TrueBlue4ever

Teams have likely figured out how to play Streveler. Spy him so he can’t run wild, contain the pocket so he can’t scramble out, and force him to beat you with the pass. And early, too slow in making decisions and getting dropped. Trying to adjust with simple short passes, but the blocking is failing. Would like to see a called Streveler run outside to settle him down and keep the pass rush honest

Now if he could just learn to block.

By that measuring stick, Sean Salisbury was a better Bomber QB than all of Khari, Dunigan, and Brock, right?

No anointing. Nichols earned the starting spot with his record, and nothing Streveler has done as his replacement in the last 5 weeks gives me reason to think Nichols would be unseated if healthy.

Those “facts” aren’t facts, just opinions.

He's already setting himself up for that, throwing out suggestions for Trump to follow in the media. https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/27/politics/giuliani-testimony-protected-interview/index.html The most disgusting part of Guliani's statement is his open contempt for the process: Asked if he was concerned he would be subpoenaed by the House, Giuliani laughed. "I consider them a joke. A sad joke. They have no legitimacy. I would think of challenging their subpoena on the grounds that they're not a legitimate committee," Giuliani said. These are the duly elected representatives doing the duty the US public put them in office for. So I guess Rudy thinks democracy is a sad joke with no legitimacy. As a lawyer, if he said that about a sitting judge he was in front of, he'd be cited for contempt and held in jail. Pathetic.

My fear is Connor will sign for 4 years at an AAV of $6.75 million, broken down as 6, 6, 6, and 9, then his qualifying offer has to be $10 million in his last RFA year.

You are so wrong. I see a GOD every time I look in the mirror.

More than a few problems with both of those statements. As an OC, his first year in Winnipeg in 2002 his club set 14 offensive club records. His teams have made the playoffs every year he has been an OC in Winnipeg and Sask. Won a Grey Cup in '07 as the Sask. receivers coach. As OC in Sask. got the 'Riders to first place and Darian Durant as an all-star QB. Has had the #1 scoring offence in Winnipeg each year since he came back. I get people don't like his style because we don't put up 50 points or 500 yards offence or 300 yards passing a game, but his winning record speaks for itself. He has the best running back by far (and maybe the best dual threat pass catching and running RB in league history) in the CFL right now, and he rightfully devises a game plan around that weapon, and critics here whine that he is holding back a stud receiver like Wolitarsky or Petermann who should be a 1,500 yard guy but for his handcuffs (based on what prior evidence, I ask?). He runs a ball control, time of possession, low mistake offence, and it gets us wins. He tailored it to a cerebral QB in Matt Nichols who could take a ball control low mistake offence and run it well. Now, he has a more aggressive runs-better-than-he-passes green QB and has suited the offence to those strengths with a more run/pass option-style game. Pretty astute and talented, I'd say. Why can't people be happy with that? Because we haven't won a Grey Cup with Calgary in our way the last 5 years? I've lived through the brutal 1970's teams, Reinbold, Daley, and Mack, and I'll take this level of success over those years any time, thank you very much. So not sorry if I come across as condescending, but this constant LaPo bashing which is based on the "feeling" that he is boring and conservative and not aggressive, and disregards objective measures like offensive point totals and most importantly win/loss record and discount them as meaningless because it doesn't fit the agenda that "he is a failure because I don't want him here" gets me fed up. As for his head coaching, first year as a rookie head coach he went through 4 QBs due to injury. He acknowledged after that year his failings as a head coach the year before by saying he micromanaged and didn't put enough trust in his assistants to game plan, and was not tuned in enough to the game day situational stuff going on, and learned from it and got better. Better enough to go to the Grey Cup in year 2. Year 3 was more QB injuries, and a knife in the back from Joe Mack at the first moment things got tough (You can agree of disagree with my take, but I will always put the blame largely on Mack for the failings of those teams, and I will pull objective evidence to support my subjective stance if need be). And so he failed once, lots of coaches do and get better. Ron Lancaster was 4-28 as a head coach in Saskatchewan, took a decade off, and returned to win 2 Grey Cups with Edmonton and Hamilton. And guess which head coach was fired after seasons of 6-10, 7-9, 7-9, 11-5, and 5-11 in his first go-round? HINT: he coaches Tom Brady now.

You know, we have never lost a game wearing those jerseys. A lot of respect and goodwill, maybe, but never a game.

