BigBlue

"... deflect attention " exactly ... system schemes and courage is everything to execution

This year in the CFL has been the year of the defence. Offences need to be more responsible, not turn the ball over and practice some ball control offence through running games. "Gun-Slinging", while enjoyable to watch, is rarely successful in the modern era. Throwing the ball 15-20 yards downfield is no riskier than throwing a wide side flat pass ... in fact there will be less pick-sixes ... remember that strategy of spreading out the Defense? We need a mix of passing plays not just all 10 yards or less with the odd bomb thrown in

Opening it up is about throwing more intermediate passes and a few more bombs .... its different than all this short passing and running up the gut too frequently ... nothing to do with passing skills or execution .... if you won't go downfield with your passes the D just starts creeping up giving us less and less room to maneuver and run that short stuff ... not hard to understand is it? Well what I got from it was we ARE opening it up.. We lead the league in opening it up lol.. But when we don't execute properly with the dropsies and the fumblitis then they don't show up on the sheet or in people's memory banks apparently.. Could go for it more often but then you gotta balance the risk/reward,right? Willys served up a few.. But again, we lead the league in big plays.. " Well what I got from it was we ARE opening it up.. " I don't think so .... way to much dinnk and dunk ... too much short stuff ,,, to much straight up the gut and not enough intermediate 15 yard passes on 1st down .... yes we hack it 30+ yards downfield once and a while but that's all the D has to worry about ... meanwhile D's have no problem creeping in on our expected short game

He will help some but won't solve Hamilton's main problems ... QBing cost Hamilton 1 or 2 games but not responsible for overall record

I don't think we would have had to overspend

They just need to make the schedule a little more carefully.The expansion draft really upset things. In order to accommodate Ottawa, the BOG's lowered the quality of play in the entire CFL. It's killing offenses. "There aren't enough quality Canadian OL from CIS to stock the teams." I don't believe we lack Canadian talent ... we just lack developed talent .... we need to add several development positions on our rosters for Canadians and bring them along over a couple years ... add a special protected taxi squad of say 4 Canadians at $25K each .... a pipeline of new candidates and the depth we want will start to develop ... The CFL (read the owners) are just too cheap to spend $$$ on referees and bigger rosters

I remember when Geroy Simon came back from the NFL .... coach couldn't see where he would fit into their plans either

Egomaniac officiating where the reffing determines the outcome of a game on a very marginal call: about that we can in all practicality do absolutely nothing... what has me on edge is if CFL headquarters gives an officiating crew a wink and a nudge about who it would be better for if one team were to win over another ,.... I don't think it could be true but some games I absolutely wonder .... something about who signs the pay check .... I see corruption elsewhere all too often; I just can't believe it could happen in our League even if its an old boys club in part

One of the reasons we have this controversy going is the league deliberately scheduled many east west games in the early schedule and fewer intra-divisional games .... so no confidence building from getting a win or two against divisional rivals (and toning down teams with strong records) .... so the worse it gets the worse it gets ... I think that's called momentum ... or its opposite whatever we call that

The biggest change in the Esks I can see is Jones & coaching staff ... not sure what all has changed personnel wise ... its been quite a turn around and I don't understand why

Opening it up is about throwing more intermediate passes and a few more bombs .... its different than all this short passing and running up the gut too frequently ... nothing to do with passing skills or execution .... if you won't go downfield with your passes the D just starts creeping up giving us less and less room to maneuver and run that short stuff ... not hard to understand is it?

Does Willey actually audible? I mean really .,...

Somebody said last night "we opened it up" in the 4th quarter (the types of plays we called) .... and what a difference that made Thats what has been bugging me: our tentative conservative don't-turn-the-ball-over style in the early part of our last few games .... thats on MB & maybe MOS We just need to turn our 4th quarter style into our all game style MB's temperment and habitual disposition? Lets open it up to Willey the gunslinger? It might work ....

the way MOS operates we won't bring a running back off the 'PR UNTIL Grigsby or Cotton gets hurt ... then the newbie has to make the most of the opportunity btw I like Stoudemire in the flat much the way Owens is used in Toronto ... I don't see him as a grind it out back

Yes you will never make a prediction when you play the wait and see game predictions are about what we think ... they are not about "not being wrong" so you can be right we have thoughts and judgment ,,, we don;t need to hide them if we are humble and truth seeking I suspect you're not really a chimpanzee. I have a brain the size of a pea .... just like the rest of you .... I am here to share my thoughts, test my skills (judgment) and have a bunch of fun with all of you My judgment is that we are at this point perhaps slightly above average with the western teams but not nearly good enough to beat the class of the league (Calgary) .... I expect we can take revenge on Edmonton, beat BC at home and split with Regina ... we can still beat up on the team we need tp whip in the playoffs (Hamilton) The big question is how much MOS and his coaches will have done by November in turning us from a bunch of individual talents into a harmonious, well oiled, highly functioning piece of machinery My best guess is Calgary vs Winnipeg in the Grey Cup AND we end the twenty+ year drought ... on team work not talent

