I've had pros from two different sports tell me that when they practice, if they are practicing well, they will often stay extra time training their muscle memory and grooving their mechanics. What they absolutely do not do is keep trying to work their way out of a funk. If they find themselves in a funk they shut it down and come back to it the next day. The point being you don't want to practice playing poorly, you want to practice playing well. That way when it's time to perform for real, they increase the chances of being in a good groove.

I'll bet Nichols didn't come into the last game at his best. I'll bet he was not sharp and hadn't been sharp all week and was forcing it hoping to snap out of it. I don't think it works that way. Now maybe Davis and Glenn weren't sharp either but we don't know that.

I think a good coach should know which of his QBs are sharp and if his starter isn't playing well, he should be willing to make the switch to the sharper athlete. I hope our coach is a good coach in this way and not just a coach that follows blind loyalty to his veteran starters.

24 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

yeah he has, he was just lucky before that dbs didn't grab the picks, but Nichols has had some stinkers to start games before. It was 17-3 at the half, hardly the time to be pulling a qb, especially when you know that your D generally makes good adjustments as the game goes on. 

And look how well that turned out. Nichols has had hesitant starts before but he got better as the game went on- but nothing as bad as he looked Saturday. Coaches get paid to assess when its time to change the tempo of the game, and O'Shea's blind reliance on Willy despite Willy's complete collapse in the first few games nearly threw the season away. Now, as I see it, he repeated the same thing with Nichols last game. That is not going to look good on his CV.

16 minutes ago, tracker said:

And look how well that turned out. Nichols has had hesitant starts before but he got better as the game went on- but nothing as bad as he looked Saturday. Coaches get paid to assess when its time to change the tempo of the game, and O'Shea's blind reliance on Willy despite Willy's complete collapse in the first few games nearly threw the season away. Now, as I see it, he repeated the same thing with Nichols last game. That is not going to look good on his CV.

But his 10, perhaps 11, wins should make up for it.  

So name an instance in the last two years where a CFL coach pulled his starter for a series or two and then brought him back to close out the game?

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

So name an instance in the last two years where a CFL coach pulled his starter for a series or two and then brought him back to close out the game?

My CFL history knowledge is not that encyclopedic but I do not think you would have to go too far back to find such.

19 minutes ago, tracker said:

My CFL history knowledge is not that encyclopedic but I do not think you would have to go too far back to find such.

you can go back to saturday night in sask

1 hour ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

you can go back to Saturday night in Sask

nope. That would be like asking for a second colonoscopy because the first one wasn't enough.

12 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

So name an instance in the last two years where a CFL coach pulled his starter for a series or two and then brought him back to close out the game?

Chris Jones definitely did this with Mike Reilly a few times in 2014... does that count as "within the last two years"

7 minutes ago, bearpants said:

Chris Jones definitely did this with Mike Reilly a few times in 2014... does that count as "within the last two years"

Yep, good example.

I simply think that when someone is struggling taking them out so they get a better perspective from the sidelines does not harm. It may perhaps give the team a boost (different look); it gives the struggling player a breather so they can regroup; and it keeps their confidence instead of destroying it. Happens in almost every team sport why would it not work in football. And in fact in BC they did it; they did it in Ottawa, have done it in Hamilton and Toronto and if I am not mistaken it happened in Calgary early in the season and certainly happened there when Huffnagel was coach. Don't see the harm.