3 stars plus HH

[tacklewasher]

10 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Tony gets my vote for this interview alone.

http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/09/10/week-1-post-game-burnett/

 

Agreed. Sounds like a bright young man who understands the work ethic needed to be a second starter.

[rex]

11 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Tony gets my vote for this interview alone.

http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/09/10/week-1-post-game-burnett/

 

Burnett might have just became one of my favourite new players after that interview.  

[Fatty Liver]

2 hours ago, tracker said:

Great interview- Burnett comes across as smart and well-spoken. My only question is: why the heck do dark-skinned guys bother getting tattoos?

Don't know about the tatoos but Tony exudes charisma.

[Jpan85]

It's that USC education.

[B-F-F-C]

Wow...that was a great interview.  What I get out of this, is that the players have 100% bought in to the coaches message.    

[Atomic]

Very entertaining interview.  

"What were you thinking when they faked the field goal?"  

"Let's go.  Let's go."

Love that.  If he gets to start at linebacker I'm completely comfortable with him there.

[Eternal optimist]

18 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Well fans, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers entered today's game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders trying to do something they hadn't done in a long time. You see, in 26 prior tries when faced with a back-to-back series, the Bombers had failed to come away with a sweep. In fact, you would have to go back to 2004 against these very Roughriders to witness a Winnipeg win against the same team in consecutive games. And the Bombers were also trying to win their 6th straight contest, something we haven't seen in these parts since 2001, a span of 15 years. So a lot of negative history to battle. 

 

Enjoyed your post, but I hate this statistic - I find it misleading. As interesting as it is that the Bombers hadn't swept a back-to-back series in such a long time, they have swept other series during that time span... in fact we've already swept our series with Hamilton this year (although it wasn't a back-to-back series). To me, it just seems like gerrymandering the numbers to falsely make the Bombers look bad.

[Bomber_fanaddict]

HH to Jones and Dickenson for calling and failing yet another terrible fake punt. Keep em comin Jonese!

[TrueBlue4ever]

On ‎10‎/‎09‎/‎2016 at 9:05 PM, TrueBlue4ever said:

Well fans, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers entered today's game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders trying to do something they hadn't done in a long time. You see, in 26 prior tries when faced with a back-to-back series, the Bombers had failed to come away with a sweep. In fact, you would have to go back to 2004 against these very Roughriders to witness a Winnipeg win against the same team in consecutive games.

21 hours ago, Eternal optimist said:

Enjoyed your post, but I hate this statistic - I find it misleading. As interesting as it is that the Bombers hadn't swept a back-to-back series in such a long time, they have swept other series during that time span... in fact we've already swept our series with Hamilton this year (although it wasn't a back-to-back series). To me, it just seems like gerrymandering the numbers to falsely make the Bombers look bad.

OK, but there is a perception that a back-to-back series is different, in that with little prep time the team that wins just sticks with what worked the week before, and the team that lost will make all the adjustments. Furthermore, the "familiarity breeds contempt" attitude gives the loser that extra chip on their shoulder, and that loss is the freshest thing in their mind, so sweeping a back-to-back is often believed to be trickier than winning a season series. And I wasn't trying to find a way to make the team sound bad, had just heard that stat and thought it interesting. 

And based on pure statistical probability, over a 2 game back-to back series, there are 4 possible outcomes (if you assume no ties in either game, which never occurred for any teams in back-to-backs between 2004-16), which could be win-win, win-loss, loss-win, or loss-loss, so there is a statistical 1 in 4 chance of sweeping any back-to-back series between 2 dead even teams, eliminating all other variables. So over 26 series, statistics would suggest that the Bombers should have swept 6 or 7 of them over that time, been swept the same number of times, and split 13 of those series. So it does suggest some level of futility (kind of like a 26 year Grey Cup drought in an 8 or 9 team league, where odds are you would average 3 wins over that time frame).

But your comment piqued my interest in that statistic, and if it was a fair representation of futility or not, so I decided to test your "gerrymandering" theory by looking at all the other teams in the CFL over that exact same time period to see if the Bombers look bad falsely or if that stat is indicative of something, compared to all of the other teams. Here's what I discovered:

Between the time the Bombers last won a back-to-back series in 2004 against Saskatchewan (post-Labour day and Banjo Bowl weekends) and Labour Day this year, here is what each team has done. Records will appear like a won-loss-tied record, and indicate the number of series they swept, the number of series where the opponent swept them, and the number of series split. 

