I do wish Williams had actually scored on that final play, however, up by 10, it's not the best way to go around it. I don't really have any defense for that idea, except that it is the Ti-Cats whom we were playing, and I guess it's an unwritten "rule" for it to be okay to run up the score against each other.
Allen hurt is terrible, but hopefully Wynn can step in for the next 6 weeks while Damon heals up. It's too bad a great player like him is hurt on the first few plays.
The defense looked okay yesterday.
Our retrun game looked pretty good, but was probably a result of the penalties we had called almost everytime.
For the Cats:
It's only 1 game.......this team, filled with many new faces (and talented ones at that), will grow together and get better, thus winning football games.
Their defense looked pretty good, especially the front line.
Corey Holmes has MOP written on him, at least from the Eastern Division.
The Cats will be good this year......damned good.....and should fight with Toronto for 2nd place.
Pinball was quoted as saying he wanted as many points as is possible because if the Argos and Ti-Cats split their four games against each other at 2-2 then points is the first tie breaker.
I didn't even think about the tiebreaker......therefore, I'll change my opinion on that and totally agree......why not kick a FG on the final play? Although hindsight is 20/20.
Because it is not totally a team game any more in Toronto. It is also the “Ricky Williams Show.” Even though they were apparently motivated by the prospect of a season-ending tie-breaker, Argos left a sure 3 points on the board for the sole purpose of trying to get Ricky a TD and/or 100 yards. Do you think they would have run the ball in that situation if Avery was the RB?
I didn’t have a problem with them going for the touchdown, either because of the tie-breaker scenario or as a gift to the RW fans in attendance.
But I agree with Biggie, if you play around with the “taking the knee” thing, someone will get seriously hurt. Next time, when the QB appears to be casually dropping to the turf, the defense would be well justified in coming through the line full bore just in case.
Not a huge deal. I’ve just got this theory that the Argos will make a whole series of decisions in 2006, large and small, based on criteria other than what’s best for the football team.
You could argue that criteria such as business reasons or media hype are completely legitimate. But since I hate the Argos, I view this as one more opportunity to slag them. I can’t think of any on-field decisions made by the Ticats that have been made for such reasons (except perhaps playing Danny Mac in the final game of 2005, when we were already out of contention).
Anyway, how special will Ricky’s stats be if the team continues to use him in ways designed solely to pad his stats? Just like when Kerry Joseph got his 1,000 yards rushing last season only because PaoPao kept him in the final game (despite being hurt) solely for that purpose. Every play was a QB running play. Congratulations, Kerry, you got your 1,000 yards and your bonus. Others who did it before you actually got there without the special treatment.
Well, I was there at the blue team's house on Saturday afternoon to witness the season opener for these QEW rivals firsthand. And I have been without Internet access since then, and I have not read any posts since Saturday except the ones in this thread. (And I do agree with TOFAN on some points, as you'll see.) I wanted to post my opinions here without them being influenced by the opinions expressed in any newspapers or websites, or by any posts here. And I thought this might be a good place to do it. I thought my $0.02 did not deserve its own thread, as some might find my opinions are worth less than $0.01.
So I'm offering opinions from my observations. Unfortuantely, I have no pictures to post. I chose not to bring my digital camera as I was in the cheap seats and I'm not the greatest photographer. But I wish I did bring it, so that I could have taken a picture of the "We Bring The Noise" banner which was hanging upside down for the entre first quarter.
So here are a few thoughts from me:
In singing the national anthem, Pinball Clemons' wife demonstrated she had singing talent, but some might say she messed with "O Canada."
When Damon Allen was injured, it appeared that the blue team had a built-in excuse for losing the game. But Spergon Wynn, despite throwing some inaccurate passes, did look good. Maybe the loss of Allen won't matter as some might think. I've heard some ask if Allen was that good or if his his teammates make him look good. I'm leaning slightly toward the latter.
Ricky Williams did play a good game. He did not always appear to get good blocking. And I wonder if that might be at least something of a concern as the blue team looks how to best utilize him in an offence run by Kent Austin.
Corey Holmes certainly is great to have. He, as advertised, looked like the kind of player who could be quite a force on offence and special teams. When the Ticats essentially traded Kerry Joseph to the Riders for him, I wondered if we got enough in return. Joseph put up some great number with the Rens, and will likely be even better in Saskatchewan. We had to make the Riders pay a high price to get him. And we sure did.
Remember when people wondered if Pat Fleming's punts had that much more hangtime? Well, the people who said that his punts had both good distance as well as hangtime apparently were not kidding.
When I was in a washroom in the blue team's house, I heard someone say "who's smoking in here?" And I had to resist the temptation to say "Ricky Williams?! What's he doing in here?"
What we saw from the Ticats offense was encouraging, but it may need some improvement. I was wondering if the team still needs to get used to working with Paopao's playbook.
I consider the turning point of the game to be after Maas threw his first of two interceptions. It was after Wynn threw a pick and the Ticats were at about the blue team's 30 yard line. The 'Cats needed to TD to get back into it. I figured that what happened after Wynn's pass was picked would make or break the Ticats' chances. But when Maas threw that pass a little too low while on the run for a pick, I figured that it was over then.
When Boreham missed that field goal from about 20 yards, I figured that the anti-Boreham crowd in the game thread was having a field day. Was anyone calling for him to be replaced? And how long might it be for people to scream for Marshall to get axed and have Paopao take his place. Or has that already been happening?
When the ball was handed to Ricky Williams when the blue team was on our 4 yard line on that last play they seemed to try giving the crowd what they wanted. Fans were chanting his name, but I was releived when he was brought down. The blue team beat the Ticats, but didn't make the Ticats look that bad. That was not very shiny silver lining though. And I can imagine hearing blue team fans gloating that they won the game that counted in the standings.
Well, in short there were some encouraging signs from this game. The Ticats did not win, but showed much improvement. I thought the 2005 Ticats would have been defeated by a significantly larger margin. But victories don't come easily in the CFL. Still I sure hope we'll be celebrating that first victory next week.
Now, onto reading the many other posts since Saturday, and to listening to the 5th quarter podcast.
