Floyd

Whiskey and cigarettes did the trick for Blink.

Kohlert is starting at strong side wideout, where he has played the last 3 games. Because Edwards and Denmark are better... you usually try to play your best guys at SB

Distance wise alone, Renaud had a higher average, but to say he out-punted Shaw is not accurate. If you paid attention to the hang time and direction, you'd see Shaw was way ahead. Shaw had two absolutely terrible punts in the first half - he got better later in the game but... definitely not 'way ahead'

I like Muamba but since we went full-time NI MLB, our defence has actually been a fair bit worse... not the only factor but you can't really ignore it.

http://cfl.uploads.mrx.ca/wpg/pdf/depth/2013/DepthvsBC093002.pdf Well then. Really wonder why we're starting Etienne at SB instead of Kohlert. Hope Foster steps up his game. Just having a hard time believing that Palliwoda, Pencer or Kowalczuk can't even play Guard in the CFL. For that matter, why put the two green tackles together... So does Westerman or Williams knock Hall out of the game Bo Smith injured after two plays, Rene Stephan on the 9-game... Would much rather see Carter and McKnight in the lineup than Poblah and D'Angelis

So, I saw we called out the kickers today (again)... while kicking was not great, I'm not sure you can say it cost us the game. O'Neil shanked an early field goal and Renaud did outkick Shaw. Great quote by Burke..."And Mike, I think, he was trying to drive the ball into the wind the last game. And it's just a matter of, you know, just kick it away -- don't worry about the wind." Ignore the wind. I see.

The whole 'Shea Emry money' thing was back when Mack was here, no? We just don't know if Mack offered a backloaded contract or signing bonus or whatever... I would be very surprised if we don't sign Muamba just before the deadline.

I wouldn't totally lay this on Burke... DelMonaco appears to have some influence - both have to take blame for this ridiculous move.

Huh? He's the only person on the panel not making excuses for Burke and his downright poor decisions. Everything that happened after Edmonton's FG was crazy. Taking a kickoff makes zero sense. Edmonton isn't going to kick a ball that will be returnable, they aren't that stupid. All that is going to do is waste time, and possibly lead to a scramble for the ball with (shaky) Ford back there. Exact same thing I said about Palardy, I'll say about Goltz now. If you don't have any confidence in him to make a throw and play quarterback, cut him and put someone else in there. 23 seconds and 1 timeout= 3 plays and a kick attempt. Crime against humanity to take knees there. If they want a season ticket base above 15,000 next season, Burke can't be back. Ironically, I think Tim Burke would agree with you. Well maybe not the crime against humanity part. I really do believe in watching him he knows he's done, he wants to be done but can't bring himself to resign. Probably a mixture of his pride, management won't do it and a coach resigning during the season generally doesn't happen in the CFL so I'll hang on to the end of the year type mentaility. Pretty sure you forfeit your contract if you resign... as opposed to getting paid not to coach. Not much of a decision there

Its an okay year to have a high pick... the top talent will remain but it will probably thin out pretty quick - we should still have a shot at a decent player in the early 3rd round, after that, probably not much

If cheaping out this year translates to huge signing bonuses for Muamba and maybe Collaros, it makes sense. January is due a bit of a raise, Hall probably due a raise although, if we need to sign Suber and Washington - yup... try to extend Pencer before he plays too much? Matthews should be signed... none of these guys are going to bankrupt the club though... Give Ian Wild a raise, Aaron Kelly is probably on a one-year deal I would think... same with Peach? None of our NI receivers will cost big dollars, This really does show how cheap Mack was though... we paid what $35,000 signing bonus to Hefney this season (?) and from the sounds of it had picked up around $200,000 of Buck's contract... Morely is one of our higher paid OL and we haven't even 9-gamed him. Don't be too sure that money saved won't be allocated to pick up to short fall from ticket sales. It is Winnipeg after all...

Yeah, I didn't quite understand the free agent quote... maybe he means we're trying to trade for Collaros and offering him a big signing bonus - that's all I could figure...? It just can't be good to continue making comments about the lack of talent on the team - word must get back to the players...

Burke really sounds like Knapp is taking Pencer's place... rotating Cauchy and JJ at Safety, Labbe will be getting some major playing time... I thought JJ and Pencer both had really good games - as a reward, one gets shuffled around and the other goes back to 6th OL. Sorenson, Greaves, Foster, Kohlert, Muamba, Labbe... and Cauchy or Thomas...?

