USABomberfan

Looks like Gable may be out a while

No but they still have a lead atm. Doesn't look like all this Kent Austin talk is gonna be around for a while if they win tonight.

Wow, Koch got plowed

I got the game on mute .... But I must say that was another Glenn Bomb

And they get a chance to take the lead now, looks like I tuned into a good one here.

Well, I was right about the Tiger Cats hanging around and giving BC problems.

Actually surprised that Als game was as close as it was in the end, but Dinwiddie is going to be out before the year is over I bet. Right now, I'm wondering if Als fans aren't gonna start calling for Jim Popp to be fired lol.

NOOOOO, Pencer 2.0 right there.

30-8 Jeebus Good thing I got my TV tuned to a different game down here.

I got a feeling this first game is going to be one big old bad mess. Biggest question is whether or not Higgins will start howling for Garcia to dawn on a uniform and get suited up. I'm gonna predict Edmonton wins that game 23-7. 2nd game should be a good one. Hamilton's been hanging around in a lot of their games, BC won't be getting as easy a win as they might think they are. Be interesting to see if LeFevour can keep making plays in the passing game to help the tabbies out.

As usual, Bomber game replay with the CJOB Audio coming to youtube ... stay tuned

Well, our O-line for a number of years now has been a work in progress and the injuries it's had to deal with, and rotating in younger guys like Goosen have made this difficult for us no doubt. That being said, I think the best thing we need to do as fans is not call for heads to roll yet. That's honestly my only fear of losing with this team is that someone up in management is gonna pull some stupid Lyle E Bauer (aka worst CEO in CFL history) **** and end up wrecking something we built. Hopefully our current regime isn't like that anymore, but no doubt there's going to be losses like this that we gotta put up with, but move on from and not call for anything irrational when they happen.

We absolutely have to. I will admit I'm still mad as hell about this, it definitely went down as a frustrating loss and a woulda shoulda coulda game. Tough and those are a part of football. But the better teams in this league are the ones who put that behind, and in our case, we got a short short amount of time before we gotta turn around and play again. I know the Argos have been bruised and battered on offense, I don't know the timetable on Andre Durie, Chad Owens, Jason Barnes, John Chiles, and now Coombs, but even with those guys banged up and on the sideline, Ricky Ray is still Ricky Ray, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't still concerned about the Argos being ready to pull a big one out. Plus despite Burke's defense's struggles over the year, they're going to be much more prepared for us this time around, and Willy is going to need to get his confidence back up as well. This is going to be a real test right here and we're going to have to pull a big one out on the road.

I will admit that's tough to watch when you got one O-line that can open up holes for Messam and Ford, and another get Grigsby a meager 15 yards on the ground. That was one difference that benefited the Ridirts today. But .... gotta move on and get ready for Tuesday. I also might add, two game losing streak maybe, playing on short rest and bumped all the way up to the Tuesday game in Toronto is going to be brutal. But the good news is we get a bit of a rest after and get none other than the dysfunctional Als after them, so I think we'll be safe from the 3 game losing streak atm.

Note that the streamup link may have a CJOB audio feed going in it I'm told.

The live stream of NorthCarolinaBomber has moved. For those of you who've watched it the first 6 weeks on justin.tv, that website is no longer available. The new link for the stream is here at: https://streamup.com/North_Carolina_Bomber Pretty much the same thing as justin, just in the beta stage of development.

Unless the decision to play Garcia comes from above Higgins, can't really rule that out with the ALS. i mean, the GM didn't even get a say on the Higgins hiring... seems like the owner is running things there, if the owner is running things, what really could higgins do. Higgins is almost like a puppet here being controlled by those who are above him on the pecking order. Yeah true, but if Rob Wetenhall, the owner, is really that crazy, fans had better start calling the local Montreal Doctors to come visit his office because trying to pull stuff like that is just beyond ridiculous, and I mean it would almost rival the crap show that we had going on last year it would be that bad. I get in the CFL sometimes you need the bad exposed by biting the bullet hard, but I have to believe as much of a let down as the Als were due to have in the first official year of being Calvillo-less, they honestly made it 10x as bad as it could've been considering the best team in the East right now is 2-4.

