I don't create threads very often but I was kind of missing a good ol' post-game thread.

The title of the thread sums up my take on last night's game. Going from a Sunday game that went about as far into overtime that you can get to a Friday match against a high powered Calgary offense. This wasn't going to be easy. I'm not going to say that we win this game otherwise, but a lot of what I saw can be attributed to this.

Everyone, to a man, was a half step behind. First few drives looked like we were trying to conserve energy. That was embarrassing, particularly our first defensive effort. At a point though, they all realized they have to give more if this game was going to stay close.

That said, they were not able to overcome their physical limitations..and that really exposed that we are not a great team. Great teams have enough talent that they will find a way.

The Good

Our defensive front seven has continued to be a force. There is a lot of talent in this group. We had their run game bottled up and they were making life difficult for VA.

Major Williams, to me, was the only DB out there that played well enough. He's a rookie though, and in the CFL you are going to get beat every once in a while.

Our offensive line, I thought, had a solid night minus the last few drives when the game was pretty much out of reach (and one player that I'll get to). They were going against a very good Calgary defensive line. I'm sure some will bite my head off for this but I thought that Wallace even did a fairly good job at RT. I haven't watched the replays or watch every play after the fact. But the plays I watched him I thought he was holding his own.

Demski and Oliveira were the highlights for me. When they are put into situations to play to their strengths, they can be very good. I just don't think this happens enough.

It's hard to say that Dru Brown was good, but I think he's being put in a tough spot. As was brought up by @JuranBoldenRules in another thread, his options are all within 20 yards with DBs and linebackers all over the place within it. I think for the most part he's making the right reads. But he didn't have many open receivers to throw to.

The Bad

Offensive playcalling has to be number one for me. We have to put Brady in a position to make plays. We aren't. He is our workhorse. If anyone is going to thrive on a short week it is going to be him. But no, we continue to put him out wide for some reason. And we are running too many plays that are sending him east-west. That is not his game. Anytime we had him going up the middle tonight he was making something of it.

This will be Stanley Bryant's last year. He is a shadow of his former self. Missing his block left, right and center. When Brox is healthy I'd say we line him up at LT and move on with Bryant.

Defensive backs. A step slow tonight. Showed in their ability to tackle. Showed in their ability to adjust to the ball in the air. I get the feeling that Moxey is playing hurt. He refuses to do anything that requires making a play on the ball. It's pretty embarrassing. Nichols, for being a smaller guy, cannot be slow, and cannot be slow to react. I'm not counting him out completely but it isn't looking good. Holm had a terrible game and just didn't seem to be himself. The short week did a number on this group IMO.

I thought the receivers had a similar problem to the DBs. We rely so much on Pokey Wilson and Tim White to get separation. They couldn't last night, and I think that lead to many of the interceptions. They didn't have enough and made the Calgary DBs look very good. As has been brought up elsewhere, we need some different types of receivers that can make plays in different ways.

Special teams...half step too slow..was all of the difference. Also the 57 yard FG call when our defense was rolling and we could pin them deep. Hated that.

1 hour ago, Jesse said:

All of Wilson, White, and Neild are upgrades on Wheatfall, as I've said. Cobb was already here.

You don't get it. Who cares if they were "brought in"? The point is, they elevated a shitty Canadian receiver who should spend all of his time playing Specials Teams. This all comes down to bad asset Allocation when it comes to personnel thanks to Osh. Cobb didn't deserve the starting role while Walters let Wheatfall walk. They never replaced him. We draft & also develop for other teams.

Edited July 29Jul 29 by SpeedFlex27

White is an improvement over Wheatfall as WR3

Yes the Bombers decided to go with 3 Canadians at Receiver for whatever reason. Even if the Bombers went with 4 imports, why even bother with Wheatfall. He was here for 2 years and didn't impress, and he doesn't offer anything not already provided by Wilson, White or Demski.

It can be true that the Bombers should have went with 4 imports (and found someone who can actually do something consistently outside of Demski/White/Wilson) and that Wheatfall shouldn't be that fourth guy. Like here is an example where it makes sense to move on from a guy, in the face of a multitude of instances where the Bombers did not make that choice, but still people are unhappy. Literally the only reason they would have to have kept him around, was that he was already around.

