GAME 5 | WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS (2-2) at B.C. LIONS (1-2)

THE 4-1-1

Kickoff: 9:00 p.m. CT, Saturday; B.C. Place
TV: TSN, ESPN-+
Radio: CJOB
Vegas line: Off the board, pending the Lions starting QB decision.
Streaks: Winnipeg: 1W; B.C.: 2L
Home/Road: The Bombers are 1-1 on the road this season and 14-6 in their last 20 games outside of Manitoba. The Lions are 1-0 at home this year, having beaten Montreal in their opener.
Series (since 1954): Winnipeg leads with a record of 90-79-2.
Recent history: Winnipeg is 4-2 in its last six regular season visits to the west coast; 4-3 if you include the 2016 West Semi-Final loss to the Lions.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Throw Long Bannatyne said:

What happened to "Matty Ice"?  Kept waiting for Nichols to take charge and accomplish the minimal amount needed to secure the victory, but he never showed up.  For the first time in two years, I acknowledge his critics and will not tune them out their nagging doubt until he reestablishes himself in a pressure situation.  If Nichols wants a "fairy-tale" ending to his career it's up to him to make sure it happens.

No sugar coating it. Nichols was bad. Throwing into double coverage.  He looked scared to get hit, he was just throwing up hail Mary's.  Lulay stood in there and took the hits and made the plays he needed to

In fairness to Nichols the last INT was right in the numbers but Demski dropped it.

I have become neutral when it comes to this team - they will not get me a too far up or too far down. 

To be fair to Bowman if Nichols makes that pass near the end and hits the wide open Bowman in stride... Perhaps he scores. Brutal underthrow there. 

4 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

In fairness to Nichols the last INT was right in the numbers but Demski dropped it.

Umm no. It was a bad throw in to double coverage that a bc player deflected. Even suitor said it was a dumb throw in that situation. 

5 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

I have become neutral when it comes to this team - they will not get me a too far up or too far down. 

Easy to say but the hardest thing in the world to do.  I try to follow this advice myself, it does get easier as you get older to stay calm. As a outsider looking in, really hard to beat anyone 2 games in a row and Nichols wasn't near good enough. It not a crisis, its just one game.

If the Bombers get average QB play they win, its that simple. Nichols had his worst game ever as a Bomber. 

1 hour ago, Ripper said:

No sugar coating it. Nichols was bad. Throwing into double coverage.  He looked scared to get hit, he was just throwing up hail Mary's.  Lulay stood in there and took the hits and made the plays he needed to

Lulay won't make it thru the season.  JJ will be the starting qb soon enough again. I like Lulay.  He's a decent guy on & off the field so I really don't want to see him injured again but I don't think he can stand up to another 13 games as the Lions starting qb. 

From everything I've read here I'm glad I missed the game. I have it PVR'd & was going to watch it but I'm glad I heard the score first. Now, I think I'll just delete the game as I don't want to watch it. Why we always have trouble beating the Lions at BC Place is beyond me & it's starting to go beyond frustrating.  The Bombers have the talent to do great things this year. Why we can't seem to put it all together is another mind boggler. Having not seen the game I really can't say what happened last night. I do have confidence that Nichols will bounce back. Not ready to write the guy off yet. 

Nichols played poorly. Lapo called a poor second half. The D didn't deliver when needed the most. On the issue of receivers, I feel confident stating that Walters and Co either can't scout receivers or that we don't recognize them in camp. Year 5 and they have yet to find a WR who started and became a regular. Since 2014, Edmonton has Walker, Zylstra and Williams, Calgary has Kamar Jordan, Davaris Daniels and Marken Michel, BC has Burnham, Saskatchewan has Naman Roosevelt, Toronto has Dionte Spencer, Hamilton has Jalen Sanders and Terrence Toliver. Kind of pathetic.

1 hour ago, B-F-F-C said:

Lapo has done this before.  In this case he wasn't out coached by the opposition d coordinator.  He was out coached by himself.  He over thinks the game and makes it more difficult than it needs to be.  There's a reason why the tried tested and true has worked for years.  But he thinks he's some offensive genius and he out thinks himself.

