LeBird

That excuse is getting almost as old as the original sin and this draft thing is also getting well worn. How many of the Oline guys do we have left from our first choices? The fans had nothing to do with the choice of Etienne. But I guess it much easier to blame the fans instead of the very poor choice of managers we hired. We didn't trade or burn our choices, we wasted them because we picked the wrong guys. Further we did not pick up vets that could have helped us but choose to go with raw US rookies in previous years or in this year for that matter. How are the fans to blame for that? We let an all star guard go because we wanted to make him a center and he said no. (His words).
 
However, after the results of this year it will be very hard to blame the fans again. Going into next year with this team will get MOS in a very bad position comes LDC. One thing you must agree with, the fans will not wait another 2 or 3 years to get results and they shouldn't. Hamilton were 6-12 in 2012 and Grey Cup participants the next. 
 
By the way MOS keeps saying he has a very good team, so much for the destruction of the core.

All the fans who have purchased tickets for the last 24 years but still want a team that will be at least 9-9 would strongly disagree with your comment. Being willing to accept poor performances and failure every year would never work in any other business and definitively does not make one a better fan. What's the incentive for the club to get better if all were to accept its failure.  A company would not wait one and a half year to decide whether you're good or not. Let's face it, we hired HC's that had no experience and have paid them handsomely while they were learning and perhaps becoming good at their job. Seems we never learn so we get stuck having to wait into the next year to see if the training has pay off. If it hasn't we start again with a new rookie and promises things will be better this time. 
 
No, those who while not accepting what is happening but still showing up are the real fans, not those who drank the kool-aid because Jimmy Jones told them to.

"Not paying attention to what the stats reveal will give you a 6-12 team." Norman Einstein. 

That shows is that teams playing us were having a better game rushing so were doing more of it. 
 
The original stats posted show two things:
1 -  The teams with better rushing yards do so with a better offensive line.
2 -  If you have a better offensive line the passing game will also be better
Therefore: you win more games.

How about this equation: Grigsby started off playing very well then things changed and his production went south. Our Head coach also started doing great things. Then other teams changed things and he like Grigsby has done very little. Should we also wish him  a bad case of the runs?  
 
It almost seems as if some are going out of their way to deflect the blame. O'Shea said the Oline had played very well in the last game. He had not been saying that before but that players were taking turns missing assignments. In his previous carries before Saturday Cotton had 19 for a total of 51 yards. Isn't it strange that Willy's production, sacks and knock downs seem to increase at about the time the running game decreased?
 
How Grigsby left the team has nothing to do with his ability to play but he surely deserves flack for not wishing to sit. Further, I don't want to start a discussion on the qualities of O'Shea. Listening to him on his show made me think he was being asked to load sixteen tons with only a spoon. Let's just hope the coming year brings him decent talent.

Well I guess we should be all happy now that we have a good running back. Puzzling how O'Shea did not figure that out 10 weeks ago. We would surely be in the playoffs instead of being out looking in. It was not very nice of him to tell us everything about the team was cool when a guy was doing bugger all was not replaced sooner by another able to rip up the yards.  How can you explain that. By your inattention to that issue you might want to take some credit for the fans who did not show up at the game. 

"I am told he was a cancer" Paul Friesen
When this guy writes what some want to read he makes sense, if he writes something that might be true but against O'Shea the guy is a jack ass. This is so much Joe Mack. At one time when a word was said about his useless work all hell broke loose. It was always Great Guy, Great Guy. After he was fired people could not say enough bad things about him. And I am NOT comparing O'Shea to Mack.  It seems the cancer is always found after the guy has left.
 
How much sense does this make. Here you have a guy that is a cancer but keeps playing for 12 games though O'Shea maintains his team is made up of a great bunch of guys. He is sat for a game and then told he will not play Saturday at least. O'Shea on the news said he called him in and explained his options. He did not say he would cut him but his playing time would be adjusted.
 
Here is the question: Why did O'Shea not cut him when he decided to replace him? He had the chance to rid the club of the cancer yet decided to give him options? 

