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Rewatching all modern Bombers GC wins over the course of this week, starting with 1984 tonight. Love love love Grey Cup week when the Bombers are in it!!

I'm not going to go back pages to see if this subect was discussed just because you told KBF to do so. I know already & I'll answer KBF's question with a bit of background detail for him, you & everyone else, Jim Van Pelt signed with the Bombers out of the University of Michigan. In 1958, he made the team as a rookie backup qb & played defensive back while Ploen was the starter. Midway during the 58 season, Ploen suffered an injury & Van Pelt took over. He played so well that Ploen couldn't get his starting qb job back. So he moved to the defensive backfield & played very well there. So well, that he had one interception in 1958 & another 10 the following season for 104 yards in 1959. Ploen was named a CFL Western Conference All Star that season at DB even though he came back to play qb the rest of the way after Van Pelt's shoulder injury. Van Pelt started the 1958 Grey Cup & Ploen subbed in for some plays as well. So they both played the position in that championship game with Van Pelt getting the majority of the snaps. Van Pelt was also the Bomber placekicker. He kicked two field goals & 4 converts that game in a 35-28 win over the Ti Cats. In 1959, Van Pelt again was the starter but suffered a hand injury during the exhibition season. He had to wear a cast on his non throwing hand. Still, he didn't miss a snap. In late September of 59, Van Pelt suffered a separated shoulder which ended his season & unfortunately his career with the Bombers. He never played for us again. During the off season, in late 1959, Van Pelt was drafted into the US Air Force for a 3 year hitch. After suffering his separated shoulder, Ploen had taken over from Van Pelt & he never looked back as he became the starting qb for the Bombers until he retired after the 1967 season. In between, winning 2 more Grey Cup championships at qb & also a finalist in 1965. Van Pelt completed his Air Force duties in late fall of 1962. He was a special guest of the Bombers at the Grey Cup in Toronto as they wined & dined he & his wife in order to convince them he should come back, They tried to get Van Pelt to sign a new contract for the 63 season with the Bombers but he turned down the offer to become a chartered accountant in Chicago where he lived until he passed away last year. Who knows why he turned down the Bomber offer as ther CFL was paying as good or better than the NFL at the time. Van Pelt showed no interest to play in the upstart AFL which began in 1960. However, salaries were beginning to rise as the new league was competing with the NFL & CFL for players. The Canadian dollar was on par with the US dollar back in those days so there were no implications with the exchange rate for American players going back to the US in the off season. Perhaps Van Pelt felt that the team belonged to Ken Ploen now after being away 3 years. Maybe he felt that he had lost his edge. He certainly lost his desire to play as he was ready to move on to other things than football. Whatever the case, he never came back. He settled into private life in the Chicago area. So KBF, Ploen never started 4 consecutive Grey Cups as a qb but he won 3 as a starter & played in 6 championships.

Very Very Very good read, everyone can pull something out of this to use in there own life.

So good... so good... so good!

We even know how to lose one, which might even be more valuable.

What, objectively, are the Als better at than the Bombers? QB? No. RB? No. WRs? No. Oline? No. Dline? No. LBs? No, with Biggie. DBs? No. Kicker? No. Kick coverage? Maybe. Let's look at "intangibles". Coaching? No. Experience? No.

Good. I always thought the “question” was really strange. “Hey, do your players pound their old lady the night before the game?”

Oh yeah, forgot to mention just for SpeedFlex27, Ambrosie intends to hang on as CFL Commissioner at least until after you're dead.

That is offensive to actual game managers like Matt Nichols and Kevin Glenn. Montreal is quarterbacked by a 3rd stringer cosplaying as a starting quarterback. All those sacks fajardo takes aren't on the offensive line.

I wish it was Proulx

If you could build a team of 46 Rasheed Bailey's you may never lose a game.

****, I hate this week so much. Literally everything in that clip was made up and/or nonsensical. They say things like, “with the coaching cap, you can’t keep everyone”. The coaching cap is why we’re able to keep everyone. Other teams can’t come up and offer twice what we’re paying Walters et al, so why leave? And then they state that Walters is just sitting in his office right now, unable to do anything because he’s not yet signed for next year. That’s total BS. Just utter, utter nonsense reporting.

The Bombers don't need to play like they're scared of losing. They need to commit to an ass-kicking.

Love everything about this. And thanks for everything you do every day!

