mbrg

Foresight can also be 20/20. Building up a team for the future isn't easy to do if you trade away picks and don't give your young QB's chances to compete and learn. Glenn is Glenn. He'll have some good games and some bad ones. They will average out...to average. It would have been a great decision to have him on our bench if we didn't have to give up anything higher than a 4th rounder to do it, not because Glenn is broken down, but because we need to build up our NI talent in the worst way possible. Can't get something for nothing most days, even Brohm cost something. As it turns out, he might be good enough to fill in and pull out wins.

that's not the case, imo, opposing offesnse obviously throwing a lot of passes in Bucknor's way. proof is Bucknor lead the teams in tackles. He leads the team by one tackle over a guy who covers the slot. It would be really nice if there were pass defended stats because I can't see teams throwing way accross the field constantly just to pick on a percieved weaker CB. Point I'm trying to make is it makes more sense to have a better safety and put your weakest CB on the guy playing the Aaron Hargraves role on the other teams offense. It makes more sense. But teams have been targeting Bucknor, and if he isn't up to the task it's often a touchdown. They aren't just throwing floaters across the field, they are rolling out to his side. That is by design, and his side of the field is seeing way more action than Brandon Stewart ever did. He's done alright.

yes good o-line and grandma could have picked up 50 yards behind them ... but the other 67 was Will Ford ... finds holes, breaks tackles, gets in the right position to catch passes, makes blocks ... doing all that better than Grigsby Management never gave a proven veteran (and an all star) a chance and that was a mistake .... still feels like they are cleaning house from last year .... Will Ford did not play himself off our team Ford's results against Toronto were so predicable I had him in my initial TSN fantasy line-up at the start of the week. (then swapped him out when he was still sitting on the PR at mid-week) (son of a argh) You are right. Ford did not play himself off of our team. He also did not play himself on to our team. Cotton and Grigsby did. Stuff happens. Get over it. If events had unfolded differently he might still be here, but they did not. This happens all the time in pro football, especially at QB, where opportunities might consist of 5 plays in a pre-season game. He seemed like a decent guy and I'm glad he found a job. I hope he does well, other than during a 10 day stretch around the end of August.

No. I'm not sure even the Bombers have changed the way they think. They simply have had few opportunities to make the changes they want to make to this roster. Combined with the injuries that hit our NI's early, roster decisions seem to be a matter of determining what is the best least-worst option. None of which is intended to discount the contributions of the players listed. They have been playing out of their minds and deserve full marks for it. For 5 weeks now it's looked like our opposition's game plan has consisted of "expose Matt Bucknor" written in caps on the whiteboard, and for the most part, they have not been able to. He's been beat a few times, and he's misfired on about 3 tackles he should have made, but for the most part he's keeping the play in front of him and completely eliminating YAC, and that's really all I expect from him. Here's my take on the 2014 Bombers. As individuals, our roster might be around the 7th best collection of talent in the league (I'm not going to rank them in order or spend 5000 words justifying that assessment). As a team, OShea has them playing to the absolute best of their abilities. Right now that has been good enough to win 4 out of 5 games. Many nights that will be enough for a win. Eventually some of the teams that have more collective talent than us will get on track and play to the best of their abilities. Once that happens, wins will become a bit more rare. The reason I bring that up is because I still think the Bombers will continue to try and upgrade their roster over the next few seasons in a manner that is completely traditional. They are not trying to re-invent the wheel. They have a chef in the kitchen who is making fantastic meals out of average ingredients. The amount of credit this coaching staff should be getting for this team's record can not be overstated. And the selection of players currently on the roster can be included in this. For what they lack in pure talent, they make up for in being FOOTBALL PLAYERS. Run hard, hit hard, battle, don't quit, scrapping in the trenches football players. 46 guys cut in the cloth of Mike OShea. If Mike OShea was born south of the border and played Dline, his name would be Greg Peach. I like the premise of the thread, I just doubt that any huge shift in the mentality of GM's is going to take place. Are teams really going to re-examine their roster to see if they have their own Feoli-G sitting on the bench? Not unless a huge rash of injuries forces them too. Our decisions were made because of a lack of options. I'm also glad it's working, I love it, and I am cheering for these guys every chance I get.

