Our 6-0 start a negative?

I was just wondering what anyone else thought of this?

IMO, we were forced into getting a known comodity QB (Bishop) because we had a fantastic start and had a shot at winning the west. ET and coach Miller must have thought that we needed someone other than a rookie back their to take us through the remander of the year.

Well how about this scenario?

We go 3-3....we sit 4th in the west. All of a sudden were not like "oh shit were better than everyone else" so we give Durant all the starts other than when he went down with the injured ribs. Sure maybe we don't finish 12-6 and get a home playoff game, but in light of comments by Mo Lloyd (wont go into details, see the thread about it) and the disaterous finish to the season. Do you think that, in hindsight, we would have been better off we a different start other than 6-0? and if so would this scenario have us better prepared for next year?

And yes i know this is complete speculation.

Other teams would love to have a 6-0 start. No point in regretting about something obviously positive. Although finishing 4th helps Edmonton in playoffs, pro teams are in the business of maximizing victories and revenues.

Let me put it to you this way. No!
If any of what you say had the least bit of bearing on the decision to bring in Bishop, then I'm with Mike---ET owes the fans an apology. I can honestly say, that as puzzled as I was by that decision, it doesn't make anymore sense to think suddenly we felt pressure to win because we were 6-0. The opposite should have been true. As we were winning with the QBs we had, logically you stick with them. In all my years watching football and sports, I have never seen a more bizarre move by a team, and hopefully will never see the Riders do anything like it again. But to suggest when you are winning, that pressures you to do something like this? Crazy!!

Unlike Arius, I honestly think the 6-0 start had an impact on bringing in Bishop.

Like Arius (and I suspect many), I did not believe Crandell could lead the team all season long and we would move to the young guns before the end of the season. The decision to go to the young guns would have been based on the riders heading into a 9-9 type of season. We could realistically expect to finish third or fourth.

What happened, imo is the quick start forced a change. They knew or realized, that Crandell couldn't maintain the 6-0 start. So they needed to make change. However, I don't think they had full confidence in Jyles in terms of his abilities. That left Durant and he wasn't fully healed to be able to start. Tillman's comment about Bishop having to earn and maintain the starters job was telling. Because he all but hinted it was going to be Durant's but he wasn't ready.

Having brought in Bishop because of the fast start, they needed to start him. Really or why else go out and get that kind of help. It is like a playoff bound baseball team picking up a star pitcher about to become a free agent....you do it because you want to win.

Now the Bishop thing backfired in their faces. Would the young guns have failed, I suspect between Durant and Jyles we would have ended up with 10-12 wins....but they would have faced extra pressure.

The decision to play Bishop in the playoff game had as much to do with protecting Durant and Jyles as it did about going forward with the big play guy. Facing that kind of pressure with little or no real experience (where Durant and Jyles are right now) could really shake there confidence.

Thanks Mikejth that was the exact anallagy i was planning on using. If we don't go 6-0 we don't get bishop....plain and simple

The 6-0 start was a negative because everyone thought that Durant was the 2nd coming of Ron Lancaster. He did well because the team did well. When the team was .500 during the rest of the year, Durant performances when he was in there was just as average. Durant still has a lot to learn about being a successful QB in this league, along with Jyles and possibly Bell, who has not played a down in the CFL, but we all expect him to a "saviour"... havent we gone through enough of those who are anointed by fans and media here as the next big thing? We need a veteran QB and a QB coach to help guide the younger guys in the right direction, and who can go on the field and play should the need arise.

The biggest thing Durant and Jyles give us is hope. Its hard being a Rider fan and looking around the league and seeing the Ricky Ray’s and Anthony Calvillo’s and wondering when our young superstar QB is gonna step up and be a rider for the next 8-10 years (last one was Ron Lancaster).

The bad thing about the situation is as much as we want to develop one of our young qb’s into a superstar, Rider nation wouldn’t allow it at the sacrifice of success. We are greedy we want 100 grey cup wins in a row with the re-incarnation of Johnny Unitas as our QB. What makes the situation even worse…if we put a Ricky Ray or AC into our offense we would be unstoppable…plain and simple. Its our lack of a quality QB that held us back for the past few seasons…we were 12-6 with a merry go round of who’s its and why the hell’s. Imagine if we got 18 games out of a talented QB. We’d be in Calgary’s shoes right now instead of waiting to see who the next defensive player is to bash Bishop (which is honest, but keep that crap in the locker room).

What does one do right now…blow up the team and rebuild around a Jyles or Durant? Trade or Sign a Joesph, Glenn or Printers? What i think needs to be done is annointed either Jyles or Durant the starter as soon as you resign one of them…bring in a mentor/coach (whats Doug Flutie doing these days?). But all in all its gonna be an tough offseason for ET and Coach Miller and i for one don’t evy them as they’ll have 1 million people scrutinizing every decision they make.

