Tracker

My heart goes out to Nichols, Harris, Dressler and all the other players who gave it their best shot only to be let down by a poorly executed fake gamble and two free touchdowns by the defence. I am as mad as a wet hen right now but O'Shea has about four weeks to show that he can make the decisions needed to make the team a contender. The lack of good replacement players for those screwing up or injured is all on Walters and the scouting. Not. Good. Enough.

I pray that O'Shea has Noel Thorpe's phone number on speed-dial.

I think that there is a very good case to make that its not the talent, its the coaching. We need to import a load of manure from Regina for Hall's driveway. Fortunately, there's a lot of manure there.

The real question is whether the good players have seen that no matter how hard they try, Hall's "defensive strategies" are going to let them down in the crunch. The problems have been painfully obvious and there for most of the year and in all of the Bomber losses. Hall and maybe even O'Shea and Walters can try to explain it by blaming poor execution ie" the coaches do not blow their assignments, the players do", but Hall is responsible. Period. If O'Shea believes that Hall is a good coach and is worth keeping, then we are are down to a two-for-one special- out with both of them. I suspect that the reason we did not get a sellout today was that a lot of fans did not believe that the Bombers were going to win. Not only did we lose, but we lost badly for the same freaking reasons we lost most of the other games this year. Enough.

That has to be very high on the recruitment list for next year. If Hurl isn't the worst MLB in the league, he has to be very close.

That's a looong way away.

Yes he does, but the problem is whether they can catch.

Connery would have wanted a vodka martini (shaken not stirred) and a Beretta to be behind center. Or a Walther PPK.

I hope that the traction is not too bad, as I think we have an advantage in the running game.

Realistically, if/when the Bombers get past the Esks, it ought to get a lot easier. I will be happy if they get to the Cup game. I would be a lot more confident if we had Leggett and Adams in the lineup.

Agreed. No matter how good you are as a player or even a coach, you don't get too many chances to win The Big Game.

Great news, if Nichols is close to 100%. We need him to be at his best to win.

BIG height difference there. Fogg is going have to play exceptionally well.

That sounds pretty vague.

If McManus et al cannot do better than Durant and apparently Davis and LeFevour, we are in trouble next year.

With the Bombers' vulnerability to runs up the middle, I would usually be worried, but the Eskimo O-line is average on a good day, and their run game is very suspect. With Hurl in the middle, that means the 5-10 yard passes over the middle are probable targets. Loffler will have to cheat up and that could the home run passes down the middle will be open. Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

If you are not here to expand your vocabulary, why are you here?

If I am Maas and Co., my game plan is simple: take away Harris and Dressler and you have the Bombers by the gonads. The Bombers have to blitz Reilly damned near every play with differing people- if Reilly has any time at all back there, he will vivisect the Bomber defence. Reilly is one of the two or three best passers in the league and his receivers are probably the best overall group in the league. If Nichols plays and is significantly less that his best, it could get ugly. For the Bombers to win as damaged as they are, every player will have to be at his best, and that includes the new receivers.

That LeFevour has been getting the amount of reps this week means that the coaching staff has little confidence in Davis and he will probably be released as soon as the season is over (like his career). This has to be Lankford's last kick at the cat. He has to show in this game why he has been kept around or be likewise gone. He's a likeable guy with smarts and great speed, but he has to show that he is better than a lot of other receiver options out there.

We have to hope a better outcome for Nichols compared to how Pierce's scrambling screwed him up.

On the 1290 Round Table today O'Shea was quoted as saying that Nichols would be in the game "in some capacity". Again, who knows what games are being played?

As much as we had reason to criticize Lankford, neither Washington nor Givens have shown that they are better. I would not be averse to Lankford being put back into the starting lineup.

As Mitchell goes, so go the Stamps- pretty much the same as the Bombers and Nichols, and the whole Stampeder team, defence and all have been off all year and trending downwards since mid-season. We are probably looking at two dinged QBs playing on Sunday and we will see which can win.

But but but...we all speek gooder Inglish... "All your base are belong to us"

I know, I know, and he was being the best speedbump he could be.