Matt Dunnigan - He took Popp's statement that the Als would like to see marsh and spun it into Neiswnader being on an extremly short-leash who could get pulled early. It is late 1st quarter as I write, so I saw the interception, but using my PVR to slo-mo the slo-mo replay it looked like Neiswander's body may have been hit will he still had the ball - throwing the throw off. Without an injury or a complete letdown I can't see Neiswander getting "pulled early". EDIT - NOT a meltdown, but yet to see if he has been pulled/benched or whether it is a "change-of-pace" move.
Chris Schultz - Guess some would consider him an idolizing shill. He argued that he understood the Als "AC to the end" strategy as 4th quarter mop-up in blow-outs (either good or bad) had little if any value in developing a QB. Have to say that is a different take.
MIke Sutherland - Another shill list candidate for the anti-AC club. On the Ottawa Rouge et Noir radio show on Team 1200 (Ottawa) tonight he spoke about AC being "generous" with his time and the help he offers back-up QBs and teammates.
I am about 2/3 of the way to agreeing with him. Mop-up reps strike me as better than practice time, just because you have opponents who will actually hit you and your teammates, but it is not full-out football as the opposition usually has its foot off the gas.
To me, mop-up time isn’t useful, and can even be counterproductive, because it gives the team a false sense of security if the backup is doing well in garbage time. Really, you have no idea what you have in your backup QB until live bullets are flying in a meaningful game situation. You can give him mop-up time if you want – and frankly, we weren’t even IN a position to give our backup QBs mop-up time in 2012, because we were not blowing teams out – but IMO it won’t make a bit of difference.
Neiswander is in his third CFL season at age 26; Marsh is a 23-year-old rookie. But who looked like the better QB last night? Would having a few minutes of garbage time have helped Neiswander?
IMO you play the backup in garbage time to protect your starter from injury, not because doing so helps to develop the backup…