Didn't this whole Mack-Collaros rumour start at Riderfans? Was it ever reported anywhere else...?

Just read this in the freep... 'Burke also said coaches are toying with the idea of starting three American offensive linemen, now that veteran and Texan Glenn January is healthy again. The hope is to energize the Bombers’ lifeless run game, he said, and he would likely balance the roster move by starting another Canadian on defence, such as linebacker Pierre-Luc Labbe.' Ugh. Cauchy and Labbe on D - didn't we just try that in OT...? What's wrong with Jones-Greaves-Sorenson-Pencer-January... I mean besides Sorenson, that's a decent lineup.

I don't buy that it's a pile of crud for players. There's a hell of a lot of talent on the defense there that the coaches are utterly failing to get the most out of week in and week out. We've seen what they can do in week 2 and in the banjo bowl with proper coaching, it's damned impressive, but most weeks they're lost, that's a lack of clear direction from the coaches. I know full well who hired Burke and I've been talking about that being an issue for longer than anyone else, but to simply say the talent isn't there is a fallacy. There's talent there, the coaches aren't getting the most out of it, not even close. I can make a guess that these tackles didn't just pop up out of nowhere simply because the scouting system hasn't changed through it all. It's a pretty safe assumption that these same scouts would have presented these same players to whoever the GM was. Once you put down the haterade you're drinking and look at things objectively you might stop blaming absolutely everyone on this false notion that Joe Mack couldn't and wouldn't bring in any talent worth a damn. No one is claiming that Mack couldn't bring in talent... the problem is that he just couldn't bring in enough talent or the right talent... Everyone goo-goo'd over Mack find DL and DB prospects - except pretty much every single GM in the league does that as well. Mack was a glorified scout, not even close to a GM - we are paying for it now. There is talent on the D side of this team, just no depth. There is not nearly enough talent on the offensive side and no depth. Last year and even moreso this year were the first actual seasons fielding a team primarily recruited by Mack. It speaks for itself.

Mike Reilly, Dominic Picard, Burke Dales, Zach Collaros... Mack's wish list Max Hall, Justin Sorenson, Jamie Boreham, Justin Goltz... Mack's reality list

Walters is looking good because Mack was asleep at the wheel... Walters found import tackles and signed some castoffs - but all GMs (except Mack) do that... I would agree that the jury is still out - i.e. Bo Smith, Levi Brown, etc... However, I do think that Walters ends up as our full-time GM - there is such a tiny window to sign Collaros or anyone before the Ottawa draft... if he gets that done, how do you fire/demote him after that? If he doesn't get it done, is there really time to get a new GM in place before free agency? If Higgins or someone is available, they would have to be in here by mid-December at the latest. Chances are Mack would have brought in the same tackles just because it's the scouting that finds players and we have the same scouts, other than that Kelly is the only guy Walters has brought in that has made an actual impact so far. People are freaking out cause the guy said the right things and brought in a couple bodies, but Mack brought in bodies when he needed them too, just tended to be from a different source. The amount of crap that Mack gets thrown at him is too damned high and because he made such a good scape goat Walters has a pretty easy job. Never mind that the biggest mistake is still there (Burke) and the team still has no life and still regularly gets out coached and continually shows no signs of life. Except Mack didn't bring in those guys. He brought in Taormina, Boatman and Simmons... maybe as usual he was going off his 'gut' instead of listening to his scouts ...anyway, whatever. Walters found us a new tackle prospect, Mack didn't. The best player on our OL is a holdover from the Kelly days - that is sad. As for Burke, everyone was pretty excited when he came here and everyone kind of knew he was the next HC after Lapo... the biggest mistake Mack made was not Burke, it was cheaping out on Asst Coaches... ignoring the OL... not signing any substantial free agents... and... and... and... maybe there is no one 'biggest' mistake. Had to isolate this because a) he doesn't pick the assistants and we actually have/had a few of the higher paid assistants in the league. Oh wait, you think Craig Dickenson works for free, right? And I suppose Gary Crowton came up here with a D1 resume as a hobby. You know I like Dickenson... great signing. I liked the Burke signing too. But aside from that, our staff should be pretty cheap - Creehan shouldn't have gotten a big raise after last season...?? Crowton... yes, I think he did come cheap - the dude was unemployed. No one was calling. No way he should have been getting top CFL dollars. The entire staff under Lapo was rock bottom wages... we still have no QB coach, just added an RB coach this year... How do we know that Mack didn't have influence with asst coaches... he seems to have pushed personnel decisions, prospects, playing time, etc...

