2021 Blue Bombers Season

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, BagBlieBulls said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pejJk_fAlk

Anyone else see this? It's hilarious I created an account just to share it here.

1 post. Best post since the GC  win. Gj you win the internet today. 

[BagBlieBulls]

I wish I could take credit but I'm just a lurker and saw this on r/CFL but not here and thought it was too good to not share

 

[Mike]

Our asset management at receiver is mind boggling 

[Zach Schnitzer]

10 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Our secondary really only got shredded last game.  The first two games they were exceptional. Even in the 2nd argos game, the argos racked up passing yards late when the defense had been on the field for twice as long as they shouldve. Or more. Up to the end of week 3 we were playing pretty tight coverage. Week 3 was also a ton of short drop timing routes where our front couldnt get consistent pressure. 

 Both our offense and defense have lacked meaningful progression. vs calgary our defense actually reverted to prime hall too deep zone for a while. Thats not the secondary getting shredded, thats our defensive play call being shredded. Our secondary was continually in position. 

 

That sucks. Two of our best prospects at wr busted due to injuries. Hope he too can get healthy and try to come back. 

Not so sure I agree. Hall was playing that d to give Maier the short stuff. Cgy only scored 16 pts. You should win every game in the cfl if your opposition scores under 20. If our receivers don’t drop three balls we would won by two scores. 

[17to85]

All the fretting about the D, this is what a Ritchie Hall D does. As it was, as it is and as it ever shall be. 

[Mark H.]

16 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

All the fretting about the D, this is what a Ritchie Hall D does. As it was, as it is and as it ever shall be. 

There was one game a couple years ago, one of those big deal type games, where they were far more aggressive. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

6 hours ago, JCon said:

Taman felt like we reached the bottom. 

We were so young and naïve back then. 

I don’t know how anyone who was aware of the ineptitude of the 1970’s, the reign of Earl Lunsford, and the entire tenure of Jeff Reinbold, could look at Taman’s run from 1999-2008 and 2 Grey Cup appearances where we should have won and say that his time was rock bottom. 

[Blue_Dragoon]

8 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

I don’t know how anyone who was aware of the ineptitude of the 1970’s, the reign of Earl Lunsford, and the entire tenure of Jeff Reinbold, could look at Taman’s run from 1999-2008 and 2 Grey Cup appearances where we should have won and say that his time was rock bottom. 

This was a bit before my time. It couldn't have been worse than the Mike Kelly saga could it? That was by far the worse thing I've seen in my time as a fan.

[MOBomberFan]

Tim Burke having Goltz kneel heading into halftime when down by I think 2 scores was one of the saddest moments as a Bomber fan. That entire 2013 season was a dumpster fire inside another dumpster fire

[JCon]

9 hours ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

I don’t know how anyone who was aware of the ineptitude of the 1970’s, the reign of Earl Lunsford, and the entire tenure of Jeff Reinbold, could look at Taman’s run from 1999-2008 and 2 Grey Cup appearances where we should have won and say that his time was rock bottom. 

I'm thinking only the end of Taman's term as GM. That was a clusterf***. And, a team can hit the bottom many times. The 70s, from what I've read were a mess. Reinbold was definitely hitting the bottom. Handled internally. Loser formation. Mack-attack. 

[GCn20]

1 hour ago, Blue_Dragoon said:

This was a bit before my time. It couldn't have been worse than the Mike Kelly saga could it? That was by far the worse thing I've seen in my time as a fan.

No...no it wasn't. That was rock bottom. I can put up with losing as a fan, but Mike Kelly was embarrassing to the brand.

Edited September 2, 2021 by GCn20

[blue_gold_84]

52 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

Tim Burke having Goltz kneel heading into halftime when down by I think 2 scores was one of the saddest moments as a Bomber fan. That entire 2013 season was a dumpster fire inside another dumpster fire

Easily the worst season I can remember save the Banjo Bowl (that was such a fun time at IGF). 2009 is a distant second but that team seemed way more competitive despite the drama.

