It might be just a select few posters I'm seeing do this, but man some of these criticisms just get so old.  Sure it's all warranted and good to rip the guy when he throws bad passes or makes a bad decision, but now it's rip him even when he completes a deep ball to Matthews that was called back, or the one to Whitehead that stood?  I mean, what is this?  Some Nichols witch hunt where he can do no right or something?

I'm not going to pretend that Nichols was all good, but on series's where our offense was off he wasn't the only one who made the errors.  Andrew Harris was not good either outside his TD catch and had as much to do with the struggles, as did Fenner on defense, Adams and some of Lapo's play calls that 17to85 talks about.

Nichols isn't above criticism and he doesn't necessarily deserve heaps of praise on his head.  But it's absolutely ridiculous to assume that he single-handedly wins or loses games.  That's not how Mike O'Shea's team works.

And his passing yards are meaningless.  You can rack up yards all day against bend but don't break defenses, but if you don't get TDs out of them, you are overrated.  Yup, I said it.  Passing yards are completely meaningless.

Edited June 29, 20196 yr by USABomberfan

Say this for our coordinators, they will have a close game. 

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

The way things are on this board with the Nichols haters, why bother playing the game? Just concede as we have no chance at all to win & give the Stamps 2 points cuz we're ****** anyway.  FFS.

Okay. I don't know who these Nichols haters are but you're obviously frustrated with the criticism of his performance on the field of late. What did you expect? He sucked in losing to the worst team in the league.

Calgary is going to present a very different challenge from Toronto. As Lapo has stated the Calgary D is very good and they don't make mistakes. They're also ball hawks and lead the league in turnovers. Knowing Lapo as we do I expect a very conservative game plan on offense. Lots of dink and dive and lots of running the ball and check-downs to Andrew Harris. I'm not expecting us to score much and I hope Justin Medlock has a good day kicking the ball.

What really concerns me is that our D, according to Richie Hall, played terrible against the Argos and made 43 mental errors. That's a lot of brain farts and you can bet Calgary is looking at film of what the Argos were doing to us. If that trend continues Calgary may score a lot of points and a blow out is a very real possibility. 

Field position is going to be very important and our best chance is going to be to find ways to move the ball and keep our defense rested and off the field. If we keep serving up the 2 and outs I see this thing getting away from us in the second half as our D weakens and gets tired.

Special teams in the first 5 games gave our offence a shorter field and made for a longer field for the opposition. The last 2 games they’ve not played as well and our starting field position has proved that.   

I hope that Ritchie has coached those mental errors out of his players. 

It’s going to be a tough game but if we can limit our errors on both defence and on offence. This is a winnable game.  

Lapo and Ritchie need to call a near perfect game but the execution must be there as well. 

Hoping for a victory but I’m not going to jump off a bridge if we lose.  There 10 more games left and lots of time to get things right.

 

 

 

 

The Stamps don't worry me in the least, and if we play like we did earlier in the season we're more than good enough to win. The team that lost to Ham and played the second half vs Toronto can't beat anyone, and that DOES worry me.... 

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

Special teams in the first 5 games gave our offence a shorter field and made for a longer field for the opposition. The last 2 games they’ve not played as well and our starting field position has proved that.   

I hope that Ritchie has coached those mental errors out of his players. 

It’s going to be a tough game but if we can limit our errors on both defence and on offence. This is a winnable game.  

Lapo and Ritchie need to call a near perfect game but the execution must be there as well. 

Hoping for a victory but I’m not going to jump off a bridge if we lose.  There 10 more games left and lots of time to get things right.

 

 

 

 

Or Lapo/Nichols need to actually drive 90 yards for once instead of being gifted short fields all night 

2 hours ago, J5V said:

Okay. I don't know who these Nichols haters are but you're obviously frustrated with the criticism of his performance on the field of late. What did you expect? He sucked in losing to the worst team in the league.

Calgary is going to present a very different challenge from Toronto. As Lapo has stated the Calgary D is very good and they don't make mistakes. They're also ball hawks and lead the league in turnovers. Knowing Lapo as we do I expect a very conservative game plan on offense. Lots of dink and dive and lots of running the ball and check-downs to Andrew Harris. I'm not expecting us to score much and I hope Justin Medlock has a good day kicking the ball.

What really concerns me is that our D, according to Richie Hall, played terrible against the Argos and made 43 mental errors. That's a lot of brain farts and you can bet Calgary is looking at film of what the Argos were doing to us. If that trend continues Calgary may score a lot of points and a blow out is a very real possibility. 

Field position is going to be very important and our best chance is going to be to find ways to move the ball and keep our defense rested and off the field. If we keep serving up the 2 and outs I see this thing getting away from us in the second half as our D weakens and gets tired.

Nichols played badly, yes. But so did our D.  we gave up so many yards underneath. Whenever the Argos needed a first down on second & whatever they got it.  It wasn't just Nichols. This was a team loss in all facets of the game. That is what drives me nuts. Everyone was responsible for that loss at BMO Field.

