JuranBoldenRules

More than the offense couldn't get a first down for 6 drives at the most critical juncture of the game.

Put him in the booth alone?

They play 13 out of 18 games in the same time zone with minimal travel. Teams in the West aren't crying the blues for them.

Well the offense doesn't execute... It kind of depends what you're looking at. If it's second and five from the opposite 40 you aren't going to come up and try to cover everyone off the line because the QB is going to read that and then throw over it for a big play. They do play shorter zones and alternate running some pretty aggressive fronts and dropping guys out to disrupt timing and reads, that's often the most effective way now with the way PI is. You have to kind of think of plays in the larger context of the game not just that down or even drive.

I'm more disappointed in Loffler when he's actually playing a more traditional safety. If he gets caught in coverage we are screwed and he's been struggling at taking good angles at guys running in the open field from deep. He needs a more aggressive role where he's attacking and has less ground to cover/decisions to make IMO. They should just make him the WIL full time already and use someone with better cover skills as a safety.

Playing man to man in this era of PI and IC isn't going to fly. Thr Bombers are playing mostly a match zone with cover 2 safeties, two guys covering a deep half of the field and everyone else watching a specific receiver or back as well as flowing to the ball. That's a very simple description. It changes up when they blitz and based on offensive alignment, 3 man rush they run cover 3 on long passing downs. I didn't think they played horrible. Lulay hit some lucky heaves in the first half. He didn't do much in the second half until the scoring drives after our offense didn't get a first down in six possessions.

I agree, but you also have to make a defense pay with execution to slow down blitzes and loosen up coverages. Misdirection has been working quite well but is not used consistently. IMO they need Flanders on the roster. Diversify Harris' role, run some split backs and run Harris out as a receiver (something they already do quite a bit in Empty sets). Imagine if Harris was running those sweeps or if you had Dressler and Harris both cutting through the backfield and defenders had to keep their eyes on whether it was Dressler, Harris or Flanders getting the ball, or is it a fake and Nichols is tossing a bomb for Adams who's defender was looking into the backfield and is now a step behind. Also just let our OL impose themselves with some downhill runs.

Honestly with the inconsistency of our offence and more precisely QB play for 4 games this season it's impressive that we've basically been in every game, for 3 quarters in the case of the Calgary game.

Passing Charts Interesting from Marshall Ferguson. Nichols completed 5 passes over 10 yards on Friday night. There is absolutely no way that's by design. That's a guy who is taking a long time to progress through his reads (too long) and move the ball leaving himself with no options. Also from Ferguson:

Nichols has put up basically the same numbers with each team and OC he's played with. The one thing he's done better the past two seasons is significantly decrease the amount of turnovers he is responsible for.

TBH I wouldn't count that Adams catch as difficult. He chose to grab it one handed. The ball was placed where only he could get it and he had a step on the DB. He chose not to turn his shoulders and took it one handed but also could have rose up and caught it with two.

Not sure it matters. We couldn't move the ball for long stretches. We have a great OL. If our QB threw for 400 yards we wouldn't worry about our rushing game.

Those phony subjective stats are kind of a joke to be honest.

Consistently executing the basics would be a good start. Watching Nichols in the pocket he's clearly struggling with pre-snap reads, either making bad ones or not trusting the ones he's making, and really struggling to account for blitzes (luckily BC only blitzed intermittently). There's a lot of double clutching and dancing when he isn't under much pressure. That is a really bad sign. He seems to do better when they give him those little quarter rolls to move the launch point and get his shoulders towards his target. Otherwise he's doing a lot of twisting and tossing some funky inaccurate tosses on anything downfield. Obviously we can't see film quality footage but I'd assume his indecision and slow release is often leading to the number of checkdowns he's "forced" into. Simply, the ball has to be moving faster whether they determine it's on Nichols or play calling, and those two can help each other out.

He had 3 great drives. That's excellent. If our D didn't come up huge repeatedly with the field tilted and both D and teams score or set up the offence in the red zone it's a blow out. Guy needs to find some kind of consistency. And it was half of the 3rd Q and most of the 4th where we couldn't get a first down. Not exactly clutch.

Nichols didn't get a first down for a full quarter. He absolutely did not have a better passing game, 150 fewer yards. Don't care too much about completion percentage when you aren't throwing longer than 5 yards most of the time.

Think they probably both saw something BC was doing leaving the middle of the field open plus took the shot thinking the D was spent and the O was not moving the ball (no first downs and 2 turnovers in 6 possessions after the 2 TDs to start the half). O'Shea didn't give much detail but said Medlock had the green light if he saw the key they were looking for. Does that mean something from film study they had on for the whole game? Or on the sideline tonight? Or that punt specifically?

Bizarre man...you're comparing Jennings and Lulay. Lulay is turning the ball over at a much higher rate than Jennings who you called a turnover machine. Just ******* bizarre.

Why was that dumb? It was called a completion on the field. He had to challenge to get the incompletion.

So is Lulay. 5 TD's 4 INTs, plus a INT on a 2 pt convert that was nearly returned back for 2 vs Hamilton, so basically 1:1 TD/INT ratio. His ball wasn't great to start and sailed more and more as the games wore on.

One was a starter who came back. The other was his backup who separated his shoulder.

I think we need a DB at safety too. There's the threat of Loffler taking someone's head off sure, but he's slow, and not very impactful generally. I think he'll be a hell of a WIL when he won't get caught in coverage as often and will be in closer proximity to the ball, covering less ground. He's a good tackler. I'd platoon Knox and Hurl, shift Loffler down to WIL and pick a DB to play safety.

Comes down to using run formations IMO. Most of our run plays start with our OL in 2 point stances and Harris getting the ball moving east-west, super slow developing. We run a ton of empty backfield so opposing D knows there's no chance of a run (especially if Dressler isn't motioning across). They don't really run between the tackles per se everything is a read play where the back is trying to wrap around the tackle and get loose, only cuts back if there's a gap. Because the handoffs are out of shotgun with everyone flat footed the D are coming at Harris or any back downhill. We need to reverse that equation and let our guys tee off.

I think the flashes he shows, the 2-3 drives a game where he's on fire, might do that regardless of record. I think there are a lot of issues with playcalling. Things work, then disappear. Misdirection works amazingly, but is only good for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, no commitment to a run game even with an overpowering OL crew and some great backs, one who can't get on the roster. Nichols doesn't have a quick enough release to run a very diverse passing game, but they sure as hell can help him out with a run game.

250 yard QB in a league where 300 yards is average. Only reason we are in these games with good teams is because our D and special teams can score and put the O in the redzone. Can't move the ball reliably. Can't even get first downs for long stretches. O is not improving even with continuity from last season. Lapo better figure out how to move it with what he's got and better utilize the whole roster. An all-star QB isn't going to appear to save his bacon.