Tracker

When I was living in southern Alberta, I happened to meet a retired historian who had an insight into why Alberta and southern Alberta in particular is so like Alabama. Apparently after the American Civil war (and we know who lost that), a lot of disgruntled southerners went westward into what is now Montana along with slaves. When they found out that they could no longer keep slaves there, either, they had a collective hissy-fit and came up into the Milk River of Alberta area hoping that they could continue slavery there. When they could not, they decided to stay out of spite against their "oppressive" American government. Then the oil boom in the 20;s and 30;s came bringing scores of American oilmen from Texas and Oklahoma. And here we are.

Miller and Walters have earned a stay of execution, but O"Shea is still exhibiting the same problematic behaviours and poor judgement that he has soon after he got here. O'Shea is responsible for hiring, supervising and keeping the underperforming assistants.

This will be a shocking heresy to many in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

How dare they add players to improve their team! Here we have stuck with the same old same old in compliance with league rules and they don't! Unfair and the league should fine them.

The Bomber team that has played the last 6 quarters was not the same team that humbled the Riders and I wonder if they will be again. The Riders have gotten better over the season, especially their o-line with the return of LaBatte. Like it or not, the Bombers (including the coaches) have to be fighting for their jobs. I am no longer sure if the Bombers can win this one. If they lose, its officially free-fall.

We can only hope.

Might be worth hiring him for the entertainment value of watching his melt-downs on the sidelines.

I am not sure that having yet another rookie head coach is a good idea- we suffered through a lot of teething problems with O'Shea and this ought to be enough of a veteran team that we do not need to go through another learning curve. Is Trestman available and interested?

There has been speculation in this forum for some time that O'Shea's stubbornness/blind loyalty to "his" people would be his undoing and it appears we are pretty much there. His supporters will point to the quarterback problems and those game or parts of games when the team looked unstoppable, but he has had ample time to fix whatever the hell is wrong with the team and/or subordinate coaches. This is not a personal attack on O'Shea's personality or work ethic. I have little doubt that he has given this his best shot but the results are just not there to support his continued tenure as head coach. We are looking at the classic definition of insanity here if he stays.

A legend in his own mind.

Can't be worse than what we have now.

Agreed, but the players looked like they were trying. I wouldn't have bet on the Bombers against any of them, except Ottawa.

All four CFL teams today have showed more motivation than the Bombers have in the past 90 minutes of play.

Is that the only option that you can see- that if the current coaches are fired that there will be no one to replace them?

That is an arguable point.

Because its been working so well for us the past few years....

There really no good argument to be made for keeping incompetent coaches just because you cannot think offhand of who would be better. O'Shea has obviously made the decision that these (Hall and LaPolice) were keepers, and if he cannot see the problems or is just plain too stubborn to change, then he has put his own head on the chopping block.

My worst fears about the team have been realized. When we are assessing the team, it is a package- player talent, player effort, recruitment and coaching. However, it appears to me that the talent is there, but the coaching fails at the worst times. Has the coaching staff lost the confidence of the players? Have the players lost confidence in each other and themselves as a team? The reality is that it is too late to make wholesale player changes and if I am right about the coaches being the biggest problem, that would make little or no difference anyways. Over the past couple of months, the Riders have been a better team and the comparative records support this. The prospects for the rest of the season and the playoffs look pretty dim right now and I have lost confidence that the current regime can turn the ship around. We will make the playoffs but we are into next year country. Again. If Walters isn't part of the solution, then he is part of the problem and I really like what he has done to date.

As a footnote, in the post-game OB interview, O'Shea was very subdued and trotted out the usual pap but did admit that the team got pushed around. Couldn't say more until he watched the film.

TiCats had no running game, but managed to win because Bombers had no pass defence. Bombers had not much of a running game or passing game. Game, set, match. O'Shea in post-game had no answers, only cliches and vagueness.

Ain't gonna happen, sad to say.

Bombers are going to drop to #7 in the power rankings and deservedly so. This is a mess.

Getting to the point where few care why.

This was a group clusterbuck.

Streveler looks defeated.