blueandgoldguy

Both nervous and excited for the upcoming season. I'm happy with the additions to the offense - Harris, Keeping, Smith and Dressler, but I am concerned with our offensive line and the lack of changes there. I hope Willy can play the majority of the games (my guess is 16 starts) and show more awareness in the pocket to limit sacks - and potential injury - and fumbles. GO BLUE! Predictions for the upcoming seasonWestEdmonton 13-5BC 11-7Winnipeg 10-8Calgary 8-10Saskatchewan 4-14EastHamilton 11-7Toronto 11-7Ottawa 7-11Montreal 6-12Playoffs Semi-finalsWinnipeg beats BCToronto beats CalgaryDivision FinalsEdmonton beats WinnipegHamilton beats TorontoGrey CupEdmonton beats Hamilton

The Riders were a whopping 11 games over .500 in that "decade." I would hardly call that dominance...but I guess for the Riders it would be given their history.

If the Als don't sign Harris as Qb this off season, I think they will have the cheapest combined salary for their top-2 Qbs assuming it's Cato and Glenn. This will mitigate the impact of having the 2 most expensive receivers on the roster.

-24 with the windchill in Minny today. Effin Walsh misses a chip shot field goal to win it and Adrian Peterson is useless in the playoffs as usual. Interestingly, there were several hundred tickets unsold for that game today. Good crowd of 52,000 but even NFL fans have their limits when it comes how much cold they are willing to tolerate. Same thing happened in Green Bay a few years ago. At Canad Inns it was minus 20 with the windchill for the 2011 Eastern Final and the game was sold out with 29,500 in attendance. The Bombers can draw in cold weather.

Given the dispute going on between Edmonton and Ottawa over the signing of Maas, I would like to know if Rick Campbell was still under contract as OC in Calgary when he became Head Coach in Ottawa for their inaugural season?

Dear Santa, I would like 1 Saskatchewan RoughRiders season completely in the tank in 2016..... Sincerely, Noeller Sorry Noeller, even though for the most part you have been a pretty good boy this year, I will not be able to grant your wish this year. But as a gift that can still be enjoyed you are getting a Edmonton Eskimo season instead. Santa. Chris Jones can't fix the Riders Canadian content in one season. Nor can he fix Darian Durant. If he is not 100% or if the injuries negate his mobility - a big part of his game - the Riders will not be able to touch the Esks' 2015 record.

Bombers need to sign Sukh Chungh to an extension. Did he not only sign a 2-year contract as a rookie?

I wonder where Waggoner would be ranked in this draft?

Companies ruined. Lawsuits still to be resolved. Value-engineering to important features like the veil. Unanticipated costs like the new roof for the arena. This all sounds familiar. First Winnipeg, then Hamilton, now Ottawa. I wonder if Regina will escape unscathed once the new stadium is complete?

Might be a good way to save money. Team gets off to a poor start, O'Shea is fired, Lapo takes on the role of head coach to go along with his OC job. "tis the Bomber way.

Bomber tagline for 2016 when they rehire Lapo: Unfinished business - 2011 edition, baby

Highly unlikely. I hope that we get Huff or Murphy when we clean house next year. Why would Huff come here? Do you expect the Bombers would be willing to pay $600,000 or more that the Riders are rumoured to have paid Jones.

I remember quite a few more intermediate passes in the range of 15-25 yards back in the 80s and 90s when I was a kid. More INTs, yes, given the greater risks involved than a 3 yard curl, but it was more exciting football. Or maybe nostalgia is clouding my memories?

Interesting article there bannatyne. Thanks for posting. Research into the long-term effects of concussions has been conducted for longer than 10 years - it's actually been over 20 years. I believe way back in '94 researchers released an article in a journal indicating that there was a link between multiple concussions suffered in football and memory loss. Interestingly, at that time, the NFL did not refute this research only to vehemently deny those links a few short years later. For more information on this, I would suggest viewing the excellent documentary by Frontline from a couple years ago called League of Denial: The NFL's Concussion Crisis. It's available on NetFlix.

Not sure if this has been posted in another thread - a summary of Drew Edwards and his cohorts hitting all the team parties in one day. John Cornish joined them at about the half way point. Great read. http://3downnation.com/2015/12/04/the-most-grey-cup-thing-ever-all-the-parties-one-night/

Then there's Johnny Football in Cleveland. How can that guy even look his teammates in the eye? He got demoted, poor boy. Should've suspended him. Players like that keep getting chances others don't but they're morons. He's probably an alcoholic who needs help. Hopefully he gets it and can at least become a good backup in the NFL.

You guys do realize he wasn't specifically focusing on local media when he made that statement? He was referring to the various media representatives from around the country as well.

I'd love to have a coach that wins and gives us a legit shot at a Grey Cup even if he does leave after 2 or 3 years. Jones recruiting has set up Edmonton nicely as a contender for at least the next couple of seasons.

Jones has had success wherever he has been hired. Kelly, on the other hand, only had success with Matt Dunigan as his QB, despite his claims to the contrary.

On Tv it sounded like the crowd slightly favoured Edmonton. For those who were at the game, who did the crowd appear to favour? Was it 50-50? 60-40 Ottawa? 60-40 Edmonton?

It's their job to ask the tough questions...possibly at inopportune times. I have no issue with it. I wonder how long it will be before we hear an official announcement.

On Hustler and Lawless they briefly discussed this with Steve Simmons and the consensus was that Jones' refusal to directly answer questions regarding a potential move to Saskatchewan this off-season to take the position of GM/head coach means he is as good as gone in Edmonton for 2016. I wonder what the Riders are willing to pay? $500,000? $600,000? Maybe even $750,000? Thoughts?

98(also here) was the lowest since 75. There were 3 factors for that. -brutality of the 91 game's weather had fans across that league saying fool me once.. -major price increase -we sucked as a team....again Those fans concerned about the weather only fooled themselves as it was record warmth that day. The '98 Grey Cup was the regarded as the Grey Cup no one wanted. The league was still somewhat in dire straits, not near the depths of 96, but only a smidgen higher. Winnipeg stepped up when no one else really desired to have the Grey Cup. It was also a period when the Grey Cup did not sell out with regularity. 96 in Hamilton - well short of a sellout despite Tim Hortons stepping up to buy thousands of tickets at the last minute. 97 in Edmonton - I remember there was over 10,000 tickets available leading up to the game which mostly sold out only because the Riders made the finals. 99 in Vancouver - 15,000 short of a sellout 2000 in Calgary - a few thousand short of the sellout. It also didn't help that the city hosted the Brier, World Junior Championships and the Pan Am Games along with the Grey Cup in just over a year. Individuals and the corporate community were tapped out.

General consensus among all the media is that Orridge delivered a rather unimpressive state of the league address; seems like an uninspired leader; and didn't seem to be all that knowledgeable about the league itself and subsequent to that, did not address some of the challenges the league is dealing with ie. penalties, declining attendance, lack of penalties for steroid use.

Why would the Esks give him permission to talk to the Riders? How many more years does he have on his contract? Just say no to the Riders and give Chris an asst. GM position to tide him over for next season.