Well Its a Rebuild.

[bearpants]

I'd rather Morgan or Jones a field corner... or Loffler at safety... than bringing back Bucknor...

[Bigblue204]

I'd like to see more of Jones rather than going back to Bucknor. 

And you're comment on Harris makes no sense. Defence keying on Harris, so we take him out? You want the D to key on a player. That "should" (as in Lapo get your **** together and plan for this) open up opportunities for other players.

[Goalie]

Thought Jones looked pretty decent out there last night. Agree about loffler at safety also. Looked pretty good 

Edited July 22, 2016 by Goalie

[17to85]

Just now, Goalie said:

Thought Jones looked pretty decent out there last night 

Better than Posey but that's a low bar. Let's be honest though, when you lose your only solid defensive back in Randle it's going to be a gong show in the secondary and it was. After the refs ignored the offside on third and short and the Stamps scored that was the game. They were not coming back with the secondary they were using because they flat out did not have the horses back there to stop the Stamps the amount of times it would be required for the offense to outscore the hole. 

[do or die]

Of course it was yet ANOTHER lame 1st half, which took the Blue (and fans) right out of the game.......

The coach and the vets in the room are simply failing to have this team ready to play.   Unacceptable.

 

[Adrenaline_x]

I no longer care 

[IC Khari]

1 minute ago, Adrenaline_x said:

I no longer care 

We're a little over a month away from Jet's TC, I suspect many Winnipegers will be there soon if this type of play continues with no apparent hope in sight ...

[Stickem]

Yup...it's a rebuild and for the umpteenth time....Clean house and start again cuz this crap show is going nowhere...Someone needs to hit O'Shea with a 'you don't know what the hell you're doing' (then run like hell)...Willy is obviously not the answer as we were led to believe....The short time Nichols was in proved that...Unfortunately Mike O and company will disagree and keep beating the dead horse until there's nothing left but dust...It's going to be hard to witness the end of another unfortunate era in the Bombers recent past BUT it's inevitable....How do you NOT score a td. in quarter after quarter of play and try to say we resemble a contender...I don't know how management can look any of the Bomber faithful in the eye and say 'be patient'....It's run out just like Mike O'Shea's time with the club is rapidly doing...Something better be papered over and quick because by the look of the crowd last night it's gonna get worse attendance wise...Rebuild yes....and start with the quarterback...

[JohnnyOnTheSpot]

I don't think it's a rebuild. I thought Nichols showed us the way to run this offense, quick decisions, passes and throw it away to live another day when you need to. He is not that accurate with his passing though.  If we could combine Willy and Nichols...

[Bigblue204]

9 minutes ago, JohnnyOnTheSpot said:

I don't think it's a rebuild. I thought Nichols showed us the way to run this offense, quick decisions, passes and throw it away to live another day when you need to. He is not that accurate with his passing though.  If we could combine Willy and Nichols...

Nillys?

[17to85]

8 minutes ago, JohnnyOnTheSpot said:

I don't think it's a rebuild. I thought Nichols showed us the way to run this offense, quick decisions, passes and throw it away to live another day when you need to. He is not that accurate with his passing though.  If we could combine Willy and Nichols...

What did Nichols show that Willy didn't? Willy made the one error on an interception but he was getting the ball away fine as well, the touchdown that Nichols scored was after a real good kick return too was it not? He didn't have to march the entire field to score it, not to mention that he was also in there during 3 down time and did take all 3 downs to get some first downs. 

The O was the exact same with Nichols and Willy last night. Some good but still lots of pressures and hits on the qb and too many dropped passes and receivers not making enough plays. You play Nichols you play Willy nothing is going to change. We can't establish the run, we can barely make 8 yards in 2 tries as an offense, these are deep rooted problems that shuffling the qb won't change. 

[Goalie]

To be honest.... Nichols came in during garbage time. 

[ALuCsRED]

The defence gave up 26 pts in a good weather game.  That's low enough that we have a chance to win.  Not the defense's fault.  I was quite impressed with the CFL rookie laden secondary of Jones, Roberts, Loffler, Fogg and Morgan.  For the first time together, they weren't that bad.

Corney looked great on his plays, disrupting the footwork of BLM.

Special teams weren't special.  Me flick was great, poor returns and penalties killed us.

As for the offence, it was terrible.  Willy's stats are okay, but the team isn't consistent, cannot sustain drives, and cannot build momentum.  Passes are completed, but the ball isn't always in places where the receivers can run.  YAC is no where near where it needs to be for our team.

Maybe Jake needs to be an lineman.  Not bad for a "rookie".  He'd probably give more push on running plays.  Where's Eric Wilson when you need him??

