WildPath

Outside looking in:
1) Clarify Walters' situation as the man in charge of the next evolution, ASAP.
2) 2 years remaining on 600k/yr is a spicy meatball. Particularly if being back in the GC next year or more particularly the following year when you host is the goal. I think you have to cut bait. We'll see.
3) Ruthlessness. This roster is overdue for some pruning. Seeing a few familiar names go can hurt. Time to be cruel-to-be-kind (in the right measure).
4) Not a disaster, but worth noting that being out-adjusted at HT in the GC is a bad trend. Evolution happens to coaching staffs too.
 
Tough beat, guys. Sucks to play your worst in the most important game of the season. Ask me how I know.

Just here to say the sun will rise today, boys. Don't dwell on it too much, there are more important things in life than football.

Actually I didn’t miss that part. I know that Osh’s players love him for that. I just don’t agree that that’s how a coach makes decisions about who gets to play.
Players love him for his loyalty and that’s why players want to come here and stay here. That’s a good thing.
But when that loyalty is dialled up too high it becomes too much of a good thing. Strength tips into excess. And this excess leads him to start 2 injured players who have no business being on the field. Two players who ultimately compromise our ability to win.
And that is not a good thing.
Finally, let me be absolutely crystal clear - I do NOT blame Dalton Schoen or Adam Bighill. Of course they want to play! It is the coach’s job, however, to balance that sense of loyalty with realism… To make those hard decisions that actually give us the best chance to win versus give him the greatest chance of being loved in the moment.
And I know O’Shea‘s philosophy is that ultimately his brand of loyalty pays off in the long run. But I think his practice and philosophy lacks balance and yesterday it cost us again.
 
 

I was thinking about the same play. Agree 110 percent. We had very few tendency breaker plays

Forget Gauthier. The real question should have been would Wilson or Clements or Cole have broken up that pass? Maybe. Gauthier can remain a teamer and occasional rotational guy thanks. 

That last play before the 3 minute warning it was a first down play. Everyone in the building knew we were going to run the ball. I thought that would have been a great time to catch Montreal off guard with a passing play and seal the victory. There was very little downside because the three minute warning was going to stop the clock regardless. 

We were somewhat fortunate that we had a core group of guys that wanted to stick together for 4 years. We lost the last 2 Grey Cups which is shitty. I honestly think the coaching staff has gotten a bit too unimaginative and overconfident, thinking that if we just show up and do our thing then we win. And they were almost right. But it has cost us this time around. We need to find that edge again. 

Ultimately all the teams we compete against are going through the same issue so there's no advantage to anyone.  They are all mining the same talent pool of guys willing to come up.
Feel that this year there was very little effort paid to development which bites short and long-term in this sport.  That churn needs to be continuous.  Saw several circumstances this year where there simply was no one ready to replace an injured player so we didn't replace them.  Like when Grant was out and we had no one that could reasonably even catch a punt safely.  

^ Perspective.

I'm not saying he was the problem. I'm saying him being our nominee for rookie of the year is indicative of the talent we brought in the rest of the team this year. Even if your punter is outstanding, it looks bad on your crop of rookies if he's the best thing you got for ROY.

It says something about our complacency/loyalty when the mediocre/poor punter is the nominee for rookie of the year.

of course it is, we're sitting here bitching that we've only won 2 grey cups in 4 straight appearances and have 3 straight first place in the west finishes. 
What we got here are first world problems. 

I can't believe it either. how does it feel to be right for once?

Yeah it's never going to be on one specific factor.  But when you look back and we have multiple guys rostered to do almost or literally nothing but two other rush ends, another 3 tec DT there that compliments Walker perfectly wearing their sweat suits you might go "HOLY HELL WISH WE HAD THOSE GUYS IN THE 4TH QUARTER!"  Some coaches might think that would be more useful than Greg McCrae in a parka over his uniform in a playoff game.

I dont feel vindicated either, as I would rather eat crow, but I will also say I told you so...I took barbs all yr, but seen this song and dance before, and the longer it festered...I knew it would become a huge issue.
I'm more pissed because it didn't have to be as so......and that they allowed the complacency to continue because the win's glossed over a lot of the little issues....and yeah they were little, but at the same time huge, but easily fixed....and we didn't
I like Osh as a coach, but he needs to evolve a bit, and also put his stubborn personal biases to the side for the better of his team, and sometimes not be the buddy, but the guy who makes the hard decisions even tho its the tough one

I don’t feel vindicated at all. I would’ve rather sat here listening to Noeller and TrueBlue4ever tell me what an idiot I am for ever questioning anything our team did.
Feels like ****, man. Is it exactly what I dreaded all year long? Pretty much. We fostered a sense of complacency and just coasted on by thinking we didn’t need every single roster spot in order to win games. I hope our front office takes a long, hard look in the mirror tonight because quite honestly as much as they’re gonna sit here and say all the right things, what they did really was a slap in the face to the fans. You can’t expect to win it all when you openly handcuff yourself and then treat everyone else like they’re the dumb ones for pointing it out. 

I think it speaks to the "player's coach" mentality.  But also speaks to do your damn job the same way you're asking the 12 guys lined up on the field to.  Sometimes that entails a tough conversation with a guy who has given you everything he's got.  Goal is a win for the team.  Doesn't matter who's out there for it.  You can't always preach the "0-0" this week, "next man up" stuff and then be that weak in terms of doing your job to have a team ready to play in a game like this.

Folks on here that were questioning the roster management have to feel a bit vindicated after this one (after the sadness/anger goes away). We stuck with the same ol same ol and didn't find and develop enough guys. Bighill playing tonight was a mistake. Schoen playing tonight was a result of not developing someone to step in and be the guy.
We could have dressed Rose, we could have dressed a d lineman. Hell, without Jackson we could have dressed 2 d linemen.
We really relied on Jeffcoat and Willie getting home and they were well schemed against. 
Defense was okay but not good enough. Offensively we were playing with 3 injured receivers and a QB who for some reason can't seem to make the big throws in the big game.
Im beyond frustrated. 

I don't think the receivers were the reason we had no stretch downfield.

Who cost us the Grey Cup that we should have moved on from? That wouldn't have prevented us from making the Grey Cup in the first place.
It was a poorly played game. Doesn't take away from everything that got us to the opportunity to play in the last two Grey Cups.

I mean there's a half dozen guys that helped put us in a position 7 other teams wish they were in so how full is that glass exactly?

Especially when we played not to lose two years in a row. We said it was just another game and the rest didn't matter - we played like it was obvious we would win and we just had to wait for that outcome.

Not telling anyone how to deal with this loss. Totally up to you. Just sharing how I've approached it now. 

Going to have to rewatch when I’m sober. Didn’t worry about the outcome til way late in the game. 
 
I think we were outcoached. No way we should lose this game. 

Especially when we played not to lose two years in a row. We said it was just another game and the rest didn't matter - we played like it was obvious we would win and we just had to wait for that outcome.