Official Game Day Thread - Montreal at Winnipeg, June 6, 2024

[TecnoGenius]

Special teams still special. The whole O struggled.

Our kick coverage was vastly improved.  I counted only 1 good return for a very capable Letcher.  We should give the ST guys full credit for this vast improvement over last season.  This is likely the influence of coverage-ace Miller.

I won't talk about every other aspect of ST...

[TecnoGenius]

Our run D was pretty darn stout all game.  Just like the PS games.  Full credit to our run stoppers, mainly the DL.  Our new guys were holding their own.    Adams had a superb block-shed to stuff Cody at LoS on one play.  The new "big guys" might have a future!

Given the above, how come Alexander is never in the picture on the deep shots?  This is the same as last year.  Instead we're still having BA37 cheat up to the flat to try to help with the run.

But why?  If the run is under control, why don't we let BA37 roam to cause trouble for the deep routes?  Contrast with MTL's Deqouy (and most other teams): their FS is always roaming looking for INTs and helping on the pass.  It's aggravating.

[TecnoGenius]

The MOS challenge was inexcusable, and not very MOS-like.  He knows you keep that challenge to keep those refs honest all game.  You don't blow it in the 1st Q, and certainly not on a useless boondoggle.

Any student of the CFL knows that they almost never overturn a no no-yards call.  It's been shown many times that not only will someone have to be within the halo, they'll have to be within closer to 1.1-1.5 yards of the halo!  Guys a couple of feet inside the halo are never called: not live, and not in command review.

How does MOS not know this?  He says he watches most every game.  He sees what I see.  Write a new note on your chart, MOS: you ain't gonna overturn a no no-yards unless it's incredibly egregious.  I think I've seen just one overturned since they started allowing a no-yards challenge.

You want irony?  Maas wasted his challenge early in exactly the same way in the GC.

[TecnoGenius]

Why does our OL consistently get beaten by simple 4-(or even 3-)man-DL stunts?  Every stunt MTL was trying was working.  Just easy stuff like delays, crossovers, etc.  (See the Zach INT 2Q2:55.)

It's embarrassing.

And it's not just this game: we had this trouble last season as well, though maybe not as bad.  Poor Zach is getting pressure in his face, or being put back on his butt, by dumb, simple stunts.

This would fall to the OL coach and the OL itself, no?  I would say maybe we're spending all the OL dev time on rush blocking and not pass pro, but our rush blocking was very weak tonight also...

[TecnoGenius]

2Q0:44  MTL Richards injury timeout:

Total fake injury to stop our tempo-O.  Dude jogs off the right side of LoS into our backfield and doesn't touch a single other player, jogging the whole time, perfectly fine.  Starts walking toward his sideline and taps his helmet, which I think is their code for "need a rest".  This entire time he's looking completely gassed.

I think he just needed a break because of our tempo-O keeping him on the field and so his guys told him to take a knee right at the sideline in order to stop the tempo and get a substitution.

Dude walks off the field easily after a minute on his knee and looks perfectly fine (I used the ol' binocs @PAS).  He's back on for the next D series when we take victory(losery?)-F to go into halftime.

Shades of SSK a few years ago.  Nice cheatin' MTL!  Maybe there needs to be a longer sit-out for "injuries" in tempo-O plays?  How about 5 plays and only D plays count.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I was pretty happy with the defense last night. They kept us in the game until midway through the fourth quarter and the points they gave up before the flea flicker were all fairly reasonable. Our new corners played pretty good and the run stop was great all game. Early reviews are positive.

Obviously, with the money we have invested in the offense we aren't going to win if we keep playing like that. It wasn't pretty  but I think we can safely say that the unit is going to be fine. They've played at a high level before and they will again.

Special teams was a bit of a mixed bag (aside from Sergio anyway). Return game needs a bit of help still but the cover teams were fairly organized and I think we'll probably see a lot of improvement on teams this year.

Turnovers kill and we had too many at bad times.

Weather ended up being pretty nice and it's always great to be at the stadium watching football!

[Blue In BC]

In the stats Cole was listed as a CB. I noticed he was often on the field at the same time as Kramdi. It was hard to tell who was lining up where. At times I though he was lined up inside? Did he actually line up at CB as well.

With all the new players, new numbers and heavy rotation, it was difficult to tell who was where. He did seem to have a good game.

I mentioned in another string that all the kickers in the league are unhappy about the new chipped footballs. It's impacting accuracy apparently and Castillo had problems in TC too. So it's a bit early to blame him for that.

