Color me shocked, happy but still not sold....yet

First off was nice to see Ears lose his **** multiple times again on the sidelines like Maas of old...we definitely made him pop...and his team sure takes on his personality, as a collective group they truly are a bunch of whiny yappy babies when things don't go well for them...If anything with our team when we are getting our butts handed to us, we never act like that

Bringing the nasty back...Shades of 2019 to 2023 oline work and it made a difference. Again, we went into what Our identity should be with smash mouth play and how it opens up things for our receivers...Now don't keep going away from it in games unless it's taken away. It also allows our hogs to get in the zone immediately and dictate the tone...That's big...the last 2 weeks my observation is that Stan seems to be rounding into form. As mentioned in game thread I think his injury was hindering him and why he was consciously kicking out a bit early and looked old and slow on plays quick off the snap where he had to make a fast step....He was still good in the run but he did look compromised in certain blocking assignments

But last night he was active and all over in the run game...the whole line was and we need to keep using all that oline movement...It worked well in Edm too until we went away from it. If he plays like this again next week then maybe the slagging he was getting here wasn't 100 percent justified...that being said I hope we have talked to him about this being his farewell season

Kudos to Condell as well for that game plan...almost like he stole Mtl's to be honest, but that what we need to do game in and game out. Receivers actually played tough...made some tough grabs, and actually fought for YAC. Pokey needs to be used **** we used him ..lotsa horizontal routes and getting ball to him while he moving, as he is slippery and greasy and can slither his way through the slightest opening with speed. He's not the consistent vertical threat we can lean on...That I guess is a Demski role currently as we don't have a guy...and is what we really need. I think the 3rd Canadian WR experiment needs to end as Cobb offers absolutely nothing in that spot. If anything, use Clercius there and have him and Neild both show looks from inside and outside....If we refuse to add an import....That would still make us better, and Clercius is a guy teams will have to take note of. All he does is make catches, and actually will do something with the ball after the catch...and he was key in downfield blocking on several runs

Encouraging to say the least tho....next week is the true litmus test. In that environment and hype if we do what we have done in the half of game in Edm and last night again...with a convincing win...look out...That's the make of a trend and a BB repeat we could be sending ourselves into a real run of wins as the confidence grows

Vaval has to have earned that starting DB spot...it's almost changed how we play a bit back there...for the better and you can see he is legit good. Texada as well in his limited reps showed some real promise...Only time he was really noticed was when making a play...pretty good debut for a raw rookie vs the offensive juggernaut the Al's are reported to be. Let Nichols rest another week...let the youngsters (Williams/Vaval/Texada) run with it and make a decision for BB if Nichols is ready to go. But safety and Kelly needs to end...yesterday already...cant cover...poor tackling...soft. If kramdi is back is he better...Maybe a bit but he also isn't great. He's perfect for the role Kelly had before he went in at safety and would be a shame to sit one of the 3 aforementioned from the starting lineup...and you cant pull Smith off for him, and as much as Wilson and Jones get grief on here, Kramdi at WIL would be the worst possible decision. When ready yank Novack off for Kramdi and use him all over in the rotation...He does do well mucking it up in the box when we go 3 dlineman

Speaking of yanking...Hazen needs to be..whats he offer?...whats he done to justify being on roster?...especially when Kramdi back...Nothing....and if we keep Vaval at Corner then Singer for Hazen makes a ton of sense, or if we just swap out Cobb for clercius and say no to another skilled player...Nichols as depth isn't a bad thing

Dline has the talent to dominate games...tho a true Nose would be nice, but they are frustrating as they go in spurts...is it scheme and what we asking them to do...or is it just growing pains as we have essentially 3 rookies taking big time reps...none the less I really have no issues with that group for the most part...Some fine tuning scheme wise tho I think could really put em over the top!

None the less like what I saw...actually not dreading the Labour Day game now...and curious to see if this was a turning the corner....or just a mirage of a game...we shall see shortly...The only bad part of the win is it will basically ensure zero changes...even tho a few could really set us off

11 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

We're basically running a high school passing offense without the 1-2 receivers that make life a little easier for the QB. The fact our QB has to be on the head of the pin on any pass or we have to spring guys WIDE OPEN means our degree of difficulty is way too high to be consistent passing the ball.