[Booch]

if u look at the cross bar video...U see Taylor was going to undercut that pass for the pick...at worse would have knocked it away...but whatever we can let them lament that play forever, that and their piddly 3 cups...8 less than us.

Also agree, our recent regime's difficulty finding that legit WR threat is confounding...we had some in previous 4 yrs, but got neutered here with the Lapo "genius" which I never bought into.

Lawler can be that guy...if used that way...slowly he is...Look at his highlights from College..guy can go get it.

If Adams still isn't 100 percent I wanna see Woli moved soley inside...working the tough yard catches...and have Agudusi outside...stretching the defense and being the 50/50 threat where he will constantly be pulling the safety out of the middle and taking the corner out of the play....would open up a ton of room for others

 

[voodoochylde]

48 minutes ago, Booch said:

 

If Adams still isn't 100 percent I wanna see Woli moved soley inside...working the tough yard catches...and have Agudusi outside...stretching the defense and being the 50/50 threat where he will constantly be pulling the safety out of the middle and taking the corner out of the play....would open up a ton of room for others

 

Wolitarsky should have been moved inside ages ago.  The guy screams Jason Clermont and it's criminal that he's lining up out wide.  Put him in the slot and let him use his body / size to make plays.

[wbbfan]

1 hour ago, Booch said:

if u look at the cross bar video...U see Taylor was going to undercut that pass for the pick...at worse would have knocked it away...but whatever we can let them lament that play forever, that and their piddly 3 cups...8 less than us.

Also agree, our recent regime's difficulty finding that legit WR threat is confounding...we had some in previous 4 yrs, but got neutered here with the Lapo "genius" which I never bought into.

Lawler can be that guy...if used that way...slowly he is...Look at his highlights from College..guy can go get it.

If Adams still isn't 100 percent I wanna see Woli moved soley inside...working the tough yard catches...and have Agudusi outside...stretching the defense and being the 50/50 threat where he will constantly be pulling the safety out of the middle and taking the corner out of the play....would open up a ton of room for others

 

What's worse is we had finally found some speed last year and never made good use of it. 

Whats strange is our core isn't fast but also it isnt a big core either. Woli is huge agudosi is tall and Lawler has very good size. But for the most part we don't find quick fast or big wrs. 

[Brandon]

3 hours ago, MOBomberFan said:

Tim Burke having Goltz kneel heading into halftime when down by I think 2 scores was one of the saddest moments as a Bomber fan. That entire 2013 season was a dumpster fire inside another dumpster fire

Didn't Tim Burke also have Elliott or someone else kneel in the 4th quarter with a minute remaining because he didn't have faith that we could move down the field and take one last crack at a score which then lead to an OT loss?  

[do or die]

47 minutes ago, voodoochylde said:

Wolitarsky should have been moved inside ages ago.  The guy screams Jason Clermont and it's criminal that he's lining up out wide.  Put him in the slot and let him use his body / size to make plays.

Yup. Looks like Bombers have managed to take Wolt who looked like a capable inside guy and have converted him into a total waste of space.  

[TrueBlue4ever]

Fair warning, this will be long, even for me, and painful to recollect. But offering my take of the lowest of the lows. 
 

I would imagine everyone’s version of rock bottom is subjective and defined by many factors, such as age and prior “rock bottom” experiences. I also believe that one’s first experience with despair may hit the hardest, and with age and subsequent failures the shock of the futility is no longer there and with it a grudging acceptance of “just another low period” as opposed to “this is the worst ever” becomes your new standard  

I cannot speak confidently about the 1970’s period (Speedflex is likely more well-versed on that tragic era) but I imagine coming out of the 1957-65 glory era, 4 straight seasons of 4-12, 3-13, 3-12-1 and 2-14 was rock bottom to them. Then Don Jonas was a ray of light after a decade of failure, but did not last too long (a parallel to the Khari Jones age). Then more down years while Dieter Brock grew into the job, and the disappointment of always running into the juggernaut that was the 1977-1982 Eskimos must have felt equally hopeless even though we were good then. And that 22 year gap hurt tons too. 