Great, I've got him in the TSN pool this week, now you have to go and put your curse on him! Hmm, or maybe I'll break the curse for you.

We traded arguably the best defensive end in the league to the team hosting the Grey Cup in exchange for an injured backup Olineman. And we had to give them our second round pick to make that deal happen. It's still a win-win trade for the most part, but are they likely to be making that trade for an NFL bound player unless they are going all in on winning the Cup during their host year? Significantly less likely. It's moot; Hall is gone for both teams, they have the depth to replace Neufeld, they won the cup, we have a good enough but not great guard which still might be an upgrade from last year sadly. But to completely ignore the context and circumstances that created this perfect storm for the trade to happen is foolhardy. Which is exactly what Lawless is doing. Here's what we could probably get for January - a backup Dlineman. Something in the Ryan Lucas range. So he'd play, and he'd help for sure, but he'd not solving any ratio issues for us. And we still have to replace January.

Yes, when need overcomes value you trade from a position of weakness and make a bad deal. But you're right, that would qualify as something happening. I believe he is referring to the needs of other teams. In other words, nobody is falling over themselves trying to acquire January but if a contender loses two or three import OT's and the deadline is approaching... might be able to swing a deal that brings back more than January would normally be worth. Based on previous posts I am unwilling to make that assumption.

He's had some of his best games against the Allouettes. Maybe Popp will give us something for him. Of course if it's not a starting offensive lineman with a Canadian passport, Walters failed. External considerations be damned.

Yes, when need overcomes value you trade from a position of weakness and make a bad deal. But you're right, that would qualify as something happening.

He's plagiarizing his own articles now. He used the exact same sentence with Cheveldayoff's name last month. Word for freaking word. So how does his average evening go? Does he back away from his laptop after writing this and think "Goshdarn I am so smart!"? "Watch me enlighten the masses!" Spending 2000 words stating the obvious doesn't make this any less stupid. It sets a new standard for stupid. Walters should also try and trade some beads and smallpox blankets for prime real estate if the opportunity presents itself. External considerations be damned.

I'm also going to try the: I was going to take this guy anyways but now I can pass the blame off on someone else if it doesn't pan out method. Chevon and on and on. Jacquie is to blame if it doesn't work.

c. Mostly they are trying to put them in positions that play to their strengths.

Did you miss all the tweets from beat writers all week? Mike's pretty old-school. Picks up the morning paper off the driveway each day. Browses the "Coffee News" over at Chicken Chef. Doesn't have much use for social media. Is Swiston healthy enough to play yet? Last week we played with 43 after Renaud went down in warm-ups. I assumed we could have put Swiston on the sidelines in a uniform as our 7th if he was healthy, just because why not?

Carter is 4th in line for our NI receivers. Renaud is 5th. Every football fan north of the 49 raved about Hamilton's NI talent this year. Their 4th NI receiver is Matt Coates. Who? A kid out of junior football in Hamilton. So, like EXACTLY what we have. Which back alley in Honduras did you get your doctorate degree by the way?

It demonstrates an injury issue. ....well

We tried that this spring break, was really good. If you want a really good burger, head over to The Nook. Great burger. My wife likes the noodles at that noodle place they have in the US. I can't remember the name. Olive Garden? LOL...you dork. Olive Garden? Really? You think we go to Minneapolis and eat at a restaurant we already have in Canada? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!?!?!?!? So you've heard of it?

There is no reasonable argument that I can think of as to why we would be behind Saskatchewan. Explain. Looking at Sask's depth compared to ours and overall talent gives them the edge over the Bombers, IMO. This is why the upcoming game against the Lions has to be critical- it will confirm either the worst of the last game or show that to be a collective brain cramp. If Sask comes up snake-eyes again, then I would concede that they are worse. While power rankings are in my opinion totally irrelevant to the actual standings and never worth talking about, they do have conceptual parameters that are generally agreed upon. Depth and overall talent are not among them. At least not past week 1. It is an entirely performance-based, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? ranking. Your sadness over the Bombers losing a game does not in any way elevate the performances of the Riders so far this year.

