TrueBlue4ever

The team got fat and sassy over the course of those 12 wins though. Charlie Roberts felt underused and disrespected and staged a distracting walkout. Ritchie did not know how to keep the team’s focus and rested starters down the stretch which led to complacency. They flat out disrespected Calgary by going with a scrub team in game 18 and Calgary needed that game just to get into the playoffs. And Calgary used that new life to carry a chip on their shoulders saying “you should have killed us when you had the chance, you thought we were no threat, now you are going to pay for your mistake”. Then a flat East Final performance that they did not react too seriously enough, and players measuring their ring sizes all week in Montreal in front of fans, media, and opposing players before the game. We all saw the outcome. In 1984 that team had serious challengers. BC were also a powerhouse. Edmonton was fading but still had leftover weapons from their 5 time Cup champions and Dunigan slinging it at QB. Toronto was the East favourite and also strong. This team would do well to treat the Riders, Lions, and Tiger Cats as threats who can up their game at any time. They know Toronto can beat them, and Montreal has given us fits at times. Be humble, be focussed, tune out all the noise, good and bad, and let the play on the field do the talking. O’Shea, Walters, and Miller have done a solid job of instilling that from the top down.

My brother went to a Bills game and he said it was the greatest football game he had ever seen. When I asked him details about the game he really couldn’t give me any. His entire opinion was based on the pregame experience with the fans. That is something that the CFL just cannot provide, with liquor laws as they are. And I think that is the perception that hinders the league in Toronto. It’s a mindset that “it’s the NFL so it has to be the coolest”. I have attended 3 NFL games live, one being the pre-season debacle in Winnipeg (I got free tickets, and still feel like I overpaid due to the time lost watching it). It is loud as can be and the tailgating is neat, but as for the games themselves I was bored more than not. NFL sells the spectacle. And they have the best athletes because they pay the most. I also hate Naylor’s pandering to the XFL process like it is the only way to save the league. Spring NFL-style football has been tried countless times and it keeps failing. USFL had a shot because it could compete with NFL salaries at the time and in the beginning was not trying to be a direct rival of the NFL, but now WLAF, World league, NFL Europe, XFL 1, 2, and 3 (am I missing any) all come and go in rapid suggestion. Why Naylor thinks this is a sound model to re-brand the CFL as is beyond me. Unless he hopes it is a MLSE springboard to an actual NFL team in Toronto and he can get in as an in house club media rep a la Tait or Lawless. However, Bob Irving’s opposite take is not the right approach either. His spin is “this league has been around for 100 years, it doesn’t need saving, it will always be around” is a little too blind to the financial problems facing it in modern times. Keeping things status quo because it is how it always has been that way is wrong-headed too. I don’t know what the cost of running a pro football team is. The Bombers’ open financial books seem to peg it at around $30 million a season, with only 18% going to player salaries. I know NFL teams push in at around $108 million on average. Unless we get a Sportsnet to come in with a ridiculous TV contract like their NHL billion dollar deal, then ticket prices will carry the load. How much can teams cut costs, and what is the effect (we can kind of see what no advertising or marketing dollars in Toronto looks like)? And to answer the question of what properties Sportsnet owns (asked earlier) they have NHL rights in the fall and winter and Blue Jays rights in the spring and summer, so they may be disinclined to pick up the CFL as a competing enterprise. With no competition, TSN has no need to spend more on its product.

I am happy being THAT team as long as they just treat it as business as usual. Don’t like seeing any Swaggerville or “good team but a bunch of jerks” portrayal. Be the team that no one can find anything to criticize about except for “it is frustrating that they are so damn good and so humble at the same time”.

So, WOW! Definitely see it in the theatre. Lots of stuff to digest, some surprises for sure and if you are a savvy Bond fan you will see and hear nods to the past franchise that also act as a bit of a tell. Won’t spoil anything but there is discussion to be had. Not sure how to do the hidden comments thing here. I would recommend it as another really solid Craig entry, maybe just behind Skyfall.

I don’t think Adams will ever get the due he is owed for his downfield blocking skills. I can’t recall anyone better as a receiver, and it just does not get brought up enough. Just another sign of the team identity that we are lucky to see with this squad.

I had thought to post this too, but did not. Not because of some attempt to look classy, but because I could nor type fast enough to beat Noeller to the punch(line). I’m sure your girlfriend is a lovely person. Nice to see her fraternizing with the Elk players and giving their male libidos some positive vibes. Charity work is important. Let’s not get cocky. I don’t want a single 2001 vibe around here.

Let’s hope. But it seems likely.

Well, if there has been a weakness seen in this defence, it has been giving up yards against the run at times. Here’s some pessimism for you - if this offence is not as well built for bad weather as the 2019 squad, what does that mean come playoff time if we have cold and snow?

Clear as mud.

If he is content to sit on the practice roster for now, keep him here for depth until you absolutely need the roster space. If he is unhappy in that role then the hard talk about his future can happen.

Sometimes It feels like the Toronto attitude is “if the CFL doesn’t work in Toronto, then it won’t work anywhere, so we need to blow up the model and become NFL North”, which by all perceptions is what they really pine for. Maybe instead of doubting the product, look to places like Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and Montreal in its revival days and Calgary and Edmonton and figure out why it succeeds there and copy that, instead of assuming that if they can’t make it work, it’s everyone else who is the problem. So looking for opinions on this. Why does the CFL work so well in some markets and so badly in others? Do the largest cities just have too many other options for there to be interest, while the smaller cities where it’s the only game in town make it more attractive? Should the league just re-locate to smaller centres? Could those smaller places afford stadiums? Does the league need to slash budgets to one third of what they are, and is that feasible?

