Captain Blue

Saskatchewan looks pretty solid right now.

You have to wonder who decided to dress the Riders in all white for away games. Cracks me up every time.

Ya that was a Chad Owens lovefest.

Riders will fall apart eventually and care most about us winning the division so I'll root for Saskatchewan. Black and Suitor really helps TSN lock up all their terrible announcers in one booth at least. I like Cuthbert and Ford.

The Kohlert play was a good job by Buck escaping pressure, keeping his eyes down field and hitting the right player but it was also under thrown. Just sayin'.

Generally blitz responsibility falls on the QB and coach. There are 5 linemen and they can only block so many people. If there's 8 at the line then its up to the QB to recognize that the numbers aren't in favour of the offense and adapt accordingly. The exception to this is when you have Morley basically high-five the DT on his way to the QB.

Fair enough, I disagree but can definitely understand where you're coming from.

Calvillo was majorly peeved after tonight.

Hopefully this doesn't come off too harsh Spuds (that's certainly not my intent) but it seems like you are working off of a lot of anecdotal evidence here and not looking at the sum of the two performances. For instance I know Pierce CAN hit quick throws, but whether he can do it consistently is the bigger question. If he played the full game like he played that 105 yard drive we'd be golden, but Buck is definitely prone to streaks. Sometimes the hot or cold ones last a little shorter or longer than usual, but it's an up and down ride and I can't see that changing.

Is Pierce? I'm being facetious but it's not like Pierce is really killing it out there.

I am clearly anti-Buck and would have started the season with a different QB but you can't hook him coming off this victory. Give him another chance (or chances) and eventually he'll provide a better time or opportunity to make a QB switch if needed. Check out the timeline of the game here. The Bombers had maybe 3-4 good drives, and specifically Buck-related drives would probably be about 2. It's just not good enough to win consistently, which is why I can confidently say that there will be an opportunity at some point later in the year to pull him. I should add that there is no way Burke is going to make a QB switch any time soon. He'll ride the Buck roller coaster this year for as long as he can.

Guess its a good thing they play the games, right Wiecek?

You can win a Grey Cup with this defense. The issue is always going to be our offense. We would've wiped the floor with Montreal had we put up points or even moved the ball more consistently. If the offense doesn't improve then we'll always be playing below our true potential. Hopefully they figure it out.

Is the site/thread loading slowly for anyone else now? Increased traffic perhaps on the thread?

I think I've made this point before, but I wouldn't blast Crowton too much yet. I want to see his offence with a different qb. I don't know if anybody else sat up high last week and saw the same thing, but I swear there were receivers running open. We've had a lot of different offensive minds here the last few years and the variable that hasn't changed is Buck.

Very excited for tonight and seeing our defence again. I don't think Buck will win, or even not lose, this game for us though.

And for the record Wiecek had a decent point in that the Bombers don't want losses to pile up early in the season but then just went absolutely insane with the predictions.

Read that article at the beach this morning and laughed my ass off. I think this is a new low for the Freep, now claiming the sky is falling on an 0-4 team...we shouldn't even play the games since Wiecek has already seen the future. It's like they've gotten tired of criticizing the bombers for this week and just want to go ahead of start ripping them for a season they have yet to play. Next article: "Winnipeg may not win a game in 2014".

So the media kinda owes a collective mea culpa on this one to Mack, eh? Matthews has been cheaper and better.

Just starting the fourth quarter of the rewatch and have a few more thoughts to add... I want to see more Etienne. Very fluid runner, solid speed, good hands. I'm not saying he will or will not continue to play well, just that I saw enough that I want to see more of him. Our defense could be really, really special - but they are going to get stuck with bad field position all year. Alex Suber is criminally underrated. Our offense looks more conservative on TV than it did when I was watching at the stadium. Not sure how or why that is (camera angle vs upper deck view?) but there is a lot of potential for it to pick up yards in bigger chunks but the execution at various positions (not just QB) at different times is what killed a lot of it. One play it would be Buck, the next the line, and so on. The Fly offense the Als run is interesting and could be really successful in this league...but I wouldn't run it with Calvillo. Whenever you want to use plays that include the threat of the QB pulling the ball back and taking off you're going to need a QB more athletic than Calvillo. Though whenever the post-Calvillo era begins this offense could be really unique and creative. I didn't notice it live but Buck was limping after several hits already.

Not sure the line should get all or even most of the blame. Buck, Crowton and the line should share it. Crowton has to call some plays to take advantage of the blitzes. Buck has to recognize that if there are 8 guys on the line matched up against our 5 OL, you need to figure out which extra guys are going to break free (ie. think of your protection call) and work around it or use a hot route.

In general receivers were able to get open, maybe less so in the second half as the Als tightened their defense up. I know I'm beating the drum hard on this one if the QB had made the right reads Crowton's offense would have looked a lot better. Between Barressi, LaPo and Crowton I really think we need to consider that (most of) the problem isn't on the schemes right now.

You know I forgot the Denmark pass. Tight window, good spiral. I'll give Buck credit for that one, I don't think either of the other two QBs make that throw yet.

The thing is, and I expect to see this tonight on the tape, how many big throws did Pierce make? Nice one to Denmark early but the TD pass, Etienne pass, and a few others were fairly simple throws. Goltz could have made them. Maybe Buck turns it around but that is unlikely and it will cost us. We have so much talent but you can't win without better qb play.

Quick thoughts: - Buck's still far too inconsistent. He'll have his moments like he did early in the 2nd half which will lead everyone to believe he'll turn it around, but then his play drops again. What bothers me most is that he's playing like a rookie. Locking on to receivers, determining where to throw before the snap, not reading blitzing defenses properly...I'll reevaluate it again tomorrow when I watch it over but it looked like classic Buck to me. He's not good enough. - Don't mind Burke punting from the endzone. The defense was playing well and they did hold the Als until there was a penalty. Have to see the blown coverage by Cauchy on the replay tomorrow. - Defense overall was great. Got boned by the turnovers early but they held Calvillo and them down. - If someone can figure out when a PI should or should not be called please let me know, 'cause I swear the definition changes every few minutes in this league.