Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Calgary, August 9, 2025

[markf]

Andrew Harris 2019 highlights....

Everyone is blocking, it's mayhem, lots of plays nobody touches him till he's  five yards downfield.

We do not have anything like that now.

https://youtu.be/_OakVRvACyc?si=uvId9WoGAreDjzt6

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Agree we have 2nd rate receiving corps in Sterns (the best of the IMP's and like you said, couldn't make the Riders), Wheatfall, Corcoran, Clercius all 2nd rate receivers, not a play maker in the bunch. Brady and Demski are play makers, they make things happen, the others are just dead weight. We need impact receivers. We don't han't ve a Lawler, or a Lewis or a Coxie or a I could go down the line...every team has a killer deep ball reciever, who's ours?? We don't have one/I haven't seen him yet, and until then, our offense isn't going anywhere as teams will flood the box, shut down the run and force us into the brutal offense we seen the second half

I don't know when vet cut down day is but I would give Mitchell till then to prove his worth and if not bring back Reggie White. He showed his value in pre-season and brings the bigger body that is sorely missing to the lineup.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Andrew Harris 2019 highlights....

Everyone is blocking, it's mayhem, lots of plays nobody touches him till he's  five yards downfield.

We do not have anything like that now.

https://youtu.be/_OakVRvACyc?si=uvId9WoGAreDjzt6

Brady is great, but for me the Andrew Harris tenure defined the peak of the mountain.

[TecnoGenius]

No, you cannot just throw the ball anyway unless it's the last play of the game. If a pick is thrown it is worse than a punt.

It's not.  Not when you know your D will not stop VAJ and the deep shot with 1 min left.  We all knew it, so MOS knew it.  Like I said, I would have bet the farm VAJ gets the yards to FG range.

And when is taking a sack going to help you?  Throw the ball.  Take the shot, take the risk.

At the very worst have one deep post or corner lined up so if nothing is there you can rainbow it to the back of the EZ and either your guy gets it or it's OOB.  Zero risk.

You're thinking "normal football book", which is fine if you have a real team with a DB corps that can do something and a DL that can get pressure in the 2nd H.  We are not in that book right now.  We're in the "Football For Dummies" book.  We can't play by the book.

You know what else?  Once we admit to ourselves we cannot stop VAJ in 1 min, we should also acknowledge we're in 3 down mode.  Which means we can possibly run 2-3 times, or do run-like plays (sweeps, screens), or do the (presumably) safer super short pass game.  We had tons of time.  Take 3 downs to get the 1st -- as long as you admit you're going to do it.

Clearly we were in 2 down mode still, as we were lining up more mid/deep passes for some stupid reason, and were always going to kick it away.

In pressure situations, like yesterday and the '22 and '23 GCs, our O goes turtle and we sit in 2 down mode going for mid shots instead of thinking ahead and going run run sneak/run (4Y 4Y 2Y).

WE ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO WIN BY THE BOOK, so throw it away

[TecnoGenius]

Yes our offence couldn't move the ball well enough to kill the clock in their final drive. I stand by the fact the defence cost us the game. We gave up 400+ yards and continue to not be able to stop 2nd and long.

Well, technically both O and D lost the game.  Both O and D looked great 1st H.  Both caved in the 2nd H.

Whether you blame that last 2 drives on O or D is like a glass half empty thing.  Each person will see what their personality dictates.

Since I believe NO ONE thought our D would stop VAJ with 1:00 left, no matter how far back he started, then I blame MOS/OC for having the O blow it on what would have been the game-winning clock-chew.

The O doing this (chewing all clock and FG with 0:00 left) is POSSIBLE and within our control, and entirely reasonable to ask.  Best RB in the league, yada yada.  Asking the D to stop VAJ when they didn't all 2nd H, when we all know the DBs suck, and a major piece is on the bench going on IR, is asinine and magical thinking.  That D wasn't going to stop anything.  Caleb Evans could have won that last drive with that OL protection and handicapped DB corps.

And none of this is new.  We lost the '22 and '23 GC because we couldn't come up with a couple of 1st downs on our last drive to seal it.  The O is NOT BOLD.  And we are afraid to not go by the book.  We "follow the rules" and so we lose.

I'm tired of it.

[TecnoGenius]

I don't know when vet cut down day is but I would give Mitchell till then to prove his worth and if not bring back Reggie White.

Reggie is probably not much better than Wheatie at this point.

We need TOP TOP guys, not upper-lower tier couch warmers.  That means ex-CFL NFL rejects and TRADES.

[TecnoGenius]

Wilson looked very good at MLB as well, how they take him out for Bighill, I don't see. Techno maybe right about the reason Dickenson signed Biggie, I don't think his story ends well.

Heh, good to see you coming around.  There is so much depth at MLB for CGY that I don't see how you ever start an ageing super slow always-injured 53 year old like Biggie.

In the Dickenson The Greater presser he even touched on how old & slow Biggie is!  LOL, it was hilarious.  Then he realized he was bad-mouthing players and kind of waffled into something else.  All he really did was praise his brain & knowledge... because that's why they hired him.

If Biggie starts, it'll be in garbage-season when CGY has #1 wrapped up.  He'll get the "Rudy start".

You know what should be happening?  Biggie should be a DC somewhere.

[TecnoGenius]

Our safety had a great view of the explosion plays we gave up too often. Runs great, just can't tackle or break anything up.

Time to bring in a big American who can run, hit and dominate the middle. NFL cuts can't happen soon enough.

