WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (1-1) at HAMILTON TIGER-CATS (1-1)

Kickoff: 6 p.m. CT Friday; Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton
TV: TSN, RDS, ESPN2
Radio: CJOB
Vegas line: The Ticats are favoured by 4 1/2 points.

 

Coming off a shellacking of the lowly Als, the Bombers face a tough test against the very potent offence of June Jones piloted by the OG J.M. and a defensive scheme drawn up by Jerry Glanville, overseen by Orlondo Steinauer.  

How will Hall's defense fare? More Mtl and less Eskies, or more of what we've seen these past few years? 

Are Coach Lapo and "The Strevelation"  going to continue their stellar progression or will we see things come back to Earth? What ever the outcome- this promises to be a great game! 

 

 

 

 

GO BLUE!!

 

 

Edited June 29, 20187 yr by wanna-b-fanboy

1 minute ago, DR. CFL said:

One first down in the 3rd quarter isn’t the defences fault. #16 bites and gets beat like a drum....Hall’s fault?, #16 ducks his head and closes his eyes and gets hurdled over...Hall’s fault.....the corner bites and gets lit up....Hall’s fault?   Hamilton plays max pro and the stats says he has a 129 efficiency rating.  Hamilton looks pretty good....Teams have had a chance to see the rookie QB and watch tape on him so they are starting to know him. It’s a complicated game and a long season.

Ya someone has to talk about Loffler.  6 tackles in 3 games for a safety.  Just a total non-factor and not because his coverage is top notch.  He's not playing well and hasn't been for a very long time.

17 minutes ago, bustamente said:

If the d can't make stops you wont win the game doesn't matter who the qb is.

False and has been proven false year after year. Having said that Hall's D is beyond garbage and at this point cannot be ignored or overcome.

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Bubba Zanetti

Just now, JuranBoldenRules said:

Ya someone has to talk about Loffler.  6 tackles in 3 games for a safety.  Just a total non-factor and not because his coverage is top notch.  He's not playing well and hasn't been for a very long time.

Agreed. He got talked up because of his big hits as a rookie. He does nothing particularly well including coverage and tackling which is a problem for a safety.

1 minute ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

Agreed. He got talked up because of his big hits as a rookie. He does nothing particularly well including coverage and tackling which is a problem for a safety.

I believe that Jones is a better coverage safety than loffler. Just not as good at tackling or hitting.

7 minutes ago, DR. CFL said:

One first down in the 3rd quarter isn’t the defences fault. #16 bites and gets beat like a drum....Hall’s fault?, #16 ducks his head and closes his eyes and gets hurdled over...Hall’s fault.....the corner bites and gets lit up....Hall’s fault?   Hamilton plays max pro and the stats says he has a 129 efficiency rating.  Hamilton looks pretty good....Teams have had a chance to see the rookie QB and watch tape on him so they are starting to know him. It’s a complicated game and a long season.

Yes on all counts

Give Loffler a shot to play closer to the ball at WIL and if he struggles there then you have a role player.  He's shown no ability in the last 2 seasons to cover downfield in cover 0 (burned to a crisp so far this season here) and cover enough ground to be a factor other than making tackles 25 yards downfield in cover 1 and cover 2.

The offence has a ready made excuse with Nichols out, Streveler is going to struggle it's inevitable. But that defence, my god what is it gonna take to see that Hall is a clueless putz? 

They've  changed a lot of players, and a lot of coaches on defence over the last four years.

Doesn't seem to matter what they do, the defence is not very good.

Brought in Adam Bighill. Defence is still not very good.

I doubt that changing Loffler would make much difference. Something else would screw up.

Watching Hamilton throw the same plays over and over and over again, and nothing done to stop it, is  bad. 

Pretty easy win for Hamilton.

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Mark F

We never did anything to force the Cats to change up at all on O.   No disguise on blitz packages at all, huge cushions for the Hamilton receives all nite, especially on the wide side throws.  Easy peasy for Hamilton coaches tonight...after all, why would we want to change up anything...,.

Its asking an awful lot of the rookie QB to have to put up 40 points a game to win. The D needed to step up with Nichols hurt.. In 2 of 3 games they haven't

Maybe Sam Hurl wasnt the problem. Hall has Bighill doing the same thing. 

I don't think I've been as anti-Hall as some other posters, but this game I was all over him. How embarrassing was it to watch Masoli just play pitch and catch over and over again? Receivers running literally wide open constantly.  We kept blitzing constantly too with no success, so we couldn't get to the QB or stop the QB. 

We have changed the players and I truly believe in most of the defensive unit. There are good and great players on that defense, and we are not using them correctly. 

Move Loffler to WIL, move Leggett to safety and swap Fogg and Alexander back to CB and HB.

Overall, just a poor game from pretty much everyone. LaPolice couldn't get the offensive gameplan in sync, Hall's failures obviously noted above. But O'Shea too had some big mistakes. I thought on the late fourth quarter Streveler first down run he should have challenged for a hit to the head - the ref had thrown a flag for holding and that was a huge momentum killer. Went from 1st down near the red zone to 2nd and 20. Streveler took a couple late shots in my opinion. CFL refs suck and the sky is blue.