I think what happened after the great start was that they got that hunger for going all the way again in the upper office, where before that I do think that they were planning on doing some QB development this year, but with a 6-0 start I think they felt they needed to do everything they could to try and bring it home again this year. It blew up on them and realistically start of next season we are going to be where we should have been midway through this year. C'est la vie.

This continues to not make sense. First, 5-0. That is the record of Jyles and Durant as starters. But sitting, in first place, 6-2 if you think you can win it all, THE LAST THING you should be doing is messing with the QBs. Stupid. Illogical. Ridiculous. Whatever you want to call it. No one in the history of the world has ever even considered this. Until now. It is inconceivable to believe ET and Ken sat there and thought, gee, we are 6-0, 6-2, we need to get a QB. Like I said, plead the mea culpa. Admit the mistake. If for one second those ludicrous assumptions were in play. It simply makes no sense. At 6-0, the best chance to repeat was to stay the course.

Arius i do agree with you up until we lost half our team to broken legs....a rookie QB with our starters is still a pretty potent threat, but take away Flick Fantuz and Dominguez (before we knew Dressler was a star) and all of a sudden a rookie QB doesnt look so good.

I don't agree with bringing in Bishop but i do understand why they did.

Why does ET owe the fans an apology? He has tried to make the team better. Last year, his decisions led to a Grey Cup. What more do you want from him? You win some, you lose some.

I suggest you go back and read what I said again and try not to take things out of context this time…

Sambo bringing Bishop in occurred when the team was 6-2 and not after they 6-4 the remainder of the season.

While there were those fans that were saying let Durant play (and I was one) when Crandell proved as many suspected that he couldn’t lead the team. I don’t think either Durant and/or Jyles got a fair shot after Bishop came in. I suspect if you ask any fan, really do you believe Durant and Jyles could have gone all the way, after the inital oh yeah, most would say…no they don’t have enough experience, but it would have been better then watching Bishop.

Arius what were they going to make the admit the mea culpa to, the fact that they traded Joseph and shouldn’t. Heck when Tillman was asked a week ago, he still said it was the right decision and nothing wrong with.

For those players who didn’t think the so calle young guns could win without the starters, in Game 6, Flick, Dressler, Fantuz, Getzlaf were all on the sidelines with injuries. So you can’t say they only played with the starters. A game they won agains a fairly good defense.

So is your assumption now going forward, is that after trading Joseph away they were just waiting for the right opportunity and situation to get Bishop and that happened because Toronto was willing to give him up for nothing. That is the only thing that would make sense in your “oh I don’t understand why they brought him in logic”.

It was Darian Durant who brought us to a 6-0 start, So i think he should be our starter.

I never mentioned Bishop in my post, mike. I was talking about how Durant excelled when the team was going 6-0, and how he was average when the team was average. The fact is , they went 6-6 for the rest of the season.

With all due respect there sambo, Durant only played in what 4 games out of the 12 you mention. How many were starts....1 and that was for a half. How many were in relief 3, of which two of the games there was no hope he could come back. While you might be able to pin a weak/average game on his start, but truth be told.

I suspect his play that game was just as much about Millers handling of the quarterbacks (pressed to hard didn't want to screw up), coming up against a very tough defence and finally inexperience.

So you can't even come close to pinning the average play over the last 2/3 of a season on Durant.

So what will change for next year now that Miller has decreed they aren't looking for a bonafide starter and will stick with the young guys. We still have the inexperience and we still have the Miller and his merry go around approach.

Do I think things would have been different with at 3-3 start oh yes you bet.

The Durant starting next year will be alot different and better than the Durant that played this year.

a) he's got a few games under his belt
b) His offensive weapons will consist of Dominguez, Flick, Fantuz, Dressler, Getzlaf and Cates (have fun covering and stopping that Defenses)
c) He's won't have a more seasoned QB behind him waiting for him to screw up so they can play....all the other QB's will have similar experience and skills
d) The ovation he got at the Home playoff game can only make the guy feel good about himself

and Finally....
e) He's got rider nation behind him. Something Bishop or any other recent sask Qb has had (with the execption of KJ maybe, and look what he did)

But he's got one big CON going against him....as the Rider's QB he's go more pressure on him than possibley anyone else in the league.....almost like being the goalie for the Montreal Canadiens

green while I share some of that believe in Durant, I don't believe things will be the rosey. First he doesn't have a wealth of experience, which he should have gained this year. Second, fan support means nothing as the fans can turn on you just as fast as they jumped on your band wagon. Third not having an experience quarterback isn't necessarily a good thing....without the proper coaches there.

Well is Durant or nothing pretty much…if he doesn’t work out then we’ll have to go sign a big name free agent “maybe” QB like Printers or Glenn. But at half the cost i think its time to give the young gun a shot, even if means being lest successful (short term).