CFL: The CFL thread - Part IV

[Baxterman]

Of course you wouldn't want to see Buckley, you had Bo-Levi as QB. Bridge is better than Glenn, he wasn't just getting thrown out there due to his "passport". QBs are exempt from the ratio anyways, there is no advantage whatsoever to playing a Canadian over an American. Contrary to what you seem to believe based on your previous posts, there are not just a bunch of qualified American QBs waiting for the phone to ring while Canadians get undeserved roster spots.

Bridge isn't better than anyone and it isn't ratio but as you and Rhaegar point out, the PR advantage that having a Canadian starting would have for the league and their lap dogs the Riders.

Andrew Buckley is a horrible QB, there is zero reason he should be a back-up or even 3rd stinger other than trying to show how smart they are by having a Canadian QB.

Similarly Bridge is equally as terrible and has one quality, his passport. Black talked about him like he was a young Montana out there. The only reason he did that is because as a mouth piece of the league he is trying to sell Bridge as something decent.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Bridge came off the bench and won several games this year. He is not a bad QB. A future franchise guy? Doubtful, but he's at least a viable stop-gap until somebody better comes along.

Buckley I'll grant you is probably only on the Stamps roster due to being a local product. But there's no comparison between him and Bridge; the latter is much better at this stage.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Would be nice to see a holding penalty called at some point...

Regardless, Maas and Benefeces can both be fired at haltime for all I care. Down 7 in a playoff game you lead by 14 is totally pathetic no matter how you spin it.

 

[GuitarGuy]

TOUCHDOWN STAMPEDERS!!!! Messam was very strong on that run. 30-15 for the Stamps! 3rd quarter.

 

[GuitarGuy]

Eskies with a field goal.. now 30 - 18 Stamps in 3rd quarter.

 

[GuitarGuy]

Paredes missed field goal.. It's now 31-18 for the Stamps still in the 3rd quarter. Getting close to the end of it.

 

[GuitarGuy]

4th quarter starting... soon we will find out who will represent the west at the Grey Cup.

 

[GuitarGuy]

Edmonton with the touchdown. 31 - 25 for the Stamps. 7mins left.

 

[Baxterman]

LoL

What's the point now if the CFL is going make calls like that when it goes to the command center.

Surprised the garbage call helps make the game more interesting.

 

[GuitarGuy]

LoL

What's the point now if the CFL is going make calls like that when it goes to the command center.

Surprised the garbage call helps make the game more interesting.

That's the CFL for you. There's always something crazy that happens.

 

[DoyleG]

Mass has to be Mass

 

[GuitarGuy]

Edmonton kicks field goal.. 32-28 Stamps with a min 43 seconds left.

 

[DoyleG]

Oh f*** you Mass.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

What the hell was Maas doing?

 

[Kyle McMahon]

No words can describe what we just saw. f*** you Maas. If he isn't fired by 10 am tomorrow morning, fold this enitre league. What an absolute disgrace to the entire sport of football.

We f***ing had this. We bloody freaking had this. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but nonetheless we're 4 yards from tying it up. And then...my god. This is now Edmonton's version of 13 men on the field. Astounding.

 

[GuitarGuy]

STAMPS WIN!!! STAMPS WIN!!! STAMPS WIN!!!

Off to the Grey Cup again 2 years in a row.

That decision by Maas... probably going to be the talk all off season.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Talk of the offseason will hopefully be Maas' indictment on conspiracy/racketeering charges. Spread was Eskimos +5.

Dead serious. Did he have 100 grand riding on the Eskimos covering that spread? No other explanation really exists. That went far beyond any sort of "bad decision but it could have maybe worked out". A FG in that situation did not improve Edmonton's chances of winning one iota. It severely reduced them. What we saw is straight up sabotage.

 

[Inkling]

Well, that was a bizarre ending.

 

[c9777666]

So.... Maas kicked a field goal down 7 with 2 minutes left?

 

[Baxterman]

Man it was awesome to see that sack of crap Reilly lose again. Hopefully when that overrated loser walks up to get his undeserved MOP trophy he will think about how a real QB (BLM) will be playing for the Grey Cup again while he is sitting at home crying himself to sleep.

