Well, while we still got 4 days to go till we kick our game off, we save the best for last.  Meantime, Thursday night should be a good one to kickoff the 2019 season.

The subplots: The TiCats for obvious reasons are the favorites to win the east, and with the return of Steinhauer, the high hopes they got on Masoli and what looks to be a rock solid roster, there's many reasons the optimism is high.

For the Riders, the questions will be whether or not Craig Dickenson will prove to be their O'Shea, and whether or not they can protect Collaros.  A lot of changes have come to the roster with several former BC Lions including Arceneaux and Elimimian now there as well as former Colts WR Moncrief.

All that to say, while Steinhauer built his reputation on running an aggressive defense for Kent Austin, I seen some experts on the CFL site expressing concerns about June Jones no longer being there to be the guider for Masoli.  So will the TiCats offense get a high level of play under a defensive HC?

And the Riders will be a very different team than what we saw under Chris Jones, a guy who could win but had a toxic attitude at times and brought in cancers like Duron Carter.  Question is will this change be for the better or the worse for them?  Can't wait to see what this year of change is going to be.

So the Riders have only one pass play and 3 run plays.... is this Tecmo Bowl?

Hamilton burns a timeout here to have the ball with 30 seconds deep in their own end.

This half looks real bad on Hamilton's coaches.  Looking quite disorganized.

Hamilton still in preseason mode. I'm pretty sure TSN was saying they'd be pretty good....

Hamilton looks lousy outside of Banks. Those SOBs need to pull this one out.

It isn't just Masoli, Steinhauer seems to have no discipline in his camp.

Two rookie HCs...  

Just now, Floyd said:

Two rookie HCs...  

And unfortunately only one looks like a rookie atm

10 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Not exactly.  What if it's career ending?

Referees presumably have experience and know the sport.  Much like a judge who would differentiate between acts based on intent.  They need to be able to make that call, it's not black and white.

I meant for the duration of the game and then the league can decide suspensions. If the rule is based on QBs only, a team isn't going to pull their qb out of the game unless he's really hurt to try to get a defender kicked out. Coupled with the fact that they've already upgraded the penalty... It should be an auto ejection. Easy call. 

Other than that, I agree that there should be harsher penalties based on that kind of hit. I think 99 percent of people saw the intention there and the ref should too.

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Hamilton making an early case for easiest team to hate.

Hated them since they jumped in our boat.

Man, if Hamilton can't beat a fajardo then they truly suck

Tuned in late. Collaros, well that didn't take long. Saw the Lawrence hit on my twitter feed. What a cheapshot. The CFL has to weed players out if they really are serious about player safety & concussions. 

what I wanna know is are the Trews ready to go?

Edited June 14, 20196 yr by johnzo

I don't wish ill will and hope ZC is alright.

When this happens to the Riders I can't help but think of "how's your quarterback situation?"

As someone who despises the Riders, it pains me to say this, but I’m glad they got a TD out of those BS hits by Hamilton. If Sask wins this by a small margin I hope Lawrence and Breaux are hung out to dry in the locker room. Absolutely disgusting. 

How long will it take for the riders to be calling Bennett?

Kevin Glenn can unretire 

Ooh I might challenge that...

2 minutes ago, Albertabomberguy said:

How long will it take for the riders to be calling Bennett?

This

1 minute ago, Floyd said:

Ooh I might challenge that...

Yeah looked like a fumble.  Recovery not really immediate though.

Rookie HCs

Dickenson is clueless 

Run a dive on 3rd and 2...pass on 44 yard FG.

Omg...lol that was a 3rd down stand

I hate the Riders but Hamilton is pissing me off tonight. Nice third down stand though.