Are You Smarter Than A Baby - Week 11 Results

Both Prophet Jr. and Step-Prophet had 2 point weeks which opened the door for the competition to make up some ground. There were 3 4 point weeks in addition to the 4 points I put up and a number of 3 point weeks including Mrs. Prophet and Momma Prophet.

After 11 games here's whose in the top 3 of the standings:

1 - Jim - 28
2 - Wes, Steve, Prophet Jr., Mrs. Prophet - 26
3 - Rider Prophet, DB - 23

Riders vs. Montreal: Show Me Your Willy

The 5-5 Riders look to build on a 2 game win streak. Unfortunately this time they will have to do it against a team that isn’t absolutely awful in pretty much every way that matters. We will actually have to beat a team with a winning record (only one or our wins this year has come against a team currently above .500).

At the time I am writing this, all signs point to Willy getting the start this week so that’s what I’ll base my analysis on. It would be a great bonus if Durant can somehow go, he and Dressler always seem to have huge games against the Als. But for now I’ll assume that we are in for another Willy performance.

The Als are like the CFL equivalent of the Indy Colts when Manning was still with them... they have a future Hall of Fame QB on which all their hopes lay and they just hope the defense doesn’t do anything too awful. The new Jeff Reinbold D is showing signs of improvement but they couldn’t stop an anorexic kid in a game of red rover. Their best defensive play call is Kyries Hebert headhunting receivers downfield. Actually one of my biggest fears going into this game is Willy serving up a high pass to Dressler which results in him getting killed. The Als are currently allowing over 30 points per game... if not for Calvillo these guys would probably be well below .500.

The Als actually have pretty good run D, through the air is where they are most vulnerable. And therein lies the problem for us... our strength is running and although we are all proud of our Willy, I don’t think he is quite ready for a gun slinging duel against one of the games best. The rest of our O will need to step up and help support Willy. The scouting report on us is so obvious Helen Keller has it figured out. Our O-line struggles against pressure and our rookie QB is indecisive... not hard to figure out that we will be seeing a lot of pressure all night long. We will need to counter that if we hope to win. Strong runs by Sheets, double TE sets, screens and short slants to the wideouts will all help. Willy using his legs will also be needed. I would focus on the outside of the field to avoid Hebert and the LBs. It’s far from out style but I think if used right, our WRs could have a big day.

Defensively your only hope is to get Calvillo out of rhythm. If he gets in synch with his receivers we are in trouble. Green currently leads the league in receiving and although Richardson still looks hobbled by injury, he can hurt us if not kept in check. I was surprised to see that Montreal has the worst running attack this season (which is odd given how dominant Whitaker was last year). The Als compensate for this with the league’s top passing attack. Which brings us back to Calvillo. We need to get pressure on him consistently. The Als have a solid OL so sacks may be hard to come by but at the least we need to force Calvillo  to throw early and move around in the pocket. Blitzes will help in this regard. Our D has allowed the 3^rd least points this season so they are certainly capable but the accurate passes of Calvillo and the tall Montreal Wrs will be a massive test for our DBs.  I’ll be interested to see if we lock Brackenridge on Richardson.

Montreal will score on us. This is one of those “we can’t stop them, only hope to contain them” situations. We can’t let this turn into a shoot otherwise Montreal’s old man will embarrass our young Willy. But again, Willy can’t do it all on his own. Our D, receivers, coaches and OL will all need to step up because nothing short of a total team effort will get us our 3^rd straight win.

As much as I would love to predict a gutsy Willy win, Montreal plays exceptionally well at home and will be looking to exact revenge after getting embarrassed in BC. I think we will keep this one really close but in the end a more veteran team with a more potent offense will prevail.

Calvillo will prove that when it comes to scoring, experience will trump youth and enthusiasm. Willy will prove no match for old man Calvillo.

Als by 7

Doin It In Denver Trip 2012

Our friends at Major League Tours are back with their annual sports trip to Denver. If you are interested, check you the video below. Its an awesome weekend of sports at a very reasonable price.

Are You Smarter Than A Baby - Week 12

Here are the Prophet family picks for week 12. Be sure to have you picks in by kickoff on Friday

Prophet Jr. - Winnipeg, Hamilton, BC, Saskatchewan
Step-Prophet - Calgary, Hamilton, Toronto, Saskatchewan
Rider Prophet - Calgary, Hamilton, BC, Montreal
Mrs. Prophet - Calgary, Edmonton, BC, Montreal
Momma Prophet -  Winnipeg, Hamilton, BC, Montreal

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Thank-You Winnipeg!

Riders 25 – Bombers 24

Today marks a first for this blog. It’s the first time I have ever been thankful for anything related to Manitoba (minus the whole “making us look really good by comparison” thing). But I would like to start today off by officially thanking the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for doing everything in their power to ensure we won a game we probably should not have.  

