blueandgoldguy

No the Esks were missing their starting running back - one of the best in the CFL - at the beginning of the season. Their second string running back went down shortly thereafter. The third stringer came in and played quite well during the Eskimos win streak. This shows good depth. Cory Greenwood - a Canadian linebacker injured all season JC Sherritt - injured first game of the season after rupturing achilles Sean Whyte - best field goal stats this year before he was injured in the 5th game and 93% last year. Imagine if we lost Medlock? Simeon Rottier - out most of the season Adarius Bowman - missed 6 or 7 games...eskimos won 4 of the 7 games on their winning streak without him which shows they can win without a key receiver Derrell Walker - lost him to the NFL for the first half of the season. One of the best in the CFL is not so easily replaced in the off-season. So these are some of the key starters the Esks were missing at or near the start of the season during their winning streak. Several of these are still out of the lineup. There have been more in and out since then as well. The fact that the Eskimos were able to maintain such an impressive winning streak without all these players is impressive and is a testament to their depth. Only when injuries reached ridiculous proportions (20 plus players) did the inevitable losing commence.

The Bombers have only been without Nichols for 3 quarters. They looked bad in the previous 3 or 4 games. Jennings looked quite fine yesterday. Ottawa's second stringer Tate was fine before he went down. It would be one thing is Davis was playing well and went down like Tate and the fever came in and sucked like Lindley. That, of course, is not the case. Both looked terrible. Right now, the Bombers appear to have the worst 2nd stringer in the league at QB. Edmonton had many key injuries at the beginning of the season in the midst of their winning streak - more than the current Bombers have. Only when they reached around 20 players on the injured list, did the Esks go into a complete funk. The Bombers are nowhere near that number.

This isn't entirely true. Edmonton started the year with several injuries and it grew to around 13 players injured around the middle of their win streak. Only when injuries reached around 20 players did the Eskies inevitably start to falter and go on a losing streak. They still have some players out with season-ending injuries while pulling off several wins recently. In contrast, once the Bombers lost 3 or 4 players to injury they quickly went into the tank sporting a 1-2 record going into this weekend's game and looking pretty mediocre to awful in all of them. The Esks were able to handle several injuries at the beginning of the season (many more than the current Bombers) and still win. The Bombers play took a noticeable downturn with just a few players out of the lineup. On that basis, it is pretty clear a team like the Esks has better depth than the Bombers at this point in time.

It's frustrating that this team's GM and scouts can't do a better job at finding quality Qbs, linebackers and receivers down south.

I remember when many people on the old site thought we had great QBing with Pierce, Elliott and Brink.

If by the end of the line you this season, then yeah, I agree. No guarantees beyond this year though.

Yes, those teams were worse off than the Bombers in 2013 Speaking of which, Ottawa started from nothing and went 12-6 in their second season and made it to the Grey Cup. Then they fought through several injuries the following season and won the Grey Cup in their third season. Edmonton was in a similarly dire situation in 2012 with Tillman and Reed. Sub .500 season. Get rid of Tillman and hire Hervey. Fire Reed the next season. Post a winning season and make the West Finals in 2014 and follow that up with a Grey Cup in 2015. So the Edmonton rebuild took 2 years and the team was a Grey Cup champion in year 3. It's been proven time and time again. Rebuilds in the CFL do not take that long. Back to Jones. He is a ****, but a winning ****. Much rather have that than a losing **** like Joe Mack who is once again showing his shoddy recruiting skills with the 3-14 Als this season.

As I just said in the other thread, if the Bombers are one and done in playoffs this year, both O'shea and Walters will probably be toast at the end of the 2018 season should the team fail to make the division finals by next season. ...but let's see what happens the next 2 - 4 weeks. Interesting little tidbit. Since the Bombers last playoff win in 2011, every other team in the CFL has won at least one playoff game since then.

He did bring over the veteran coaching staff some of who had less experience than Bellefool and Etch who have been around for years. By the way, O'shea is the one who chose to bring those two in just as he chose to bring in Hall. Jones also had 0 experience as a GM and has managed to restock the cupboards in 2 off-seasons. As for playing fast and loose with the rules, I would suggest all teams bend the rules. It is only to what degree that each team does that is the question. Bringing in Trestman and Popp does not cancel out the shitshow that was the Argos off-season. They barely had time to prepare being brought in as late as they were. Wasn't Popp regarded as a failure around here not too long ago because of the lack of talent he brought to Montreal in recent years? And now, he provides Toronto with a distinct advantage? OK... The bombers did decide to groom a GM and HC indeed. The reasons behind it are a subject to debate, in particular with Walters who has hired on a permanent basis after the "extensive search" in the 2013 off-season. So far, it has yet to pay off after nearly 4 years and suspect depth at many positions. We will see what happens in the playoffs, but if the Bombers are one and done, I suspect both Walters and O'Shea will have to make the Divisional Finals in 2018 at a bare minimum (whether that be by finishing first or winning in the division semi-final) to keep their jobs.

