Roll up the sleeves.....

[do or die]

Ok we lost a tough one,last nite....and on the face of it.....the turnovers killed us. 

 

On a upbeat note - I truly believe that we finally have the pieces, in terms of structure, management, coaching, and scouting, that will enable this organization to succeed, going forward.  We have already seen some of the trickle down effect, this season..... stability, sense of purpose, leadership, attitude, etc.  The long term prognosis is good.

 

Willy hit a rough patch, last night, but on balance...for the year, so far....looking at his coachability, decision making, throwing, demeanor, and attitude.....we finally have a QB, we can continue to move forward with.

 

But, with the understanding that the Bombers won 9 games, in the last 2 seasons.....our current record aside, this team is certainly still a work in progress.

 

Areas of concern moving forward..... 

 

Unbalanced Offense:

 

The total inability of this team to run or run block, is beginning to render the offense, a much easier one to plan for, to play against....and a harder one to play quarterback for.  Teams with good D lines (like the Riders and Esks), have carte blanch to peel back their ears and hobo rush the QB. Bombers continue to plug away at it, in terms of carries - but at this point, we are merely wasting a bunch of plays.   Play action, which was effective, early in the season, is now...not being taken seriously by anyone.  The repeated 2nd and longs simply puts even more pressure on our 1st year QB starter.

 

Offensive Play Calling

 

Need more emphasis on finding other ways to take the pressure off of Willy....instead of run plays inside...that go nowhere.  We have a back, who's strengths are catching the ball and bouncing to the outside - yet not enough pitches, sweeps and screens.  Also need to get Cotton in certain situations, to at least try to move the pile, sometimes.  Some of the passing plays, like bombs on possession downs, had me scratching my head, the quick hitch pass has disappeared.   Just not seeing enough adjustments, overall.

 

Run D

 

Yes, in the ole Etch scheme, the emphasis is on pre-snap movement, overloading formations, and multiple blitzes - racing in jailbreak fashion to the opposition QB. For what it is designed to do - it works.  However, consistent gap cancellation in the run game is just not going to happen with this scheme.  That said....too many backs are getting simply too much YAC (yards after contact).  Front 7 is undersized, and we lack that stone cold run stopper (or two), who can drop RB's in their tracks.  Messam wore down the D, and helped Riders control the ball in the 2nd half, last night.

 

OL

 

Fairly creditable job in pass pro most nights, but the factors listed above are having an gradual impact on overall performance.  Building depth in this area is a longer proposition, and we simply do not have the depth to have starters out of the lineup.  It is a mystery, though.... why we cannot find a top grade import or two....to help shore some things up in the short term....

 

Consistency on Special Teams

 

Good cover on kicks, bad cover on kick, ok return, lousy return, turnnover, good return blocking, bad return blocking - wash, rinse, repeat.  Mix of good and bad plays - expected better with O'Shea on board.  Realize that we have a lot of youth/inexperience on ST, but have to get this settled down as time goes by.  Until Washington is coached up, to stop holding the ball like a loaf of bread....he will have to take a rest from KR. Woods catches the ball well, but is too small to move all the piles he runs into.   The outstanding performance of our rookie CDN kicker...sticks out like a sore thumb. 

 

Some folks talk about the Blue "being exposed".....not really - that happened 3 weeks ago against Edmonton, with most of the same problems, prevalent....

 

Some of this stuff will be fixed, by later this year.....some probably not

Stay tuned...

 

[Mike]

The import OL baffles me too.

 

The 3 import OL solution isn't a bad option. I get the idea behind it and a lot of teams (us included) can handle running that. But the imports need to be worth it. In some cases, we would've been better off with a pylon from Canadian Tire.

[Floyd]

I agree with most of this post...

 

Unbalanced Offence

Grigsby seems to be able to only do one thing each game - either run or block or catch - wonder how long until we sign Hugh Charles... ha

 

Offensive Playcalling

Willy is forcing these wins on his own - MB has always been pretty conservative and his tendencies have not changed at all.  The INT TD is on Bellefuile as much as Willy... bad call with two minutes left.

 

Make no mistake, with Buck or Hall, we would be in last place in the league.

 

Run D

We knew what we were getting into with Etch - give up a lot of yards but hold.  It is what it is and has been a lot better than any of us thought.

 

OL

Still wondering what happened with Jarvis Jones - he looked like money last year and now is persona non grata.  I thought he had great position last year.

 

I would try Hinse next game - he's no gamebreaker but at least is not completely raw like Goossen.

[Captain Blue]

The imports at the line are not worth it so far.

Etch's defense has been awesome. They gave up some second half yards but even then did well. Offense gifted the Riders 14 pts and Demond gave up 3. Hard to pin blame on the defense. That's a great OL and they basically let in six points.

