blueandgoldguy

This is fine I guess. Based on their questionable recruiting of international talent, the team should probably hire another scout for that.

I think the drop in NFL ratings is attributable to millennials not wanting to spend 3.5 hours watching a sporting event. They prefer to get their sports information via live updates or quick recaps.

I don't see Dressler as an important signing in the off-season. Let him go. He's injured far too easily and not worth the money given his production. It would be better to invest that money in an Arceneaux or Jackson. I hope Walters et al can also uncover some decent cheap receiving talent from down south to improve our depth.

An obvious candidate to replace either/or Walters and O'Shea if things do not work out would be Tom Clements. Similar to Hufnagel, Clements has an extensive back ground in the NFL going back decades - Quarterback coach, Offensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach. As GM and/or coach Clements could leverage his extensive relationship with the NFL and college teams to recruit the best players just like Hufnagel. He is older so that might be an issue but he is no longer employed by Green Bay. If he is looking for work and things do not progress here on the field over the next 12 months, Winnipeg should present a serious offer.

Perhaps O'Shea and Walters will end up being the Bomber' Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers. Shivers, then Barrett were hired by the Saskatchewan Roughriders organization in 2000 after a particularly pathetic era of football under GM Al Ford with one fluky cup run in 1997 - sound familar? Saskatchewan struggled in the duo's first 2 seasons failing to qualify for the playoffs, but things started to turn around in season 3. They followed that up with back-to-back Western Final appearances but ultimately failed to make it to the Grey Cup game, let alone win it. Shivers was relieved of his duties part way through the 2006 season while Barrett was replaced in 2007. Both brought respectability and a winning attitude back to the Rider organization yet due to their inability to attract enough talent and coach the players to the best of their abilities they never quite achieved the status as a legit Grey Cup contender or favorite. In the end, the Riders hired more capable individuals in 2006 and 2007 and the team appeared in 3 Grey Cups over the next 4 seasons, winning once (probably should have won two including 2009). Could it be possible that the Bombers will have to move on from Kyle Walters and Mike O'Shea and replace them with 1) a GM who has better connections down south - improving weak spots on the Bomber roster (MLB, receiver, backup QB) and also improving depth with cheap International Talent and 2) a coach who makes better in-game decisions and is quick to recognize players' shortcomings in certain positions. We might find out as soon as the end of next season. If the Bombers are not in a division final next year, one or both of O'Shea and Walters will be gone. That you can be certain of.

Is Calgary some sort of utopia compared to Winnipeg? Their stadium and facilities sure ain't

I'm sure Dieter does not remember his last two games in the CFL and NFL very fondly. 1984 - a butt kicking by his former team, the Blue Bombers, in the Grey Cup under frigid conditions at Commonwealth Stadium. 1986 - a butt kicking by the soon-to-be Superbowl Champion Chicago Bears, in the NFC Championship game under frigid conditions at Soldier Field

Regarding the starting Qbs... Winnipeg - Nichols obviously Calgary - Mitchell - a great regular season qb anyways Edmonton - Reilly the warrior Toronto - Ray - I think he will be back. A free agent so I think they will give him $500,000 same as Reilly Ottawa - Talk of Harris leaving due to some underwhelming results in the playoffs and wanting too much, I think he will be back Hamilton - Masoli will be the starter although I am concerned by his lack of consistency with the short and medium passes. He has come a long way from 2 years ago though. manziel will backup BC - a little less certain of this... I think we will see Jennings being given another shot at starting. Despite his injury troubles I think Lulay will try to come back once again. I give them an outside shot at trying to sign Collaros Montreal - they will go after Collaros or Franklin, Durant will backup somewhere, perhaps Edmonton when they lose Franklin or Winnipeg Saskatchewan - I'm not sure if Jones thinks Bridge is the answer. Kid is pretty raw and might not be capable of being developed into a more polished product or Jones might not have the patience for it. I don't see all of Adams, Bridge and Glenn back with the team. My guess is Jones takes a run at Franklin and if he loses out to another team, he tries to sign Collaros who imo will be released by the cats.

Could Riley be re-hired by Oregon? He put up a respectable record there...went to some bowl games and won a few.

It will be interesting to see the fallout in the off-season. Who do you think won't be back next year? McDaniel for one I guess? I never signed up for the new stamps forum, but I would browse on occasion. Whatever happened to that awful poster Moon? When I went to the forum yesterday, I was expecting to read some insane rants from him. Banned?

