17to85

2002 I still think was the year they should have won it, but man you lose Stegall before the playoffs, Roberts gets hurt on the first play of the game in the west final, I think Doug Brown was playing with a high ankle sprain too... just too many of the stars hurt at the worst time.

I have a feeling you're wrong.

Is he? We simply don't have enough of a background on him to say whether he is or isn't. He was well hidden by the egomaniac Mack. I've read numerous comments about Walters wanting to pick someone but being overridden by Mack (Poblah, Ettienne). Walters had a place in the BB org and Mack made sure Walters knew where it was. yes yes everyone talks about the Mulumba vs. Edem thing, but what about Muamba vs. MItchell? Bottom line is we don't know just how good Walters is because there's no track record. We don't know which picks the Bombers made were ones he wanted or ones that Mack wanted. Until such time as he shows one way or the other it is very premature to label Walters as a guru. For all we know he's a guy who talks a good game. Gotta prove it before you get labelled a guru.

Is he? We simply don't have enough of a background on him to say whether he is or isn't.

If Nate had a personal post limit of say 5 per day yeah he'd be quite missed.

but for the last 2 years we've also had horrible coaching.... There are 2 things that make all the difference in the CFL, coaching and quarterbacking. You can get by with an OK qb if you have good coaching but if you don't have good coaching even a good qb will struggle to do much, example Ricky Ray in Edmonton. Good coaches get the most out of their players and make average players look good and good players look great.

this again? Good coaches make players better, all I saw with Burke as head coach was players regressing.

But this is the first time he's trying to do it with out one of the all time best coaches running his teams. Coaching is such a big part of winning and losing in the CFL and perhaps Wally the coach was the guy who carried Wally the GM? Just things that are worth watching.

Yeah when he was done for the year after so few games and Ian Wild stepped in and played so well made it really easy to forget that he looked pretty good in his couple games too.

Potential is a polite way of saying a player sucks right now.

I for one much prefer the straightforward just beat the guy across from you type defenses. I don't think you need to be trying to rely on confusion as a defense, that just leads to getting figured out and exposed. At least in a more standard defense if something is getting exposed you know you have to replace the player.

Jim Daley's time his past. His last stint as a special teams coordinator was woeful to say the least. That being said, here's more news if you will about the Argos coaching staff... Kirk Penton ‏@PentonKirk 28s Casey Creehan and Will Plemons both on #Argos new coaching staff under DC Tim Burke. #Bombers Burke implied and sometimes even more than implied it was our lack of talent for our woes. I guess he and Creehan get a second kick at the can with the Argo's defense. So, if the Argo defense shites the bed this year, or at the very least regress from what they achieved last year, is it now on them or can they continue to use the lack of talent reason (excuse to some)? Or will they come up with another explanation, new system, players left, injuries, head coach etc etc? The one thing Burke excelled at as a head coach was passing the blame to anyone but himself. As a DC he'll be fine, Creehan as a LB coach will be fine (notice how the linebackers played better last year than they did the year before? Creehan obviously helps there) but moving up the ladder was just a spectacular failure. The immediate drop off that the Bombers showed when Lapo was fired and Burke promoted should have been enough to tell them to not just give the job to Burke but I guess the mind was made up from the get go so we had to suffer through last season.

