14 hours ago, J5V said:

It's no given. O'Shea's got another year after this one on his contract and it may be that he isn't going anywhere until the end of next season regardless of how poorly the team does. We don't have that kind of money to throw around.

The BOD and Walters have to balance the savings of keeping O'Shea around if there is no improvement in the team performance vs what the team will lose if he will be kept, as the honeymoon with O'Shea sure looks like it is over. He has not shown that he can field a team which lives up to its potential or even exceed it.

7 hours ago, JCon said:

Those are elite QBs, mostly playing in a similar pro-style system in college. The elite of the elite. 

You want a raw rookie, with no Canadian football experience to step in? You get Streveler, who looks good but is not ready to start. 

Compared to Nichols who is ready to start but doesn't look good.

2 hours ago, J5V said:

Could be. That's okay if the reason(s) for those likes or dislikes are sound.

If there is logic behind the decisions, then they are not personal, and thus not emotionally-based.

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

you aren't normally the guy to say atodaso, but...

What is strange to me is why we didn't bring back one of, Awoleke, Casher, or Montgomery from camp. Those guys killed it. I know only two are ends but c'mon those guys were great in camp and pre-season. 

I don't think position is weighted very heavily in terms of the PR. 

Could it be that O'Shea (and maybe other coaches) make their decisions on the basis of personal likes or dislikes?

Anyone expecting an offensive orgy in this game is going to be disappointed. It may come down to which defence decides to show up.

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

its either gonna be we chase manziel and see pipkin in the 4th after 10 sacks and 4 picks with a couple defensive TDs, or a LOT of Bomber fans will be hyperventilating in the 4th. 

Would be our kind of luck to be the first team to lose to manziel as he makes high lights all down south. but naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. He still has no OL and is still johnny manziel. 

Im torn on this one. Id be the last one to pull a young qb. And pipkin has shown the most life of what the als have. But dude is tossing up ints like hes danny mac-nichols. (i kid i kid) 

Id probably use a 2 qb system the rest of the way for the als. Even rotate in adams if one of the other two is in a deep struggle. Dont bounce back n forth with who is the starter this year. Establish that they are in a dog fight going into camp next year to try and lock up a qb1 job. 

Can't put the blame wholly or even largely on Pipkin. He got no protection from his O-line and little help from his receivers. I am not sure that his coach knows what a "rouge" is yet If the Bombers manage to lose what is a close to a gimme game, they will deserve whatever scorn and derision they would get. Nothing less than a good old-fashioned ass-whupping of the hapless Als will do.

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

I've only skimmed this thread...  but no one actually thinks the guy is smug IRL do they??

Who knows? He is demonstrably stubborn and resistant to change.

3 hours ago, Brandon said:

I completely agree with this.   Masoli IMO seems to have massive horse shoes up his ar$e so many times he's running for his life only to dart a ball 25 yards down field to a receiver who makes a great grab. 

 

After a while, you can't write it off as luck. The best players have a sort of spider sense which allows then to do the right thing at the right time.

Apparently Nichols was upbeat and relaxed at practice today. What- me worry?

2 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

They just announced the signing of 5 players...

All are retreads who failed to win a job at spring training camp.

Aaaand,,,,to absolutely no one's surprise, O'Shea has confirmed that Nichols will start against Montreal this Friday.

2 hours ago, blueingreenland said:

Friday IS a must win. Not in the statistical sense, of course, but it's one of the winnable games against a sub .500 team.

As for Kaepernick...I'd be shocked if he wins his lawsuit. The question is - did the owners collude against him? That's hard to prove, and I doubt they did. (Some of them just don't want to bother with the baggage).

The NFL has lost lawsuits over shady practices. Do some research about Donald Trump, the USFL and the NFL lawsuit.

5 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Mark Stephen pbp man of the Stamps tweeted this morning that Davaris Daniels has a broken shoulder. Likely done for the year. Stamps strongly considering bringing in Bakari Grant. But not us. 

Now, now. That just wouldn't be cricket, would it?

2 hours ago, jazzsax said:

We need to go 4-2 or 5-1 to have a hope. We have a tough schedule. 

Hate to say it, but over the span of 4 weeks we went from believing we had a home playoff game... to starting to think about effing hockey.

