TheSource

It's only my opinion below so relax with the insults. Based on what Bombers have done to date the team is weaker than last year, and if the season were to start tomorrow I wouldn't pick them to finish above 3rd in the West, and possibly they could even regress all the way to finishing last. Primarily this is due to Bombers being so passive in free agency while other teams have made solid improvements. But all is not lost and saying that, they could turn out better than last year when the season starts. Bombers are gambling on replenishing a depleted National talent pool by having some players currently on the roster step up or by making a lucky draft selection or two. In addition, some of the problems they have had at import positions could definitely be solved through scouting, and I think the team is definitely rolling the dice and relying on the competence of their scouting efforts. That's great, but it is still a risk that all teams have to face, not just WBB. For where they are now, here is what I think by position: QB: Definitely improved. This is probably the best 1-2 combo in the league, however protection and time to throw will determine if this matters at all. RB: Status quo in this area. Harris and Flanders are great - no question. Good depth having National K LaFrance who will now be needed if Harris gets hurt due to ratio problems even though he is a huge question mark in terms of what he can do. FB: Definitely regressed. Yes in the Lapo offence this position is hardly used, but when it was it was effective. They will miss having a proven performer to come through on key plays. This loss also hurts because it could affect the way the Bombers protect the QB. OLINE: Definitely regressed. Unfortunately the loss of Bond is huge - more than most here are prepared to admit. Neufeld is Hurl 2.0 except he is also so fragile that I doubt you will have to worry about him being in the lineup after game 5. Unfortunately, by that time I think he will get Nichols, and possibly also Durant on the IR with serious injuries before the end of that first 5 game stretch. None of the options Bombers have for CDN replacements to Hurl are proven, and because of the weakness of CDN depth at other positions, this could get ugly. Import Receivers: Improved, but not as much as one would expect. Adams is a premier receiver, but will he stay healthy? Seems to be too skinny in the upper body to stay healthy for a whole season. It is a weakness of LaPo that he only likes those tall skinny guys in my opinion. Adding Bowman is great because it addresses the lack of big play capability in the receiving corps of the last two years. The only thing here is that Edmonton is a quality organization that knows how to evaluate talent. Bowman may be tailing off and has lost a step if Edmonton was willing to let him go, or perhaps they know something about his chronic injury status that Bombers do not know. Dresseler has lost a step and he is not durable, but he will contribute and one of the other receivers from last year such as Lankford or Washington can probably account for equivalent production. National Recievers: Definitely regressed. Julian Feoli Guidino was a known commodity. Demski is local so he is liked, but his production to date is nowhere near JFG, and expecting any improvement is purely speculation. With Coates he looks good but the sample size is too small so that's a gamble too. Wolitarsky should not even be in the conversation as he has not shown anything to be more than TC fodder. Bombers need to start 2 Cdns as receivers due to their ratio problems, and I think if they do, they will be in trouble. Linebacker: Definitely regressed. If it were not for the Leggett injury, this would be status quo, but with that injury Leggett is going to have to prove whether he can still play at a high level, or even at a level that is average for that position. Wild is not going to last a whole season, and frankly he looked good on a 3-15 team but has never showed that he is a performer on a 12-6 team. Santos-Knox is workman like and there is nothing wrong with that. Everything else is a big question mark. DLine: Improved, but at the cost of the ratio. Losing Westerman is a critical loss that takes a team with so-so Cdn depth and now pushes it back to edge. I think Bombers are going to have bigtime ratio problems this year. However, I think that playing an all-import DLine will be an improvement and I think that Jeffcoat, OgoPogo, Nevis, and Johnson will all have good years. Secondary: Definitely regressed. And this is bad, because last year they almost set a CFL record for giving up yards and explosion plays. What they had was bad, and now there are more unknowns with the loss of Heath. Having Randle and Loffler are the only things here that are positive, but they can't do it alone. Gaitor and Fenner are OK, acquisitions, but the BC secondary has been about as bad as the Wpg secondary in the last 5 years, so I just don't see an improvement there, othern than that BC scout Bombers picked up pushing his shtick. Regarding the other bunch they had last year the sample size is small, and the results are very suspect. Special Teams: Improved. The one thing Kyle Walters is good at doing is finding those lesser ham'n'egger type of players that come at a reduced value price to play teams. It's why Mike and Kyle get along so well. Coaching: Improved. You can't argue with canning a few defensive coaches on a team that was 2nd worst on defense last season. What they do going forward on defense coaching wise just can't be any worse. On offence I think they are really good for coaching and can only get better. I think Lapo is doing a great job overall. OShea is decent, a good person, and his players love him. Due to hard learned experience can't see him making as many mistakes as previous years. Scouting: Not sure yet. Has not been good enough but to fill some of the gaps on this team to stay competitive they are going to have to be good enough this year. GM: Not sold on this guy. Results are mixed and he is just not aggressive enough. If Bombers regress this year, in my opinion it is all on Kyle Walters, and then if Wade Miller doesn't make a change it will be all on Wade too.

