TBURGESS

I think Willy and Hall are #1 and #2 at least until mid-season. I can't see the club cutting Hall.

Based solely on last nights performance, the QB's would be: 1. Marve - Small sample against the worst Toronto had. Still the the best accuracy and zip on the ball. Used his feet well to move the pocket and to run when needed, Brought life to a dead offence. Dove for a first down and had the best stats. Moved to #3 on the charts last night IMHO. I want to see him against better competition. 2. Willy - 50% passing. 2 of the 6 completions were great catches, not great throws. Almost got Moore killed with an errant pass. Got his INT called back or else his stats would have been worse. Still looked like a QB with some plus side. Outplayed Hall by a wide margin. Ran well when he had to. He needs to step it up IMHO as 108 yards in a half won't get us many wins. 3. Hall - Gets #3 by default. Not a good outing. No accuracy. Not enough zip on the ball. Seemed slow. Our #1 QB last year looks to be our 3rd best QB this year, which is progress IMHO. 4. Brohm - Poor performance. Poor accuracy. Other than one good ball, he looked like the game was way to fast for him. #4 reps this week I hope. I'd like to see Marve get 3rd string reps starting tomorrow. Give Willy the first half plus one set of downs next week. Give Hall the rest of the 3rd and give Marve the 4th.

I'm an Orange is the new black fan and I've watched the first 2 of season 2. Good stuff so far.

The score matters every time the team steps on the field, especially at home. Winning matters because the Bombers don't have enough practice at winning and it feels good for everyone involved to win, even if it doesn't matter in the standings. Evaluation of player matters, so I expect to see them all get some reps. The depth chart matters because it tells us who will be playing against the other teams top players, or at least the one's they brought to Winnipeg. In short everything matters.

Not impossible, but to me it seems more likely we use a DI spot for that if we're starting 3 import Olinemen. Traditionally there isn't a lot of rotating of Olinemen to keep them fresh; it's usually an injury situation. Burning one DI spot backing up 2 players and likely not getting any special teams play out of that guy is questionable use. DI'ing an O lineman means that our NI OL's aren't even good enough to be a backup. If we start 3 NI OL, and I really doubt we will, we will back them up with an NI.

To be fair, MOS speaks glowingly of everyone. Yup. He's talking everyone up and hasn't said a bad word about anyone on the team, until they are cut that is.

Lucas and Thomas were inked in as one of the 7 starting NI's. It's not likely at all that Lucas was getting cut. Our NI starters took a hit when Lucas tore his ACL and we need to find another NI DT to rotate with Thomas if we still plan to use an NI at DT. It's much more likely IMHO that we will be forced to use 4 NI O lineman which is a shame because January and Jones were our two best O lineman last year and we won't be able to start both of them this year. No they weren't. I didn't hear anybody say that. You are speculating all the way out there in BC again. You are assuming that was the case but... you have no facts to back what you are saying up. That's your opinion. That's all it is, stop pretending like your opinion is always what the bombers are going to do. Speculation at best. What was actually rumoured was a non import field corner and safety. Never did hear anything about lucas or thomas. Not once, maybe from a couple of you on this board here but walters in the past mentioned field corner and safety as 2 likely spots. You must not have had your 'listening' ear on then. You're the only one who's even suggested that Lucas may have been cut, yet you call me out for speculation? The only difference between being in Winnipeg and out here in BC is that I can't go to practices, which doesn't matter in this conversation. According to reports, Safety has been an import spot pretty much the entire TC.

Chile produces some good inexpensive red wines. US Zinfandel is a big red that's not too expensive, 'Old Vines' make a bigger and better wine.. Canuck's make better white's than reds, especially the Kelowna wineries, look for VQA on the label. Italy and France make good reds and good whites, but the cost is up there due to shipping and taxes.

Lucas and Thomas were inked in as one of the 7 starting NI's. It's not likely at all that Lucas was getting cut. Our NI starters took a hit when Lucas tore his ACL and we need to find another NI DT to rotate with Thomas if we still plan to use an NI at DT. It's much more likely IMHO that we will be forced to use 4 NI O lineman which is a shame because January and Jones were our two best O lineman last year and we won't be able to start both of them this year.

I disagree with trying to get a first time starting QB to play mistake free football. The odds are that he can't as most young QB's are wildly inconsistent. I'd rather see an offense that attacks the mid to deep routes as the primary read so every catch is a first down. I understand that means the QB's completion stats will be worse, but it would give us a better chance of scoring. Throwing the quick check down for 3 yards is an easy completion, but it doesn't move the sticks. Let the young guy air the ball out. One of Willy's strengths is throwing the deep ball. Let him show it on the field.

I thought we'd go with 3 NI's on the O line up until Lucas' injury. Now I think we have to go with 4, just to have enough NI starters. Any of them go down, and we will be in big big trouble NI wise.

Thanks.

I was hoping someone had a little more info on Pencer being MIA, not a definition of MIA.

What does Pencer MIA mean?

Any updates on how the players are doing today?

Generally speaking, the less you hear about OL, the better... Usually they practice so far away you can't see much. I remember when they had TC at St Johns-Ravenscourt being ten yards away from the one on ones with the DL. Geez, you could feel the ground shake. They were having a light practice once and a rook knocked off Bill Frank's sun hat. Holy crap, I thought he was gonna explode. Also you could hear what the coach (Joe Faragelli at the time) was saying. I used to love those practices. So close to the action that you could feel it. Great way to pick up tips too when I was young enough to actually play.