I'm a little surprised at the vitriol being directed at Nichols.  Yes he played poorly but a good OC would recognize that and adjust the play calling to play to what the offence is giving up, vs. playing a higher risk scheme.   I have no doubt that Nichols will bounce back. But Lapo needs work with what he's got.  

 

Nichols literally couldn’t make a throw in the 2nd half.  Play calling to account for that would be basically not relying on his arm at all.  That’s pretty hard to do in Canadian football.  That was Max Hall level QBing.

3 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

Nichols played poorly. Lapo called a poor second half. The D didn't deliver when needed the most. On the issue of receivers, I feel confident stating that Walters and Co either can't scout receivers or that we don't recognize them in camp. Year 5 and they have yet to find a WR who started and became a regular. Since 2014, Edmonton has Walker, Zylstra and Williams, Calgary has Kamar Jordan, Davaris Daniels and Marken Michel, BC has Burnham, Saskatchewan has Naman Roosevelt, Toronto has Dionte Spencer, Hamilton has Jalen Sanders and Terrence Toliver. Kind of pathetic.

That's on Walters & McManus for sure. The coaches can only coach the guys they scout & sign. I agree that receivers have been a problem. We do have some young Canadian talent that I think will develop into great slots but we have nowhere near the group of Internationals Edmonton & Calgary have. The only way to improve is to keep signing receivers & bringing them in which is something I don't think we do enough of. That's what the Stamps do. Even with the group they have now Huff will still bring in guys for a look see. They target a certain skill set. The guys they scout are tall, fast & physical. (Except for Marken Michel who is a speed demon).  You don't see many receivers with Edmonton or Calgary that are under 6'1 & 200 lbs. And they actually push the starters. they know that if they don't produce that they'll be replaced as there is always someone waiting in the wings. Anyway, that's what the Eskimos & Stamps do. It's something we don't.

For what it is worth, we have a couple of Canucks who could probably give us more, than we are getting from Bowman...financially or otherwise.

I think other than a few players, it was a team loss.

Players, coaches, all contributed to this loss.

exceptions, O line and Andrew Harris, as usual.

Randall, Mo, a few others probably.

edit..... seems maybe not O line according to other people.

 

 

Edited July 15, 20187 yr by Mark F

12 minutes ago, Mark F said:

I think other than a few players, it was a team loss.

Players, coaches, all contributed to this loss.

exceptions, O line and Andrew Harris, as usual.

Randall, Moe, few others probably.

 

Turning it over on downs twice in the red zone is not just on the QB - not by a long shot. 

2 hours ago, Mark H. said:

I have become neutral when it comes to this team - they will not get me a too far up or too far down. 

This is sort of my approach. When I lived in the Peg I lived and died each game. Died more that Lived. Now that I live in Calgary, I pick and choose which CFL games to watch. I have corporate season tickets to the Stamps but tend to give them away. I try and catch the bomber game when they come to town and maybe a Rider game but other than that give them away to clients. I am at the stage now when I at times, prefer to watch other teams play rather than a Bomber game. I hope they win and make it to the playoffs etc. but at the end of the day given what I believe is IMHO the worse CFL management group other than  the gang in Montreal, I really do not get all that down when they lose.

1 minute ago, BBRT said:

This is sort of my approach. When I lived in the Peg I lived and died each game. Died more that Lived. Now that I live in Calgary, I pick and choose which CFL games to watch. I have corporate season tickets to the Stamps but tend to give them away. I try and catch the bomber game when they come to town and maybe a Rider game but other than that give them away to clients. I am at the stage now when I at times, prefer to watch other teams play rather than a Bomber game. I hope they win and make it to the playoffs etc. but at the end of the day given what I believe is IMHO the worse CFL management group other than  the gang in Montreal, I really do not get all that down when they lose.

For me it began after the 2008 season. I went for into that season really believing we had a good team, had resigned some good FAs etc. I will attend some games, watch some on TV, but it doesn’t matter one way or the other. Yesterday - was just more of the same. 

