Doublezero

Joe Mack doing a nice job as GM in Montreal.

The O line sucks. The secondary sucks. The playcalling sucks. Let's start there. Of course you ask OShea and everything's fine.

So Hecht is out this week. Richie Hall is out this week. Who you gonna blame?

1) We admitted we were powerless to defend against the long ball and that our continued fan-love for this team was a big problem. 2) Came to believe that probably even fresh coordinators could not lead us to a Grey Cup at this stage of the season. 3) Made a decision to turn our attention elsewhere. 4) Made a searching and fearless inventory of other teams we might support. 5) Admitted that the Jets probably weren't going to take us to the promised land either. 6) Were pretty much entirely ready to cancel our season ticket package. 7) Humbly asked Wade to remove the GM, coaches and players and start fresh if things don't turn around vs Hamilton. 😎 Made a list of all the players and coaches who might help restore our faith and became willing to negotiate with them all. 9) Made direct trades and firings wherever possible, except when to do so would make things worse. 10) Continued to take inventory of any Blue Bomber player or coach not willing to learn from this loss vs MTL. 11) Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with the football Gods, as we understood Them, praying only for knowledge of their Will for the Blue Bombers and to let us in on the secret. 12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other Bomber fans, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

What a shitty team. Another epic collapse by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. They are ******* heartbreakers. I hate them.

Als delivering a lot of dirty helmet-helmet hits to Strev and Harris.

Streveler - Wolitarsky going to be memorable today as we show Sask how to play football.

Petermann is excellent after the catch. I like north-south sure hands Petermann more than Demski, who plays loosey-goosey with the ball and dipsy-doodles around after the catch - if he doesn't pop it up to the defender first.

And Steveler? Will he be here next year?

In terms of toughness, and pure athletic ability Streveler reminds me a lot of Matt Dunigan and Tracy Ham.

My opinion of Streveler hasn't changed. I thought he was good before now and still do. Hope we can keep him in Blue & Gold because he is only going to get better as he gets more game speed reps. Although I don't know why we keep him in the pocket. Give him different launch points, let him throw from the sprint. That'll help the receivers too. Strev didn't get much time to throw vs Sask. The straight drop back is for QBs such as Nichols who can't run as effectively. And that's a problem when your O line isn't giving you steamboats in the pocket.

Great Game. Proud of our Bombers who deserved a better fate. Monumental collapse by the D at the end. https://imgur.com/rmG3Xj9

Wish we'd extended Streveler at the end of last season though, because if he lights it up there will be competition for his services.

prob dealt natural supplements - still wouldn't mind a #13 Matthews jersey though - he was good for us, at least the first time around

This is a great opportunity for Johnny Augustine. For a bunch of reasons, including looking forward to the 2020 season, I hope he steps up and shows.

As Doug Brown said: Why not just test the supplement? I think Andrew said he wants to do that. Look forward to the result of that.

No one knows better than Matt Nichols what it's like to be a perennial No. 2 and how hard you have to compete to win a starting job. He competed with Mike Reilly in Edmonton and ended up No. 1 here, by default really because Willy was done and Nichols was competing with the likes of Brian Brohm and Robert Marve for the starter's job. In Edmonton Nichols had a 5-7 record as a starter but threw way too many picks and actually lost his job to James Franklin. Nichols probably came back too early from his knee injury last year - and that decision to get back in early really hampered his performance. He could have been looking over his shoulder at a young gun like Streveler and that's why he clawed to get back in early, who knows? I wish Matt well and hope he'll fully recover. Meantime looking forward to watching Streveler progress if that is the way we must go ...

It seems like you get better quarterbacking when you have people who truly understand the QB position running the show. Look at Edm Mtl Calgary - Harris Adams Arbuckle - they are mentored by Maas Jones and Dickenson/Huff. I hate them all but you have to admit QB is a strength on those teams. There have been times when I've have wondered if our weakest position in Winnipeg is QB.

First off, I hope Nichols is OK. But with Streveler we need to look at total yards generated by the QB because he brings an athletic dimension that Nichols does not have. Just look at games where Streveler was the starting QB as opposed to relief duty. In his first three starts for us as a raw rookie last year Streveler completed 54 passes in 86 attempts for 570 yards. He also ran 22 times for 183 yards. Combined that's +250 per game.

Well, not really. But since we've got multiple threads about who to hand the ball to ... well, Captain Blue is a fan fave so, you know, he's got that.

The QB draw to Nichols in the Red Zone is a play that has been called a few times and does not work. Also, the hand-off to Demski up the gut is a play that could be retired from the playbook because it consistently nets 1 yard and leaves us 2nd and long.

The 1909 Grey Cup was played at Rosedale Field in Toronto - 400 yards from where I grew up as a kid, 50 years later. There's a plaque there commemorating the game. First Grey Cup Game.

OK.

Willy never was very good. Yes, he got smacked around and got happy feet. But before that, the wins he got credit for most often were due to ST scores and Defensive plays, not because of stellar QB play. Not very different from the situation with Nichols now - he gets credit for wins when really he's not the kind of QB you can count on to generate a come-from-behind win. He's an average journeyman and his contribution to Bombers wins is exaggerated. OTOH, when he messes up, as he did several times last year and at least once this year, he can actually be the direct cause of a loss (although he won't admit it). More than anything in the past decade or so it is weakness at the QB position that has held this team back from better things. One wonders if this regime actually has trouble assessing and managing the QB position. Lapo might be part of it - but the problems are basically at QB and they pre-date Lapos arrival. Walters has been GM since 2013 and MOS head coach since 2014.

I'll hand it to MOS for the decision to put Streveler in at the end - prob saved the game. Two kick return TDs by Grant and a last minute bounce into the arms of Winston Rose helped as well. But if you take away Grant's two kick return TDs (never happened before in Bomber history) and Hallet's fumble recovery which led to a FG (at the 20 it should've been a TD but Nichols slid short of the 1st down) then we'd have lost by 17. We won, I'm happy! But still don't have much confidence in them. And they don't look like they have much confidence either.