wbbfan

Thats the thing, going from one style of kicking to another is far harder than first trying to learn to kick a football. Remember that guy who hit the 50 yarder for a million bucks in that tsn contest a decade or more back? Then taman added his name to the neg list? I bet mourtada couldnt make a 45 from the hash for a million bucks. I first tried kicking when I was 14 ish. I lived in a small town and had a massive yard. I was punting and kicking off a tee, the first day I hit the power line going to the house and broke it. It was dragged on the ground but not totally disconnected. The hydro guys came and laughed and joked about it and fixed it. The next day I hit it again, and broke it again. No laughs, no jokes, they got an RC down to talk to me and I was banned from kicking any where with in town limits ever again. In junior every year I would try and back up any position the coaches would let me (My position list on the roster was hilariously long.) Among the many back up spots I held was holder. I held for the back up kicker (a wr) a few times. He was brutal and for laughing I got to run with the kickers for the day. After that, I got 3 kick offs to similar effect and was never allowed to kick again. The last kick off I tried the old westy on side kick. Sent a low screamer right at a guy in front of me. Broke his cup but he fell on the ball. First two went about as far out of bounds as they did down the field. All in all, I mightve punted the ball well, once, when I was 14. Landing a kick in the sweet spot frequently has to be really hard. I couldnt believe how bob cameron would do it when punting, especially when he would throw the ball towards his foot rather than drop it. The more I think about it, the crazier kicking seems. Must be why they are pretty much all coo coo for cocopuffs.

Oh he will kick. I just have no faith he can make a kick.

We're gonna bring the cup back where the thang belongs. Had to love his optimism. Until you couldnt stand it any more any way.

Legs is focusing on punting. He was struggling at all 3 roles which is a crazy amount to do in your first season, especially after a missed season.

I dont mind him nearly as much in basketball. Enthusiasm takes you a lot further in the frenetic back and forth sports than in the cfl. I wouldnt give up much of an asset for arbuckle. I dont see him being able to start cold and win a play off game so I dont see a lot of point in it. Especially considering that in the off season we will need to shave some dollars. It may just be a joke, but we could be a secret middle man for an eastern team to get him at a cheaper price and still get a bit of value our self. Like what toronto did to get us glenn back in the day. If I was TO I wouldnt trade him to MTL or Ham for less than an impact starter. I would actually do some thing based around Gray to toronto, arbuckle to montreal, david cote to us. Id want more back giving up gray, and at this point with yoshi banged up I dont think itd happen.

Thats a great example, plenty of people can execute in practice but when in the ring or on the field it all just falls apart. Muscle memory is a fickle thing too. Often in many sports but especially positions involving leg drive (pitching, qb, kicking etc) people try to make minor corrections and improvements to technique which throws them off. Learning a thing for the first time is fairly quick and easy compared to trying to tweak and improve a technique. Ive seen pitchers get fixed, but their mechanical struggle and striving for improvement is a twice a week for their entire career thing. I havent seen QBs fix their mechanics in the pros. Not when they have decent college and HS experience. I feel like at a certain amount of reps you just hit a wall, and at that point you are better off trying to off set your weaknesses rather than change technique and wholesale fix them. The line between mental, muscle memory, and mechanical technique can be fine. The mental issues as you refer to them could be the issue. I think in sports the majority of people who talk about the mental execution issue are just talking about guys cracking. Like a QB hearing footsteps. So that could be the bias of my own perception. I would categorize muscle memory and technique as physical but I can see how people would consider it mental. Thanks, I really enjoyed your response too its a pretty interesting topic for me. Id be interested to hear about your martial arts experience if you wanna hit me up about it some time too.

Thats pretty good for the CFL on tsn tbh. Just gotta get rid of suitor now.

Reilly got the crazy money though. 700k a year. he's 30 and just coming into his peak. Id love to see him stay though. Some thing will have to give in the off season. Its probably going to be walters hardest with respect to the cap and salary decisions. Lawler will want a good raise if he isnt NFL bound. Biggie will need a raise again. Richardson probably in line for a raise. BA.

Imo, faith is the only real bust. And that wasnt a strong top end of the draft. Corney couldve been great and is the biggest physical freak to come out of the cfl draft, but he was a good rotational player and was really close. I bet he could still play football if he wanted to. Waggoner was a gem on teams, and couldve done more on D. Id take him then over most of our NI depth today. The hallett boys are gonna be the back bone of our teams for years to come. And rotational quality defenders at worst. If the 19 draft was done again today, Desjarlais would go no1. Brady has been very good in limited reps too. Eli is the biggest steal in draft history. Exume was the 70th pick and instantly one of the top STs guys in the league and a rotational defensive piece. Simonise and petey are still in the league with 2nd and 3rd teams. Which is more than 90% of the top 2 rounds can say. FMB still in the league, Qadr spooner was the hot commodity back up OL for a while and was on 1 or 2 other teams but ped and injuries derailed his career. Taylor loffler had a really solid career. Immediate starting NI db in the 3rd round? yes pls. Gauthier, and briggs have done a lot for us especially this year how many 14/15 picks are still around? Normand is one of the better fbs and a sts anchor in mtl, derek jones was a big rotational piece and teamer here, and lets not forget cody speller. Undrafted free agent to starting OL. The mafia have gotten tremendous value out of each years draft. Frequently our depth players end up being depth players for other teams after playing here. Nothing is a higher sign of good drafting than your depth picks filling out rosters across the league.

