17to85

and I say if Willy had the kind of support from the run game that Nichols had last night we could have done exactly the same. See I'm not obsessed with defending Willy, I am trying to make people like you see that trying to pin it all on the qb is narrow sighted thinking. There are a lot of things that combine to make a team lose games and part of it is the years of getting his ass kicked by not having that run game to lean on and not having an OL that can keep him from getting cranked game in and game out that puts Willys confidence into the shitter. But here's the thing, you can rebuild a guys confidence and a confident Willy is a better player than Nichols.

I think the people who are trying to make it Willy vs. Nichols are reaching too hard. No one has said Willy hasn't had issues, that's an invented argument from the people ready to string Willy up in the town square. All people have said is that there is more going on than JUST the qb. Hell there were issues with the offense last night too. They were still terrible in the red zone and given how lopsided the TOP was in the first half they really should have been up by a lot more than they were. Lapo still got really conservative in the back half of the game and it nearly cost them. Nichols made a poor decision to throw into coverage late but was lucky it was dropped, if that had been Willy it would be all people talked about. So why does it have to be this huge thing about the quarterbacks? The team stepped up in a lot of ways last night and it was a good win for them. I really liked what the defense did against Reilly. They were living rent free in his head. Best game of the year by those guys as well. DL really stepped up and made life uncomfortable for Reilly and the coverage was there when they really needed it. Medlock as predicted when not asked to kick from 50 yards all the time was money.

Is anyone going to mention the suicide pass that got Dressler hurt? I know it's all sunshine and rainbows for Nichols but that was a suicide pass and Dressler is now hurt because of it.

Nichols played well but the biggest difference was by far the 3 american offensive line. Harris had 100 yards rushing in the first half! That takes so much pressure off of a quarterback and makes it so much harder for a defence to do anything. Last time we played Edmonton Harris had what? 22 yards rushing? Night and day difference from the offensive line in terms of allowing the offence to be multi faceted. Notice how late in the game when they stopped either using Harris or having success using Harris that the offense started to stall and Nichols coulda had a pick throwing into multiple coverage? One dimensional offenses are easier to stop, having that multifaceted attack allows everyone on the team to be more successful. But no some people can't look at a game beyond who is behind centre. Willy had some problems, but he was never the only problem on this team and a lot of guys stepped up last night where they weren't before. That happens a lot when you bench your starting qb. It is a giant boot to the ass to everyone on the team to pick it up.

Frederick, Loffler and Bond all had impressive games for newcomers. Really good to see. Get Adams and Randle healthy and that secondary looks pretty good with some depth even. Bond was a steam roller on the offensive line. In the first half Harris rolled up a ton of yardage just running to the left side of the line because Bond was moving his guy out of the way and giving him a hole. Really made the offense tick and when they stopped going to Harris as much in the 2nd half things started to sputter because this team sucks on 2nd and long.

"please buy tickets..."

Lapo has a million excuses. Always has.

I mean just look at what happened when Berry was fired and Kelly came in, he got rid of all the qbs and ran through a good half a dozen at least in that one year. Then Mack comes in and it's all new qbs, but when things went sideways and Lapo was fired we ran through more qbs based on what the new coach wanted. Then Walters comes in and it's all new qbs again. You can't develop anyone when you throw the whole thing out every couple years.

but that's what I mean when I say stable. The CFL has a high player turnover rate, it just does, but it's the stability in the management and coaching staff that lets teams develop qbs. Toronto and BC have had that stability in the management and they are finding qbs as a result. Calgary has been stable in that aspect as well and lo and behold they have no trouble at the position either.

and it holds true whether you use Burris or Harris as the starter in Ottawa. Upon reflection however, I guess it's really not right to include Ricky Ray since he was developed by Edmonton. Still though, the bulk of qbs are coming from only a couple places.

Bauer didn't even hire anyone good. Bauer came on after Dave Ritchie and they butted heads so Bauer put Daley in place to take over from Ritchie when Bauer had enough reason to fire him. Taman was left to pick a head coach after they fired Daley and he took Berry which had moderate succes, but then Bauer wanted to be the guy to win a cup for the Bombers and handed the keys to Kelly and it kicked off a disasterous stretch. I maintain that Mack wasn't as bad as the reputation. He found a lot of good players for this team, yeah he didn't play the free agency market all that much but honestly, look at how well it's working out for Walters right now... he's got a worse record than Mack had. Canadian content isn't all that different either, only thing that is different is that it's had more time to have the depth built up now but in terms of getting impact NIs Walters has relied more on free agents than the draft anyway. Anyone would have signed Harris and Westerman.

You can't develop qbs in an unstable environment. Let's look at the teams that have been developing qbs lately. #1 is Toronto. You got a well established starter in Ray and a good offensive coaching staff featuring a couple former qbs. Who else has developed qbs? Wally Buono who has been doing that for years.... Certainly not anyone else with any kind of consistency. I mean 5 of the 9 starting qbs were either from Toronto or Buono.

So good passing totals but poor rushing totals and a ton of sacks given up... and people still defend the offensive line?

Do people actually think Medlock is doing poorly? You make the guy kick less 45+ yard field goals he'll stop missing some you know that right? The Bombers are so desperate for any point they can get they're kicking way more long field goals than they should. They need to pump the brakes a bit and remember that sometimes playing the field position game can work in the long run.

but he had a hell of a rough start to the season

Wally is cheap and probably figured he could get an american rb in for cheaper so why not change the ratio. Harris is a good player and you can see it when he gets the ball. He fights for yards and can get more after contact, but no back really excels when he's constantly having to make people miss in the backfield.

Nah he's not like Bowman at all really. Bowman was always the tremendous athlete he just whiffed on too many catches. Adams is not nearly as good an athlete and lazy to boot. If he put in more effort he'd be a lot better and the team would be a lot more dangerous but as it stands you put a little pressure on him as a defensive back he's not likely to put in the effort to make a catch. I'd stick to just having him run slants and things where you throw the ball to him and he doesn't have to really adjust for the ball.

yeah but not as much as Posey and Fogg were....

There are some things to like about it for sure. Getting johnson back is good, but losing Randle is the biggest suck out there. I like the 3 american OL but then again I've disliked the Neufeld acquisition from the get go. Sheppard vs. Mayo meh who knows. Mayo wasn't get last game and Sheppard did make some catches in pre-season, be worth seeing what he's got. It's not the worst thing we've seen from this team.

more like lack of depth chart amirite?

There has definitely been a shift in more recent years, offenses take less risks and avoid turn overs at all costs, but back in the early 2000s you saw players throw more interceptions. I mean Burris is a great example to use because he has played for such a long time. His interception numbers have dropped a lot in recent times and it's not because he got smarter (just listen to him speak and you'll realize he's the same dumb **** he's always been) just that what offenses do these days is different than what they used to do.

That's because Khari also threw a TON of touchdowns every year AND won a pile of games. Not all interceptions are created equal and Khari threw INTs because he was taking it to the other team. Yeah it wound up being turned over now and then, but it wound up in the endzone a lot more than it was turned over. It's OK to throw 29 ints if you are also throwing 46 touchdowns.

It's never just one thing, most often it's a combination of a lot of things. Maybe the game plan is too vanilla (gee no one said that about Lapo before we hired him....) but guys are missing plays that are there as well. That's actually the most frustrating thing about the line in my mind. They are so hit or miss with no in between. Seems that if they don't get a great block in they completely whiff and don't even slow anyone down.