OK, it IS Willy ...

[Bigblue204]

I'm enjoying the win. I'm just not ready to say this team has rounded a corner to being successful....yet.

[Mark F]

Thing I noticed for the first time in years, is receivers   blocking for a sideline screen pass. Saw three guys out in front of one of those early on, doing an effective job.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Mark F
duplication of a phrase, deleted to improve syntax

[wpgallday1960]

39 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

I'm enjoying the win. I'm just not ready to say this team has rounded a corner to being successful....yet.

Agreed. Nichols was better than Willy but the running game and  oline play was a big reason too.  Right now Nichols is plying better than Willy but I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to continue.

[Atomic]

Nichols looked pretty similar to Willy IMO other than the huge difference - he hit the deep ball when he had the chance.  I also believe this was the best lineup we have put on the field this season... take out Roberts for Randle and we'd really be on to something.

[Noeller]

It's a one-game-at-a-time thing...I'm enjoying last night VERY much, and excited that when I get home for holidays this weekend, the province will be in an upbeat mood about the team. After Wednesday? Who knows......one game at a time.

[Mike]

1 hour ago, Doublezero said:

Nichols played better than Reilly.

Yes he did. 100%

 

[Bigblue204]

reilly was off all night. His first pass was a screen to bowman that he threw into the dirt for no reason.

[Stickem]

9 hours ago, Blueballz said:

..Nichols seemed to make quicker and more decisive throws...

I wonder if Willy got up this morning...looked in the mirror and said....' my gawd it is/was me'....Time to do a serious re-set Drew cuz your game has gone south and it actually WAS YOU.....I think we'll stick with Nichols as long as he can get it done...which is looking pretty good right about now.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Stickem

[BattleLevel]

1 hour ago, Mark F said:

Thing I noticed for the first time in years, is receivers   blocking for a sideline screen pass. Saw three guys out in front of one of those early on, doing an effective job.

This right here. I thought that we saw the best downfield blocking of the year from the receivers. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

10 hours ago, Brandon said:

Only for them to not go back to him in the 2nd half....

 

10 hours ago, wbbfan said:

no joke. it was some thing like 15 carries in the first and 6 in the second. completely gave up on the pressure release and screen to him too.

Actually it was the reverse. 7 carries in the 1st half, 15 in the 2nd plus the one reception. They didn't go away from him at all, they just didn't get the big gainers like they did in the first half. He was more of a clock-killer in the 2nd half.

[TrueBlue4ever]

1 hour ago, Floyd said:

Its a handful of negative posters ruining the forum...

I mistakenly read this as "handful of negative posters running the forum". Freudian slip?

[17to85]

Nichols played well but the biggest difference was by far the 3 american offensive line. Harris had 100 yards rushing in the first half! That takes so much pressure off of a quarterback and makes it so much harder for a defence to do anything. Last time we played Edmonton Harris had what? 22 yards rushing? Night and day difference from the offensive line in terms of allowing the offence to be multi faceted. Notice how late in the game when they stopped either using Harris or having success using Harris that the offense started to stall and Nichols coulda had a pick throwing into multiple coverage? One dimensional offenses are easier to stop, having that multifaceted attack allows everyone on the team to be more successful. 

But no some people can't look at a game beyond who is behind centre. Willy had some problems, but he was never the only problem on this team and a lot of guys stepped up last night where they weren't before. That happens a lot when you bench your starting qb. It is a giant boot to the ass to everyone on the team to pick it up. 

[pigseye]

Bond solidified the o-line

Nichols drive ending in the TD to Adams, huge

Fredericks pick late in the 4th, huge

Those 3 made the difference last night.

[TrueBlue4ever]

I give the o-line a lot of credit for this win (and the kicking of Medlock, and the defensive secondary's punishing style, and the d-line for it's pressure, etc. - all played a factor) as I haven't seen that passion and aggression form that group all year, and I believe it had a major effect on the psyche of Drew Willy and his comfort in the pocket. My enduring memory of Willy's play this year so far was the second half of the Edmonton home game where he was skipping four yard passes into the turf at the receiver's feet, surely a sign of his lost confidence to complete even a simple pass.

What Nicholls offered in this game was a decisive QB who trusted his reads and got the ball off strong and fast. Early on there was no time for the Eskimos to get to him because of a quick read and release. He threw 12 yard routes consistently instead of "4 and go get the other 6 we need", spotted the open man in zone coverage and got the ball there decisively quite often, knew when to throw it away, knew when to take the sack, bought himself time with scrambling, and didn't beat himself up when he missed on an overthrow. He continued to follow the game plan and hit  the deep ball a couple of times quite well. No underthrown balls, none without zip on them, maybe only one dangerous pass into multiple coverage that I can recall. He looked confident. That is what Willy's game has been missing, and that's why you can say (despite all of the other aspects that assisted in this win) that Nicholls was the difference.

[Floyd]

All I know is that I haven't seen a Bomber QB help his team bounce back after a late game score since Willy's first first few games in 2014...  deserves a lot of credit for that.

I really don't like the way people are diminishing his game.  I'm really not a Nichols fan but he made smart plays/reads, survived the classic 3rd quarter blahs and went for the long ball when he had to...  this is all we were asking.

If Willy was starting, we would have come close but today this board would be full of posts about 'what could he do without Dressler and Adams'...  'Hardrick got abused by Howard'... and cursing Lapo for never calling the long ball.

