Tracker

Wow! Winnipeggers and Bomber fans in particular are an optimistic lot. On the flip side, should the Big Blue stink the joint out, there are going to be a lot of boos and epithets raining down on them. I see this game as the current edition of the Bombers' last chance to redeem themselves against a long-term rival. If the Bombers win, many will say that its just the pathetic Riders, so no big deal, but if the Bombers lose.... No pressure though.

Bruised ego, no doubt. They ought to call it the "paid spectator list".

You can't force Canadian players into spots they are not good at. You need to build your team and import players around your best core of NIs, wherever they fit. Its a heluva juggling act all season

You mean Jeb? Because he actually is. You failed this one. Jeb is running for the Republican nomination, not President...yet. To the consternation of all sane people, the leading Republican candidate is..........Donald Trump.

One of the most damning things about our offence this year and last was how long it takes for a play to develop. The opposition has time to run tot he sidelines for a drink and still return to the field to stop the play. It was most noticable during the Calgary game.

I call BS on this. Doug Brown was a consumate pro always ready to play.You forget he was in the NFL before being an all star here? Check your facts before you make a silly statement. And there were credible reports that during the Jim Daley era, the defence was so screwed up that Brown was actually calling the defensive sets during games.

Is there any point in rostering Kohlert or JFG? There is only one, maybe two passes thrown to them during the game and those spots could be used to speed up water delivery to the team during breaks.

If you outlaw lutefisk, only outlaws will have lutefisk. (Norwegian humour).

So the 0-9 Riders playing a raw rookie equals great depth? That's all bull ****, its poor coaching and poor qb play and nothing else. Agreed Brandon - Montreal lost their top two QB's, and have a better record, and they still fired their HC. Edmonton lost their #1 and traded their #2 to us because #3 was so good. Toronto started the year with their #1 on the shelf and he still is. Only Sk has done worse and it's better that 50/50 they'll only be one game behind us come Sunday. I said it when Willy was first hurt - we'll see what this team is made of when it faces adversity. All teams do. Great teams, even good teams, will find a way to overcome adversity. The Winnipeg Blue Bumblers fold like cheap tent when faced with adversity, and have done so for the past decade. Not sure where to blame. Would be easy to blame just one person but it's a team effort to win and a team effort to fail. IMO - the Banjo Bowl is a must win for the Bombers. It really is, they lose, the season is toast. Written off. And yes, I expect a lot of changes to happen if they do lose - never mind the axe falling, it should make the Texas Chainsaw Massacre look like a Disney movie when all is said and done. Agreed. If we lose the Banjo Bowl, we will be officially in freefall and out of the playoffs with all coaching jobs circling the drain.

And there will not be. The bigger the scale of a construction project, the greater the chance of unintentional screwups. The new cop shop is behind schedule and over budget, as is the Transcona Plessis underpass, but the floodway expansion was not.

They're pretty ugly right now. Should the Bombers lose on Sunday Saturday, we will see anger on a scale we have not seen since the Kelly era. Fixed that for you. Bless you my son, and remember: if life gives you melons, you're probably dyslexic.

If Miller has picked any of the subordinate coaches rather than O'Shea, that would undermine O'Shea's authority really screw up the chain of command. If O'Shea agreed to be the head coach under those conditions, he deserves his fate.

If you write on the cheque, it is no longer blank, is it not?

Too bad for Marve, and I hope that his injury will not hamper his life after football (which is starting right now), but he contributed nothing to the Bombers and may actually have kept Walters from bringing in a real prospect. Considering the number and severity of knee injuries he has had, the Bomber doctor who checked him out must have been drinking heavily that day. Why the heck did it take this long to figure out he was done?

They're pretty ugly right now. Should the Bombers lose on Sunday, we will see anger on a scale we have not seen since the Kelly era.

On the assumption that Bellefeuille is a deadman walking (O'Shea did not defend him in Tuesday's presser), O'Shea's fate may come down to two things: the Banjo Bowl and if there is a viable, experienced head coach candidate available. On balance, I do not think O'Shea is far from the gallows.

Enough foreplay, already! Announce that Wild and/or Muamba has signed with the Bombers,preferrably in time to play on the weekend. We need an antidote to Messam and fast.

Huffer's options are not all that numerous. Pretty much all the CFL teams are comfortable with their coach-GM combos except for the Riders and Bombers, so if it is going to happen, it will happen there. Don't see it happening in Winnipeg, though, so the Riders may be the only horse in that race.

I expect that the Riders will use the same game plan as last- keep chipping away at the Bomber defence for 3 quarters and then turn Messam loose in the 4th quarter. I have zero confidence in the current Bomber running game,so we probably going to live or die with the pass, and we are going to see how fast a learner Nichols is.

Apart from holes in the International talent which Walters (and McManus et al) have not filled well, the talent level is overall better than it was under Mack. Where Walters has failed in in the choice of a head coach, and even Wally Buono has not batted 100% there. For Walters, the urgent need of the team is to sign Muamba, a dominant nose tackle, and backup quarterbacks, although that may have been resolved.

I had high hopes for O'Shea when he was named head coach, and expected that there would be bumps in the road for the first year, but he has done little to deserve being kept on. I think you can make an argument for letting him finish the year, although I would disagree. O'Shea's judgement, not his heart is the issue. He appears to be unable to judge player or assistant coach talent properly, and him getting snarky with the media is not going to help him either. Either way, the honeymoon is over.

Then why did this GM sign Walker just a week ago? That is a puzzlement. Perhaps there was a hole to fill and nobody else was available.

An observation: it seems that our collective assessment of Greaves' decline over the past 12 months was accurate. Another consensus we have is that Chevon Walker is dead weight, as is Picard. This move means that our GM is paying attention, and so are the coaches, so the departures of Picard and Walker may not be that far away, and its all good. For all the concerns we have about the coaches, we can take our eyes off Walters.

Wasn't Greaves a defensive tackle? I find it hard to believe that he was drafted with the intent of him playing tackle. That's what was said at the time. Apparently, he has really long arms... I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers stuff like this. Mack/Lapo definitely said that they thought Greaves could potentially be a tackle down the road. And apparently down that road was Edmonton

Firing him midseason is a trap. Then you get a situation like when Crowton was let go and Bellefeuille was brought in. Hard to make changes wholesale midseason so it's not really improving anything, but hey the guy works well with the rest of the staff might as well just keep him. If the offence is going to be ****** the rest of this season regardless why not wait until the offseason to make the change and then you can go out and find the best candidate and not have the temptation to just go with the easy status quo hire. Except that MB has proven he can't win with our current players. And his playcalling is terrible. Why reward that kind of work? Give something else a try, even if for shits and giggles. Never wanted him here in the first place. I never wanted him here in the first place either, but you can't change an offence completely with only 8 games remaining. We're stuck with his crap all year like it or not, might as well wait until the offseason. But then again I'm not the kind of person who needs a public execution to placate me. Now you've taken all the fun out of it.