CFL - 2023 Regular Season - Discussion Thread

[Booch]

1 hour ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

Not at all how it went down. Rod Rust was the defensive coordinator that year, and he walked away from the team mid-season due to a family situation (his wife’s illness I believe, although the specifics were not divulged at the time) and left Daley high and dry to handle both jobs without any warning. 

yup...thats how I remember it as well

 

7 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

 

Didn’t have great players but his schemes and complicated coverage gap scheme and slow blitzes were horrid. 
 

That’s a good point though he was a replacement, but he did have more talent. 

rust had potential, called D for the giants with lt at one point, seemed like the switch to the Canadian game was tough for him. 
I recall rusts departure being never well covered. 
 

no...he had a great defence in Mtl as well...when we originally landed him I was pumped for the potential...and as per above response, he had to walk away for family reasons concerning his wife, and never returned, as he was already pushing 80...he was 75 already if not older when he was here now I think about it

[Noeller]

all I remember from the "We have no DC" days is Doug Brown talking about how they had to make all the decisions themselves on the field, as it was happening. There was no defensive scheme and nobody calling plays, so they just did it "sandlot" and there was so much confusion and breaking down. Total mess. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

1 hour ago, 17to85 said:

Walked away because Daley was a micromanager who tried to do it better is how I recall it. Rust didn't have time for his ****. It's the same as a firing IMO. Bottom line **** Jim Daley. 

Rust was also like 80 years old and missed half of each of the two seasons he’d coached before due to health, one was when he was Montreal’s head coach.

Those were the days when the organization was extremely poor but also cheap so no one wanted to work here.

[TrueBlue4ever]

34 minutes ago, Noeller said:

I sincerely do look forward to the receipts...

So I did some digging and came up with some receipts. And in the interest of full disclosure, I will offer up a report that supports both sides of the story, rather than cherry-picking just to say “I was right”. Here is the French RDS report when Rust left the team:

https://www.rds.ca/football/lcf/rod-rust-quitte-les-bombers-d-urgence-1.302376

For those not fluent in French, Google translate says :

“Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker coach and defensive coordinator Rod Rust has left the team to visit his family in New Jersey for medical reasons.

If the situation allows it, Rust will join the Bombers later in the season.”

So that is the official announcement that was made at the time.

Now, here is an article from the following year from cfl.ca talking about his replacement Greg Marshall:

https://www.cfl.ca/2006/07/05/marshall_adapted_to_coach/

It suggests as 17 has stated that he did not get along with Jim Daley. It is a report from Regina-Leader Post writer Darrell Davis, if that has any sway one way or another with anyone.

So what is the truth? Seems open to conjecture. But I will say that quitting and being fired are certainly not essentially the same thing. And if Daley had issue with Rust’s schemes, he had good cause. The Bombers gave up an all-time league record 8,244 yards against that year. 

20 minutes ago, Noeller said:

all I remember from the "We have no DC" days is Doug Brown talking about how they had to make all the decisions themselves on the field, as it was happening. There was no defensive scheme and nobody calling plays, so they just did it "sandlot" and there was so much confusion and breaking down. Total mess. 

I do remember Brown really being irked by the yards against record, because people were saying “worst defence ever” and he kept reminding them that Ottawa and Hamilton actually both gave up most points than Winnipeg. But it was a tire fire for sure. 

Edited August 28, 2023 by TrueBlue4ever

[bustamente]

 

[Mark H.]

7 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

And if Daley had issue with Rust’s schemes, he had good cause. The Bombers gave up an all-time league record 8,244 yards against that year. 

I recall the D being pretty good...until Rust left 

[JohnnyAbonny]

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

As a stupid 17 year old, I fully believed in Reinebold and "a younger mentality" after Kindly Cal's old school ways. In a lot of ways, those seasons galvanized me as a Bombers fan. So many jumped off the wagon, and I was determined to hang on. I have vivid memories of listening to the Troy Kopp game on my little CD/Radio in my BU dorm room and just screaming and yelling so loud that people came running down the hall wondering what the hell was going on. Ha ha. 

2013.... the irony of a shitty defense then is that Burke circa 2011 is one of the best DC's we've ever had. Lapo even said he was the biggest FA acquisition they made going into that year and a big reason why we went to the Cup. 

There were dark times, and I certainly came close (as Matty Geebs alluded to, 2013 era was SO bad...) but 17to85, in one of the only times I can think of him ever being right about anything, said " You have to hang on because one day this is going to end, and when it does it's going to be all the more glorious for having gone through this ****".... damned if he wasn't right for once. 

