Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg @ Edmonton, August 21, 2026

[blue_gold_84]

The definition of a Jekyll & Hyde game. An incredibly strong first half and then a completely pathetic second half.

I'm at a loss with this team.

[Tecno]

https://youtu.be/vRhX5CU3uik?t=211

Very interesting.  And who says MOS never gives us any actual insight!  Y'all just aren't patient enough 

He talks about maybe our D having 2 modes: "attack" mode vs "secure" mode.  He says secure mode is more a clock killing thing, and probably means keep everything ahead of you, not give up explosions, etc.  I guess attack mode would be playing guys closer, taking more risks to maybe get more INTs or disruptions or immediate tackles.

So that whole "we need to stop them driving 40Y to get in FG range so why are we playing 15Y off every REC" thing that basically everyone has noticed is a CHOICE ("secure" mode) and if MOS/Younger want they can switch to "attack" mode.

Now, the big question for me is, is MOS talking about Younger/Hall being in the wrong mode, or the players?  Because I'm not sure it's MOS's job to tell the D what to do.

And the other question is, wouldn't Younger/Hall just know this?  Who on earth would be thinking tied with 1:30 left that you're trying to just kill clock??  Something doesn't smell right here.  Though I still appreciate the insight.

[Tecno]

Tecno's Take (right at the whistle edition)

good
zach 16.5
brady 15.5
jones 6.5
demski 6
smith 5
nield 5
major 5
vaval 4.5
pokey 4.5
neuf 4.5
els 3.5
white 3
wallace 3
lawson 3
kyrie 3
kelly 3
daniels 3
woodbey 2.5
willie 2.5
reese 2.5
holm 2.5
ceresna 2.5
broxton 2.5
nichols 2
castillo 2
stan 1.5
moxey 1.5
1 or less each: sheahan, hazen, fletcher, cobb, clercius, ayers, schmeck

bad
zach 7
woodbey 4.5
stan 3
pokey 3
neuf 3
kelly 3
nield 2.5
major 2
jones 2
els 2
daniels 2
holm 1.5
1 or less: nichols, moxey, fletcher, demski, ceresna, brady, vaval, kyrie, broxton

1Q8:39 There's a blatant IC jam on Daniels 7Y from LoS.  Refs usually call that, as the DB used his hands.  Looks like it was a mugging by our guy, but refs call it on the D every time when hands are used.  This is the first missed pass of the game as Zach was hurried.  7Y from the GL.  Demski was totally open for an easy 5Y, or possible TD with YAC. Zach got greedy and misjudged the time he had.

1Q4:33 Interestingly it took this long for Brady to get 1st down run, as everything before that was pass on 1st. It goes for 35 because EDM was expecting another pass.

1Q3:46 Nield's first catch he almost drops it!  He catches it too high and it drops to his crotch where he recovers.  Foreshadowing his drops later.

1Q3:16 Total waste of a challenge by MOS, as command was letting "minor" RTP go a couple of times this season.  I'm not sure any pass play where we put Brady out wide and empty the backfield has succeeded all season.  What a stupid scheme.  As soon as you go empty you give the opponent a free ticket to max pass rush against our very dodgy OL.  Refs screwed us the whole rest of the game.  Never give up your challenge early in the game.  MOS knows better than that.

1Q3:00 On both early TD attempts EDM is in cover 0 or 1, and in all cases any 1-on-1 is blanketed.  Like 100% zero separation. How can Zach succeed if no one is ever open?  Either EDM D is that good at coverage, or our RECs suck at getting separation. I blame the scheme, too.  It's too predictable and we never do anything fancy.  The D rapidly susses out who is the decoy, who is the clearing route, etc.

2Q11:20 Broxton's best run block of the season?  Very Yoshi-like.  All that dev paying off?  He chips a guy at the line then bulldozes and becomes Brady's lead blocker.  He then seals off two guys outside.

