Just to not start an overreaction, I know this is part of the CFL.  We had a big road win last week and unfortunately after so many games when things go right, you often have one that goes wrong, and such was tonight.

 

But having said that, RichiHall's chickens have come home to roost again.  This D has to be able to step up and get turnovers at some point, and his refusal to call blitzes is preventing them from doing that.  And Ryan Lankford ... I don't have any issues with him returning kicks, but his play as a wideout has been awful.  Killing our offense when he's in there.  Dom Davis sure didn't tear it up but our guys were making his numbers worse with the drops.

 

I think we can still get home field for the WSF, but it doesn't look like we're ready to knock off Calgary yet.

Edited November 13, 20178 yr by USABomberfan

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Yeah. Freaking out.. For sure. 

Im definitely Not the one freaking out.. 

I find it ironic that someone says im freaking out in a topic where the title of said topic is longer than any response to it so far. 

Edit

Edited October 7, 20178 yr by SpeedFlex27

1 hour ago, The Unknown Poster said:

The bigger question is, if we accept Hall is done after this, a successful season, what possessed MOS to keep him after last season?  Hall is exactly what you expect from him. 

Davis looked like nothing tonight.  How many years as he been here?

I was thinking the same thing about Hall. What has he done to justify still being employed at the end of this season? LaPo OTOH has built a great offense & resurrected Matt Nicholls career. He has done a great job even with his quirky playcalling at times like not using Harris last night for some inexplicable reason. Hall not so much. 

I want Hall gone as much as anyone but this team historically has not made coaching changes after "successful" seasons even if it could and should be reasonably argued that the Bombers are winning in spite of Hall. 

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

We all know that tho. I just dont really see the need to mention it after every loss. 

See now, that's the great thing about this place. We can say or discuss whatever we want, even if some don't like it. 

I am not convinced that we can blame Hall for the quality and ability of his LB corp. Hurl isn't a front line guy.....

It was just a bad game in which we saw our starting QB go down half way through (at the time 6 points down) throw it out with the thrash and move on. 1 loss ain't the end of the world and deserving of anyone being fired. 

IMO it just showed us exactly what happens if we lose Nichols for any significant time and it ain't good.  Our D stopped the Ticats several times in a row on 2 and outs and our offense just gave the ball back going 2 and out too. I'm sure by the 4th our D was tired AF. Again erase this game from the memory banks and move forward. It is what it is. Still 10-4.

 

9 hours ago, tracker said:

There were a few blitzes by the Bombers, but they were ineffective. Hurl would charge at the opposing lineman, take two steps and halt to watch the play move away from him.

At this point, it  looks to me like Hurl is just much too slow to play linebacker in the CFL. 

 He brings all the disadavantages of a big, slow, 240 lb linebacker, and none of the advantages.  he's easily blocked, and not a hard hitter.

It looked like they had three different players at the position, Hurl, Knox, and Briggs . 

Defence might be better when they have this fixed.

 

Edited October 7, 20178 yr by Mark F

I saw Knox on the field a bit, but was he subbing out Hurl? I thought I noticed them on the field together a lot. I noticed Briggs in on passing downs while Hurl was out.

Both were equally useless.

7 hours ago, AKAChip said:

Even if one would argue that Lankford has value as a kick returner (I disagree), we don't even take the kickoff after field goals so he is essentially without a role. 

We don't even take the 2nd half kickoff when we are losing and the other teams kicker is hurt despite only stopping them on one possession in the first half.    

46 minutes ago, WildPath said:

I saw Knox on the field a bit, but was he subbing out Hurl? I thought I noticed them on the field together a lot. I noticed Briggs in on passing downs while Hurl was out.

I don't know.

your probably right. 

 

I'm intrigued that nobody else has jumped on the fact that it was mentioned on the pre-game show that O'Shea didn't even tell his team to not underestimate the Ti-cats. He believes that as professionals, they should know better than to do that. Obviously they should've been told something, thankfully one game does not make a season.

