CFL: The CFL thread - Part IV

[kovacro]

Masoli could have been more clinical tonight. I'll take the 333 yards but man the 23/43 hurts, plus the 1 INT to know TD...errg

I'd rather they got the W. I could care less about his Masoli's numbers. If he wants to be an elite QB, he needs to engineer game winning drives. No doubt, this loss is on the offense. Would have like to have seen them pound the rock more with Timmis/White & Whitlock.

Defense looked good again. Jerry Glanville has them balling out. Hopefully Tracy and Leonard are back after the bye.

Ti-Cats kick returns have been garbage thus far, they need to work on that phase of the special teams game.

 

[robertmac43]

Jerry Glanville

Huge off season pick up. I didn't know much about him but he his age and experience have proven to be important to the team.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Not sure what game the officials have been watching during this Als-Redblacks 4th quarter. Awful calls all around against both teams.

Wtf is Ottawa doing chucking balls down field with 2:30 to go up by 10? Apparently Rick Campbell went to the Andy Reid school of clock management.

And then Mike Sherman punts with 2 minutes left in a 2-possession game. Wow.

 

[Club]

GO STAMPS!

 

[Mightygoose]

Argos finally in the win column. Franklin played a good vertical game which was missing last game.

The secondary was swiss cheese again but got a couple key takaways to keep them until the winning drive.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

CFL schedule just makes you scratch your head sometimes. 3 games this week. 5 of the 6 teams will step onto the field this week against the same opponent they last faced. Both EDM-TOR and WPG-BC are the in the 2nd leg of home and home series, while Calgary had a Week 4 bye and last played against Ottawa in Week 3 which is the team they are facing this week.

 

[Mightygoose]

Location of potential stadium in Halifax narrowed down to 2 sites.

Location down to two sites for Halifax CFL stadium

Council meets on July 17 to vote on moving forward. I assume it's to enter formal talks with the group

 

[Newsworthy]

I Hope the new stadium is real grass instead of turf.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

I Hope the new stadium is real grass instead of turf.

I'd settle for the field just being made entirely of the same surface. You'd think you could take that for granted in 2018...

 

[Kyle McMahon]

CFL schedule just makes you scratch your head sometimes. 3 games this week. 5 of the 6 teams will step onto the field this week against the same opponent they last faced. Both EDM-TOR and WPG-BC are the in the 2nd leg of home and home series, while Calgary had a Week 4 bye and last played against Ottawa in Week 3 which is the team they are facing this week.

Yes, this is rather weird. Seems to me the league has gone heavy on East vs West early in the season the last two or three years. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this would be, or why they're so heavy on home-and-home. I'd rather they went away from that. If one team suffers a key short-term injury, the team they're playing two successive games against gets a big advantage that nobody else will get.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Yes, this is rather weird. Seems to me the league has gone heavy on East vs West early in the season the last two or three years. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this would be, or why they're so heavy on home-and-home. I'd rather they went away from that. If one team suffers a key short-term injury, the team they're playing two successive games against gets a big advantage that nobody else will get.

I've noticed lots of home and homes for sure. Used to be Bombers usually had just 1 (Labour Day + Banjo Bowl), maybe 2. Now we are getting 3-4 a year. Not sure the reasoning on this and I agree with you on injury point.

As for the East v West yes thing yes it's quite clear that that is a focus of CFL scheduling to get as many cross division out of the way in the summer. That one makes sense to me. You want the rivalry games and playoff implication games later in the year for a couple reasons, IMO. One it's harder to draw fans out when the temperature falls and for Winnipeg for example Edmonton, Calgary (Sask is #1 but they are Labour Day + Banjo Bowl and maybe one more game) are likely to be better draws than Hamilton or Toronto. Second is the playoff race can drive fan interest so it makes sense to have games later in the year against teams you are competing against for a playoff spot.

Bombers schedule to start is EDM, @ MTL, @ HAM, BC, @ BC, @ TOR, TOR, BYE, HAM. In first 8 game Bombers face just 5 different teams, 2 home and homes, 5/8 vs East. Bombers are then done with BC (Week 5), TOR (Week 7), and Hamilton (Week 9) for the year. Crazy.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Lulay might get the start this week. With the number of surgeries that guy has had I can't believe he still wants to play football. It does give BC a chance in this game this week.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Calgary looks like they may win 16-17 games again this year. Ridiculous.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Calgary looks like they may win 16-17 games again this year. Ridiculous.

