wbbfan

We dont have a ton of flexibility right now. I think goosen is coming up for a new deal soon. Maybe hardrick too. Jeffcoat, jsk etc cant be far back either. Our young guys who are becoming proven vets will need money and to make that money we will have to make moves in the next 2 years. Another big, big factor will be streveler. IF he doesnt chase the nfl dream in the next two years he will at this rate require a large bump in salary to keep. No doubt we want to keep biggie long term, if we can. We are approaching the point in that period of time where great franchises roll over vets for younger guys who are as good or better.

Its really hard to beat a team two weeks back to back. Especially when you route them the first game. Its always hard to follow up a big offensive out pouring as you tend to drift back down to the median. I think BC comes out and scraps much harder earlier. If they roll over and die they are pretty much toast. Maybe the chuck a ton of deep balls, maybe they pound the rock. But I dont think they will roll over and take a licking like last week.

at this point its improved over last year. and the biggest improvements to be made are more chemistry in the secondary and coaching. We are middle of the pack in a bunch of stats and among the best in a few big ones. But small ones, like most completions given up (worst) big plays given up (7th) yards given up (worst) and first down conversion splits are extreme outliers. (we have the best defense against teams trying to convert a first down with 4-6 yards, but 7-10 and 1-3 are middle to bottom tier) This points to our strategy. It is a bit early for deep delving into stats though (small sample size) Also the switch in starting qbs skews things on offense. It is a bit worry some that we have a very low YPC, but also low pass completion % compared to the rest of the league. With our offensive system we should be among the highest pass % teams if not the highest. But again qb switch and all. Whats even more interesting is that our eff soars as we pass deeper down field. Second best on 10-19 yard depth then head and shoulders better then every one else on 20+ yard passes. https://d3ham790trbkqy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2018-CFL-Statistics-to-Week-4.pdf

If you dont have a premier return man who is a threat to go all the way on every single return, the next best thing is a guy who gets under the ball, catches every single one he can and never goes backwards. Not saying that is cooper, but we dont need an impressive second returner. We need that steady smart lunch box return man imo.

the best game played by a bomber mlber since what henoc?

Imo harris out played wilder. Soo much more efficient. Iirc 10 or so less yards on 6 less touches. Harris was a shade under 100 yards at the half, we gave him a rest late in the game too.

And atleast one of goosen running down field and pancaking the crud out of some one too. hardrick and the young nucks have continued to really improve. Bryant is steady as ever. i dont know if any other bomber loves playing the game as much as hardrick does. This isnt about a jump to the nfl, or the next contract or any thing but fun. That man loves him some football. And you cant help but love him for it.

nailed it.

That can certainly have such an affect. But you can easily see the difference in the pre nichols era and early nichols era in terms of time in the pocket. At the same time, weve seen BC un able to pass the rock against us for extended periods of time in the jenings era, but also seen them repeatedly rip massive runs with regularity on us. In the cfl even if a qb isnt hitting you arent going to cheat that heavily to the run game. Our OL also got banged up late last year when nichols was hurt as well.

same.

Imo we will see thompkins pretty soon for bowman. I think the flanders era is slowly slipping away. Lafrance and demski give us the depth at rb, especially with augustine on the PR. combine that with the depth of our offensive weapons now and I dont think we carry a DI just to use as a diversion. Teams wont bite on a low usage sub for long.

Go back and re watch most of the first half of his carries against hamilton especially. He has been shaking tackles and cutting back in the back field a lot with out bond. Actually we had a stretch of iirc 3 weeks last year with maybe one sack and two weeks in a row with out a hit on nichols. Well if you watch line play instead of following the football its actually pretty easy. How do you measure it? when a guy is facing tacklers in the back field on half his carries vs bursting through regular holes and first being contacted past the line of scrimmage its a very obvious difference. Go to the YT streams of the games and set the speed to .75% It was even more dramatic a difference pre bond last year. That was also before hardrick slid over.

