USABomberfan

So you'd be happy with a 4-5 win season? Unless they get completely decimated by injuries in every position, 4-14 seems a bit far fetched for a Riders finish, realisticly speaking, though we all share the sentiment. I think they could certainly finish worse than 10-8 and if bad luck really hits them, maybe even as bad as 6-12, but I see em goin like 8-10 realisticly though. Last year obviously the West obviously came out and was blowin the East out in pretty much every category early, I don't think that's going to happen this year given that the league is always susceptible to landscape shifts in the polar opposite as well, plus with Montreal in better shape, I think it's gonna be a lot more even across the board. I see the Standings being: West East Calgary 12-6 Montreal 11-7 Edmonton 11-7 Toronto 9-9 Us 10-8 Hamilton 8-10 Saskatchewan 8-10 Ottawa 5-13 BC 6-12 Something like that.

Normally I'd agree on that last part, but Buono seems to be sure that he can stash his marbles all on Lulay, which given how much time he's missed over the last 2 seasons, I don't think is a good idea. I personally think the guy may even be one big hit away from permanent retirement, and with Kevin Glenn gone, their backup QBs are way down in quality. So if anyone's in trouble in our division, it's them I'd say. Saskatchewan ... well I think a lot will predicate on how effective their run game and defense are. They lost both Hall and Cortez at their respective coordinator roles, I know Chapdelaine has his resume, but it still remains to be seen whether his gameplans fit the Riders' players strengths. The way I see it, Edmonton and Calgary are still the big guns we gotta compete with, but I think we got the shot to finish at least 3rd in the West. As far as who gets the East, that's a tough call. Yeah I know Ricky Ray is still Ricky Ray, but if I'm an Argo fan, I'd be highly concerned about Tim Burke and the way that defense has been going, not looking good IMO, I think he was a pretty damn good DC back with us in 2011, but since that time his D's really seem to be going downhill. I'd put Montreal up as number 1, because yeah, they had their problems early on last year, but they found their QB, got a real OC after the Dinwiddie interim stint, and their defense actually is very good. If they continue to improve, nobody's gonna be missing Calvillo too much over there.

Preseason is going to be upon us before we know it, and I haven't followed too many transactions of other teams around the league, but as for our own part, more changes have been made and I like to think year 2 of the Mike O'Shea era will see even bigger better things. So with Hall now callin the shots on the other side of the ball, I'm hoping to see a much improved run defense over last year's, and a bigger stronger D-line. Offense, I think barring any injuries, we'll have our run game up and cooking this time and be able to make the work a lot lighter on Willy, even more so because I expect to see a better O-line in front. That being said, O'Shea and the players have to know the expectations are high, and better than 7-11 must be shown out there on that field, playoffs or bust is what it is. I cut the team some slack for that record because O'Shea had to make some tough decisions last year and after coming out of a huge mess left by the Joe Mack people, a lot had to be done to fix it. This year though, it's year 2 and everyone, including QB Drew Willy who struggled with play late last year, have to get back in the mojo. Talent-wise, I think this current team has Grey Cup caliber players on it, and finishing in the ballpark of 9-12 wins should be more than feasible. We also do gotta let the season play out and not make too many knee-jerk reactions when things go wrong, but if things go backward the whole way, then heads may just have to roll again.

Man, that's tough, I'm one of the types that really has to give the guys props who go back to finish up their degrees like Vince Young did, but damn .... tough break there.

While it is off-topic, there's plenty of ignorance that runs deep up in CA as well. I've talked to some folks from up there before who didn't even know where my state was, and others who were in total disbelief when they found out it almost never snows in my part of the country. True story. Just saying though, let's not pretend here that this stuff doesn't go both ways. Now..... back to weighing in on Etcheverry, I think we can at least all come to the agreement that these silly assessments of O'Shea being blindly loyal to the guy. I knew they were not true and this here proves it. Also, I don't think all our struggles should've been put on Etch's head, but his run defenses over the years have been the problem, and they reared the ugly head around again, so I think it was a good move. I know a lot of folks here think Bellefeuille should go too, I think he rightfully deserves one more year here. Yeah there were a few games where he probably made the wrong calls from the playbook, but I think a lot of people here don't understand when sometimes there have been good playcalls, but bad execution. Also, riding the Grigsby horse early on this year probably hurt our O a lot more than we realized as well, but I think now that Cotton's the go-to man, we might actually see a more consistent and explosive offense take the field. Bottom line, I don't think he's a perfect OC, but he's good enough to stick around another year.