Even TSN had an atrocious night. Live mic stuff remains mostly useless. I do love how they constantly apologized for all the F-bombs, as if they didn't expect that that would happen. The camera guy was lost on a bunch of plays in the first quarter too. Black and Forde basically didn't comment on the game at all, opting just to point out how cool live mics really are. 

24 minutes ago, Captain Blue said:

F-bombs

yeah you hear versions of that all the time now on the radio.

Not sure why, it adds nothing.

 

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Mark F

Gotta give Hamilton some credit, I think they are one of the top teams in the league this year.

We all know Hall's D is just awful, nothing else to add there...

Lapo called a terrible game. As he does so often, he out coached himself. Probably could have used more Harris early on in the game.

Streveler has some tools, and has looked like our best backup in a long time, but he still has a long way to go. I hate the live mic crap, but the one thing that caught my attention was the difference between Streveler and Masoli. Streveler was just calling the plays, but Masoli was talking to the guys about what was going on and if a play was setup. That comes with experience.

Oh and one more thing... Hall's D is terrible...

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Dr. Blue

I'll be very disappointed if Hall isn't fired by monday

42 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Maybe Sam Hurl wasnt the problem. Hall has Bighill doing the same thing. 

I was gonna ask if that was what happening......

18 minutes ago, Gotmilt said:

I'll be very disappointed if Hall isn't fired by monday

Prepare to be disappointed. 

1 minute ago, Mr. Perfect said:

Prepare to be disappointed. 

I'm used to it, maybe he can take O'shea with him.

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Gotmilt

1 hour ago, Gotmilt said:

I'll be very disappointed if Hall isn't fired by monday

Well, we can only hope someone on the Board of Directors brings it up that Richie Hall is a liar and a thief.  A liar because he always claims the defense is fixed when it's not, and a thief because he's stealing money from our club.

4 hours ago, Gotmilt said:

I'll be very disappointed if Hall isn't fired by Monday

Prepare to be disappointed. 

When you have Front Four that can't pressure & a secondary that lets receivers catch everything in front of them because the DC is scared the Hamilton receivers will get behind them this is what you get. We all knew Hall's defense would suck but MOS refused to make a change.  We are as bad vs the pass as we were last season. We can't stop anyone thru the air. Versus the run for every good stop we had last night we'd let the Ti Cats rip off a 10 or 20 yard gain. Mercer fricking Timmis??? Are you kidding me??? Then that other Ti Cat back with a last name of a first & last name??? He was ripping off chunks of yardage against us... Nothing has changed defensively from last season. Nothing will change until Ritchie Hall is shown the door.

I don't blame Streveler for this loss at all. The kid will struggle as that's part of his steep learning curve. Every start gives him real time experience that will help him down the road to be a damned fine CFL qb.  He has heart & is becoming a leader. He needs experience to improve & he's getting it under fire. Once Nichols get back watch how Darvin Adams & Adarius Bowman get used.  We'll be a lot better vertical team.  Nichols will use everyone & spread the ball around. But that defense... We'll never win with that defense... Hall has got to go. 

CFL stats Bombers defence rank 2014 /2018, since O'Shea became head coach.

Points  /    yards

2014   9th  / 9th

2015   8th  / 8th

2016   3d  /   9th

2017   5th  /  8th

2018   4th  /  4 th

Please correct if I'm getting this wrong. got it from 

http://cflstats.ca/team/WPG

I guess 2016 was the year of the d big plays. Overall..... not impressive.

four complete seasons and three games of the fifth has shown little to no improvement.

Ed Tait's 2017 post season article about the defence is good

https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/12/27/year-review-5-defence-microscope/

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Mark F

2nd last or dead last every ****ing year in yards given up in 4 straight seasons coming into 2018 and it aint looking any better this year. Unreal. I swear Hall must have pictures of MOS and Walters tag-teaming a goat. No other possible explanation for this ineptitude to continue without any consequences. Nowhere else would this be tolerated nor should it be except here for some reason year after year. Just another season of MOS ho-humming with the usual "I thought they played hard", or "He's doing what were asking him to do"; or "Our guys had good coverage, they just made plays", or "Thats a real good QB over there", or "Ive got to have them better prepared next time". Stop me if you've heard these before. When will the excuses and insanity stop???

Edited June 30, 20187 yr by Bubba Zanetti

11 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Ya someone has to talk about Loffler.  6 tackles in 3 games for a safety.  Just a total non-factor and not because his coverage is top notch.  He's not playing well and hasn't been for a very long time.

Someone also needs to talk to Loffler.

Loffler's mindset is look/play for the kill shot when form tackles would be more effective. I believe his current mindset is negatively influencing all other facets of his game he is responsible for other than crushing people.

E.g., The Tabbie RB made him look foolish and picked up an extra 7 yards because of it. Loffler is going away from his fundamentals and its killing him.

I was pretty disappointed with the play of Dressler and Leggett.