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

[Waffler]

Examining the final 2PAT:
Schoen could have also stopped and come back to the ball.
...
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.

I see this as an easy conversion except Zach can't get the ball out there on a rope. So to me the floater is 100% the problem.  Watch Schoen's legs, he had to wait, wait. wait. Just too long in the air as most of Zach's pics are lately.

the replay:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOCxfMCiRTB/

and I post a pic of where the ball was while Schoen was busy being wide open.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

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.

They came extremely close to beating a team above them in the standings in an extremely hostile environment, how do any of these changes you've proposed improve their immediate chances of winning next WE in the Banjo Bowl?  I believe the change in environment will be enough to flip the script and they may even be able to dominate the Riders. When you're suggesting untested players will improve the team immediately, you're more or less grasping at straws.

[Waffler]

They came extremely close to beating a team above them in the standings in an extremely hostile environment, how do any of these changes you've proposed improve their immediate chances of winning next WE in the Banjo Bowl?  I believe the change in environment will be enough to flip the script and they may even be able to dominate the Riders. When you're suggesting untested players will improve the team immediately, you're more or less grasping at straws.

I totally agree we will win the Banjo Bowl. What worries me is we may have seen a preview of the western semi in THEIR ball yard. How do we win that game? That's what matters. Quite the race in the west though. If Calgary wins today the points first to last will be: 18, 16, 12, 10, 8 .

[GOLDMEMBER]

Why go shot guy when we need less than one yard, not once but twice. they were lucky on that one touchdown.
Does MOS sit on the film sessions because it seems things don't change much game after game with the same mistakes.
Why can't the coaching staff make changes at half time?

I made the necessary changes I left and went to bed by halftime! lol

[GOLDMEMBER]

We took some bad penalties.
We missed far to many tackles.
We gave another deep ball on a busted coverage.
We gave up 5 sacks.
We had no run game at all.
Also a terrible play call on the 2 point conversion. 

And yet, if Castillo hits that missed FG we probably win.
Or, we go for 7 instead of 3 on the early turnover.

putting it that way it sounds like the game was ultimate torture session.

I didn't know as I  was in back in my hotel bedroom by 6:15pm Regina time 

[Sway]

What player did they say recover the onside kick for Sask?

Sure looked like Sergio had first dibbs.     

Would have liked to see more Bombers in that pile mucking it up.  Refs gave it to Sask cause it was 6 on 1 for poor Sergio.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

What player did they say recover the onside kick for Sask?

Sure looked like Sergio had first dibbs.     

Would have liked to see more Bombers in that pile mucking it up.  Refs gave it to Sask cause it was 6 on 1 for poor Sergio.

They need to change the rules in pileups, when a ref. taps a player and tells him to exit the pile, he needs to obey, not ignore the command repeatedly. CC  could sort this out by determining the first player player to have possession, as they're already down.

[Strevy]

What player did they say recover the onside kick for Sask?

Sure looked like Sergio had first dibbs.   

Would have liked to see more Bombers in that pile mucking it up.  Refs gave it to Sask cause it was 6 on 1 for poor Sergio.

Sask is a team playing hard to win for each other and the HC.  That's not the Bombers anymore.  It's becoming more and more apparent every game. 

[TBURGESS]

We only came close because Regina made huge blunders in the last 5 minutes of the game. First they fumbled a return on our 45-yard line to give us an extra set of downs and good field position. Then on 3rd and 14, they took a 50 yard PI when all they had to do was knock the ball down, giving us another set of downs on their 20. 

Watch the 2 point pick for the TD again. The DB baited Collaros because he knew that it was a long ball that he could easily knock down. The fact that he caught it and ran it back for 2 points was just gravy. 

[Jesse]

We only came close because Regina made huge blunders in the last 5 minutes of the game. First they fumbled a return on our 45-yard line to give us an extra set of downs and good field position. Then on 3rd and 14, they took a 50 yard PI when all they had to do was knock the ball down, giving us another set of downs on their 20.

Watch the 2 point pick for the TD again. The DB baited Collaros because he knew that it was a long ball that he could easily knock down. The fact that he caught it and ran it back for 2 points was just gravy.

We only lost because we fumbled the ball twice on our own goal line.

