johnzo

There was one game in particular that made me a Willy fan -- the 2015 Week 6 game against BC. We'd gotten completely owned by Edmonton the week before because Willy got hurt early and Brohm came in and brohm'd it up. Against BC, Willy came back early from his injury and played super gutsy football, rushing for 72 yards even though you could tell he was in pain, and we beat BC pretty good. Watching the way the team responded to having him out there, he really did look like a legit QB and leader and core of the franchise. Obviously that's not the way it worked out, but Willy earned a ton of goodwill from me with that game and that's why I'm rooting for him to get his game sorted out. Sadly, that was basically his last hurrah as a Bomber, his season-ending injury happened the next week and the next time we saw him it was 2016.

Was it the Roughrider receivers who did Eskimo somersaults in the endzone after a TD last week? Loved seeing that. Win the game, take everything from them, including their celebrations. Leave them with nothing but their regrets.

The Bomber Buzz blog noted that instead of having Adams and Randle playing field and boundary last week, Hall just lined them up on the left side and right side, so no surprise here.

Speaking of Week 13, there were 30K in attendance for the Roughriders' win over Edmonton -- credit where credit is due, that's pretty good turnout for a 1-10 team.

Like this "week of game" thread, good idea Noeller. That'd make Richards the first guy off the bench -- but I wonder who would be the emergency WR7 behind him? Fogg maybe, or Lochard if we need a Canadian? Perhaps some Tuck in TE sets? We needed all seven receivers to beat Toronto, so it's not too far-fetched to think we might have to go that deep again.

and note that my view doesn't consider Medlock's impact as a punter. My impression is that he's near the top in net yards per punt but cfl.ca doesn't make that stat easy to find.

Medlock has kicked at least two field goals in every game in our win streak, except for the Banjo Bowl, where he only kicked one. If we take two of those FGs away in each game (and don't turn them into enemy TDs or our rouges) then we go 6-1 instead of 7-0, with the lone extra loss being the LDC. Love the guy and how he helps peck teams to death, but is his impact overstated? I think our ballhawking D deserves the biggest credit for our turnaround. It'll be interesting to see what happens when those turnovers dry up. (edit: but yeah, the medsiah name is pretty awesome.)

Who would want to be the Als head coach after what happened to Tom Higgins? It's bad enough when a boss thinks they can do your job. It's even worse when the boss wants to do your job. Plus you've got local legend AC lurking in the wings. I suspect that the long-term plan (such as it is) is for AC to become the head coach and that Popp made himself the interim guy so that there'd be no awkward contracts or coaches hanging around when it comes time to elevate AC.

Talking about the pressure on Cato ... man, playing quarterback must suck so badly. Your success is entirely dependent on other people. If you've got a crappy OL or receivers who can't get open, you're just hooped, but you can't point fingers or make excuses because then you look like Casey Printers. A goaltender can look good even if the team around them sucks badly. A stellar pitcher is a stellar pitcher no matter how bad their team is. But even the best QB is helpless if their team isn't any good.

Are you suggesting that Waggoner could be our backup DE? Am I missing something here or does the guy have any kind of track record at that position? At least JFG and Richards are natural-born receivers. I think our best option, if Harris can't go, is Flanders + JFG.

Really curious to see if Flanders sees the field vs. Toronto, and what import gets benched if he does.

Montreal settling for field goals -- if they were a little better in the red zone, this'd be a one-score game.

c'mon Als, let's see a big defensive play early, get the momentum back...

Gotta be impressed with Khari Jones' work here.

Always a good sign when your star receiver and your inexperienced QB are fighting in the huddle.

aww yeah Terrance Frederick.

And yeah, it's a bummer to think that Ray might be at the end of the line. Him vs. Calvillo in the 2005 Grey Cup was the best CFL game I've ever seen live.

If Jones moves on from Durant then the Mike Kelly-fication of the Riders will be complete. Getting rid of your established starter without a proven guy in the wings, that's a move that will change the Riders from a losing but semi-competitive team into a team that's unwatchably brutal. (I don't think the Riders are as far away as others may think ... they've got a QB and some Canadian talent, on paper they're way ahead of where the bombers were in 2014.)

Burying the lede a bit here .. in the linked tweet, HZ in Montreal is reporting that Ricky Ray has a punctured lung -- which definitely pushes Toronto into the lower, non-playoff tier of the the CFL along with Montreal and the Riders, which (if those teams continue to struggle) means playoffs for us for sure.

Oh man, that 2014 season opener against Toronto, when 5to19 looked like the new hotness. Such a great game, reminds me of Buck Pierce's debut in 2010 when he and Terrance Edwards were unstoppable. You also see some good pocket presence in those clips, Willy crisply moving away from pressure with eyes downfield, then making the throw. He was never a speedster or a magician like Durant but at his best the guy could really keep an extended play alive. I'm happy that Nichols has us on a roll, but I sure would like to see the 2014 Willy again, especially since our receiving talent is 200% better than it was in 2014. Bummer to think that maybe we've ruined yet another QB.

In that same game, he hit McDuffie and Dressler perfectly in stride down the right sideline with coverage lurking, and those plays weren't much deeper than the Sheppard / Dressler endzone misses. So he can definitely do it.

After everything that went down in 1983, it's kinda astonishing that Brock and Winnipeg weren't permanently estranged.

Fun/sad Banjo Bowl trivia: this is the first time in eight years that the Bombers have started the same QB in two consecutive Banjo Bowls.