TBURGESS

Is Wally Buono been an Offensive coach ? Is O'Shea been Wally Buono?

I hope the new OC isn't Buck because his very limited experience is under MB and we all know how horrible that offense has been. I don't expect that PLAP would take an OC job over his cushy gig at TSN. I suspect he's only leave for another HC shot. Wouldn't want him anyway as his offenses were vanilla and take what they give you instead of going after the defence and making them adjust to what we're doing. I don't think Khari's a good choice either. 1 year as an OC in 2011 under MB in Hamilton. He's been a QB or receivers coach since then. Hardly a guy that looks like he's ready to take the next step to OC.

It's all about where and how those minutes are logged. The offense comes out of the gate flat and leaves the defense on the field for 20 minutes of the first half, do you not think that has an impact on the rest of the game? Granted it's not always as simple as saying that the offense failed to sustain drives .. there were times where the defense simply couldn't get off the field .. but the defensive side of the ball was capable of making adjustments as the game went on .. and at least gave the team a chance. Sure the lack of offense is a contributing factor, but the defense came out flat a bunch of the time too and gave up tons of yards in the first half. The second half defensive adjustments in the last 3rd of the season were good. No doubt about it. Still doesn't turn a 7th or 8th ranked defense into a good one.

The oppositions time of possession was 31:58. Those 2 minutes aren't the difference between being good and being worn down.

The defence was better than the offence, but that doesn't make it good. We were 8th in Points allowed, TOP against and Net Offense against, which is horrible. We were 6th is points against which tells me that our bend don't break worked, but not really that well. I get that a lot of folks want to just blame the offense for our defenses problems, but we gave up tons of yards in first halfs and that's before they were tired. Quite frankly, our defence couldn't get the opposition off the field quickly enough most of the time.

Good to see MB has been canned and that it happened quickly. Too bad it doesn't go higher than MB though as he's nowhere near the only problem.

Our FA signings have been mostly hits with a few misses thrown in. I wish we could say the same thing about our scouted players or our draft picks.

Montreal fired their HC mid season and made other coaching changes. Not a big surprise that they've decided to stay with them for another year. Personally, I don't think much of Popp as a HC, but then again, he's better than what we've had for a bunch of years. I like the decisiveness of the move. No BS, just make the decision and stick with it. Meanwhile in Winnipeg, we haven't had the end of season post mortem from O'Shea or Walters, nor have we been told who is coming back next year. Would be nice to hear from the coordinators on what they think went wrong too, but I think that's too much to ask for with the 3 stooges in charge. One of the coaches might say something that wasn't pre scripted.

The key to making good decisions is to know whose opinion matters. MB's proven over and over that his doesn't.

You think the Bombers really want MB's notes on players? The exit interview will take an hour at most. What the Bombers will do, however is drag it out, then say they can't make any announcements because of the Grey Cup, then they'll talk about the season review then it's the Christmas season so it wouldn't be nice to fire him. I'm guessing sometime in January before we get the final decree.

There are no consequences throughout the team. Win 5 games, no winning streaks not even 2 in a row and we give the GM a pass who gives the HC a pass who gives most of the coaches a pass who give the players passes. Want to create a winning atmosphere? Fire the folks who aren't doing their jobs quickly and bring in folks who can do them.

The Bombers assumed that Willy would have a breakout season this year and paid him for it with a $425K salary next year. He had a contract in place for this season. I doubt he'd get anywhere near $425K if we were negotiating a new contract now. FA QB's this year will be one of Ray or Harris, Lulay and Nichols. Glenn reportedly has a deal with Montreal in place but he could go to FA too.

More than one choice could be picked in each category, but the question is what's the biggest factor. The biggest factor IMO is horrible hiring decisions. I'm not sure if that's because we continue to look for the cheapest options or if experience isn't weighted high enough or the people making the decisions don't know what they are looking for or if we have a bad reputation, but we never seem to get the best candidates to sign with us. When we go into competition with other teams for the top GM's or Coaches, we lose. Same holds true for players unless we're willing to pay them the most like Moore, Westerman and Bryant. If we want better players then we need better scouting and a better GM who has better contacts down south. If we want to maximize the potential with those players then we need better coaching and better schemes. Once we start winning again, we need to retain the best as much as possible and continue to bring in as much new talent to push the old talent.

No Stoudermire or Washington... Who's returning kicks?

It's comical the depths people will go to as a means of trying to justify their points instead of realistically considering the impact injuries have on a team. Acting like they don't have an impact on one's season (Look at Hamilton's offence as it is now for example) only makes one look foolish. The big difference between us and Hamilton's situation was the timing. Collaros already had Hamilton easily in playoff position, while for us Willy's injury happened in mid-August. Five weeks is a big difference in a football season. I did realistically consider the impact of Willy's injury (Check back just a few posts to see it) and I was told that that's not what the OP was talking about.

My Predictions: MOP - Burris MODP - Bighill MOC - Westerman MOL - Perrett MOST - Logan ROY - Walker

All good choices. Pretty much what I expected.

So the game is what if Willy stayed healthy the entire year and played as well as he did when we won, while 6 other team's QB's went down to injury? Yup... that's realistic. What's the point? To make up a scenario where the Bombers could have made the playoffs this year? To what end? To say we were better than our record so we can say that the 3 stooges (Miller/Walters/O'Shea) should be kept on because they're on the right track?

Moore's a good receiver being paid like a great one. I'd love to have him back at a #2 or #3 receiver salary, but I doubt he'd take it. He'll go where he gets the most money.

I like Willy but I don't think he'd have made as much of a difference as a lot fans around here. His slower release would have meant he tooks takes a bunch more punishment than Nichols who throws the ball away instead of taking the hits when he can. He'd have worn down through the season like he did last year and we'd still send him out at 95% then 90% then 80% then as long as he could hold his arm up and limp to the huddle because of our backup situation. We wouldn't have traded for Nichols so every time Willy went down, Brohm or Marve would try in get the win with pretty obvious results.

By that you mean you agree with him.

All I ask is that he looks better than Brohm so we can get rid of him without worrying about losing his CFL experience.

Good news. I'm interested to see what the kid can do.

If they drop Picard and Moore, they should have a bunch of money for new 'Big Name' FA's.

My List (Highlighted are the must signs): P Lirim Hajrullahu - Gambled and lost. I'd sign him for as little as possible and wouldn't complain if he signs elsewhere. SB Nick Moore - Not worth the money we're paying him. I doubt he'll sign for #3 receiver money, so I'll guess he's gone. LB Graig Newman - Bye Bye QB Matt Nichols - Wants a starting job or at the very least competition to be the starter. We shouldn't give him either so I doubt we sign him. LB Chris Randle - One of our best IMO. DB Demond Washington - At the right price sure, but not that big a deal if he doesn't sign. DB Lin-J Shell - Thanks for filling in. No need to resign. DE Louie Richardson - Sure for the right price, but that's not very high IMO. OL Selvish Capers - Nope OL Jace Daniels - One of our best tackles before he was hurt. DE Thaddeus Gibson - I sure hope we can do better. FB Michel-Pierre Pontbriand - OK soldier. Draft someone else. RB Cameron Marshall - Re-sign him, but he's not top of the list. RB's should be a dime a dozen.