At the end of the day, this is a QB league and ours isn't winning us games.   Trade BLM for Willy and we win that game 12 times out of 10.  (Yes... 12.  I know it's impossible, but so is giving 110%)

Edited July 22, 2016 by ALuCsRED
More info

[Noeller]

I'm just officially at my breaking point.  I don't believe there's anyone on this messageboard that knows enough to know what exactly is wrong, but there's something really really wrong and I'm ready to concede the season, pretty much. I can't remember ever feeling "lame duck" this early in the season before. But last night told me things are really rotten. We're going to get thumped in Edmonton next week because we always get thumped in Alberta, and then Collaros is going to be back just in time to get some revenge for them against us at home while I'm back in MB early August. Things are going to get a lot worse here, this season...

[Bigblue204]

The one thing I noticed Nichols doing that Willy wasn't. Was looking off his intended receiver. Willy wouldn't look away from where he was going the entire time. Nichols did, not always. But he at least attempted too.

[Mike]

2 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

The one thing I noticed Nichols doing that Willy wasn't. Was looking off his intended receiver. Willy wouldn't look away from where he was going the entire time. Nichols did, not always. But he at least attempted too.

Willy has been telegraphing every single thing he does almost all season.

He telegraphs his hand offs, he basically stares down Dressler every time he throws that screen pass ... he's so broken it's not even funny.

[Nash00]

1 minute ago, Mike said:

Willy has been telegraphing every single thing he does almost all season.

He telegraphs his hand offs, he basically stares down Dressler every time he throws that screen pass ... he's so broken it's not even funny.

Not just the screens, but the slants as well. That challenged PI slant on 2nd down was so obvious that he had one guy in mind and it was Dressler the whole way. There was another pass to Harris out of the backfield in the 2nd half on 2nd down and medium that he didn't even try to push the ball downfield at all, he just gave it to Harris a yard off the LOS and expected him to get the rest.

Nichols if nothing else showed that he would try to throw the ball past the sticks.

[IC Khari]

Apathy the scariest thing

Dwindling support bad omen for all Manitobans amid big stadium loan

By: Paul Wiecek
Posted: 07/21/2016 11:48 PM | Comments: 26

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JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS

Winnipeg Blue Bombers' fans are showing their disappointment with their team by not showing up during a CFL game against the Calgary Stampeders Thursday evening.

The booing started midway through the second quarter at Investors Group Field Thursday night. That’s bad.

But then it mostly stopped. And that’s worse. A lot worse.

 

Because when the long-suffering fan base of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is booing, that means they at least care.

But it’s when they stop booing — like they did Thursday night in the midst of a 33-18 Bombers’ loss to the Calgary Stampeders that dropped Winnipeg’s season record to 1-4 — we all need to worry what’s been a Bombers’ problem until now is threatening to very soon become a problem for every Manitoban.

Because when the fans stop caring, they stop coming. And if they stop coming in this town, that massive loan every taxpayer in this province extended the Bombers to build IGF is going to become a very questionable proposition very quickly.

Indeed, you only had to attend a Bombers home game this season to understand patience has already run out for wide swaths of this team’s fan base.

Thursday night’s announced crowd of 24,677 was the sixth-lowest attendance at IGF since the place opened in 2013 — and the second-worst-attended ‘summer’ game (games in June, July, August) in the history of the facility.

The worst-attended summer game ever at IGF? Well, that was last week when just 24,007 turned up to watch the Bombers lose to the Edmonton Eskimos.

Why does this summer-game thing matter? Well, it’s because until this year, the lousy Bombers crowds have come in the fall when the Bombers were already out of playoff contention. This year, people aren’t even waiting to stop caring.

Add to the small crowds for the last two games the very modest 26,433 that turned up for the 2016 season opener at IGF last month, and the Bombers are averaging just 25,039 fans per game this season in a building that holds 33,000-plus.

While you’re pondering that, ponder this: the Bombers play next week in Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, where Winnipeg hasn’t won since 2006.

A loss in Edmonton would see the Bombers limp home with a 1-5 record to play at IGF Aug. 3 in what will be this team’s final home game until after Labour Day.

Anyone want to venture a guess at what the crowd will be for that Hamilton game if the Bombers’ season is already all but over just one-third of the way into an 18-game season?

The Bombers never publicly announced their season-ticket number for this season, and after making a few inquiries, I found out why: at 19,144, season ticket sales this year are down 10 per cent over last year and are at their lowest level since the Bombers moved into IGF.

As worrying as that number is, remember this: the Bombers sold the fewest season tickets in IGF history this year despite a huge off-season of player signings that had just about everyone — including me — expecting big things from the Bombers this season.

Can you imagine what the season-ticket base would have been this year if GM Kyle Walters hadn’t won free agency?

Now, it is a credit to the most loyal fans in Canadian football that it has taken this long for cracks to finally materialize in the Blue Wall. After suffering through decades of frustrations, no one can blame the fans if their frustration has finally given way to apathy.