Walters is looking good because Mack was asleep at the wheel... Walters found import tackles and signed some castoffs - but all GMs (except Mack) do that... I would agree that the jury is still out - i.e. Bo Smith, Levi Brown, etc... However, I do think that Walters ends up as our full-time GM - there is such a tiny window to sign Collaros or anyone before the Ottawa draft... if he gets that done, how do you fire/demote him after that? If he doesn't get it done, is there really time to get a new GM in place before free agency? If Higgins or someone is available, they would have to be in here by mid-December at the latest. Chances are Mack would have brought in the same tackles just because it's the scouting that finds players and we have the same scouts, other than that Kelly is the only guy Walters has brought in that has made an actual impact so far. People are freaking out cause the guy said the right things and brought in a couple bodies, but Mack brought in bodies when he needed them too, just tended to be from a different source. The amount of crap that Mack gets thrown at him is too damned high and because he made such a good scape goat Walters has a pretty easy job. Never mind that the biggest mistake is still there (Burke) and the team still has no life and still regularly gets out coached and continually shows no signs of life. Except Mack didn't bring in those guys. He brought in Taormina, Boatman and Simmons... maybe as usual he was going off his 'gut' instead of listening to his scouts ...anyway, whatever. Walters found us a new tackle prospect, Mack didn't. The best player on our OL is a holdover from the Kelly days - that is sad. As for Burke, everyone was pretty excited when he came here and everyone kind of knew he was the next HC after Lapo... the biggest mistake Mack made was not Burke, it was cheaping out on Asst Coaches... ignoring the OL... not signing any substantial free agents... and... and... and... maybe there is no one 'biggest' mistake.

Walters is looking good because Mack was asleep at the wheel... Walters found import tackles and signed some castoffs - but all GMs (except Mack) do that... I would agree that the jury is still out - i.e. Bo Smith, Levi Brown, etc... However, I do think that Walters ends up as our full-time GM - there is such a tiny window to sign Collaros or anyone before the Ottawa draft... if he gets that done, how do you fire/demote him after that? If he doesn't get it done, is there really time to get a new GM in place before free agency? If Higgins or someone is available, they would have to be in here by mid-December at the latest.

Not sure what's so earth-shattering about this idea... never said trade Muamba straight up - I just think that if we were looking at dangling Muamba for something, Sask is super desperate for an MLB right now... we could get a QB prospect AND a pick for Muamba - or maybe Willy and Watman... who knows - Taman can't protect all his Canadians. I hope we get Collaros after the season, but the window to negotiate is so short that I am not too sure. Ottawa will pick him if he's still in T.O.

Well, Penton's article is slightly better than Wiecek's everything is terrible review or Lawless' #1 pick piece. But, you do have a point... I just can't believe we keep repeating the 'Goltz was cold' excuse for the knee... If you know your QB cannot throw, why is he playing in overtime? If he was 'cold' with :26 left, how much difference is watching an EDM scoring drive going to make. Yes, people would be ragging on Burke if he went for it and Goltz threw an INT... but we should be ragging on him for putting Goltz back in anyway.

So, apparently EVERY team can develop a competent quarterback prospect now except for Winnipeg. Thanks Mack. How long until someone starts a DeMarco thread... If I was Walters, I would be talking to Taman about Drew Willy right now... as in, offer Henoc for Drew Willy and a pick - Sask needs some serious help up the middle. I think he might go for it - Taman wants a Grey Cup ring.

You don't think Hammie is fine with Burris and LeFevour?

Well, I hope Walter is clear on whether trades are allowed before the exp draft...! We could be left out in the cold otherwise... Ottawa would be crazy not to grab Collaros (or Willy) AND Glenn if they are available in the exp draft. Solid QB depth could turn them into a contender from Day One. This draft could net them two QBs, at least three starting NI OL - maybe from BC, Sask and Montreal, a starting NI DL with depth (Calgary, Edmonton) and maybe even ratio-breaker like Giguere or Brouillette... plus some nice ST like Berger, McCartney, Stephan, Newman, Yurichuk.... all before free agency. Wow. There are teams that just have no choice but to leave real talent unprotected... man, I hope Walters can trade for something.