I think we have finally got it together:

QBing is more than adequate and we have double bench strength ... no QB plays 21 games injury free .... most are good doing 16 games healthy

Running Backs - as good as we have had since superstar Charles Roberts

Receivers - good enough if not slightly better than average ... steady not brilliant

Blocking back /tight end / Canadian receiver - unnoticeable but ok

O-Line - the best I can remember ands THAT IS EVERYTHING

Defensive backs - upgraded from last year ... ball hawks

Linebackers - outside fits in with our DBs real nice but we don't scare anyone with our RUN defense .... its our first major problem to solve

DLine - I am expecting a genuine pass rush & real pressure compared to last year ... I don't have a clue about their skill as run stoppers

Special teams - Medlock says it all on the kicking side; returning is a notch down from last year but still OK .... our nemesis is undue penalties away from the play

Coaching - MOS has everyone's respect and that counts for huge ... still has stubborn streak blind spots that will cost us but hopefully not at the worst possible times .... losing Wylie hurts but lets hope his legacy will carry the day

Coordinators - Conservative by choice ... we may finally have the talent to fit that .... we are the turnover ratio experts and that should be better not worse this year

 

2 hours ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Hurl might have a good matchup against Cam Marshall. I dont think he is an elite RB.

Marshal is a good running back, the Bombers didn't cut him, he left for the NFL.

10 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

Marshal is a good running back, the Bombers didn't cut him, he left for the NFL.

I didnt say anywhere that Marshall is a bad RB. But you cant belong him to the group of Messam, Harris & White. At least not yet. Will he come to that level, I guess we will find out.

Also I didnt said he was cut by the Bombers.

I think the bombers Dline is set up perfectly to stuff Marshall. He's not that great outside the tackles, his bread and butter is up the middle and making the big guys miss. Saying that, I was a big fan of his while here and thought he should have gotten more of a chance. He moves his feet well and can run people over. Not so sure he can flat out run by defenders but he can get the job done between the guards. Which is unfortunate for him coming up against Nevis and Poop.

14 hours ago, Goalie said:

I think you are looking to far in to the quote.. Obviously plan A is stop them from making a play but in football... The other team sometimes makes plays.. No team goes 2 and out with zero yards all game. 

ya, exactly.  I think this quote is more so in reference to all the people who keep saying "its not going to happen, they can't duplicate their turnover success.. " as opposed to saying that is what their primary focus is. 

 

obviously the primary focus is to force 2 and outs, stop the run and minimize any completed passes.. pressure will cause the mistakes that lead to turnovers. 

2 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

I think the bombers Dline is set up perfectly to stuff Marshall. He's not that great outside the tackles, his bread and butter is up the middle and making the big guys miss. Saying that, I was a big fan of his while here and thought he should have gotten more of a chance. He moves his feet well and can run people over. Not so sure he can flat out run by defenders but he can get the job done between the guards. Which is unfortunate for him coming up against Nevis and Poop.

He (Marshall) was criminally under used as a receiver while he was here in Winnipeg and I think that's an area SSK can exploit.  Until we consistently demonstrate that it's tough sledding against us on the ground,  I won't have a lot of faith in our ability to stop the run. We have the talent to do it but are players being put in a position to be successful .. can they execute.  

Well, I had a dream last night we beat them 40-1... sooo

19 minutes ago, CodyT said:

Well, I had a dream last night we beat them 40-1... sooo

Did you wake up before the end of the first half or something?

 

14 minutes ago, Mr Dee said:

 

this makes me excite.  hopefully he can heal up and push to bump lankford off the roster..

Pretty sure that is the option the team would look to

Now these predictions make more sense. From 3downnation:

Winnipeg (0-0) at Saskatchewan (0-1)
Saturday, July 1, 9 p.m. EST 

Quarterback Matt Nichols leads Winnipeg into its season opener. The six-foot-two, 220-pound Nichols threw for a career-best 3,666 yards with 18 TDs against nine interceptions in leading the Bombers to an 11-7 record last year and their first playoff berth since 2011. Trouble is, much is expected from Nichols and Co. this season. Saskatchewan is coming off a close loss to Montreal, a game that saw veteran Kevin Glenn complete 31-of-44 passes for 298 yards with a TD and interception.

