TBURGESS

When you say ONLY, your saying that Willy's career night is not only the new normal, which it isn't, but the new lowest expectation we should have. From here on out, Willy could get better, worse, or be the same. That's the reality The 'Debbie Downer' view would be he's already played his best game and he will ONLY get worse. (Read it in a Eeyore voice to get the full effect.)

I picked the Bombers but it's been the best bet in CFL for years to pick the Bombers to lose after a win. Ottawa has an extra week to prepare for us and has seen what we did to Toronto. We don't know what Ottawa will do in a regular season game. It's also the first game for the new Ottawa team so they should be sky high. We need to get to Burris early and often. They need to run on us. We need to protect Willy. They need to pressure him. We need to win 2 in a row for the first time since the first half of 2011.

It's not about life without Calvillo. Montreal found out what life without Calvillo was like last year. It's the perfect storm in Montreal. They took forever to sign their HC. They fired the OC in the middle of TC after the offence had been designed and partly implemented. The gave the OC job to an unqualified Dinwiddie who doesn't look like he has any understanding of how to run it. Smith got injured and couldn't practice or play in the first pre-season game. They start on the road against one of the top 2 teams in the league. It amazes me how many folks complain about young QB's being inconsistent. Smith will be inconsistent just like almost all first time starting QB's are, especially those with only 1 TC under their belt (Ray is the only one I can think of who wasn't inconsistent in his first year). If he doesn't improve his accuracy he won't become a good starting CFL QB. If he does, then Montreal will be fighting for 1st in the east.

Allen

How is berry going to teach him touch on the ball and not to overthrow his receivers by 10 yards? He'd use the running game. He'd give Smith easier passes to get his confidence back. He'd tell Smith to use his legs more. If he could keep Smith on the field more by getting a few first downs, Smith would calm down IMHO. Smith looked better last year than he has this year. A bunch of the problems are the loss of the OC during TC, a TC injury and moving Dinwiddie into the OC spot. None of that should downplay the fact that Smith needs to be more accurate, but it could limit the damage.

got a simple question for you, you seem to like to stick up for every other team all the time, what are you gonna say when drew willy has a bad game? How do you take "Smith had a horrible game" as sticking up for Montreal or any other team for that matter? I expect Willy will have bad games this year. I'm probably going to tell folks who are jumping off a cliff: "That's what happens with first time starting QB's."

Not sure I get your point here. In his prime, Korey was a halfback yes, and Milts' first year on the panel he actually picked him as his first player over a QB in some mock draft they were doing (I believe it was if you were starting a franchise and you could have any one player in the CFL as your first player who would it be). Obviously, Milt felt he was the best DB in the league he had to play against, so high praise indeed. But I remember that, because that season, Banks struggled in the DB position, and after that year, he started transistioning to LINEBACKER. And when the bombers signed him, they signed him as a LINEBACKER. In the preseason games, he played as a LINEBACKER. When he didn't play in game one, his replacement - Johnny Sears I believe it was - played LINEBACKER. So what does the comment of our DB's have anything to do with Banks? Our outside LB's are DB's.

Yup, the cost, in Winnipeg of all places where the cost of players is hotly debated because we expect to get more for less.

The average fan sees we went out and got a great vet in Banks (they don't know he was on his last legs, they just know the name), that Banks looked to bleed Blue and Gold from day 1 and now he's on his way out the door. They see tweets and probably an article or two that say 'Don't piss off O'Shea' and they wonder what's going on. As long as we keep winning, they won't care. If we don't and we have DB problems, then they will wonder out loud if Banks was really the problem. So yes... I do think optics matter.

Smith had a horrible game. Not going to try to deny that. Gotta expect good and bad games from first year starting QB's. I still think Smith has all the tools to be a good starting CFL QB. If you replace Dim-Witti with Berry at OC you'd soon see the same Smith that won games for the Als last year.

It probably cost us 65-70K (50K Bonus + 15K CBA + Pay) of SMS room. The Optics are horrible. I raises GM competency questions. It brings up O'Shea or the highway or locker room problems after the first game of the season. It brings up lying to the media (I know lots of folks think thats the right thing to do). IF Banks is a locker room problem and/or he's was beat out for his spot, then just say it and cut him. He's hasn't got much if any trade value anyway.

It's one game folks. Glenn threw a stupid across his body ball into the endzone that got picked off, then he just lost it. He'd been playing pretty well before that. The last INT didn't matter. The game was already over. If he'd connected in the endzone on his second last ball, which was very close, he'd be a hero not a zero. If we'd had Glenn all these years instead of the parade of bad and oft injured QB's, we'd have had much better seasons.

Poor game all round. Smith couldn't hit the broad side of the barn. Dinwiddie called a horrible game. Hebert's hit was dirty but he wouldn't have been thrown out of the game if it wasn't Cornish. Calgary should have won by more points.