Sheehan still isn't getting enough hang time. The Bombers coverage were not in place when punts were fielded IMO.  Also he had an early shank out of bounds

[Waffler]

BA37 with a very large knee brace.

BO20 timing was also off all night. JA27 was hitting the holes on time. But, JA27 hasn't missed a practice.

Pretty sure he has worn a brace since tearing his acl in 2021 Grey Cup. He wears it in every practice too, not sure if he has a new larger one, didn't notice.

[blue_gold_84]

The sloppiest performance I've seen from this team in ages. What an ugly, ugly showing.

[Blue In BC]

Karamoko seemed to be on the field often but didn't record 1 stat. On the other site it said he took a lot of snaps at WIL??

Essentially the question is did he play well and was he subbing for Wilson sliding over to MAC?

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Karamoko seemed to be on the field often but didn't record 1 stat. On the other site it said he took a lot of snaps at WIL??

Essentially the question is did he play well and was he subbing for Wilson sliding over to MAC?

Karamoko's job, it appeared, was to seal the edge and force the rush back inside which was largely effective.

[Blue In BC]

Karamoko's job, it appeared, was to seal the edge and force the rush back inside which was largely effective.

Defence didn't play badly overall aside from a few busts. We didn't win field position or TOP and turnovers favoured the Als, especially that fumbled punt early. Momentum was not our friend. We didn't take good advantage of the Cole int when Collaros was cold as ice in his passing.

Will have to see if we've lost Lawler and / or Streveler for an extended time.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Some odd notes as I work my way through the film:

Zach is getting fooled by simple MTL D trickery.  They were trying this in the GC, too.  They are using his vast football knowledge and experience against him!

Check out 1Q2:57.  MTL appears to blitz SAM, Zach instantly recognizes it's vacated, and takes that open space as his read, which is a quick Demski curl at the sticks.  But it's not really open, because at the snap a DL guy drops back right in front of Demski.  And they have a DB directly behind Demski to get any tip INT.

Zach spots the DL guy right as he's throwing and has to angle out the throw, a bit too wide for Demski.

This is pure film study, player tendency study (vs Zach), and high-brain scheming.  And it's clearly practiced.  The goal is to get that INT, or incompletion.

My beef is, we didn't study this stuff too?  They used this on us last season.  MTL is doing high-brain 5D chess and for the life of us we can't anticipate the scheme and then use it against them?  i.e. Scheme their scheme.

The play here would be to ignore their sleight of hand and pretty moving parts and instead just pass to Lawler who was wide open in the middle at the sticks.  But Zach didn't look there because he knows that when the SAM blitzes you throw to the hot curl in the vacated space!  But we know they know he knows, so why can't we outsmart them?!

I'm starting to really miss Lapo... I'm not sure the brains are high enough in WFC anymore.  And I'm starting to get the impression that many teams, certainly MTL, put in every waking moment scheming and planning and practicing and our whole outfit is just mailing it in, going out for drinks when 4:30pm rolls around.  We're being seriously outworked by the upstarts, and it isn't going to end well.

Agree, smart D-Coords such as Thorpe have figured out the tendencies Zach has relied heavily on the past 4 seasons and are shutting the door on them.  Not hard to notice he scrambles to his right most often and looks for a receiver breaking off his route and coming back.  Also not hard to flood the zone with LB's and DB's and force him to throw it away or gamble on a closely covered receiver, cause they're no longer open. 

With every passing year Buck throws out more pages of LaPo's original playbook, especially the sections that stressed ball control, patience and security.  Zach rarely goes an entire drive without taking a 40 yard shot down field to move things along quicker, most fans love the gambler but in reality it lowers the chance of completion drastically and often cuts drives and momentum off at the knees.  A little bit more of Matt Nichols monotonous play calling might be what this team needs to succeed this season.

[The Zipp]

The sloppiest performance I've seen from this team in ages. What an ugly, ugly showing.

worst home game of the Collaros era IMO - last year against BC at home losing 30-6 was pretty bad too.

If ZC looks like this again next week and Dru Brown sticks us for 400 yards the chirping will get louder.

[Pigskin]

Well, we finally got a look at this team in really game action.

Offence: Poor excitation, turnovers. ZC8 under throws two bombs. OL didn't look good. Gray, Hardrick were missed.

Defense: Missed assignments (DB), at least one costly penalty. Front 7 not to bad for missing AB4.

Teams: Punt return was terrible. Punt coverage needs to improve, Castillo terrible, Sheahan has improved.

Injuries: KL89 could be out long term. Hand, wrist injury. Strev. ankle.

Is Chandler Worth still an FA.