[Mr. Perfect]

 

 

Offensive Playcalling

 The INT TD is on Bellefuile as much as Willy... bad call with two minutes left.

JFG was just one of the options on the play. The call is fine. There were other players running routes. Willy wasn't pressured on the throw. It was just simply a poor read. That one is on him, and to his credit he knows it and he'll learn from it. MB, as much as I dislike like his calls, is not to blame for the pick six.

[bearpants]

Honestly I had no problem with the decision to make that throw (the pick 6).... he just executed it poorly... the one and only mistake you can't make on that throw is an under-throw... and sure enough....

 

Turns out Drew Willy isn't perfect.... but I still love the guy and am perfectly happy hitching the wagon to him for years to come!

[Mr. Perfect]

Honestly I had no problem with the decision to make that throw (the pick 6).... he just executed it poorly... the one and only mistake you can't make on that throw is an under-throw... and sure enough....

 

Turns out Drew Willy isn't perfect.... but I still love the guy and am perfectly happy hitching the wagon to him for years to come!

Underthrow and a tad late. But yes, perfectly happy as well having him lead the ship for sure. Picks, and pick sixes will happen. That's football. It happens to the best of them.

[Floyd]

 

 

 

Offensive Playcalling

 The INT TD is on Bellefuile as much as Willy... bad call with two minutes left.

JFG was just one of the options on the play. The call is fine. There were other players running routes. Willy wasn't pressured on the throw. It was just simply a poor read. That one is on him, and to his credit he knows it and he'll learn from it. MB, as much as I dislike like his calls, is not to blame for the pick six.

 

 

I'm not absolving Willy from blame... just saying that calling in the play - looked like JFG was the primary read - that late in the game was a bad call.  Dangerous and even if it works, it relies on YAC.

 

Grigsby actually had just run for 6 yards so it was 2nd and short.  Wrong call with most of Sask's LB/DBs five yards off the line.

[Bomber_fanaddict]

The import OL baffles me too.

 

The 3 import OL solution isn't a bad option. I get the idea behind it and a lot of teams (us included) can handle running that. But the imports need to be worth it. In some cases, we would've been better off with a pylon from Canadian Tire.

The ones at Princess Auto are cheaper and more durable. I'd shop there instead.

[Armchair GM]

 

 

 

Offensive Playcalling

 The INT TD is on Bellefuile as much as Willy... bad call with two minutes left.

JFG was just one of the options on the play. The call is fine. There were other players running routes. Willy wasn't pressured on the throw. It was just simply a poor read. That one is on him, and to his credit he knows it and he'll learn from it. MB, as much as I dislike like his calls, is not to blame for the pick six.

 

 

A 5-yard out is a perfectly good playcall with 2-3 mins left when you're losing and DB's are giving you a 5-10 yard cushion playing prevent. 

 

With a 1-point lead against a defence that is playing you tight looking for a turnover on downs... or even better a turnover... inexcusably bad playcall/decision.

 

With a good-in-the-clutch QB like Willy you're going to win some in the last 3 mins, and lose some in the last 3 mins.  But that playcall was the Bombers taking on incredible risk for a very minimal return.  Just dumb.

[Mr. Perfect]

The DB has every opportunity to jump an out route if he's giving cushion if he reads the play properly, just as he did jumping in front of JFG. The call was fine, whether you like it or not. Willy telegraphed the throw, end of story. The return wasn't minimal either. It very likely would have been good enough to convert for a first down considering it was second down and less than five to go. It was situational football and the right call was made, it was just executed poorly. As I said though, Willy will learn from it. We're in very good hands with him but as is the case with any quarterback, there will be mistakes.

[Goalie]

I'm surprised we didn't get more 13 men in the huddle penalties cuz from reading some of these posts on here, you'd think some of you were actually in the huddle. 

 

Blaming that pick 6 on a bad play call by the OC? i don't really get that, unless you were in the huddle, you don't know what the play call was, I highly doubt it was throw a 40 yard pass across the field, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the OC didn't tell Willy to make that throw, That throw was on Willy.. Don't really get blaming the OC for a ball that the QB threw... never have, never will. Willy decided to make that pass, we were winning at the time, he could have thrown it away or just ate it and we would have punted and still been up by 1..

 

O'shea has said it many times already, unless you are in the huddle and you weren't, none of us on here were in the huddle, stop pretending some of you were.. we really have no clue what the actual play call was. 

[Floyd]

The DB has every opportunity to jump an out route if he's giving cushion if he reads the play properly, just as he did jumping in front of JFG. The call was fine, whether you like it or not. Willy telegraphed the throw, end of story. The return wasn't minimal either. It very likely would have been good enough to convert for a first down considering it was second down and less than five to go. It was situational football and the right call was made, it was just executed poorly. As I said though, Willy will learn from it. We're in very good hands with him but as is the case with any quarterback, there will be mistakes.