Very different. First off, the QB-centre exchange is the most important skill in football. You can't do anything without it. You can't just plug anyone in at centre and expect them to be able to get the ball to the QB at a CFL level, which is the problem with guys like Kowalczuk and Parenteau etc. That is a huge skill in and of itself. The centre makes some calls to protections, but this is way overrated in Canadian football, most plays have the protections built in and basically what both the centre and QB both do is count how many guys are inside the tackles and which gap the defence is centered on, basically what they are playing as the strong side, which 99% of the time mirrors the offence or the width of the field anyways. This is different than American football, mostly the strong side of the field down south depends on the strong hand of the QB since the field is not nearly as wide. This is most of what the calls are, and the protection adjusts based on it, but every guy can see that when they look up, and if you're playing somewhere noisy, there's not a lot you can change at the line. Everyone is watching for potential blitzers, that mostly falls on the QB to make a call to react to that. adjust a route. OL have to block from their inside gaps out and do their best to take whoever comes...that's why you'll often see guys coming off the edge free when a defence sends more than 5. When you see guys come free through the 4 middle gaps, that means someone really screwed up, either took the wrong block or got completely dominated physically. Zone run blocking, it doesn't matter where the defence lines up or how many, they are blocking gaps and chipping upfield. Zone plays head to a side of the field, not a specific gap, you're basically creating a 3 on 2 situation for your blockers all along the LOS on the play side, allowing at least one of those guys to chip and get to the next level to take a LB or HB. The RB reacts and finds the opening. So really a centre doesn't call anything there, every OL needs to read their initial block and come out of their stance properly to get that done. The first 3 steps are key, can't waste any if you need to get upfield, or get a bit wider. I guess it depends what you think a sub-par lineman is. IMO, most of the centres in the league lately have all been subpar, meaning they'd really suck if you moved them to another spot where they actually ended up blocking someone 1 on 1 on the majority of snaps. But that's where the snapping part comes in, a guy who can snap very well and consistently can make a career, even if he struggles to make a block. Just look at a guy like Dominic Picard. If I had a dime for everytime he's literally been carried through the pocket by a DT, I could pay for my season tickets this year. Mostly you're just hoping they can be a good speed bump. Guards need to be more mobile, presumably you want them to be able to get to the 2nd level (LB's, HB's) in run blocking, although there are enough guys around the league lately that don't really have that ability (Kabongo for one). They both need to be smart enough to know where their block is and guards need to be patient enough in pass protection to not give up their inside gaps. Patience in OL is a sign of intelligence and football smarts IMO. This is really what the blitz is all about, challenging the OL to give up their inside gaps and a more direct route to the QB, the QB can read the outside rush, when it's coming right at him there's not much he can do. Relating this excellent post to Morley... we would be better with him at centre than at guard IF he was a satisfactory snapper, because his blocking inadequacies would be marginalized? Seems like a match made in heaven for Morley. Obby Khan started out as a tackle then guard then centre, Morley was a tackle to start then guard now maybe centre, seems like the natural career progression for those guys who just aren't talented enough to play the outside positions.

Isn't that pretty close to what we were running last year? only half, all the Bombers were doing last year was confusing themselves.

and yet people screamed bloody murder when our last GM showed a similar attitude....

Guard. Less to think about. Basically a barroom brawler who just has to physically beat up the guy across. C has so much more to do on the field, incl calling formation and such. I actually believe that centre is the less physically demanding position. As long as a guy can snap and has a brain in his head should be able to play centre.

I agree re: inside o-line. It's scary. Sadly, the only way it's going to get better in the forseeable future is a prospect stepping up. Guys who can anchor an o-line just don't make it to free agency frequently enough to bank on that route. They could go for a trade, but the price is going to be high. It'll be a great day when we can stop fretting over the o-line. I think Greaves has developed into a VERY solid Guard Except that all too often he still looks very much like a converted DT. He needs to elevate his game more consistently because, as it stands now, he still gets beat quite regularly. Greaves is still something of a project. What we need is to hire a damned good offensive line coach. Mack loved to draft athletic guys, so there's guys with some tools to work with on the roster, need a coach who can turn them into players. Delmonaco didn't do much of that so the only way the line is going to improve is if we hire someone who can help players improve.

but... we haven't had a gooder since Roberts... OR to a lesser extent Ried. If Charles Roberts is the standard for RBs then you are always going to be disappointed. Guy was one of the all time greats. Reid was good, Simpson was good, Garrett was good. You simply don't need to worry about rb because you go down to the states and you bring in 2 or 3 guys who can play no problems.

Given how the coaching made receivers worse I would have liked to have seen Matthews with a chance to rebound after Crowton was fired. Worked for Denmark. Matthews just strikes me as a guy with the right kind of attitude. He never once bitched about having to be back in the CFL for a 2nd year despite having NFL interest. If he doesn't get an NFL shot then I hope to god we get him back here.

God damn it! Can we start getting some ******* summer time games in Calgary so I might actually have a chance to go to them?

He took forever to even be a guy you could play. He was kept around because of his athleticism, managed a couple good years then regressed last season. Not the kind of guy I'm too broken up about losing. Got more chances than anyone else would have just based on his athleticism.

I gave it a B, it's good but nothing really wowed me.

but that's the best time to think about things and solve all the worlds problems. Seriously you aren't comfortable alone in your head for that length of time?

Sorenson was no screaming hell for us but now I'm not seeing a centre that's better than him... have to see what the plan is.

Yeah but we already had the bar set really low for our coordinators.