Bomber's Defense Takes Over

[BigBlue]

Ricky Ray threw for 250 yards in the first half and was assisted by 268 yards of punt and kickoff return yardage .... so how did that 500+ yards translate into only 22 points at the half? Three dropped TD passes, a pick by Leggett , and a million dollar sleezy penalty called on an apparent 2nd kickoff return touchdown ... there was barely contact ... I have never been to a game where I witnessed so much aid given the Blue by the Zebras ... we could easily have been going into the 2nd half trailing by  2 TDs or more

Nichols & company managed to generate 13 points in the first half, so adding Lankfords kickoff TD return on the 1st play of the game we were almost tied 22-20 at the Half.

Now I have never known the Bombers to be great half time "adjusters" but something changed in the 2nd half. Our D held the Argos to just one field goal.  Ray passed for only 80 yards compared to his gunslinging first half..

The highlight was the last 3+ minutes when the Bombers twice shut down Argo drives, This was in complete contrast to the last drive of the first half when Richie Hall's "loose" defense allowed the Argos to drive from deep in their own end to then kick a go-ahead FG.

Nichols accuracy was average, or could I say , on again - off again, at different points in the game. The main thing is he got the job done to give us 26 points for the game, 13 in each half.  Maybe he was Lankford inspired.

Former Argo DB "TJ" Heath got the shutdown interception on  the final drive. "I had been hunting the whole game" he said. What went unnoticed was another blown zebra call, roughing Ricky Ray on the play .... but it was missed and Trestman had used up his challenges long ago.

Thank you Mr Zebras .... you were game changers once again, and might I add that took some doing.

I don't know what our DC  Hall changed in the 2nd half, but the D didn't resemble itself compared to the first half, or for that matter compared to its play against Calgary last week (which wasn't awful but not that good either). Something changed - -  I just don't know what it is.

Lapo changed his play calling too. He called a lot more passes downfield today than last week's dink and dunk strategy. (He used Harris with about the same number of carries, so it was the passing not the running that changed.) Was he motivated by last week's poor offensive performance (that ultimately exhausted our D) in the loss, or did he just get smarter somehow from last week to this? I don't  have clue.

I only know two things for sure:

[1] Something real changed tonight in Bomberville, and

[2] Blessings were rained down from heaven on to our Bombers in this game.

Edited July 14, 2017 by BigBlue

[BigBlue]

After chatting with a rather knowledgeable observer of the game, last night and this afternoon, it is now clear what the adjustment on D was:

Knox was moved into Hurl's MLB spot and Hurl was shifted to WIL and it worked amazingly well .... Hurl is just too small and gets shoved around in the middle; on the blitz he is too slow and too easily handled but in pass coverage he gets his job done. Knox on the blitz will be better, but more crucially in the mlb position he can't be shoved around, he can stand his ground like the Rock of Gabraltor.

So there you have it; we now have Fort Knox in the middle. We held them to one FG in the 2nd half with our new fort.

So no ratio changes, just swapping spots, putting Hurl in a more natural position for him, WIL. Hurl can handle the PASSING STUFF  and Knox will be SHUTTING DOWN THE RUN.

Go Richie Hall.

 

Edited July 14, 2017 by BigBlue

[Dragon37]

The secondary was massively better too. Though Randle still needs to learn not to try and shoulder tackle people. 

[Tracker]

The weird thing is that I fully expected to see the Argos go right at Hurl and Carmichael but they didn't. I thought that Trestman would make that a big part of the game plan.

[Arnold_Palmer]

One thing I noticed is when we blitzed ,Ray tried to stretch the field on one vs one coverage and guys like Randle,Heath, and Leggett played it perfectly. It's key to a defensive game plan knowing if you gamble and bring the house that the DB's playing man coverage can hold their own and break up plays. 

Edited July 15, 2017 by Arnold_Palmer

[Tracker]

Its still going to take a game or two for the revamped D-line to gel, but the linebacking alignment looked better last night.

[Guest J5V]

3 hours ago, tracker said:

The weird thing is that I fully expected to see the Argos go right at Hurl and Carmichael but they didn't. I thought that Trestman would make that a big part of the game plan.

