Dr. Blue

Burns me that we lost back to back to these guys.....

GTFOH with that Canada's team bull***t.  Riderfans.com is that way ---> 🚪

Sure, but "game manager Nichols" didn't make bad decisions, or throw a lot of picks - and also engineered a fair amount of 4th Q comebacks.  
This junk, we have got the last month or so....won't win against any teams - and hasn't.

I believe the injury Nichols suffered at the beginning of the year is really impacting his play. I also believe he really only trusts Harris, Dressler, and Adams. As soon as Dressler got injured it seems like he's only going to Harris or Adams, and it becomes easy to defend. Same thing happened last year when Dressler went out, then Adams. Also, Nichols can't throw a deep ball, and never has been able to.
Put Streveler in and watch him distribute the ball all around. Just look how much more Wolitarsky was involved in the games where Streveler started. I believe Wolitarsky is not being used enough.
Nichols is not the same player he was last year, and I'm scared that waiting for him to regain his form is going to put us on the outside looking in come playoff time...

Nichols hits Thompkins on 20yd slant.....
Demski sweeps for another 25......
But on 2nd and short....Nichols lines up wide...
...with a direct snap to Demski - 5 yd loss...
Just another Lapo Special, in the red zone..
Medlock makes it 3-0
Bombers driving again....Thompkins drops 2nd down pass...
....then goes down and is carried into ambulance on a stretcher...
Alexander making some nice plays early
Harris draw play on 2nd and 17...draws some boos.....
Gator totally jumps hitch pass....Colaros throw it right to him
....and Gator is long gone, for 50 yd INT TD.  Blue up by 10
Rider O not looking much better than last week....
Nichols does throw behind to Washington on side lines....
...who gets face mask tacked on for a huge gain.....
Harris wide open in flat - Nichols throws over middle instead
...right into the hands of Jefferson, who runs by Nichols .....
....and keeps running and hotdogging 98 yds for the TD
Nice 14 point swing, there...
Next possession, Nichols throws pick into double coverage on Petermann....
..... but roughing penalty negates it.  Matt really pressing out there....
Very physical out there.....Riders really having some penalty issues....
Sask punt from end zone.....Demski actually runs straight ahead for 20 yds PR
Riders take 3 penalties, to put it on the 1.  Streveler sneaks in.  17-7 Blue
Alexander picks off under thrown ball......PI penalty wipes that out....
Collaros hits pass down to the 11.  Gator makes nice play on screen pass
Riders settle for 3.  Nichols under duress, tries to throw it away......
...but it floats up short of the sideline....for an awful INT.
Roh takes stupid Ob conduct - kicking mouth guard lying on the field
Riders close the gap, with FG......17-13
Wolitarski becoming a solid target in this O
Nichols under pressure, tries desperation underhanded toss....
....right into the hands of a Rider who motors untouched for 100 yd TD..
 Riders somehow up 20-17 in a half where they had like 80 yds of O.
Nichols gets a resounding chorus of boos to close out the half.
5 picks in a half.... from a veteran QB in a must game?   Enough.
If Nichols is not pulled - MOS is going to hear it too.
2nd half....and yes.... looks like Streveler will go in
Collaros moves the Riders for 4 first downs....
Bombers leaving the flats wide open.
Actual Loffler sighting....as he flat out drops ball, thrown right at him.
Streveler's first pass is to Petermann for nice gain
Blocking for Harris is non-existent today, totally stuffed on the run plays
Petermann gets totally jacked up over the middle by a Rider
Alexander still making plays - nice game for him.
Wish Demski would do less dancing and more straight line
Strev overthrows pass into double coverage....which is then tipped and picked off..
What is with our QB reads today?  Like some kind of contagious disease.....
Loffler shoves guy into kicking net - 15 yds. 
Mason running effectively for Riders.....D does hold.
Rider FG puts them up by 9.  Morose atmosphere in stands.
Hecth blitz off the edge, comes in clean and drills ZC - fumble recovered by Bighill
Wolitarski gets good yds on screen....Demski sweeps for another first down
Streveler then finds Petermann in back of end zone for the TD.
The Canucks do a better job of catching and YAC, than our imports at receiver.
Bomber D gets another stop.  Strev finds Adams deep over the middle....
Petermann drops probable TD slant.  Medlock puts bombers into the lead.
Bridge gets two big completions and roughing penalty, and Mason, down to Bomber 15
Bomber D yet another stop.   A lot of bending..... but no breaking, today.....
Rider FG puts them up 29-27.  3 minutes to go.
Two Streveler incomplete passes....forces Blue to punt.
Harris a complete afterthought in our O, at this point.....
Bomber D does the job and O has ball back with 2 minutes to go....
Streveler throws for loss to Demski - short pass to Demski - now 3rd down
Riders get big pressure...Strev lobs one up to the sideline while falling down....
.....for yet another pick.  Why not?  One area of consistency in Bomber O, today...
Riders hit 6th FG of game.   Now 32-27
Streveler hits Washington over the middle  But 5 Bombers can't handle 3 rushers...
....and Strev is sacked.  Now Hail Mary time.....
But pass out of bounds, 15 yds short of end zone will not get it done.  Bombers done.
The D really hung in there today, making a number of big plays to stop Rider drives
The O?  What we have here is a failure to execute.  Play calls, drops...bushel of picks..
Must win game and must bounce back game for Nichols.  Double fail.  4th straight loss.
Took a lot of mistakes to get swept by this Rider team.   Bombers certainly well up to that task
Managed to get this Odds and Sods out, in a relatively calm manner....
....while drinking my gin ferociously.