Three pages on this? This is hardly the first time this has happened in a Bomber/CFL/NFL/any league where contact with the ground doesn't automatically end the play...game. Now if the Bombers really feel this is an issue because of just how many ticky-tack penalties have been called so far this season, they should say as much when they make their weekly list of complaints call to Glenn Johnson. If the CFL is trying to eliminate all dangerous and unnecessary contact with QBs, then all potential situations and outcomes should have clear guidelines for all players. In the meantime, there was no whistle. Play's not dead.

For the first 4 hours or so he should wear his old Bomber uni. Congrats to Geroy. And if he's feeling masochistic he can slip on a green pair of pajamas right before bedtime.

Was just wondering this myself, if Beck starts, we're whooping em. The list of "backup" QBs that we've lost to over the last 20 years is so long I'm not wasting my time trying to think of all of them. We were so thrilled to face a green and inexperienced Travis Lulay. Loss. First ever start for Bo Levi Mitchell? This will be a cakewalk! Loss. Rocky freaking Butler? Hahahahahaha. Loss. Ha, we knocked Anthony Calvillo out of the game! Adrian McPherson? This thing is over! Loss. I'm quitting now before sadness sets in. Don't underestimate or disrespect your opponent. Beat your opponent.

Hard to say that when players aren't executing and drives aren't sustained. He made some calls that would have put the Eskimos on their heels only to have our weapons misfire. And if you can't make some headway on first down, advantage defence. If everything that happened last Thursday was the result of great plays by the Edmonton defence I might be inclined to agree with you, but we frittered away many opportunities on offence with poor execution. That's not on Marcel. If he catches it in stride Willis is not catching him. He read it, but he's not getting there. Grigsby had enough room on that side to put up a positive gain, probably 6 to 8 yards before the LB/DB(?) closes off that space. It would not have been a loss. These kinds of plays (or the threat of these kinds of plays) are exactly what is needed to take pressure off of Willy. Same with the delay toss that went off Cotton's facemask. Poor execution of these relief valves meant Edmonton could continue to pin their ears back and keep after Willy. I've said before that I hate the double tight formation, but to be clear, I hate running out of the double tight formation. We don't seem to have the horses to push the line in the direction we want, so scheming to bring more defenders into the box has almost always resulted in failure, if you consider a 3 yard run on first down a failure, which I do. We have had some success passing out of the double tights, and if we're doing it simply as max protection for Willy then my patience for it goes up a bit.

I'm sure there are people who think this. I'm not one of them.

I was trying to make a souffle. What did you expect? I don't know what imaginary game you were at. I'll hazard a guess the situation has not fully been described. More likely there was a drunken lout screaming profanities at the opposing team while some poor mom and dad wondered why they would ever bring their kids to another Bomber game. Something along these lines perhaps: "FUGGINBURRISDIEARGHYUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEE (barfs on shoes) WADDDDAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOULOOGINGATJERGTHISIZNTALYBRARRREEEEIMAREEEEEEEEEEEEEEELFANN!!!" I bring lozenges to games for all the yelling I do and the situation you're describing is totally unknown. Pretty good chance the problem is you.

Doesn't matter. Strikes all around. There will be no touchdowns scored this week.

This is how I see it too. You could just tell that things were not working. They bumbled their way around so many facets where they just made simple fundamental mistakes. Catching and tackling should never be things to worry about going into a game. Even the field goal that hit the post, an inch or two more inside it probably deflects off and through. Just one of those nights where you can't do anything right. If we'd said before the season started we'd be 3-1 after 4 games I think everyone would have taken that without a second thought. This team has done a lot of good things thusfar, one bad game doesn't negate them. A healthy Geaves, Leggett and Watson will go a long ways for this team's success. We do not have so much talent on this roster that we can absorb the loss of these guys. Not only their absence, but the side-effect of having others playing away from their preferred positions. A lot of things have to go right on gameday for this team to chalk up wins. The players are battling hard to make it happen.