Artemus

Agree with both of your points. Mizzell was the workhorse on that last TD drive. Good to see him cap it off. I was generally unimpressed by Mizzell's running earlier in the game. On that last drive there were some huge holes for him to run through. Don't know what was going on with the Montreal defensive line. Whatever, glad to see that Mizzell found the openings. That headbutt penalty may have saved the win for us. It was an incredibly stupid and selfish move. Kept that last TD drive going. Interesting that there was another headbutting penalty the next day in the Winnipeg - Saskachewan game. That penalty was also a potential game altering move.

No.! It started out as a joke offer of Raymond, Ballard and a first for some team's premier player and was often, for years restated as a "tongue-in-cheek" offer for just about any good player on another team. The offer of a second/third line tweener, a replacement level defenceman and a late 1st round pick for a very good player was the proposal. I thought that it was quite funny. No one believed that any competent GM would ever consider doing it. Though there was the Anaheim equivalent with the Kesler trade. A second/third line tweener, a replacement level defenceman and a late 1st round pick. After some years this joke somehow morphed into Raymond, Ballard and a second. I now see both versions offered up as a bit of humour, but it was originally the late 1st draft pick.

If Demko goes down for any length of time we might be wishing that we had done more to obtain a quality veteran backup goaltender. That we had packaged up a forward with the necessary inducements to create that cap space. Myself, I am believing that Silovs may become that quality backup. We will have to continue to bring him along. I wouldn't want to sign a veteran backup for multiple years as this may unduly block Silovs from moving up, assuming that he will be ready to backup in a year.

I agree that Martin should get the initial opportunity to backup Demko. We don't have the cap to sign a quality veteran backup. Shipping out players to create cap for a backup goaltender would perhaps be counter productive. That leaves us with Martin and Silovs. I would look to take advantage of having the farm just an hour down the road. When we have home games and Abbie is at home, I would look to give Silovs a game or two on those home stands. Martin would of course be spelling Demko on the road and at home when Abbie is out of town. This way Silovs and Martin could roughly split the backup games. Silovs would also be playing a lot for Abbotsford which is what he needs, lots and lots of playing time.

I watched that pre-season game against the Cowboys. Essentially Lawrence played the first quarter. Beathard played the second quarter and Rourke played the second half. Based on how early it is in the preseason schedule, it's too early to pigeonhole who is second string and who's third string. Both Lawrence and Beathard (last year's backup) manufactured a touchdown apiece in a quarter of work. Rourke manufactured two touchdowns in the second half and generally played with third stringers and had some spectacular throws and a couple of impressive runs. Based on what I saw, I wouldn't bet against Nathan being the backup. Time will tell.

My understanding is that Nathan signed for 3 years for a total of US$2,695,000

Yeah I remember that game. We must be of a similar age. Vic Rapp, the Lions head coach, had to be restrained from a confrontation with Hugh Campbell. We were being soundly beaten by the Eskimos. This was the Warren Moon led team that would win something like 5 out of the next 6 Grey Cups. A real powerhouse of a team. Hugh Campbell had his team kick a field goal on the last play of the game to run up the score. Rapp didn't like that. To Rapp, this was an attempt to embarrass the Lions. Campbell did explain that with the two game total points tiebreaker formula, that he was just being thorough. Rapp did not buy what Hughie was putting down. Great memories of some good Lions football in the early '80's.

Mizzell just had his best game as a Lion. Wasn't enamoured with his play prior to his being injured. He played much better tonight. Hope that he keeps it up. I'm watching the game and I am feeling bad for the Edmonton fans but oh well, glad that they didn't win against us. Two shutouts. The Elks really are inept. Good thing they have the bye week to restructure. That is if they are competent to find new people.

Have to approach the game as "Business as Usual". No coasting or letting up in practice. As stated by a different poster, Evans (the backup QB) could and probably will be quarterbacking the lions. Edmonton will win eventually. Let's hope that it's not against us on Saturday.

Yes, I agree. Our returner is a quick shifty guy that tries some jukes and misdirection. One thing that I have noticed is that blockers for our returner(s) are not slowing down the opposing players as efficiently as other teams have done against us. Two weeks ago Montreal got some holding penalties on returns against us but they did, for the most part, a pretty good job of slowing our rushing players down. Sealing them up and taking them out of their rush lanes. Toronto and Saskatchewan were all over our returner before he could get to any hole or wall. Might be something simple such as blocking schemes, experience playing together or just plain execution. I like our "smothering" defence. I think that Ben Hladik is probably the best middle linebacker in the CFL. He was instrumental in shutting down the Saskatchewan run game. The offence did enough to win. Saskatchewan had a pretty good package of stunts. They were able to put a lot of pressure on our quarterbacks. Dane Evans throws a nice ball but he seemed, for whatever reason, to have great difficulty getting the ball to Shivers. Almost comical some of those attempts directed at the little (5'7") runningback. Nice to see the upper bowl open.

Yeah, I agree that was a soft call. Referees made some very soft calls going both ways all game long. Did you catch the coach's challenge with about three minutes left. Watched that play over and over about a dozen times at regular speed and in slow motion. Some very incidental contact a few seconds before the ball arrived. The command centre ruled it pass interference. Still shaking my head over that one. The little runningback Shivers, was fun to watch. Glad the fumble on the 1 yard line didn't come back to haunt him. Seemed like the crowd was really enjoying themselves.