17to85

That's an awful lot of key players. Kyle Walters has his work cut out for him.

So here is how I break down the defense in terms of players comparing this season to last season... I think they 100% improved the DL. Jeffcoat and Poop and Ogopogo were great this year and Nevis did more here than Euclid Cummings did. Now linebackers I give a clear downgrade to. Missing Wild nearly all year hurt, Bass was just flat out better than Hurl in the middle and Mo was hurt a lot this year. Secondary I also give a downgrade to. Walker and Alexander both showed flashes but did also make those glaring errors in coverage. Throw in Loffler not being as impactful as he was last season and that's 2 of the 3 phases of the D that were not as good as last year just based on the players on the field.

It's because Lapolice is a smart guy who has a good understanding of the game and has numbers on his side and I think he's probably a great interview based on his knowledge of the game. Where he fails as a coach is his ability to make the right call at the right time.

But he does just decide to do that. He is anticipating an adjustment by the D, but all he winds up doing is solving their problem for them. He will not do things until the other team proves they can stop it. He does something, assumes the D will adjust and tries to out pace their adjustments. It drives me ******* bonkers.

Hey if you're happy with the "almost" offense we run go nuts. Here's the thing, I have never been thrilled with the D we run, but everyone is so down on it and only it I have to bring some balance to the discussion here and I am 100% behind statements I previously made that if I had to lose only one coordinator I would rather lose Lapo than Hall.

and if we all go back to the game against edmonton in winnipeg earlier in the year he did the exact same ******* thing. Harris shoved right down to the redzone and then we stopped using him and kicked a field goal. It's what Lapolice does. Takes routes short of the first down marker hoping someone lucks into getting yards and over thinks things and goes away from what's working to break tendency. He is his own worst enemy.

and unlucky he got saddled with the need to play a canadian at middle linebacker and a bunch of rookies all over the secondary all season long.

He's lucky he had Nichols and Harris to save his ass. But hey, you read the stats without putting any thought into them at all, good for you.

Like I said elsewhere, the when is more important than the total. I brought up swaggerville to illustrate a point, that even with the kind of defence we all want to see a Lapo led offense still can't get the job done. I am the only one here looking at the big picture, everyone else is fixated on trying to find one single thing to blame and that's the only problem on the team. I am trying to get you all to think about things but no, it's all Ritchie Halls fault. Damn the man! woulda been 20-0 and win the grey cup easily if not for him!

if we are serious about winning in the playoffs it does. I can't see O'Shea firing them though so best case is Lapo gets hired as a head coach, then he's someone else's problem.

working on it.

That's why it's high risk, but sometimes you gotta take those chances. MOS gambled, they lost, it happens, but I like the balls he shows. Which is why it is puzzling to me that he is surrounded by spineless coordinators.

Can also be used to defend Hall. When you take out the points scored by defenses the Bombers weren't the top team. Too many people here just stat watch and repeat things they heard in the media.

I ain't saying Coates didn't do well, I'm saying it is irresponsible to rely on that guy when you have Harris and Flanders in the backfield and an OL that has been damned good all season. How can people watch the Bombers and not see the problems that Lapo has had all the along and continues to have? He waits until he is in a hole to open things up, can you imagine if he tried that before they get behind the 8 ball? That is my frustration with the guy and it is a huge problem. How many times has this team won without the D coming up with turn overs for the offense? This team has some ratio problems on D and is happy to throw out too many rookies in the backfield, that puts Ritchie Hall in a tough spot. Now I don't care if they fire him or not, but I trust him to make smart decisions and adjust more than I trust lapolice. Honestly I'd replace em both, but acting like Lapo is fine and Hall is the only problem is bullshit. They're both cut from the same cloth, difference is Hall is more willing to change things.

you can hide weaknesses on O a lot easier than you can on D. For example, OL and RB strength of the team and weakness for the esks is run D, let's use that to our advantage rather than trying to make Matt Coates a focal point of the offense. But what do you do on D when you have 2 rookies on the same side of your backfield and a safety that doesn't provide help over the top and a plugger at middle linebacker? how do you scheme around that?