I was at that Troy Kopp game. 11 years old, directly from a peewee game, in my black football pants, 30c. 
I thought the upper deck was going to collapse when they scored the game winning TD.
Still top 5 loudest crowd I’d been in. 

[Noeller]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyAbonny said:

I was at that Troy Kopp game. 11 years old, directly from a peewee game, in my black football pants, 30c. 
I thought the upper deck was going to collapse when they scored the game winning TD.
Still top 5 loudest crowd I’d been in. 

amazing... I wish there was an archive with Bob Irving's call of that game. I'd love to listen to the second half... ha ha. 

[TrueBlue4ever]

6 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

I recall the D being pretty good...until Rust left 

He quit after game 9 that year. The team started 1-6 and was giving up 30.5 points a game. They seemed to be turning things around with back-to-back wins where they gave up only 31 points in two dominant home wins. He then walked away. The team gave up 245 points against at that point. The rest of the year, without a D/C, they gave up  another 313 points, including 86 in the first two games after he quit while they tried to adjust, and another 122 in the last 3 games after they were officially eliminated from the playoffs. Other factors certainly played a role (more road games than home in the second half), and they were absolutely worse without a coach than with, but the defence was not super solid while he was there, IIRC. I remember not having much regard for Rust when he came in at age 77 to coach, and his time with the club did not convince me otherwise. But quitting on a team mid-season really left a sour taste in my mouth, so as much as Daley was way in over his head and not a good head coach, I at least had some sympathy for his plight and view him as a nice guy who just couldn’t hack it and was given a bad hand to play with. I did not get a sense of arrogance with him, so biased as so may be, I don’t list him as my worst Bomber coach ever. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

30 minutes ago, TrueBlue4ever said:

So I did some digging and came up with some receipts. And in the interest of full disclosure, I will offer up a report that supports both sides of the story, rather than cherry-picking just to say “I was right”. Here is the French RDS report when Rust left the team:

https://www.rds.ca/football/lcf/rod-rust-quitte-les-bombers-d-urgence-1.302376

For those not fluent in French, Google translate says :

“Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker coach and defensive coordinator Rod Rust has left the team to visit his family in New Jersey for medical reasons.

If the situation allows it, Rust will join the Bombers later in the season.”

So that is the official announcement that was made at the time.

Now, here is an article from the following year from cfl.ca talking about his replacement Greg Marshall:

https://www.cfl.ca/2006/07/05/marshall_adapted_to_coach/

It suggests as 17 has stated that he did not get along with Jim Daley. It is a report from Regina-Leader Post writer Darrell Davis, if that has any sway one way or another with anyone.

So what is the truth? Seems open to conjecture. But I will say that quitting and being fired are certainly not essentially the same thing. And if Daley had issue with Rust’s schemes, he had good cause. The Bombers gave up an all-time league record 8,244 yards against that year. 

I do remember Brown really being irked by the yards against record, because people were saying “worst defence ever” and he kept reminding them that Ottawa and Hamilton actually both gave up most points than Winnipeg. But it was a tire fire for sure. 

I think they literally started like 30 different DB's that season.  A mix of guys cast off elsewhere and rookies.  Marcus Howell played DB.  Geoff Drover played safety.

[Bubba Zanetti]

16 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

I think they literally started like 30 different DB's that season.  A mix of guys cast off elsewhere and rookies.  Marcus Howell played DB.  Geoff Drover played safety.

So innovative and ahead of its time! What a marvelous and intriguing idea!

[JuranBoldenRules]

3 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

So innovative and ahead of its time! What a marvelous and intriguing idea!

Less innovation, more desperation.

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

I think they literally started like 30 different DB's that season.  A mix of guys cast off elsewhere and rookies.  Marcus Howell played DB.  Geoff Drover played safety.

Gawd I remember that. That’s exactly why I’m soaking up all of this now. Living nicely in the moment. 

[Mark H.]

For some reason, I recall some game early in the season, where the D was generating pressure and creating turnovers, but the O was just not helping them out

There were definitely some close games, where they gave up very few points, but still lost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Winnipeg_Blue_Bombers_season#:~:text=The 2005 Winnipeg Blue Bombers,failed to make the playoffs.

Good grief, right at the top of the page - that ridiculous approach to the draft

Y'all are correct - let's enjoy this while we have it

[Noeller]

27 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

For some reason, I recall some game early in the season, where the D was generating pressure and creating turnovers, but the O was just not helping them out

There were definitely some close games, where they gave up very few points, but still lost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Winnipeg_Blue_Bombers_season#:~:text=The 2005 Winnipeg Blue Bombers,failed to make the playoffs.

