BigBlue

The big thing is after this long losing streak they are actually about to make a change or two ... some change is our last best hope of turning our season around ... we were spending too much time resting on our early season laurels .... what doesn't grow atrophies

lol

Wouldn't it be nice if... we could win by a margin We could do it against Ottawa .... and have the luxury of playing Brohm in the 4th Q We should have been leading Hamilton by a lot Wouldn't it be nice if... we didn't need 4th Q heroics

" He might bounce around for another 3-4 years" are you insane ... that's a career for most players .... he is our best blocker at receiver and reliable .... problem is we use him as a blocker too much and a receiver not enough .... he is in his prime now

Trade Durant for Burris straight up !!!

We started well this year with a five and one record so I understood that the Bomber coaching staff did not want to make changes, other than to plug a hole due to injury. However in the last seven games, we have only won once. Yes we've done a little tweaking, adding a couple of Canadian prospects, and signing or trading for defensive line replacements. But by and large, I have not personally seen any real attempt to upgrade our personnel on the field. Are we really unable to locate a better receiver or halfback? Why are we so complacent about our long snapper situation? Can we not find linebackers and defensive ends that fit our schemes? Have we decided to just "stand pat" until next spring's training camp? Would it really kill us to outbid another CFL team for the veteran returnees who did not make it in their NFL tryouts? It's a time honoured CFL tradition to bring in American prospects over the course of the summer. Many such prospects have helped their new teams immediately and had a real impact on the outcome of the season. I say some, not all. What have we done in July, August and even September; I am not not talking October: Signing practice roster players with the intention of making change in next year's training camp is fine. But what about right now? Our current management and coaching have a very specific philosophy in how they have been running the club since the season opened. I can't quite identify what it is but my intuition tells me it is not in the realm of conventional CFL wisdom. I can smell it and it frustrates me. Yes we have upgraded this team over last year and I am sort of happy about that; on the other hand, how could any team stay as pathetic as we were in 2013? I am disappointed. Other than normal maturing that comes with experience, what has this club done to improve itself since its first victory in July? Personnel changes and trades are one thing. But I am wondering about everything and anything that can be done to develop our football team. Is it just me? Or is there something I don't know about?

Anybody know whats going on as of Sundays practice?

Why discuss what's proven ... it's the unknown that is intriguing

The point I am trying to make the most in this thread is that we need to free up Corey Watson to be mainly a receiver instead of mainly a blocker. If Fitzgerald can take over the blocking chores all he needs to do as a receiver is occupy a SAM or a D B. He doesn't need to be fast; he can run the short routes where all he needs to do is keep his body between the back and the ball. There will not be a lot of players who will be able to reach around his rather large physique.. I'm sure Fitzgerald learned to do this playing slot back in college. And if they choose to ignore him (as no worthwhile threat), he has good hands and he will catch the ball. From time to time he will even rumble down the field with that there pigskin.

Here's Wylie's history from the Bomber website: "Under Wylie’s watch, Oakland’s offensive line improved the Raiders from one of the worst in sacks given up, to the top five in the NFL. In 2010, Wylie coached the offensive line for the Denver Broncos, improving the Bronco’s rushing average to 4.7 yards per carry during the second half of the season. As an NFL assistant with Arizona, Tampa Bay and Chicago, he paved the way for seven offensive linemen to earn Pro Bowl berths. He also coached tight ends with the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals. Before returning to the NFL in 2010, Wylie spent the 2009 season coaching the offensive line of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, helping lead them to a division title and a Grey Cup appearance. In his two year with Winnipeg (2007-08), the Bombers’ offensive line allowed the fewest QB sacks (27) in 2007 and the second-fewest (29) in 2008, and saw him coach in the 2007 Grey Cup. During those three seasons, Wylie had CFL all-stars at every position on the offensive line." How would you grade his performance so far this year?

