We lost the battle of the trenches. We could not put pressure on Masoli and if I am seeing straight, we did not come close to regularly threatening him with a sack ( I think we managed one). When Hammy ran the ball we looked rather porous.  Our vaunted front 7 looked rather "below average" as defences go. On the other side of the ball, we were not giving Streveler that extra second to find a receiver finally shaking coverage. He was under constant pressure that led to 10 straight 2 and outs. Neufeld was not making the same holes that Travis Bond was famous for. We could mount no sustained running attack, even with Andrew Harris busting a gut.

Ritchie's defensive back placement sucked. There is no other word for it. His umbrella, as usual, was too deep and Masoli feasted on multiple open receivers underneath. By way of contrast Hamilton played our receivers quite tight. Streveler did not have time for his receivers to work their way open. Ritchie's bend- don't-break defence was a feast for the Tiger Cats.

Maurice Leggett has no business returning kickoffs, unless we want to be regularly scrimmaging at the 20 yard line instead of the 35 or 40. That experiment has failed and it made a significant difference to field position.

Streveler was "tempered" instead of being allowed to lead. He does not need training wheels. He is an improviser that can make things happen. Instead he was left inside of Lapo's tightly controlled offence. Let the "stars" shine... PLEASE See how he did in the last couple drives (albeit against a prevent defence). I believe he could have done same thing in the 2nd and 3rd quarters.

We can influence Lapo and replace Ritchie. But why we lost the battle of the trenches: I am not sure. Was it scheme? Was it attitude or overconfidence? Was it personnel? Coaching?  I don't have the slightest idea except that I keep hearing how talented we are. That talent didn't show up tonight.

Maybe we came in overconfident and resting on our laurels, not waking up until it was too late.

We are certainly outclassed by Hamilton. I tip my hat to them, but tonight only.
 

When you leave the first 10 yards pretty much open you're gonna see 7 yard passes all the time.

Might be time for Leggett at safety

30 minutes ago, Floyd said:

Might be time for Leggett at safety

I wouldn't be against this

Hamilton sends less receivers out.....so we back off in the secondary, and refuse to even contest ANY of their completions.  Some plan.....

14 minutes ago, do or die said:

Hamilton sends less receivers out.....so we back off in the secondary, and refuse to even contest ANY of their completions.  Some plan.....

Also a bit worrying that none of the players seemed to recognize that it wasn't working and try jumping the patterns. They all seemed to just play the scheme as it was...which I suppose is good in a sense. But when it's not working it'd be nice to have a leader step out of the scheme to try and create something. Maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.

19 hours ago, FrostyWinnipeg said:

When you leave the first 10 yards pretty much open you're gonna see 7 yard passes all the time.

It seemed in some cases there was more than a three yard cushion when they took that seven yard out on the flat. Maddening to watch over and over and over again.

8 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

It seemed in some cases there was more than a three yard cushion when they took that seven yard out on the flat. Maddening to watch over and over and over again.

Yeah the D was starting 10 yards off and dropping deeper then coming up to make the tackle after 8 or 9 yards. Great planning. Should have let Hamitlon keep max protection and only sent the 4 on the DL all night and dropped everyone into coverage, make Masoli thread some passes in rather than the easy pitch and catch all night long. 

People on this website knew that trying to blitz against Hamiltons protection would be useless, why didn't Ritchie Hall?

4 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Yeah the D was starting 10 yards off and dropping deeper then coming up to make the tackle after 8 or 9 yards. Great planning. Should have let Hamitlon keep max protection and only sent the 4 on the DL all night and dropped everyone into coverage, make Masoli thread some passes in rather than the easy pitch and catch all night long. 

People on this website knew that trying to blitz against Hamiltons protection would be useless, why didn't Ritchie Hall?

If we were to go back and check, we would probably find he tried to blitz Calvillo back in the day. 

If MOS doesn't do something with the D, forget Hall, he's going to put his own job in peril.

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

If MOS doesn't do something with the D, forget Hall, he's going to put his own job in peril.