They have had a nine-year run of dominance up to this point. Maybe in the next year or two they finally begin to decline to merely good, average, or bad...great players replaced by good or mediocre ones to bring the team down to earth. Of course I am basing this on nothing more than the previous Stamps run of great teams from 1990 - 2000. Shortly after that, they had a 7 year run of teams ranging from terrible to decent.

It happens to a lot of teams. The Stamps might be the most prominent, but the Als of the 50s had excellent teams (sometimes the best in the regular season) that choked in the big game. Also the Als of the late 90s and 2000s had the best teams on occasion only to fall short of the grey cup or in the actual final itself. Same with a few Bomber teams (1993, 1994 and 2001 come to mind). I'm sure it is very frustrating for Calgary fans in recent years given they have fielded some of the best regular season teams in league history but I find some of the excuses rather suspect - weather, officiating and one-game winner-take-all. All past Grey Cup champions have had to contend with these great equalizers of the past. I think a certain sense of entitlement has taken hold of the members of that forum and perhaps much of the fanbase. In fairness, if fan forums existed in the 80s, I'm sure those same feelings would exist here and in Edmonton.

I disagree with some of the posters here saying Mitchell and the OC should have played it safe and gone for the field goal with 25 seconds left. I doubt Calgary has a better chance than 50-50 to win in overtime. It's not like they marched it down the field at will on every drive during regulation. When you have an opportunity from inside the 30 to win it regulation you take it. Unfortunately, Bo should have recognized the receiver in the end zone was being double covered and thrown it out of bounds. Terrible mistake on his part. Calgary would have had another chance at a TD with all the time left too. Take two calculated shots and if that fails kick the field goal and go to overtime. I am pretty happy to see the Argos win considering all the uncertainty facing the franchise heading into last off season. I used to cheer for Calgary at one time , but I started to find it more difficult to do that around 2015 given how cocky Mitchell became. Too much success at too young an age perhaps? He won his first cup when he was 24 or 25? Now Mitchell has lost the last 2 Grey Cups. The 4 interceptions he threw in those games played a big role in those losses. A took a peek at the Calgary Stampeders forum and there is some poster over there crying to the other 5 guys on that site about how unfair the CFL is having a team play a one-game winner take all format for the championship...coin-flip basically. Playoffs should go back to best two-out-of-three or a two game cumulative score...even the Grey Cup lol. Sore loser in my opinion suffering from recency bias due to the Stamps recent regular season success the past 10 years and previous to that, the 90s. Most teams in the CFL could try to justify a similar system to right perceived wrongs of the past.

If the Bombers fail to win a playoff game next year one or both of O'Shea or Walters will be gone. I don't think there has ever been a coach or GM in CFL history who has survived their first five years with a team without at least one playoff win.

Edmonton was not healthy going into this game though. https://www.esks.com/roster/ It speaks to a lack of depth on the Bomber roster that they suffer a few injuries to their starters and play poorly the final third of the season. This team had the fewest man-games lost to injury in the entire CFL. Management needs to do a better job of recruiting talent from the US next season.

Sean Whyte, possibly the best kicker in the CFL, has been injured almost the entire season in Edmonton. They managed to find a decent replacement. There are options out there outside of Medlock especially when we could probably pay a national less than 100,000 vs. the $185,000 paid to Medlock. Given a field goal percentage barely over 80% he has not earned his paycheck. $125,000 - $135,000 would be more suitable. I doubt anyone pays him more.

The pressure will be on next year. At the very least, the Bombers will need to make the East Finals next season - whether that is by finishing first in the division or winning a division semi-final. Failing that, I see one or both of O'Shea and Walters receiving their pink slip. I don't think a coach/gm has survived past 5 seasons without a playoff victory in the CFL.