It was not. I was speaking off your post, not about it. The world is full of fans who dish out blame to the easiest target whether it belongs there or not. People who scream at the QB for an interception despite having no clue what way the receiver was supposed to break. People who swear at the Oline for a sack despite having no clue what the protection was supposed to be. I don't like to be one of those guys. So I'm not going to blame MB for any one play, or series, or game. Would he have done better with better players? I should hope so. That idea should hold true for any coach. He was here last year. He got a pass for 2013 because of the whole Lapo to Crowton to Burke to Crowton to Bellefeuile clustersmooch of a transition that happened over that time, and the lack of any chance to have a coherent playbook of his own. This year doesn't just become a fresh start in my mind though. He had many of these players here last year and still had a chance to build off of something, even if it wasn't something spectacular. He didn't seem to do that beyond the first bunch of games. In the last two thirds of the season the offence spun it's wheels to the point where Neil Young should have been upset about the environmental damage. More often than not the defence kept this team hanging around in almost every game. This year was already MB's mulligan for last year. Two mulligan seasons in a row? I can't advocate that. Bellefeuile does seem like a likeable guy. Never met him, but his hard-knocks story certainly makes me want to root for his success. Odd thing is, I will always root for the success of anyone associated with the Bombers, cause his success likely means the team is succeeding too. I think this is fair enough, and pretty well on target with the task this team has on hand. I think where these misconceptions are coming in is that people already are stating that Bellefeuille is stuck here and that everyone on the coaching staff is guaranteed to stay next year. No such statements have been made and people who jump to conclusions like this are as bad as those 3rd grade writers the WFP employs. I don't think any writers, no matter what their names are, would know at this point whether or not O'Shea/Walters has any interest in Cortez. Secondly, Cortez is gonna get multiple offers from different teams, and it's not a first-come first-serve thing. He gets to decide which team offering him he wants to go work for. I think first, if he's among any of the candidates for the BC head coaching job, I expect he'll be knocking on Buono's door trying to land that one. If not, but BC chooses a coach who's interested in taking him on board, he'll still have them, us, and Ottawa if they offer him to choose from, but again, he gets to choose where he wants to go. If he turned us down, that's not Walters and O'Shea's fault, just means he wanted to go with another team.

Well, at least we mostly got the winner right

There was another holding penalty that happened on that play as well that wasn't called. Anyway, just think, we beat both of these teams during the year, I'm feeling 2015 will indeed be our year to rise up.

And just think, we'll have ended the season beating both of these teams once in the year.

Calgary 39 Hamilton 13 Final

Could David Braley himself be a bit behind this? I've certainly seen enough of this league to know that coaching is one tough business and even small things can sometimes get you fired. Obviously losing that playoff game, a game that does have a lot of weight was gonna trigger a chain reaction of some sort, and BC obviously wants something new. But yeah, being stuck with Glenn and his unreliable backups isn't necessarily Bene's fault. I'm also not of the opinion that it was merely one game that got him fired, somebody or some people on that team must've un-backed him, similarly to what they say is happening to Tom Coughlin in NY right now. I have no doubt he will get on as an assist or possibly head coach somewhere like either here or in Hamilton, but who knows, maybe the Redblacks will capitalize on this and dump Campbell for him.

Bam on the money did I ever call it, Montreal smoked em

Good, then no need to get high strung because someone thinks their coach should be fired

Seriously dude, seems you won't answer my question Why do you hate him so much? I think your hatred for someone not even associated with the Bombers who has never said a bad word about us is baloney. I don't hate him, but everyone who watches his games has a right to bag on him if he's making bad calls on that sideline. You think I'm the only one who does? Hell no, hell I go to other forums and I see fans calling for him to go and some even advocating they hire Bellefeuille to replace him. Again that's not coming from me, it's other fans who want that. Just because someone criticizes a head coach for not doing his job right doesn't mean they hate him, any fan can suggest moves the Redblacks can make to get better. And btw, I think Desjardins is terrible and should go too, but unless I see definitive concrete proof that he was the lone triggerman in the Gibson firing, I'm not buying that Rick Campbell didn't call it.

