A blow-out for the Lions against the Argos?

The Argos now have improved their offensive line with Washington, Reinders and Epelle. Kackert has been a dose of adrenalin- if playing, he is on a roll. They have a great kicker, improved receivers and Ray, has been getting good protection. I
will be interested to see Feoli-Gudino in action. He had a great CIS career. The Argos will be looking to move to the top of the East!

Ugh Oh. hold that thought Kackert will not be playing in BC he did not even make the trip. Toronto appears willing to trade in a loss to a non conference opponent after sweeping hamilton and head into Montreal next week fresh with some possible O Line changes.

Toronto has excellent backs in Durie and Johnson who can more than make up the slack with Kackert not playing. That being said, BC is the class of the CFL this year and this will be a convincing victory by the Lions.

Kackert is injured. Are you suggesting the Argos should play him anyways?

No not at all it is the perfect spot to rest him. Two strong work hoarse load games seperating themselves from Hamilton and will be fresh next week to take a shot at going 2-0 against conference rival Montreal. It is the smart play. The Ugh Oh was in my own opinion of the Argos winning the game a much bigger task without Kackert who has been playing lights out but I like Riggs. He made the 46 man roster the first week then was placed onthe practice squad but ultimately it is hard to carry more than 3 import RBs on the 46 man roster and they needed the room on the practice squad for other players so it was a numbers game

Riggs will be starting Durie is also still on the IR for this one and Johnson is more a FB

Oh sure, couldn’t Kackert not have played last week…

ticat helmet took him out. way to help the competition :wink:

Washington was a huge improvement over Wayne Smith trying to play LT. But to call Reinders and Eppele “improvements” is laughable.

Reinders hasn’t played a single down for Toronto - - no idea how you can call that an “improvement”.

As for Eppele, Toronto pulled the plug on him last month. They didn’t just bench him, they actually moved him to DT because he was so useless at G. Inexplicably, they decided to start Eppele at G last week - - and that lasted for 30mins before Eppele was stapled back to the bench. I guess you could say Eppele “improves” the OLine by being benched.

Marcoux started 17 games for Toronto last year. He was an East Division All Star the year before. Not excatly a rookie stepping in to make his first pro start.

Even with his “injury” Marcoux could step in as a starter tomorrow and be an upgrade over any of the turnstiles that will be playing G against BC.

Fortunately for the Argos, the Leos may be playing without DT Khalif Mitchell who has the flu. While I would expect him to suit up, expect to see much more of Jabar Westerman (who's had a very impressive rookie season).

in more ways than one

I agree with Marcoux being an improvement on the O line. In fact i suspect he would be the starter if he were not injured. Some think that he is not really injured, if that were true i can not see why they would not have him in the line up considering he was there starter and and allstar.
Reinders will be a mystery until he is given a chance to play. He certainly does not come in with the same starting talent base as Washington who was just snubbed by the NFL do to legal issues from when he was 15. Washington however did gain pro experience through the Arena League and some time with Calgary last season. He went back to the Arena in the Spring and he spent a month on the practice squad and Toronto felt he was ready and he was.
Reinders is a great athlete who moved from basketball to football for two years at University.He has spent two seasons in NFL camps getting his football skills in place. It could be that he is not quite ready yet but he is no longer a raw talent this is his 3rd year since University and it could be that Toronto may feel he would be better served finishing this season on the sidelines and come out next season starting TC with the Argos. Only they know if he is ready.
Whichever the case Toronto definetely needs to improve on the O Line from the center to the right.
It appears that they like van zyle at RT and they like smith at LG next to Washington so Center and RG seem to be the biggest need on the O line.
If Marcoux can come back the talk is they may move Paterteau to center. Paretnteau I beleive was also a starter last season in SASK. So narrowing things down it appears that the career back up Keeping is the weakest link.
The question is what will Toronto do about it. I suspect like after the BC game as before we will see a new face on the O Line

You’d think a team would want their best players on the field but that’s not the way it goes in Toronto with Milanovich & his buddy Jones. If they don’t like a guy then he’s not going to play. This is why Cory Boyd was released. This is why Ricky Foley is splitting reps with an undrafted CIS rookie. This is why Marcoux was told to go home.

Take a look at who else is on the 9 game IR for Toronto. Prefontaine is still around the team. Kuame is still around the team. Collaros is still around the team. Only Marcoux was sent home. Does that seem a bit strange to anyone but me?

I’d love to know when Marcouz was allegedly “injured”. He was benched for three games with no mention of him being too hurt to play. Then he’s suddenly on the 9 game IR and no longer with the team.

Marcoux will sit at home for the rest of the season getting paid each week to do nothing. And at the end of the season he’ll be released. Is that an effective use of an asset?

I agree with Marcoux situation i do not know what is going on their. As for Foley, Toronto has a huge shortage of NI on the D Line. in order to get foley some rest he must give way to Lee for ratio reasons. Toronto is just at the 7 Minimum for the ratio and can not rotate an import in for foley in the D Line rotation.
I think you will see the rotation time beginning to shorten for Lee a lot now that we are almost 2/3 trough the season. As you pointed out we may have saw the beginning of that tonight in the second half.

Foley is 250lbs, not 350lbs. He doesn’t need to come out for a “rest” every third series. Does Toronto rotate their LBs or their OLine to “catch their breath”?

Pulling Foley off has nothing to do with “rest” - - it’s all about feeding Chris Jones’ ego. Trying his best to show that his X’s and O’s schemes are so wonderful that it doesn’t matter if he has the former Top Canadian at DE or an undrafted CIS rookie or a converted LB.

Unfortunately for Jones, his experiment with Lee and Kuale at DE is failing miserably and it’s just a matter of time until he has to face reality and call it quits on both of them.

I have agreed with pretty much everything that you said but in this age of pro football the D line rotation is part of every teams scheme now. How many series or reps each D lineman get are up to the coaching staff but having fresher D lineman in the game is the philosohpy that every high level football league uses.
It is the reason why you see the NFL raiding the CFL each year now for top D line pass rushers or pass rush OLBs. If you look at the number of CFL players who have landed spots on 53 man NFL rosters and have been successful you will find that these are the positions that most of them are playing. Just check the list of those who are now succeeding. Since wake has hit it big in Miami the list continues to grow each season. John Chick, phillip hunt, justin hickman just to name a few play part of rotations as DE or OLB pass rushers.