Week 1. Revenge of the Darkside

[Booch]

Just now, 17to85 said:

If they feel the tackles are athletic enough to handle it... I dunno it's not the worst thing in my mind. 

Why burn them out uneccessarily on the outside tho needlessly...U have an open PR spot....could have held one of them at the least knowing your one game day guy was out....it's just efficient roster/PR management....but we aren't being effeciant with it....leading back to last 2 yrs it biting us right in the arse in the Cup....more of the same right out of the gate it's appearing..very curious for the in-game rotations...and subsequant adjustments

[Mike]

11 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

If they feel the tackles are athletic enough to handle it... I dunno it's not the worst thing in my mind. 

Definitely not the worst thing, but “not worst case scenario” is a far cry from what options should be available to you at this point 

[Super Duper Negatron]

I am most annoyed that I won't be able to watch this live (and there is 0 chance someone won't spoil it for me).

[17to85]

9 minutes ago, Booch said:

Why burn them out uneccessarily on the outside tho needlessly...U have an open PR spot....could have held one of them at the least knowing your one game day guy was out....it's just efficient roster/PR management....but we aren't being effeciant with it....leading back to last 2 yrs it biting us right in the arse in the Cup....more of the same right out of the gate it's appearing..very curious for the in-game rotations...and subsequant adjustments

Is burning them out a concern? If one of WJ or Haba goes down you still have Adams and Woods and whatever other linebackery type options you want to use to keep guys from being totally bagged... they have like 7 or 8 defensive linemen on the roster, an in game loss won't cripple things.

[JohnnyAbonny]

Eli still not starting. Damn. If I see Kolo get bull rushed onto his ass the first series I’m going to lose it. He’s this years Damien Jackson as far as I’m concerned. 

[Booch]

7 minutes ago, Mike said:

Definitely not the worst thing, but “not worst case scenario” is a far cry from what options should be available to you at this point 

first game of the yr...you should be able to roster pretty much your ideal lineup....or dam well close to it without having to have guys play out of position on the assumption that they can do the job...especially one guy who hasnt even been here more than 2 weeks and has had all of what...1 practices for the first game, and maybe 3 before first pre-season...

6 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Is burning them out a concern? If one of WJ or Haba goes down you still have Adams and Woods and whatever other linebackery type options you want to use to keep guys from being totally bagged... they have like 7 or 8 defensive linemen on the roster, an in game loss won't cripple things.

yeah.....watch last 2 grey cups.....thats a good example of burning guys out with no depth....and as for the bold....wouldn't you want actual replacements...who play the spot?

[HardCoreBlue]

5 minutes ago, JohnnyAbonny said:

Eli still not starting. Damn. If I see Kolo get bull rushed onto his ass the first series I’m going to lose it. He’s this years Damien Jackson as far as I’m concerned. 

One of my ongoing goals in life is to never have my full name used in this context.

[Super Duper Negatron]

2 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

One of my ongoing goals in life is to never have my full name used in this context.

I'm afraid I just HardCoreBlue myself.

[HardCoreBlue]

Just now, Super Duper Negatron said:

I'm afraid I just HardCoreBlue myself.

You're welcome for the nice softball pitch I gave you there. 🙂 

[BBlink]

20 minutes ago, Booch said:

first game of the yr...you should be able to roster pretty much your ideal lineup....or dam well close to it without having to have guys play out of position on the assumption that they can do the job...especially one guy who hasnt even been here more than 2 weeks and has had all of what...1 practices for the first game, and maybe 3 before first pre-season...

yeah.....watch last 2 grey cups.....thats a good example of burning guys out with no depth....and as for the bold....wouldn't you want actual replacements...who play the spot?

But we have depth, and useful depth. Adams and Woods vs Hansen and Bennett. It's not even close. We basically had to run Willie and Jeffcoat into the ground because the alternatives were pretty useless. 

[17to85]

27 minutes ago, Booch said:

yeah.....watch last 2 grey cups.....thats a good example of burning guys out with no depth....and as for the bold....wouldn't you want actual replacements...who play the spot?

To be honest I think you are so conditioned to be critical at this point you're being unreasonable. We got 2 ends, we got 2 DTs as backups with enough athletic ability to swing outside and take some snaps there. Not going to cripple the team for one game. Last year we gave snaps to Bennett and Jackson who couldn't accomplish ****. This year is not the same IMO just because they actually kept some athletic types on the DL.