Edited July 29Jul 29 by ShyGuy

3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Has Tommy heard of a stalk block? Wide receivers are historically bad blockers. because they're in space & angles are constantly changing just getting in the way is just what they do. Name me one wideout who made a million dollars leading the league putting linebackers & DB's on their ass downfield. They'll throw the odd great block if they're in a position to do that. I know Bailey, Adams & Woli were the exceptions. But that was a special group.

I mean in the nfl heinz ward. In the cfl, wrs don’t often make a million bucks but demski and bailey made their bones with blocking and play away from the play.

Ever team where blocking is expected and ingrained, gets blocking from wrs. the huge majority of ncaa and nfl teams running modern flex offences have their wrs blocking their asses off.

We developed that in bailey and demski from desire and even more we developed that in schoen, who might’ve been the most coachable rookie in a generation.

3 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

He did what most Wrs will do. The blocking his ass off comment came from Brady to be fair. Either way, without that blocking the chances of Brady scoring there aren't great, however the field position would have been.

yeah and brady was being a great leader and teammate putting the shine on a very slight build wr doing some thing positive down field in the run game. which is great. And as i mentioned i don’t expect wilson to floor dbs like bailey and schoen did.

My point is just that the mafia have lowered the bar to a pitiful level. Also, wrs who block their butt off, get a lot more yac, and come up with the ball more often. It’s one of those under rated basic tools that projects all over the wr job, once a guy does it well. It plays up huge for winning the physical and mental battle vs dbs especially late in games and seasons.

10 hours ago, wbbfan said:

I mean in the nfl heinz ward. In the cfl, wrs don’t often make a million bucks but demski and bailey made their bones with blocking and play away from the play.

Ever team where blocking is expected and ingrained, gets blocking from wrs. the huge majority of ncaa and nfl teams running modern flex offences have their wrs blocking their asses off.

We developed that in bailey and demski from desire and even more we developed that in schoen, who might’ve been the most coachable rookie in a generation.

yeah and brady was being a great leader and teammate putting the shine on a very slight build wr doing some thing positive down field in the run game. which is great. And as i mentioned i don’t expect wilson to floor dbs like bailey and schoen did.

My point is just that the mafia have lowered the bar to a pitiful level. Also, wrs who block their butt off, get a lot more yac, and come up with the ball more often. It’s one of those under rated basic tools that projects all over the wr job, once a guy does it well. It plays up huge for winning the physical and mental battle vs dbs especially late in games and seasons.

BO says all the right things in the media...and presents as such on field too....different story in a safe zone tho...he musta really been p'od last yr when he said those couple things he did...I see it bubbling up again tho...and rightfully so

14 hours ago, ShyGuy said:

White is an improvement over Wheatfall as WR3

Yes the Bombers decided to go with 3 Canadians at Receiver for whatever reason. Even if the Bombers went with 4 imports, why even bother with Wheatfall. He was here for 2 years and didn't impress, and he doesn't offer anything not already provided by Wilson, White or Demski.

It can be true that the Bombers should have went with 4 imports (and found someone who can actually do something consistently outside of Demski/White/Wilson) and that Wheatfall shouldn't be that fourth guy. Like here is an example where it makes sense to move on from a guy, in the face of a multitude of instances where the Bombers did not make that choice, but still people are unhappy. Literally the only reason they would have to have kept him around, was that he was already around.

The Bombers decided to bring in the highest salaried import OL and IMO are built to roll with 4 import OL really. That is the plan. They have no Canadian depth. Eli can get them out of games, but any injury more than 1 week to a Canadian OL, they are ready to flip to 4 imports.

What doesn't make sense at all is how we use Canadians on D but handicap the offense. We always have 3 Canadians on the field on D, and often have 4. But are locked in to 6 Canadians on O when we really only would need to "start" 5.

We use all our DA's on D/special teams as well.

Our O is handicapped significantly, particularly the receiving corps.