Tracker

On the coach's show on OB tonight, O'Shea was asked about the herd of quarterbacks on hand. He was pretty circumspect but did volunteer that they were impressed by Portis.

The guy came here in peace. Yes, he did, and my post was in humour- I believe it was accepted as such.

Maybe a trade? Hamilton? Toronto? Montreal?

Smith being out of the game fills me with.........happiness, particularly because the turkey did it to himself. I believe it was Einstein who said that the two most common elements in the universe were hydrogen and stupidity.

I'll take an unknown like Brohm over guys like Brink... Yup. Brink has been tried and found wanting. As soon as Montreal picked him up, they were outed as as desperate.

Ummmm. do the name Mason Mills ring any bells?

You might want to start working on your list of excuses as to why the Riders got trounced: injuries, lack of practice time, rabid hometown fans, etc, etc.

There is a saying that as we age, we tend to remember how good we were and forget why we quit. The quickness, stamina and bounceback just isn't there any more even though we can feel in the moment that we are as good as we were. When /if he gets into daily reps, Garcia will remember.

too bad about Kemp-hope its not too bad. Good news about Portis looking like a keeper- we may have the best set of backup QBs in the league. We still need to have a good running game, a breakaway receiver and a kick returner who inspires incontinence among the opposition tacklers.

We're going to run into a bad stretch sooner or later, so I'm guessing 10-8.

By all means, insert Watson with the understanding that if we get two consecutive quarters playing time out of him we're fortunate.

I said we were a well-coached 3-3 team... and that our QB has the 'it' factor. There's your two main differences. This is all true and not nearly as 'negative' as some posters want to make it out to be. Look at the roster - our talent level is very similar to last year... exception being the DBs and our kicker. And don't forget about the most important change we've had (apart from the coaching): the starting quarterback. Not only has he been very good, the team has responded to him,

Good news. We will need all of the hands on deck for this one.

Anyone know how well Durant has fared against an Etcheverry defence in the past?

Thursday will be an interesting game to watch. It ought to be a tough game for us to win, because, like it or not, Durant is still one of the two best QB's in the league and still has a pretty solid team around him, with the weakness being in the NI receivers. The game looks to be winnable for the Big Blue, but it ain't gonna be easy.

No quick fix for the Larks behind center.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Nichols in Montreal before year's end, but Lulay's future is still very much in doubt, and LeFevour looks better than Collaros.

Austin and Higgins are both int he same sort of situation- a good defence, questionable receivers and O-line but sub-par quarterbacking. Both have enough success on their resumes that they deserve some slack.

Woods is "okay" and won't embarrass us, but I've seen nothing so far to indicate that he has the combination of speed and instinct to be a Chad Owens or Gizmo Williams type returner.

If the Roughies lose tonight, the happiness will carry over even if we lose to them next Thursday. Go R&B's.

From my understanding, red zone production is a lot more difficult than in the rest of the field. The action takes place in a much more compressed area and therefore the defenders are a lot closer to each other with fewer gaps, so the passing has to be pinpoint and the routes perfect. The linebackers can use shorter drops and can still play close to the line, and the running game is tougher. The offense is still very much a work on progress with a lot of new and changing parts, so we ought to get a lot better with time and practice.

In fairness to Matthews, the meds for his illness are pretty heavy-duty and can make you act like a zombie.

Both Mallett and Harris broke tackles last night in critical situations for lots of extra yards. Grigsby caught the pass that won us the game in Hamilton, but I still maintain that we could benefit from a back who doesn't run east-west or collapse at the first touch.

No one loved Matthews when he was a head coach, but he got the job done. Austin has enough success that he's going to be given a lot of slack.

Its like watching two grannies slug it out with nerf bats.