Weight might be ok for our line but isn't he a little short?

How do you break a tackle when the blocking is so poor you are getting met behind the LOS

I'm also not on the "Grigsby is the problem with this team" train.... so....

I think we will have to finish the year with what we have right now as far as the whole operation goes. As much as O'Shea might want some changes the time has passed for this year. We will have to get those guys to play the way they can at times and hope it works. If they don't we will  live a redux of LaPo's post games comments like: "We have to learn to play better" on a short loop that just keeps going around.
 
I think Coach O'Shea is the right person for us and feel he might have learnt lots this year. He could still make the playoffs but the odds are not in his favor. My only wish is he will make the players accountable for their conduct and effort on the field. 

Tackle: To stop the forward progress of (the ball carrier) by seizing them and knocking them to the ground. This is accomplished by wrapping your arms around the carrier as you are contacting same with a force that is greater than the forward force used by the carrier.
 
There are different means of tackling. The Python Tackle is extremely effective but must be applied to a carrier who is standing still near some type of fixture, preferably a tree. It will render the carrier totally immobile but it might take a quarter of so to complete.
 
The Howe Tackle was once used with great effectiveness in the corners by the man who perfected the tackle in the game of hockey. This type of tackle though it did not take down the carrier of the puck rendered him useless. Redefined, holding now carries a two minute penalty.
 
The Fly-by Tackle is in some organization used on a regular basis in an attempt to take down the carrier by using the least amount of effort as is possible. It has always been considered very ineffective but might be accepted as normal. Most teams in the modern game have discouraged its use by benching the users.
 

They could lose every remaining game and it would still be a huge improvement from last year, I think you are forgetting just how bad they were last year. Out of the game before the first quarter was done more nights than not, at least this time when they're getting beaten it's after a close game. 

Fixed it

Why can't the dead weight on the team ever get hurt? Why is it mainly the guys who are performing.

As competitive as Willy might be I would hope he doesn't play if there is a chance he can make it worse and be out for a long time. 

the next best thing to the Bombers winning the Grey Cup would be the Riders going 0-18. 

Oh come on..there is ALWAYS something to post about... How the comebacks happened, how injuries are piling up, how well the secondary has played, how awesome lirim and our return game has been of late...
That's almost a weeks worth of material right there..

The point is, that if you are play well and take care of your own play and don't make mistakes then the refs don't come into play at all. 

And what does that tell your your qb that all these rider fans have been jerking off since Durant got hurt? "Sorry Tino but we don't have faith in you so we're going to bring in an old qb in the midst of a crappy season"

I wouldn't call a punt return touchdown a "mistake", that'd be like calling a rushing touchdown allowed a mistake. The other team gets paid to play too.
 
What I'm talking about is fumbles. Interceptions. Plays that swing field position and momentum. You may have won all three and credit is certainly deserved for that but let's be honest for a second ... you didn't win a single game by more than one possession. Your margin of victory in each game was either 5 or 6 points.
 
We turned the ball over seven times in the first game, twice in the second and three times in the third. That's 12 turnovers in 3 games compared to only 3 for Saskatchewan. Your turnover ratio was +9 and you only won by a combined margin of 17 points in 3 games. You don't think turnovers were a BIG factor?

Of course you realize that while the teams were racking up 800 yards of rushing during the last five games we were unable to get the ball and score ourselves right? They might not have scored but using 6 minutes and more on drives meant we lost a huge amount of time.
You have to look at the consequences.

Grigsby hasn't fumbled the ball once either, pretty impressive stat. Give grigsby an Oline and i think you see good things. 

As much as I find Grigsby underwhelming sometimes ... he leads the entire CFL in yards from scrimmage. If the season ended today, he'd be a unanimous all star selection.

One thing you are forgetting here is the intangible. O'Shea keeps saying how much faith he has in his team but when the crunch comes he throws his faith in away. We can't say they would have scored because it never happened but they would not have had the time they got to do it. I don't think your comment was appropriate. This is a forum.