Zero chance of his job in peril if the team is at 500 or better at the end of the year. 

2 hours ago, Brandon said:

Zero chance of his job in peril if the team is at 500 or better at the end of the year. 

I suspect that you are way wrong on this one. The pressure will be on Walters if this team misses the payoffs again, perhaps even if they make the playoffs but fail to advance. There are just too many examples of teams turning around in one or two years, let alone five years. Poop doesn't always roll just downhill. I don't think that Miller will let this sort of thng go on for much longer. If Miller and/or Walters has to deliver an ultimatum to O'Shea about Hall, the gallows is already being built.

3 hours ago, Tracker said:

I suspect that you are way wrong on this one. The pressure will be on Walters if this team misses the payoffs again, perhaps even if they make the playoffs but fail to advance. There are just too many examples of teams turning around in one or two years, let alone five years. Poop doesn't always roll just downhill. I don't think that Miller will let this sort of thng go on for much longer. If Miller and/or Walters has to deliver an ultimatum to O'Shea about Hall, the gallows is already being built.

I think that you are not only wrong, you are very wrong.  Care to enlighten us on how you've come to this opinion, or maybe more to the point, where you pulled this opinion out of?

2018  after three games defence 6th points against 7th yards against. 

 

18 minutes ago, Mark F said:

2018  after three games defence 6th points against 7th yards against. 

And we played Montreal who has the worst offense in the league by far.

12 hours ago, WBBFanWest said:

I think that you are not only wrong, you are very wrong.  Care to enlighten us on how you've come to this opinion, or maybe more to the point, where you pulled this opinion out of?

The reasons are stated above. Walters and O'Shea have to be approaching the point where Miller and the board have compare the results with those of other regimes that have rebuilt and won- Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton are prime examples. So far this team has won no playoffs games since they arrived and are long overdue. Patience is fine, but the bottom lin is the bottom line.

As I'm here in Alberta and don't regularly watch/read local Winnipeg media, has anyone interviewed Hall on his thoughts about the game? Or does O'Shea keep his assistants away from the media?

Because I am definitely interested in how he would break down this one hot mess of a showing.

4 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

 

 

4 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

As I'm here in Alberta and don't regularly watch/read local Winnipeg media, has anyone interviewed Hall on his thoughts about the game? Or does O'Shea keep his assistants away from the media?

Because I am definitely interested in how he would break down this one hot mess of a showing.

All you need do is find a website of cliches by losing coaches and you will have the O'Shea-Hall commentary. "I thought the guys played hard". " the breaks didn't go our way today", "we need to forget about this game and prepare for the next one" etc etc...

Edited July 2, 20187 yr by Tracker

 

 

Hamilton in Calgary less than one year ago.

6	Sat, July 29	9:30 p.m. EDT	at Calgary Stampeders	L 1–60	0–5	TSN	McMahon Stadium	25,492

 

 

Edited July 2, 20187 yr by Mark F

15 hours ago, WBBFanWest said:

I think that you are not only wrong, you are very wrong.  Care to enlighten us on how you've come to this opinion, or maybe more to the point, where you pulled this opinion out of?

Yeah, if anything Walters should be vindicated because he's giving the team talent and Hall is wasting it on the defensive side.

 

I do agree that at this point the expectations should be higher now than simply making the playoffs and this team should start calling anything short of a Grey Cup win a failure.  But I would hold onto Walters and O'Shea a little longer so long they don't come up with any more half-baked excuse to not fire our awful DC.

Edited July 2, 20187 yr by USABomberfan

1 hour ago, USABomberfan said:

Yeah, if anything Walters should be vindicated because he's giving the team talent and Hall is wasting it on the defensive side.

 

I do agree that at this point the expectations should be higher now than simply making the playoffs and this team should start calling anything short of a Grey Cup win a failure.  But I would hold onto Walters and O'Shea a little longer so long they don't come up with any more half-baked excuse to not fire our awful DC.

It’s week 4. The Grey Cup is a long way off.  Our starting QB hasn’t played a snap.  There’s no need to jump in a noose after every loss.

