We’re not really in disagreement. We’ll see what happens. At this time of year we’re all experts & nobody’s wrong - yet.
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That record is padded. If you take out Hamilton then take out Calgary. Better yet leave them all in. Also for the riders they had some brutal travel weeks out east. TO and Als were very good but I think there’s some circumstances that made the disparity look like more than it was. Definitely the east has improved though and that’s a good thing.
Just my two cents.
Somewhat surprised by this but I assume it means the line competition is very high.
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Justin Jefferson (released) and Julius Buelow (suspended) i assume do to them throwing haymakers at practice yesterday. Jefferson apparently hit Jake in a 12 on 12 scrimmage and Buelow took exception. Can see Maces point in that you need to maintain discipline. Can see Buelows point. You don’t smoke your own QB.
As for Zerr i had hoped he’d be further along in his development. Perhaps Anderson supplanted him?
Exactly! You don’t take out the weakest team in the east and leave in the weakest team in the league and then compare records lol. BC, Riders and Wpg all had .500 or better records against the east. End of story. Expect we will finish with 20/22 points. Good for first.
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The East has won the head-to-head matchups against the West the past two years. Best regular-season record has come out of the East the past two years too. The East has also won the Grey Cup the past three years.
In short, the East has been the better division in recent years.
You’re knowledge there is much higher than mine but I agree if the guy was protecting the team QB that sounds like a virtue to me. Maybe those guys had a history.
I can’t disagree with the east being the better div last two years. And I don’t mean this to sound disrespectful but I do believe the better eastern teams have an easier path to GC playing what has historicallynbeem weaker teams three times each year and in the playoffs.
I for one am happy to see more equality ami g the divisions.
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Regular seasons are one thing, playoffs another. Teams evolve over the season through necessity, like injuries, or bringing in cuts from other teams/leagues. Do they have an easier path? I don’t know. Though the crossover has gone to the West & never the East, they’ve never won a final. I would argue that MOST years the top one or 2 teams in the East are as good as the top teams in the West.
In the last 10 seasons, each won 5 GC’s, each 8 of the last 16. I don’t think you can say that the West has a tougher time of it. You have one more team in the West &, most years where there’s no crossover, 2 of the 3 weak sisters of the CFL to beat up on where there may be only 1 free spot in the East & 3 teams fighting competitive battles.
It’s not as easy IMO as looking at interdivisional games. If you have one team running away with the conference title, resting players in the last week & getting a week off before the Final, they are not necessarily the best team come GC if, on the other side, teams have been battling it out for playoff position up to & into the championship game. The best teams often are the ones who play in a lot of tight competitive games over the season, not necessarily the ones who win games over inferior opponents.
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All good points.
You don’t normally see sub 500 teams making the playoffs in the west. Now that we finally have some parity (perhaps i should say east teams no longer wait till NFL cutdowns to pad their rosters in order to take a run at the playoffs because they didn’t have to play well early due to the weak division) the crossover is less of an issue since we aren’t seeing two weak teams in the east every year.
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Are you kidding, why are we playing Winnipeg 2 times in preseason. Don’t we see them enough during the regular season.
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Yep. We play them a total of five out of 20 games this year not including playoffs
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Set the tone early & often.
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If we beat them silly 6 times this year i might put that on my grave marker lol. Or buy some swag at least!
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Continuing the chat on another riders topic about Oline injuries. Far from an expert here….
Gagnon 32, never played a snap fo Rider.
McEwen 31, same thing.
Last year Hardrick, older, plays about 6 games.
I think there’s a big problem with splashy free agent signings of elite or Canadian free agents. Why are the other clubs letting them go? Obviously it can be money, or other considerations with the players leaving. And, the club they just played for has the best chance of making an assessment as to that players health, injury status and playing longevity.
We need youth and patience. I’ll take a 26 or 27 year old that’s a 6/10 that’s more likely to last the season and has more upside than a 30 plus year old 8/10 question mark. Veteran presence is impoetant but what presence do we get out of McEwen, Gagnon etc when they didn’t even play the last year with the team.
Total bust on these signings.
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Als fan; I come in peace. I was sad to read that Gagnon is out with a torn bicep. He gave us some solid years. But really, it was the team’s decision to walk away from him. Or at least, they gave him a contract offer but he felt it was too low. General consensus last year was that he was the weakest link on our O-line. The year before, he had lost his starter’s spot. He’s got good strength to hold a block but can get beaten with lateral quickness and stunts. And at age 32, he’s got a lot of miles on his body.
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Go back a little further and toss in Blake.
Really do suspect that some of these guys are all doing something different in their training in order to prove something.
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Exactly my point although I didn’t know that specifically about Gagnon. So the ALs offer him a certain amount that they believe he is worth based on intelligent assessment of his abilities, injuries, potential as a team member for X years. Player thinks “I’ll try somewhere else”’ somewhere else needs to fill a hole and convinces themselves based on past performance not current potential.
Looks like a win for Gagnon (salary) and a poorly executed decision by the riders that will affect them for the season.
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Good points
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