Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Saskatchewan, August 31, 2025

[J5V]

He ran all over Montreal one week ago. When the other team knew we had to run. When we had to use our second string qb as a receiver.  That team has a good D line.

It's hard to understand.

They run when They have no other choice. Otherwise, not part of their gameplan. They don't even try.

I suspect the approach the mafia take with this football team is all about being ready when it really matters -- the playoffs and the Grey Cup. They seem to use these regular season games to figure out what works and what is most likely to win when it matters. That's how you get to 5 Grey Cups in a row. It's not a fluke. These guys aren't stupid and I have every confidence that they may very well make it 6 in a row.

[J5V]

Fatboi was one of the only guys to put Harris on his butt.  His redirection and trackdown of Trevor to get him down was a wonderful thing to watch.  Most DTs can't do that: once behind the QB they're out of the play.

He forced the incompletion.

Yes he did and thank you for giving him props when he plays well. He's a heart-and-soul player and there's a reason he's on this team and playing.

[Pigskin]

You need to play the entire game though. He missed a lot of plays too and consistently gets beat.  He's also lost a few steps.  He does make plays but honestly not enough of them.

We need new bodies ASAP.  Canadians please.

I agree, JT is having a very good year. 11 games, 7 DTs, 0 Sacks, 0 FF.  If he was an American he would have been  cut weeks ago.

[TecnoGenius]

I agree, JT is having a very good year. 11 games, 7 DTs, 0 Sacks, 0 FF.  If he was an American he would have been  cut weeks ago.

<In my best Whatever Happened To Baby Jane voice> But he is a NAT, isn't he!

He's also one of the vettiest of all D vets in the league.

He's also NEVER INJURED.  EVER.  Show me one other DL like that.  Name one.  And especially since DTs have short careers.

You know what, he didn't get any stat for that great play this game, or any like it in other games.  He makes a series-stopping play, gets a possible injury on Trevor, and zero credit.

No, he's not the best NAT DT ever.  No he can't hold a candle to Nevis/Stove/Poop.  But all those other guys lasted only a few seasons before injuries made them unplayable.  Yet here is Fatboi...

[TecnoGenius]

Upon further reflection, we did remarkably well.  The only reason we lost was too many little mistakes.  The worst was the Brady fumble.  Game was in the balance up until then.  Maybe next was all the personnel botches, coaching botches, and stupid penalties.

SSK had very few long drives.  Their normal thing wasn't working.  They really couldn't do much except run outside for easy TDs.  They did not look like a #1 team.  They are thoroughly beatable.

If we had limited the mistakes by 50% we likely win easily.  And that's the good news, because there's no excuse for those mistakes, and they should be easily correctable.  It's discipline, focus, and coaching/planning.

That also means we had pretty good schemes and execution: enough to move the ball against the "impervious" SSK D.  We were the ones with the long drives and tons of huge deep bombs.

Wasn't it Demski who a while back was fumbling all the time and they all figured it out and he stopped?  He went from a liability costing us games to our top guy.  Everyone needs to do the same this week.  If we do that, we win BB easily, and likely our 3rd meeting in a few weeks.  We just have to hope that's enough to beat them for #1 in the W (if CGY falters).

[Strevy]

This is a poorly coached team that makes mistake after mistake.  5 carries for the best player in the league....... Total incompetence.

[Waffler]

Zach has been really bad throwing on the run.  He needs to stop to re-establish.

Early and mid-career this was his bread and butter. Zach himself seems to be the last person to realize the limitations age has put on him.  The coaches need to tell him but I'm not sure MOS would never approve of it. Zach is his guy and will be until he decides to retire or an injury does it for him. We don't even have an heir apparent on the roster. That says it all.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Collaros played his best game of the season yesterday and had a lot of success against a pretty dominating pass rush.

You could say he missed a couple of throws while scrambling, but he was always scrambling and rarely by choice.

I wouldn't be throwing any shade on Zach for that one and I've been fairly critical earlier in the season.

[Waffler]

lawson - wow that a facemask

Yes, and Oulette doing the flag throwing motion is illegal too. So two penalties missed.

[Pigskin]

Griffin  7 DTs
Wilson    5 DTs, 1 FF, 1 PD.
Lawson    3 DTs, 1 Sack, 1 FF.
Vaughters 3 DTs, 1 PD.
Vaval    1 DT, missed a few tackles.

Clercius 4/5 85 yards.
BO20    5/24 yards, 1 TD, 1 Fumble.
ZC8      26/37 326 yards, 3 TDs, 1 Int, 8.8 avg. 

[TecnoGenius]

Yes, and Oulette doing the flag throwing motion is illegal too. So two penalties missed.

CFL has not penalized the "flag motion" for at least 2-3 seasons now.  It's SUPPOSED to be illegal, but they don't care.  So many players do it all the time now.  Only if you're doing it for like a minute and getting in the refs face will they flag it.

[TecnoGenius]

Vaval    1 DT, missed a few tackles.