Update after week 15: WEST Winnipeg - Have clinched 4th place in the division and crossover playoff spot. Will clinch west playoff spot with wins and Edmonton losses totalling 2. Will clinch home playoff game with wins and either Calgary OR Saskatchewan losses totalling 6, will clinch west final home game with wins and Calgary AND Saskatchewan losses each totalling 6. Calgary - Have clinched 4th place in the division and crossover playoff spot. Will clinch west playoff spot with wins and Edmonton losses totalling 2. Will clinch home playoff game with wins and either Calgary OR Winnipeg losses totalling 6, will clinch west final home game with wins and Calgary AND Winnipeg losses each totalling 6. Saskatchewan - Have clinched 4th place in the division. Will clinch crossover playoff spot with a win OR an Ottawa loss. Will clinch west playoff spot with wins and Edmonton losses totalling 3 (if they win season series). Will clinch home playoff game with wins and Calgary losses totalling 6 (if Saskatchewan beats them by 28 or more points in their remaining game), will clinch west final home game with wins and Winnipeg losses totalling 6 (if they beat Winnipeg in their remaining game). Edmonton - Will clinch crossover playoff spot with wins and Ottawa losses totalling 3. Will clinch west playoff spot with wins and Saskatchewan losses totalling 8 (if they win season series) OR wins and Calgary losses totalling 9. Will clinch home game with wins and Saskatchewan AND Calgary losses totalling 9, will clinch west final home game with wins and Saskatchewan AND Calgary AND Winnipeg losses totalling 9. BC - Can finish no better than 4th in the West. Eliminated from playoffs with losses and Edmonton wins totalling 2, OR losses and Ottawa wins totalling 5. EAST Hamilton - Have clinched 2nd place in the division and a home playoff game. Will clinch east final home game with wins and Montreal losses totalling 4. Montreal - Will clinch a home playoff game with wins and Ottawa AND Toronto losses totalling 2. Will clinch east final home game with wins and Hamilton losses totalling 8 (if they beat Hamilton in their remaining game). Ottawa - Can finish no better than 2nd in the East. Eliminated from home playoff game with losses and Montreal wins totalling 2. Eliminated from playoffs with losses and Edmonton wins totalling 3. Toronto - Can finish no better than 2nd in the east. Eliminated from home playoff game with losses and Montreal wins totalling 2. Eliminated from playoffs with losses and Edmonton wins totalling 3. CLINCHING/ELIMINATION SCENARIOS THIS WEEK: Winnipeg clinches a Western playoff spot with a win at home against Hamilton AND an Edmonton loss in Ottawa. Saskatchewan clinches a crossover playoff spot with a win in Toronto OR an Ottawa loss at home to Edmonton. BC eliminated from playoffs with a loss at home to Montreal AND an Edmonton win in Ottawa. Montreal clinches 2nd in the East and a home playoff game with a win in BC AND an Ottawa loss at home to Edmonton AND a Toronto loss at home to Saskatchewan.

5 (6 counting this year).

Hope Streveler can stay healthy. Took a hit that likely should have been concussion protocol in Edmonton, took a blindside sack in Sask., and the 1290TSN crew said he looked like he was suffering after a hit in Montreal. Dude is tough no doubt, but a little self-preservation may not be a bad idea. We don't need him to turn into another Dunigan glass QB here with a linebacker mentality.

Shh, don't give Trump ideas. Next thing we'll see is an executive order removing two-term limits on Presidents signed by Donny on camera, after which he gives a shiny pen to Rudy Guliani.

#4 is to me the most compelling part of this. All the other stuff was already leaked, just not in full detail. And to acknowledge a cover-up because of the damage politically that could be done if it got out? Yikes. The public may not want to wade through 400 page Mueller reports or understand the nuance of pressure being brought to get dirt on a rival and if that is an abuse of power, but they get cover-ups. The lasting damage to Nixon in the public eye was not the break-in but the erased/missing phone calls. "What was in those missing minutes? Must've been fatal to him or he wouldn't have buried it".

You know me. All about the stats, so evidence-based results. Plus, it would force some to put their money where their opinions are and bet with their heads, not their pre-conceived biases. It would be funny to see a LaPo offence get 45 fantasy points compared to BC's 15 point fantasy output, and yet be ripped as constricting, conservative, and a constant failure.

Me too. Especially that stat about 9 wins and first place in the division. Unless you'd rather have Edmonton's dominant offence and defence and their 6-7 record.

Like by throwing a pick in the last minute of the half that leads to a TD?

If you want a thread to be popular around here, you need to make it negative to stir up the debate and finger-pointing. Maybe we should make a fantasy league where you pick the worst performers of the week at each position, and include coaches and co-ordinators whose schemes are doomed to failure. Lowest point totals win.

Right now I'd say our secondary is consistently our biggest problem.

