17to85

I'm pretty sure he's never said that, it's only people like you who imply that simply because he defends Mack from the UNFAIR criticism he takes. Dave has never suggested Mack doesn't deserve criticism. He's simply suggested that he doesn't always deserve all of it. I've never even said that he didn't deserve to get fired either, all I've ever done was try and provide a balance to the piling on that goes on. Some people like Iso spend all their time harping on Mack doing absolutely everything wrong and it's his fault for every single thing that no one else could possibly take any blame and that's just wrong and I won't stand for it.

The only time the o-line has looked good was towards the end of last season which it appears more and more was a product of Joey Elliott being able to move around in the pocket to avoid pressure and get a pass away in a timely fashion. Right now I want the entire coaching staff cleaned out top to bottom with the exception of Craig Dickenson. Special teams is the only part of the team that has shown any improvement this year.

but isn't this what has been said for the past several years? I have to hope that a new GM means it will be a reality this time. If not, this team will continue on the path it is now, which is not a good one for the long term stability of the franchise. Or the other side of that argument is that there has been competition for spots on this team, the coaches we have though just can't maximize the returns on that talent. The list of players who have really progressed on this team is really really short, but the list of guys who have seen their play regress is quite lengthy.

but isn't this what has been said for the past several years?

I'd be more afraid of a GM knowing he's got to win now or be fired doing long term damage than a guy angling to remove the temporary label. Guy in Walters position is more likely to play it safe than take big risks until he is confirmed as being the one in charge. A guy knowing he might be fired though might try and kind of desperation move to save his hide.

What good is naming an interm GM if he can't do anything? Gotta let him act as if he's the GM. Not like he's in a position where he's going to absolutely gut the teams future, no interm guy is going to do that.

I was trying to think to myself earlier about who was actually playing as well as expected or better and I realized that most of the names were people new to the team. Kelly, Ian Wild, I completely agree with you that players come here and get worse the more they are exposed to the coaching. One of the things that Lapo did manage to do well was get players to improve, at least it seems to me that he did at least a little bit. This coaching staff needs a complete over haul or it won't matter which players they bring in.

but that's what the coaches want though. They wanted the highly athletic fast interior guys. If they had wanted the big immovable DT then you can be sure that they'd be looking for one. The defensive line works well within the system they're put together so I don't think we can say that they're failing to address an issue there.

The people at the top though are the ones that should be saying that because that's basically their job. The coach though, his job is to get the most out of what he is given to work with and Burke has not come close to doing that. Which players are having a career year on this team? Which players are meeting or exceeding expectations?

can't get much clearer than that

well clearly the smart thing to do is not say anything. Oh please, then we'd find something else to attack him on. Perhaps his lack of confidence in answering a question. Or why he would clearly ignore a question directly posed to him from the media. Burke does plenty of stupid things and deserves criticism for all of them. This is not one of them. This is Troy Westwood-level criticism right here. It's not hard to say things like "all I can do is worry about winning game this year and whatever they decide to do they decide to do" says nothing and still answers the question. Seriously this isn't complicated. "Look, Coach Burke doesn't even care about what happens next season cause he's already checked out! Fire him now already! Him being on the team when he clearly doesn't care about what happens going forward is only going to hurt our team long-term." You're right, slamming him regardless of what he says isn't that complicated. The fact that he didn't answer the question in the exact way you wanted him to framed perfectly to fit your expectations doesn't mean he handled it wrong. instead he threw the fired GM totally under the bus, he threw his players under the bus and he quite frankly insulted the intelligence of everyone who follows this team by contradicting what he said before the season started. Yeah that's much better. Burke at this point is simply saying anything and everything to make excuses for himself and it is absolutely disgusting.

well clearly the smart thing to do is not say anything. Oh please, then we'd find something else to attack him on. Perhaps his lack of confidence in answering a question. Or why he would clearly ignore a question directly posed to him from the media. Burke does plenty of stupid things and deserves criticism for all of them. This is not one of them. This is Troy Westwood-level criticism right here. It's not hard to say things like "all I can do is worry about winning game this year and whatever they decide to do they decide to do" says nothing and still answers the question. Seriously this isn't complicated.

yeah I'm calling bullshit on that one. You want him to flame out so you can crow about how you knew all along he was a bust.

well clearly the smart thing to do is not say anything.

It's also very comical to see Burke talk about how well he works with Walters and Miller, seems to me in the offseason he was talking about how he worked well with Joe Mack, seems that he was also very happy with the talent on the team, especially the addition of guys like Cauchy and how he felt that Crowton was a brilliant coach who could be a head coach if he wanted to... and how he couldn't wait for Buck to get healthy last season and how he was so confident in him this year, and how great a prospect Goltz was at qb... Burke is full on desperation mode. Not even trying to win games just trying to make excuses to save his job. Put him out of his misery right now I don't care who you give the last few games to but Burke has got to go the sooner the better. They could fire Burke tomorrow and it would be too late.

The difference between Poblah and Etienne in my mind is that Etienne has shown he can catch the ball whereas poblah has struggled with that aspect.

when it comes to Etienne is pretty easy to just ignore Isos opinions completely. He labeled him a bust from the moment he was taken and even a 1000 yard season wouldn't change his mind.

I did a comparison of Lapos record and Burkes record in another thread, it's pretty easy to see from that that Burke has been as big a dud at head coach as this team has ever had. If the Bombers foolish retain Burke for another season I hope to go they are prepared for an empty stadium. year and a half of blowouts under Tim Burke is having even the diehards not caring about the team, that alone should be enough for them to boot Burke out as soon as the season is over.

that's ok, the Bombers season was done 2 months ago.

I don't think Reed is the only one to blame in Edmonton, ultimately the players have to take ownership of their own bodies too and I have no doubts that Reilly is so competitive that he wants to be out there regardless. That's the biggest thing, it's not a physical thing that prevents them from playing, they figure they can just suck it up and fight through it but that can make things worse. It's a hell of a lot better these days now that things are better understood.

but the offense was never THIS bad. How come Burke can't get his defense playing up to that level again? Is that not part of a head coaches job? Getting coordinators in here who can get the most out of their respective areas of the team? That's why Lapo was fired after all. Burke hasn't put anything good on the field.

yeah let's say SJ Green. Betting against the Bombers seems the safest bet.

I think it's a case that right now we seem to have 2 options at tackle who are imports and look to be pretty good. If the team is serious about addressing the offensive line issue it makes the most sense to play those two imports there and look for NIs to strengthen the interior of the line. Now obviously things may change with regards to the ratio in the offseason but to me it just makes a hell of a lot of sense to stick with the 2 imports on the o-line philosophy for now.

I'd rather a team that has a chance to win almost every game than a team that has no chance to win.

I totally disagree The team was very bad and only our rock solid defense kept us competitive. The moment Burke left the defense to be hc and also the moment Harris passed away the teams defense took a massive nose dive. Forget not our offense has sucked since Jules was traded and buck became really glass Joe from punch out. Lapo sucked big time. Key word bolded. Lapo wasn't a great coach, I don't think he was even a good coach truthfully but he kept that team competitive, with Burke in charge the team rolls over and dies each week.