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

1 minute ago, M.Silverback said:

A former Bomber goes to the same gym as I do. I overheard him in a spirited discussion with another gym patron who was expressing his displeasure with the Bombers offense this weekend. The former Bomber was diplomatic but said, among other things, "Bomber receivers can't get open. Except for Wolitarsky". Interesting take. Is it possible we as fans should shift some of the blame to the receivers? Not just Lapo and Nichols?

Since we do not have the ability to break down the video of each play to see who is open is and who is not, all we can do is look where Nichols tries to lob his passes and whether Walters is auditioning new receivers. I have a hard time believing that Adams, Matthews and others have not been able to get open. I could accept that the deep receivers get discouraged late in the game with not being targeted.

21 minutes ago, M.Silverback said:

A former Bomber goes to the same gym as I do. I overheard him in a spirited discussion with another gym patron who was expressing his displeasure with the Bombers offense this weekend. The former Bomber was diplomatic but said, among other things, "Bomber receivers can't get open. Except for Wolitarsky". Interesting take. Is it possible we as fans should shift some of the blame to the receivers? Not just Lapo and Nichols?

On 90% of the completions, the Bomber receivers are stationary.  He doesn't lead the receivers and balls caught in stride are almost non-existent, especially recently.  For whatever reason, he doesn't want to make those throws, so he checks it down.  From what I can see, anyways.  

thats was my beef coming into this year as well...all hooks..curls...outs..no layered routes and slants to hit guys in stride...now is this Lapo's way of running his route selections and he doesn't incorporate this in his offence..or is it Nichols not wanting to throw those balls..who knows...but it is frustrating as we have seen this year..and years in past that he can hit guys in full stride

26 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

On 90% of the completions, the Bomber receivers are stationary.  He doesn't lead the receivers and balls caught in stride are almost non-existent, especially recently.  For whatever reason, he doesn't want to make those throws, so he checks it down.  From what I can see, anyways.  

Good point. My post wasn't meant to absolve Lapo and Nichols. I just think it was an interesting comment from a smart former player. Also interesting how much better the receiving core is with Adams in there. I have to admit, I did expect Matthews and Whitehead to be consistently be better deep threats. I know, "Nichols checks down too much; Lapo is not calling deep plays". Agreed. But, even a casual watching of the film doesn't exactly scream that opposing corners are worried much about either as deep threats. Are they excellent route runners? Not sure.

Edited August 12, 20196 yr by M.Silverback

When we are "protecting the lead on O"...watch how opposing DB's come racing right downhill on the short stuff.  They are certainly not worried about the deep ball.

33 minutes ago, Booch said:

thats was my beef coming into this year as well...all hooks..curls...outs..no layered routes and slants to hit guys in stride...now is this Lapo's way of running his route selections and he doesn't incorporate this in his offence..or is it Nichols not wanting to throw those balls..who knows...but it is frustrating as we have seen this year..and years in past that he can hit guys in full stride

Seems to me that these complaints pop up every time Lapo is the OC here.

I still say Nichols best throws are the mid range ones but we don't ever give the guy a chance to make them. 

11 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I still say Nichols best throws are the mid range ones but we don't ever give the guy a chance to make them.

This is oh so true.

Can you imagine Wolitarsky, Lawler, Whitehead, etc burning across those mid range passes.

Who could stop them? It would open up our offence so much...

Answer is somewhere in between...  3 games ago, we completely went away from playaction - not sure if Lapo is overthinking or they got scared after the Harris fumbles

That completion record in the Ottawa game was not good for this offence...   everyone glossed over the fact that the O stunk up the joint in the first half and then Nichols/Lapo dink and dunked their way to a completion record 

Need to get back to what works - playaction, misdirection (not 'gadget' plays) and long balls 

 

30 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Seems to me that these complaints pop up every time Lapo is the OC here.

I still say Nichols best throws are the mid range ones but we don't ever give the guy a chance to make them. 

But receivers are running mid range routes ,   ball is not going their way.  

unless you allow the QB to stand and the pocket and have the receivers run their entire route it's impossible to determine whether or not a receiver is or will be open... but I'll add this, if you're waiting for the receiver to be in the clear you've probably already waited too long... also, just because a receiver may look to be covered in the early stage of a route, doesn't mean that he won't be open by the end of the route... and not to mention that receivers like Matthews who has a 5" height advantage you simply throw them open... ot throwing your receiver open with a back shoulder throw, etc...

also, OCs can help receivers get open by route design, using other receivers to pull defenders away from the targeted receiver or create favorable match ups... running receivers at varying depths creates more space for receivers to work and can create larger throwing windows... but in most cases your QB is throwing to a spot, not a receiver per se, such as the Demski TD earlier this year... Nichols threw that ball almost immediately after the snap and while Demski was still covered... both on the same page, Demski makes the catch and the result is a 82 yard TD...

but unless you are throwing to a receiver that is suppose to sit down in or under the coverage, most times you won't see a guy running wide open early in the progressions... you never see them open when your first or early second read is the check down at the line of scrimmage... I think that most are smart enough to understand that it does take longer to run 20 yards than it does to run 1...