Not Campbell. Desjardins. Why do you hate Rick Campbell so much? A non descript HC on a team two thousand miles away who, like us didn't make the playoffs? Did he steal your Halloween candy or something? I think it's pretty obvious that Campbell is in waaay over his head but he's never said anything derogatory about the Bombers like his boss did. He doesn't come across as an arrogant bastard & know it all like his boss does. He shows every respect to every team he's coached. And he seems like a decent guy who should have stayed in Calgary as he had a great gig as DC there. Bad career move, I think. But you're the only one I know anywhere who has an actual hate on for Rick Campbell & it makes no sense. And why are you such a big old fanboy of this clown? And oh please don't even start with that stilly "GM hires and fires Offensive Coordinators". No no no, that's utter baloney. Are we the only fans who don't know the hierarchy of hiring and firing coaches?

Gary doesn't write the titles, his editor does. Then he should tell him to fix them so his newspaper isn't a stain on the city of Winnipeg.

Even though I'm in agreement that Etch should go, that GL is still an embarrassment to the word "Journalist". Sorry but his titles really suck and he needs to learn how to actually write some grammatically coherent articles. What he needs to learn is that it may be okay to talk colorfully on the radio, but when you put out articles, this kind of stuff is high schoolish.

I am just not surprised by this either, that jerk Rick Campbell made Mike Gibson a scapegoat here for his problems, just like Lapolice did to Barresi. If he goes out and hires another Gary Crowton, ohhhh boy, I will pity the fans in Ottawa. Rick Campbell the greater evil still runs the team.

That would be a mistake, the guy appears to be a downgrade from Bellefeuille.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvkYTDd5S11Jr1VZ-WHsc_jbLPsaZMRGM There it is, every game of 2014 from week 1 to week 19, now on demand. Should stay up forever or at least long enough for anyone to get the games they want to relive again or evaluate the team with. Enjoy

So here it is, Semi Final week. My prediction for these two games: Montreal 45 BC 13 Edmonton 31 Saskatchewan 10

What, Joey "have football will travel" Elliot isn't available? Last I heard, the Redblacks still had him As to Goltz, this is a bit of a surprise personally, he's a bit less of a passer than White, but Matt Nichols has had injury histories plaguing him as well, so guess there wasn't much choice in the matter.

What I'm a little concerned about for Trestman is that he is not firing his DC, Mel Tucker, whose defenses have been horrendous over the past 2 years. What's been bad is that not only have they struggled up front, they've been having terrible communication break downs among some pretty good DBs, and they probably should've made a change there. That is something he probably could do to at least attempt to stop a bad bleed on that team. It's a lost season at this point probably for them, but when things do get that bad, there should probably be at least some changes that a HC makes that he can make to show the fans and media that he's willing to try and fix it.

Yes that upset me big time. Similar thing happened down in Tampa Bay last year when the Buccaneer fans said something like that about Greg Schiano's family. The guy was a terrible head coach but that kind of stuff is despicable and puts a huge stain on a fanbase that the good NFL fans can't respect. Marc Trestman deserves to be treated much better as a person, he's a good man with good character who just isn't getting the job done. Fans need to realize this. Yeah if your team is failing as bad as the Bears are, calling for him to be fired is understandable, and yes they were obviously angry when he said in his press conference today that there would be no coaching changes in his staff, but yeah going into someone's personal life like that is something you as a fan have no business doing.

The thread however, in answer to Mr Dee's statement, is not about Cutler or the Bears, it's about wondering what will become of Trestman's future in the NFL or coming back to the CFL. Because right now, as much or as little is his fault on that team, the tables have turned badly on him. The reason I hope he gets some sort of chance to redeem himself is because not only is he a good football mind and a guy who did a lot for the Alouettes, his success there did a lot for this league in terms of it's appeal and attraction in the marketing phase, and some of the better CFL years that some of my fellow American friends have followed closely have been when he was coaching up here. And certainly how the league is perceived and giving it better marketability and enjoyable for more followers to find is something that benefits all the teams including us. And hey, who can forget the 13-men moments against SSK, that even us as bomber fans enjoyed that he's been a part of. Bottom line, we want his legacy to be restored and not tarnished by this bad chapter.