When asked about Corey Watson getting downfield more often, Michael O'Shea said he is very often kept in because he is an excellent blocker. When we drafted Fitzgerald it was in part because he has excellent hands. For the life of me I cannot understand why we don't put Fitzgerald into the lineup in situations other than double tights. It seems like coaches and coordinators get fixations in their head and have certain players slotted into certain roles… They don't seem to be able to think even slightly outside that fixation box. Playing Fitzgerald in Watson's current role would free up Watson to be our best downfield receiver. It would even allow us one more starting Canadian on offense. In turn that would allow us to dress one more import on the defensive side of the ball. We have seen so many Canadians step up and play beyond their recognized skill level, Bucknor being one example. Am I the lone wolf in the wilderness cheering for Fitzgerald as a starter at slotback ... is there no good reason? Anybody else have any good ideas (or bad) to improve our receiving core?

8 wins 10 losses will not make the playoffs ... 9 & 9 might ... 10 & 8 should (which means also bearting BC ... I give us zero chance against Calgary

If we win all 3 of these games we will make the playoffs .... lose just one and we are on life support thinking about the next life

MOS on Irving's Coaches Show says Willey will test his arm this coming weekend ... calls it a "bit of a sprain" Week to week I guess Says the Blue will have to find a way to win our next game ,,, didn't say it with any enthusiasm Rumours of Buck Pierce's return to play QB are strictly sarcasm and a joke ... loves Buck as a coach it seems

agreed ... its a merciless league and a "business decision" will be made to develop someone else with "no history " of potential problems

Sorry ... brain fart. Chris Jones is the Edmonton head coach I see on the sidelines with scowl on jis face all the time

Chris Jones versus Michael O'Shea I have to admit that I'm more than a little bit jealous of Chris Jonesl and his Eskimos. It seemed at the beginning of the season that we were seeing two teams rising out of the ashes like two proverbial Phoenixes. Sadly now it appears there is only one. Chris Jones appears to be somewhat of an angry bird, maybe not like Kent Austin, but he does seem to be getting the most out of his players. I don't like that kind of motivation where the players are playing in fear of the coaches anger, authority and power. By contrast Michael O'Shea appears to be a pinball Clemons clone, at least to me. Last May I attended a pinball Clemens dinner as a fundraiser for the Calgary Colts junior football club. It's hard to sit still near the Pinball, he is such a force of motivation and inspiration to be your best, to do your best and be yourself. He makes it very acceptable and important to just be yourself, to live life appreciably and thankfully. I'm guessing that pinball Clemens was Michael O'Shea's mentor and role model. But I am wondering how well he's doing that here in Winnipeg, that is coaching just the way Pinball did. There does appear to be a few significant differences which I'm only beginning to identify for myself. For one it's the close tightlipped relationship with the media where not even an assistant coach can express himself. I don't particularly like the Winnipeg media except for Tait and Irving but their job is to stir up interest and get the fans excited. I'm not sure what O'Shea's thinking is but in this matter he doesn't seem to be looking for the best in these reporters and is not slipping out juicy tidbits to two or three of his favourite media guys or even to Sarah Orlesky. Another seems to be governance by "the establishment". On this club the players once starting stay starting until injury; there is no tweaking or upgrading but rather just what your place in line until an injury let's you in. Certainly Will Ford never had a chance and Paris Cotton hasn't got a full half to strut his stuff in spite of very good performances earlier. This is especially illustrated when an outstanding player like Johnny Sears who plays with heart, soul and skill can't find his way into the line up. We need to coach in such a performanxe based style or we won't get our very best players on the field; in this there seems to me to be something quite wrong in the way things are being done. Then there's that appearance of favouritism, maybe not cronyism, but familiarity that results in choosing one player over another because you like them or not rather than based on results. I don't know if these are good examples but witness Kuale over Kromah or Brohm over Marve or perhaps Bryant over JFG, or else instances where we are not utilizing a guy like Fitzgerald more. McManus might be right about Brohm, he certainly was about Willey. But whether it's the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator or the head coach, I personally don't like the way they are deciding who gets onto the field on any given Sunday (so to speak). I'm absolutely thankful for Michael Shea being here and with Kyle Walters and all the other supporting cast from president to janitor. We have definitely upgraded our Canadians and found great talent under rocks. Last year we had inadequate American talent and that has been upgraded as well. Further we had to scour out all the bad attitudes and losing thinking. It seems like if you are part of the old guard you've had to play like a maniac to keep your position on this club. So we have a new order and great hope and we'll see what the final third of the season will bring. Five and one the first third, one and five the second, and the jury is out for the third. Chris Jones doesn't appear to be running things like our dear head coach and Edmonton can have him. In the long run angry bird doesn't work. I like what O'Shea is trying to do. I like he's trying to be like Clemons (if that's true). But he can't be Clemons. He has to be his own man, go to his own strengths and see things through his own set of eyes. As a rookie head coach he has a lot of latitude from me (as if that mattered anyway). Pinball was a great teacher and an amazing leader and I'm grateful that we are going to have a lot of that through this coach of ours. Michael O'Shea just has to find his own legs and it is going to take him a little while to sort all this out. I don't want to stand here and criticize like some nagging wife. I just know it won't be long before we rise out of the ashes; we are already seeing glimpses of it. Why Edmonton is rising and we are not I don't know ...but Grey Cup here we come (just not this year).