The bomber site has a nice OL coaching mini seminar by him, its too bad he's seldom heard from he's a bright football mind and interesting guy.

Isnt it remarkable how much more of a crapshoot it is for some one like Mack than for Walters? Must have a good set of loaded dice... 🤣

Post of the day. They were the easiest team to beat in modern history before they went to caleb. Imagine the beat down they wouldve put on the ELK if they had arbuckle. Or vaj, fajardo, nichols, and BLM this year. Year of the qbs it is not. I really think TO will look to make a splash and get atleast harris (i know un vaxxed troglodyte, off season for him) Masoli/evans, reilly if bc falls to peices, or worst of all Collaros in the off season. Zach signed a 2 year deal in 20, and the deal was restructured prior to this season which generally means its just for the rest of the season. Some thing that hasn't been talked about is if zach wins mop, and or another GC here, he would become the hottest CFL FA in recent history. Im sure the bombers would have a huge edge in retaining him, but Im also sure TO, ott, edm, and mtl would try hard to wine and dine him. I bet itd be much the same as collaros deal. 4th ish round pick, + a first if he signs an extension. To might try to hold the als feet to the fire for more but I dont see a bunch of starters moving around.

damn right. And my favorite all time excuse is "We just need time to gel!"

Brett Maher was waived from a conditional contract and is a free agent, health is his primary concern. Lirim is a FA and has bounced between two teams and PR a few times, but its getting well into the season now. Also Sergio Castillo has been trying to get an NFL deal to no avail. All 3 are available, its a question of if they decide to risk sitting for a year vs playing the end of the CFL season and getting back on the radar in the NFL. I dont think we see crapinga dress again. Hes not even in winnipeg from the sounds of things. Im sure it would. Idk what happened to him but a former bison kicker was drafted into the LFA and played atleast a bit. It gobsmacks me to think that we couldnt have every thing we get in mourtada but with an NI.

I agree x2. Honestly It seems like it wouldve been easier to find a punter who could kick off and then let legs focus on kicking field goals. Legs will make or break his career with FGs. A NI punter with an average leg who cant kick off doesnt have much value. An NI kicker who can replicate his near 90% rate in college is worth a lot. Seems like poor asset management, but who knows. Prior to the last game he was struggling bad with his punting, but it does seem to be finally coming around.

I dont get why legs got a much shorter leash than mourtada either. He basically got 2 bad games after going 4/4 with a game winner. And one of those bad games was a windy mess where both teams struggled bad with kicking. I think part of the concern though is that legs is not able to be an all 3 phases kicker. His kick offs are horrible. We were basically spotting teams 15 yards of advantage every time we exchanged kick offs not counting any return.

Mmm the 3dn around the league rumor mill had teams trying to ****** other teams PR guys a few times in the last month, ott hid christion on the 1 game IR, duck on the suspended list and a few others. I believe bc and ssk tried to ****** some players.

Id bet on him not being back this year. He hasnt kicked a ball in 6+ weeks and injured his leg. By the time he is healthy, shakes the rust off and is 100% itll be the next tc. We've done this kind of thing frequently. From Qbs like dom davis, MBT, and bennett, to wrs like agudosi. If we find a physical tool set with raw development and advanced age we dont hesitate to try them out. Have we taken any one off another teams PR in the mafia era? I feel like not. I would do it no doubt. But perhaps it isnt their way. I hope its that they love mourtada's make up and leg potential but have a guy down south like lirim who will come back with a month to go. No reason to believe that, but Its my hope.

I think the great key to our success is knowing our team as much as it is knowing the players. Lots of teams can look and see talent. Some teams can predict how talent will project in the CFL. But no team is doing a fraction of the job the mafia is at projecting players fitment into their cfl roster. When the bombers draft a guy, they know what role that guy will fill if they succeed. They know how to deploy them and it fits with what we do. Many times, my self and others have gone oh I wish we drafted that guy! And some times that guy is indeed a good cfler. But not soo much a good bomber. Some times of course other teams pick guys we'd love before we can, but over all we do an exceptional job picking guys who will fit what we do as a pro. And just like the players fit the team, the mafia fit each other. Wade, walters, mos, and all the rest. They are all in sync. In his book "the score takes care of it self", bill walsh talks about his first changes when he took over the 49ers job. He instituted standard operating procedure for every single job. It didnt matter if it was janitorial, receptionist, or QB. Every job was held to the same standard of excellence, and every member of the franchise was expected to fit the mold. The whole book is basically about winning culture. Id strongly recommend it for any bomber fan, the style of culture building is exactly like what the bombers have done.

