O2L

One of those ties was last year against this same Redblacks team. Actually, that team wasn’t as good as this one, this one has a Noel Thorpe defence.

That’s basically the point of why I started this thread. We have a team that we know will be competitive week to week. Far too many times since Khari left us (and in the 90s) have we been on the receiving end of the kind of beating we gave Montreal last week. Of course I want to win a cup, many cups, but I’d rather have the team that gets there consistently and chokes than the team that doesn’t even make the playoffs. Hell, I’d rather be Calgary than Toronto right now, regardless of which of them won the cup last year. No parade planning here, just genuine optimism, no caution needed.

I watch every press interview that the players and coaches do, and it’s incredible how no one on this team wants to accept praise, they all just want to give it. Darvin, Bowman, Harris, Strev, all these guys are just exemplifying the culture that O’Shea has instilled on this team. In the Calgary TO game last week, they showed Mitchell on the sideline and he arrogantly stated “my completion percentage was down last week but I threw just as many yards” in response to the media criticism about him from week one. Duron Carter screamed into the camera that he’s the best player in the league. Guys get mad about the TSN top 50. Meanwhile, Strev as a 23 year old rookie shows more maturity, not willing to take any sort of credit even about the player of the week accolade. LaPo brushes it off with “who votes on that? Media guys? Good players get it every week.” When asked about the Bombers having the most players in the TSN Top 50 O’Shea says “we don’t pay attention to that stuff.” This is the kind of selfless team I want in Winnipeg, the kind of team I want to support.

Masoli runs a fair bit. TSN Power Rankings put us at #4 by the way. Their rankings will likely be more controversial than the CFL.ca ones.

I think it’ll be very much like a Burris/Harris situation next year and the following year. If Nichols is lighting it up, he keeps playing, but if he starts to struggle, we shake things up with Streveler, with the eventual intent to be for Strev to be the long term starter.

I’d like to change my answer. Streveler won’t be our James Franklin, he’ll be far superior.

The Argos winning the cup last year is a testament to why there shouldn’t be two divisions. If they don’t get the first round bye, they aren’t even in the cup. Hamilton and Ottawa are both better teams thank Toronto, hopefully things shake down in the standings the way they should this year.

No Eminem fans here?

We have the third most receiving yards in the league, the most receiving touchdowns, and the most rushing yards, yet not one top ten receiver. That is a GOOD THING. It means that every part of our offence is getting involved. Last night every single eligible receiver on our offence caught a ball, one receiver even threw one. We look to be incredibly well balanced, that is a good thing. Most teams in the league have one or two receivers that if they go down, the whole offence suffers. We do not.

I think the talent on defence is top notch. The jury is still out on whether or not Hall knows how to use it.

42 net yards, with 50 passing and 45 rushing. It’s insane how many yards they lost. Also, the QB they desperately need is currently a backup in Hamilton...

This is probably the first time I can ever remember watching a game and just feeling terrible for the opponent and their fans. It should’ve been called at halftime. Willy gave our city a lot before he got shellshocked, it’s sad to see him like this. And it’s rough when your own fans are booing you off the field, but can you even blame them after 13 losses in a row?