[Atomic]

Sit Thomas, start Fox and Adams on the inside, rotate them with Woods and Schmekel, and bring Hubert onto the roster as the 3rd/emergency DE. Really seems like a no brainer given the fact we have a surplus of Canadian starters. Sit Hubert and bring Thomas back on when Garbutt is healthy.

[Booch]

18 minutes ago, BBlink said:

But we have depth, and useful depth. Adams and Woods vs Hansen and Bennett. It's not even close. We basically had to run Willie and Jeffcoat into the ground because the alternatives were pretty useless. 

Don't get me wrong...love the fact we saw error of our ways and have 5 legit import dlineman..that's gonna do us wonders...also the option to have an actual extra db and a linebacker

But for game 1...knowing you were down a player at a certain position...and not having a backup for it and needing to play another guy...a new guy at that out of position to me doesn't seem optimal...and also avoidable

[rebusrankin]

I fully expect to log into the Winnipeg Free Press website and read about Jake Thomas being attacked by a fan and then look at the picture and think so that's Booch one day. 😁

Edited June 5 by rebusrankin

[BBlink]

34 minutes ago, Booch said:

Don't get me wrong...love the fact we saw error of our ways and have 5 legit import dlineman..that's gonna do us wonders...also the option to have an actual extra db and a linebacker

But for game 1...knowing you were down a player at a certain position...and not having a backup for it and needing to play another guy...a new guy at that out of position to me doesn't seem optimal...and also avoidable

I get what you're saying. It will be an improvement. I think they would have liked to have Garbutt available instead of dressing two 290 pound guys. But both Woods and Adams have shown to be very effective at DE and they won't need to play every down. 

[blue85gold]

I guess Lemon is allowed to play while his suspension is appealed? 
 

Apparently it’s the Als right tackle’s first game, so hopefully Willie and Haba (and anyone else playing end despite being a tackle) can give him a warm welcome 

[wbbfan]

2 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

This is a perfect example where I welcome assistance from people who know the x's and o's of football way more than I do combined with watching what is going on way more closely than I am.

When I watched Jake Thomas play last year what I saw was a player who very quickly went from fresh to tired resulting in little push up front.

That's what I saw but maybe game tape and/or viewers with much more football expertise than I who are attuned to the nuances going on show something far different than what I see.

The point I'm trying to make is this is a forum I can post what I see but am willing to be corrected based on the context I provided above.

Win win in my books.

I would agree generally, I think it’s also a matter of a guy with marginal explosiveness losing a step as well. He’s still strong, he had a strong motor in the past but it’s long gone, so now what little explosion he can muster wears him out. 
 

2 hours ago, Mike said:

I do find it mildly confusing that it’s literally week ******* one and we’re already “in a pinch” and sliding a DT out to play on the edge.

Right? Why not recall a de? 
 

2 hours ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Thomas is miscast as a nose IMO.  Always has been, even when he was a more useful player.  Fine with him rotating in at DT on passing downs.  Hate when he's out there on 1st down.  There's only been a couple years where he wasn't used primarily as a nose, and those are the two years we won Grey Cups.

In a lot of ways the bias toward Canadian DL has played out in how our Canadian coach has viewed his role.  Because he's not a nose.

100% bang on. Jake should’ve been the pass rush lane guy next to a nose. When he was in that role next to guys like Nevis poop stove etc he played his best. 
 

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Don’t know which American would come off the roster though. The back up DB? Then we’d all complain about the lack of depth there. 
 

could use a cdn DE. Mason Bennett coming still?

for my money it’d be the 2nd imp lber. 
 

2 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

I think Adams will be fine on the edge. Guy has ridiculous speed for his size.

he does. I’m not worried about his speed, even when he was winded in the last pre season game he was still a beast. My concern is his ability to maintain that speed the edge requires with out gassing  

2 hours ago, johnzo said:

here's a question for the football brains: does a DT ever do anything besides crush the pocket or run a stunt?  is there anything more to his role than that?

the best ones play a ton of techniques. Gap rushing, twisting, playing on the edge, playing nose great dts can do a ton. Adams in college played nose, edge in a 30 and 40, and rushed from the inside like Casey sayles role was here. 