Seems like from what I've read, most of the rumors about him actually suiting up to play are largely jokes circulating. I mean, would just be incredibly stupid to play a guy who's older than Calvillo himself and who's been out of football like 5 years now and hasn't even played a CFL snap in what, 16 years? If Higgins really was planning on that, he'd have to be a completely insane coach with no ounce of reason left in him whatsoever. I mean hey I get that the Als pulled him in after he'd been out 7 years, and that he certainly seems to be a bit out of touch with the way coaching goes these days, but I'd be completely shocked if he lost all sanity to pull a move like this.

I think there is a very noticeable difference between this year's hot start and 2011's hot start... in 2011 they were winning exclusively because the defense was dominating, this year they are actually getting wins because the offense is contributing in a big way. Generally in the CFL you can get by riding your defense early in the season because every offense is behind. This year I would expect the offense to get better as the year goes on as well so they shouldn't get left behind as other offenses start to improve across the league. If any team should be concerned about doing what the 2011 Bombers did it would be Edmonton because they're doing it almost exactly the same way as the Bombers did back then. Relying on tons of sacks and turnovers, but eventually teams will clean that up. I would expect the Bombers record to sag a bit simply because of a tougher schedule but I don't expect it to drop off the map completely. Right, I'm not disagreeing with this. I do think there are noticeable differences between this year's O and the O of that year, and in the playcalling in particular, but I'm just saying, it won't always be able to play at a high level like we've seen at a number of these early games, plus while we've come away with some last minute and last second TD drives, obviously those won't always happen either and there will be times we gotta deal with frustrating losses. I'm just thinking in terms of what I've usually seen as far as the finishing trends going on in this league over recent years. I think even if teams in the East like Montreal and Ottawa don't pull out of their hole, a stacked West division isn't going to see any teams finish with more than 11 wins is my theory. Plus I just don't think a team as young as ours is quite in the spot of pulling off a 13-5 / 14-4 type record as it is. Biggest thing this team just needs at this point is continuity.

The comedy continues in Montreal. Now I liked Jeff Garcia, guy had quite a career having success in this league and then going on to have a hell of a career in the NFL taking some teams to the playoffs and winning playoff games too. That being said, this is likely a move to put him at QB coach, maybe freeing Dinwiddie up to help get some better prep in his playbook or something. Taking on that much water for the guy isn't good at all in this situation. That being said, I must agree that all this bringing in of more consultants and merely swapping or adding position coaches for the Als isn't going to fix the root of the problem. If you're gonna find what the root of the trouble is, you gotta point to the power struggle going on up in their Administration. This article pretty much sums it up http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Alouettes+lose+ugly+offence+falls+flat/10084382/story.html I think what happened was Popp wanted and wants to hold onto two hats, as both HC and GM of the team. But Mr Wetenhall doesn't want that. I think he expected Popp would voluntarily go back to being GM by season's end, but when he didn't Mr W stepped in with the hire of Higgins. That as was said was a pretty late hire, and seems the staff was kinda thrown together on the fly, hence the whole Worman situation that happened. This begs the question as to why did Rob W extend Popp's contract another 3 years. Seems like the wise thing to do would've been for the Als to just let Popp have that HC job and hang onto it unless the whole bottom falls out, or else let him go after this year and get a new guy who's gonna add new players and take the team in a different direction. Because right now, it seems Popp as a GM is losing interest in having only that position, and he shouldn't be going after old NFL outcasts to form his rosters, he oughtta be getting the Als scouting back to younger talent and look into more proficient Canadian talent. I mean, you'd figure in a major city like Montreal, down the road at Ottawa, or even making some trips to Toronto you'd find quite a stable of Canadian talent at the local universities there.

