Captain Blue

Somehow, Hamilton has made themselves look even worse today. Promoting a coach that has been there a month to head coach. Oh, and he only has a distant prior experience in the league.

This part of the thread just goes to show how easy it is to criticize an offensive coordinator. The reality is everyone one of us would call a slightly different game. Some opt to run the ball when I would go with a pass, and vice versa. The trick play wouldn't have been something I would have called there, but I've got no issue with it. It didn't work. Plenty of calls don't work. Only reason it sticks out is because it's unique. People can complain all day about an offensive coordinator. What matters most is the overall result of these play calls and right now this offense is putting up really strong numbers. If those numbers tank, then I'll be more willing to listen. People complain about LaPo because his name is LaPo. If this offense was run by New Coordinator Joe, everybody would love it.

1) Nichols - need him to play lights out and light up the scoreboard 2) Harris - just dominant with the ball in his hands 3) Flanders - he just adds so much on the interior running HH - going to go with a surprise choice, Paul LaPolice. Easy to hate the guy after his previous failings here and other places, but he's quietly creating a very prolific offense. Maximizing the talents of his players.

The refs were, as usual, pretty awful. I thought they were worse against us. They clearly were targeting our OL, and I can see why they threw them. Thought some of them were pretty soft. As I said in the game thread, Ottawa's guys were losing their footing pretty easily and I thought that made some of these plays look way worse. Chung's hold near the end of the game that took away the throw to the six, the tackle was losing his balance already...the PI call against Roc was pretty close to within the five yards and again the receiver fell easily after contact...

I thought this was an overall good effort and performance by the team. I'm still concerned with the defense, but they continue to make in-game adjustments and tighten things up as the game goes on. They came through when it mattered the most, because for as much praise as the offense should get for this one, it was the defense that held strong to give us those chances. Thought the offense looked really good today and played a more complete game. Having Flanders in adds another dimension, basically the ability to use speed on interior runs. Then threw in the change ups with Harris running/catching. Also thought they were much more aggressive in the pass game, continually trying to stretch the defense out.

I'm good with it although some team is definitely gonna get hosed by having to use their challenge on some other blown call. Ideally just get rid of stupid pass interference penalty challenges but honestly I would even go back to not being able to challenge penalties at all. Give the coaches two challenges but only for actual football plays.

1) Jeffcoat is fantastic. Can't take him off the roster. Quite honestly I think he's been our best defensive end this season - even if Westerman has prettier numbers. 2) Harris has his struggles in the run game sometimes but this offense relies heavily on his receiving abilities too. 3) Nichols - played terrible most of the game but came through in the clutch this time. HH: Medlock for the perfect onside kick and Alexander for pulling it down.

That was just a flat out crazy ending. I'll take it. Last week we couldn't close out a victory, this week we came back to ****** victory from defeat. Montreal was getting ready for the flight home before they figured out the game wasn't over. There are a TON of things to work on but at least they're more tolerable after a win. I hope this gets Nichols going. For most of this game I thought he was pretty poor. A lot of checkdowns with the rare nice throw. Several tosses in the dirt, especially on the move. Those checkdowns came in handy once Montreal's defense went into prevent at least. The DL played well. What I can't figure out is why we play so much zone coverage despite clearly succeeding more in man. It doesn't matter what sort of pressure we're getting when we're in deep or soft zones all the time. I think the amount of rookies and young players on the defense has really hurt us though. Enjoy the win and figure out how to play more consistently. We'll be all right.

Meh its Winnipeg, if this team doesn't win fans will move past Nichols pretty quickly and the pressure will build.

You know that with the game hanging in the balance this team is going to use its full arsenal of checkdowns.

What a disappointing way to lose. That 15 point lead evaporated so quickly you could tell this team wasn't ready for the pressure. I've been a big Osh fan but that fake punt call was one of the stupidest things I've seen in a while. Similarly, I've been a strong supporter of LaPolice but his offense went super conservative once we had the lead. Even Arceneaux just said "they let their foot off the gas." Play to win the damn game.

I am glad the Bombers won so that I can say this without it sounding sour: the CFL needs to get its officiating in order ASAP. Its ruining the game.

Game day experience was pretty good, minus the disappointing loss.