 
 

Do you seriously believe that? Wolitarsky has done more in half a season than JFG did in his entire time with the team.  
Both woli and peterman will be better than jfg if not already there. 

Lapo should watch a lot of Mike Reilly film if he needs a blueprint for building a gameplan for Streveler.  They get him on the move all the time and challenge the defense to hold contain and cover 3-4 guys in the route that are accessible to Reilly.

Because Neufeld as a guard is OK, but as a tackle he is in over his head. Jefferson ate his lunch all game long. 

QB
OC
DC
Lack of import receivers
DL depth
Getting to be a big list.

He also has a coaching and support staff that doesn't fit on a Canadian sized football field....until next season.
They don't look that good.  Bombers blow out both games with even average QBing.  You'd expect to lose by 20-30 handing the other team 3 scores a game.

It's an issue with the play calling. It's terrible. Lapo is far worse than Hall at this point in the season. Halls defense deserved to win the last 2 game for sure and I'd argue they did enough in Calgary with any support from the offense. 

I believe the injury Nichols suffered at the beginning of the year is really impacting his play. I also believe he really only trusts Harris, Dressler, and Adams. As soon as Dressler got injured it seems like he's only going to Harris or Adams, and it becomes easy to defend. Same thing happened last year when Dressler went out, then Adams. Also, Nichols can't throw a deep ball, and never has been able to.
Put Streveler in and watch him distribute the ball all around. Just look how much more Wolitarsky was involved in the games where Streveler started. I believe Wolitarsky is not being used enough.
Nichols is not the same player he was last year, and I'm scared that waiting for him to regain his form is going to put us on the outside looking in come playoff time...

I don't think it is an issue with the play calling...hard to determine if it is Nichol's not being able to execute on all the options, or gets jitters and just want to dump it off for fear of getting injured further..and I don't think he is 100 percent...in body and mind
I see receivers open...or in a position to be thrown open or lead to a ball...and Nichols isn't pulling the trigger for whatever reason. Also...teams know he is no threat to run this year, and basically disregard that in their pass rush, and even on a play action/roll out...they know he ain't going anywhere. Tho he was no major threat or consistent runner before, the ability/threat was there...and that is huge in an offence to hum along nicely.
The fact that Harris is able to accomplish what he is right now is amazing and is a tribute to his talent...and the o-line...now if we could insert a QB who can threaten a defense with the notion he may take off, as well as stand in and make intermediate passes and utilize the offence then we will be onto something...but right now..Nichols funk is affecting things big time and it is the issue we have sputtered..
 
 

I don't really think that would ever happen because these guys are essentially playing for their careers every week, especially the Americans.  I just don't believe that we have any receiver that is very versatile, of the ones we use.  They are all kind of one-dimensional and we have Dressler who is a great player but at the end of his career.

His 2nd half stats this season are absurdly poor.  First half are average.  For interest sake, Nichols has now posted 3 games of net offense worse than Streveler's worst against Hamilton this season, including his own start at home vs Hamilton.
Combination of Lapo, lack of reliable receivers and Nichols struggles = disaster.
Just imagine if Harris gets injured, how terrible this offense would be.

I really can't help but have this nagging feeling he's playing injured, even if assertions are being made to the contrary.  Don't feel like QBs just lose their accuracy without being hampered by something.
 
Has he gone the Willy way?  Sure, it's possible, but from what?  I don't feel he's taken any more hits or sacks than Willy did, in fact probably way less so.  He's struggled to get in a rhythm when Lapolice isn't using his up tempo offense.
Somehow when this is all said and done I got a feeling some kind of injury will be revealed.

Maybe Matty can't make the pass.

Matt used to be able to do side step and the half roll, and find them throwing lanes under pressure.......now a completely stationary target, who really feels the pressure.   Not trending well. 

This is exactly it... people who don't like the U of M location suddenly forget the traffic jams and waiting it took to get out of Canad Inns... 

If lapo would quit trying to out fox the other team he'd be a lot better. He needs to get out of his own way at times and rather than  trying to adjust before the other team stops you adjust after they actually stop it. A lot of times he does the opposing dcoordinator a favour.

Did you watch that second half? The offense was a disaster, from the playcalling (LaPolice) to the execution (the players). Yes, the defense didn't play as well or as disciplined in the second half but there's no "manufactured outrage" here. The offense completely crapped the bed.

Don't forget we are starting 1 non-import on D. I expect a much better D with that ratio.
Two offseasons we have changed personnel on D and the result has been the same. It boils down to scheme.

Gotta give Hamilton some credit, I think they are one of the top teams in the league this year.
We all know Hall's D is just awful, nothing else to add there...
Lapo called a terrible game. As he does so often, he out coached himself. Probably could have used more Harris early on in the game.
Streveler has some tools, and has looked like our best backup in a long time, but he still has a long way to go. I hate the live mic crap, but the one thing that caught my attention was the difference between Streveler and Masoli. Streveler was just calling the plays, but Masoli was talking to the guys about what was going on and if a play was setup. That comes with experience.
Oh and one more thing... Hall's D is terrible...

Most of us know it's not all the D but how many 2 and out did our D force? The O did sputter but hard to get in a groove when there are long stretches of time in between when we have the ball.

Hall must have found Jim Daly's old playbook, what am embarrassing game Hall called tonight and Lapo wasn't much better. Just a very disappointing job of play calling from those two.