Tracker

On 1290 today, Rick Ralph cited statistics which place the Bomber defence in the middle of the CFL pack- not good but not bad either. That description seems to fit the current defensive cast but in order for the Bombers to compete with their gibbled offence, the defence has to be outstanding each and every game. That seems to be too much to ask of any defence.

BBF, does it not bother you that O'Shea was retained after two seasons of futility, plus his inability to assemble a scouting team to bring in standout players?

If Willy continues to blow cold and cold, we will be fortunate to be 6 &12.

Bomber history (and those of other teams) are rife with one-hit wonders who looked wonderful for one or two games and then faded out. Willy is very close to falling into that category.

Lulay-Jennings, Tate-Mitchell, Reilly-Franklin, Durant-Gale (probably), Burris- Harris, Ray, Glenn. Oops- that's 12 and that's bad math on my part, but it still puts Willy at #13. Brain cramp: I forgot Collaros and that bumps Willy down to #14 -in my opinion. The backups I have listed have shown more promise than Willy- again, in my opinion.

While we are on the subject of quarterbacks, a sobering thing is to look at the quarterbacks across the league in comparison to Willy. Darned few here would not trade Willy for the starters on any other team, and only three other teams(Toronto, Montreal, Hamilton) have backups who are worse than Willy, and Collaros is a maybe. That means that in a nine team league, Willy is the 15th best QB.

There has to be a happy medium. Yes, the best ooze confidence to the point where it looks like ego, but at some point it becomes the hallmark of a jack-hole.

Having a speed demon receiver is valuable only if you have a quarterback who can deliver the ball accurately, far enough and on time.

It would seem that Walters and O'Shea both suffer from the same maladies: inability to recognize talent and unwillingness to admit mistakes and make necessary changes.

Jones might be a good example of the cure being worse than the disease.

So now its come down to hosiery?

In hindsight, O'Shea's performance was a craps shoot as he had no head-coaching experience and the combination of a rookie GM plus a rookie head coach was a real long shot. We did that with Reinbold and the results were terrible.

Aaron Kelly had a fixed limit of catches (three, I think) that he could make in a season. Some were spectacular enough to make fans and coached drool but they were too few and too far between.

The obvious answer lies in post-game film review by the league. If an illegal hit is missed but identified later, the penalties would kick in, and if an illegal hit sidelines a player, the offender gets suspended as long as the victim.

Walters is definitely on the hot seat. I am not convinced the Bomber woes are all lack of talent, but a good deal the result of poor coaching. If Walters swings from the gibbet, it will be as a result of his decision to retain O'Shea in the face of a lot of evidence that O'Shea is in over his head.

And maybe not even then.

Isn't this information rubbing salt into the wounds?

Dirty, rotten Bastien.

There doesn't seem to be too many Bombers who are standouts....

No! We need continuity, dammit!

Can't argue much with your comments. Many were assuming that the Riders were going to be bottom-feeders this season and thus save the Bombers from that disgrace, and this was due in no small part to Chris Jones' abrasive personality. Gale looked like yet another promising QB that the Bombers passed on, but the jury is still out on him. At this point it looks like first place in the next draft will go to whomever has the worst quarterback this season. Toss-up.

No matter how ingenious an offensive plan is or how good the offensive coordinator is, it all comes down to the guy behind center. What you have seen is what we have. Period.

I don't know if this statement by O'Shea was for Willy's benefit, but if it is an unsolicited vote of confidence for him, it must have provoked the sound of slapping of faces all over Winnipeg. It would seem that O'Shea has firmly tied his fate to Willy.

I'm not sure we have tons of talent but I do think we have enough to be a .500 team and compete for a playoff spot with one caveat: our quarterbacking.

More deck chairs being re-arranged on the Titanic, but they had to do something, I suppose.