of team players....and that's on scouting and the GM and to a certain extent the HC.

I agree. I think there are hotheads like Marino who just have no self control, and then you have others like Marshall who are just ego driven to take stupid penalties. Either way, adds up to a lack of discipline that the coach can't really do much about because it is ingrained in the individual. A good room might be able to kick a couple of these guys back into shape, but one that is rudderless has no chance. This is not to let Dickie off the hook, because he is the HC and needs to put his foot down but he inherited a pretty undisciplined roster from Jones that can only be remedied by making some really tough choices.