1 minute ago, BBRT said:

This is sort of my approach. When I lived in the Peg I lived and died each game. Died more that Lived. Now that I live in Calgary, I pick and choose which CFL games to watch. I have corporate season tickets to the Stamps but tend to give them away. I try and catch the bomber game when they come to town and maybe a Rider game but other than that give them away to clients. I am at the stage now when I at times, prefer to watch other teams play rather than a Bomber game. I hope they win and make it to the playoffs etc. but at the end of the day given what I believe is IMHO the worse CFL management group other than  the gang in Montreal, I really do not get all that down when they lose.

I live in Calgary as well but I still have that blue & gold blood in my veins. I can't give up on the Blue Bombers as I have 53 years invested in the team. I'd still be a STH if I lived in Winnipeg. This team can be frustrating at times & we all know that especially after last night. As fans, we've been waiting a long time to return victorious to The Promised Land. We know that it's our turn. We just don't know when that turn will come. 

19 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

For me it began after the 2008 season. I went for into that season really believing we had a good team, had resigned some good FAs etc. I will attend some games, watch some on TV, but it doesn’t matter one way or the other. Yesterday - was just more of the same. 

I think that you probably care a lot more than you'd like to admit. After 28 years we Bomber fans have developed some pretty good defensive coping mechanisms to deal with the yearly depressing  failures we experience .  One of them is to say (think?) that we don't care when we actually do. That way, when they lose we can just say to ourselves that we knew that they would anyway just to make the hurt seem less & then get ready for Xmas a month or so away...

Edited July 15, 20187 yr by SpeedFlex27

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Lulay won't make it thru the season.  JJ will be the starting qb soon enough again. I like Lulay.  He's a decent guy on & off the field so I really don't want to see him injured again but I don't think he can stand up to another 13 games as the Lions starting qb. 

I agree.  I'm afraid the next injury will be the last one for him. I hope he can stay healthy though. Makes our league better when the best players are on the field

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

Nichols played poorly. Lapo called a poor second half. The D didn't deliver when needed the most. On the issue of receivers, I feel confident stating that Walters and Co either can't scout receivers or that we don't recognize them in camp. Year 5 and they have yet to find a WR who started and became a regular. Since 2014, Edmonton has Walker, Zylstra and Williams, Calgary has Kamar Jordan, Davaris Daniels and Marken Michel, BC has Burnham, Saskatchewan has Naman Roosevelt, Toronto has Dionte Spencer, Hamilton has Jalen Sanders and Terrence Toliver. Kind of pathetic.

I agree with most of what you say, but Spencer has been with Ottawa the past two seasons.

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Umm no. It was a bad throw in to double coverage that a bc player deflected. Even suitor said it was a dumb throw in that situation. 

Disagree. There were three Lions and three Bombers in the area, it was not double coverage. Pause it right before the ball arrives, the B.C. player isn’t even in position to deflect it yet. Demski found the opening in the zone but couldn’t hold on to the ball. 

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

I think other than a few players, it was a team loss.

Players, coaches, all contributed to this loss.

exceptions, O line and Andrew Harris, as usual.

Randall, Mo, a few others probably.

 

 

Sorry, but don't say the O-Line was an exception.

First half O-Line was brilliant. Second half O-line was getting manhandled. There were a few plays where I saw our RT literally get picked up and tossed. Nichols was scrambling alot and/or getting sacked and really that played into part of his 3 INT's. 

Harris played reasonably great. Most of the rest of the team pooped the bed in the 2nd half. 

 

32 minutes ago, jazzsax said:

Sorry, but don't say the O-Line was an exception.

First half O-Line was brilliant. Second half O-line was getting manhandled. There were a few plays where I saw our RT literally get picked up and tossed. Nichols was scrambling alot and/or getting sacked and really that played into part of his 3 INT's. 

Yeah, if the OL is brilliant, with that many playmakers on the field, you don’t get shut out in the second half. 

Demski makes the catch in the late 4th quarter  vs pop it up for an easy pick we win that game . Receivers have got to catch the ball when it's thrown too then. Too many drops by all last night