Captain Blue

I like it.

This team just needs to get back to playing their best for the full game. Turned it on too late again.

I expect a close game. I think the Bombers will bounce back because Osh never let's them get too high or too low. Edmonton is a good opponent. Could see this coming down to a late field goal for either team.

There are two ways to approach this sentence. First, that we need to shift credit to Richie Hall, or second, and this would be my preferred option - this coaching staff deserves a helluva lot of credit. That's Osh to coordinators to assistants.

I thought this group was done at 1-4. They've completely changed how I view them. It's not just that they've won 7 games in a row. That streak will end at some point, maybe even this weekend. What they have shown is that the culture did in fact change here. That there is some resiliency to come back from losses. These are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers that O'Shea has led. Credit to Walters for how he has constructed the roster, but O'Shea has done a good job with those players. I'm looking around the league and now think we have one of the best young coaches right now who continues to improve. These guys are all getting re-signed and I'm pumped.

I think everyone understands Pederson's firing. He went full on crazy--drunk-uncle this year. Firing Dunk was a mistake. It's not like CFL.ca provides a lot of great content. You've got team puff pieces and then scouting content. Now all you've got is puff pieces. Dunk also was a good reporter. The CFL made a mistake on this one.

They've won six games in a row with Nichols, who is still putting up solid numbers as well. This isn't even a debate.

I love these moves. Win win for the Bombers.

Even though it ended up irrelevant, that tackle by Nichols to prevent the return TD was impressive. That was all about effort. That's a leader to rally around.

I wouldn't underestimate the Riders this week, because again I think its a game where they should be able to elevate their play. We've seen plenty of times where the inferior team (be it the Riders or Bombers in the past) were able to make it a really close game. I expect Jones to rile them up some more with his "us vs the world" mentality. I'm just hoping it backfires because they seem to be focusing so much on the refs and the league rather than the football games.

Really entertaining game today and was thrilled to get a win. The Riders are and were a bad team, but Labour Day always brings out the best. They hung in there and then pounced when the Bombers couldn't put the game away. Its concerning that they still can't find ways to end drives in touchdowns. Some of that is playcalling but we also did just get unlucky a couple of times. If Sheppard hangs onto that ball at the end of the first half maybe that would have been the spark. That flag on the game-winning drive is getting a lot of attention. Thought it was a pretty weak call for sure. If Jones hadn't wasted his second challenge for the fun of it, I think they would overturn the call. We've been screwed plenty by the refs in the past - and given their inconsistencies, will be in the future once again - so it happens. Hopefully the Riders' Labour Day "boost" wears off for Saturday.

That is like the exact opposite of Lawless' career.

Nichols struggled early on and this was definitely his worst of the three starts. I think people are underestimating his effect on this offense and team though. I definitely think other moves have played a big role in this streak (the biggest likely being Neufeld getting hurt and moving us to another American) but Nichols has really, really helped this team. To me, this argument is put to rest until Nichols plays poorly for a prolonged stretch. I don't see why Nichols should get a shorter leash than Willy, especially when the results have been so different.

Don't know if people have seen this link about Popp ripping into his players yet: http://montrealgazette.com/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes/jim-popp-tore-into-alouettes-players-after-loss-sources "Several sources have told the Montreal Gazette veteran defensive-back Billy Parker challenged and took offence with some of Popp’s comments, especially how they would be perceived by a segment of the dressing room who have families. Popp immediately apologized and explained what he meant. Popp then asked the players if they understood the tone and were able to move on. The players remained silent." Saskatchewan and Montreal drawing a lot of negative attention. Excuse me while I get my popcorn.

Fines clearly aren't enough of a deterrent for the Riders. I'd definitely take away some of their draft picks, and if this still continues, would support the idea of it starting to impact their game day roster with less DIs.

I think our special teams has continually improved ever since O'Shea took over last season. Fogg has surprised me on returns. I'd say he's been far better than McDuffie.

Outdoor football is way better.

Loffler looked good. Big time hitter for sure. Hope he can handle his own in coverage. I expect he'll get tested more soon. Frederick is promising. He just flat out stepped up yesterday.

I like when the Riders lose and I like when Chris Jones loses so right now that pairing is working out nicely. Hope it stays that way. Also I will second that the Lions' uniforms are ugly. They remind me of Clemson's. Needed black as the third colour in there.

This is why we can't have nice things.

A big difference I think was moving Hardwick to RT and Bond in at guard. Neufeld has never been very good as a Bomber, in fact he's been pretty terrible. I don't know why it took an injury for them to make this move and see the difference. That said, Nichols was far and away better at QB tonight. Whether that will remain is yet to be determined, but he processed his reads efficiently, hit the quick throws and generally just had the offense moving much better. He played really, really well.

I think they'll go back to him once Nichols gets beaten down and the team continues to lose. To me the better question is, should they go back to him? Presumably if Nichols can't turn the season around (losses seem highly likely), then the rest of the season should be focused on finding a "QB of the future" rather than two guys we have deemed not good enough. The next step after Nichols is Dominique Davis.

I think this is the right move. Doubt Nichols ends up as the long term answer so really all you're doing is seeing if he can help the offense and put up some wins in the next few weeks. If he can't, O'Shea is gone and then the quarterback spot becomes all about looking to the future.

Still think Masoli has a really good future in the CFL and have said that for the past few weeks. Watching the two offenses work was outstanding tonight. It was nice watching the mobility of the two QBs as well and how that affected the offense.

The situations they were placed in can't be excluded if we're going to just look at the stats. Nichols had two drives, Willy had almost all of the game. Nichols came in already down on the scoreboard, and by the time he had his second drive he was down 15 with under three minutes to go. I would imagine those factors might have something to do with it. Nichols needed to push downfield, especially on that last drive. Willy's stats are always going to be good because he's completing a bunch of high percentage throws. I think a more fair comparison stats-wise would be once we see what Nichols does when he eventually does start. Add a bunch of short screens to his numbers like Willy had and I would imagine they're going to be comparable. Again, I'll reiterate that this isn't a glowing endorsement of Nichols. I don't think either quarterback is very good, to be honest. There is just no way I think you can compare Nichols statistics fairly to Willy's when playing time and score situation were clearly not equal.