Armchair GM

According to Doug Brown the fundamentals of football dictate that the first guys job is always to wrap up or contain the ball carrier and the second and third tacklers go for the ball. Be that as it may... Is etch a fundamentals guy or a crazy idea guy? Me thinks more so the second option. I'm pretty sure he emphasizes turnover opportunities versus fundamentally sound play... Or assumes the players are fundamentally sound and says "go for it.." Just hazarding a guess, but I doubt Etch makes it this far in football without being able to coach fundamentals. If the players are going strip-first, you can bet the coaches are trying to coach out of them right now. Football always comes back to fundamentals.

I don't know how you look at those numbers and think there's more risk than reward to Hall. He makes our pass rush immediately scarier. #ALEXCOMEHOME

Offensively, we need to both establish the run, and establish the screen pass. We do that, we not only slaughter the Als... other teams will take note, and the pass rushes will slow up. Defensively, we need to tackle. Pretty simple.

It will probably run to set up the pass. +1000 internets. This comment takes the day.

That helmet... yuck. Ruined what was easily the least hideous 3rd jersey revealed to date.

Mannnnnn... do I ever hope his hands have improved, or his nerves have diminished. Wondering if Woods is nicked up, or just a healthy scratch? Madani's comments sound like he may be unavailable to play.

I'm hoping we've learned our lesson on Woods, and that he plays. We need his reliability on teams. I agree with you but that doesn't mean the coaching staff is thinking the same way we are. You've obviously seen more Stoudermire than I have, and it sounds like you're quite high on him. But O'Shea coming from the special teams pedigree he has, you would think that Woods' spot looks pretty secure right now. As Mike suggested, Unamba's probably a better 2-man reserve candidate than Woods.

I'm hoping we've learned our lesson on Woods, and that he plays. We need his reliability on teams.

Oh my... on a fruitless Friday afternoon... good to see someone else has more time on their hands than even I do...

BC's are actually pretty good looking. Sask's though (and if the picture on the game pin is accurate, ours as well) is hideous.

JFG was just one of the options on the play. The call is fine. There were other players running routes. Willy wasn't pressured on the throw. It was just simply a poor read. That one is on him, and to his credit he knows it and he'll learn from it. MB, as much as I dislike like his calls, is not to blame for the pick six. A 5-yard out is a perfectly good playcall with 2-3 mins left when you're losing and DB's are giving you a 5-10 yard cushion playing prevent. With a 1-point lead against a defence that is playing you tight looking for a turnover on downs... or even better a turnover... inexcusably bad playcall/decision. With a good-in-the-clutch QB like Willy you're going to win some in the last 3 mins, and lose some in the last 3 mins. But that playcall was the Bombers taking on incredible risk for a very minimal return. Just dumb.

Ugly as sin. Suits Saskatchewan.

Good for Hefney. He was unfairly villainized in the media, and I'm glad he's giving back to the community. Even if for profit, it's nice that Winnipeg youth football players can go to a camp of a popular former Bomber. Honestly, in the grand scheme of things, what's a marijuana charge on a pro football player? It's a mistake, and hopefully something Hef can choose to own up to when teaching these kids about good off-field habits.

Convincing people on Cotton has nothing to do with forum hype. I don't remember Bloi-dei Dorzon ever being hyped. Cotton looked great in the preseason. Had the starting job all but locked up before he got hurt. Then Grigsby blasted out of the gates this year. The wheels have fallen off of Grigsby though... he's hesitating and jumping around behind the line rather than hitting the hole hard. Blocking doesn't fix that. Time for the guy who earned a look in preseason to get a game look.

I'd rather we start Cotton, and DI someone who can help on teams or in the secondary. Grigsby's a nice guy and had a great start, but Cotton had the starter's job won in TC before he got hurt. Now Grigsby's hot start has trailed, and I think the guy that earned the starting nod deserves his opportunity. Cotton's got some special talent. Killer wheels, and vision.

What we're doing is quite simply putting our best players in their most effective spots, filling in around that, and keeping everyone fresh by utilizing the full 44-man roster. Between that and the lunchbucket mentality Mike called it... it's a great recipe for a hungry, aggressive defense.

