Tracker

There are a lot of things I would want to say about this but they would all be asterisked out. This has to be laid at the feet of one Michael O'Shea and possibly Marcel Bellefeuille. The decision to leave Willy in when he was doing nothing and when itwas obvious to all that it was out of hand, has to rank as the stupidest move of his tenure here. The probability now is that the season is very much in doubt and if it leads to O'Shea being fired, he will richly deserve it. *******

Because Marve's natural style is so different from Willy's, the offence is going to have to be retooled at least a bit to take advantage of his strengths. Even so, Marve's lack of first-team reps may hamper his performance, so lets not get our hopes up that he is the reincarnation of Matt Dunigan in his prime. We need to see if Marve is better than Brohm and good enough to trust him to be an alternative to Willy if need be. Toronto is a good team and beating them with Willy at the helm would be no small feat, but with Marve (if he really starts-not a given) a win would be a real shot in the arm for team morale.

You're right, I don't think many teams can overcome a start like that. However, I feel teams that are well coached and fully prepared don't let it happen to them.Hamilton is a good team and are very well coached. I just can't see them in the same hole. They come to compete. You know a tipped ball can happen to anyone? A blocked punt? We've already done that. And a mistake by a Kick returner? You can't coach that.Spit happens... They can and do happen in a game, but they are preventable. Block the lineman better and make sure he can't get his hands up to block the pass. Block better when punting, don't let the other team get a hand on the ball. Always be aware on kickoffs. Stoudemire said they we're fooled because Medlock normally kicks to the other side of the field when he lines the ball up where he did.Yes all that can happen, I just believe that good teams that are well coached don't let all three happen one after the other. Now, if only there was a way for our returner to get quickly across the field after seeing the ball heading to the other side....

We need to pray real hard that it is only one week plus a bye week.

That's my high school year book photo. Where did you get it? That picture is giving me flashbacks to the summer I spent in Estevan in 1990. Those guys look like the mayor and the local doctor. The two best looking men in town. They would place high in a Miss Saskatchewan contest

Exactly we are 0-3 against the best two teams in the league only have to face Edmonton once more at home. 3-1 against the rest of the league.If we can win 7 or 8 games in the next eleven, we should make the playoffs. I doubt that a 9 and 9 season even with crossover potential gets us there with three teams in the east already with 4 wins. Gonna have to start counting the free squares on the bingo cards to see what our chances are for the post season.Sweeping the Riders is becoming critical. Jeez, nothing like even more pressure going into the rubber match in September. Rubber match...does that mean all the players wear condoms during the game? Well, somebody is gonna get scrooged in the home and home with the Roughies. Might be Chamblin. If either team sweeps the series, somebody's head will roll.

I don't understand why this is so hard to comprehend. Reading blitzes, making quick decisions, and getting rid of the ball is how Danny Mcmanus made a career. It's where Willy is lacking. Just because you don't like the argument doesn't make it invalidNo the argument loses validity when you expect a qb to catch the ball and instantly throw it. Even Danny Mcmanus and Kevin Glenn, two notably quick throwers had trouble when the pressure was in their face as quickly as it's been coming for the Bombers this year. Drew Willy is the least of the problems on this team. This post is ridiculous hyperbole. I thought Drew Willy played great - he hung in there and completed some very tough throws. Bottom line - though some of you for some reason don't want to believe it - we were by far the worst team in the CFL two years ago. I mean, we were expansion team bad or worse. In two years, IMO - we've come a long way. The Hamilton Tiger Cats, right now, are a much stronger football team than we are. That's a fact that is proven in the two games we played them. But despite the constant pressure and the insurmountable odds, Drew Willy hung in there and I, for one, was very impressed with him. Far better than what he showed last year. That is growth and gives me faith that he could be the next great Bomber QB. Such a refreshing change from the garbage (and Buck Pierce - loved his heart and won't call him garbage but he was never anything more than a glorified backup IMO) we've had QB since Kevin Glenn was released. I think that "Drew Willy played great" is open to challenge- his stats and the scoreboard were not impressive but I am not saying it was all his fault- 5 sacks for example.

Good! i'm taking my girl friend to her first game next week. I don't want to waste money if Brohm's under center. If Willy can't go it's time to give Marve the controls. First impression last. First time I brought my daughter to the game (vs Cgy when Elliott was injured) the Bombers lost and it didn't help to have her interested to the Bombers. Same thing, when I brought my wife on a rainy game when the Als are in town (then in the old arena), the Bombers lost too and same thing she never get interested in the game and the Bombers since then. The rain didn't help either. I'll give my girl credit she does watch every game with me. Although it's not her thing she knows i'm into it and she'll always put on her best game face. I think she's more excited to finally go to the game then i am! Hopefully a better team performance than Sunday. Now you owe her and it will be something like sitting through "The Notebook" or a "Hot in Cleveland" marathon. Or dinner with her family. Or self-immolation.

Welcome to this sometimes fractious and usually impatient gathering.