3 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

It’s week 4. The Grey Cup is a long way off.  Our starting QB hasn’t played a snap.  There’s no need to jump in a noose after every loss.

Logic? Good sir that has NO place on a bomber forum following a loss. The sky is clearly falling. 

Ok, let’s talk about the last two playoff games. Excellent QB play with a very poor showing by the D. I know it’s only been 3 games so far, but it feels like we’re watching the same movie again. 

5 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Ok, let’s talk about the last two playoff games. Excellent QB play with a very poor showing by the D. I know it’s only been 3 games so far, but it feels like we’re watching the same movie again. 

Not just the D but coaching was heavily questioned after both losses as well.

It does feel like we are on track for the same despite having by far the most talented group of defensive players in that period of time. The previous defenses and teams fed off a TON of forced turn overs though. So Between that and the rook qb and the added talent on D I have greater hope for this team. But our coaching, especially hall but also the plop out smarting him self and no one else stretches have to improve. Coaching is our primary limiting factor right now. Which is kind of scary. 

Both coordinators can be their own worst enemy at times. The default for both is to play not to lose which is infuriating.

I believe it has been said for over 3 years now that Hall's defense is outdated in the CFL. MOS said after last year that he was going to be more involved in the defense....is he and if he is what has changed? In my opinion nothing much. In two games against worthy opponents, we have been torched for over 480 yards in each. The other game, against Montreal, well I can't really count that one but will give credit that we stopped them to a respectable number. Point being made is we have been told we have a better group of DBs who have been brought in and those who remain have a year of experience under their belts. The results are the same; open receivers, too soft coverages, broken coverages, poor tackling, little pressure and the list goes on. Is it the talent or the system the talent is playing in? Seems to me if we have better talent and are still getting burned, it must be the system. So if it is the system why hasn't MOS changed it as he said he would? If it is the system why hasn't Hall recognized that after 3 years and corrected it.

On another note, while the game was not great in the first half, we were nonetheless in the game. Hamilton made adjustments and I can only suggest we didn't because they clobbered us in the third quarter! This again is a very similar scenario from last year, no adjustments at half time and other teams making them that resulted then and now to disaster in the third quarter.

Is it player ability, is it player mentality or is it coaching? I'll leave that answer up to you for judgement.

On the offense, LaPo does not, will not or cannot stretch the field. His mentality is to throw short or at best medium routes and hope for YAC yards. This has not changed since he was here first as an OC many moons ago. He, as many have stated, overthinks things and that results to a stifling offense which is easily defended....see third and fourth quarter results. Most great coaches utilize the strengths of their individual players and minimize their weaknesses. I look at Adams and Bowman, two receivers who do not like going over the middle or crossing routes but are more adept at deep patterns. What are they being asked to do....run crossing patterns. They are not going to catch or for that matter make any great effort to catch a somewhat catchable ball....they do not want to get clocked! So utilizing the strengths of your players rates a failing grade for LaPo yet again. 

Then there is our rookie QB. While I like him and like him a lot, and after only 3 games, I think he has a fundamental flaw unless of course it is LaPo doing his thing again. I don't think he can throw a long ball. I don't think his mechanics will permit him to throw a 30 or 40 yard ball. Interestingly every time he has thrown long with success it has been the receiver either coming back to the ball or the defender falling down. What ever happened to throwing to a spot? Ever notice that our receivers are seldom in full stride catching a ball but rather are stationary? Just my observation.

So I guess we now know where we stand with our rookie QB and new players. We frankly are no further ahead that where we were last year, not that the final standing from last year were anything to sneeze about. Expectations and the rhetoric was we were going to be so much better with the new talent etc and here we stand, 1-2 with a defense that continues to allow tons of yards and points and an offense that when needed fails to execute for whatever reason.

Now I know there will be those who say it is only game 3 and you are right......but beware in the two games where we played quality teams we were beaten badly. And as someone else has said we won't win anything with a Hall defense. Hope I am wrong but it sure looks similar to last year.