And it’s not like this team, for all it’s new free agent talent, has given fans much to cheer about. The offensive scheme under co-ordinator Paul LaPolice is simultaneously ill-suited both to the Canadian game and to the quarterback who has to run it, Drew Willy.

Might LaPo’s scheme work better with Matt Nichols under centre? Maybe — Nichols drove the team for a touchdown Thursday night when head coach Mike O’Shea finally put him in midway through the fourth quarter with the Bombers trailing 26-10.

But it proved too little, too late and only served to make fans wonder once again why O’Shea, unique among CFL coaches, so stubbornly refuses to make effective use of his backup.

If Willy is the hill O’Shea is prepared to die on, he might yet get his wish. And sooner than later.

Because it’s one thing to torment a fan base that deserves so much better with yet another losing season. But it is quite another when those fans just stop caring and simply move on to better things.

The Bombers had no excuses Thursday night: a gorgeous summer night, a divisional opponent, a huge game with huge implications. And they rewarded their fans with what was the Bombers’ sixth straight loss at Investors Group Field.

The Bombers are 7-23 at home since IGF opened. The question isn’t why a lot of fans have stopped coming; the question is why the rest still are?

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek

Read more by Paul Wiecek.

[bearpants]

2 hours ago, IC Khari said:

We're a little over a month away from Jet's TC, I suspect many Winnipegers will be there soon if this type of play continues with no apparent hope in sight ...

far too often I look forward to NFL starting... to take my attention away from this mess... Normally I am not a huge NHL fan til Feb, but the Jets present a different intrigue this year... so from a sports fan perspective, fall can't come soon enough...

[IC Khari]

I imagine many are already distracted watching the Blue Jays battle in the AL East and as well as the NHL camps, are looking forward to NFL camps which open in a few days. I imagine there are many who figure there's not much sense investing time for a team that looks as bad as this  ...

[Doublezero]

It will be interesting to see if other CFL teams hire MOS or Walters in any capacity after they are canned. I suspect MOS might get a shot in a coordinator capacity somewhere. Walters, not so much. I thought for a while that it might be worth keeping MOS around here as ST coach. But then, nah, because how many failed former head coaches can you really have on one team? Hopefully whoever comes in next, gets rid of all the failed former head coaches currently employed by the Bombers to erase the odour of failure entirely. Maybe give IGF a good smudging too - just to purge the unseen demons and start fresh in 2017.

[Adrenaline_x]

4 hours ago, IC Khari said:

We're a little over a month away from Jet's TC, I suspect many Winnipegers will be there soon if this type of play continues with no apparent hope in sight ...

i've been loving this team since i was a kid.   I'm so beaten down, that i no longer feel anger when we loose. I expect it i guess. but i used to be really mad when we lost or played shitty..  Now.. I'm apathetic.  I no longer feel attachment to the team or involved at all. Last night i stopped watching to watch Big Brother and then came back and watched/fast forwarded the game.  Is this the 8th year of the rebuild since berry was here???

I know we are joking about taman, but, as much napkins as he wrote one, he had this team fielding competitive teams and we haven't been one since then.  Mike Kelly did better with less talent which is frightening. 

Edited July 22, 2016 by Adrenaline_x

[pigseye]

3 hours ago, Noeller said:

I'm just officially at my breaking point.  I don't believe there's anyone on this messageboard that knows enough to know what exactly is wrong, but there's something really really wrong and I'm ready to concede the season, pretty much. I can't remember ever feeling "lame duck" this early in the season before. But last night told me things are really rotten. We're going to get thumped in Edmonton next week because we always get thumped in Alberta, and then Collaros is going to be back just in time to get some revenge for them against us at home while I'm back in MB early August. Things are going to get a lot worse here, this season...

It's pretty simple, you hire the right people to do the job, you don't and you get the mess we are in. It all starts with the man at the top.

[JohnnyOnTheSpot]

We would be competitive with anybody if we could score some points.

I think the offense was not built to Willy's strengths, it was built to mask the weak/young offensive line. It needs a qb that gets the ball out fast, Glenn style. Willy has had 7 games (counting exhibition) and it is clear he is never going to be able to succeed in it.  Nichols has the smarts and the quicker release but lacks in accuracy. If we had an offense built for Willy he would be injured before Labor Day with this O-line. We saw it last year and the one before.  So I say we don't need a rebuild as much as we need either a qb with a quick release or a new offensive line, which will not happen. 

Edited July 22, 2016 by JohnnyOnTheSpot

[17to85]

3 minutes ago, JohnnyOnTheSpot said:

We would be competitive with anybody if we could score some points.

DERP. Isn't this like saying "We'd be a great team if we scored more points than the other team"?