4 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Seems to me that these complaints pop up every time Lapo is the OC here.

I still say Nichols best throws are the mid range ones but we don't ever give the guy a chance to make them. 

Nichols is dead last in the league in completion percentage for throws 10 to 19 yards with an underwhelming 40% completion rate... 6th in passes 20+ yard attempts at 37%...

1 minute ago, 66 Chevelle said:

Nichols is dead last in the league in completion percentage for throws 10 to 19 yards with an underwhelming 40% completion rate... 6th in passes 20+ yard attempts at 37%...

That is not good.

Just now, NorthernSkunk said:

That is not good.

definitely not desirable, if given a choice...

Watch other teams on O.....spread out the field and clear out a zone for the slant, or drag pattern.   We almost never do that.   We have guys who should be running those patterns.

as an example, going into last weeks schedule, Fajardo led the league in completion percentage for 10-19 yd throws with a 71.9% comp rate, Masoli was 2nd at 66.7%, then the rest of the pack plus, all other non qualifying QBs as a group with 52.6%, then Nichols at 40%... quite a difference...

1 hour ago, do or die said:

Watch other teams on O.....spread out the field and clear out a zone for the slant, or drag pattern.   We almost never do that.   We have guys who should be running those patterns.

Matthews was against the stamps. Just never got the ball.

Someday we won't have Harris as a security blanket

1 hour ago, 66 Chevelle said:

Nichols is dead last in the league in completion percentage for throws 10 to 19 yards with an underwhelming 40% completion rate... 6th in passes 20+ yard attempts at 37%...

That’s an embarrassing stat. 

When you have an offense that doesn't run those kinds of patterns that is what happens. 

32 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

When you have an offense that doesn't run those kinds of patterns that is what happens. 

6th most passes in 10-19 yards pass attempts... 12/30 or 40.0% - league leader comp %: Fajardo 23/32 or 71.9%, followed by Masoli 24/36 or 66.7%... most completions: Harris 34/56...

2nd most passes in the 20+ yard pass attempts... 13/35 or 37.1%  - league leader comp %: Arbuckle 13/22 or 59.1%, followed by Fajardo 17/30 or 56.7%... most completions: Fajardo 17/30...

this is as last week before games played as published by the CFL...

50 minutes ago, AKAChip said:

That’s an embarrassing stat. 

Think thats bad get a load of this. I went back and looked at all our drives in the 4th quarter this year this is what our offense is putting up in the 4th quarter through 8 games. 

11 first downs and 1 touch down.

The rest of the team has 12 first downs, 8 of those from harris. (a first down not involving nichols is one that he doesnt do more then hand off/screen)

The rest of the offense has 4 tds. All from streveler. While weve kicked 3 fgs. 

The offense has put up 17 4th quarter 2 and outs. (17 2 and outs to 23 first downs)  And 5 of the first down drives have been 5 play drives or less. 

1.37 times per final quarter of a game nichols is throwing a pass "down field" and completing it for a first down. 1 td pass in 2 games worth of final quarters. Half his picks come from the 4th, along with 1/14th of his tds. 

 

how about this one, in the last game against Calgary, 12 of 18 completions, 66.6% of our completions, traveled on average 1 foot, that's 12" for those keeping score at home, through the air... the average air travel for all passes completed was 4.6 yards...

2 minutes ago, 66 Chevelle said:

how about this one, in the last game against Calgary, 12 of 18 completions, 66.6% of our completions, traveled on average 1 foot, that's 12" for those keeping score at home, through the air... the average air travel for all passes completed was 4.6 yards...

Yer gonna get in trouble here.....lol

only 1 completion for balls that actually traveled further than 20 yards thru the air from the line of scrimmage... it went 21 yards to Lawler in the 3 quarter... he proceeded to get 8 additional yards after the catch making for the longest completion of the evening at 29 yards...

Just now, NorthernSkunk said:

Yer gonna get in trouble here.....lol

I was taught that the truth would never hurt you... might make some uncomfortable, but it's the truth... lol...