Colin Unger

From PFF this week. 8. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (No Change) LT Stanley Bryant LG Liam Dobson C Chris Kolankowski RG Asotui Eli RT Eric Lofton • The Blue Bombers' pass-blocking struggles continued. This unit ranked as the worst pass-blocking group of Week 8, earning a 40.3 pass-blocking grade. The pair of right guards was the main culprit for the poor grade. Neufeld (5.5) started but was replaced in the third quarter by Eli (18.2), who did not perform much better. • Right tackle Eric Lofton had his best game of the season. He finished with a 73.6 overall grade, a 60.1 pass-blocking grade and a 79.2 run-blocking grade, making him the third highest-graded run-blocking offensive lineman of the week.

If our passrush is suspect, our SAM is suspect and our safety is suspect. I just don't know how we're ever getting the offense off the field. Opposing teams aren't stupid and keep in mind we haven't even played the two dumbest teams yet. I agree. So we'll probably spend 3 weeks dealing with the paperwork and will have him acclimated and ready to play by the time we are eliminated from playoff contention.

Let's face it. We're wasting our time worrying about the defensive starters at this point. We need to fix the offence and fast.

Doesn’t make much sense to me. What exactly is the opportunity for him. Better to wait for a real opportunity.

Because he's a true rookie who's shouldn't even have been starting. He should have spent a year on the practice roster if we weren't in a desperate situation due to a bad recruiting class last season. It just seems clear to me that he is a 24 year old rookie who was a bit intimidated early on and eventually he made a couple of plays and now he has more confidence. He's still very raw. But the fact is that he's by far the best option we have right now in the receiving core. I'm expecting him to make some more typical rookie receiver mistakes though. They aren't all Schoen's. Most of the receivers who look polished their first year in the CFL are older, have more pro experience, or have 2 cfl camps under their belt and a year on a practice roster. You guys can refute that being a raw rookie and getting their feet wet matters. I just can't see how there's any confusion on why I'm giving him a bit of a pass on the earlier games.

We've consistently opted for the cheaper internal option to retain on the offensive line rather than making sure we retained the best option. Didn't work out well with Couture vs Kolo but it worked out great in Jones vs Hardrick. Wishing we still had Dejarlais, Couture, and Chung right now. We can recover. I think Dobsen, Eli, and Wallace end up being pretty good and with the season we're having we should get a pretty high pick this year in the first round and two second round picks again.

Hopefully a significantly better plan than Toronto has.

Did you even read the entire quote that you replied too? All i did was make a joke about how amazing he kicked after being forced to use chipped balls. And after that one joke i talked about how the problem is overall talent and guys trying to do too much and how we aren't able to overcome the type of individual mistakes we used to be able to because of the overall team.

The team should tell him he's going to have to use chipped balls again if he keeps missing kicks. The problem is overall reduced talent level. We could typically handle a few things going against us and somebody would make a play and we'd still win or we'd be up by so much it wouldn't matter. And we also have guys who are trying to do too much that they're becoming too careless with ball security. Its a typical team that's just barely on the wrong side of being good enough.

Not wrong at all. I already acknowledge that Schoen was the outlier not disputing that. Do you guys no remember the big drops milt had as a rookie? I know he also made a lot of big plays. He was also not what would be considered a true rookie the way Wilson is today. He had played in actual NFL games. And Wilson's stats are not that different than Milt from early on. Even if Milt had no drops his rookie year the point I'm making that most of our top receivers didn't do it as a true rookie is still 100% valid. I was never making an argument that these other receivers didn't do more their first year with the bombers. I was arguing that most of our greats weren't thrust into action as true CFL rookies so you can't compare what they did in their first season as a bomber to Wilson. And had these guys been starting every game as true rookies some of them may very well have under performed Wilson. Again.. with Lawler he was an NFL draft pick and spent considerable time on NFL and CFL practice rosters. Had multiple nfl training camps and multiple cfl training camps before playing. Wilson is on pace for: Receptions: 67.5 Yards: 1041.75 Touchdowns: 4.5 Sure the touchdown are low but when you consider the percentage of all TD's thrown by Zach that he's captured i don't think you can hold that against him. I also want to add that im not comparing him to our greats because I think he's going to be one of them. Im comparing him because our greats are the highest standard i can compare him too and even most of these guys didn't get thrown out there as genuine rookies.

250k of his contract next year is gaurenteed.

