I have faith in the coaches and players , how could one not have faith and be amazed at the same time, we are 10-6 after a most bizarre injury filled season ever,but i still have to question the things i find odd, and this whole QB thing is as odd as it gets. Maybe 16 games into a season of flop flopping QB's will payoff...........I mean we will have 4 game experienced guys ,and it's hard for any team to prepare for all of them come playoffs.....
Miller cant keep doing this.....even though all the qb's say they are handlin this fine, its obviously going to knock them down a few confidence levels. Miller needs to pick a qb and stick with him.....Jyles starting is a straight up joke, but ill wish him the best...
I don't care who starts...I just want the QB to manage the game and win!
Miller’s job is like a manager’s. Let’s say you are a manager in government and you have a very important project to complete by a set date - the most important of your career. You have three employees at a level who can manage the project. Because of funding pressures (read SMS) and the bureacracy of government staffing processes, you cannot bring in other staff (read trade deadline has passed). You give the project to the guy you think is most likely going to complete it properly. As time passes, you see that it is not going as it should despite your support and best efforts. The deadline is looming and, at that rate, the project will not be a success. Do you just let the project go on or restructure responsibility for the project? Suppose the second one doesn’t do better for different reasons but the deadline is even closer because more time has passed. You have another decision to make - move to the third one who is junior but showed promise in a support role, leave the second one and have an increased risk of failure in or even go back to the first one because you see that grass wasn’t greener with what you thought at the time was the next best alternative?
The ultimate objective is not to give one of the employees certainty at the cost of not completing the project. The objective is to get the project done right and on time. I have managed many a project where I am stuck with the group I have and I can tell you that it is rarely black and white - that decisions are usually not about right and wrong, but about which decision is the better one at the time, amongst several or many imperfect alternatives based on incomplete information. And no matter which decision is made at the various points along the process, not everyone will be pleased (often nobody is) and not everyone will get what they want. It is a thankless job from that perspective, but not from the perspective of satifaction in achieving the goal set out. The affected employees’ confidence levels are a factor in the consideration but are not the ultimate consideration.
My point here is I can relate to Miller’s tough choices. I am not here to say that I think he makes the better choice amongst all alternatives at each point in time along the process. But I can say that he does seem to understand the ultimate objective - to win - and that is not something I sense from the fans who essentially take the side of one player or the other. I am just thankful that those fans aren’t the coach - we had a coach like for years and it never got us the ultimate objective. If one or the other has to be sacrificed (better if the manager can have both at the same time, of course), it has to be the egos of the players.
The problem is swapping QBs this late in the season doesn’t seem like a good choice to help us win. I do know Miller has a really tough job and none of these QBs is the clearcut #1 so I wouldn’t want to be in his position. I hope Jyles does well this weekend but I don’t want to see the fans come down on him if his game isn’t great because he is in a tough position.
Another take:
Are Miller and ET giving Jyles one last chance, and using this game to decide between Jyles or Bell?
Dalton Bell has made it onto the 46-man roster repeatedly now. If Jyles can't get it done when given the opportunity, do we go with Durant, Bishop, Bell? If he can, do we go with Durant, Jyles, Bell, or Bishop, Jyles, Bell?
This Jyles start could determine the direction of the QB future for the Riders.
The only thing I know for sure is that we'll be bitching about the QB situation next year too. Let's not forget, as a fan base, we're not exactly easy to deal with, in terms of QB's. We hold the dubious distinction of booing Ronnie off the field in his last season. We more or less chased Austin out of town with sticks.
This little bit of turbulence barely warrants a paragraph in the Permanent Record.
I have to agree… those who bitch & moan will always bitch and moan regardless of who’s playing… does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that achieving a 10-6 record with 6 broken legs… 4 different QB’s… 19 different receivers… 9 different O linemen and enough injuries in 15 games than most teams have in 2-3 Years is simply AMAZING.
Riders are 10 and 6. Could win 12 games. Maybe 11. Maybe 10 but with more injuries than any Riders team I can remember. Dont know about you but I have been going to Riders games for 30 years. Never have seen anything like the injuries Coach Millers team has had. Boone Miller is not a friggin joke. Fans like you are. How many people thought Riders would win 11 games this year? Or 12 games this year?
Read this on Riderville this morning. Jyles has done this against Argos and Hamilton. The 2 games he played a lot. Passed 32 times and 26 passes were completed. That surprised me. Not good at doing percentages but someone on here can. 26 out of 32 is good for Ricky Ray or Anthony Calvillo. Jyles has been good since BC game.
If Durants bad half against Hamilton means nothing. Durant fans say it was just 1 half. Why does everyone do this. Keep talking about Jyles bad 1 quarter against the Lions? Since then the man has played good.
Jyles and Durant are young qbs. I dont know who the best 1 is. But I think this. Riders playoff qb will be Bishop. I want to see him play with Cates and Fantuz and Dominguez back. I may be the only Bishop fan on here. But thats ok with me.
This is a weird thing, because we have one great QB, it's just been split between 3 bodies. If we could combine the positive attributes, we'd have a star. DD moves the ball well, and seems to have the best "presence" when he's on the field. But, his arm strength seems average at best (both of his first 2 picks were underthrows), and he's been only OK against both BC and Hamilton.
Jyles runs well, and throws wel, but is prone to locking in on guys, and has a propensity to throw picks. The two are probably not unrelated.
