Flying High into Montréal: Bombers vs. Als

[BigBlue]

Montreal is on the wrong end of two signature games: (1) Winnipeg proving that Edmonton was not the best team in the league (2) Trestman & Ricky Ray showing who is the best team in the east [at least as the crow flies right now].

So do the Alouettes have a chance?

Barring catastrophe (in the form of injury surprises) they neither have a chance nor clue.

Perhaps that's too much bravado but we haven't had bravado in a very long time.

 

[Tracker]

I hope O'Shea shows the team footage from the BC- Rider game to school them about what can happen if you don't come to playevery game.

[Rod Black]

BB, we have had bravado for at least the last two games. When the birdies from mon...real, lose this week, they will be chirping fowl. We will smash them to smithereens, eviserate and debone, roast and char. Picture Durants eyes rolling back in his head, momentarily losing consciousness as Jeffcoat nails him for a sack. Like a rural mad dog catching a partridge, we will rip their heads off and bury them til spring. 

[Eternal optimist]

Heartily agree... provided Winnipeg doesn't underestimate their opponent, they should come out with the W here. Montreal might be fired up though after getting spanked by Toronto this week.

[kelownabomberfan]

https://twitter.com/DarrinBauming/status/899305086425243648

Not sure how to get this to post as a tweet - but anyway, Bauming is saying that Dressler is almost ready to come back.  I'm not sure how I feel about that if it means Flanders comes out.  Flanders and Harris have been such a dynamic duo as a one-two punch.  Is it possible to still play both Flanders and Dressler if Dressler comes back?

[Noeller]

From today:

Alexander practicing, Loffler and Walker didn't practice, Bond is away on personal matter and Neufeld filled in.... 

[Seekoy]

17 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

https://twitter.com/DarrinBauming/status/899305086425243648

Not sure how to get this to post as a tweet - but anyway, Bauming is saying that Dressler is almost ready to come back.  I'm not sure how I feel about that if it means Flanders comes out.  Flanders and Harris have been such a dynamic duo as a one-two punch.  Is it possible to still play both Flanders and Dressler if Dressler comes back?

Denmark out and Dressler in?

[M.O.A.B.]

13 minutes ago, Seekoy said:

Denmark out and Dressler in?

It will be a choice between Thorpe or Denmark. I'm afraid it will be the latter.

Lankford will not go out since he's the primary kick returner and the backup kicker. 

[Judd]

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

It will be a choice between Thorpe or Denmark. I'm afraid it will be the latter.

Lankford will not go out since he's the primary kick returner and the backup kicker. 

Is lankford actually the backup kicker? I've never heard that before 

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, M.O.A.B. said:

It will be a choice between Thorpe or Denmark. I'm afraid it will be the latter.

Lankford will not go out since he's the primary kick returner and the backup kicker. 

Kickoff returner.

[Mark H.]

The Bombers need to find ways of scoring more points when they are dominating the opposition. As we saw against Edmonton, if they connect on a few deep throws the game will stay close. 

[M.O.A.B.]

1 hour ago, Judd said:

Is lankford actually the backup kicker? I've never heard that before 

 

Quote

While Lankford has shown speed and big-play ability (he ran a 10.51 to win the 100 metres at the Florida Relays as a high school senior), he has another less-obvious talent. He was a semi-regular punter and backup kicker in college (owing to his soccer background) and would be Winnipeg’s backup kicker if needed.

Lankford, who believes his field-goal range would be 40 to 45 yards, ran an intriguing fake-punt formation in college.

"We had a little rocket punt thing where I could kinda take the ball, roll out, read the end. If the end came, punt it," he said. "If he didn’t, I’d try to run for the first down."

"Hey, there’s a bunch of things that people don’t know that kid can do," Paul Lankford said. "I’ve seen him score the touchdown, kick the extra point and then kick off. He got a 44-yard field goal in the rain in high school. So, it doesn’t surprise."

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/try-try-again-440974943.html

[WBBFanWest]

2 hours ago, Eternal optimist said:

Heartily agree... provided Winnipeg doesn't underestimate their opponent, they should come out with the W here. Montreal might be fired up though after getting spanked by Toronto this week.

Ok. I'll bite.  W here?

[Guest J5V]

2 hours ago, Seekoy said:

Denmark out and Dressler in?

Denmark is a real enigma. Hero to zero and back again. 

[Cam P]

This game feels like a classic "trap game" spot. Coming off a big win against an undefeated team, back to back the next 2 weeks against your biggest rival, and playing against a team that you should've lost to a couple weeks ago.