I went over to Riderfans just because I got curious to see what the majority were saying. I actually saw a lot of them say it was gonna be a tough one. Most of the smart ones recognize our team has done much to improve, and I think they realize how much different a team their facing. That being said, I don't doubt that at some point the losses start catching up with us. I mean in 2011, we started out 7-1 yet only finished 10-8 not doing so well on the back stretch. Is such a scenario likely to happen again this year with this team? Yes, but considering how bad our 3-15 team of 2013 was, 9 or 10 wins, or even only 8 for that matter is something I could live with because of that. This team may be playing over their heads a little bit, but that's what good coaching can do, it can get the most out of your players, even ones that aren't all that talented. All I hope is that Bombers stick with O'Shea through the bad times and don't lose faith like they did with Dave Ritchie back in 04.

I don't have sympathy for them. When these threads about other teams are started up, it's more out of interesting speculations to think about what they might do. That's rather the beauty of a 9 team only league. I know people may say the guy has a temper, and maybe he doesn't handle losing the best. But at least he cares about losing and makes that known unlike old Tim Burke who seemed to let losing just fly, and even Lapo to some extent. I mean don't get me wrong, coaches who act like Mike Kelly are not good either, and I don't listen in on the Hamilton local media coaches shows or anything, but I think it's a little crazy to say Austin is right on par with that guy. Passionate? Maybe too much and a little unable to handle losing the right way? Could be. But have his players stopped playing for him? I don't think so. Their resolve to make a comeback against us being down 20-3 and be one last second play away from winning shows they weren't about to give up. And like I said, they only got blown out one time. They've been in their games, just haven't had the breaks go their way. That could very well change soon.

Yeah I don't quite get why people think Troy Smith is a scrambling QB. I watched many a game he played at Ohio State and he was almost anything but. That being said, I think a lot of QBs find out, especially from watching the current starters who have been up in the league a while, that you better be ready to run as a QB in this league. Even the best O-lines will still have problems at times giving you a clean pocket, and I think Smith has found that out much the hard way in this league. Also such things can make accuracy issues difficult, not to mention as a guy who's likely used to hitting those quick release passes and even deep routes on a typical US sized field. I think at this point, we all just gotta admit he's just one of those QBs that hey, he'll go down as having one of the most successful college careers, but he simply wasn't cut out to play the pro game. I mean, I guess it's possible he may try to finish out his days in the AFL, but likely that doesn't pay squat. Also another reason why I just want to beat some fans over the head when they think someone's US college football history means they're gonna do well up here. I mean, it means absolutely and I mean absolutely nothing. Good QBs who do well in this league have almost always had a guiding point from a veteran QB that they have understudied for a few years and a coach who's known what he's doing in regards to QB play. I don't think I have ever heard of any QBs, whether they came up here straight out of college, or spent a few years in an NFL stint that didn't work out, that have ever done well when thrown straight into action. I mean, I think Robert Marve can definitely be a good to great QB once he gets a couple years of the learning curb under his belt, but there's a reason we aren't just throwing him into action other than short yardage plays. I think all 3 of their QBs are gonna be gone at the end of this year, likely will go a route similar to what we did with bringing in of new ones. If Higgins is the one who botched the Worman situation and doesn't make plans to get a real OC by next year, he should either take major heat or be gone. If it's Popp interfering in that business, Wetenhall is gonna need to put him back in his place and tell him to get back to scouting and bringing in younger Canadian and import talent instead of going after NFL rejects with little future to them. You just start wondering if that current extension given to Popp was a mistake as he seems to not be doing a whole lot right since Trestman and Calvillo left. Anyway, if Wetenhall hopes to keep money in his pocket with the team he had better get his act together.

Chick and Foley, don't forget about that number 95. I think one big key for our offense will be a screen game with Grigsby or Cotton. If we can get screen or shovel passes working against them and exploit what I expect to be them sending a heavy rush on us, we may be able to get some vulnerabilities exposed of theirs. Do that and perhaps Chick and Foley are a little slower to try and run in on Willy. Then, perhaps you also end up opening up the field for the Wideouts. I didn't hear anything but hoping Nick Moore is back this week? If he and Watson could be back, I think we can exploit them a bit.