Ya, but how many were against one of their 250 lb RBs... Vaval is tiny and cannot stop those guys with speed.  That's not his job, the DL & LBers & FS are failing if it's up to Vaval to stop a rusher out the backfield.  (Screens and passes to RBs are a bit different though, and should be stopped by Vaval before they get steam, if it's his area/guy.)

[Jesse]

Defence actually had a strong game.

Offence recorded lots of yards and points, even if they didn't utilize Brady.

Difference was 3 turnovers on the opponent goal line. We kicked one FG, they scored 2 TDs.

[TecnoGenius]

Examining the final 2PAT: the play is too simple and obvious.  And we probably have run it often before so the DB has film study.  The rub beside Schoen was PERFECt and was good enough to leave so many things wide open for Schoen.  In fact, I'm not sure if it's not Schoen who misread what his DB was doing and made the wrong choice.

If Schoen sits exactly where he is at the GL, it's an easy completion with zero DBs able to reach him.  If he cuts inside a little bit, still an easy completion (post guys had cleared that area).  There was zero reason to run outside.  Only by running the out did that free up the Campbell to undercut it!!

Schoen could have also stopped and come back to the ball.  If he takes a single peek during his break to see that DB was coming free then he'd know he was coming.  If he stops (he was just trotting slowly at this point so it'd be easy) and comes back to Zach a couple of feet (maybe jumps) then the DB crashes into him ("going through the REC") and it's DPI.

The play could have also been right at the rail.  Throw it to the cone and maybe we beat that DB.  Why throw it so/where Schoen has to wait for it?  Why ever have a REC stop on an out when there are potential ballhawks around?

And it's not just the floater that was the problem: Zach was a bit too late.  If that was his "going to Schoen no matter what" read then he should have thrown it BEFORE his break.  He waited until he thought the rub worked.  This is a trust/timing throw that MTL and SSK do so well.  Half a second sooner and the DB isn't there yet.

It aggravates me to no end that our RECs never seem to try to peek what might be coming from the side/behind, and we never seem to come toward the ball.  Simply coming forward every time (assuming you have sufficient depth to your target line) can stop or get DPI out of a vast majority of these types of picks.

And Clercius was open for a corner fade too.  Should have thrown to him.  He had his man beat and outside leverage.  That's the safer throw as put it to the back for the big/tall guy and only he can catch it.  He had the hot hands this game, not Schoen.  And Clercius was a legit read, not just a rub/clearer, as he was intently looking for the ball when he broke toward the corner.  But Zach chose the guy he "trusts with his life" rather than the hot hand.

So I'm saying there's a bit of laziness and incompetence by everyone involved here.  Hogan could have done better scheming these things.  Zach could have picked the better read, thrown sooner, thrown harder, or thrown wider, or thrown to Clercius in the corner.  Schoen could have just sat in the hole, or come back toward the ball.  Literally any of these things would have given us the 2 pts.

We don't draw up some good, smart 2PAT plays at the beginning of the season just for this exact thing?  If we do, and this is the result, it's pathetic.  It's just a standard red zone pass play that we'd run in many red zone situations.  This needs to change.  You can see the result of other teams with their special "must get 2PAT to tie/win" schemes.  You can tell when they trot them out because they nearly always succeed because they are novel and there is no film on them yet.

We were all robbed of a riveting OT duel and potential epic LDC.  Very sad.

P.S. Brady run would have likely failed.  They brought 6 on 5 and every gap was canceled.  It would have taken a great effort & luck for our shoddy OL to make a hole through that.

[Blue In BC]

Can't really do that half way through the season unless they're already out of the playoff picture, inserting new players is like starting over from scratch with unknowns, which always brings with it a contagion of errors (ie early season Elks). With the loss of Schmeck they'll have to dress Woods or Adams, maybe both as the D-line was short on gas in the second half and should never have gone into the game with so few players.  Did anyone see Person out there  at all? 

As for Logan, he hasn't shown a spark but he hasn't made errors yet either, they may have to ride out the season with mediocre returns or give the job back to Vaval once Parker returns.  Vaval has not been doing well with punt returns since his one huge game, anytime he stops and changes direction he is easily tackled.  He needs to pick one direction and just go, the faster he's moving the more tacklers he evades.

Yeah you can. We've already cut some players. The bottom line is that if some players aren't good enough it's time to make some changes. Not every addition has to be a rookie. We picked up Houston and he should be an upgrade when he's ready to play.

Parker may be available soon as well.

Vanterpool seems healthy and could replace Wallace at LG.  I'm not 100% convinced he's better but Wallace hasn't been great.  It creates a ratio change but I'd bump Logan back to PR if not released out right. We have others that can do that.

Makonzo is another option to bring onto the AR.

We added Echols and Moore recently. While Mitchell had a better game last night, one of these receivers might be a better option to stretch defences. Mitchell made some tough catches but it's still a total of 79 yards in 4 games at this point.

It doesn't appear Sterns will be available for awhile but he'll bump Mitchell assuming Schoen didn't get injured again.

Vibert could help as a 7th OL on the AR.  Munier-Bailey was the 2nd pick in the global draft.  Time to see if some of these players can do something.