 

[blueandgoldguy]

Talk of the offseason will hopefully be Maas' indictment on conspiracy/racketeering charges. Spread was Eskimos +5.

Dead serious. Did he have 100 grand riding on the Eskimos covering that spread? No other explanation really exists. That went far beyond any sort of "bad decision but it could have maybe worked out". A FG in that situation did not improve Edmonton's chances of winning one iota. It severely reduced them. What we saw is straight up sabotage.

I was bewildered by Maas' decision to go for the field goal with a minute 40 left. Even if they stop Mitchell and the Stamps on a two and out they probably are running 40 seconds or so off the clock and forcing Edmonton to march 65 - 75 yards down the field with a minute left to win the game. Not impossible but unlikely given the stiff Calgary defense. If Edmonton goes for it on third down and comes up short they probably have had a better chance at tying it up with a two and out or even four and out - probably get the ball back at centre field or slightly better with between 40 seconds to a minute left. Probably need to move the ball 45 - 55 yards in that time to tie the game and take it to OT.

With that said, we shouldn't assume Edmonton had this game. They still had to get the first down and make it to the endzone - a pretty tall task against the best D in the league. Not only that, they would have had to beat the Stamps in OT which is probably a 50-50 proposition even with late game momentum.

Reilly and the Esks were shut down for the most part after the first quarter. Other than the early going, it doesn't appear all that time off for Calgary's starters hurt them too much. Still the class of the league, but I hesitate to call them shoe-in Grey Cup champs for next week based on all the previous choke jobs of the past.

As for Maas, I can't help but think his mistake will be chalked up of being a young, relatively inexperienced head coach so I expect him back next year. My concern with him are the temper tantrums he throws on the sidelines with the officials when things don't go his way. When your a head coach you need to maintain your composure and set an example. I could see him being gone after next season unless the Esks win a cup. He really comes across as an a-hole.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

You got some serious issues dude...(edit: not directed at you blueandgold)

My thoughts on the game, beyond the awful call that over-shadowed everything else...

-Mike Reilly played a great football game. Zipped several throws into tight windows in howling wind, suffered from a few drops by his receivers (as did Bo-Levi Mitchell). Protected the football well, with 0 turnovers. 3 TD drives, another deep into Calgary territory that should have been a 4th TD drive before Maas derailed things. Three other trips inside the Stamps 40 that yielded one point in total...

...Which brings me to the kicking game. Some really awful luck quite honestly that had a definite effect on the end result. Whyte's first miss looked dead on and seemingly got pushed hard to the left at the end by a big gust of wind. The second miss was bad, but as luck would have it smacked off the upright for 0 points instead of a single. Also, Calgary's kickoff to start the 2nd half, which needed to roll another half yard to go out the back of the endzone for a touchback. But it stopped and had to be fielded and conceded for a single. That's a 4-point swing that can largely be attributed to plain old crappy luck.

-Mike Benevides predictably had no answer on defense when Calgary started playing small-ball. The middle of the field was vacated continuously allowing Messam to surge up the gut for big gains. Screens and swing plays had tons of daylight, and horrible Eskimo tackling (Aaron Grymes was abysmal) was on display throughout. Truth be told, Benevides never did adjust, Calgary just oddly stopped calling these plays in favour of intermediate slant plays...which they executed reasonably well save for multiple bad drops by their receivers.

At the end of the day, I think we played well enough to win and Mike Reilly put us in position to win. Unfortunately the spectre of the coaching staff rising up and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory was always looming in the background, as it has been all season. Lo and behold...

 

[blueandgoldguy]

Man it was awesome to see that sack of crap Reilly lose again. Hopefully when that overrated loser walks up to get his undeserved MOP trophy he will think about how a real QB (BLM) will be playing for the Grey Cup again while he is sitting at home crying himself to sleep.

I have to admit I find many of your posts in the CFL thread hilarious and I am not even sure if it is intentional or not.

Comments like....

-Messam being the best running back in the West Division despite having the lowest rushing yardage per carry of all running backs in the west

-Mitchell being the best QB in the league despite underwhelming results throughout the season and finishing 3rd in total passing yards, 6th in passing TDs, 6th in QB efficiency, 8th in completion percentage.

