Post game analysis/Good-Bad-Ugly

[TecnoGenius]

You can tell why Dillon Mitchell was looked at primarily as a wide out. He's slow for the slot. I'd consider moving Wheatfall to slot and Mitchell to boundary. When does Wilson come back again?

I watched the REC pre-snap alignment with binocs most of the game.  D.Mitchell was out wide most of the game when he was in.  I think they were moving Wheatie and/or Clercius in a lot.  Wheatie was almost certainly inside slot when he was taking all of those middle beatings.

Also, when jumbo was in, Michell was almost always the guy coming off.

[TecnoGenius]

Needs to throw it 1/2 second earlier.

The story of 2025 and 2024.

[TecnoGenius]

Did not like that deep bomb to Demski that led to the interception, gambling on a low percentage pass and failing at a critical time was like going all in on a roll of the dice.

I 100% applaud the deep shot.  BE BOLD.  We're such wimps.  That's why we lost 3 cups.  MTL won only because they were bold.

As we've seen, we can just as easily be INTed on a 8Yer as a 45Yer.

Remember, a 45Y INT with not much YAC is equal to a punt.

I like the call, and it was close to succeeding.  Take the kill shot.

[Big Daddy]

You're saying food took 10-20 mins ONE HOUR BEFORE KICK OFF?  As in "no line yet"?

Maybe they didn't start the deep fryers early enough?  Took time to get up to temp?  Sometimes they let people in too early and the concessions aren't ready yet.

What I find they have trouble with is if you're waiting for something that isn't ready yet.  Then you get forgotten because there is no process.  I once waited for a game-promotion burger (a $12 one, not the $50 special ones) for 20 mins: they kept coming up from the kitchen and another staff would grab it and give it to someone who ordered way after me.  The people helping me wouldn't bother checking and grabbing mine.  I eventually had to tell my people "hey my burger just came up go grab it".

Zero process.  And most (not all) staff is undertrained and don't give a single crap at all once they've taken your money.

I now say "what's ready", then I order that.  Don't order anything that's not ready.

On the bright side, the West side 200-level food is always pretty good.  You definitely need to know what to order, and stick to your standard choices.

Shawarma Khan is always great, and great fast friendly service.  The chicken tasted off late last season but is now back to being super great.  They fixed that problem.  The pizza is always good "enough".  Chicken fingers & fries always good.  Burger looked funky last night but tasted fine.

Even worse, they turned West after, meaning West upper decks couldn't see them AT ALL, even flying away.  Usually they turn East.

I always say, fly the F18 10' above the uprights!   

Remember the first game they did the fly-by?  It was more of a fly-through!  I swear they went right between the upper deck covers.  If I recall correctly, that led to numerous people living around the stadium complaining about the noise, and they've never come close like that again.

I am sure this was related to the stadium being early in it's existence and all the people living around it being very sensitive to any inconveniences that could occur.

Don't mean to open up a can of worms.  I just don't remember so many complaints by all the people living in the west end and east St. James at the old stadium.

[TecnoGenius]

Bad
Randolph's penalty it was a cheap play on his part

I think Randolph is on the bubble, and he knows it.  I think he's feeling the heat.

Vant/Wallace seem to have won the LG spot.  I don't think Randolph is in the running anymore.

He's been sucking worse at RT every week.  I tell you Lofton is the desired RT.

We may have zero need for Randolph come FA.  We'll need his PR/dev spot to trying to find our next "real" OT (or 2!).

That said, Randolph did have a better game this week.  The fire showed.  He just didn't temper and direct it enough.  The 2 penalties he took were really dumb.

[TecnoGenius]

Good:

Every player upped their game.  Every player made that little extra one play.

It's absolutely amazing the results when your team makes the extra play instead of the other team.  Sometimes it's literally the entire difference between winning & losing.

Like Wheatie hanging on to those 2 suicide balls.  Last season he drops those.

What a great game from effort, focus & concentration.  I hope the players see that this stuff matters and means you win.

[Big Daddy]

I 100% applaud the deep shot.  BE BOLD.  We're such wimps.  That's why we lost 3 cups.  MTL won only because they were bold.

As we've seen, we can just as easily be INTed on a 8Yer as a 45Yer.

Remember, a 45Y INT with not much YAC is equal to a punt.

I like the call, and it was close to succeeding.  Take the kill shot.

Agreed - taking the long shot certainly wasn't the worst play call. As you said - a long ball like that is akin to a punt, with less risk of a return.

More egregious is having Strev run on 2nd and 2+, and adding to that, he stayed upright and essentially guaranteed he would be pushed back and not make it. 

The second most was then NOT going for the 3rd and 1 yard.  I'm with Doug Brown on this one, and was before the play happened.  And props to the guys behind me - he clearly called not only that we may miss the field goal on 3rd, but that it would then be run back for a TD, which of course it was. 