Yeah, maybe it will be an actual issue next year unlike the manufactured non-controversy some tried to sell as a problem this season. Serious question - what evidence is there that the roster moves actually cost us this year, and what proof is there that we made it so hard on ourselves or would have been much better if some fans’ preferred players were on the roster over what the club actually fielded? Of our 4 losses, 2 were in OT, and 3 of the 4 were by 2, 3, and 6 points. And in those losses it’s a lot easier to find an on-field mistake that was the difference, rather than the fact that we did not have a certain person rostered as a back-up to a back-up in spot #45. The one blowout we had, well we just sent that team packing again in a dominant West Final, and IIRC the big worry was the age of our o-line after that game, not the “Haba vs Jackson” debate. In our 14 wins, 11 were by double digits (same as the mighty Argos, BTW) and only 1 was by less than a TD. Our average margin of victory in those wins was 18 points. What was so hard about this year in the big picture? This isn’t a Madden video game on easy mode where anything less than a 60 point win is a failure. This edition of the club, if they win it all next week, should go down as one of the best ever teams in franchise history. And even if we quibble about a certain roster move, it sure looks like based on where we stand today that the staff made all the right decisions in the end, and the “putrid roster management” story was largely overblown. Convince me otherwise.

They say the CFL introduced radios in the QBs helmets to negate the unfair advantage Maas had.

Just came to post this too. I remember a lot of us (myself included) questioning whether he had it during the first 6 games last season and then the switch went on for him. Just phenomenal how he's changed since then.

I think we see BO on a mission...and is dominant...and that to me opens up a Lawler 7 to 10 catch game...160 yards and 2 scores....and another all-time great Grey Cup reception.....thats what I see And minimum 6 sacks and the Faj doing a limping or shoulder injury schtick acting job

well...ZC is healthy this yr...so there is that factor....he also looks pretty dialed in and pumped too....as long as he plays within himself and doesn't force it...I like our odds

“Hello Kyle, a super fan on a fan message board took the off hand comments of another fan to mean that you are unequivocally abandoning the franchise after this season, care to comment?”

I love this matchup for us. He simply cannot make those cross field throws. Our D is going to make life miserable for Cody and he’s not going to get the benefit of 9 turnovers against us.

This iteration of the Als, reminds me of the 2011 Bombers where the defense dragged the rest of the team kicking and screaming to the GC.

This is, after all, a menu thread.

It is very easy to see how this team could have been even better than it is. I don't love the constant complaining about it, but it is also impossible not to see what Booch and wbbfan are talking about.

I’ve often had that problem myself.

Yup...you can use your ding a ling if it flopped out

The wall our front hit mid season with zero rotation while we wasted di spots on 5 or 6 snap guys alone is all the proof needed. Cost isn’t paid in loses alone. I mean you’re talking “it’s not madden on easy” but do you consider your self to have greater x and o insight than that equivalent? You can also look at Hallett going in and forcing us into a two s look earlier this year because we had no back up cover db. You can look at the fact we are now looking at a brand new wr to our system possibly starting because of our pr management. You can look at how many games we had dis who played 5 snaps or less. You can look at how other teams have done every thing to maximize their roster depth and how we’ve burned spots in general. Look at how fox played in his game action vs guys like Schmekel, and Habba vs Bennett. Swap one of the dis wasted and do you think that makes us worse? You can’t completely weigh the loss, if we rotated this year and last year perhaps wj performs much more consistently like he did when we rotated previously. Maybe JJ wouldn’t get hurt. What’s the weight of the blow out loss to bc at home? What’s the loss of a guy losing quality at the end of their career? How many snaps have Augustine, Jackson, Eli, Dobson, gmc and bolo played this year in their rostered games? Having an extra cover db, pass rusher, interior run stopper etc indisputably makes us better. You’re trying to break down the season by the same madden standard you mentioned earlier. Games can’t be broken down to a lowest common denominator by a one dimensional number. You can win by 10 and have a piss poor performance. Say where you spend half the game getting slapped by edm to the point your starting qb gets knocked out. but then you can’t use logic to convince some one to change their mind and leave a position they took up with out logic. You’ve argued this many times before and been given every point by multiple people. But it doesn’t fit being a staunch contrarian so you discard all those every time.

Bang on assessment. Consider that at the half the turnovers were 4-1 for Montreal and they were only up by 7. Toronto was still right in it. In the 2021 West Final the Bombers were trailing 10-7 at the half with 5 turnovers to zero against. And Collaros ran down the Sask defender with a two blocker escort on the second one instead of quitting on the play. And look how each team responded in the second half in those situations. Kelly and the Argos allowed themselves to be defeated in the moment and crumbled in the second half. That Bomber team sucked it up and flipped the script to gain a win.