Dunk: New Mosaic will be electric – all the pressure is on the Riders. BOMBERS
Hodge: New building or not, the Riders’ roster has too many holes. BOMBERS
Gasson: Riders want to set the tone in their new home. RIDERS.
Edwards:  The Riders will be fired up for this one. Is that a good thing? BOMBERS
Smith: If Saskatchewan only wins one game all year, it will be this one. RIDERS
Filoso: Winnipeg spoils Mosaic’s grand opening BOMBERS
Busby: Bombers are heading into a hornet’s nest. RIDERS
Totals: Bombers 4 Riders 3

Our defense has to come & play hard or we lose. Hurl better play well & not be a liability out there like he was in 2015.

 

Edited June 29, 20178 yr by SpeedFlex27

Riders are going to come out flying.  If we can keep it close going into halftime we win the game.

Either way I expect a very close game that will come down to the final drive.

Thinking about Saturday, Jones is going to go crazy with the amount of pomp and circumstance around the new stadium opening. It drives him crazy to have his team out there for the national anthem, never mind a whole ceremony.

I bet his anxiety rubs off on his team and they come out flat and distracted.

11 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Riders are going to come out flying.  If we can keep it close going into halftime we win the game.

Either way I expect a very close game that will come down to the final drive.

1

Said no one about a Glenn lead offence in the past five years...

17 minutes ago, Mr Dee said:

Now these predictions make more sense. From 3downnation:

Winnipeg (0-0) at Saskatchewan (0-1)
Saturday, July 1, 9 p.m. EST 

Quarterback Matt Nichols leads Winnipeg into its season opener. The six-foot-two, 220-pound Nichols threw for a career-best 3,666 yards with 18 TDs against nine interceptions in leading the Bombers to an 11-7 record last year and their first playoff berth since 2011. Trouble is, much is expected from Nichols and Co. this season. Saskatchewan is coming off a close loss to Montreal, a game that saw veteran Kevin Glenn complete 31-of-44 passes for 298 yards with a TD and interception.

Dunk: New Mosaic will be electric – all the pressure is on the Riders. BOMBERS
Hodge: New building or not, the Riders’ roster has too many holes. BOMBERS
Gasson: Riders want to set the tone in their new home. RIDERS.
Edwards:  The Riders will be fired up for this one. Is that a good thing? BOMBERS
Smith: If Saskatchewan only wins one game all year, it will be this one. RIDERS
Filoso: Winnipeg spoils Mosaic’s grand opening BOMBERS
Busby: Bombers are heading into a hornet’s nest. RIDERS
Totals: Bombers 4 Riders 3

So.... we now know that at least three of these are deep into their cups.

1 minute ago, tracker said:

So.... we now know that at least three of these are deep into their cups.

Gasson for sure is a rider homer.  Busby is from sask so likely similar to Gasson. Not sure who Smith is tho

23 minutes ago, Mr Dee said:

Now these predictions make more sense. From 3downnation:

Winnipeg (0-0) at Saskatchewan (0-1)
Saturday, July 1, 9 p.m. EST 

Quarterback Matt Nichols leads Winnipeg into its season opener. The six-foot-two, 220-pound Nichols threw for a career-best 3,666 yards with 18 TDs against nine interceptions in leading the Bombers to an 11-7 record last year and their first playoff berth since 2011. Trouble is, much is expected from Nichols and Co. this season. Saskatchewan is coming off a close loss to Montreal, a game that saw veteran Kevin Glenn complete 31-of-44 passes for 298 yards with a TD and interception.