Seriously boys, Fridays game is shape up or ship out. A loss Friday and I think someone gets fired. 

 

You can bet your bippy it won't be LaPolice or Hall.

2 hours ago, Floyd said:

Gimme a break - Streveler was plugged into a Nichols' offence with nothing prepared for him by Lapo.... they would have had two weeks to set up schemes for Streveler

Its EXACTLY what you want for your young QB - an easy(ish) game and then a game against Benevides...

This is exactly what you don't want now...  Wasting more time if Nichols looks good against Montreal and then throws another game away against Edmonton...?

Worse if, Nichols sucks and Streveler has to start against Reilly - that's going to get in his head from the first minute of the game.

My thinking exactly. We are going to find out if Nichols blossoms or wilts under pressure.

2 hours ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Did we really not add a single player during the bye week?

Bombers have added two training camp rejects: national defensive back Jacob Firlotte, international receivers Charles Nelson and Kenny Lawler, international linebacker Kache Palacio and international defensive back Boobie Hobbs. That's as good as it gets, folks. Cue the Boobie jokes.

2 hours ago, Mike said:

I think the Bombers need to put a little less emphasis on the nice guy stuff. You know who was an absolute ******* in college? Duke Williams.

With the new AAF, we’re going to need to take some more chances on problem children I think.

I have mixed feelings on this. Some players like Mike Sellers, grew out of their mistakes but Chris Jones has been bringing in problems children for some time and still has a crappy team, so there is no magic in this.

For a miracle comeback to happen, the Bombers would have to have better coaching, a viable quarterback (and Nichols has been declining for a year now) and a couple-three receivers who scare the opposing defences. So far, we are zero for three on this.

9 hours ago, Stickem said:

OUCH....now that, that's out there....there will be a few guys tucking the dreads or things could get awful hairy

But think how much they would save on shampoo and conditioner.

5 hours ago, pigseye said:

imo, MOS is as arrogant as they come. A 4 game losing streak may just be the best thing for him. 

Its damned hard on the assembled faithful, though.

8 hours ago, WBBFanWest said:

This just in:  Miller promises Grey Cup!  I know that this is a bit of a fool's errand, but who better to ask.  Is there a quote that you could point me to where he does this?  I'm quite sure that Miller is not sitting in his office say, "Thank God I don't have to do all that Championship parade planning, ring sizing and Grey Cup merchandising stuff."

Yes, but did he say what year? Was it still in four digits?

3 hours ago, pigseye said:

I thought Jarious Jackson called a great second half against the Als defence. I would add his name to the list of up and coming HC's. 

Apart from Muamba and Bowman, scheming against the Als' defence is like shooting fish in a barrel.

What some here have been predicting came to pass last night. The Rider defence was good, but not quite as good as in other games, the offence was its usual self, and Elizondo came up with a plan to beat the Rider defence with an average O-line. As Suitor pointed out repeatedly, the Rider game plan was to load up the box and stuff Powell. Ottawa countered with an outside passing game and when the Riders tried to adapt, Powell was sent into the line to seal the deal.

13 hours ago, J5V said:

Are you suggesting that they'll suddenly find this great performance within themselves because they've realized their QB is crap? How does that work, exactly?

I am not expecting much from the 2018 Bombers except that they will stumble into the playoffs by way of crossover and lose in the first game. What I am hoping for is that the players who are worth keeping will show themselves in a much better effort in the games to come. Until recently, I had thought that we had the talent to not only get to the playoffs but maybe even get to the western final. I am not smart enough to judge whether its a lack of talent, inept coaching or a combination of both, but whatever the problem is, I think we are way past the tinkering stage and down to the rebuild stage.

2 hours ago, Atomic said:

They will start Nichols next game and it will be a blowout against Montreal, getting the team back on track.

It has been a bad run but this team is not dead in the water.  The bye week came at the perfect time.  I predict a crossover spot and a run to the East final or Grey Cup.

Those predicting 1-5 or 0-6 over the final six games are simply reacting to recent events rather than taking a 10000 foot view and considering the entire picture.

Looking forward to the final third of the season.

Five years of rebuilding and the best we can hope for is a crossover. Sad.