Regarding Hall - even if we won a Grey Cup, I'd still be getting rid of him in the off-season. If that happens it'll be because of our offense and special teams, not our defense.

 

Quote

 

Blue Bomber Talk @BlueBomberTalk

Have to say, while I've always been against firing coordinators midseason, Phil Lolley has done wonders with the #Ticats defence. #CFL

 

Looks like the media is starting to turn on Hall.

 

 

11 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

his refusal to call blitzes is preventing them from doing that.

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

11 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

his refusal to call blitzes is preventing them from doing that.

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

11 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

his refusal to call blitzes is preventing them from doing that.

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

11 hours ago, USABomberfan said:

his refusal to call blitzes is preventing them from doing that.

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

2 hours ago, Mark F said:

At this point, it  looks to me like Hurl is just much too slow to play linebacker in the CFL. 

 He brings all the disadavantages of a big, slow, 240 lb linebacker, and none of the advantages.  he's easily blocked, and not a hard hitter.

It looked like they had three different players at the position, Hurl, Knox, and Briggs . 

Defence might be better when they have this fixed.

 

Totally agree...ever notice that at the end of most plays he is the one still standing? Ever notice that he always seems to go the wrong way as a first instinct? Can't believe Richie Hall can't see these things. He so slow it is pathetic...but seems to be the golden boy with the coaches.

Edited October 7, 20178 yr by blitzmore

The 2 biggest defensive problems in my opinion are  their refusal/stubbornness to play more man coverage and Sam Hurl. IMO we have the talent to play much more can coverage as opposed to the soft ass zone that teams shred up and down the field. And Hurl is just a slug. The guy looks like he's running in quicksand out there. Not to mention his lack of tackle finish and utter uselessness in anything resembling pass coverage over the middle. For a guy thats like 240 lbs its alarming how many times QB's and RB's break away from his tackles even when he's got 2 arms wrapped around them.

Another issue is the blind loyalty MOS has for these guys. When Bear Woods became available im sure Walters and MOS talked about it and i'd put money down that MOS kiboshed it. I dont know how the guy can say "were happy with Sam Hurl" over and over again with a straight face. And stop feeding us b.s. about how the scheme of their defense doesnt allow for the MLB to put up stats. Give me a f'ing break. Have they invented a new type of defense that eliminates MLB usefulness??? The MLB on every team, in every league, on every planet is a tackle machine/stat machine. They are the QB of the D. Canadian or not he is a major weak link. Can you imagine this team with Bear Woods in the middle. It makes me sad to think. His position is too important to let a slug like that man it. Find a better player regardless of passport and make adjustments elsewhere. You have the flexibility.

A starting calibre MLB would be great.

The play-calling on both sides of the ball was bewildering last night.

I just can't understand how a team can play so well on the road one week, and then completely **** the bed a week later at home. I don't get it.

Keep in mind HAMs new offense gives you a lot of looks and adds new ones every weèk none of which wPG has seen

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

5 minutes ago, Zontar said:

Keep in mind HAMs new offense gives you a lot of looks and adds new ones every weèk none of which wPG has seen

Plus, I'm not sure we are going to win out this year. I hated watching that game last night on all sides of the ball BUT after a good nights sleep we are still 10 and 4. 

As I said this wasn't going to be a cakewalk if Hamilton plays tough and they did. It wasn't just bad execution on our part (e.g., horrendous tackling), they are playing at a different level now since the coaching change.

Time to regroup. I'll be worried if we lose out the rest of our games. I don't see that happening.

p.s watching Hurl with blockers was like watching magnets stick together, geez.

23 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Find a better player regardless of passport and make adjustments elsewhere

And they are not standing still as far as bringing players in goes. They just signed 6 guys.

 

2 minutes ago, Brandon said:

The D was soft, but they blitzed. Hell on the first Banks TD Heath was in on a blitz. The big issue was soft coverage plus not getting to masoli with the pressure.

The LB's they are currently playing are not good at blitzing, although Santos-Knox has potential.  Both Wild and Bass were very effective at blitzing and often converged on the QB.