Tracker

As screwed-up as the Riders are, I am starting to dread the upcoming home-and-home series with them. The Riders have an excellent defence and for all his failings, Jones is a very good DC, so our stumbling offence could get their lunches eaten big time. And if our defence plays as they did Friday,even a popgun offence might be good enough to beat them. We need reason to hope.

The Bomber malaise is not all on Nichols but in tough times, teams look to their leaders and that has to be Nichols, who is not doing well at the present. Some of the blame also has to fall on the defence as a whole and the coaches.

Fixed that for you.

How will ever find out how good Peterman, Simonise and Washington are if O'Shea keeps trotting Lankford out?

Isn't Pipkin one of the Hobbits?

And dumb luck will beat skill every time.

Snowball's chance in Hell for the Alouettes. There is no part of their team that is working well, from the GM to the coaching to the players, but this is the Crazy Football League. Pitkin will have to walk on water to avoid a blowout.

The problem is that there is no way for the fans to vent at coaching decisions without having some that scorn falling onto the players. Booing is a pretty broad brush that gets poop on everyone involved, and sometimes that is richly deserved. Fans deserve the right to criticize they team that they are financially supporting. When they do not care enough to get angry, that is the time to worry. I hope that we do not get to the grim resignation stage.

Agreed. That made me furious and was a damning condemnation of the defence. It wasn't like the Ottawa offence had the whole field to spread out- just the end zone and a bit and the Bombers still could not stop them even once. This game could be the turning point of the Bombers' season and the end of some coaches' careers.

Unless Nichols is able to shake off whatever ails him real soon, the logical thing to do would be to swallow hard and take the growing pains of starting Streveler for the rest of the season. However, with O'Shea being who he is, I cannot see that happening unless Nichols is dismembered.

I do not question O'Shea's intelligence, but his stubbornness and rigid thinking is a continuing concern.

A quick but pessimistic look ahead tells me that we have a shot at two, maybe three wins at our current level of performance. That would put us at or near the .500 mark for the year. Simon says: take a biiig step backwards.

This is news???

That might solve some of the Bomber problems but not all.

Okay.Upon reflection, I'm having a hard time defending Lankford.

I have no confidence that LaPolice is the answer at head coach. He cannot seem to adapt the offence, so what would he do as head coach?

I was expecting Lankford to completely flop, but he did make a couple of catches as well as dropping that guaranteed touchdown pass which might have changed the whole flow of the game But he did not cost us the game, and it is clear to all that he is not a kick returner and if used as such, it sets him up for failure.

I think its symptomatic of one of O'Shea's failings as he sticks with what he has used rather than adapt.

Even if Dressler had played at his 100% last night, we still would have lost badly. I have been critical of Lankford, but he played reasonably well last night, given his long benchwarming. I would still have started Peterman, though and replaced the late Mr. Loffler.

After consideration. I cannot see that this is about the talent. The talent could always be better, but this has to fall at the feet of the coaches and if O'Shea cannot make the changes needed (Hall), then he is the wrong choice for head coach. As frustrating as it is for us fans, it has to be at least as bad for the players to see their head coach not do the right thing to make the team competitive.

Given how poorly the team played tonight, I am losing confidence that we can even split with the Riders in the home and home. Jones will be desperate to keep his playoff hopes and job security alive and we've been getting worse.

So the question is why could Ottawa blitz so effectively and we could not?

Disagree. Nichols was terrible, particularly when blitzed and this is the third or fourth game this year when he has looked bad.

And Sayles, Loffler and Nichols