YEAH...WE are majorly handcuffing ourselves. It effectively allows defenses to just blanket or top 2..3 guys in certain schemes with the knowledge they can cheat of of almost half our weapons

And we have zero diversity in the kind of guys we employ....and our basic structure...well actually lacks structure....we either cant...or refuse to do any layering of any kind and rely too much on guys being static waiting for the pass....

4 hours ago, Booch said:

YEAH...WE are majorly handcuffing ourselves. It effectively allows defenses to just blanket or top 2..3 guys in certain schemes with the knowledge they can cheat of of almost half our weapons

And we have zero diversity in the kind of guys we employ....and our basic structure...well actually lacks structure....we either cant...or refuse to do any layering of any kind and rely too much on guys being static waiting for the pass....

Noel Thorpe reading this forum, then shakes fist in the sky and yells "Where were JBR and Booch last Friday afternoon!!! ARGH!!!"

6 hours ago, 17to85 said:

All you want from a receiver is to make the play when it presents itself... And we got a lot of guys who have failed to do that this season.

Isn't that what you want from pretty much every position?

39 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

Noel Thorpe reading this forum, then shakes fist in the sky and yells "Where were JBR and Booch last Friday afternoon!!! ARGH!!!"

If Montreal was a proper, professional organization, they'd have a staffer monitoring sites like this one.

On 2026-08-31 at 8:09 AM, wbbfan said:

I hate what we are doing with Clercius. Gonna watch another talented Canadian WR turn to ash in a Bomber uni.

BOLO's on a 500-600 yard pace in Edmonton this year.

should've been us.

On 2026-08-29 at 11:17 AM, Booch said:

Receivers actually played tough...made some tough grabs, and actually fought for YAC.

Pokey really got the team going when he lawler'd that one pass against montreal. Sick catch, absolute thievery, the best he's made this year. Nield had an acrobatic high point too where he went up and took it away from an Al. ******* sweet.

about the YAC ... I'm always a little nervous when I see a smaller WR struggle for yards after making a first down catch. I get it that you want players to have a lot of fight in them, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. big risk of a fumble and low risk of actually making more yards.

6 minutes ago, johnzo said:

Pokey really got the team going when he lawler'd that one pass against montreal. Sick catch, absolute thievery, the best he's made this year. Nield had an acrobatic high point too where he went up and took it away from an Al. ******* sweet.

And those are the plays we haven't been making much this year. Big reason for the struggles

Yeah, remains to be seen whether those guys stealing those extra 2-3 contested catches a game will be the new normal ... or whether we just had a weird happy night when everyone balled out.

Even with the perfect result last week I would still like to see the roster rejiggered to feature another american receiver. No need for the self-imposed handicap; we don't get any extra points in the standings for playing with one hand tied behind our back.

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

23 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

54 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

Just a blip.

Gonna be seen as the low-point of the second half of the season

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

This team is still going to be up and down like a yo-yo

14 hours ago, 17to85 said:

And those are the plays we haven't been making much this year. Big reason for the struggles

yup...makes a huge difference to an offence. As I said after last game that we have guys who just don't attack the ball but rather wait on it...and it kills us....Maybe they actually got coached up and this was addressed...cause up until that Al's game we were really bad at it, but in that game both Pokey and Neild did exactly that...and both has great games...who woulda thunk eh?

Now they need to teach Pokey some ball security drills cause at times it's scary AF watching him with ball in traffic

13 hours ago, johnzo said:

Yeah, remains to be seen whether those guys stealing those extra 2-3 contested catches a game will be the new normal ... or whether we just had a weird happy night when everyone balled out.

