Captain Blue

If we put Pierce on the field next week (or whenever he's healthy) the whole staff should be fired immediately. He had his one drive right off the bat, then slowly decreased his play to what we've seen by the second quarter. He's done. Goltz looked decent. He's still really raw, but there is something to work with there at least. His head actually moved through his progressions occasionally (once on a really nice deep ball to Denmark). It's time to see if we can make something of him. Jovon looks like he's lost a lot. He's getting beat deep weekly now. Chad Simpson has really ticked me off. Too many fumbles, a lot of horizontal running. He has to run north-south or his value plummets greatly. Our defense is a lot weaker without our two starting linebackers. That hurt us tonight with Ray hitting a lot of short throws. Still, they managed to keep things close at 7-6 for a while 'till Pierce's interception. That pick and then the deep touchdown sunk us. I was talking with some fans around me how 14-6 might as well be 35-6 for us since we can't score at all. Burke talks a lot about benching players or punishing them somehow. That threat has been diminished with a lot of injuries, but I also think he's pointing the finger at the wrong players. He wasn't happy with Denmark but Denmark wasn't getting a lot of throws his way. Now he did and look what happened. We've discussed Pierce ad nauseum, but freaking Mike Renaud is killing us AGAIN with field position. He has been really, really bad for over two years. His directional kicking is awful. The OL's had some struggles too. The easy one for me there is Morley. If Burke is going to rant and rave about sending these guys a message, then he needs to actually bench the players that deserve it. That goes out the window when some of the frequent offenders are still playing. What a frustrating team.

I just hope we score more than 10 points...

People always say it'll be worse without Buck but what exactly is worse? Losing to Hamilton? Not getting a first down in a quarter? We've hit the floor.

I didn't find this topic offensive at all actually. I'll see myself out.

Oh okay. We should all just stop discussing this then, since Burke has spoken and everyone knows coaches never make a wrong decision. Forgive me for not agreeing with your authority bias.

I am a little shocked that Pierce is still getting defended so staunchly.

The longer Pierce is our QB the less faith I have in Burke.

You know how fans always want to see more passion and fire and all that rah-rah stuff that they pretend actually matters? This is why I prefer more reserved, composed coaches. Dude looked like a child.

I wish I had that much faith in them. This is the same group that brought him back even though many of us were clamouring for them to move on from Pierce this offseason (hell I wanted him gone earlier than that).

I'll be there Friday and if I have to watch a full 60 minutes of Pierce I won't be too happy...

At some point the players are going to start getting pretty upset with him. The receivers and defense are probably quietly angry already.

I worded it poorly, I meant that Reilly is just a little better than Buck right now since he can at least run and complete some decent throws. Buck's the worst starter in the league and it this point there are backups I'd rather roll that die on than him. Putting him as the 8th QB in the league is being generous to him.

Reilly has less to work with than Pierce does, in my opinion. The two are duking it out for worst starters in the league, but I'll give the edge to Reilly because at least he can run. Also their weather tonight was awful.

Actually I think Brink's athleticism would help him more than Elliot but that is a hunch based on what we've seen with how they use Goltz.

Why isn't it that simple? If he's a bad quarterback can't it just be that he had one decent drive in the first half then was terrible? Stopping Simpson was all the TiCats had to do. I would imagine the Bombers realized that in order to free up the run a little more they'd have to pass.

Watching the late game now... Travis Lulay is a really good QB but he also relies heavily on his athleticism to make plays and bail him out of trouble. Mike Reilly is a very inexperienced QB who's not anything special right now. He's a bottom tier starter right now but his athleticism is helping him out on this learning curve. He's not breaking down a defense like Peyton Manning or doing anything out of the ordinary, he's just making throws he should and scrambling when in trouble. I think it's reasonable to consider that Goltz could at least replicate what Reilly is providing Edmonton right now and that is good enough for us at the moment.

I'd rather have Brink.

Just like Barresi's system didn't fit Buck Pierce. Or LaPolice's either. And now Crowton's. All these offensive guys and none tried to craft an offense for Pierce. Or Pierce just isn't very good.

How much of that was on him? And why does Pierce get evaluated by team scores when our defense contributed a lot more than he did?

I don't think we should be judging "how they approach the line." They probably all approach the line they way they always did, we're just more likely to look at it now and play armchair psychologist.

Definitely deserve to be fired if they're going to stick with Pierce... And yet I will miss them both, honestly. The roster is so talented and the defense is tremendous. The former is Mack's top priority and the latter is Burke's area of strength. Which is to say, both are seemingly good at what they specialize at, yet fail to make the decisions required of men in charge at the moment.

His first half was pretty darn bad still. If we are setting that as the acceptable level that is trouble. At one point he was 2/7 (I think). Buck's story is always the same. One decent drive a game, pumps up the stats a little to look closer and then he's terrible for the rest of it. He used to be inconsistent. Now he has fewer highs and a lot more lows. And Matthews has to be fuming that he's stuck in this offense right now - though he also missed some very catchable balls.

Bomber management really needs to sit down and figure out what they're doing at QB. Mack and Burke have to win this year or they're gone. This defense is great and it'll be a shame if its wasted this year, but also in coming years. Look at the ages of the players on D. They're almost all young. If Burke and Creehan can do this with a bunch of young guys, imagine how good they can be when the players mature a little more. But unless we win games that potential may be decreased.

Apparently Burke said in the post game that he didn't ever think of pulling Buck. I really wouldn't expect a coach to say much otherwise, but it was depressing nonetheless.

Buck Pierce is effing awful.