For me, Reinbold was the lowest point. We sacked a legend in Cal Murphy because the board tired of him ruling the roost, and saw a blowout in Edmonton (where they blantantly cheated and got away with it) as an excuse to kick him down the road and bring in the shiny new toy in Reinbold, who was going to inject life into the staid stale franchise that Murphy built. Well, for all that flash, Jeff was massively incompetent and the Board got played for suckers in hiring him. And they abandoned the classic royal blue uniforms as well and dropped the gold helmets and pants to boot as a full-on re-brand to add insult to injury. 

 It was quickly evident Jeff had no clue what he was doing, but because of budget tightening and the fact we were still paying out Murphy’s salary, we could not afford to pay 2 ex-coaches so we were stuck with him. And going from what was deemed an unacceptable 9-9 season after 3 Cups, 5 appearances, and 14 straight playoff appearances with Murphy to 4-14 and 3-15 was a kick in the nuts.  We typically lost by more than 2 TDs, including the worst home loss in club history (66-25 to Doug Flutie’s Argos where he was throwing multiple touchdowns to offensive linemen, just toying with us and embarrassing us). Reinbold had no clue how to salvage games, so he resorted to exorcisms in the dark dressing room to motivate the troops. Completely idiotic. Bob Cameron once said it was useless, but entertaining in a “can you believe this ****” kind of way - “losing was never so much fun as in the Reinbold era”. The only bright spot was Milt Stegall, and then he packed up and left in 1998 for the NFL, and all hope was lost. We were a train wreck, we knew it, and we knew there was no way out because the Board could not afford to fire Reinbold, who was given both the head coach and GM jobs and immediately showed he did not know how to do either. We started 0-11. We lost by two touchdowns or worse 11 times. An all-time worst 15 losses. We had one close game at home versus BC where after doing nothing all game we scored late and got the ball back, drove the length of the field down by 2 and got the the 5 yard line with a few seconds left. We all knew a gimme field goal would give us the lead, but we did not want to give the Lions any time to march back and steal the game, so we tried for the TD. Kerwin Bell calls an audible from the shotgun and the centre thought he called for the snap, and rifles the ball back to him when he was looking to the sidelines. Ball caroms off his ankle, he turns to flop on it and it scoots back between his legs and BC recovers and wins by 2. Devastating, and worse because we all KNEW they would find year another way to blow it, and they did not disappoint. 

Even bringing in Dave Ritchie in 1999 did not completely clean out the stench. We lost 65-15 in Hamilton that year, the worst road loss in team history to that point. So in the aftermath of all that, I chafe at those who belittle Taman, given what he had to recover from. Some did not like how he dismissed the draft - fair enough - but at least he explained his rationale and you could appreciate if not buy into his logic. He always said “why use a first round draft pick on an unknown who may turn out to be nothing, or who becomes good and then you lose him to free agency, when you can trade that pick and get a known commodity you know is good and can control for a few years”. That approach was hit and miss and left the cupboards bare later on, sure, but he saw that teams could rebuild quickly (not like the draft and develop model of other leagues) and two of his draft pick trades turned into Khari and Eliwonibi and then later Doug Brown, two moves that completely changed the trajectory of the team. Also brought in Blink, Bobby Gordon, Juran Bolden, Kevin Glenn, etc. so his track record was pretty solid. I prefer the overall picture to focusing on the bad end. We screwed ourselves out of 2 Grey Cups during his tenure thanks to arrogance and Blink’s partying in ‘01 and and freak broken arm (again with Blink fumbling the handoff) in ‘07. 

Mike Kelly was a goofball with a chip on his shoulder and the “I am smarter than everyone else, just ask me” syndrome, but the teams were not terrible, despite his weird “my jet sweep will revolutionize the game” formations. So like John Tortorella, if he wins you put up with the ego, but you have the pink slip ready at all times when he inevitably falters and burns all bridges. Irritating to no end, infuriating at times, a black mark on the franchise but not rock bottom to me. 

