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Heck, yes. If you are ahead in the first 20 yards in the 100 yard dash, you have it made, right?

But...but..but..we have the answer in our midst: Ryan Lankford, do we not?

If we start the 2019 season with essentially the same coaching staff, GM quarterbacks and receivers, the answer would be "yes", at least on the part of the Bomber brain trust. Close only counts in horseshoes and nuclear warfare.

The answer is "yes" to both.

The Bombers were close all game but never showed any signs of running away with the game. To take comfort that they were close is like saying that you almost had enough money for a cup of coffee but never did anything to get the extra few pennies to buy. I have my reservations about LaPolice but considering what he had to work with, he does not deserve the lion's share of blame.

I don't think you will have much support for firing LaPolice. Richie Hall's head was on the chopping block until Bighill arrived and suddenly the defence was credible. Nichols has significant liabilities in footspeed and in his long game and combine that with a mediocre receiving corps, the offensive coordinator has to hobble the offensive game plan to suit the players he has.

I agree that as good as Medlock was and is, he is aging and handsomely paid but aging. We do need to start grooming a replacement, preferably a home-grown.

Herdman did pretty good considering how bad the rest of the team was and his inexperience.

In unguarded moments, people blurt what they are really thinking. There is a saying,"In vino veritas"- that is, in the wine there is truth and this is a good metaphor for Nichols' statement. He may have been devastated but this does not mean that he accepted responsibility for his poor performance.

He might but proof is lacking.

No way does Streveler get a free pass to being the starter next year. He has to earn it, but O'Shea being who he is, it is doubtful that Nichols will not be handed the starter's role.

I don't know if the Ti-Cat defence was that bad, but Harris looked like an all-star. If he is that good next Sunday, its gonna be a helluva game.

The Bomber secondary covered the Calgary receivers well most of the time, but they still got open enough to win the game. Mitchell missed some throws as well, but got the job done.

This is not about Nichols saying something that will impact his performance. If reported accurately, it gives an insight into his attitude: "I did good, its someone elses's fault" . I should think that a a quarterback who played poorly would be aware of his performance needing improvement and take the heat on himself.

And so did Pavelec, and we know how that turned out. Neither he nor Nichols are rookies or sophomores and what you see is what you are going to get.

Without absolving the rest of the offence, I suggest that the offence begins and ends with the performance of the quarterback. If it becomes obvious to the rest of the offence if not the whole team that their quarterback is just not playing well, then that has to demoralize them. The Riders were very fortunate to do as well as they did with their pathetic quarterbacking which let them down when it counted, and that is true for the 2018 Bombers as well.

IF he is still the anointed one.

To me, the mindset of the quarterback is probably the biggest tool in his box, and if he thinks he played well, why would he try to do better? If his performance was not the problem, then by inference, it was the receivers, and/or O-line and/or the game plan. With that statement, he threw his teammates under the bus.

I do not quite understand your last two sentences, but are you not concerned that Nichols thought he played a "solid game" yesterday? To me, that says he is living in a different reality.

I would argue that the receivers have not.

I disagree to a large extent. We had pretty much the same conversations here 12 months ago, and here we are again. Beating the Riders was emotionally satisfying but, truth be told, they were a bad team and relied on smoke, mirrors and a stout defence to get into the playoffs. And the Bombers barely got past them. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Nichols will be back and will probably be handed the starting job if O'Shea's track record means anything. Fans have to decide if this mediocre season is good enough to be the template for the next few years.

Agreed. I allowed myself to believe that Nichols had exorcised his demons after his horrible outings in the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl, but yesterday he reverted back to his timid, low-risk, low-reward self. To be fair to him, we don't have the benefit of being able to break down the game film and see if he was not going through his reads properly, or not following direction or if he was doing all that but the receivers were letting him down or LaPolice was the problem. Still, it sure as spit looked like it was all on him with some responsibility falling on the receivers. His abysmal self-awareness that he thought he'd played a good game does not inspire confidence. The defence played well enough to win, and the special teams were mediocre but the offence was flaccid for the most part. I still cannot see why O'Shea left Nichols in for so long when it was obvious that Nichols was failing. I don't know if Streveler would have produced a different outcome but Nichols wasn't going to do it.

I was saddened by the loss today but not entirely surprised. The problems that Nichols ans his receivers has today were the same ones that were evident during the losing skid. I don't know whether to blame the players, the coaches or both, but the Bombers were beaten by a better team today. They scraped past a mediocre Rider team last weekend and the red flags were there in that game. Regardless of all this, I do not see Walters or O'Shea voluntarily making changes. Not putting Streveler in shortly after it was obvious following halftime that the offence was toothless was a major judgemental failure for O'Shea and/or LaPolice and they must answer for that. And then there was inserting Lankford- for what purpose? Walters has questions to answer as well- other teams can sign Chris Matthews, Posey, Rogers, etc etc and we sign a bunch of steers. Its gonna be a long winter and may be a long time before we have this opportunity again.

Okay. It is now officially a rout.

Too Late! Its starting to look suspiciously like a rout already. The only thing stopping the landslide was that last-second TD by the Ti Cats.