This is an excellent analysis, and bang on in my opinion. Bombers have not made the moves on defense to win a Grey Cup, but they will be an exciting team to watch this year, which will put people in the stands and $$$ in the coffers. My thoughts are that the problem with the Bombers is that being frugal and putting $$$ away is always more of an objective than winning it all... Really wish it were otherwise, but that is why other teams spend the cash when the Bombers never do.

Goes to show you how quickly a team can turn it around if they know what they are doing and have an appropriate level of financial commitment from the organization. Same can be said about Saskatchewan, although they did fall a bit short. And Bombers show what happens when you don't have people who know what they are doing and do not have the financial will to be great from the organization. Now, to be fair, Bombers are not terrible anymore, but they are still not top tier. Would love it if Bombers, like Toronto, became serious about winning a GC as the main priority, but not sure if they will ever be able to do that in the new reality of the CFL.

The only problem with this is that Bombers are on a projected path to finally make it to the GC in 3 or 4 more years at that rate. I will bet that Sask gets there either this year or next with their aggressive scouting and coaching. The problem with the Bombers is that next year and the year after they will be hard pressed to keep the core of the good Canadian veteran talent. In the CFL you don't get 10 years to rebuild. I think Sask has the right idea in being more aggressive about this.

^^^^^^^^^^^^ This.

So now Bombers have gone into the playoffs with essentially the same team that came into training camp. It is not a bad team by any means, but both the depth of this team and the effectiveness of their defence is going to be tested. Hopefully they do well, but in my opinion they do not have the depth on either side of the ball to go deep into the playoffs, and based on the work of the entire season, the defense is not good enough to make it to the big game. That said, the defense has played well lately, on any given day, anything can happen. Good luck to your team today, this is the one you clearly want in exactly this form, and the results, good or bad, are what you deserve.

I think this is the biggest problem the team has, not coaching. It is particularly apparent during this season. As the season carried on Bombers have not done enough to keep uncovering quality talent not only as backups, but to challenge players in the starting lineup. Now all the other teams have improved because they do this, and the ranking of where Bombers sit talent wise has been dropping.

Have to say that this year's Bombers have impressed with talent level at many positions and have brought in some good players during the off-season, but the team seems to refuse to use a philosophy of continuous improvement. Over the last few years, during the regular season Bombers have become the "Stand Pat Sallies" of the CFL. Not sure whether this is because they are trying to be cheap, are afraid of making mistakes, or are overly loyal to under-performing players, or a combination of those reasons. The one thing I know is that similar to a DB covering a receiver, if you stand still, you will get blown by and lit up. I think its safe to say we may be seeing the bombers getting passed by teams that are willing to get better. And I don't buy the argument any more that because you have certain players at other positions, you can't afford to change the bad parts of the team. That's a full-on load of crap. Every other team (including Calgary) has brought in players to get better during the season. Some teams, like Hamilton and Sask, have made a large number of in-season changes and now have a team that talent-wise on paper is at least as good as the Bombers, if not better (in terms of team speed and athletic ability). Not trying to continuously improve a team is weak, and I think it send the wrong message to players, letting them get too complacent and comfortable. Now in the past off-season the Bombers have done good work in bringing in these players: Jeffcoat, Poop, Walker, Alexander And they have a core of great players that I wouldn't change including: Entire O-Line, Nichols, Harris, Adams (he's made a believer out of me), Mo, Loffler, Heath, Randle, (and the list goes on) However there are some glaring weaknesses that just do not seem to get addressed: *** HURL *** (really make me want to, every time I see him out there doing nothing) Lankford (love his speed and they REALLY do need another speed guy, not another possession receiver, but Lankford is showing that he is clueless) Kyle Knox Wolitarsky (supposedly a possession receiver but dropped and easy one right away) Coates (not going to scare anyone) Jake Thomas Dom Davis (does not look good enough to be backup - expected more from a guy who has been around this long) Addison Richards (yes, he's gone, by his own devices, but he never should have been kept around that long) Now if you say we have to play those guys because they are non-import, then I'd say this team is still too weak in Canadian depth to compete with the other teams in the League, and likely due to a lack of Canadian depth, Bombers may either miss the playoffs again this year, or do another one and done, possibly on the road. No other team would put Hurl out there just because he's Canadian. and that's a fact. If Bombers have an early exit, or miss the playoff entirely, you can sill blame their chronic weak Canadian talent level, and their inability to make changes to keep up with the other teams in the league. Their record is great, and they are definitely a much better team, but you have to do more than that to get to the next level...

