2014 Progress: Pass or Fail

[BigBlue]

Progress: Pass or Fail

 

How much headway did the Blue Bombers make this year compared to 2013? While management is busy this week evaluating personnel let's do our own analysis, at least a little. Let's look at it by component after component:

 

Defensive Secondary – probably the biggest improvement of all, on the whole team except for QB: Pass

 

Linebackers – Wild got more playing time, Sears when he finally got was an improvement; but we did not come close to replacing Muamba: no progress so Fail.

 

Defensive Line – inside tackles (when not having to use a Canadian) was about the same as last year; meanwhile we deteriorated at defensive end: Failed to progress

 

Canadian Defensive Players - Bucknor, Matt,  Sherman, Teague   Thomas, Jake  for starters were a significant improvement over what we had last year except for Muamba: so Pass I think.

 

Receivers – as a group we didn't have open receivers often enough compared to last year; we didn't change receiver personnel all that much; Moore was hurt too much to make a difference really. : Fail, if anything we regressed

 

Running Backs –  Volny, Carl  Fitzgerald, Carl  Pontbriand, Michel- are very much the same as last year.Cotton, Paris McGuffie, Sam are very much unproven although Cotton appears to have great potential. No eastern All-Star this year nor is this group likely to be rated in the top half of running backs for the league as a whole. Progress while promising is suspect so Fail.

 

Quarterbacks - We have found a legitimate starter in Willy and have three potential other starters signed up at the moment. Marve looks exciting. Quarterback is the most important position on the field and although Willie was shell-shocked by season's end, our most important progress of the year was at QB: a resounding PASS!

 

Offensive Line – Goossen has better potential than the rest of our backup lineman

combined, and besides we cut most of them. Morley is a decent centre instead of an indecent guard. Greaves may have improved a little. However January was less than impressive and will not be an All-Star this year. The other two international line positions was a revolving door; there is nothing in particular to look forward to next year. Our biggest weakness last year still looks like the biggest weakness on the team this year. No real progress so FAIL!

 

Canadian Offensive Players – Watson, Cory Feoli-Gudino, Julian Kohlert, Rory along with Greaves, Morley & Goosen as a group were more reliable  than last year   so progress was made: Pass

 

Special Teams Returning – Stoudermire , Troy is the returner we have been looking for for years: a definite Pass

 

Special-Teams Coverage - I personally thought this is where we lost many games due to field position. No progress and if anything worse… so Fail.

 

Special-Teams Kicking - Hajrullahu, Lirim could be the league All-Star. Progress = Big Pass.

 

Special Team Canadians – I am not sure about this at all but at least there seems to be better attitudes than last year so in terms of progress a small Pass.

 

General Manager & Scouting – full-time enthusiasm replaced reluctance and twilight; Canadian recruiting got a lot better while American recruiting suffered: definite progress and hope … so PASS. Have to find a larger role for Danny McManus maybe as offensive coordinator.

 

Head Coach – shell-shocked incompetence was replaced by overconfidence and rookie mistakes; the difference was night and day so progress was exceedingly obvious: PASS because we have found a genuine leader.

 

Position Coaches – Bob Wylie Offensive Line Paul Charbonneau Assistant Offensive Line Coach Markus Howell Wide Receivers Coach Gene Dahlquist Quarterbacks Coach Buck Pierce Running Backs Coach Nelson Martin Defensive Backs Coach Mike Scheper Defensive Line Coach Cory McDiarmid Linebackers Coach Dave Jackson Defensive Assistant ... I really don't know but at least there are more of them and that's definite progress, so Pass.

 

Coordinators – I can't help thinking that  Marcel Bellefeuille kept everybody from doing their jobs properly and that's why Bob Wylie didn't help much in terms of getting results; Gary Etcheverry  in my opinion was the number one reason we had a very bad season this year,.. When you play pressure defence you have to come up with a lot of big plays and we didn't do that , Pat Tracey seemed to be a rookie at these responsibilities and overall it seems like we lost special-teams battles game in and game out. In terms of progress I can only rate these three as a combined MAJOR FAILURE!