Once you've done the stupid move to run Strev on 2nd and more than 2, at least finish the thought and go for it on 3rd and 1.  Why deviate from that?

[Big Daddy]

Good:

Every player upped their game.  Every player made that little extra one play.

It's absolutely amazing the results when your team makes the extra play instead of the other team.  Sometimes it's literally the entire difference between winning & losing.

Like Wheatie hanging on to those 2 suicide balls.  Last season he drops those.

What a great game from effort, focus & concentration.  I hope the players see that this stuff matters and means you win.

Well if this isn't the "sunshine and roses" post of the day for this (thankfully resurrected) thread of "Good, Bad and the Ugly". 

And I mean that.  While it may seem to be all optimistic and devoid of the crap that happened last night, I can't argue against any of it and it's nice to see some serious positive aspects of the game highlighted.  I for one was not feeling positive driving home after that game, but Tecno - you are absolutely right on these points.   

[TecnoGenius]

And I mean that.  While it may seem to be all optimistic and devoid of the crap that happened last night, I can't argue against any of it and it's nice to see some serious positive aspects of the game highlighted.  I for one was not feeling positive driving home after that game, but Tecno - you are absolutely right on these points.

Yup, on rewatch I can probably find one great play from everyone.  Take Fatboi, having at least 2 huge plays.  Shmekel with at least 2 huge plays.  Adams a huge play.  Kyrie.  T.Jones.  Holm.  Even Ballsy... keep going.

Everyone who has been the punching bag had 1+ moments that made a big difference.

That's how you win games.  Even if our talent is worse on paper, we can win like that.

[TBURGESS]

How you win games... play 2-7 Toronto, 3-7 Ottawa teams.

[TecnoGenius]

How you win games... play 2-7 Toronto, 3-7 Ottawa teams.

I'll take it!!  And teams with no QB (MTL).  Maybe SSK won't have "Made Of Glass" T.Harris by the time we face them... he's due for his annual injury stint.

Is it fair we got CGY 3 times this season?  (And soon SSK?)  We got a crap schedule.  If we get help in other places, so be it.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I think Randolph is on the bubble, and he knows it.  I think he's feeling the heat.

Vant/Wallace seem to have won the LG spot.  I don't think Randolph is in the running anymore.

He's been sucking worse at RT every week.  I tell you Lofton is the desired RT.

We may have zero need for Randolph come FA.  We'll need his PR/dev spot to trying to find our next "real" OT (or 2!).

That said, Randolph did have a better game this week.  The fire showed.  He just didn't temper and direct it enough.  The 2 penalties he took were really dumb.

No he's not. Week 9 he was the best ranked tackle in the entire league. One of the few bright spots we've had along the offensive line.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I 100% applaud the deep shot.  BE BOLD.  We're such wimps.  That's why we lost 3 cups.  MTL won only because they were bold.

As we've seen, we can just as easily be INTed on a 8Yer as a 45Yer.

Remember, a 45Y INT with not much YAC is equal to a punt.

I like the call, and it was close to succeeding.  Take the kill shot.

Zach's bold play flopped, if Ottawa hadn't mismanaged the clock in the last 37 seconds the game goes to OT, fortunately Condell screwed up even worse than Zach.

[TecnoGenius]

No he's not. Week 9 he was the best ranked tackle in the entire league. One of the few bright spots we've had along the offensive line.

Then he single-handedly lost the Week 10 game.  And I don't read much into PFF's phantom OL ratings.  They always gave Dobson best-in-CFL ratings and Dobson was at best half the LG Desjar was when here.

I guarantee that if Lofton is healthy he gets the RT spot.  The one week Lofton was healthy, he got the coveted "harder" LT spot (which Randolph has played in the past), which says to me he's considered "better".  (And I don't think we ever started Lofton at LT before(?) so you can't say we did it for consistency.)

If Randolph is our desired RT going forward (including into 2026) then I hope he dev's a heck of a lot more, or I think he'll keep losing us games.  The only I thing going for him vs Lofton is he's much younger.

Randolph looks skinny and tiny out there compared to the other hoggies, especially compared to Big Stan or Yoshi (when here).  I just don't think he's good enough, and I think all his starting this year is proving it.

[TecnoGenius]

Zach's bold play flopped, if Ottawa hadn't mismanaged the clock in the last 37 seconds the game goes to OT, fortunately Condell screwed up worse than Zach.

It wasn't Zach's play, it was Hogan/MOS's play.  They called the shot.  It was man, so Zach took it.  Blame the coaches/callers.

And was it 2nd down?  Same as a punt should he not get the 1st anyhow.  If it was 1st, then I love the shot even more because everyone and their dog thinks "Brady gut run".  That would explain the man-on-man.

As for Condell... par for the course.