Good grief, right at the top of the page - that ridiculous approach to the draft

Y'all are correct - let's enjoy this while we have it

This season.... Tom Canada, Gavin Walls and Doug Brown doing everything they could and just getting zero help from the O. Glenn was hurt and the replacements were just awful.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

38 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

For some reason, I recall some game early in the season, where the D was generating pressure and creating turnovers, but the O was just not helping them out

There were definitely some close games, where they gave up very few points, but still lost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Winnipeg_Blue_Bombers_season#:~:text=The 2005 Winnipeg Blue Bombers,failed to make the playoffs.

Good grief, right at the top of the page - that ridiculous approach to the draft

Y'all are correct - let's enjoy this while we have it

Sounds like 2011... the Defense dragged the offense kicking and screaming to every victory- all the way to the cup... 

[Mark H.]

13 minutes ago, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

Sounds like 2011... the Defense dragged the offense kicking and screaming to every victory- all the way to the cup... 

Portions of '05 as well. They lost games where the D gave up less than 15 points. But they had shoot out wins as well. It was the stangest of strange seasons. 

[CodyT]

Man seeing Rourke potentially end up on a practice squad 🙄 total bummer

Kids a number 2 in that league. Sucks to see him end up on a pr instead of playing in canada. Hopefully that's not the case and he's picked up 

[SpeedFlex27]

15 hours ago, bearpants said:

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/leaders... significantly better than cfl.ca 

Your memory is typically impeccable for these sort of thing so I hesitate to question you... but I believe O'Shea had Stubler tapped to be the DC... then he chose Calgary instead... leading to the hiring of Etchevarry.

I do believe you're right. Folks here were hoping Stubler would come here as the new DC under O'Shea . Instead we got Etcheverry. 

[kelownabomberfan]

6 hours ago, Booch said:

yup...thats how I remember it as well

 

I believe I recall a story about that era when I used to listen to the Doug Brown (and Glen January) show - Doug was talking about how they had no D coordinator so they would just call Cover Zero on most plays and hope for the best, ie that Doug would be able to get through to the QB and at least provide some pressure.  Forgive my flawed memory but I remember laughing at the time at just what a ****-show 2005 was.

[SpeedFlex27]

2 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I believe I recall a story about that era when I used to listen to the Doug Brown (and Glen January) show - Doug was talking about how they had no D coordinator so they would just call Cover Zero on most plays and hope for the best, ie that Doug would be able to get through to the QB and at least provide some pressure.  Forgive my flawed memory but I remember laughing at the time at just what a ****-show 2005 was.

I think 2013 under Tim Burke was the worst. 

[kelownabomberfan]

4 hours ago, Mark H. said:

For some reason, I recall some game early in the season, where the D was generating pressure and creating turnovers, but the O was just not helping them out

There were definitely some close games, where they gave up very few points, but still lost

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Winnipeg_Blue_Bombers_season#:~:text=The 2005 Winnipeg Blue Bombers,failed to make the playoffs.

Good grief, right at the top of the page - that ridiculous approach to the draft

Y'all are correct - let's enjoy this while we have it

I think that was the Edmonton game that year.  The D kept stepping up and Tee Martin just couldn't do squat.  The Bombers lost on the last play of the game, gave up a FG or something.  It took me a few hours to calm down I was so pissed after that game.  I think Tee Martin left soon after and the Kevin Glenn era began.

[Mark H.]

5 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think that was the Edmonton game that year.  The D kept stepping up and Tee Martin just couldn't do squat.  The Bombers lost on the last play of the game, gave up a FG or something.  It took me a few hours to calm down I was so pissed after that game.  I think Tee Martin left soon after and the Kevin Glenn era began.

Yes, there waa a 14-12 loss to Edmonton that year 

[Jesse]

7 hours ago, CodyT said:

Man seeing Rourke potentially end up on a practice squad 🙄 total bummer

Kids a number 2 in that league. Sucks to see him end up on a pr instead of playing in canada. Hopefully that's not the case and he's picked up 

This was always going to be the path. He's not going to be given a spot after a few weeks of practice over guys that coaches have been with or scouted for years.

Whether he's on the Jags PR or another team picks him up as a #3 (I bet he would choose to stay with the Jags if that's how it works), this was always going to be how he latched on and started the process of working his way up.

[GCn20]

6 hours ago, kelownabomberfan said:

I think that was the Edmonton game that year.  The D kept stepping up and Tee Martin just couldn't do squat.  The Bombers lost on the last play of the game, gave up a FG or something.  It took me a few hours to calm down I was so pissed after that game.  I think Tee Martin left soon after and the Kevin Glenn era began.

That was the game that the Kamau Incompleterson nickname was born I believe. Dropped a sure TD catch and run on probably the nicest ball Tee Martin ever threw in his life to seal the loss.