2Q5:06 Zach tweaks his knee on a scramble up the gut.

2Q1:34 EDM's first TD, it's Holm who screws up, follows Mack's fake across and doesn't see he turns back.  But what is Nichols doing as he's sprinting to the rail to hit Mack -- he just holds up and slows down on a perfectly makeable tackle.  The only other guy who can stop him is Major coming from the EZ.  It's inexplicable, and that type of quit isn't allowed, and I hope MOS is noticing this.  Unless... is Nichols saying "they'll get the TD anyhow so let's give ourselves
time to score again on O"?

3Q13:23 Vaval does have an INT.  He was robbed by the refs, and because MOS wasted his challenge, there was nothing he could do about it.  There are two issues: 1. Vaval has more control of it than Luther.  Vaval has it held perfectly with two hands directly in his chest.  Luther has two hands loosely around it and in his face mask.  Luther never has more control of it.  This is clearly visible on the slow-mo replay.  2. Vaval comes up with it, which is important because Luther caught it jumping: when "leaving your feet" it is completely required you have full control as you go OOB, and survive contact with the ground. Because of #1 I don't think you have to consider #2, but if you don't believe #1 (as the refs didn't) then you must consider #2.  Picture this: Luther is on his own diving OOB, secures the ball, but drops it when he hits the ground. That would be incomplete every day of the week.  No different if Vaval is there taking it away.  If we challenged this we would have won.  Refs gave it to EDM because a) we had no challenge and they have zero incentive not to err on the side of EDM, and b) EDM was
getting spanked and they always want to even things out for the show.

3Q11:32 Vaval is in on D for a while, and for this set at least he's out there with all the DBs including Nichols and Kelly!  Looks like they took out a LB, and put Major at SAM.  Only Woodbey & Smith were in.  It's like an all-speed all-coverage set.  I really like it, and it probably threw EDM for a bit of a loop as I don't think we've done this before.  Unfortunately Rankin makes a great catch to convert and Cody waits long enough to take a big hit from Ceresna.

3Q2:52 The holding by EDM they left uncalled is quite astounding.  Check out the hold on a sure tackle by Fletcher by the LT. Just wow.  2 refs directly behind Cody witness it and... crickets.  And Fletcher gets injured by that reckless takedown.

4Q2:51 Is indeed no yards on the Vaval return, by probably 0.5-1.0Y.  Yes, refs often don't call that one, and you don't win it on challenge either.  Again, when you don't have a challenge, refs won't throw you any bones because they can't be punished for not giving it to you.

4Q2:03 The final Zach sack on an 8-man blitz.  That means cover 0 and man-on-man on all 4 RECs.  You need to just chuck that ball to your best REC go route (like Pokey).  Just chuck up a rainbow instantly.  I hate to say it, but Cody would.  You wait all game to get the 1-on-1 match-ups you want and here they hand it to you on a silver platter and you don't put the ball up?  Every REC let us down and Zach let us down and Condell let us down.  And Demski's failed block let us down.  What an ugly, sloppy O.  Frankly pathetic.

4Q1:03 Rankin's final big 2 runs to get them near FG range, MOS talked about (almost certainly) these 2 plays in the pressers after the game.  Woodbey and Vaval are standing around waiting for Rankin rather than "attacking" him to try to get the quicker stop.  Both players are just standing around and Rankin just goes where they aren't.  EDM runs the exact same play twice in a row, and both times Woodbey is just sitting there giving up all the yards in the world.  This was Woodbey's worst game and my grading of him shows it.  Completely useless compared to Griffin, who we're really missing.

There was a bucketload of Clercius early this game, in place of Cobb.  Lots of Clercius blocking, but from a slot position.  A ton of Daniels, and less Eli (only super jumbo?).  Later in the game we seemed to move away from all of that and just had Daniels a lot.