 

[17to85]

I think the people who are trying to make it Willy vs. Nichols are reaching too hard. No one has said Willy hasn't had issues, that's an invented argument from the people ready to string Willy up in the town square. All people have said is that there is more going on than JUST the qb. Hell there were issues with the offense last night too. They were still terrible in the red zone and given how lopsided the TOP was in the first half they really should have been up by a lot more than they were. Lapo still got really conservative in the back half of the game and it nearly cost them. Nichols made a poor decision to throw into coverage late but was lucky it was dropped, if that had been Willy it would be all people talked about. 

So why does it have to be this huge thing about the quarterbacks? The team stepped up in a lot of ways last night and it was a good win for them. I really liked what the defense did against Reilly. They were living rent free in his head. Best game of the year by those guys as well. DL really stepped up and made life uncomfortable for Reilly and the coverage was there when they really needed it. Medlock as predicted when not asked to kick from 50 yards all the time was money. 

[Atomic]

Good point about Medlock.  He's up to 80% on the year now.  Would have been a very different game with a kicker going 1/5 or 2/5 like last year at times.

[White Out]

26 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Nichols played well but the biggest difference was by far the 3 american offensive line. Harris had 100 yards rushing in the first half! That takes so much pressure off of a quarterback and makes it so much harder for a defence to do anything. Last time we played Edmonton Harris had what? 22 yards rushing? Night and day difference from the offensive line in terms of allowing the offence to be multi faceted. Notice how late in the game when they stopped either using Harris or having success using Harris that the offense started to stall and Nichols coulda had a pick throwing into multiple coverage? One dimensional offenses are easier to stop, having that multifaceted attack allows everyone on the team to be more successful. 

But no some people can't look at a game beyond who is behind centre. Willy had some problems, but he was never the only problem on this team and a lot of guys stepped up last night where they weren't before. That happens a lot when you bench your starting qb. It is a giant boot to the ass to everyone on the team to pick it up. 

Pot, meet kettle. You're obsession to defend Willy right until his inevitable release is actually shocking. No one here is saying "OH LOOK, IT WAS WILLY ALL ALONG!". It's a lot of people saying the same thing as me: Nichols was a lot better than anything Willy has done this year, combined with a great effort  by the line and Harris and it's a world of difference. Had we played Willy last night I could see it being another heart breaking close loss to Edmonton like earlier in the year.

[sweep the leg]

2 minutes ago, White Out said:

No one here is saying "OH LOOK, IT WAS WILLY ALL ALONG!".

That's basically the title of the thread...

[17to85]

2 minutes ago, White Out said:

Pot, meet kettle. You're obsession to defend Willy right until his inevitable release is actually shocking. No one here is saying "OH LOOK, IT WAS WILLY ALL ALONG!". It's a lot of people saying the same thing as me: Nichols was a lot better than anything Willy has done this year, combined with a great effort  by the line and Harris and it's a world of difference. Had we played Willy last night I could see it being another heart breaking close loss to Edmonton like earlier in the year.

and I say if Willy had the kind of support from the run game that Nichols had last night we could have done exactly the same. See I'm not obsessed with defending Willy, I am trying to make people like you see that trying to pin it all on the qb is narrow sighted thinking. There are a lot of things that combine to make a team lose games and part of it is the years of getting his ass kicked by not having that run game to lean on and not having an OL that can keep him from getting cranked game in and game out that puts Willys confidence into the shitter. But here's the thing, you can rebuild a guys confidence and a confident Willy is a better player than Nichols. 

[do or die]

Bottom line.....Nichols played well, and we had the best blocking, all year....from the interior OL, right to the receivers.   A. Harris run game, especially the first down production ....took a lot of pressure of of this O.   The TOP didn't hurt our D, either.....

[Mike]

The one thing I will say is that I don't think Willy would have played as well as Nichols last night, based on his current body of work this year. Nichols made throws Willy has failed to make all year.

However, if Willy gets the run support that Nichols had last night, the throws Willy CAN make that Nichols made last night probably have the kind of results Nichols had.

I guess what I'm saying is Nichols hit deep shots that Willy simply hasn't hit this year, but Nichols also got better results from things like those Dressler screen passes because our run game was clicking.

 

[Guest J5V]

11 hours ago, Stickem said:

I think Willy has been outed as the qb. he really is....and wouldn't it have been nice to have had Nichols behind centre a helluva lot earlier in the season...Makes one wonder.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. Poor Willy. Might be done. 

[Jpan85]

You run with the hot hand till it goes cold. Willy at some point this season is going to win a couple big games. That being said if Nichols is the starter the rest of the year that will be great because it will mean we have won a lot more games than we have lost.

[Fatty Liver]

14 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

and I say if Willy had the kind of support from the run game that Nichols had last night we could have done exactly the same. See I'm not obsessed with defending Willy, I am trying to make people like you see that trying to pin it all on the qb is narrow sighted thinking. There are a lot of things that combine to make a team lose games and part of it is the years of getting his ass kicked by not having that run game to lean on and not having an OL that can keep him from getting cranked game in and game out that puts Willys confidence into the shitter. But here's the thing, you can rebuild a guys confidence and a confident Willy is a better player than Nichols. 

I think it is going to be quite some time until O'Shea fully trusts Willy with his coaching life again.  Willy had two plus years of exclusivity to prove ownership of this O and he failed to capitalize on it.  Compare that to what Reilly accomplished within a similar time frame and opportunity. 

Hopefully O'Shea has finally moved on from blind commitment and now sees the benefit of recognizing the hot-hand of the moment.