 

Either way, if the OC has faith in the running game, then we don't make that call with two minutes left.

 

Even with all the mistakes, it still felt like we could win the game when Willy came back in with 30 seconds left.... bomber fans haven't had that feeling in a long time. Glad to have it back.

[Mr. Perfect]

 

Blaming that pick 6 on a bad play call by the OC? i don't really get that, unless you were in the huddle, you don't know what the play call was, I highly doubt it was throw a 40 yard pass across the field, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the OC didn't tell Willy to make that throw, That throw was on Willy.. Don't really get blaming the OC for a ball that the QB threw... never have, never will. Willy decided to make that pass, we were winning at the time, he could have thrown it away or just ate it and we would have punted and still been up by 1..

 

O'shea has said it many times already, unless you are in the huddle and you weren't, none of us on here were in the huddle, stop pretending some of you were.. we really have no clue what the actual play call was. 

Bang on. Nobody has any idea what the other options were on the play, and Marcel doesn't tell Willy where to throw the ball. He reads pre snap, he reads the defence after the snap, goes through his progressions and makes a decision. Unfortunately it was the wrong decision. End of story.

[Goalie]

 

 

Blaming that pick 6 on a bad play call by the OC? i don't really get that, unless you were in the huddle, you don't know what the play call was, I highly doubt it was throw a 40 yard pass across the field, I'd be willing to bet just about anything that the OC didn't tell Willy to make that throw, That throw was on Willy.. Don't really get blaming the OC for a ball that the QB threw... never have, never will. Willy decided to make that pass, we were winning at the time, he could have thrown it away or just ate it and we would have punted and still been up by 1..

 

O'shea has said it many times already, unless you are in the huddle and you weren't, none of us on here were in the huddle, stop pretending some of you were.. we really have no clue what the actual play call was. 

Bang on. Nobody has any idea what the other options were on the play, and Marcel doesn't tell Willy where to throw the ball. He reads pre snap, he reads the defence after the snap, goes through his progressions and makes a decision. Unfortunately it was the wrong decision. End of story.

 

And aren't mistakes expected by a rookie starting qb? Willy will learn from his mistake and probably not do it again. He made a mistake, it is what it is. 

[Mark F]

Willy has been getting some pretty bad hits. not sure he can handle too much more of that without an injury, although he's obviously tough.

 

Stating the obvious, on our run plays up the middle, the middle of our line was getting pushed back  immediately. Zero room to run; even if it was adrian peterson those plays result in no yards gained. Are the other guys that much stronger/quicker  than our guys?

 

thanks dod great summary. 

[17to85]

The DB has every opportunity to jump an out route if he's giving cushion if he reads the play properly, just as he did jumping in front of JFG. The call was fine, whether you like it or not. Willy telegraphed the throw, end of story. The return wasn't minimal either. It very likely would have been good enough to convert for a first down considering it was second down and less than five to go. It was situational football and the right call was made, it was just executed poorly. As I said though, Willy will learn from it. We're in very good hands with him but as is the case with any quarterback, there will be mistakes.

Yeah I don't really have an issue with the play call, it's just one of those throws that has to be out and to the receiver before the db can react. Willy took his time getting the ball there and the result was a pick. 

[Mike]

I was in the huddle.

 

I've never admitted this to anyone before.

 

I'm Steve Morley.

[Floyd]

I was in the huddle.

 

I've never admitted this to anyone before.

 

I'm Steve Morley.

 

Great job picking up Brackenridge last game, buddy.

[Rich]

I was in the huddle.

 

I've never admitted this to anyone before.

 

I'm Steve Morley.

 

What?  Based on your avatar, I thought you were Mike O'Shea.

[TBURGESS]

You don't have to be in the huddle to see Willy not look anywhere except at JFG.  He didn't go through any reads.  He locked in and then threw a soft ball.  He admitted in his post game interview that he shouldn't have thrown the ball.

 

If the OC didn't call that play, then Willy changed it at the line.  Either way.  A 5 yard out to the sidelines is a bad play call in the situation they were in.  Add in the fact that Willy locked in and threw a soft ball, and you are almost guaranteed a bad result.  Either a knockdown or a pick.  As there's no one between the pick and the goal line, you have to expect a big return if it's picked.

 

IMO:  Bad call and bad execution.

[17to85]

again with the bad call and bad execution... you gotta get over that nonsense. If Willy had executed it right then no problem, but if you take your time to throw it and then throw it soft yeah it's bad but because of the mechanics of the play not the call. 

[Floyd]

again with the bad call and bad execution... you gotta get over that nonsense. If Willy had executed it right then no problem, but if you take your time to throw it and then throw it soft yeah it's bad but because of the mechanics of the play not the call.