All of whom are "no names" and true practice roster fodder. This team is named "Stand Pat Sally" for a reason.

Been re-watching the LD Classic before this one starts and there is one more comment that comes from that... For Bombers to win this one, both Harris and Flanders have to be used more and be more productive. Nearly all of Bombers offence is based on those short passes to Harris and Flanders. There is no way Bombers will beat Sask with there other receivers - none of them are good enough down the field past 5 yards. Need a huge game from both Harris and Flanders to win. By the way, the big Sask pick in the first Q was not against Denmark, it was against Dressler. In my opinion Dressler has lost more than a step and is not very durable or able to fight for the ball anymore. He's very smart and was finding the holes in the defense in the 2nd half last game during extended Garbage Time, but he is no longer the game breaking answer some here hope he is.

They need to be worried about Sask running up a big score in the 1st Quarter again, not whether they are going to come out on an emotional high. That was not a fluke that it got out of control so early last game, and for this game to be close in any way, it will take everything Bombers have to prevent that from happening again. Have to avoid giving up any big explosion plays within the first 15 minutes, and Nichols has to be ready to throw the ball away and take some sacks rather than let Sask get a few INTs in the first 15. KG will put up big numbers, but you have to keep them from getting easy ones. If they do that, maybe LaPo and Nichols can utilize that "Nickle and Dime" offence to squeak out a close win.

That may all be true, but all it confirms is that BOTH the system AND the player need to be changed. Bombers cant stop the run, can't get pressure, are giving up lots of passing yards AND explosion plays. The D is ranked last in the league, so although that explanation may explain why the particular player's numbers are low, it does not justify the overall terrible performance of the D. You can make a very good case that Hurl's low numbers are a contributing factor to the D being terrible, even if it is by design.

There is a very interesting point here that has not been mentioned yet. Big passes surrendered per game: HAM - 2.111 SSK - 2.111 BC - 2.100 WPG - 2.000 OTT - 1.818 EDM - 1.400 TOR - 1.364 CGY - 1.300 MTL - 1.200 Bombers went down he field once in the last game (that I can recall) and on that play Adams had several steps on the defender and Nichols overthrew him. If that had been caught it would have been a TD, and that was still at a point where it may have been a difference maker. The stat above suggests that Sask would be vulnerable to the long pass and the evidence that Adams was open confirms this. It is unfortunate that Lapo does not run an offense to test this very often and that Nichols is not very proficient in the long ball. Unfortunately Bombers tend to play into the strength of that Sask defense and do not appear very interested in testing the known weaknesses of that defense. Even if Nichols can't complete a long one, I'd still run Adams and Lankford deep more often and give it more than 3 attempts this weekend - especially if Bombers fall behind early again.

Probably the team will remain at status quo unless they drop the next few games, and even then, based on the past two years OShea and Walters have been very reluctant to change the starting lineup with the current roster, and even less likely to bring other players in. If this were the Riders, the Lions, the Stamps, or for that matter, the Cal Murphy era Bombers, we would already be seeing a steady stream of potential talent arriving in the Peg to try and improve things for a playoff run, but that's not really how this Bomber organization rolls. It has been harder for Walters and OShea to make those kind of decisions, and this team tends to stick with what they set out from training camp. That said, lets say hypothetically they drop the next few games... If it starts to look like they might miss the playoffs, I think it wouldn't hurt to bring in someone like Mulumba and experiment a little. I realize this will not be a popular statement, but something else to consider would be to replace one of the starting import OLineman with one of the current Canadian OLinemen, and then bring in an import middle LB that is better than Hurl. In particular, although he's a fan favorite, I think you could replace Hardrick with a guy like Coture and the drop off would not be as severe as some think. We already know that the drop off between Hurl and a real Middle Linebacker is severe, so perhaps they would come out ahead. If you did this, in the case of an injury, you could always revert back to the current roster configuration next game without too much trouble.

Sadly, Riders have always had a higher regard for being world class. Just a difference between the two provinces I guess.

In my opinion they will not do this because having an exciting O is enough to put butts in the seats and the $$$ is always the bottom line in Winnipeg. Winnipeg is a city that always settles for good over great because great costs too much... typical small market mentality...