If wholesale Winnipeg can afford those prices, then Calgary and all their new oil money can afford it. This is the cost of sports today.

I’d say the difference is execution, not play call. Receivers are not dropping passes like they were in the first few games, Collaros is more in synch with them now, and Harris provided a spark to the run game and is now much closer to 100% then he was a few weeks ago.

One blocked punt TD Pick 6. Lather, rinse, repeat. Recipe for loss

Pricing is not that outlandish. Comparable in lower bowl centre field to Bomber games. And there are available lower bowl seats between the 25 and 35 yard lines for as low as $43. Optically, one of the problems is that the fans are seated largely behind the benches, while the cameras are pointed at the opposite side where there are fewer fans, so the stadium looks even more empty than it is (but make no mistake, it is not near full on the non-televised side either). My brother lives in Toronto and one big thing he says is the almost total lack of advertising and PR the Argo owners put into the team. No press means no buzz, and they are easily forgotten with everything else getting ink in Toronto. And Toronto still joneses for the NFL, as do a number of media members (look no further than Dave Naylor’s 4 down XFL cheering when those talks happened earlier). On Sportsnet tonight, the Argo win is behind 10 other stories, only 3 of which are live-game stories (one baseball and two pre-season hockey - specifically the Jets win and Ryan Reaves getting hurt). Even the NBA and soccer rate ahead of the game, and in their overall menu, CFL is behind the big 4, soccer and auto racing in hierarchy (lumped in the “other sports” category). TSN, the host broadcaster, at least has tonight’s game as its banner headline, and CFL is ranked only behind the NHL in hierarchy right now (but I have seen it as low as 8th in the off-season).

Amongst the 59 coaches with 579 career games or more (which is the number of games Maurice has coached the Jets), his overall percentage of .522 in his entire career ranks him 43rd all time. His winning percentage with Winnipeg is .578, which is 14th best for all coaches with 579 or more games.

Another mid-game interview from TSN. I love me some Pinball, but c’mom just do the play-by-play.

“Finding new ways to be bad at his job” He has a tough act to follow in Hnidy and especially Ferraro, so he isn’t likely to get a truly objective assessment as he grows into the job (this is his first job as an analyst I believe), but I find his worst flaw is making long points during the live play. More than one goal call from Beyak has been late because Sawyer takes a 2 second interjection and makes it a 15 second commentary. Needs to save that for after a whistle and let Dennis call the game.

Now that is the Freudian slip of all time! “The Can” Yep, and Trotz, Ruff, Arbour, Bowman, and Quenneville are the next 5. Good coaches are around long enough and have enough overall success to pile up the wins AND the losses. It’s more of a longevity award than a mark of ineptitude and failure.

Last week in BC the Bombers were IN 2nd down 19 times and converted to first down 12 times. Twice they converted after BC penalties. They were 4 of 5 converting when running on 2nd down. They were 2 of 5 converting when throwing for further than the first down marker (3 times incomplete). They never threw an incompletion when throwing short of the first down line. 4 of 6 times they converted to first down throwing short of the first down line and their receivers got the YAC yards necessary. The 2 times they did not, one was 2nd and 3 and Lawler got zero yards on the pass. The other time it was 2nd and 17 and Adams got 5 yards. The 4 times it worked, one was a screen play and the other 3 Collaros threw 2-4 yards short of the 1st down marker and the receivers got the YAC yards necessary. The one unique situation was a 9 yard pass to Lawler on 2nd and 10 and they converted the 3rd down gamble (so it technically counts as not converting on second down). So sometimes, just like a long bomb 50/50 ball, a QB will take the pass play the defence gives them (like 8 yards on 2nd and 10) and will basically say to his receiver “go get that first down with your legs”. It’s not like LaPo is the only coach to ever call that play, or that every receiver is even running a short route on the play call, but it is a QB choice where the throw goes and not an OC call, reacting in live time to the read and what the defence is giving them. And that short of the first down marker pass does work from time to time (in the BC game, it converted more often than not, and with more success than the longer passes on second down). But if that play call is so awful, I expect the same criticism of Buck Pierce (or any other offensive coordinator) every time it happens, whether it is his decision or Zach’s.

Am I wrong to read this and the name that springs to mind is “Tkachuk”?

Solid list right there. Good on you for Hal Patterson and Tom Scott, missed that pair.

BC - Darren Flutie was sneaky good, Fernandez, but Burnham makes circus catches look routine Cal - Nik Lewis, Tom Forzani was also fairly reliable Edm - Brian Kelly Sask - Narcisse, Jeff Fairholm and those weird orange fish cutter gloves Wpg - Goodlow, Poplawski, Rick House, Milt Ham - Tony Champion for the Grey Cup broken rib catch alone, Rocky DiPietro Tor - Terry Greer Ott - Tony Gabriel Mtl - Cahoon and Jamal Richardson

Do NOT ask Speedflex about that game!

So to answer my own earlier question, per Bob Irving’s Twitter account the club is looking to get him assistance with alcohol abuse, so fair to assume it was alcohol he was impaired by.