[wbbfan]

2 hours ago, Booch said:

Why burn them out uneccessarily on the outside tho needlessly...U have an open PR spot....could have held one of them at the least knowing your one game day guy was out....it's just efficient roster/PR management....but we aren't being effeciant with it....leading back to last 2 yrs it biting us right in the arse in the Cup....more of the same right out of the gate it's appearing..very curious for the in-game rotations...and subsequant adjustments

Adams is also our most explosive nose, he should move around a lot, if he gets stuck at edge we lose out. 
 He’s a guy who the offence will have to account for, which makes the blocking assignments soo much harder. Especially when we already have Willy. The more he moves the harder it is to block. 

 

1 hour ago, Mike said:

Definitely not the worst thing, but “not worst case scenario” is a far cry from what options should be available to you at this point 

In general our defensive depth is really good across the board. With tons of flexibility. Db goes down? We got multiple guys who can go in. Wil/mac same thing. Dt plenty of guys. The only real thin spot is back up de. If we had that we’d have a masterfully balanced defensive roster. 

[JuranBoldenRules]

4 hours ago, 17to85 said:

I look at the roster and don't really see anyone who is complete dead weight so that's an improvement from last season. 

Yeah that we know of yet.

I don't think it's a bad thing to have some cover for basically all of the rookies in Game 1.

The intensity level of the preseason games was incredibly low.  There were maybe a dozen CFL players in each game.  There will be a sharp learning curve for almost everyone. 

Like the rookie DB's having some cover in the form of each other and some vets should be for the better in this game and the long run.  They are going to see a lot of **** that they probably have barely seen on film to this point.  Bonds has at least played a couple NFL games and USFL, Bridges played some arena ball.

Same goes for the receivers.

[WildPath]

7 hours ago, voodoochylde said:

I look at this depth chart and just see a giant hole right up the middle of our defence.  

Same old same old.

Kuale, Hurl, Gauthier, Thomas (overuse), even Hecht if S can be considered "middle". Seems like some of the most obvious roster blunders over the last years have come through the middle, especially MLB.

[JuranBoldenRules]

2 hours ago, Booch said:

Why burn them out uneccessarily on the outside tho needlessly...U have an open PR spot....could have held one of them at the least knowing your one game day guy was out....it's just efficient roster/PR management....but we aren't being effeciant with it....leading back to last 2 yrs it biting us right in the arse in the Cup....more of the same right out of the gate it's appearing..very curious for the in-game rotations...and subsequant adjustments

Who do you take off the roster if we did have another DE?

Perhaps there's a bit of game planning involved given the opponent.

I kind of like having all the LB's and DB's plus the heavier line.

Run a bunch of 30 fronts, disguise rush, have guys that can chase and tackle, disciplined rush to hold Fajardo in pocket.  Rush in waves.

In 2023 playoffs we had Bennett, Hansen dressed as rotational ends.  At that point both basically useless.  

I'd rather have a guy who is useful on special teams than Hubert.  On the inside we only had Lawson, Thomas and Walker.

To me our DL looks a lot stronger if we can extrapolate a bit from pre-season performance.

 

Not a huge fan of dressing 7 OL.  Just missing a body we could use on special teams.  Especially with our inexperienced our group is now in terms of special teams.  They might use that 7th OL for 4-5 snaps.

[wbbfan]

43 minutes ago, JuranBoldenRules said:

Who do you take off the roster if we did have another DE?

Perhaps there's a bit of game planning involved given the opponent.

I kind of like having all the LB's and DB's plus the heavier line.

Run a bunch of 30 fronts, disguise rush, have guys that can chase and tackle, disciplined rush to hold Fajardo in pocket.  Rush in waves.

In 2023 playoffs we had Bennett, Hansen dressed as rotational ends.  At that point both basically useless.  

I'd rather have a guy who is useful on special teams than Hubert.  On the inside we only had Lawson, Thomas and Walker.

To me our DL looks a lot stronger if we can extrapolate a bit from pre-season performance.

 

Not a huge fan of dressing 7 OL.  Just missing a body we could use on special teams.  Especially with our inexperienced our group is now in terms of special teams.  They might use that 7th OL for 4-5 snaps.

Thomas or an ni ol for Hubert. 
only go one imp wr as kr and 5 th. 
Ayers since we have Cole could come off for an imp. 

[JCon]

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

I guess Lemon is allowed to play while his suspension is appealed? 

This league is so incompetent. How could they allow this to drag out? Someone wake Randy.

[Jesse]

9 minutes ago, JCon said:

This league is so incompetent. How could they allow this to drag out? Someone wake Randy.

This is a union thing?

[Noeller]

Just now, Jesse said:

This is a union thing?

Absolutely is. He appealed and is allowed to play until the hearing.