Even with the perfect result last week I would still like to see the roster rejiggered to feature another american receiver. No need for the self-imposed handicap; we don't get any extra points in the standings for playing with one hand tied behind our back.

yup...true litmus is this weekend...was that just a one off and a game where some struggling teams just pull one outta their backside?...Or was there some kind of shift/change done internally on how we prepare, or did the coaches start some productive coaching...cause for a vet laden team to take 11 games with basically no changes to finally get it just doesn't make sense...the math doesn't math

But you are correct...if this is the new norm we still need 2...maybe 3 lil roster tweaks and it could really have that 2019 late season vibe to it

13 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

the next 2 games will be the answer...Trepid optimism but was just one game....and as they say..."The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass every day"

Was that just a nice sunny day...soon to find out but we still need some changes none the less

11 hours ago, 17to85 said:

This team is still going to be up and down like a yo-yo

think so if we dont change anything....not even sure we changed anything last game and counting that game...and maaaaaybe 2 others...3 outta of 11 as successful and indicative of what you truly are isnt gonna cut it

14 hours ago, johnzo said:

BOLO's on a 500-600 yard pace in Edmonton this year.

should've been us.

Nield is on pace for 650.

19 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Nield is on pace for 650.

cobb on a pace for about 200 ...Corcoran legitimately was on pace for 75....tasty numbers indeed

14 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

So, what's the consensus? Is the Montreal game what we're going to see going forward, or is it a blip?

I don't think anything truly changed to be honest. They just got it all right on one magical night. I expect a pretty bad showing in Regina followed by more up-and-down performances, probably a 9-9 finish or thereabouts.

18 minutes ago, Atomic said:

I don't think anything truly changed to be honest. They just got it all right on one magical night. I expect a pretty bad showing in Regina followed by more up-and-down performances, probably a 9-9 finish or thereabouts.

That’s probably realistic. Obviously I’d love to see everything look like the Montreal game, but the overall pattern over this season and last suggests more inconsistency.

I'd be more inclined to believe that maybe they've turned a corner, if they hadn't s**t the bed so bad in the 2nd half against Montreal. 6 of the last 8 quarters they've played have been great but those other two were absolutely terrible. The lack of consistency (game to game, half to half and even quarter to quarter) makes it really hard to predict how the rest of the season goes.

Nobody has consistently separated themselves from the pack.

Montreal's D is hugely suspect when the O isn't piling up TOP and their special teams are a problem. Edmonton is like a reverse 2010 Bombers, winning most of their games very tight, very reliant on opponent blunders, a couple amazing late game drives/plays of their own. BC seems to have their number though.

Be part of the pack and peak in the next 10 weeks and you have as good of a chance as anyone.

At this point BC is one of the scarier teams to me. When they play their best, they are the best. You just don't see it every week.

Forget the rest of the season, let's just focus on making the green team look like chumps

2 hours ago, Booch said:

Now they need to teach Pokey some ball security drills cause at times it's scary AF watching him with ball in traffic

yeah, Willson called him out on that.

I remember a couple of seasons ago when Demski had a string of bad fumbles over a few games ... during the game when he broke the fumble streak, he was hanging onto that ball for dear life. Soon as any tackler came within five yards of him he'd double up on the ball like he was running through the line.

2 hours ago, Booch said:

did the coaches start some productive coaching...cause for a vet laden team to take 11 games with basically no changes to finally get it just doesn't make sense...the math doesn't math

Condell seemed to have leveled up ... good mix of pass and run ... not emptying the backfield in the red zone. He was using Brady frequently but he wasn't spamming him, he had some concepts that really made good use of horizontal pokey. Seemed like he used his talent way better in that game.

2 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Forget the rest of the season, let's just focus on making the green team look like chumps

I really like the "nobody Believes in us" vibe I'm seeing in quotes from the players. That can go a long way. Riders 5.5 favourites this week helps that....

17 hours ago, johnzo said:

BOLO's on a 500-600 yard pace in Edmonton this year.

should've been us.

Good but not great.

1 hour ago, JohnnyAbonny said:

That’s probably realistic. Obviously I’d love to see everything look like the Montreal game, but the overall pattern over this season and last suggests more inconsistency.

The win against the Als is likely one of the "blind squirrel" variety.