I'm happy that the Bombers are staying on CJOB. As already touched on by a few posters, if there is a conflict in the schedule between the Jets and the Bombers (and there will be) Bombers will get the boot, while the Jets will get top priority. Not exactly an ideal situation for advertising your product to the masses. I have listened to the Bomber pre and post-game show on 1290 and I have it to be quite good. I enjoy Walby's take on the game and while Walby is not as eloquent as Doug (everyone remember overneath?!) he doesn't come across as arrogant but rather jovial. Plus Walby the offensive lineman > then Brown the defensive lineman. Westwood is OK on the morning show though I could do without the fake moral outrage he expresses from time to time. I find he has made an effort to learn things during his tenure on 1290. ie. analytics in hockey. Toth is terrible - the worst thing about 1290 at this point. Toth - makes a point about something. Westwood or Bauming or some other host - easily refutes the comment Toth ignores his previous comment defending a particular stance and agrees with co-hosts - "But that's what I'm saying" Ralphie pretty good and comes across as polished. You have to like his dry sense of humour. Hustler is enthusiastic and has a pretty good grasp on most of his subject matter. I think the ratings for the drive home are also quite good for 1290 though not as good when Lawless was one of the co-hosts. He and Hustler had some good chemistry. Overall average ratings for 1290 probably take a bigger hit in the evening and late night - moreso than CJOB - due to the airing of out-of-country radio personalities. I doubt there are many in Manitoba who listen to Jim Rome and ESPN radio as obviously do not focus on anything in Canada let alone Manitoba. Offhand, there is some truly hilarious filler content on the weekend. I had the radio on as background noise while I was doing some work and there is a weekly Esports (Electronic Sports AKA Competitive Videogaming) show on with two hosts..I don't remember their names. On one show they were talking about these "athletes" retiring and the consequences for life after video games as compared to their counterparts in traditional sports. Such topics are handled with extreme gravitas lol. I guess one's fingers and thumbs are never the same after several years in the rough-and-tumble world of video games!

Special teams will have to dominate as they have for several games this season with some good kick/punt returns. D will need 3 to 4 turnovers to give the Bomber offense some short fields to work with. I still expect them to give up 450+ yards though. With Nichols likely to be nowhere near 100% we have to hope he can somehow make it through the game without getting further hurt - a monumental task with his lack of mobility.

I wouldn't consider it a reflection of fans in this city if the playoff game only has 25,000 or so showing up. You would then have to say that fans of any team in the CFL don't show up for playoffs. Semi-final games in all cities do not sell particularly well. All you have to do is look at recent history. The only exception would be some semi-finals in small stadiums out east like Tim Hortons Field. If these 24,000 seaters expanded by 10,000 I'm sure they wouldn't sell more than a few hundred additional seats. As I say this there are still a few thousand seats left in Ottawa for their game against the Riders.

I'd feel pretty confident the Bombers could go all the way and win the cup if Nichols health wasn't in quite so much doubt and we had one or two less key injuries. Then again, if you look at the roster of a team like the Stamps or Esks they have been missing players just as important as Westerman, LEggett and Adams for most of the season so it comes to not having good depth. Ah well. Hopefully they can pull off the victory against the Esks next week.

All that money spent on Mosaic and they can't even provide good visitor locker rooms. http://3downnation.com/2017/11/04/esks-offensive-lineman-says-visitor-locker-rooms-new-mosaic-crap/ With the Edmonton Eskimos set to play the Saskatchewan Roughriders tonight for the right not to lay waste to the East Division, Edmonton offensive lineman Justin Sorensen used Twitter to harp on the accommodations provided to Rider guests. The Riders opened the new $278 million Mosaic Stadium this stadium which features a number of state-of-the-art amenities including a lavish player’ lounge, a barbershop and a 4,450-square-foot open-concept locker room. The team spent $19 million on their portion of the facility. The opposition digs, however, are less opulent. Teams have complained about limited space for training and medical staff and the Toronto Argonauts were less than impressed when the air conditioning mysteriously stopped working in late July when temperatures were in the low 30s. Predictably, reaction to Sorensen’s ranged from Rider fans chirping about home field advantage to others slamming the “classless” organization. And his former teammate Eddie Steele, now with the Riders, couldn’t help himself… I have certainly never heard any complaints about the visitor locker rooms in new stadiums/renovated stadiums in Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa. This is a big fail by the organization and Regina. You would think the most boring city in Canada that is life and death to bring any out-of-town visitors to their village would try to create a good impression wherever possible especially with those poor unfortunate souls who are forced to travel there for a football game.

Dressler and Adams would not replace the top-2 on Edmonton or BC and the results would be the same. Puhlease. Lapo's system is perfect for a guy like Nichols and our receiving core. Nichols does not have the arm strength or accuracy on long throws to go 20+ yards to the same degree the likes of Reilly can. Put lapo in Edmonton and Reilly would still be chucking it down the field on a fairly consistent basis.

Black goes into a game with a chosen narrative and sticks with it regardless of what is happening on the field of play. Black would actually be pretty good in the studio hosting a panel which I have seen him do on a semi-regular basis. He got a shout out once from Charles Barkley a couple years ago on some broadcast. Does that make him a little bit cool? We should give him a break. Black is from Transcona. A man can't help that his idiosyncracies are a result of where he was raised.

That's exactly who he reminded me of!