Offense has been awful for at least 3 games though. They had the QB, OL and running back for the previous 2 and yet they played poorly. The team has been trending towards awful on the O-side for a month now. The lack of quality depth is killing them.

Those rare times the fever has looked good in the past was when he used his evasiveness and running ability to extend drives. Sadly when the other parts of his game are so lacking, as was seen in hamilton and toronto, the opposition keys in on this forcing him to throw and well, we see the results of that. He is strictly a third down/short yardage qb. I really hope we see a little more positive production from Davis next week.

/\ /\ Sadly this appears to be a trend that has carried on for two decades and the past 4 management groups. I guess when the Bombers had Jyles and Buck in 2010 that would be considered good backup depth. The only problem is one of them had to be the official starting QB!

Medlock appears to be back on track. Special teams were solid.

Care to elaborate? Jones came into a situation just as bad if not worse than Walter/O'Shea. Aging team with no Canadian depth. Trestman and Popp came on very late in the off-season in Toronto. Remember how long it took ownership to fire Jim Barker. The new manager and coach barely had any time to prepare for the draft and recruitment. All the other teams had a head start.

Regarding the Fever this shouldn't be a surprise. Watching his games in relief and starting for Hamilton and Toronto it was pretty apparent he had little arm strength from the getgo. Yeah, he fluked out a win here and there thanks to his running ability but his throws were of the popgun variety and because of that, he was incapable and is of stretching the field. He is fine as a short yardage QB, that's about it.

total team failure in this game. The defense has been brutal pretty well all season with a few exceptions, but the offense has shown a really disturbing trend the past 4 weeks or so, and that was with Harris and Nichols in the lineup. Poor net yardage and TOI. I guess Adams and Flanders being out of the lineup make a big difference and reflects the lack of depth in this roster has. No suitable replacements and that is on the management and the scouts.

GM/Coaches like Chris Jones and Trestman and Popp are proving it doesn't take 3 years to rebuild a team into playoff or even Grey Cup contender. Jones accomplished this feat in 1.5 years while Trestman and Popp appear to have accomplished this in a half year in Toronto.

Last year he was a good investment, this year he is a bad investment. Other teams have better production from their field goal kickers this season at nearly half the salary.

Yes, pretty much. He is not worth what they are paying him and has been suspect most of the year.

Matt actually went to Birmingham. Even if Matt had won a Grey Cup with the Bombers in 93 or 94 I don't think Cal signs him as the owner of the Barracudas - Mr. "Vincent Lecavalier is the Michael Jordan of hockey" - offered Matt a huge contract. I believe it was over $500,000 US per year for at least 2 years, maybe 3... and then he proceeded to pay Matt a percentage of the amount owed in year 1 after which the team folded. I seem to remember Matt taking Art to court over this. I'm not sure how it was resolved in the end.

Not writing him off. He is not earning $185,000 per season though. He probably is making nearly twice as much as the next highest paid kicker. While he does punt - average at best in that department - he is probably only worth 2/3s of what he makes at this point. $185,000 kickers make 38 - 45 yard field goals, they don't miss two in a game.

Hall should go but boy does this team need some additional talent on defense. MLB is the most obvious but they probably need to get Loffler out of the safety position. He just too slow back there. Maybe one of the OLB positions? Need more depth for the d-line as well. I feel pretty confident Medlock will be taking a significant paycut in the off season or he will be gone. Nearly $200,000 for an American field goal kicker who has had two terrible games and another few questionable ones on top of that is simply not good enough for that salary. Below 80% for the season. I'm also questioning the depth Walters and the scouts have provided the Bombers with this season. Toronto came into this game with more injuries then the Bombers yet the offense had their way with a defense that was only missing a few personal. On offense this team loses Adams last week and is life or death to move the ball against the Lions. On a related note, I heard on the 1290 pre-game show that the Bombers had only lost 65 man-games to injuries whereas the league average is over 200. Winnipeg has been extremely fortunate up to this point.

That's the spirit guys.

Yep, recruitment needs to be better.

Well that's where recruitment comes in. Calgary lost one of their very best players at the start of the season. They lost a few others to injury, some of their best O-linemen to other teams in free agency (Denis, Bryant) and the NFL the past few years, yet they still appear to have the best talent and depth in the league. Our depth has improved, but our recruitment needs to be better if we want to compete with a multitude of injuries. As it stands, I think Edmonton has more injuries to key starters than the Bombers this year so if they meet in the playoffs there is no reason the Bombers can't win a semi-final game. Finals are another matter obviously.