The Joe Mack era comes close, but the difference was how it unfolded. I am a LaPo defender largely because of how he got jobbed by Mack after getting to the Grey Cup. A rough 0-4 road start and Mack saw the chance to cut him loose and take the reins of “his team” and prove he was the smartest guy in the room. His arrogance made Mike Kelly look like a pre-schooler, he just had less opportunity to run his mouth In front of the media and pick fights with them. But in his case, his arrogance was rivalled by an incompetence that approached Reinbold (at least Kelly put competitive teams on the field). I have a friend who knew a high up coach in the Manitoba football heirarchy who said “I am one of 2 or maybe 3 people in the Province who when I call Mack he has to acknowledge my call, and he regularly refuses to even listen to anyone on his team’s state. I have never met the mix of arrogance and ignorance like he displays.” The 52-0 surrender on Labour Day is the single biggest indictment of his approach I have ever seen by a group of players. They basically boycotted him to his face on national television as a protest to the LaPo firing. His response was to crack jokes at the following press conference. Kyle Walters had no say in the draft planning when it mattered, saying 5 guys would have consensus on a player and then one holdout would ultimately get to make the pick, and would go another way (Jade Etienne, Tyson Pencer, Johnny Aprille who we’ll concert to a different position immediately). But since he was fired midway through the 2013 season, it gave me more hope for a faster recovery since we had management pieces in place who were good but handcuffed by the little Napoleon, even if the shine was completely taken off the new stadium opening with a 1-8 home record that year.  Burke was in over his head for sure and I felt like Mack had him as the scapegoat, so his dumb moves like kneeling  in a tied game at the end of regulation to stop the bleeding and get to overtime rather than push for a winning drive are frustrating but not as earth shattering as some see it, at least to me. I felt sorry for the guy, my anger was saved for Mack. Only knowing that we could recover faster with him gone and the memory of having lived through Reinbold and realizing that brighter days would come again kept this from being my rock bottom. It’s all about perspective.

That’s why I equally get my back up about the Nichols/LaPo debates. They have their flaws for sure, but they are nowhere near as incompetent to me as some here would make them out to be. And Nichols was a quality human who pulled the team off the 2013 scrap heap and made them a contender again, and also donated a lot of his salary to the Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg, so one can say anything against his character. And LaPo has the team offensive numbers of 20 years and 3 franchises to back up his credentials. He adapts to whatever players he had at his disposal, and shifts his game plan around it. Does he get in his own head too much at times, sure, can it be dull and not explosive, yep, but he has 4 Grey Cup appearances and 2 rings, so I think he gets a raw deal around here for someone who broke the ultimate 29 year curse. Those who like to rip certain players need only read this very long depressing history to be reminded of how much worse things could be, and then take a step back and re-gain some clarity and perspective on what hopeless truly looks like. 
 

And then going into Labour Day with return game troubles and a case of the dropsies doesn’t look so bad after all. 

Edited September 2, 2021 by TrueBlue4ever

[wbbfan]

At trueblue. Those are the same low points I have but with a slight adjustment. 

For me the dark ages of the reinbold era was the baddest. Thing is though i actually really liked Jeff. He was a guy you wanted to win and win with. Knowledgeable hard working passionate. He is a great dude. I'm very happy he's doing well in Hamilton. 

That era seemed hopeless. Like we were a d4 team playing top tier d1. And it nearly killed the franchise. 

Mike Kelly wasn't as bad an era team but he was the worst guy to be a bomber hc. I truly hated him. I watched the games and that was it. 

Mack offered at first a slight hope for being better. In the end he was just a different flavor of egomaniac. He'd rather be right than win.  

American expansion also generated a lot of low points for me. From Dunnigan leaving to Baltimore winning. We had some good teams in the us era but man I hated it. 

Atleast in the Ritchie era it felt like we had the right people running the team. 