I could not understand why they quit stacking the box in the 4th Q but this explains it: "when you keep going 2 and out in the second half, eventually the defence is going to wear down and thats what happened" no gas left and without their leader no heart left either

I should hope he leads the league! He's played more games than any other running back. He leads the league in the same way he got the starting job in the first place, everyone else got hurt. Grigsby is also our sole ball carrier... Most of the clubs are platooning their running backs

I believe the point I was making is that if you want a player off another team's PR you have to trade for them and that's amiable .... my guess is there is worthwhile talent sitting in back up roles on other teams ... the consensus is that they can't really help you mid season,... but I don't know if that's true ... what is true is that GMs don't make a lot of trades heading into the playoffs

the CFL design of the practice roster is supposed to allow players to migrate to other teams and through it to a starting or at least a fully paying roster spot for them. I can't think of a recent example of someone being plucked off someone else's PR at all. So if we grabbed someone off of a competitor's roster, PR roster that is. would it be sacrilege meaning being excluded from the prevailing old boys club out there in CFL land ? We didn't see many roster moves at the deadline for guaranteeing veteran salaries did we? Canadians don't tend to loosen up at this time of year and in fact are quite a precious commodity as injuries take their toll on the various teams. We don't see veterans or rookies migrating up here from the recent NFL cuts "down there" but there must've been some changes in the negotiation lists recently. We are seeing a few signings but nothing dramatic or significant in my opinion. We all want to see significant change in upgrading personnel right now. If we were going to grab someone off of a rivals roster what kind of trading would that mean? As it stands I don't see anything about the change right now. Wally 10Buono is the master of the shrewd deal but I don't see anything coming even from him in the near present. We are a stand pat team right now just filling a few holes, desperately it seems.

Out comes the Sunseri versus Willey debate in Regina

We have won and lost a lot of close games this year .... at times I thought we had the "will to win" but clearly we are not there yet ... sigh Yes we need to upgrade our talent here and there ... and get better at this or that ... bit what is going to give us the "heart of a championship club" As we put together our secret sauce what is the one ingredient we must add?

I wouldn't hold my breath on anything changing. I can see us going 2 - 6 down the stretch mostly due to other teams have figured out our weakness. I would think 2 & 6 is ridiculous ... if we start losing there will be several different types of changes made ... personnel, schemes, internal personal resolve ,,, we have a decent core of players on this team and excellent coaching plus a pretty good leader/QB ....calling for 2 & 6 says "the sky is falling"

23 August 2014 - 01:52 AM Now comes the western half of our schedule: 2 eastern teams, 7 games in our own division ... I have us going 5 & 4 finishing 11 & 7 as follows: 10 Sun Aug 31 Winnipeg 0 at Saskatchewan 1 11 Sun Sep 07 Saskatchewan 0 at Winnipeg 1 12 Sat Sep 13 Winnipeg 0 at BC 1 14 Sat Sep 27 Hamilton 0 at Winnipeg 1 15 Fri Oct 03 Winnipeg 1 at Ottawa 0 16 Mon Oct 13 Winnipeg 1 at Edmonton 0 17 Sat Oct 18 Calgary 1 at Winnipeg 0 18 Sat Oct 25 BC 0 at Winnipeg 1 19 Sat Nov 01 Winnipeg 0 at Calgary 1 (unless Calgary is resting for the playoffs) we manage 3 westen victories with one victory each against Edmonton BC & Regina but can not beat Calgary ... we will continue our domination of the east I would be happy with with 4 or 5 victories in the second half of this turnaround year