Our FS has been pretty invisible in the pass game for 2-3 seasons now.  Our FS is always coming up to help the run escapes.

How many times in '24 did you see BA in the picture on a pass explosion.  Like never.  And Parker this season?  Like never.

Give Kelly some credit: he's in the picture on all these explosions.  That means he has a better nose for the ball than the other guys!

And again: If your FS is the only one in the picture on a SB/WR on a deep route, then some other DB screwed up.  Kelly is never to be alone with a SB/WR by design.

[TecnoGenius]

If that's the definition of a good defensive performance, then what is the definition of a bad performance?

From memory, I don't think we stopped a single VAJ deep shot.  Not one.  If you count DPI as a completion (which you should) then I think they made every attempt.

I was screaming at VAJ/OC to just chuck deep the entire game.  We weren't going to stop any of it.  I don't know why they bothered with any short game at all.

Maybe they were just toying with us like a lion does a mouse.  They knew the whole time they could drive the field with long bombs whenever they pleased.

[TecnoGenius]

You're right. Our offense was very Brady centric

I really liked the Brady work.  Basically zero called Brady passes all season, and boom we figure out he can make plays in this game?  Hogan got the memo?

The AH dump pass used to be 30% of our game.  Get back to doing that.  Make them always waste a spy (or 2) on Brady.

And I really liked how even though Brady has been badly shut down all season, we found a way to get him the ball.  Finally.

We'll need to duplicate this every game if we want to overcome our dire REC corps situation, and iffy OL hodgepodge & its weekly forced changes.

[Big Daddy]

From memory, I don't think we stopped a single VAJ deep shot.  Not one.  If you count DPI as a completion (which you should) then I think they made every attempt.

I was screaming at VAJ/OC to just chuck deep the entire game.  We weren't going to stop any of it.  I don't know why they bothered with any short game at all.

Maybe they were just toying with us like a lion does a mouse.  They knew the whole time they could drive the field with long bombs whenever they pleased.

While I agree with you on much of this, I don't think they were toying with us and knew the whole time they could drive the field with long bombs whenever they pleased if the outcome was a game winning field goal to win by one point with no time left.

But yes, I know you were being a bit sarcastic.

[Big Daddy]

I really liked the Brady work.  Basically zero called Brady passes all season, and boom we figure out he can make plays in this game?  Hogan got the memo?

The AH dump pass used to be 30% of our game.  Get back to doing that.  Make them always waste a spy (or 2) on Brady.

And I really liked how even though Brady has been badly shut down all season, we found a way to get him the ball.  Finally.

We'll need to duplicate this every game if we want to overcome our dire REC corps situation, and iffy OL hodgepodge & its weekly forced changes.

Sorry, just replying to all of your messages as they come up while I am replying.  This one - absolutely!  Get back to the dump pass like what worked so well with AH.  And yes, Brady has been shut down a lot this season, and they finally found a way to get him involved.  That catch way down field was insane - that was some precision passing and heads up receiving. 

[TecnoGenius]

But yes, I know you were being a bit sarcastic.

Not this time.  When CGY was faltering they were doing short game and stuffed Mills runs (all 1st H).  They were attacking the busy flat where our competent LBers were, and our DL could get batdowns.  It was dumb by them.

Did they not know they could just throw deep with impunity?  Maybe they didn't believe it until Bonds went down?  Maybe they were scared to try?

I maintain that everyone in the world, in the stands, CGY fans, WPG fans, both teams, etc, everyone, knew VAJ was going to get that 30Y or so needed for the winning FG.  If someone claims this is not true, would you really have bet $1000 that VAJ fails to do it?

To me that is "toying with us".  In fact, if they wanted to rub it in, they should have gotten a TD.  I bet they could have with zero effort in 2 shots.

We really were that pathetic at the end of the game.

[Big Daddy]

Not this time.  When CGY was faltering they were doing short game and stuffed Mills runs (all 1st H).  They were attacking the busy flat where our competent LBers were, and our DL could get batdowns.  It was dumb by them.

Did they not know they could just throw deep with impunity?  Maybe they didn't believe it until Bonds went down?  Maybe they were scared to try?

I maintain that everyone in the world, in the stands, CGY fans, WPG fans, both teams, etc, everyone, knew VAJ was going to get that 30Y or so needed for the winning FG.  If someone claims this is not true, would you really have bet $1000 that VAJ fails to do it?

To me that is "toying with us".  In fact, if they wanted to rub it in, they should have gotten a TD.  I bet they could have with zero effort in 2 shots.

We really were that pathetic at the end of the game.

Okay, semantics - but you originally stated "They knew the whole time they could drive the field with long bombs whenever they pleased."  That clearly wasn't the case, and that's all I meant - they weren't toying with us from the coin toss knowing they could just huck it every chance they got.  Otherwise if they did (and if it was true) they would've challenged the great Matt Dunigan's record of 713 yards.

But again, I agree with the essence of the points made.

[TecnoGenius]

"They knew the whole time they could drive the field with long bombs whenever they pleased."  That clearly wasn't the case, and that's all I meant

Yes, you are correct.  My statement was a bit hyperbolic, and ties in more with the possibility they were toying with us the whole time.  Odds are they knew we could damage them and sneak out a win (like we did TOR), so they didn't want to open it all up until they saw it was safe.

I bet they now think they can plow over us with impunity though!  At least until we make changes and/or improve.  We shall see come post-season!