I thought he just said the other day he'd love to come back to the BC Lions when/if his NFL door closes. It seems like his door is pretty close to being closed right now. I don't think we will really benefit from him coming back even in this offseason. He's made it clear his first choice is BC. Unless BC decides to stick with Adams Jr. which i don't think they would do we are kind of screwed. BC can sign Rourke and trade Adams Jr. to Hamilton or a different out of the division team. Even if BC wins the cup and they decide to stick with Adams Jr we'd have to be sure that we could move Zach to a different team who would take on Zach's gaurenteed money in order to be able to negotiate with Rourke who will no double become the highest paid player in the CFL. And just about every team in the league will go after him so why would he sign with a non-playoff team that doesn't have its **** together.

Ive been thinking that too. If Wilson continues to improve and puts up 1000 yards plus we would have to really consider trading one of Lawler or Schoen and spend the money elsewhere. Zach needs to take a paycut and also bring back Lapo to coach the offence. He'd be more willing to use Streveler regularly in the offense and would be the right offensive co-ordinator for a future when Streveler gets a chance to be our starter. Draft an offensive lineman with a top 3 pick. Nuefeld retires Kolo cut. Free agent dollars spent on a fire breathing defensive end and offensive tackle ect.

We never had Demski as a rookie. He had 3 years to develop and become a professional before coming here. Keep in mind Ontaria isn't a 26 year old rookie like Shemar Bridges in hamilton who spent considerable time on an NFL practice roster. Ontaria is 24 and after college went to one NFL training camp and is here. Lawler was an NFL draft pick and spent and entire year on an NFL practice roster and then went to camp with the BC lions and spent most of his first year on an NFL practice roster. Geroy Simon spent a full year on the practice roster before becoming a starter. He struggled as rookie with having short arms when trying to make contested catches. Needed time to get settled and not be intimidated by the professional game. Schoen would be one example that goes the other way. He did spent time with 4 NFL teams but was never on a practice roster for very long. Similar age when he came up here to Ontaria Wilson but Scheon is the exception rather than the rule. I think it goes without saying that Scheon was a more impressive rookie than Ontaria Wilson. Why would we care about the other games? A raw rookie just getting his feet wet and then made a big play and his confidence started take off. What value do those early games have. When I start a new job it takes some time to learn my responsibilities, get my feet wet, and confidence up. But once it clicks why would i be worry about my performance on day one of the job? The criticism before last night was that he only had one big game. Now the evidence says he's not a one game wonder. I'm not against some degree of caution but I think its more than fair to be excited about the guy especially on a team with little to no excitement outside of Wilson right now.

I view it as 2 out of 3 elite games and he's doing it while he's the only really skilled receiver we are throwing out there. He'll be a real gem once Lawler. If i was other teams id be leaving Demski open right now begging for him to get the ball in his hands. Wilson at least recovers his own fumbles and has the skill to catch the ball he almost dropped on the rebound. Its just rookie nerves. What's the excuse of our veterans who keep giving the game away while Wilson saves them? Most of our best receivers were far worse as rookies or sitting on the practice roster. He's not his fault that he's the only receiver worth a damn we're fielding right now and he has to carry the offence. Not sure if many of you are old enough to vividly remember how inconsistent Milt was his first couple years. The touchdowns he dropped still haunt me.

I get that people don't want to hear old warn out lines from the coach at a time like this. I personally couldn't care less what he says. Its a crappy situation. I'd rather no even listen to the coach right now or the players. I'm still willing to follow roster moves, practice reports and watch games but that's where i draw the line right now. I'm not a glutton for punishment. Are you gonna check the score?

Ontaria Wilson is legit! Problem is he's the only receiver on the field right now that's playing above replacement level. I just wish the refs hadn't stolen the ball from us at the end of the 4th quarter. I would have loved a FG miss for a single point at that juncture.

What an interesting comment. It says everything. He was pulled due to the team's desire to get better. Eli was terrible on those back to back sacks but he must have settled in after that. Lets keep playing him and let offensive line gel with him in it.

The nice thing is the pain of a close loss should get easier going forward. At this point there's not a lot of hope left to salvage.

There definitely should be accountability but it doesn't need to happen in any kind of public shaming type of way.

Nobody deserved a victory for their performance today. Unfortunately, the only crew getting consequences for their poor performance is the one that actually played the best out of the three. The refs and the Argos get off scotch free.

Bailey please

With Zach out we’ve lost Streveler as a potential receiver so we are down to Augustine and Jefferson?

We can’t be fumbling but it seems also that the only plays we are executing are high danger passes.