I don't have any problems with replacing Banks if he's being out played by younger/cheaper players. In fact that's the way I think a team should be run. I do have a problem with giving him a $50K bonus, a raise and paying the CBA bonus then losing the investment before he plays a single game. If Mack or Kelly or Taman did this, they'd be raked over the coals, but because it's Walters, it's an astute move. Quite frankly, Banks has zero trade value. Wally said there weren't many takers when he was being shipped out of BC so he took Kito as that's all he could get.

Aside from a few energetic tweets and interviews in the days after the deal, what else has he done exactly? He was the talk of the town when we hired him. He bought into the Bombers day one. IIRC he called FA's to sell the Bombers. He immediately assumed the vet leader role that we were completely lacking. He was considered our biggest pick up until Willy, even though Randle was the best DB we signed. I was/am expecting him to get a starting spot or at least DI.

If it's true then WOW. Did not see that coming. Banks has done everything you want from a vet since they signed him. Sounds like Wally was right yet again. I can't see any team giving up anything for Banks. Too bad about the signing bonus. That's gone for good. Don't care about losing Kito. He wasn't producing anyway.

We went hard after Collaros, but even more money didn't trump Hamilton's advantages and we went hard after Burris but were outbid by a large margin (Ottawa overpaid IMHO). The Bombers aren't on record saying Willy was their first choice. After we lost out on Collaros and Burris O'Shea said that MacManus liked Willy. That morphed into Willy was our first choice all along, but not until after we lost out on the other two. It really doesn't matter in the long run if Willy was #1, #2, or #3. What matters is Willy is the one we got. and he's looked great so far.

What a great game to watch if your a Bomber fan! Opening drive of the season's a TD. When was the last time we did that? Willy had time. Threw some great balls. Looked more like Ray than Ray. Only blemish was the Int. Etch's defense looked spectacular tonight. I don't think it will last game to game, but it sure was great to see tonight. Kelly had a career night. Looked way better than I and many others thought he would. Got the breaks and Toronto took way too many penalties. Toronto's noname DB's looked horrible. Mistake after mistake. Our receivers look a lot better when the QB can get them the ball in stride. Best I've felt about a Bomber game in years. Great job by all involved.

Great game by Willy. Best QB'ing since Khari was playing well.

I blame the media, Friesen most of all. Stupid negative articles.

O'Shea wasn't protecting some state secret. He was being given an opportunity to recognise those players who'd worked their butts off to earn the starters spots and to get some much needed good press. He chose instead to verbally give the middle finger to the media. There is a group around here who applaud that, and call it leadership, but I'm not one of them. Lets just agree to disagree because saying anything negative about O'Shea these days is like saying anything negative about Mack in the IMWT days. It's just going to start arguments from mostly the same folks.

I guess you misunderstood the question he was asked. The media wanted to know who the starters were. O'Shea refused to answer the question and fed them hackneyed 'They are all starters' response.

There are starters and there are backups on every team, the Bombers included. The starters have earned the right to be called starters and the backups hope to earn that right. The starters and the backups know who they are. The opposing coaches know who they are. Everyone who watches tonight's game will know who they are. It's no big secret that the coach has to protect. To me calling everyone starters is the same as giving everyone a participation ribbon in grade school.

This right here tells me that no matter what, even if we have a perfect head coach, you won't like him. Because a perfect coach won't tell you what you want to hear in public. What you're failing to acknowledge is that there's a difference between "saying nice things" and "saying nice things *in public*" ... he's a no nonsense type coach by all accounts, if you trust the players he has coached in past and present. But in the public eye, when everything needs to be cool, calm, collected and balanced? He's not going to give the media anything to run with. And that's how it should be. But you'll never acknowledge it because you can't get 100% guaranteed confirmation that he ISN'T like that in the locker room, despite every single account telling you that he isn't. I acknowledged that there's a difference between what's said in public and in private in the second sentence of the post you quoted. It's you who's failing to acknowledge that you don't know actually what's being said in private. O'Shea has been completely one sided in his public comments, not balanced. Most of it's BS and everyone knows that. I'm not expecting insider tips, or dirty laundry, or info that could hurt the team. I am expecting more than 'everyone who makes the team is a starter' or the Alfred E Neumanesc and 'what me worry' statements. I don't dislike O'Shea and given time, he may become the next good CFL HC. In fact, it's the 'Only say good things' that I dislike and those who think that's leadership.

Why do you equate being honest with publicly trashing players? I'm not expect him to 'throw anyone under the bus'. Just tell the truth and cut the BS. I don't know what O'Shea does in private because I'm not there. I respectfully submit that you don't know either. I certainly hope he's different behind closed doors. I haven't listened to the coaches show. I haven't read anything he's divulged on these sites from the coaches show either. I do know that everything else O'Shea has said in the media is 'super positive'. He tries to turn every negative into a positive no matter how much of a stretch it is or how silly it sounds. Everyone knows that all the players who made the team aren't starters. That's like giving everyone participation ribbons. Unless O'Shea is brain dead, and I personally don't think he is, he has to be concerned with parts of the team. The whole idea that saying nice things will somehow make the team better is ridiculous.