Argos at Blue Bombers PRE GAME thread

[3rdand1.5]

Well IMO if Hanson picks up where he left off he is better than Bennet so we are upgrading the D-line. Would have been great to find a way to keep Haba also in the rotation. Hopefully Gauthier gets healthy we can put him in pull off an import LB then pull Bennet off and add Haba in his place. This would keep the CDN/Import numbers the same, improve the special teams and improve the D-line.

Maybe next week

[Jesse]

Why is everyone complaining that we are being handed an easier game?

Generally, the people who post here like football and enjoy seeing the highest quality game they can.

Highly anticipated match-ups are....highly anticipated...

[TBURGESS]

Why is everyone complaining that we are being handed an easier game?

Because I want to see the best against the best.

[Blueforlife]

Last time this will be mentioned.  In future, if members decide to mess around with players', coaches', managers' names, those posts will no longer be modified, they will be deleted.  Legitimate criticism is always allowed, the modifying names is demeaning and insulting and will not tolerated.  I don't know how many times this has been stated and it is covered in the rules.  Please abide by the rules!

Great approach and well supported by me.  Thanks for doing this.

Modadmin... more like Madadmin... am I right?! 

It's a serious issue on here and an annoyance for the mods.  We can all help them by using proper names.

[TecnoGenius]

Mind games by the Argos.

If they lose, they played backups and it does not really mean anything.

If they win, they are easily the best team in the league.

Ducky understands.  It's like game theory.

By not playing Kelly the Argos can look like garbage and lose 60-0 and they'll just say it's because they were playing their no-starts backup.

If they lose a close game, they can say "look how awesome we are, we almost beat the Bumblers with our nobody QB!"

If they win, heaven help us, they'll gloat and every fan from every other team will laugh how we got smoked by a 5th string nobody QB.

Now turn it around and imagine if Kelly plays the whole game...

If they lose 60-0 with Kelly then there's a massive seed of doubt in the TOR mindspace.  Not good for TOR.

If they lose a close game, it still shakes their confidence.  Not good for TOR.

If they win, then they continue on with the status quo of "we're the best and unbeatable".  Neutral for TOR.

So by not playing Kelly they have 2 possible outcomes that are good (for TOR) and 1 outcome that is neutral.

If they play Kelly they have 2 possible outcomes that are very bad for TOR, and 1 outcome that is neutral.

So what HC would play Kelly??  They cannot possibly have any harm by choosing to bench Kelly.  Oh ya, and by not playing Kelly, he also can't get injured.  And double bonus: the backup guys get valuable real-world game reps.  Triple bonus: the pressure is massively on us because of the level of embarrassment a WPG loss would cause.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Ducky understands.  It's like game theory.

By not playing Kelly the Argos can look like garbage and lose 60-0 and they'll just say it's because they were playing their no-starts backup.

If they lose a close game, they can say "look how awesome we are, we almost beat the Bumblers with our nobody QB!"

If they win, heaven help us, they'll gloat and every fan from every other team will laugh how we got smoked by a 5th string nobody QB.

Now turn it around and imagine if Kelly plays the whole game...

If they lose 60-0 with Kelly then there's a massive seed of doubt in the TOR mindspace.  Not good for TOR.

If they lose a close game, it still shakes their confidence.  Not good for TOR.

If they win, then they continue on with the status quo of "we're the best and unbeatable".  Neutral for TOR.

So by not playing Kelly they have 2 possible outcomes that are good (for TOR) and 1 outcome that is neutral.

If they play Kelly they have 2 possible outcomes that are very bad for TOR, and 1 outcome that is neutral.

So what HC would play Kelly??  They cannot possibly have any harm by choosing to bench Kelly.  Oh ya, and by not playing Kelly, he also can't get injured.  And double bonus: the backup guys get valuable real-world game reps.  Triple bonus: the pressure is massively on us because of the level of embarrassment a WPG loss would cause.

Bombers would be pretty dumb to run up the score on the Argos as that would add incentive to a potential rematch in the GC.  Honestly can't see them able to do it against what will still be an outstanding Argo defence, 30 something pts. would be great.  I do expect the Bomber D to be able to hold their O under Dukes to less than 20 pts.

[TecnoGenius]

With Kelly getting half time for the next 5 games, you kind of wonder what that does to the MOP race.

If Brady is lights out 100+ in all remaining games, getting tough yards and 1st downs, then Kelly sitting now might allow Brady to get MOP.  I'm pretty sure Zach is out of the equation.  He's been too hot & cold, and thrown way too many INTs without coming back to win.  Zach would have to do something special for all remaining games to be back in the hunt.  Brady has been far more consistent than Zach this season, and he's the RB most teams would love to have.