 

 

I must admit that my evaluation was largely emotional and less logical than the usual analysis, but a failed season and general lack of progress doesn't sit with me very well. I'm very interested in what the more astute amongst us can offer in terms of their analysis and evaluation.

[Jpan85]

3-15 to 7-11 is progress

 

Miller O'Shea and Walters over Garth Mack and Burke is progress'

 

Drew Willy Brian Brohm Robert Marve over Max Hall Justin Goltz Jason Boltus is progress

 

LH over Palardy/Sandro is progress

 

2014 secondary over 2013 secondary is progress

 

2014 draft over 2013 draft is progress

 

There is still progress left to do o-line front seven and coordinators. The key is there is less work to do this offseason than there was last year.

[Brandon]

Continued to play hard from start to finish....   a huge pass from last season.   

 

While disappointing that we whimpered away .... I think the attitude and talent is definitely a notch higher then last season.

 

Give us better depth,   a new oc and a new dc and I think this team will be much better for years to come. 

[M.O.A.B.]

For the first time since 2009 (except maybe 2011) we dont have a gong-show or circus. --- PROGRESS.

 

We are not the laughing stock of the league anymore. --- PROGRESS.

[17to85]

There was so much progress this season it's not even funny. Things were so bad last year it would be hard to not show progress, but this team showed lots. Yeah there's still areas to work on and some things they can do better going forward but man I tell you this season was night and day to last year and I am very excited for what may come next year. 

[do or die]

Pass:

 

HC

Seconday

Kick returns

Running back (presently)

Kicker

Quarterback stable

Canuck Depth (still work in progress)

 

Fail:

 

Schemes on D

Playcalling on O

In game adjustments on both ends

OL

Dumb penalties

Too many Turnovers

Kick coverage

Romby Bryant

[Jpan85]

Looked at the punt yards given up from the net and gross figures and the Bombers where in the top half of the league. Can't find the stats for kickoff returns though.

[BigBlue]

So what has to change for us to get ahead of the Riders & ?Lions in order to get into 3rd place next year?

[Mr. Perfect]

So what has to change for us to get ahead of the Riders & ?Lions in order to get into 3rd place next year?

When it comes to B.C. I think we simply need to stay healthy. We showed earlier in the year that we can beat them quite easily when we have a healthy ball club. Yes they did beat us twice but we had significant injuries in both games. It's a team that doesn't impress me in the least, even with Lulay likely back under centre next year, assuming he stays healthy.

 

As for Saskatchewan, we need to get bigger up front, and Wild needs to be the full time middle linebacker. I'll take our secondary against ours, though whoever is against Bruce Johnson admittedly would concern me a bit. I don't dislike Bruce Johnson by any means, but I don't think he is necessarily as good as some have made him out to be. Gets beat deep a little too much for my liking, but I like him in the short/intermediate portion of the pass game. Hopefully we can add another receiver whether it be free agency, or a rookie find to further test their secondary.

[USABomberfan]

BigBlue, on 02 Nov 2014 - 10:59 PM, said:

So what has to change for us to get ahead of the Riders & ?Lions in order to get into 3rd place next year?

 

2 things

 

1.  Get that one big OT who can knock John Chick and Adam Bighill on their butts

 

2.  Fix the special team coverage, that was the difference in us losing to the Riders in one of our games, and possibly BC in this last game.

[Brandon Blue&Gold]

 

So what has to change for us to get ahead of the Riders & ?Lions in order to get into 3rd place next year?

When it comes to B.C. I think we simply need to stay healthy. We showed earlier in the year that we can beat them quite easily when we have a healthy ball club. Yes they did beat us twice but we had significant injuries in both games. It's a team that doesn't impress me in the least, even with Lulay likely back under centre next year, assuming he stays healthy.

 

As for Saskatchewan, we need to get bigger up front, and Wild needs to be the full time middle linebacker. I'll take our secondary against ours, though whoever is against Bruce Johnson admittedly would concern me a bit. I don't dislike Bruce Johnson by any means, but I don't think he is necessarily as good as some have made him out to be. Gets beat deep a little too much for my liking, but I like him in the short/intermediate portion of the pass game. Hopefully we can add another receiver whether it be free agency, or a rookie find to further test their secondary.