Bishop has the best arm (possibly in the league) and the best physical tools of the three. He is, however, spectacularly inconsistent, often amazing and horrible, all in the same drive. Bishop is also the most prone of the three to go 2-and-out....alot, which is hard on the D.
I hate the merry-go-round that we have, but regrettably, no one has stepped up and taken the reins. The other two have had and blown chances, and now I guess Jyles gets his shot. If he falters, then I don't know where we go.
I like Durant the best of the three long-term, but in a one-game scenario, I don't know if he's the guy yet or not.
Jyles has played in 5 games this year.
Jyles: 35/47 (74.5%), 434 yd, 9.2 ave, 3TD, 4INT, 88.3 QB rating
Durant: 77/129 (59.7%), 1122 yd, 8.7 ave, 7 TD, 6 INT, 86.7 rating
Bishop: 114/190 (60.0%), 1786 yd, 9.4 ave, 5 TD, 8 INT, 82.4 rating
Calvillo - 70.1%, Burris - 64.5%, Ray - 69.2%, Joseph - 56.5%, Pierce - 64.9%, Glenn - 63.8%, Printers - 57.0%, Porter - 66.2%
Jyles is accurate, but he threw a lot of short passes. I mentioned it elsewhere and Rob Vanstone blogged it when I sent it to him, his 2nd down conversion rate is poor (although he doesn’t get into 2nd down as much as others).
Hamilton game 2nd down conversions:
Jyles: Run 4/6, Pass 2/7, Overall 6/13 (46%)
What good is a 74.5% completion percentage, if 5/7 (71.4%) of your passes are short or incomplete on 2nd down.
I guess my question then Austin, is why are you a Bishop fan? You just made your case for Jyles. 26 years old and playing better than the 10 year pro. Durant, also 26, has also played better than the 10 year pro. Bishop has played about as well as I expected--which is not a compliment. Bringing in Bishop has been a mistake. Nearly as big a mistake as trading KJ. If we had just played the kids from the get go, we might have a bonafide starter by now. By playing around with Bishop, we lost valuable time to develop these kids, Now with 2 games left, the biggest game of the year, we start Jyles? I hope the kid plays awesome. But it just does not make any sense. But if Bishop was/is the guy for the play-offs, he should start this week. Otherwise.....
People keep saying Bishop is inconsistent. I think I disagree. The problem is, he is very consistent. Consistently bad. His completion % career is below 50%, he actually appears to be a lousy runner, and he has had one really good half of football combined with numerous bad ones since he has been here. I am just not a fan. Bring back Reggie Slack, who by comparison, was an all-star.
I like Durant. He is better qb than he was Sunday. I like Jyles to. Think he is going to be good. Maybe he should be the starter. But I want to see Bishop play with the best players. You think I am a cool aid drinker. But I think this Arius. Bishop would be a lot better qb with Cates and Fantuz and Dominguez. Maybe Flick will be back soon. And Bowman to. If Bishop starts with Cates and best receivers and ODay and Johnson in the playoffs I think he will do very good. Nothing against Jyles. Nothing against Durant.
I didnt like the Joseph trade. But after watching him in Toronto this year I like the trade better. A lot better. Right now to me Bishop and Joseph are about the same. But Bishop is younger. 3 or 4 years I think. I saw Bell in practice 2 times. He is going to be a good qb. I say next year our qb will be Bell or Jyles or Durant. Unless Bishop gets to play in the playoffs. If he does and plays good. You can bitch about Bishop next year to.
Slacks problem was not talent. We all know what Al Ford did. What he covered up.
Jyles had Cates every game. Do you agree with this? Cates is 1 of the best players in the CFL. Do you agree with this? Other defence has to try hard to stop Cates. That makes it easier for qb to do good things.
Cates. No Cates. who cares. Either Bishop is a better qB right now than Durant or Jyles, or he isn’t. If he doesn’t play this week, in a game which, if we win, might get us 1st place, but if we lose almost certainly gets us 4th, what does that tell you about Bishop? And what the coach thinks? So if he isn’t the guy this week, why would he be the guy in the play-offs? Of course there has been very little rhyme or reason to the QB situation since before the season began, so why start now…
I think they should start Bell in the play-off game. But certainly not even dress him before that. Now that would be consistant…
I love that you and a few others are close to anointing Bell as the QB of the future based on a couple of practices. Or is the cool=aid extra strong this week?
I think AP set a record for the most sentences-that-aren't-sentences in a single internet thread.
Congratulations! And to you too, Arius, you are clearly the wind beneath his wings.
And btw, I'm still waiting on your reply to my theory from a week ago that Casey Printers will be our 2009 starting QB.
Just make a couple of comments here.
One the riders didn't run Austin out of town. He asked to be released or traded because Regina was not big enough for him and his family. Even his wife admitted that when they came. She said their priorities had changed with young kids.
Now onto the Bishop vs Jyles vs Durant. If I was Miller right now, I would be preparing Jyles and Durant to platoon just like they did with Barnes and Hufnagel years ago. If one couldn't get the team moving the other usually did. I am not high on Jyles but he is better then Bishop.
As for Bishop needing to play with all the starters. People who make this argument aren't taking into consideration he has won without all our starters, so why would it make a difference. With the exception of what the first game and half, we haven't had all our starters at one time (not counting MD not starting the first couple of games) and we still managed to win. So if we can win without all are starters why do we need to wait for them to come back to see if Bishop can play with them.
What are you referring to? I am not disagreeing, I just do not know the story…