Dunk: New Mosaic will be electric – all the pressure is on the Riders. BOMBERS
Hodge: New building or not, the Riders’ roster has too many holes. BOMBERS
Gasson: Riders want to set the tone in their new home. RIDERS.
Edwards:  The Riders will be fired up for this one. Is that a good thing? BOMBERS
Smith: If Saskatchewan only wins one game all year, it will be this one. RIDERS
Filoso: Winnipeg spoils Mosaic’s grand opening BOMBERS
Busby: Bombers are heading into a hornet’s nest. RIDERS
Totals: Bombers 4 Riders 3

All the Rider picks are emotional, not based on the on-field product.

12 minutes ago, Taynted_Fayth said:

Gasson for sure is a rider homer.  Busby is from sask so likely similar to Gasson. Not sure who Smith is tho

I think Smith is a Hamilton guy...

13 minutes ago, JCon said:

All the Rider picks are emotional, not based on the on-field product.

Exactly, they're betting on the emotion of a new stadium/crowd factor.

We saw ourselves how that worked out.

3 minutes ago, Jesse said:

Exactly, they're betting on the emotion of a new stadium/crowd factor.

We saw ourselves how that worked out.

Actually, I do recall that game... a 38-33* loss to an average Montreal team.... but overall a pretty good performance from what turned out to be a terrible team...

 

*yes, I had to look up the score... my memory isn't that good...

Edited June 29, 20178 yr by bearpants

17 hours ago, Old Bomber Fan said:

When are the plans for the Grey Cup parade being announced....wholly cow guys aren't we being a bit optimistic? I realize we all have eyes on the Blue and Gold but to think that the other teams in the league have just stood pat and done nothing is not a good thing. Yes we may have improved; yes we have a solid OL; yes we have two very good running back and yes we some good QBs. I personally believe until proven otherwise that is where our improvements end. We had Loffler middle to end of last year; we had Heath middle to end of last year; we had Legget pretty much all year and we had Hurl at middle LB flanked by Wild and Legget. Our DL was supposed to be good as is this one but what happened, a huge pile of yards against.....we couldn't stop a pop warner football team when it really counted....the end of the game with a slim lead.

Now I'm not being a naysayer simply that don't get your hopes too high. Review the yardage given up during the exhibition games. While I do understand it was exhibition, our number 1 defense was playing the first half of the last game and look what happened. It was only when the second and third string players got on the field that we started to hold them off until.....you guessed it the end of the game and we couldn't stop anything.

So in a nutshell, while we can all be optimistic, I would caution about too much optimism. Overlook Sask, and I'm not a sask fan, and we will be hanging our heads guaranteed. Remember OShea painted the same picture last year;  such an improvement on D and we had Willie and a great OC. Look where that got us until he finally heard the fans, or at least someone in the Bomber organization heard them and then and only then did we seem to make forward progress. Let's all hope that continues this season but at the same time let's not look at it with rose coloured glasses.

Go Bombers Go

....... But you are........

I agree with you for the most part, and I'm sure every single one of us is ready for disappointment being bomber fans but why in the world would we be negative on these boards every day? There is literally no point and takes way more energy to be pessimistic about every scenario.

If you want an unbiased opinion go read riderfans, they're the cream of the crop.

Edited June 29, 20178 yr by Gotmilt

Gotta think that for a team that showed to have some discipline problems in week one that maybe such an intense atmosphere is going to be a bad thing for the Riders. They took a pile of penalties trying to show Durant up, now the pressure gets cranked up a notch because they lost a game already and they got the weight of expectations from their fans. Perfect game for Nichols and co. to come out and punch them right in the face early. 

37 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Gotta think that for a team that showed to have some discipline problems in week one that maybe such an intense atmosphere is going to be a bad thing for the Riders. They took a pile of penalties trying to show Durant up, now the pressure gets cranked up a notch because they lost a game already and they got the weight of expectations from their fans. Perfect game for Nichols and co. to come out and punch them right in the face early. 

Or in the jejunum... That would be good too.

 

All the predictions for Sask to win seem more based on their new stadium than their team. Stadiums don't score touchdowns people....