Be it Heenan or another game-breaker, we sure as spit look like we need a game-changer addition to the team because the current lineup just ain't good enuff.

I think people here think the bombers are a playoff team - two years ago we were the league's doormat. Wasn't even close. We have improved greatly to a team that can compete on most nights. However, when we play a team that is better than us (and IMO that's just about every team in the league I'm afraid - even SK as though they are losing they are not getting pounded) and they play to their potential - that's what we get - pounded. I PVR'd the game as I was at a family bbq - watched it last night and laughed all through the 1st half - but the second half - I was impressed with our fight. I was really impressed with how Willy played. That, IMO, was a good character building game. We were beaten very badly in the first half but came out swinging in the 2nd half - almost made a game of it. Good on them! That is a step in the right direction believe it or not. We are a possible playoff team if Willy is healthy and it is increasingly in doubt as to whether the current O-line can do that. We weren't the worst team in the league last year because Ottawa started up and if Willy is off-line for more than a game or three this year, the only thing that will stop us from being bottom feeders will be the Roughies. True, the team defence tightened up in the second half against the Tabbies, but considering how impotent the Bomber offence was all game, do you think we had a hope in Hades of winning?

And to rub salt into the wound- our offence was neutered by.....wait for it......Jeff Renbold. Ugh.

Neufeld did not look good yesterday, but was okay against BC, so he gets a temporary pass. The biggest issue for the O-line seems to be that they don't seem to know who to block on a given play, and that sounds like coaching problems. Bucknor was decent last year but looks slow and confused this year. Leggett doesn't seem to be the force this season as last. Until yesterday, I would have been happy to toss Hurl overboard, but he looked better on Sunday, so he gets reprieved. I'm OK with our receivers and RBs but Cotton has been clipped and Taylor looks to be an interesting player.

Willy is a find, but we do have to keep him healthy. Willy's stats are skewed because of a horrid O-line last season and which has shown up on occasion this one. Also- last year our receiving corps was barely average when healthy and as soon as Moore was out, it became one of the worst in the league. We really won't know know how good Willy can be until we can consistently keep the sacks down to 2 per game or less and keep the pressures down as well.

The scores where Hamilton got the ball on turnovers were so easy that the defence should have been embarassed. If the defence was on its game, we could have gotten away with giving up field goals. The defence finally got its act together in the second half but it was too little, too late.

Coaches are supposed to prepare a game plan & get their players ready to play. They didn't do that.How so. Tip ball pick 6. Blocked punt. TD seconds later. Kick off flunked. TD seconds later. Pick 6 TD. It's not so much coaching as it is just making mistakes. Really. The kick off gaffe is tge only one I could say might be on the coaches but even then our guys on the field should be aware. 28 points off turnovers. Coaches coach players play. It's that simple. Yeah, our OL looked so prepared for the different blitzes Hamilton threw at them. Stoudemire looked prepared today. Special teams were awesome. You forgot to use the sarcasm font.

Buck was pretty beat-up before he got here and apparently brittle to boot. Willy. on the other hand, had all his parts in good order when he signed on, but that situation is being rapidly remedied.

Maybe as a Bomber, but Hall has been both a head coach and defensive coach for awhile now, has he not? And O'Shea has been an assistant coach before.

As someone else posted- how exactly are the Hamilton players, position for position than the current Bombers? The difference is slight until you get to the coaching and it is becoming increasingly clear (at least to me) that is the difference. If that is true, then we are in for a long and sad season.

Ted Laurent was beating a double-team, Picard was poor once more, and Neufeld looked like the Riders made a good decision to let him go. And we still cannot handle or counter blitzes- the book is out on the Bombers.

As bad as our O-line looked today (and they were BAD) they looked adequate last game, with the possible exception of Picard. How can they deteriorate so fast? It has to be laid at the feet of the relevant coaches.

In retrospect, giving a struggling team to a rookie head coach whose experience was mainly defence and special teams was probably a mistake. An experienced and formerly successful head coach like Tom Higgins would likely have given confidence to the team and also resulted in better choices in assistant coaches. We're paying for O'Shea's learning curve and unfortunately it looks like it is going to be a long one. perhaps too long for the team. If the team does not do better than .500 and make the playoffs, O'Shea's future has to be questioned. His decision to leave Willy in after a disasterous first half resulting in an almost absolute certainty of a bad loss was boneheaded. We still got handled and now Willy is sidelined again, perhaps for an extended period which will probably mean a 6 or 8 win season at best and no playoff appearance. Even Ottawa with their GM whom we mocked got a whole lot better since last year and the Riders put up more of a fight in their last game than we did.

Looking to see Littlejohn and Waggoner strut their stuff today.

I wonder---is there any chance we could pry Messam out of Sask? He would be awesome behind our O-line.

The Rider talent is better than their record, even with losing their #1 and #2 quarterbacks, so the chances of Chamblin surviving the next two weeks are very slim. He may or may not be a good coach but I think the team has lost confidence and its time for a radical coachectomy.