- Reilly being an "interception machine" despite finishing with 13 INTS playing all 18 games - middle of the pack for all CFL quarterbacks and a whopping 2 more than Bo Levi Mitchell. By the way Reilly's interception percentage on his all his passes is 2.0% which is exactly the same as Mitchell

- Reilly's undeserved MOP trophy (assuming he wins it) despite leading the league in passing yardage with 5830 yards, leading the league in TDs, nearly leading the league in quarterback efficiency at 103.2 (barely beaten out by Harris at 103.6 and Nichols at 103.8), fourth in the league in completion percentage and first in the league in yards per attempt at 8.9. All this, while playing for a team dealing with the most man games lost to injury in quite some time. He struggled at the mid point of the season as any QB would with 20 roster players out of the lineup but bounced back at the end.

I look forward to similar posts from you in the future.

Edit: Changed Mitchell to Reilly in final point

 

[Kyle McMahon]

I was bewildered by Maas' decision to go for the field goal with a minute 40 left. Even if they stop Mitchell and the Stamps on a two and out they probably running 40 seconds or so off the clock and forcing Edmonton to march 65 - 75 yards down the field with a minute left to win the game. Not impossible but unlikely given the stiff Calgary defense. If Edmonton goes for it on third down and comes up short they probably have had a better chance at tying it up with a two and out or even four and out - probably get the ball back at centre field or slightly better with between 40 seconds to a minute left. Probably need to move the ball 45 - 55 yards in that time to tie the game and take it to OT.

With that said, we should't assume Edmonton had this game. They still had to get the first down and make it to the endzone - a pretty tall task against the best D in the league. Not only that, they would have had to beat the Stamps in OT which is probably a 50-50 proposition even with late game momentum.

Reilly and the Esks were shut down for the most part after the first quarter. Other than the early going, it doesn't appear all that time off for Calgary's starters hurt them too much. Still the class of the league, but I hesitate to call them shoe-in Grey Cup champs for next week based on all the previous choke jobs of the past.

As for Maas, I can't help but think his mistake will be chalked up of being a young, relatively inexperienced head coach so I expect him back next year. My concern with him are the temper tantrums he throws on the sidelines with the officials when things don't go his way. When your a head coach you need to maintain your composure and set an example. I could see him being gone after next season unless the Esks win a cup. He really comes across as an a-hole.

Yup. That decision was so bad that a failed gamble would have been preferable.

You can't assume Edmonton wins, but they'd have had all the momentum if they tie it up there (or go for 2 and take the lead). The defense was actually showing a pulse at that point (they did at least force a 4-and-out after the idiotic FG, and hadn't given up any points in the last 20 minutes of game time), and the offense had just marched down the field on consecutive drives. The Stamps were on their heels at that point, and you know collars were getting tight with the memory of all the previous chokes hanging over them. At the moment it became 3rd and 4, I probably give the Eskimos a 30-40% chance of winning. Reilly was rolling, I think he converts 4 yards there...but kicking that FG reduced it to about 2%. In 20 years I've never seen a call so baffling.

Maas has no excuse for the call. None whatsoever. A 12 year old playing Madden on Xbox would recognize the stupidity of that decision. You can't retain any credibility as a franchise if he's back on the sideline next year. This was just too outrageous. It goes far beyond an O'Shea fake punt type of call that was dumb, but could have worked out. There was virtually no chance of this decision turning out positively.

 

[Baxterman]

I look forward to similar posts from you in the future.

Basically all that shows is that looking at stats is useless and that you don't watch the games.

Most of BLM low numbers are due to him being taken out of games early and horrible play from his receivers. As we saw today the Stamps receivers drop more balls than anything. That is basically all Parker does and all Jordan has done since coming back.

Messam was the best back in the West early on, moreso because all the RB's suck more than him being great, but really slowed down at the end of the season, I think due to injury.

Reilly had some really terrible INT's this year. Not bad luck bounces but just flat out throw it to the other team, god awful reads. Likely because he can't read defenses so he relies on long bombs and Mitchell/Bowman pushing off to get yards.

Unfortunately you won't likely see many posts from me in the future as I have basically quit the CFL at this point. Just way too much horse crap to continue to support the league. I didn't watch the start of the Stamps game and only switched over once the NFL games became such huge blowouts.