Captain Blue

The rest of the results this weekend were rough. Going to be a battle still just to get into the playoffs.

People often overlook the impact of the QB on taking sacks. The line or the receivers take the blame when often times sacks are a result of QB play. Nichols has in the past opted against some quick throws and seemingly refuses to throw the ball away too. It's certainly not all on Nichols but I think he's making the problem worse.

When Loffler is making plays you know your offense may need to change things up. Happy to see him finally make a big impact though.

Offense has one splash play and nothing else. They are really struggling. First down runs are terrible right now and Nichols is still struggling against the blitz.

Was hoping to get another receiver in here but I'm not too worried about it either way. Our chance at the playoffs and/or in the playoffs was always going to rest on the players we already have here. If Nichols and the receivers play well, we're dangerous. If not, pack up the lockers.

I don't know how the refs can't see that's a catch.

Great defensive game again. If we had an offense I would pick us to do damage in the playoffs. This passing attack is sadly not improving at all.

He was good but I think the result would have been similar Streveler. I don't think this QB issue/situation is going away anytime soon, despite what O'Shea thinks. I feel like we offered up Montreal as a sacrifice to Nichols, got him to look good so he can keep the job, and now we can just go on pretending like everything is fine. Montreal is a bad, bad team. The Bombers should have beat them easily, especially with the defense swarming and Manziel playing poorly. The offense continues to be inconsistent and that issue was magnified when Harris got hurt.

We didn't play bad but we didn't play well. This defense is good. I still think they are overlooked because so much of the focus is on the offense. I still think Nichols is limiting our offense but he was at least managing the game well tonight.

As long as they don't mess with our jerseys I'm happy. They are the best in the league, in my opinion, and I'm not saying that just as a Bomber fan. For fairly recent editions we've had some of the worst. BC's jerseys are awful. Calgary needs to get rid of the black, otherwise they're so similar to Ottawa. Montreal could use a re-do as well.

Obviously it's a team game and lots went into the past two weeks, but the difference between the teams was that we spotted them a Matt Nichols.

Somebody better be fired for this one.

Let him freaking throw the ball. So far Strev has gotten the training wheel offense.

Nichols has five interceptions, only three of which counted. The other two were poor decisions/throws, so I don't really care that the penalties bailed him out on those. He has given Sask 17 points off turnovers. If he doesn't sit now, O'Shea has lost his damn mind and we may as well start the rebuild now.

If Nichols starts the second half then this whole group can get the hell out of Winnipeg

Nichols tossing into double coverage consistently. Surprisingly not a great strategy!

It's pretty clear Nichols continues to take points off the board and actively hurt the team.

How does Brooks not get thrown out of the game?

I don't completely disagree...but I do disagree at least a bit. I think LaPo's "Streveler Offense" did a pretty good job of emphasizing his mobility, either on designed runs or play action. I personally would prefer a ton more zone read, still, in that offense, but I just want to make the point that I do think the Nichols Offense and the Streveler Offense were pretty different.

And in to clear double coverage...

I really am confused why we won't use our Canadian receivers. Forget the passports, they may actually provide more reliability. Not that they are necessarily the better receivers, but our imports are struggling to get open and post high catch rates.

Completely agree with all of it. This defense isn't amazing by any means, but they're containing teams at a decent rate, until they reach a breaking point. I don't think its a coincidence that break point is consistently after the offense fails on several drives.

We were within one score despite doing almost nothing via the pass game all day. Nichols put us in a hole early. Defense kept us in the game and Nichols and the offense managed to get and carry the lead for a while - and then that was about it for the offensive production for the day. The defense isn't perfect, but unless you expect them to post zeroes across the board its going to be difficult to win games. "2nd half collapse" would seem to give them more blame, when in reality if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have been in the game at all. In the first, third and fourth quarter today, the offense managed 9 points (3 x 3). Not all of that is on Nichols, obviously, but its pretty clear that he is currently a major issue.

Weirdly, I still feel pretty good about the Bombers other than Matt Nichols. Like, I think this result would be drastically different if they had started or even switched to Chris Streveler. Nichols burned several possessions by taking terrible sacks. Sure spent a lot of time pointing to where his receivers should be after the play was done, too. The Riders provide very little offense but rely on their defense to win games. That bodes well for them when Nichols is completing 50% of his passes, throwing for <200 yards and spending most of his game doing almost nothing. If we had even a mediocre passing offense today, I think we win.

Matt Nichols is done. Sit him down on the bench. If this team trots him out for the Banjo Bowl, they should all be ashamed. Defense played pretty well. 14 of those points against were from Nichols and the special teams. Not their fault Nichols is having less success than Antonio Freaking Pipkin.