I have to work sunday until 2....I work law enforcement and will be ditching my uniform for the day and wearing a blank jersey instead under the vest I wear. I am in northern Alberta and have a small group of die hard fans I work with and they will be coming over. I can't see much food being ate but we will drink a ton of beer after the game. I can't watch the game with casual fans, I turn into a complete psycho and don't put up with background chatter.

In All seriousness ,thought he was worth listening to. Very passionate about the CFL.

Most birds can't either.

this is great news, and there's nobody happier about it than me (when and if it all comes to pass) but it does make me really curious what JBR was told, and by whom, that made it sound like Walters was exhausted by the work involved and needed to move back to southern Ontario for his family. The quote "who would want to leave this franchise willingly??" seems to go directly in the face of the previous information. And if the so-called "Coaches Cap" isn't going up, as was confirmed yesterday, then there's no extra payday coming for Walters....... it's curious for sure. But, as I said, there's nobody happier than me about The Trinity not breaking up (tentatively...)

Hodge now has an article up on the 3DN blog. https://3downnation.com/2023/11/15/kyle-walters-wants-to-be-back-as-gm-of-winnipeg-blue-bombers-expects-clarity-very-quickly/

re: the comparison of this year's Als to the 2011 Bombers.... I'd had that thought, as well, but the difference is the Bombers in 2011 backed into the playoffs after a great start to the year, and then shitting their pants in the back half. The Als actually got better as the season went on, and (at least defensively) are playing their best football when it matters. Their O still sucks, though, because The Fajtastic Voyage is among the worst "starting" QBs we've seen in many many years. If the Als had an actual starting QB (even someone like Trevor Harris) they would be a really good team and this game is immediately more of a toss-up.

Why do sports journalists feel the need to "advocate" for their team? The spread is 7.5 points and sportsbooks don't like to be wrong.

Yup. Not concerned about jinxing things or wearing a lucky jersey or any of that crap. The Bombers learned a valuable lesson last year and they will not lose this year to a second-tier team.

yup....they got 21 points from the defence and a kick return....and a late meaningless td after the game was in the bag....The Faj did nothing to make any team fear him....and we have been in his head now for a good 3 seasons....that hasnt and wont change...I expect classic Rider QB performance from him....especially with being sacked 61 times this yr....their oline is weak.....in front of a weak QB ...mentally and skill wise I think this is the game Grant goes off too, and gets us a Teams TD...

If the FAJ beats us with passing fro the pocket...we dropped an even bigger deuce than the Argo's....and would be an embarrasment

Quite honestly I think the Bombers defensive effort last week was more impressive than Montreal`s. I give Montreal full credit but they were the beneficiary of an epic QB meltdown and the giveaways (not takeaways) that came with that. We completely and utterly shut down a more potent BC offence for the entire game giving them virtually no opportunities to score, while sacking their QB 10 times. Montreal had zero sacks, and really not much pressure on CK. He just simply could not throw straight, SY standing upright, and had fumbleitis. VA just had nothing...and no chance. CK had opportunities and squandered them.

find it intresting/odd/funny in one the matchup advantage articles they gave the Als the DB advantage...even tho we as a defence gave up least points....least yards vs pass....and the least TD against versus the pass....

I thought it was pretty accidental... he tripped over Lawler's feet and his foot kicked up... and without the foot there, it's a TD Having re-watched a bunch of the game... I didn't realize live how much Adams was Fajardo-ing out there... just leaning into that injury as much as possible... just so everyone knows how much of a warrior he is... Suitor was lapping it up

**Rider fans have entered the chat**

You've been talking about it? Should have told the rest of us lol...

No sense explaining anything to you as you just eyeroll or argue...say we won in past...whatever....u can't see it's not optimal use of roster...DA's etc....and will never get it...so why even ask just to retort as u do...u think it's great and that's totally fine and your choice...so look for a new argument somewhere now Dont waste your breath on someone who looks at past success where this didn't happen and where wins this yr gloss over the roster misuse...he ...or she....not sure gender can't correlate how it hindered us...and yes had a hand in a few loses and also a few wins we were lucky to escape with He is fine with adequate and not being outright dominant

Exactly. Same thing. Contain and break them down. On offence, run until they stop you, then move to the air.

Ssh, he can hear you.

Here's the Bombers' 9 sacks from the game. Keep an eye on how disciplined Jefferson was.

Ritchie Hall can be maddening at times with the bend but don't break stuff but my God when he's got the bodies to execute the man can get some great performances out of a defense. His ability to adapt in game is such a strength.