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

[Jesse]

Disagree that we can't be patient now.  It's what makes organizations great over the long term.  Stay the course, don't over react.  Develop players and coaches for the medium and long term.  Draft well, slowly develop talent, don't mortgage your future for the present.  It's how I would run a club.  I don't want one more good year, I want another good decade. 

What about hiring an experience OC mortgages the future?

[Jesse]

We do have a choice, Jarious Jackson is in the house.  The Mafia could either fire Hogan, or flip flop him and Jackson.

I don't think its as much a "figure it out" situation as it is "deal with adversity".  We have had a lot of different issues crop up this year.

I think we all hope that Hogan will figure it out sooner than later.

For the record, MOS said yesterday that he has never an will never fire a coach midseason.

For better or for worse, Hogan is the guy.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I think where Blueforlife is right is that change for the sake of change is bad. We've got 1 win in our last 4 games but we need to be careful to identify the real issues and then change those. Too often in football and life, when things aren't going well, people have a tendency to make a hard situation worse by making the wrong decisions.

A few things I would do before placing too much blame on Hogan:

1. Try: Bryant - Vanterpool - Kolakowski - Neufeld - Randolph +1

2. Prioritize time in pocket in passing downs with Collaros at the controls. Let's go with seven OL and play more six man protect. Keep a back in the backfield more often. Does it look different if Collaros has ~1 to 2 more seconds per play? Can our receivers win more often also under that scenario?

If yes, do it more. Collaros can't keep plays alive on his own like he used to, but he might still be as effective if we get him the time he used to have with a different approach to protection. This obviously becomes a challenge if defenses just +1 rush us, which, ya, they will. We'd have to try to know.

If no, let's go back to the 6 OL deployment and see what a platoon of Streveler and Wilson looks like with a plan to get Wilson in for 2/3 of the snaps.

No easy answers here as much as we want to say Hogan bad. It's not going to fix it.

[Jesse]

Is anyone talking about change for the sake of change?

We're talking about foreseeable mistakes made prior to the start of the season and possible adaptations to make now, some of which the coaching staff has already done (cutting Bridges, more 3 import DL sets, 3 imp OL sets, Mitchell starting, etc). 

[blue_gold_84]

Is anyone talking about change for the sake of change?

We're talking about foreseeable mistakes made prior to the start of the season and possible adaptations to make now, some of which the coaching staff has already done (cutting Bridges, more 3 import DL sets, 3 imp OL sets, Mitchell starting, etc). 

No. The "Hogan bad" take is such reductive nonsense. He's clearly inexperienced and is struggling to gameplan and make adjustments. That doesn't mean he shoulders all or the majority of the blame, though.

I mean, if we're going hold players' feet to the fire for their mistakes, why not coaches' as well? They're all responsible for the issues plaguing this team at present.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Is anyone talking about change for the sake of change?

We're talking about foreseeable mistakes made prior to the start of the season and possible adaptations to make now, some of which the coaching staff has already done (cutting Bridges, more 3 import DL sets, 3 imp OL sets, Mitchell starting, etc). 

If you had Andy Reid calling plays in the second half of the Calgary game how much would it have helped?
If you had the quarterbacks flip teams and Vernon Adams came out in blue how much would it have helped?

Collaros had 45 passing yards in the second half and at some point, he's gotta own that and we need to come to the realization what he used to do to be successful is no longer possible and he's not adapting well or proving effective at any other style of game. We can try to help him by increasing protection and at the cost of downfield receiving options but otherwise it doesn't matter how good a leader he is or how smart he is if he can't make the plays anymore. 

[blue_gold_84]

If you had Andy Reid calling plays in the second half of the Calgary game how much would it have helped?
If you had the quarterbacks flip teams and Vernon Adams came out in blue how much would it have helped?

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Can I be more clear?

Collaros playing nowhere near $600,000 football. He physically cannot dominate games anymore and he has shown no sign of adapting to the only game his body can probably play, which is a three step drop timing based offense. Trevor Harris would make our current pass pro look three times better and most of you know it.

This isn't rocket science.

We can try and help him by improving protection because he needs more time but otherwise we might as well go with Wilson and hope he can learn quickly. If you look at Collaros for this year and most of last year you'll find the decline curve is well underway.

You can all try and pick at the play call, the offensive line play and receivers (they could all be better) but the biggest problem is currently the cost and output of the guy throwing the football.

Streveler has had more success in this offense so I'm not really sure how it could be any more obvious.

[markf]

No. The "Hogan bad" take is such reductive nonsense. He's clearly inexperienced and is struggling to gameplan and make adjustments. That doesn't mean he shoulders all or the majority of the blame, though.

I mean, if we're going hold players' feet to the fire for their mistakes, why not coaches' as well? They're all responsible for the issues plaguing this team at present.