BC - 17 total back-to-back series, record of 10-0-7 (included in that record are 2 series where they played a team, had a BYE, then played the same team again - they went 1-0-1 in those scenarios). Their most recent successful series sweep was in 2015 against Saskatchewan

Calgary - 25 total series, 10-0-15 (including 1-0-1 in a "BYE" scenario), most recent sweep was 2016 against Saskatchewan (in the only back-to-back set of games this season prior to the traditional Labour day back-to-back weekends)

Edmonton - 27 total series, 3-11-13, no "BYE" scenarios, most recent sweep was 2015 against Ottawa

Saskatchewan - 25 total series, 9-3-13, no "BYE" scenarios, most recent sweep was 2014 against Winnipeg

Winnipeg - 26 total series, 0-12-14, no "BYE" scenarios

Hamilton - 23 total series, 6-8-9 (including 0-1-0 in a "BYE" scenario), most recent sweep was 2015 against Toronto

Toronto - 23 total series, 8-6-9 (including 0-1-0 in a "BYE" scenario), most recent sweep was 2015 against Ottawa

Ottawa RedBlacks - 3 total series, 2-1-0, no "BYE" scenarios, most recent sweep was 2015 against Hamilton (FYI the old Renegades were 0-1-1 in 2005, the only year they qualified for this comparison before they suspended operations the next year -  they played no back-to-backs in 2004)

Montreal - 19 total series, 2-4-13 (including 1-1-0 in a "BYE" scenario, most recent sweep was 2007 against Toronto (Note: they haven't played a back-to-back series since 2013, but even so they would be on a 6 year drought of their own even factoring that in) 

Interpret those numbers as you wish as to the real or falsely perceived futility of the team. That's just the raw data. 

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by TrueBlue4ever

[Eternal optimist]

17 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

But your comment piqued my interest in that statistic, and if it was a fair representation of futility or not, so I decided to test your "gerrymandering" theory by looking at all the other teams in the CFL over that exact same time period to see if the Bombers look bad falsely or if that stat is indicative of something, compared to all of the other teams. Here's what I discovered:

 

Gotta say TrueBlue4ever, I was kind of banking on most people not knowing what gerrymandering is.

 

Thanks for calling my bluff.

[WBBFanWest]

15 minutes ago, Eternal optimist said:

Gotta say TrueBlue4ever, I was kind of banking on most people not knowing what gerrymandering is.

 

Thanks for calling my bluff.

Just for future reference, most of us here use English routinely, so to paraphrase Donald Trump, "We have the best words".  We also have access to this: http://www.dictionary.com/

[wbbfan]

On 9/11/2016 at 10:25 AM, tacklewasher said:

Agreed. Sounds like a bright young man who understands the work ethic needed to be a second starter.

if he has to fill in for any length of time for wild, people are gonna fall in love with the guy. Freak athlete with great football instincts and a motor that never stops. Hes super versatile too. Stepped in and looked right at home. 

[Tracker]

20 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

if he has to fill in for any length of time for wild, people are gonna fall in love with the guy. Freak athlete with great football instincts and a motor that never stops. Hes super versatile too. Stepped in and looked right at home. 

Yup. He looked at least as good as Wild, and that is a real compliment.

[Atomic]

@TrueBlue4ever Thanks for posting that, nice stats!

[bearpants]

On 10/09/2016 at 11:54 PM, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Tony gets my vote for this interview alone.

http://www.bluebombers.com/2016/09/10/week-1-post-game-burnett/

 

great interview... smart, candid and entertaining... I don't know about you guys but if Wild has to miss any time I'm ok with Burnett filling in (I realize it might be a moot point. If Harris is out we may need to shift the ratio by starting Hurl at MLB)

[bearpants]

On 12/09/2016 at 1:51 AM, TrueBlue4ever said:

BC - 17 total back-to-back series, record of 10-0-7 (included in that record are 2 series where they played a team, had a BYE, then played the same team again - they went 1-0-1 in those scenarios). Their most recent successful series sweep was in 2015 against Saskatchewan

Calgary - 25 total series, 10-0-15 (including 1-0-1 in a "BYE" scenario), most recent sweep was 2016 against Saskatchewan (in the only back-to-back set of games this season prior to the traditional Labour day back-to-back weekends)

very interesting post... I can't believe BC and Calgary have not been swept in back-to-back games in the past 12 years... maybe we can change that for BC this year... 

[Fatty Liver]

1 hour ago, bearpants said:

very interesting post... I can't believe BC and Calgary have not been swept in back-to-back games in the past 12 years... maybe we can change that for BC this year... 

I expect the Bombers to split with BC, I'd be surprised if either side swept both games.

[wbbfan]

5 hours ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

I expect the Bombers to split with BC, I'd be surprised if either side swept both games.

if we split the rest of the way we will be in great shape.