16 minutes ago, Dr Zaius said:

Or Lapo/Nichols need to actually drive 90 yards for once instead of being gifted short fields all night 

Actually, we have had some very lengthy drives this year. Just not lately that I recall.

I expect the Stamps with Arbuckle to drive right at the center of the line due to Bighill not playing as well as he has and the loss of Jeffcoat. Their passing game will test Fenner and the mobility our safety. Their defence will blitz and use d-line stunts to try to confuse the rookies on the Bomber O-line. If the Bombers cannot run, they will be in trouble, as the Bomber passing game has not scared anyone of late. The Stamps will absolutely try to take away Harris in the flats.

1 hour ago, Dr Zaius said:

Or Lapo/Nichols need to actually drive 90 yards for once instead of being gifted short fields all night 

They did against TO. Harris fumbled. 

Toronto attempted something stupid like 50 passes. Our D didn't get stops when they needed. Hell they could have ended the game at the end on 3rd down except they tackled the guy past the first down sticks instead of before. 

They pooped their pants as bad or worse than the offense did. 

Both units reached a point where you didn’t even expect them to make a play. 

1 minute ago, Mark H. said:

Both units reached a point where you didn’t even expect them to make a play. 

I would bet that most here in this forum who were watching that game knew that the Bombers were going to lose that game when the offence came onto the field with a minute or so in the game and just had to get a couple of first downs to salt the game away. When the offence failed and the Argos came out, it was a near-certainty that the defence was panicked and would put up no resistance.

I’ve seen the same movie...far too often. 

The game tomorrow is Nichols chance to show he is the leader this teams needs.

17 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

I’ve seen the same movie...far too often. 

With Ritchie Hall's defense, yes.

I'm surprised no one has commented on Richie Hall's statement that there was 43 mental errors on defense in the Toronto game. Doesn't that seem like an awful lot of errors? So do we have a team of dummies or is there something about Hall's D that makes it prone to mental errors? Or is 43 not as high a number as it sounds?

6 hours ago, Tracker said:

I would bet that most here in this forum who were watching that game knew that the Bombers were going to lose that game when the offence came onto the field with a minute or so in the game and just had to get a couple of first downs to salt the game away. When the offence failed and the Argos came out, it was a near-certainty that the defence was panicked and would put up no resistance.

I was actually shocked at how easily Toronto matched the field against us. I shouldn't be, but I was. We had no answer to what Toronto was doing on offense.

15 hours ago, Noeller said:

I was JUST thinking the same thing.....I honestly think there are people who don't care about the week to week games.....they just want **** to ***** about.

I find when the Bombers play well that most acknowledge it and praise the team but when they play bad, some ***** about it. Surely that's fair.

20 hours ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

Some people don’t understand run blocking and pass blocking is completely different and they can’t seem to realize one may be very good and one may be not as good. 

that's right....when Hardrick got hurt and Speller ( I think ) was moved from left guard to right tackle he wasn't good....the footwork is totally different and that's a huge change even for a seasoned vet

7 minutes ago, ddanger said:

that's right....when Hardrick got hurt and Speller ( I think ) was moved from left guard to right tackle he wasn't good....the footwork is totally different and that's a huge change even for a seasoned vet

They need better depth at the OT position - we’re stacked with guys who can play inside. 

8 hours ago, J5V said:

I'm surprised no one has commented on Richie Hall's statement that there was 43 mental errors on defense in the Toronto game. Doesn't that seem like an awful lot of errors? So do we have a team of dummies or is there something about Hall's D that makes it prone to mental errors? Or is 43 not as high a number as it sounds?

That’s like when Jeff Reinbolde’s D played Doug Flutie - he said there were something like 50 missed assignments.  Yes Coach, that’s probably correct. 

When the team plays well, one group does the #ToldYaSo thing. When the team plays badly, the other group does it. *** for tat. The only difference is that the so called Negative Folks don't complain about the lack of negativity from the Positive folks.

4 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

When the team plays well, one group does the #ToldYaSo thing. When the team plays badly, the other group does it. *** for tat. The only difference is that the so called Negative Folks don't complain about the lack of negativity from the Positive folks.

Every team needs Pom-Pom wavers.

1 minute ago, NorthernSkunk said:

Every team needs Pom-Pom wavers.

And Eeyore's.

12 hours ago, Tracker said:

I expect the Stamps with Arbuckle to drive right at the center of the line due to Bighill not playing as well as he has and the loss of Jeffcoat. Their passing game will test Fenner and the mobility our safety. Their defence will blitz and use d-line stunts to try to confuse the rookies on the Bomber O-line. If the Bombers cannot run, they will be in trouble, as the Bomber passing game has not scared anyone of late. The Stamps will absolutely try to take away Harris in the flats.

Pretty much a game plan any team would employ against any other team...just replace players names