Offence yes,

But Not defence....

We have the same coaches on defence as we have had for a few years during the period when we had the no. 1 defence.

On defence at least, hard to blame the coaches.

Looking at some of the video from past few seasons, (just an impression) there seemed to be more leadership and team spirit, this bunch seem dispirited and unenthused. Just a different team personality. Streveller still shows some fire, Brady not as much as In The past. Alexander,  Harris, Yoshi, Wolitarski,  Bailey, Bighill, have not been replaced spirit and  leadership wise.

Look at what's happened in Sask since Harris joined their staff. Everywhere that guy goes, they win.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Can I be more clear?

Collaros playing nowhere near $600,000 football. He physically cannot dominate games anymore and he has shown no sign of adapting to the only game his body can probably play, which is a three step drop timing based offense. Trevor Harris would make our current pass pro look three times better and most of you know it.

This isn't rocket science.

We can try and help him by improving protection because he needs more time but otherwise we might as well go with Wilson and hope he can learn quickly. If you look at Collaros for this year and most of last year you'll find the decline curve is well underway.

You can all try and pick at the play call, the offensive line play and receivers (they could all be better) but the biggest problem is currently the cost and output of the guy throwing the football.

Streveler has had more success in this offense so I'm not really sure how it could be any more obvious.

I think part of the problem lies in Zach's stubbornness, he wants to play BLM's long game but doesn't have the arm talent, he's not going to let a rookie OC make him play like Trevor Harris. Logan is going to do whatever Zach wants him to do.

[blue_gold_84]

Collaros playing nowhere near $600,000 football. 

Not sure who's disagreeing with you on this plainly obvious point. He's been mediocre at best for the most part going back to early on last season; it's been a while since he was worth his salary.

Streveler having marginally more success in this so-called offense is hardly worth pointing out. When both QBs have struggled to find consistent success over eight games, it sure seems like what's wrong goes well beyond who's behind centre.

There's plenty of blame to go around with the offense.  Is anyone earning their keep? Not really.

Look at what's happened in Sask since Harris joined their staff. Everywhere that guy goes, they win.

Correlation doesn't imply causation. Unless you're suggesting the Bombers missed out by not hiring Harris as a coach...?

[Jesse]

Can I be more clear?

Collaros playing nowhere near $600,000 football. He physically cannot dominate games anymore and he has shown no sign of adapting to the only game his body can probably play, which is a three step drop timing based offense. Trevor Harris would make our current pass pro look three times better and most of you know it.

I think part of the problem lies in Zach's stubbornness, he wants to play BLM's long game but doesn't have the arm talent, he's not going to let a rookie OC make him play like Trevor Harris. Logan is going to do whatever Zach wants him to do.

Zach had like a 160 yards passing in the first half, with a TD and no INTs. A lot of it on the short game.

Was he a different player in the second half? Or was there a defensive adjustment but not an offensive one?

Strev has absolutely not played better at all.

[markf]

Not sure who's disagreeing with you on this plainly obvious point. He's been mediocre at best for the most part going back to early on last season; it's been a while since he was worth his salary.

Streveler having marginally more success in this so-called offense is hardly worth pointing out. When both QBs have struggled to find consistent success over eight games, it sure seems like what's wrong goes well beyond who's behind centre.


There's plenty of blame to go around with the offense.  Is anyone earning their keep? Not really.

Correlation doesn't imply causation. Unless you're suggesting the Bombers missed out by not hiring Harris as a coach...?

it's not a coincidence that winning follows Andrew Harris around.

I do not have the answers for the Bombers. I'm just saying they are lacking what he and players like him bring. There's no fire that I can see in the coaching staff. (Im not criticizing them for that).  So it has to come from the players. We don't have those players anymore.

Andrew should have been coaching for the  Bombers? He makes it better wherever he goes so I would say yes.

But he's smart, who knows what his opportunities were.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Zach had like a 160 yards passing in the first half, with a TD and no INTs. A lot of it on the short game.

Was he a different player in the second half? Or was there a defensive adjustment but not an offensive one?

...And isn't it super interesting that teams have suddenly been able to scheme Collaros into long stretches of ineffective play from about last year on?

Were they able to in 2021 or 2022 or 2023? Or is it just significantly easier now that Zach is older and slower and can't extend plays like he used to which is far and away when he is most effective?

[blue_gold_84]

it's not a coincidence that winning follows Andrew Harris around.

No doubt he's CFL royalty but I think you're giving him way too much credit. It's not like the Riders were some lousy team a year ago, anyway. Trevor Harris got hurt - the same thing could happen this season.

Harris chose to leave this organization more than three years ago. The Bombers are 34-15 during the regular season since then.