And when we needed a convert to avoid a one point loss, Medlock did not come through. So in that one particular scenario, his previous 100% conversion rate meant nothing too, I guess. If you want to cherry-pick an exact scenario to counter the overall trend, you are going to find a way to do that and scapegoat someone. When we needed Harris not to fumble on the 5 yard line in Toronto and get us up 27-0, he did not come through. When we needed Streveler to protect the ball in the last minute of the half and not give the Als any momentum down by 24, he gets baited and throws a pick. When we needed our defence to come up with one single stop, we gave up a late long TD drive to lose the game on 3 separate occasions. When we needed to play a simple prevent with a minute left, our secondary blows a coverage and gives up a 60 yard bomb. The list goes on and on. The problem I have is the absolutism of posters that "LaPo ALWAYS does this" or "he has always held back our players" when overall, this offence is a more well-oiled machine than pretty much all of the other teams over the long haul. The objective numbers and the team's record supports that this team is a lot more successful than not, but I know people on both sides will see what they want to see to justify their own biased opinion. I just try to offer some objective data to bolster my position that it isn't only LaPo's schemes that cost us that game, and maybe had something to do with execution or personnel mistakes as well. If my interpretations of raw data are wrong, tell me how they are wrong, don't just offer up the "well you can interpret stats many ways so I reject them without any counteranalysis and will just revert to my entrenched position that he is the reason we lost and will always lose, and nothing else" which was the dominant talking point after the loss. We will agree to disagree.

Bombers are the #1 scoring team on defence / special teams with 52 points, since you asked. They are also #2 in scoring offence, pass efficiency rating, trips to the red zone, time of possession, “big plays”, and passing TDS, and #1 in rushing yards and average, overall offensive TDS, red zone TD percentage, and 2nd down conversion rates. Don’t kid yourself that this is smoke and mirrors propped up by our defence and special teams

And on cue, I must again segue into this. Never gets old.

I was wondering how much of your opinion was shaped by the years that Jamie Barrisi was the OC, Buck Pierce was injured more often than not and we had the likes of Jyles, Goltz, Elliot, and Brink at the controls of the offense. And yeah, that D of Brown, Willis, Hunt and Turner Jr. on the D line, Lobendahn ,Bowman and Muamba at linebacker, and Hefney, Johnson, Suber, Stewart and Washington was going to outshine the offence. And of course, since you long staked your credibility on this site defending Joe Mack and sought to justify his record by highlighting the failings of others and minimizing his errors, I can see why you would look to LaPo for any shortcomings on those teams. Take another look at his work as an OC now. I'm not saying he is blameless for any deficiencies in the offence, but he is hardly "holding back the players" and "making less with more" like the critics would say ad nauseum. He certainly isn't the only (or in my opinion the main) reason we lost that game in Montreal. This offence is designed around ball control and Andrew Harris as its feature weapon. Given the talent Harris possesses relative to the rest of the league at his position, it seems like a shrewd game plan, and it has been putting up points, winning enough games to have us on top of the division at week 15 (can't say that this late in the season since 2011 when, yes, LaPo was the coach). I shudder to think how some on the board would have reacted to the 1984 Bombers offence, given they employed the same style of game plan to a large extent as this one (Reaves as the feature back, Clements running a methodical game that rarely went over 300 yards passing, and THAT was an offence where it was run on first down, pass on second a lot more than this one). Clements would have been run out of town for the number of slow starts and non-gaudy stats he had in most games.

Two assumptions you make are: (a) that he employs a "try not to lose game plan", and that (b) he always loses doing it. His record as an offensive co-ordinator in the CFL is 87-51-1, so he isn't losing, not by a long shot. His team has led the league in scoring each of the last 3 years. So either his "play not to lose" game plan ISN'T "doing anything but lose", or he ISN'T employing that kind of game plan in the first place. I get that the scoring numbers drop in the second half, I just don't see that it is all on the OC turtling. It is not true that the Bombers MO is simply "run on first, short pass on second" if you actually look at the play calls. And the MO certainly is "protect the football", but that approach is applied all game, not just in the 4th quarter. AND WE ARE LARGELY WINNING WITH THIS PLAN. I did notice this about the playcalling - the tempo certainly changes. I the first half there is a fast pace to the snap of the ball. In the third and fourth quarters, the QB lets the 20 second clock run right down to :01 often - makes sense if you want to eat up the clock, but the defence can anticipate the snap better and the offensive line is not getting the jump on opening the lanes. That up tempo pace that keeps the defence on its heels may be something to consider, but will not chew up clock when time is the opposition's enemy.