JuranBoldenRules

He's usually the 2nd returner on kickoffs. The big adjustment the Bombers made on kickoffs, and this was with Woods too after the first quarter, was to test the Redblacks contain to the width of the field rather than run behind the wedge.

This. He made a really strong catch coming into the field, I believe his first of the game, against zone that was very encouraging though. If he can do that over 18 games, we'll be in good shape. Interesting that he's exclusively playing slot so far. Willy made the great pre-snap read on the blitz that left Kelly 1 on 1 for that bomb to close it out. Teams might learn the hard way about Willy's ability to make a read and a throw.

That accidental PI was total crap. It was either full PI or nothing. IMO the ref who tossed the flag thought he made the wrong call and ended up going halfway. The Ottawa DB had his arm on the Bombers receivers back they whole way down the field. Did he impede him, debatable. Accidental is when they trip over each others feet or something like that.

I'd rather Goossen at centre and Morley at guard if they are both starting.

Yappy too. It was funny, Jovon was beaking the Bomber bench pretty hard whenever he was on that side of the field, and he got it back pretty good from Demond Washington at the end of the game.

I would suspect that the TOP stats are the reason for that. Have the ball more you have more chances to go 2 and out. TOP isn't the number of possessions though. Generally there isn't a difference in the number of possessions teams have unless there are onside kicks or turnovers on special teams. Everyone has the same number of chances to go 2 and out in most games.

I don't get the original joke/point. Etcheverry doesn't know what a blitz is? If anything the opposite is true.

Maybe I misread but I thought I saw something like 80 of his 120 yards last week were after contact. That seems way off from my viewings of that game. He's made people miss clean, often with a spin, and busted contain like crazy, but has barely broken any tackles, basically has gone down with any contact. They must be counting any time he runs by a defender as "contact."

Blocking and getting almost no yards after contact are huge red flags on him. He's made some plays though through 2 games.

Most of the CFL players who try to land on an NFL roster have to go through numerous tryout camps trying to qualify and I would think less than 50% of those who try actually catch on. I think it's the players and their agents driving this process as the scenario of an NFL team chasing after a CFL player seems pretty far removed from the reality. Is there any other example of this happening other than Cameron Wake? Even a standout like Muamba had no actual suitors even after a few years of great play, I believe it was his initiative that eventually landed him a spot with the Colts. Should the Colts compensate the Bombers for developing him??? Maybe...but it's hard to comprehend what the rules of such an agreement would look like. No they don't. They might have a workout with a team, but I think you're confusing OTA's with tryout camps, which they are to a point for rookies to earn a spot into the main training camp, but the guys in OTA's are on NFL contracts. Why is it "pretty far removed for reality" for NFL teams to have interest in CFL players? Most of the guys in the CFL have already spent time with NFL teams, even played in regular season NFL games and just on the fringe of being a NFL player. Guess what, 3/4 players are on that fringe. You could drop 100 CFLers into the NFL tomorrow and nobody would notice a difference.

It's 12:30 and I just got home. Left after the final knee, made no stops on the way. That's going to kill walk-up, especially on these Thursday nights.

I agree. A pretty big miscalculation on the Bombers part. The cottage crap has always been way overstated. People will do other things (on weekends) or nothing (on weekdays) if the Bombers make themselves a crappy option by fielding a poor team and having a terrible environment for their fans. That's what really needs/needed to change, not the schedule.

They really buggered things up by getting rid of the option year window in 2010. Teams have been making these deals with players to let them out of their contracts ever since. I don't really see the issue with teams getting a few bucks from the NFL for something happening already.

Further to that, the style of defense played by Ottawa should be a hell of a lot harder to make big plays and score TD's against than what we saw from Toronto (combined with inexperienced DB's), gonna be a lot of cover 3 and the receivers need to be ready to make catches while getting hit. I honestly wouldn't be shocked with any result, I just want to keep seeing positive steps from our key players.

Deeper pockets I guess.. League/Braley before he owned the team funding operations. The league has chosen other markets over Ottawa when there has been crisis (in 96 the whole league was in crisis, in mid-2000s it was Hamilton and Toronto), and it didn't help that Ottawa lacked ownership both times they folded, like anyone to put their name on the franchise, not even good ownership.

I agree. Their coaches should provide a good gameplan on defence. I just don't know if they have the personnel to execute it. Either way, way less room for error for Willy, and they'll have to be more methodical. Safe to assume Ottawa is always going to have 2-3 guys splitting the deep halves/thirds. We'll see if Bellefeuille can draw up as good of a gameplan as they had right out of the chute vs the Argos.

Gonna be a 180 for our offense facing a Campbell/Nelson D rather than a Burke D. Gonna see far less man coverage, tougher throws, tougher catches.

Not even close to being the problem in Toronto. I'd bet substantially that this problem has not even made it into any discussions on Toronto. You really believe that losing Armond Armstead or Chad Rempel was noticed in Toronto by the guy with 2 kids who might buy tickets to 1-2 games a season, and that's keeping the fans away? Here's the problem. 1. They play in a facility that is horrible for football. 2. They play in a facility where they are treated as fourth class tenants, meaning they get the crappiest dates. 3. They play in a facility that is generally far from their casual fanbase in the suburbs. 4. That crappy facility is evicting them. At the moment, this is the biggest problem. There is a public and political lack of appetite to contribute further to sports facilities after the Pan Am Games, so rather than getting an ideal facility in a suburb like Markham off a 400 highway, the Argos have to piggyback on MLSE at BMO Field just to have a place to play. Will BMO go over with the casual fans they need to attract? Probably not. Atmosphere will be better, but the prospect of storms off the lake could interfere with a number of games each season. BMO is a little easier to drive to (still relying on the Gardiner for suburban fans though) than the dome, but worse by transit, basically the same as the dome plus a streetcar ride.

I'm fine with giving a one week pass to Toronto, Hamilton and BC. But there's no way Edmonton should be ranked ahead of the Bombers. IMO two pretty even teams coming into this season, Bombers were much sharper in week 1, Edmonton snuck out 2 points with tons of help from BC. Bombers were dominant for 4 quarters, Eskimos for about 1 and a half. Realistically they shouldn't even bother with power rankings until August.

Why would Montreal trade Chip Cox?

Didn't southeast Saskatchewan get like 150 mm of rain between Friday and Sunday night? We had like 1/10th of that in Winnipeg.

http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

I thought I remembered that too, but it wasn't marked down officially. Don't know why the statisticians would've missed that. They might have given it to Washington, Wild tipped it, Washington almost picked it off.

Wild had a pass knockdown too...first play of the second half.

I don't know how you rip an offensive scheme apart when the quarterback showed the ability to miss every type of throw consistently. The only thing I'd rip is the decision to start Smith and keep him in there for 4 quarters.