Please don’t rip me apart for starting a new topic, I really wasn’t sure where this post belongs as I feel it’s more about our patience and our future (even though it’s onviously a lot about tonight’s game). I don’t post often, but right now I can’t hold back, I just keep looking at our team from top to bottom and haven’t felt this good in an eternity. The jury is still out on if Hall is going to prove us all wrong, but that’s about the only bad thing I can say right now. Hoping not to get too many hyperbole GIFs in response here, let’s all just be happy haha. /// We’ve never developed our own QB like Calgary, BC, and Toronto... We have no QB depth... Our scouting department can’t find any talent... Our Canadian depth is atrocious... We sign big names for too much money and they end up as busts... No one wants to play here... We can’t tackle... ^ things that we’ve said for years, that are actual things of the past Guys like Nevis, Medlock, Okopogo, Fenner, Gaitor, Bighill, Harris coming here and looking as good or better than they ever have. Bowman smiling on the sideline when he’s mostly catching short passes and guys named Wolitsrsky and Demski are getting the TDs, ready to be a team player and happy to be surrounded by good people. Number 1 embracing number 82 in the end zone after his second TD catch, and walking him in on his first one. Santos Knox being a compete beast. Listen, one game doesn’t make a season. For years and years, I’ve just wanted one Grey Cup, just one. Now, for the first time in my 33 years as a Bomber fan, I’m not even thinking Grey Cup, I’m thinking “wow, we will be competitive for years to come”. “Wow, we have depth, young guys being groomed to be starters in a couple years, vets who are happy to share the limelight.” I know people rag on Calgary for two Grey Cup losses in a row, but who here wouldn’t have traded places with them the last decade? I’m not being a homer here. We have a rookie QB who just made history. The panel and the commentators were glowing talking about THE BOMBERS - when has that ever happened? Everyone is buying in. I want to win a Cup, but knowing that the Bombers won’t be the joke of the league anymore is an amazing feeling. And this team is humble! They take on the personality of their coach, a coach who many were calling to be fired not that long ago. We went through some growing pains but it finally feels good to be a Bomber fan. Again, I’m not saying we’re going to dominate every team, or that we’re even a contender yet, I’m just saying that we have backups at most positions that would be starting on several teams in the league. And if the Strev is the real deal (and I very much believe he is, as do Burris, Dunnigan, and Milty), he could be on our team for the next two decades, because he’s TWENTY THREE. Muamba and Westerman had three penalties, our entire team had six. Not long ago we felt spurned by them and now I wouldn’t have it any other way with the personnel on this team. We always say the refs hate us, but even they were kind tonight, or maybe it just shows how disciplined this team is Oh, and not sure if it’s been mentioned, but tonight not one, not two, but THREE Winnipeg natives scored TDs. Has there been a team in history that had three hometown players score TDs in a game? Ok, feel free to rain on my parade or bring me back down to earth. I lurk and lurk but tonight nothing is going to take this smile off my face. I don’t care if it’s the lowly Als, 46 point wins don’t happen by accident, and we all know we could’ve put up another 20 points if it was necessary. Next week is another game and another challenge, but right now, it feels good to be a Bomber fan. NUUUUUUBRADDDYYYYYYY!!!!!

Montreal

Lapo today implied that was on a receiver not running the right route. He said that a receiver was supposed to run the safety off but it didn’t happen, so the safety only had one look and went with it. I feel like everyone underestimates the difference our starting receivers and o-line will make. The throws Ross nade are the same regardless of if you have a third stringer or Bowman in there: check down check down check down. Somehow Streveller comes in with the same crew and makes Thompkins and White look like all stars because he’s actually willing to put the ball up in one on one coverage.

I’m so bloody happy they went with Streveller. Same thing I said in the chat last week: I’d rather see an exciting offence that takes chances and makes some mistakes than a 2-and-out machine, which is what we would’ve seen under Ross. Streveller has a similar at style to Collaros pre-injury, or even Reilly, whereas Ross is similar to Brohm, post-injury Willy, etc.

nubrady himself, Chris Streveller.

I’ll add that Gaitor is better than Heath in my opinion. They play differently but I feel like Heath makes plays that we all see (picks etc) but sometimes at the expense of missing assignements. Gaitor basically made Arcenaux invisible last week when he was manned up on him.

I very much miss the days that there were smaller more concentrated threads. I know I don’t post much and lurk far more, but I absolutely hate digging through big long threads and going back multiple pages trying to figure out where I left off. Leading into today, I feel like a stand-alone thread discussing who we thought would/should be the starting QB would’ve been good to have separate. I actually think most major news deserves its own thread and have found it much more frustrating navigating the site since the change to big, multi-page, catch-all threads. It’s just weird to jump into a thread and see a dozen different conversations happening, and have to read every quoted message to understand what someone is replying to. The software naturally prioritized new posts, so threads that aren’t popular will naturally die off anyway. What’s the problem with many threads? If a topic doesn’t interest you, just ignore it. Still easier and quicker to sift through 20 thread titles than 20 pages on a post to determine if you’re interested or not.

Walker is quite a surprise cut, no?

We don’t play Hamilton twice, we play them once and Toronto once in the first six weeks (and then TO again in week seven).

Really wish we had a bye in there. As it stand now, if he misses six weeks from today, that’s a full six games including two against the lions which could give them a tiebreaker. Luckily, three of the other games are eastern opponents, and no other doubles. If we’re going with who we have in-house, I say let the young kid with the upside run with it and don’t yank him. Give him immense game reps and regardless of our record when Nichols returns, Streveler will be in a good position to back him up down the line.

Some reports saying we’ll start two Canadian receivers (Demski and Coates), but wouldn’t it be just Demski with Flanders in at slot?

And our typically clutch kicker missed a game-winning field goal in Toronto. We were every bit as good as our record suggests. We beat every team in the league, and tonight, that included ourselves.

Just watched June Jones and Andy Fantuz interview on TSN. They sound like they’d be stunned to win tomorrow. Like not just your typical “respect the opponent” kind of thing, they talk about sneaking a win and getting lucky. I know their record isn’t great, but weird to hear a team have seemingly so little confidence publicly.