You would've had to be going to Rider games (that's the Regina 'Riders) prior to '48, when they switched to green and white.
Probably not many people around that can say that (and if they're that old, they may not even remember anyway)
Never miss an opportunity to take a shot at Hamilton, eh? I won’t say it’ll be the same, but I am curious to see the crowd size will be in Winnipeg this week after they got their butts whooped by the Cats.
As for biggest surprises, how inept Montreal looked against BC. They just don’t look like the same dominant team they usually look like during the early weeks.
It’s going to take a little bit to re-gain some of the fans we lost between 2005-2008. Consecutive 3-15 seasons will do that to you. Lets see how many fans Winnipeg gets if they go through that. I Believe they were dropping into the low 20,000’s at times last year and they were 7-11.
With the possible exception of Calgary, we’ve had the worst schedule to open the season and yet we still managed to come out of it with a 2-1 record, all the while winning in two places where we don’t normally win (Commonwealth, Vancouver). I wouldn’t exactly characterize that as inept.
Rightly or wrongly, Montreal is judged based on their past. At this point in most seasons, Montreal is usually 3-0 with a point differential of +9,000. Maybe ‘inept’ wasn’t the best word to use, but they didn’t look particularly good against BC. I mean, how often does a team fail to score a TD in the CFL and still win the game? In fact, how often does Montreal fail to score a TD, period?
Right, but league parity is high this season, and we weren’t going to come out of the gate 3-0 and smoking hot every year. Eventually, the East was going to catch up. This just happens to be that year.
I would agree with you that the offense didn’t look particularly good against BC. However, the defense held the Lions to 1 passing touchdown, less than 250 total yards, and an absurdly low number of rushing yards. No BC receiver hit 100 yards on the night, not even Geroy Simon. They also intercepted Printers twice, sacked him once, and hurried him into numerous errors and two-and-outs. I’d say the D showed up to play, and moreover, has been getting better since the second half of the Edmonton game.
I mean, how often does a team fail to score a TD in the CFL and still win the game? In fact, how often does Montreal fail to score a TD, period?
Not often either way. But again, how often does a team open the season on a grueling [i]three[/i]-game road trip in multiple time zones? Considering that we hadn't won in Edmonton in four years and Vancouver in 10 years, coming out with wins in both those locations is pretty nice in my book.
Unfortunately, on top of this brutal season-opening road trip, the genius schedule-makers of the CFL have us playing an absurdly high number of games in a short span of days:
July 11
July 16
July 22
July 29
That’s four games in 18 days, and from the BC game onward, three games in 11 days. Not only is that more wear and tear on the body, and more chance of injury, but it means fewer practices during the week and thus less readiness for game situations.
It’s not coincidence that the only other team with a schedule anywhere near as horrible as ours (Calgary) hasn’t looked particularly impressive either. I don’t know any team that would be firing on all cylinders if they averaged a game every four days for just under three weeks.
And to clarify, we had 5 days between the July 11 and July 16 game, which was already on the road and out west, in different time zones to boot. Six days to the Hamilton game. And we're still playing three games in 12 days (July 16, 22, and 29).
This is on top of the three-game opening road trip.
I'm not trying to make excuses for my team, because there is a lot of parity this year, and the teams on top deserve to be there, but as I said before, I defy any team to do what we're doing right now and look like a million bucks in all phases of the game.