If you want good articles... Include the media, don't fight with them. Work with them. Give them what they want. Make their jobs easy. Don't tell them no unless you absolutely have to. Make them an extension of the team. Treat them like friends. Almost all of the articles written this offseason have been positive. Walters understands what working with the media is and he hasn't had a single bad story that I can think of. Miller has only one bad story and that's when he refused to work with the media on the leaky stadium issue. O'Shea hasn't had any bad articles up to now and they've given him the benefit of any doubt. For example: They could have written about how O'Shea flip flopped on Smith over a 2 day period, but they didn't. Now O'Shea says he's going to control the message and no one else will be allowed to talk with the press. That sets up an adversarial situation with the media. When you do that, don't act surprised or complain when the media starts treating you like an adversary.

Why is it that you ALWAYS side with the media? If a coach does something the media doesn't like, he's picking a fight? Why couldn't it just once be that the media is behaving inappropriately? I didn't like it when Kelly tried to control the media. I could see what was coming back then and we all know how that turned out. I don't like it now any more now and I expect the same results. That's called being consistent, not being on the side of the media. O'Shea wasn't in Winnipeg when Kelly made the mistake, but someone who was around then should tell him how it will probably work out. Here's a hint: If you want to control the message, then make sure everyone's on the same page, help the media spread your message and everyone wins. Don't say "I'm going to control the message and everything comes through me". That's not going to help the situation. In fact it's going to hurt it. BTW: It's not inappropriate for the media to want to talk to more than one person on the team. It's done almost everywhere there is a pro team.

Here we go again. Friesen complains about something the Bombers do and the boys on forums go nuts. I get the popcorn out and see if anyone comes up with anything new. It's almost like the folks around here don't know that Friesen is trying to create buzz and he doesn't care if it's negative or positive. Personally, I think O'Shea trying to control the message and the media is a mistake, just like it was when 'He who must not be named' did it. Picking a fight with the folks who write the articles is a no win situation and it will result in negative press, which the Bombers really don't need. I'll chalk it up to a Rookie HC mistake or not understanding how the press, especially in Winnipeg works. At least it will be grist for the forums so things won't get boring around here.

Assuming my 2 line post makes me the guy from BC who is one of the most upset: What the Bombers do matters to me. I wouldn't be here if it didn't. No one here works O'Shea, but that doesn't mean no one here is entitled to an opinion about his decisions. Coaches do more than just run practices. Some of the biggest fans live outside of Winnipeg. Our opinions are as valid as anyone elses. I'm a big Wylie fan. I understand the theory that some Wylie is better than no Wylie. I think this reduces his effectiveness. I can't think of any other professional coach who gets weekends off during the season. I doubt any exist because it's just not a good idea. I want the guy who's making the final decisions to be there all the time so they see everything first hand. I don't think having a Wylie 'protege' running things is the same a having the man himself doing it. I think having fully committed coaches is better than having partly committed ones. I think the Bombers should have dealt with this issue in the press when they hired Wylie, not waited until the fans/media noticed he wasn't there. I find it funny that folks who are most upset and argue are the ones who think that no one should question anything the Bombers do.

I don't like the idea of Wylie being away, especially during during training camp when they are installing the systems and evaluating the players. I don't like O'Shea's quote either. I thought he wanted folks who are fully committed to making the Bombers better. Being away during camp and again during the season isn't being fully committed IMHO.

Damn. I was hoping we'd get Lauent.

In IE8 it's called an InPrivate window. CTRL/SHIFT/P. In Chrome it's called Incognito. CTRL/SHIFT/N.

Just open it in a new incognito window, your number of read articles number goes back to zero.

I know this was meant as a joke, but surely you know that the issue isn't the "free" part. First, the service provided was essentially a shuttle service (Park and Ride), with direct routes to the stadium that aren't provided by the city's regular bus routes. Eliminating this service means people have to take a regular city bus, which from some locations is damn near impossible, and from others is extremely impractical. A system where the fans are asked to pony up the difference between what the Bombers are willing to pay and what the city is asking would be great, if it weren't for the fact that the city said a "pay" shuttle is not possible (for reasons that escape me now). It was meant as a joke... It's sorta 'funny' cuz it's true Everyone agrees that a bus service of some sort is needed. The Bombers don't want to pay for it. The city doesn't want to pay for it. The fans don't want to pay for it. Everyone seems to think it's someone else's responsibility. Bus service in the cities I've lived in (Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Merida) are similar. Good on some routes, bad on others, and damn near impossible on the rest. Sure, you can take the train in Calgary and Vancouver, but most people have to get to it first, which makes it the same as taking a bus to a second bus to get to the stadium. Some bars in the Canadian cities offer shuttle services to the stadium for a fee. I shake my head and sometimes do a face palm when I see how entitled folks in Winnipeg think they are. you cant honestly believe your bs of winnipegers entitlement, we want decent and more organized transit, thats not entitlement thats a tax payers right, about time our "elected officials" start serving the public instead of there own get re-elected bs. The bombers and the city had a deal and the city completely blind sided the bombers. I think miller wouldnt back down and im glad he wouldnt. Were not entitled were pissed off Talking about BS! You're 'entitled' to free rides to and from sporting events because you pay taxes. Give your head a shake. You don't really believe that do you? You're pissed off because you might have to pay to get to and from games like almost every other CFL fan does (I understand that Edmonton and Ottawa have free rides). The Bombers asked the city to pick up the tab and the transit folks agreed. The City council, who had to actually come up with the money to pay for it, didn't agree. Millar knew all along that it might be voted down and he said so a month or two ago. Now it's time for plan B, which will be announced on Monday.