Lankford has no vision on returns at all. He has mastered running in several different directions and going nowhere. In my opinion he doesn't line up his blocks well and made a few poor decisions too. You could predict the fumble coming.

Just too many mistakes yesterday. We were lucky to still be in the game after the three early turnovers. I was concerned about the defense going into the game but they really kept us alive as best they could. It was only a matter of time before Calgary started to take advantage. The Roc Carmichael experiment should be over. I don't care how good his camp play was, he is currently not good enough to be on the field. I'd like to see some more blitzes as well. The offense was a disaster. Nichols was just not good enough. Those were picks that Glenn threw last week. He'll need to get back on track in a hurry. I was at the game yesterday and it was absolutely rocking when we were still close. It was pretty disappointing to see the performance turn poor so quickly. I don't know what it is with their home games.

One thing that really bothers me watching these games is how many "big" penalties there are, as in how many are affecting major plays. Touchdowns are scored and now they don't even really register for me as a yay/nay until I've confirmed there isn't going to be a really late flag or some ridiculous PI 40 yards away on the other side of the field.

I am more than a bit concerned that the Riders are going to get a huge boost from opening the stadium. They don't look like a good team, but after the loss last week and a HUGE game for their fans this week, I'm expecting a few tricks.

I'm in the very small minority that would have interest in Vernon Adams. I'd be kind of interested in Jacory Harris, too.

I want to know if any of the young QBs are going to shake free from Montreal with this move.

Quick update from camp - went Monday and Tuesday. I missed the first half Monday, and so the last hour and a bit I saw was all special teams. Walked over and watched the OL practice but nothing too noteworthy. Tuesday was a lot more fun from a fan perspective. Chris Randle had a really nice interception early on against the offense. I will say that in camp this year the defense seems extremely vocal, in a good way. Lots of coaching between each other and just a lot of fun too. Leggett can be heard just talking a bunch, at one point yesterday he was literally barking for a few minutes. Heard Randle walking the sidelines too. Shayon Green spent some time on the sideline with Jamal Westerman working on hand technique. Defensive tackles got to practice hand swipes and rips against the anchored tackle dummy. Ekakitie got some ribbing when he was the only one who didn't flip it completely on its side. Needed to get his hand under the armpit more, which the coaches pointed out. As for the QBs, I thought Lefevour looked erratic. Overthrew several balls and one in the turf. Nichols looked pretty good. Davis didn't stand out one way or the other. Apodaca had very limited reps- mostly hand offs and I only saw one short throw from him. And just in general, I really like our coaching staff. I like how they coach in practice and how they interact with the players. Different vibe than say, Doug Berry in the golf cart.

Hurts less with Denmark back. Wish Smith nothing but the best in his new career.

This VY signing is guaranteed to be a circus and it'll be so much fun to watch. Watched Vince Young for many years (Titans fan), and I highly doubt time out of football has magically made him a better player. Would have been a great CFL player if he wasn't 34, out of shape, and had actually played football at any time recently.

I think the Riders-LaFrance pairing is going to be a good one for both sides. Probably ended up too expensive for us. Personally I think the Bombers have had an outstanding free agency, when you account for the re-signings and and other signings prior to the official FA start. We're finally in a place with the roster where we don't need massive upgrades at every single position. We addressed a few big weaknesses already.

People complain that the Bombers don't develop their own quarterbacks. People complain when the Bombers think they may have developed a backup quarterback. Conclusion: Wiecek just likes to complain. Promoting Davis is no doubt a risk, but the whole point of letting the third QB develop is so he can work his way up the depth chart. At some point every team at QB or any other position makes the decision to promote players up the depth chart. This isn't unusual. Clearly the Bombers feel he's ready for the job. Or maybe they just feel that he's better than the soon-to-be 38 year old Kevin Glenn (and that doesn't seem unreasonable, either). I don't know. I'm not particularly a Dom Davis fan, but I don't think this is far and away a terrible decision. Maybe it blows up in their face but then we can argue that for any other position too. This just happens to be the QB spot, which of course is going to draw the most attention.

I feel like football people love Kavis Reed despite not having much success. This arranged marriage seems doomed to fail, but both have been around long enough that maybe they figure it out.