Would not surprise me at all if the Bombers lost this one, but I obviously hope I'm wrong

[BBlink]

7 hours ago, Cam P said:

This game feels like a classic "trap game" spot. Coming off a big win against an undefeated team, back to back the next 2 weeks against your biggest rival, and playing against a team that you should've lost to a couple weeks ago.

Would not surprise me at all if the Bombers lost this one, but I obviously hope I'm wrong

I have a lot of respect for that Montreal team. They had "one of those games" much like BC losing to Saskatchewan.  (SJ Green/Duron Carter being unstoppable).  Great teams rarely have "one of those games" but Montreal is still a good team and can steamroll you if you aren't at the top of your game. They beat Calgary...and they arguably should have beaten us. So I agree with you that we could lose this game.

That said, we are 6-2 and are morphing into what could be considered a "great team".  When we came back and beat Montreal was when belief turned into confidence.  I fully expect to win this game because we're the better team and we don't take games off.

[TBURGESS]

8 hours ago, Cam P said:

This game feels like a classic "trap game" spot. Coming off a big win against an undefeated team, back to back the next 2 weeks against your biggest rival, and playing against a team that you should've lost to a couple weeks ago.

Would not surprise me at all if the Bombers lost this one, but I obviously hope I'm wrong

Every game we play against a team that is below us in the standings isn't a 'classic trap game'. 

We should have lost to Montreal the first time we played them. We absolutely killed them in the last  1:40, but they were way ahead before that. Montreal's a pretty good team that had a bad game last week. They should bounce back this week and I expect a hard hitting close game.

[blue_gold_84]

11 hours ago, J5V said:

Denmark is a real enigma. Hero to zero and back again. 

When was he ever a zero?

[Noeller]

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

Every game we play against a team that is below us in the standings isn't a 'classic trap game'. 

We should have lost to Montreal the first time we played them. We absolutely killed them in the last  1:40, but they were way ahead before that. Montreal's a pretty good team that had a bad game last week. They should bounce back this week and I expect a hard hitting close game.

It's a classic trap game in so much as they just got blown out of the water last week, and it would be easy to get caught up in that and forget that they *should* have beat us last time we played them....

Having said that, I don't believe this team gets caught up in traps. MOS has them as mentally well prepared as any team I've ever seen....

[Mike]

Not sure how I feel about Montreal, to be honest.

On paper, they're a pretty bad team. On the field, they either seem to be right in the mix or completely out of it. They never just seem to do "okay".

That being said, Durant is obviously not the same DD anymore. They're a team that I expect is going to get worse as the soreness and injuries pile up, their team is way too old to handle it the same way a younger team can. They don't have that *elite* playmaking type of guy that can take over a game and I'm hopeful that we can avoid giving up the big play.

As much as Montreal should have beat us the last time we played them, it was a tricky game for us. Medlock missed two kicks and that in itself can change the scope of a game entirely. That's not likely going to happen again. Montreal also hasn't had to face the two headed monster we have in our backfield, which has entirely changed the look of our offense. I also feel like their offense without Rutley is a little less potent (even though he's the backup) and I feel like putting Sutton in instead makes DD worse, as he's not able to rely on that checkdown since Sutton is miserable out of the backfield as a receiver - it's no coincidence Durant has had his two best games of the season when Sutton was out.

Quite honestly, with them on a short week, playing old and beat up ... I think we handle them quite easily. 

[mbrg]

There are fields in the CFL where the Bombers do not struggle to win.  McGill Stadium is one of them.

[Fan Boy]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

It's a classic trap game in so much as they just got blown out of the water last week, and it would be easy to get caught up in that and forget that they *should* have beat us last time we played them....

Having said that, I don't believe this team gets caught up in traps. MOS has them as mentally well prepared as any team I've ever seen....

I think the bombers where not up to standard in the mental department for the Calgary game. Not the same team at all. No team is immune from complacency or tightness. I think tightness was the cause of the bad game with Calgary not complacency of course. 

[BomberBall]

Brandon Alexander at corner, and Kevin Fogg at halfback. Looks to me they'll start in place of Brian Walker (hurt) and Roc Carmichael.

 

-Bauming

[Mike]

Sounds like Loffler may be out. 

[SPuDS]

Just now, Mike said:

Sounds like Loffler may be out. 

ruh roh.   that would not be good.    hopefully nothing serious.