 

I agree with everything you said except concerning Wild.  As great as he is I think he is better suited to the outside than the middle.  A new middle LB (maybe Will Smith who I thought did well the short time we had him) capable in run D for 2015 is a must.  We missed Muamba even more than we thought we would this season.  

 

Granted though Wild was our best option in the middle this season.  I don't want Kuale back next season.  Maybe give Kromah a longer look at training camp next year.  But definitely bring in some new blood for a shot at MLB.

[gbill2004]

Several games lost due to bad long snapping when Wild was out with injury. I recall a stat where bad long snaps cost us ~30 points in 4 games. When your in close games, that really hurts.

[bearpants]

Progress: Pass or Fail

 

 

General Manager & Scouting – full-time enthusiasm replaced reluctance and twilight; Canadian recruiting got a lot better while American recruiting suffered: definite progress and hope … so PASS. Have to find a larger role for Danny McManus maybe as offensive coordinator.

 

 

 

Most of your analysis is pretty good... except for the one thing I highlighted... McManus is here as a scout and assistant GM... not as a coach.... I assume his career arc has him becoming a GM someday, not a HC...

 

As for Ian Wild at MLB... he was BY FAR the best we had playing there this season... normally I don't worry too much about the size of a guy but 6'0 208 is a little small for MLB IMO... if he can keep his speed up and play around 220-225 that would be ideal... Henoc played at 6'0 230, so I see no reason why Wild couldn't be that size too...

[Mike]

Where did we make progress?

 

The head coaching spot ... the approach to the way we deal with free agency ... the approach to the way we deal with Canadian talent ... the willingness to look within the league to fill holes on our roster ... the quarterback position ... the running back position ... the secondary ... the placekicker position ... the top end of our receiving group

 

Where did we fail?

 

Arguably with our coordinator jobs ... the offensive line ... the defensive line ... the linebacking group ... the bottom end of our receiving group ...

 

We won in a lot of the areas that mattered the most. We saw progress in the standings. We're trending upwards.

 

I'm happy. Unsatisfied, but happy.

[kelownabomberfan]

I'm happy. Unsatisfied, but happy.

You are now ready for marriage.

[mbrg]

Our wins were frontloaded this season, which created an illusion of turbulence that wasn't really there in my opinion.

 

Otherwise it unfolded pretty much as expected.  Every team craps the bed once in a while.  We did twice this year.  The other 16 times this team fought hard and didn't quit.  That's huge progress from last year.

 

All 3 QBs look better than the 3 we had last year.  All 3 were right about where they should be on the QB learning curve given their opportunities and resumes to this point in their careers.  That's huge progress from last year.

 

Most of us expected this team's talent from top to bottom would not stack up to the other western teams, and for the most part it did not.  There were pleasant surprises though.  On the NI front, Thomas, Feoli-G, Sherman and Bucknor were the obvious surprises.  There was a small outcry when the Bombers released Maher in training camp and kept Hajrullahu instead.  Ah, memories.  Steve Morley might have been our best Olineman from start to finish this season.

 

On the import side, every spot in our secondary that saw an incumbent leave was upgraded.  Denmark finally had his 1000 yard season.  Unamba progressed from athletic special teams guy to capable starter over 6 months.  Cotton delivered what we expect from a running back.

 

The negatives:

Our Oline is still largely unsettled.  Maybe we are fine going into next season with Daniels-Greaves-Morley-Goossen-Tyler.  I can't look at that grouping right now and think that's good enough, don't change a thing.  How injured was January this year and does he get a camp invite in the spring?  I'd guess he's our most expensive Olineman on our roster, even as an import.

 

Anderson and Turner are fine as a Dline interior, but if we're using them the same way next year we have to get a run-stopping MLB.  The pressure from our ends was inconsistent, and under our current defensive scheme it has to be constant.

 

Nick Moore needs to be healthier next year, and we need to find 2 more import receivers who can matter.

[do or die]

Good news is that a lot of this is fixable, with about 4 players.

 

A couple of competent OL

A MLB (Wild is an allstar if you keep him at OLB

A pass rushing DE

 

At the very least..... there is no excuse for Walters to not be able to upgrade imports on OL, and find a better import than Romby at R