[Sway]

We only came close because Regina made huge blunders in the last 5 minutes of the game. First they fumbled a return on our 45-yard line to give us an extra set of downs and good field position. Then on 3rd and 14, they took a 50 yard PI when all they had to do was knock the ball down, giving us another set of downs on their 20.

Watch the 2 point pick for the TD again. The DB baited Collaros because he knew that it was a long ball that he could easily knock down. The fact that he caught it and ran it back for 2 points was just gravy.

All Shoen had to do was sit a yard in the goal line and Zach hit him with a quickie. Would have been a better play.   Similar to the TD the play before

Lobbing a 60 yard 2 yard out pass and Schoen not coming back for it not a good decision 

[Blue In BC]

They came extremely close to beating a team above them in the standings in an extremely hostile environment, how do any of these changes you've proposed improve their immediate chances of winning next WE in the Banjo Bowl?  I believe the change in environment will be enough to flip the script and they may even be able to dominate the Riders. When you're suggesting untested players will improve the team immediately, you're more or less grasping at straws.

We have to improve our OL protection for Collaros. Our best games were when Vanterpool was at LG. Obviously that was against different teams but it's become obvious that Wallace is not great so far.

Noting that when Vanterpool was at LG that let Wallace be the extra blocker which seemed to benefit our run game. Overall a better combination.

I've suggested that Weitz is only playing because we have some injured Canadians. If we don't gain a healthy Canadian body, then Bailey would be my preference as a 2nd global player. He was supposed to be a skilled DE / rush end. Even without starting he'd be an advantage on defence. Weitz only is on ST's for very few plays.

Giving us another rotational piece on defence helps not having our front 7 burn out in the 4th Q.

Moore in particular has experience at punt and K/O returns as well as a very good receiver. Like I said, Mitchell has 79 yards in 4 games. So greater experience and versatility from Moore.

Those are why I believe those changes would be an improvement.

Moore would also offset the change in removing Logan and not pushing all the return duties to Vaval. That change could potentially also allow using a 3 import OL with Vanderpool.

Like most choices a lot depends on the injury status of several players. Can Kramdi return next week? Can Schmekel play? Balancing the ratio and ability to replace depth on the DL are issues.

[theaardvark]

We only came close because Regina made huge blunders in the last 5 minutes of the game. First they fumbled a return on our 45-yard line to give us an extra set of downs and good field position. Then on 3rd and 14, they took a 50 yard PI when all they had to do was knock the ball down, giving us another set of downs on their 20.

Watch the 2 point pick for the TD again. The DB baited Collaros because he knew that it was a long ball that he could easily knock down. The fact that he caught it and ran it back for 2 points was just gravy.

They didn't fumble, the ball was punched out.

The PI was earned by Demski.

The 2 pt conversion was a mistake on our part, that's classic BO20 time.

The fact we were even in the game to the last play against the first place Riders in their barn is amazing.

A few little things cleaned up, and we win that game.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

They didn't fumble, the ball was punched out.

The PI was earned by Demski.

The 2 pt conversion was a mistake on our part, that's classic BO20 time.

The fact we were even in the game to the last play against the first place Riders in their barn is amazing.

A few little things cleaned up, and we win that game.

100%

[Blue In BC]

They didn't fumble, the ball was punched out.

The PI was earned by Demski.

The 2 pt conversion was a mistake on our part, that's classic BO20 time.

The fact we were even in the game to the last play against the first place Riders in their barn is amazing.

A few little things cleaned up, and we win that game.

Bombers used to be the team the won games by taking advantage of what their opponent did wrong: Penalties, turnovers and mental mistakes.

Now we've become that opponent that teams beat for those same reasons. IIRC we have the worst turnover ratio in the league at the moment. We're taking more penalties than in the past.

Every game we question some play calling on defence or offence that blows our minds. The 2 point convert is a perfect example. Putting Streveler in on the 1st and goal from the 5 would be another.

Yes, all of that can be corrected. However, none of that has been corrected and that was game 11.

Our last loss to the Stamps and the game against the Riders may have pushed us down to a 3rd place finish. Two games lost by a total of 5 points and we let both of those games slip away due to those kinds of errors.