[TecnoGenius]

Bombers would be pretty dumb to run up the score on the Argos as that would add incentive to a potential rematch in the GC.  Honestly can't see them able to do it against what will still be an outstanding Argo defence, 30 something pts. would be great.  I do expect the Bomber D to be able to hold their O under Dukes to less than 20 pts.

I don't think we run up the score for running-it-up's sake.  But we must keep racking up the points until mid-4th because it's the CFL and unless you're up 3 majors by then, you're not safe.  Especially against TOR who thinks they'll win every game no matter how much they're down.

The secret sauce to the TOR O is 1) their OL, 2) Oullette.  The OL isn't resting anyone, from what I can see.  This should give Dukes piles of time.  And if he can (or will) run, watch out, because our D stinks really bad against "running QBs".  I think if we can stop scrambled eggs guy and stop Dukes from running, we can win easily.  But if either of them can run at will on our front 7, we're in for a long night.

[Jesse]

If Brady is lights out 100+ in all remaining games, getting tough yards and 1st downs, then Kelly sitting now might allow Brady to get MOP.  I'm pretty sure Zach is out of the equation.  He's been too hot & cold, and thrown way too many INTs without coming back to win.  Zach would have to do something special for all remaining games to be back in the hunt.  Brady has been far more consistent than Zach this season, and he's the RB most teams would love to have.

Zach's MOP stats last year:

4183 yards, 70% completion, 9.6 yard/completion, 37 TDs, 13 INTs, 116 rating (this is while sitting for 2ish games end of season).

On pace this year:

4550 yards, 67.8% completion, 10.5 yard/completion, 38 TDs, 17 INTs, 115 rating (this is while missing 1.5 games due to injury but projecting to play the final 4 games).

[bluengold204]

With Kelly getting half time for the next 5 games, you kind of wonder what that does to the MOP race.

I don?t think it will matter, I don?t expect Kelly to sit out for their 2 home games after this one.

Kelly has been by far the best player this year and I don?t think it will be much of discussion who takes home MOP at the end of the year.

[TecnoGenius]

On pace this year:

4550 yards, 67.8% completion, 10.5 yard/completion, 38 TDs, 17 INTs, 115 rating (this is while missing 1.5 games due to injury but projecting to play the final 4 games).

And Kelly's for comparison?

Whether Zach's stats look good on paper or not, I think the general feeling around the league and amongst fans of every team (including ours) is Zach has had a hot/cold "off" year.  The many multi-INT games are what will put his chances down the drain.  And losing to bottom-feeder teams.

Now, if Zach comes out and lights up TOR like he did BC and SSK with TD after TD after TD, and he does that in all 4 remaining games, then maybe he can be back in the picture.  If us blue-goggle WPG fans think he's probably not MOP, then what do you think the non-WPG media voters are thinking??  I think our best shot is for Brady to sneak in and win it.

[TecnoGenius]

I don?t think it will matter, I don?t expect Kelly to sit out for their 2 home games after this one.

My money is on Kelly not seeing more than a half of football per game for all remaining season games.  In fact, I'd also put a smaller bet it's not more than a quarter.  Maybe 1-3 games he doesn't see the field at all.

My only question is: do you bring Kelly on to try to salvage a game that the other nobodies are losing?  I doubt it.  That's not usually what CFL HCs do.  Rust Shmust.  Every year we argue this but staying healthy trumps mythical rust.

[Jesse]

And Kelly's for comparison?

If Kelly were to miss 2 games (which is likely going to be more, but we'll leave at 2 to make it comparable to ZC:

4179 yards, 68.6% completion, 10.4 yard/completion, 26 TDs, 14 INTs, 110 rating (Kelly has also rushed for 8 TDs if you want to count those into the mix).

I know the narrative surrounding the Argos, but "most outstanding" doesn't really apply to what Kelly has done this year, imo.

[3rdand1.5]

IMO Kelly takes MOP easily this year, I believe Zach will get a few votes and it wouldn't surprise me if VA ends up with a couple votes.  I think Brady and Betts will be a solid battle with voters for CDN.

[peg_city]

IMO Kelly takes MOP easily this year, I believe Zach will get a few votes and it wouldn't surprise me if VA ends up with a couple votes.  I think Brady and Betts will be a solid battle with voters for CDN.

Does he? If he's barely playing the last 5 games of the year....