There was Shannon Boatman who thought that taking a free shot at Odell Willis was worth sacrificing a big offensive gain for. There was Kenny Mainor who thought that taking Drew Willy on a long jog before delivering a belly to belly suplex roughly 5 minutes after the whistle blew was worth sacrificing the 3^rd down that the rest of his D had just forced. And there was Coach Burke who had so little confidence in his kicker that he didn’t even attempt a 40 yard FG with the wind at his back which would have forced the Riders to drive for a TD which we more than likely were not going to get. PS – I’m sure glad that Burke has rectified the lack of discipline that supposedly cost LaPo his job.

In typical Rider fashion, it was a rollercoaster game of ups and down. When Edwards fumbled on their first series I assumed we were in for another stomping. When an errant snap led to Graeme Bell blocking what only barely qualifies as a punting attempt by Milo, I was convinced it just wasn’t going to be our day.

I would like to start with a huge congratulations to our defense. Lost in all the drama was how well they performed. They did not allow a solitary offensive TD, held Matthews in check yet again and did a decent job with Simpson. The way they were playing, had it not been for that Washington punt return TD, I don’t think the end result would have been in doubt past halftime. I really like the play of our 3 DTs (Williams, Alford and Shologan) and was impressed by the game Maze had. Yeah it wasn’t pretty (well to be fair it was probably pretty by local standards) but the D did their job.

Offense was about what you expect when your back-up gets thrust into action early in the game (Willy thrust into action early #potentialwillyheadlines). It was serviceable but it wasn’t about to intimidate anyone. I honestly thought that Willy’s half decent performance would end all the calls for him to supplant Durant as starter... evidently I was wrong. To put this bluntly anyone who seriously thinks that Willy gives us a better chance of winning at this point than Durant is an idiot and evidently watched a different game than me on Sunday.

Yes, Willy did what it took to win and showed a lot of promise but he needs a lot of work yet. What he showed was exactly what you would hope for from a young back-up QB. He came in moved the chains, put up some points, was calm and composed, and stepped up when the pressure was on. But he was also painfully indecisive in the pocket. I’m not sure if he was doing advanced calculus in his head to determine the best option but there were times where they could have gone to commercial break during his reads and not missed anything. He was way too hesitant to run (which is a shame because when he did it worked great), ran backwards for 30 yards on a sack and threw pick. Now these are all very typical rookie mistakes and all very correctable. I was happy with his performance but he showed why he is an excellent back-up and potential starter down the line... he did not show anything that would lead me to believe Durant should sit for any reason but injury. I wish everyone would stop being so infatuated with Willy when we have Double D to get excited about.

Other random thoughts:

-       That McHenry TD getting called back was the universe righting itself... no one would ever believe McHenry caught a TD.

-       Was anyone else severely panicking when both McHenry and Getz were on the sidelines?... that meant Hargreaves, Bell and Hughes were all we had left on offense for Canadians.

-       Jock Sanders is awesome! His only problem is that he is too fast even for his own feet

-       2 games – 2 huge plays for Brooks Foster. Hopefully he gets more involved on O with each passing week

-       How about that blocked FG by Mick Williams?!

-       How about that end over end tackle courtesy of Collins and Lobendahn?!

-       I liked how we used Sheets, the Bombers were stuffing his runs pretty good so we got him the ball through the passing game. Lesson here is the same as every week, good things happen when you get the ball to Sheets

-       Someone needs to slap Chris Getzlaf... way too many penalties! He was also the intended target on the Willy INT. Lesson here is the same as every week (well expect last week where he played well), good things rarely come when you throw to Getzlaf. Nice block though.

-       O-line had a rough game against a talented and fired up Bomber D-line. Still think we need to do more to help them out (i.e. rollouts, screens, TE sets) especially when you have a rookie in at QB.

-       Hope Dressler is OK... check that praying to god Dressler is OK.

It’s been a while since a Rider win took years off my life expectancy but this one surely did. It wasn’t pretty and could very easily have gone the other way but these ugly games are the kind we are going to need to win if we hope to play in late November. They don’t ask how, they just ask how many. We are back at .500 and right in the mix with the rest of the West division... now we just have to show we can win against a team that isn’t a complete and utter trainwreck. 

Are You Smarter Than A Baby - Week 11 Results

Turns out Prophet Jr. used up all his good picks in the first half of the season. He just posted his second 1 point week in a row. That means that the majority of us (all but 2) were indeed smarter than a baby. This is helping bring his embarrassing lead back to withing stirking distance for most of us.

I went 4 for 4, Step - Prophet got 3, Mrs. Prophet 2 and Momma Prophet 1.

Keep it up folks and we may turn this back into an actual contest yet.

Step-Prophet's Week 11 Picks

Well he missed the first game but Step prophet is taking Toronto, BC and Saskatchewan is the remaining 3.