The fact that I don't just blindly look at the box scores and see 500 yards and think the offense was fine is all the proof I need to know that I am more objective than most here. Everyone is looking only at the D, but that's bullshit and always has been. You would think that if the O was doing so great they woulda got more than 10 points in the first half. They got 16 points in the 4th quarter, the teams mental collapse happened in the 3rd quarter, all those yards and points they got in the 4th were lipstick on the pig, which is a Lapo speciality. The guy is a loser, it's because he's too passive and constantly is his own worst enemy. Mark my words we will never win a championship with him as OC. He couldn't do it with swaggerville what chance does he have now?

I would argue that leading the league in turnovers is the defense doing it's job....

If they make it on that fake though it's a gut punch to the other team. It's football, you can't sit back and hope for the best all the time, sometimes you gotta take your chances. Make the play and gain momentum. In a hard fought evenly matched game (which it was for the most part) it comes down to who makes the big plays and who doesn't.

Did you watch it? Rookies making mistakes in coverage is hard to blame on the defensive coordinator. Missed tackles are hard to blame on the defensive coordinator. He's not calling a game to make those mistakes. That's on players. I also doubt that Ritchie Hall is driving the strange deployment of the depth chart on game days. That one I put on O'Shea. But the problems on offense.... not committing to running the ball, bullshit redzone play calling, throwing short of first downs all the damned time until we have no choice but to try and make up a deficit... That's on Lapo because it's been a Lapo trademark his entire career as a coach which spans almost 2 bloody decades.

They scored 10 points in the first half did they not? How about they try running on the first series rather than a 2 and out? How about scoreing a touchdown instead of a field goal because your OC took away your best weapon? I mean christ they coulda taken a lead early on, how does that change things? Momentum is huge in sport and Lapo doesn't do anything until he's behind. Same **** on Sunday. We got down on the scoreboard and I said to Noeller "OK here comes good Lapo now" and look at all the meaningless yards they got at the end of the game after the team had already collapsed. It matters when when you gain yards and points than the total.

highest scoring team when taking into account points that the D scored....

It's the same as when he was head coach here, good enough to barely lose. This team needed turnovers by the D to win all the time the last few years, that's because Lapo has a loser mentality and plays not to lose rather than playing to win. You were happy to see them complete 2 balls and then punt on the first frive? pound it down the esks throat and build momentum rather than giving it to them right away. How about the drive where Harris carried the team into the redzone and then they went away from him and kicked a field goal? Why try and hit the endzone when we can kick 3s? Lapo is a bigger problem than Hall. Problems on the D are more related to players and their usage than the coach, but the problems on O are coaching problems. Top rb and top OL and we don't commit to a run game, WTF is that? Especially when your top receiver is hurt and you killed the other team running all year. **** Lapo he is as much to blame as Hall.

You keep winning double digit games sooner or later you will get to the big show and win that one. Stability is key and right now the team is pretty stable. OL is solid with some depth around, got a qb that the team has unquestioned faith in, got the base of a good DL in place, the foundation is there. There will be changes as there always are, right now it's just finding the right mix in other areas. I think we need some more impact Canadian players truthfully. Especially when Westerman went down the ratio situation on this team got a bit dicey... There's a lot of depth in this teams Canadians, but they really are lacking some of the real high end Canadians throughout the lineup. Could use Ekakitie stepping up and being a legit full time guy on the DL and maybe we need to have someone step up and allow 3 on the OL, maybe even find another receiver options and go 2 there so we can stop having to shoe horn the muckers in all over the D.

I am all on board for changing it up on D, as long as Lapo goes too. Both coordinators are too into the "don't **** up, try not to lose" mentality for my liking and if we're changing one better change em both and get some guys who are willing to go for it to try and win and dictate games.

Lapo held the offense back full stop by over thinking things and doing the DCs job for them by stopping what's working. There was no reason to not pound Harris and Flanders all first half cause it worked all season vs. Edmonton and it worked when they did it against them this game too, they were just too quick to not do it. Lapolice is just good enough to make you think he's great but we will never win a cup with him as offensive coordinator because he is a loser.