I thought they'd take a step back this year, but yeah it's looking like everyone else is playing for second already. We'll see what happens when they play Edmonton and Winnipeg though. 4-0 with all of them against the East may not be much more than holding serve, though of course the Esks and Bombers have already dropped games against the East, so it might not be like previous years. I actually wouldn't bet substantive money on a crossover yet, whereas pervious years it was all but clinched by August.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

You know I started to buy the hype with Eskimos but this home and home with Toronto does not look great for them. I seriously shudder to think of how dominant the Esks offense would be if they ever got some talent on the OLine, but it's clearly holding them back right now. Not sure if Edmonton D is playing well or Argonauts offense is this poor. I am more and more feeling that Edmonton will be visiting Winnipeg for the West final. I guess though we'll see if the Bombers show up tomorrow, a loss tomorrow and I'm super concerned about the Bombers as well.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

What a crazy head to head hit. As someone who played only at the high school level, I just don't know how they actually take this out of the game though. It wasn't a targeted head shot, he went for the tackle and it was mostly incidental. It just happens. Which is why I think that eventually football is a sport that will be phased out because of the head injuries.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

You know I started to buy the hype with Eskimos but this home and home with Toronto does not look great for them. I seriously shudder to think of how dominant the Esks offense would be if they ever got some talent on the OLine, but it's clearly holding them back right now. Not sure if Edmonton D is playing well or Argonauts offense is this poor. I am more and more feeling that Edmonton will be visiting Winnipeg for the West final. I guess though we'll see if the Bombers show up tomorrow, a loss tomorrow and I'm super concerned about the Bombers as well.

Edmonton is held back by Maas' bad play calling, and really more just his bad game management in general.

Establishing a run game should priority number one, especially in a game last night where it's pouring rain. Yet Gable had all of about 5 touches in the first half. Most of Edmonton's rushing yards were from Reilly scrambling on designed pass plays. The run/pass call ratio was about 90/10 in the first half. In a freaking rainstorm.

Passing in bad weather should heavily emphasize short crossing routes, hitting a sure-handed fullback like Calvin McCarty out of the backfield, screens, etc. But instead we see Reilly having to gun a wet football 30+ yards just to pick up 10 because there were so many calls for passes outside the numbers. Maas called last night's game identical to how he would call a game in warm sunshine. Adjusting for conditions? What's that?

Compare that to Trestman on the other sideline. Toronto's offense was simple. Feed Wilder, hit Cross out of the backfield, hit SJ Green on a bunch of underneath routes. Two out of three of those objectives were hugely successful. Fortunately the Eskimo D-line had a great game and shut down Wilder. This is the main reason they were able to eke out a win.

I think Winnipeg looks better than Edmonton too, no doubt. O'Shea is a better coach than Maas, plain and simple. That counts for a lot in this sport. If Reilly and Nichols traded places, it wouldn't be close. Reilly's ability to lead a drive at opportune times and seldom turn the ball over is keeping Maas employed.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

What a fabulously executed surprise on-side kick by Winnipeg. That was a thing of beauty.

Lulay looked great for three quarters of a drive...SFA for the Lions since the pick though. At risk of being blown out again.

 

[Cloned]

@Kyle McMahon

It's a good thing Buono is retiring after this season, because it's pretty obvious his schemes and playbook are horribly outdated. Rumours are that he's stubborn AF and refuses to let anyone even think about changing things up there.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Still trying to figure out what the **** that 3rd and inches call was.

You call shotgun with a wing back when you need a couple of inches, which is basically a gimme in this league. Like...why?

 

[Kyle McMahon]

^

Yup, any call besides QB sneak on third and inches is just asking for trouble.

LoL they just did it again. Holy crap.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

@Kyle McMahon

It's a good thing Buono is retiring after this season, because it's pretty obvious his schemes and playbook are horribly outdated. Rumours are that he's stubborn AF and refuses to let anyone even think about changing things up there.

Love Wally for being a respected mainstay in this league for so long, but yeah I'd say he's hung around a couple years too long. I'm seeing where his former understudy Mike Benefeces learned his zero-pressure defense from.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Looks like Montreal might have competition in the league's cellar.

Sporadic offense, brutal defense...BC is brutal.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

And now it's Paul Lapolice's turn to go braindead. Like seriously?

Bombers turn it over twice at the goal line. Unreal that this is a one score game.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

Bombers not looking very good today. Just terrible game. No one seems to want to step up to be the #2 team in the league right now. Edmonton, Winnipeg, Hamilton, Ottawa have been very inconsistent this year.