This is Trestman's first pass through the league since coming back to the CFL. I expect to see him coach up the Argos once he understands his opposition a little better. What scares me a bit is the prospect of a Trestman-coached Argo team in a year or two.

[Jpan85]

The Bombers can take away half the field . Literally, Heath and Randle negate anyone on the field side. 

[Fraser]

7 hours ago, Jpan85 said:

The Bombers can take away half the field . Literally, Heath and Randle negate anyone on the field side. 

I really hate how Heath killed the whole #randleisland thing. 

[M.O.A.B.]

46 minutes ago, Fraser said:

I really hate how Heath killed the whole #randleisland thing. 

Well now its #HeathedRandleIsland

[do or die]

Johnson is a load.

[M.O.A.B.]

21 minutes ago, do or die said:

Johnson is a load.

Our DLine is loaded with Poop

[do or die]

Which puts the opposition in deep do-do...

[Jpan85]

59 minutes ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Well now its #HeathedRandleIsland

It's a archipelago 

[Guest J5V]

26 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

It's a archipelago 

I was gonna try but I can't improve on that. Well done.

[17to85]

The entire time here Hall has shown that he is able and willing to make adjustments when the D is being exploited. The problem with Hall has always been the protecting a lead aspect he just loves. Gotta play prevent which just lets teams rack up completions and yards and makes us all age way way too prematurely. 

[do or die]

We get pretty conservative on both sides of the ball, when we have leads......which makes it hard to hold leads.   

Not sure why a similar approach is required in the 1st quarter of games.....

[Guest J5V]

1 hour ago, do or die said:

We get pretty conservative on both sides of the ball, when we have leads......which makes it hard to hold leads.   

Not sure why a similar approach is required in the 1st quarter of games.....

We've been noticing this for some time. It must be a hard thing to fix or it'd be fixed by now.

[17to85]

1 hour ago, do or die said:

We get pretty conservative on both sides of the ball, when we have leads......which makes it hard to hold leads.   

Not sure why a similar approach is required in the 1st quarter of games.....

The less said about Lapo the better, the only time he isn't conservative is when he's in a huge hole and has no choice but to try and get some points. I am not convinced this team will be championship quality until we fire him for the third time. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

Our D plays a lot of zone, but it's not lacking aggression in play calls.  Tons of blitzes, at times that's what burns them when an entire side of the field has one guy on it and the opposition executes a good release to beat the blitz.  Also play a lot with no traditional safety and Cover 2 with Loffler in the box which is a pretty aggressive coverage shell in this day and age of passing football.

[CodyT]

Just last week there were posters on here calling our secondary the weakest part of our team.

been hearing people call to fire lapo and Ritchie since they started with the bombers. Went 11-7 last year and were 2-1 this year. Let's wait and see how it plays out before we start throwin' guys to the curb.

Lapos conservative but knows the game. Aside from first quarters, the bombers have stretched the field atleast a fair bit this season

Edited July 16, 2017 by CodyT

[17to85]

I eat too much pizza and drink too much beer to watch Lapo try and hang onto wins every damned time. I want to see him be more aggressive and put teams on the turf and keep them there early for entire games. For the good of my heart fire Lapo and get a good offensive coordinator in there. 

[Mr Dee]

46 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

 For the good of my heart fire Lapo and get a good offensive coordinator in there. 

Of course, you and your heart know full well that's not going to happen until his tenure runs its course. Or, perhaps, a HC position opens up.

As for now, he's our guy. Now, the real question is, frustrating or not, can we win with him? I believe we can. It's the same situation with Richie Hall. Can we win with him? Yes. 

BUT, a lot would have to go our way along the road to winning. Hey, but shyte happens, we're Bomber fans, we fully aware of that.

 

[rebusrankin]

Here's to us winning the 2017 Grey Cup and Lapo being hired elsewhere as HC.

[White Out]

the 2nd half was night and day from the first half, but the Argos also dropped some TD passes. Happens to every team I guess. I was very happy with the D adjustments and thought Hall and the D deserves a tip of the hat for it. Very interested to see how the BC game goes.