Honestly don't think we need to adjust our base packages too much to find some weak points to exploit against BC. On offense, use the passing game to stretch the field. Their LB's are strong, but their secondary is vulnerable. Wish Cotton was our RB here though. His speed would cause Bighill and Elimimian the odd fit. Defensively, keep the unpredictable blitzes coming to isolate the short game, and use Wild and Kuale to spy the flats. I think we're going to get a high energy, high effort game, because I can't imagine O'Shea was terribly pleased by our 2nd quarter collapse. After Edmonton got their 2nd TD, that team looked Tim Burke led the rest of the way. Bombers 27, BC (SUCKS) 20.

My major problem with this article is that Lawless was sunshine and rainbows during our 3 game win streak, and after one clunker against Edmonton (which, by the way, every CFL team will put up at least a couple clunkers this year), we're overachievers that should expect to miss the playoffs. Huh? So O'Shea's leadership, the new players brought in, the new schemes instilled, and the general culture change will not amount to anything, and Lawless knows this already? And Miller, Walters, and O'Shea are now working with different goals in mind? Is Paul Robson calling the shots again? The 3-1 record is a mirage, and Willy's outstanding passing games to start the year were anomalies? Give me a break. This article is complete horseshit. Of course every GM looks to opportunities to improve Canadian depth. But they look to win with the rosters they've assembled over all else.

Yeah, it's weird that Cordaro is getting an extended look, with RT being a problem position and Jarvis showing pretty well there last year. There's gotta be either some conditioning issues, or something. I'm not down on Knapp like a few on this board. Sure he had a bad game last week, but physical freaks are worth looks across the OL, and I think we're doing the right thing trying him inside. Showed well there in TC, anyways. But yeah, Jarvis not getting a sniff right now when he solidified a tackle spot for us last year is peculiar.

Knapp played G for most of training camp IIRC. And was very solid at it. Think this is the coaching staff trying to seal the holes other teams have been punching in the middle of our OL.

Well that's a positive tone. "Hey Bomber message board... we're going to lose to BC this week." Thanks for that. We put out a clunker last week. Calgary's going to put out a couple this year, so is Edmonton. Every other team has put out at least one thus far. Burke followed up clunkers with clunkers. I'm expecting a game #1 vs. Toronto type of effort out of these O'Shea Bombers on Friday. A humbling loss should have exactly that effect on a good team with a great leader. I half-expected BC to be the 3rd seed, with WPG at 4 this week. Power rankings often favor the hot teams, and BC's won 2 straight (over what looked to be poorly prepared opponents) after all. I actually agree with the power rankings for once.

I get it... I've been trolled. Well done ISO.

Goosen can also play guard. If Morley is doing the job at center as he appears he is so far then why get rid of him if he has a good season? Sign Etienne & deal Watson? If Etienne was so good, then how come he got traded from here, cut in Saskatchewan, not resigned by the Riders after Getzlaff went down or signed as a FA by any other CFL team? Other teams want depth at receiver, too. Holy crap, that's the dumbest suggestion I've ever read here. What's great is that we're 3-0, and all of a sudden Morley's getting a pass, after 4-5 years of ineffective line play. I'll give him this, he's been better this year at C than he was at G. Your point is made. But Morley's a proven commodity, and a proven below-average one... we can't settle for that when his game inevitably slips. We've settled since 1990 and look where that's gotten us... Given the opportunity to retain the injury prone Watson or deal him for the younger NI OL Watman... I take it, with some kind of draft picks/whatnot attached to even the deal out. To keep ISO happy, Etienne can keep his farm job, and we'll sign someone else to compete with Carter for the NI WR backup job behind JFG and Kohlert.

Cheap shots fired at Taman after he left was the point where I realized Kelly had no class, and since I want the head coach of my football team to have class, my desire to have him in charge of this team ended real early. And was then reinforced a couple hundred times over the next 6 months. It was fascinating to see people argue that this was how a coach should behave. That he's "telling it like it is". Coach OShea has been telling it like it is, and he's been 100% class. In fact, I find it a bit eerie how infallible he's been to this point. Humans make mistakes. Is he not human? He's not Bryant Turner, but he's close.

I'm enjoying watching Burke's D get torched. Lost most of the respect I had for Burke after the worst leadership effort I can ever remember in the 2013 debacle. Lost the rest of it when he still wasn't accepting any responsibility in his Freep interview before our home opener. It's possible to like a man personally for his candor, and dislike him professionally because he's a poor leader, and refuses to take responsibility for his role in a disaster of a season. That's how I feel about Burke.