[GCn20]

42 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

At trueblue. Those are the same low points I have but with a slight adjustment. 

For me the dark ages of the reinbold era was the baddest. Thing is though i actually really liked Jeff. He was a guy you wanted to win and win with. Knowledgeable hard working passionate. He is a great dude. I'm very happy he's doing well in Hamilton. 

That era seemed hopeless. Like we were a d4 team playing top tier d1. And it nearly killed the franchise. 

Mike Kelly wasn't as bad an era team but he was the worst guy to be a bomber hc. I truly hated him. I watched the games and that was it. 

Mack offered at first a slight hope for being better. In the end he was just a different flavor of egomaniac. He'd rather be right than win.  

American expansion also generated a lot of low points for me. From Dunnigan leaving to Baltimore winning. We had some good teams in the us era but man I hated it. 

Atleast in the Ritchie era it felt like we had the right people running the team. 

Through all the years of being a Bomber fan, the only time I ever felt embarrassed by our team was Mike Kelly era and it had nothing to do with the team on the field. From a football perspective rock bottom was probably in the Reinbold era, and from a franchise perspective it was Mike Kelly's one short year that turned us into a circus and laughing stock of the CFL. Taman was a middling GM who did OK but left a mess, I view him neither positively or negatively. High points to me were the Cal Murphy and Dave Ritchie era.

[do or die]

Christ, I lived through all that.....as well as the Joe Zaleski era.    And man, some of those other coaches......

Darryl Rogers - arrogant fool who drove 2 teams in different leagues, right into the ground (Bombers, Detroit Lions)
Jim Daley - wonderful guy, who as a "defensive specialist" coached some Bomber D's to historical records.  As in all-time CFL bad.
Mike Kelly - uber-arrogant guy who had some serious behavioural issues, while certainly not re-inventing the game of football.
Tim Burke - obvious that right from the get go, he had no bloody clue.  Throwing players under the bus, couldn't bail him out.

Comparatively, a guy like Zaleski gets some pass from me...as those teams simply had NO TALENT, period.

 

[SpeedFlex27]

6 hours ago, Blue_Dragoon said:

This was a bit before my time. It couldn't have been worse than the Mike Kelly saga could it? That was by far the worse thing I've seen in my time as a fan.

Mike Kelly was bizarre but the team was competitive to a point. You weren't around for the Joe Zaleski & Jeff Reinbold eras. Terrible coaching with tewrrible players. The most inept though was the Tim Burke era 2012 & 13. Probably the worst Blue Bomber teams ever assembled that I have ever seen. Certainly the worst HC we ever had. He just gave up. 

[do or die]

Just now, SpeedFlex27 said:

Mike Kelly was bizarre but the team was competitive to a point. You weren't around for the Joe Zaleski & Jeff Reinbold eras. Terrible coaching with tewrrible players. The most inept though was the Tim Burke era 2012 & 13. Probably the worst Blue Bomber teams ever assembled that I have ever seen. Certainly the worst HC we ever had. He just gave up. 

Yup, wanted that fella gone in midseason.  Predicted that if we kept him till seasons end....it would be miserable.   It was.

4 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Mike Kelly was bizarre but the team was competitive to a point.

As in .389 winning percentage?

[SpeedFlex27]

Just now, do or die said:

Yup, wanted that fella gone in midseason.  Predicted that if we kept him till seasons end....it would be miserable.   It was.

I think I remember something about his wife being very sick when Burke was Head Coach. If true, then he was facing trouble at home with personal issues along with trying to coach a very bad football team. It might have been better if he had stepped down. It wasn't talked about much by the media but I do remember a mention. I hope she is alright today. 

[rebusrankin]

For my fandom, Reinbold was awful. My Dad and I would joke walking back to the car how many times he'd use words like warrior in his post game interview. Daley stunk. Kelly embarrassing. Burke should never have been a head coach. 52-0 at the 2012 LDC, should have left him in Regina after that.