And in a nutshell I think these two possible viewpoints are what is going to make the game this Sunday so interesting to watch. Traditional thinking is that a dominant defense will always win in these situations, but the CFL has featured more offensive production over the past several years, so we'll see... Not looking forward to seeing more of Hurl out there though... I re-watched the Montreal game and he played a factor (in a bad way) on at least 3 Montreal scoring drives. When Carmichael is not on the field he is the single biggest liability that the team is currently carrying.

Agreed. One thing that is good about this current Bomber regime, I don't think this team or their coaches take anything for granted or assume they have any game in the bag going in. I get the feeling they work very hard in their prep for every game. Also, they play hard whistle to whistle, which is in their favor. I don't think they will lose next game based on a deficit of character or effort. If they do lose it will be that they got beat by a more talented team, and that's all on their off-season prep and planning which did not fill a number of holes on the team that have existed for some time now. Bombers have improved in some ways this year, and in other's regressed. Not sure if they measure up to the level of improvement other teams make each and every year. They seem afraid to make changes while other teams always try to improve, both in the regular season and the off season.

^^^^ This It is going to come down to whether the vaunted Bomber OLine can match up well against an extremely talented Sask front 7 comprised of some of the top up'n comers in the CFL. It will also be interesting to see if a very fast and aggressive Sask LB corps can neutralize the threat of Harris out of the backfield. If they get to Nichols often and take away Harris as a safety valve, then he will either start throwing the ball up or else he is going to be carried off the field on a stretcher and into next year territory. On the other side, Cam Marshall is a very good north-south running back and I don't think a less talented, very mediocre, Bomber linebacking corps will be able to stop him much - particularly with Hurl in the middle. In addition, Glenn has the quick release and Bombers always give teams those short passes that Glenn is very good at completing. The match up here will be that if Bombers can't keep the defense off the field by maintaining long drives and scoring 30+ points on O, Bombers are going to have to play waaay over their capabilities to dateon defense to keep Glenn and Marshall from racking up some big numbers and a big score. I have to say that I covet the personnel that Jones has brought in on that solid D and the aggressive style of defense they play. I think that is how you win big games and championships.

Didn't say that, but you did. This will be a great measuring stick for the offence, and a good chance to test the theory that you can win big football games by getting into a shootout while hiding your own crap defense. Let's see how well that theory play out this week.

Bombers will cough up the ball or Nichols will be taken off the field in a stretcher if Riders get that much pressure on the QB next game. This will be the biggest test of the year for the Bomber OLine. Riders are for real. They are extremely good and extremely deep at all positions in their defense. In a few years if they stay together that may become one of the best defenses of all time in the CFL.

Comparatively, Sask is playing a better game against the Esks than the Bombers did. Murphy has assembled a very talented team there, as he has done wherever he has been stationed - he is a big reason why Calgary is as good as they are. One could argue that although they are less experienced Sask has a much superior defense to the Bombers as they do not really have any players playing who are known big liabilities in terms of talent level. They have done a good job of continually finding the best players and putting them on the field, rather than settling for players that are not as good but "known commodities". Bombers offence is going to have their hands full with this defense next week. On the flip side Glenn and Marshall could really tear up that soft Bomber D. I hope not, but you have to respect the fact that Sask is really tearing up an Edm team that has more of its players back than when Bombers played them.

The good news: - Based on stats to date, Hamilton's D gives up more points and yards than the Bomber D, which says something. Nichols should be able to put up big numbers if you don't take into account things that may have changed this week. - Collaros is not yet on a roll, so it is the best possible time for the Bomber D to keep him in check. Bomber D always seems to have trouble with Collaros who has put up some big number in a hurry in years past. Kent Austin is a better offensive mind than LaPo, but LapPo's team just has more momentum at this point. The bad news: - Hamilton is like a wounded animal and they may be more dangerous than expected this game. Conditions such as what have been going on with that team this week can lead to them having a really big game. Lets hope it is not gonna happen this week. - Players are have been let go in Hamilton this week, so you know they will be playing for their jobs this week. Don't think the Bomber "ole last minute try" will be enough in this one - they need to play solid all 4 quarters. You can't out-plug a team that is already as desperate as Hamilton. Not sure Bombers are going into this one anywhere close to as hungry as Hamilton is. - They got rid of Reinbold, which means the defensive schemes may actually be competent this week. Unfortunately, Bombers will not have the "free sqaure" that everyone else has had up to this point. With a competent defensive game plan, Bombers may find it unusually tough to move the ball against an otherwise very talented Hamilton team.

"https://youtu.be/p2EVrw3DYqo"