Yeah at this point he isnt. And the hope of him becoming elite at this point is very low considering his age. With his low experience he could improve considerably in a medium period of time, but its been a month and a half and hes getting worse. Even if he improves dramatically Idk if he could be more than a westwood quality kicker. All kickers struggle at some point, like medlock in the NFL. But its never consistent or long lasting. Medlock struggled in his first pre season game, then was lights out in the next 2. He played the first 10 games in the regular season. In the first 7 of those he didnt miss a fg, and went 5/5 in the 7th game. In the last 3 he went a combined 0/3 including 1 blocked kick that wasnt on him in week 8. After the 10th game his time was over. Mourtada has gone 0/3, 3/3, 1/4 with a missed convert. He was signed august 30th so its been a month and a half on the nose. I think at worst the bye week in week 13 has to be the panic button. The trade dead line falls in that week. Thatd leave a month plus a week till the GC. Any guys kicking around trying to get NFL deals should have a pretty clear picture of if they will get a deal or not. Bauming said that Sergio castillo has been holding out for an NFL deal too. So thats 3 seasoned cfl vets who can kick at a high level. Ones gotta say yes I would think.

I hope yoshi is gonna be healthy soon. Imo hes the most undervalued player on the team. I imagine harris is on load restriction. He had like 25 touches last game. He doesnt need practice at this point of the season. I sure hope thats it. He looked like he was as sharp as he's been this year.

Honestly the only OL depth in the league is in winnipeg. No one else has a healthy guy on the bench that is above replacement level. I wouldnt trade Eli for any thing. Id trade gray for a hero package that would have to start with a phenomenal kicker. (And I really like gray) If any thing the riders should dump powell, and go NI at rb. A guy like augustine should be gettable for cheap. STE if you want to pay more. Or try and get combs for cheap from ott, or just grab a guy like lyles to back up lafrance. Start 3 NI wrs, and then you only have to start 2 ni on the OL. Then dig up some NFL cast off OL and run an air lift till you find a couple that can adjust. As it is they have 0 chance of winning a play off game with a couple OL who are junior level. Theyve got OL who might not start in Usports.

I think its much more mechanical. Its like a pitchers delivery and release. Except you need basically flawless mechanics every time. Mental issues can ruin any player in any sport. And staying consistent through long droughts of not kicking, even with in a game is tough. But that is never an issue with QBs who come in off the bench or who go a long stretch with out a possession/many passes. Ive played with kicking, but I wasnt a real kick at any level. Ive done muay thai and kicking arts extensively and I can tell you ive seen peoples kicking mechanics fall apart over minor tightness and all kinds of minor technique issues. Watching soo many of Mourtadas clips, he practices trying to make field goals while kicking off. The tee, the holder, his approach, empty fields, and always from right down the middle. Its like a kick off. Which is why he excels at kicking off soo much. In a kick off you have no timer, you can take as comfortable a stride as you like. Kicking a field goal, you have to cover a very precise distance, with an exact number of steps, in a small time window. All of that is stuff he didnt seem to practice. His approach looks uncomfortable to me. And he looks un sure of every kick he launches. But never surprised when he misses. I really dont think he knows mechanically how to reliably kick and adjust to different spots on the field. He only seems comfortable with the xpt, which is right down the middle. It isnt really a surprise, he's only kicked a little bit in the IFL as a pro, didnt have a full college career, and what he had ended a very long time ago. He's old, lacks experience, and has tremendous leg strength. Weaker leg guys arent trying to hit 60 yard fgs every day, they are trying to figure out how to hit from every angle, and mastering their mechanics.

I wouldve bet that he'd out improve fajardo for sure. He has soo many tremendous weapons around him. I thought if any thing we might see the young guns take over the qb elite ranks. But at this point we arent any closer to that happening. I think this year is a prime example of the under rated value of the trenches. The bombers are built around the lines, and we're the most dominant team through 9 games in maybe 70 years. The teams with shaky OLs have had serious issues this year. Ham, ssk, to, bc, mtl all have pretty bad Ols. Imo no other team has a great OL. Its an assortment of mediocre and out right bad ols. We might see a serious jump in pay rate for OL this off season. For years pundits and teams have looked at QBs, and play makers on O and D to build around. Then they fit the cost of the OL around what they had left and needed for ratio. Our secondary is pretty cheap, and we dont have any WRs that are one and done prospects. League wide NI wrs are closing the gap, ratio breakers are available at every position pretty much, and NI lber is more regular now. I think we could see more NI rbs too. Especially if teams focus more on building their OL.

In steinbach things are slowly trending a bit more left, about 1/3 of votes went to ndp/libs. The SE is home to a hyper vocal minority of religious right wing extremists though. The deep south, winkler/morden etc are still pretty entrenched. But luckily on the whole the province is much more progressive. Having lived in both these areas I sure wouldnt want to be painted with the same brush. Alberta is like the area around those cities. Mostly people are pretty neutral and quiet. But sadly that just lets the wing nuts have their way. But then I dont think its fair to generalize and paint groups in mass. By that notion all of canada could be painted pretty poorly with respect to a lot of native issues.