MOS said he thought platooning Grigsby with Cotton may have been a reason Grigsby played so well in the 4th Q .... being well rested from his heavy load

Is not that call from someone in the booth watching the replay who then relays it to the coach? Might as well call MOS on the challenge that on a replay screamed out DON'T CHALLENGE THIS ONE! Both good and bad,,,we won but we beat an Eastern team that does not play in Toronto,. O'Shea explained in the CJOB post-game show that he knew he wouldn't get that call but he wanted to slow down the Als momentum and give his D a breather. mo he did not ... go back and listen again ... he thought it was PI .... on the fumble challenge he had something to explain ... listen to what he actually said

You mean after he is fired as Montreal's head coach?

LOL - good one. As I mentioned in another thread - Crompton is the real deal. He was always the best looking (as in arm) QB here in Edmonton last year. He's from a first rate Division one University, has size, can scramble, he just needs some polishing and he'll be a gooder. Montreal is set now. As for us - is it me, or is the honeymoon with Drew Willy ending? Willy has not looked all that good last few weeks, including this week. Some very bad overthrows, missing wide open receivers and/or throwing the ball in a bad spot. Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping off his bandwagon, it's just that he's human afterall. He's same age as Crompton and is definitely ahead of him in the development stage but will be interesting to see where these two are when they are 30 (in their career progression that is). Three quarters and Crompton is the real deal? Wow. Lets see how he does now that teams have film on him before we start tooting his horn that loudly. As for Willy - It's as clear as day that the playcalling has been the issue the past few weeks. Yes Willy has made mistakes, that's life as a quarterback, but Marcel DESPERATELY needs to start getting not just creative in his calls, but attacking the weaknesses of the defence. No team has completed as many deep passes as us this season, yet how many times have we tried stretching the field the past three weeks in comparison to the start of the season? Marcel is the big issue here. If we are going to have a few 2 & outs early in the game I would like to see some bombs thrown on 1st down ... its an investment for later on as said above it will stretch out the D early so some of our planned stuff won't be crowded out

Yes you will never make a prediction when you play the wait and see game predictions are about what we think ... they are not about "not being wrong" so you can be right we have thoughts and judgment ,,, we don;t need to hide them if we are humble and truth seeking

Yes he can especially if it's the owner who tells him to do it. Wettenhall doesn't like to lose. From Herb Zurkowsky's twitter feed: " Yes he can especially if it's the owner who tells him to do it. Wettenhall doesn't like to lose." Right Popp can't Wettenhall can .... especially if he is showing the fans he is being PROACTIVE

Now comes the western half of our schedule: 2 eastern teams, 7 games in our own division ... I have us going 5 & 4 finishing 11 & 7 as follows: 10 Sun Aug 31 Winnipeg 0 at Saskatchewan 1 11 Sun Sep 07 Saskatchewan 0 at Winnipeg 1 12 Sat Sep 13 Winnipeg 0 at BC 1 14 Sat Sep 27 Hamilton 0 at Winnipeg 1 15 Fri Oct 03 Winnipeg 1 at Ottawa 0 16 Mon Oct 13 Winnipeg 1 at Edmonton 0 17 Sat Oct 18 Calgary 1 at Winnipeg 0 18 Sat Oct 25 BC 0 at Winnipeg 1 19 Sat Nov 01 Winnipeg 0 at Calgary 1 (unless Calgary is resting for the playoffs) we manage 3 westen victories with one victory each against Edmonton BC & Regina but can not beat Calgary ... we will continue our domination of the east I would be happy with with 4 or 5 victories in the second half of this turnaround year

Willy seems to be moving away from Kelly and that makes him invisible, just like last season. People on here will soon be calling for his replacement even though he has proven what he can do when the ball is thrown in his vicinity. Expected the O to break out tonight but it really stumbled, not sure what it's going to take to get it firing on all cylinders. If Kelly would get open within the QBs field of vision the ball would come his qY

Popp can't fire the owners choice of Higgins but .... if they hired the prestigious Garcia they would save face and give hope ... he couldn't do worse as a head coach than Dunnigan ... and Garcia would give Popp a surrogate through whom he could run the team again