The depressing part is EDM went very conservative at the end of the game because they had the tie in hand. I thought they'd put the gas down, but they didn't. And yet we still couldn't stop them because of the super-soft no-aggression D scheme.  If we had held them to 5Y back somehow their K would likely miss that FG.

Love to see the fire by condell in the booth on the failed Pokey rail home run; at least someone isn't wallowing in insouciance.

The late pick Zach threw was a 55Y point-to-point toss: basically the limit of his range, but he looked comfortable doing it (and overthrew).

Vaval has metal braces!  Like on his teeth!

Zach overthrew/too-highed everything, but the long shots were mostly at a big angles, with the rail ruining any chance the REC has to get to it: why aren't we throwing more into the middle of the field?  Later on Zach throws the seam post that gets INTed, and maybe that was to compensate. If Zach throws that more outside (you know, away from the other DB help?) it's almost certainly a big gain.

Our OL needs to hold more: When refs are allowing insane holding you can't win unless you hold too.

What changed starting late in the 2nd Q that lost us the game?  EDM started holding more, like total SSK OL max holding.  Refs weren't calling it, so they did it, but we didn't -- we never do.  EDM switched from shots to total dink & dunk, and as expected, our scheme has zero answer.  Their huge drives wore down our DL and LBs. Cody started mostly dropping back 5Y on every pass play, which gives him the time he needs from guys pass rushing inside.  Not sure why Zach can't do that. EDM picking on Kelly so much, and kelly isn't quick enough to get to his guy.  we played 95% zone, and soft zone at that, the scheme gives up everything underneath. We get the opponent in 2nd & long so much, which is what the whole scheme is designed for, but then cannot do a single thing on 2nd down and just leave easy pitch & catches wide open uncontested in the zone. What good is the scheme that does this?  What good is it to limit them on 1st down just to hand them 2nd down on a platter?  If the answer is pressure: well they got no pressure on 2nd down, at all, ever.  And they never blitzed, what's up with that? Getting totally owned by the EDM OC, totally made a ton of adjustments, like he had 20 guys studying the 1st H tape and figuring out every little tendency of our every D player and calling the perfect counter play.

But what really lost this game is Zach.  He lost this game by overthrowing everyone after our great start.  And he never got rid of the ball in time on any of the 2nd H blitzes and breakdowns.  He always overestimates the time he has -- probably the worst in the league at that.  Yes, everyone took turns letting him down, especially the OL, blockers, RECs and worst of all: Condell.  But the worst by far was Zach.  He was so dialed in until he took the early hits.  Then he did his best T.Harris impersonation and became utterly useless.  Should have just put Dru in.  His headspace was shot.  Now I'm starting to see why they used to pull Zach the first bop he got.  It's not to protect Zach: it's because he'll stink the joint out after that.

Bonus: Are we ever going to play man coverage?  Are we even capable?  Or does the braintrust think our guys are devoid of talent?  This is going back to like 2017 days when Hall said we weren't good enough for man.

[theaardvark]

How many of Brady's touches are RPO?

In the first half, was the read "R", and the second half, adjustments made on D that turned the read to "P"?

Is Collaros that quick at the reads?  Does he take his option a certain way depending on the time in the game?  Does he think his arm gets them a better chance to win than Brady's legs, and that takes over his option decision?

Because, looking at the game, his arm definitely does not.  At this moment.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

How many of Brady's touches are RPO?

In the first half, was the read "R", and the second half, adjustments made on D that turned the read to "P"?

Is Collaros that quick at the reads?  Does he take his option a certain way depending on the time in the game?  Does he think his arm gets them a better chance to win than Brady's legs, and that takes over his option decision?

Because, looking at the game, his arm definitely does not.  At this moment.

This is Zach's Mulligan season, promise of improvement or change does not buy him another one.

[Jesse]

This is Zach's Mulligan season, promise of improvement or change does not buy him another one.

Agreed. My buddies and I said this before the season started. He's out of excuses. We spent money at receiver and at OL. If he can't do it with this roster, then he can't do it.