You can see the differences in the gaps opened in the running game. First point of contact is much closer to the hand off then it was with bond. The cohesiveness of the line, and the type of offense we run has a lot to do with keeping the qbs clean.

1 harris. Big runs, great blocks could have had monster stats if we didnt let up in the second. 2 Bighill. Great dropping deep tnite. 6 tackles 2 picks 1 td. Monster game against his old team. 3 Lots of guys could fill this spot. ogopogo had a monster game. And so did jeffcoat. So it goes to the ends that kept bcs offense in park all night long. hh This goes to streveler with the great off tackle run for 26 yards instead of pushing for the yard to get a first down.

im surprised conteh/branning arent back already.

also the entire community is renewing its vows with matt nichols.

or god forbid casey printers returns... no please... let me forget mike kelly...

that is gross. 🤣 give it time. i think jones time is over in riderville after this year.

They did better then the riders did imo. Als took a long shot on freeman but its once of those low risk high reward moves. same with willy. those two fail you arent ruined. the riders are in serious trouble with collaros. The als also got vernon adams back. At this point in time jones is a bigger gong show and costing his team more then kavis. Which I didnt think would be possible this year. I think we will still see a fair bit of re shuffling of qbs this year / next year. Not gonna be a ton of great options but we will see some options league wide. I think collaros ends up waived and backing up some place. Maybe backs up franklin back in to. I dont think masoli and manziel will stay in a log jam. And I dont think jennings will be in bc this time next year. And now with nubrady, we probably fill the role the esks had the last few years with streveler. panic mode engaged. couple more weeks and the fire jones bandwagon will be in high gear once again.

That deep ball to chris williams on a rope with duron carter in the rear view mirror was a thing of beauty. But i think the whole world knew that behind the als OL it was never gonna work. I dont think they believe mathews is better, willy is hurt and not practicing from the sounds of it.

Imo the key to great defense is great tackling, and aggression. aggressive coverage making for tight dangerous throws, and aggressive pass rush limiting time to make decisions and those throws. Statistical indicators of that are 2 and outs, low average yards per play, and TOP. Flying around and laying the smack is all well and good. But if the offense on the other side is getting first downs and continues too the defense will still just wear out. Ill take strong wrap up and drag down tackling over selling out for hits. The sky is the limit for the talent. Hall is a low ceiling though.

at this point i would take the dead version of the cat as our dc...

😆 Not wrong, Our OL was some kind of awful pre bond. Its better now, with the growth of hardrick but especially suhk and goosen. I feel like since the early khari era we have had some of the worst Cos in the league on both sides. And of those guys none may be worse then bfool and hall. I dont think max protect is the future in the cfl. But I do think a return to H back / te forms could be. we see more and more big bodied backs and te types coming out with little to no room in the league for them. But ive also thought the 30 front was the best strategy in the cfl.

Not just the D but coaching was heavily questioned after both losses as well. It does feel like we are on track for the same despite having by far the most talented group of defensive players in that period of time. The previous defenses and teams fed off a TON of forced turn overs though. So Between that and the rook qb and the added talent on D I have greater hope for this team. But our coaching, especially hall but also the plop out smarting him self and no one else stretches have to improve. Coaching is our primary limiting factor right now. Which is kind of scary.

It can, when one team is the stamps (perennial power house that cycles through talent at positions that make the rest of the leagues head spin) the rudders who spend and spend and spend and make moves galore but dont move forward and the bombers who take giant steps forward only to fall back. The difference is the level of management and coaching. Calgary was far better prepared to counter what hamilton did. And adjusted better. We didnt. The solution isnt the same for every team as I illustrated. A team that lives more off the pressure of blitzing then just off your line it makes sense to beat the max pro with pressure. Jail break blitzes etc. If you are a team that relies on its front 4 for pressure like us, not so much. The answer will be a bit different for each team so you cant just copy paste other teams answers. Until its in the past fully its schrodingers cat. Both hard and easy to crack at the same time.