The good, the bad, and the ugly.

[theaardvark]

Ugly: Ottawa in our end of the field, down 2 scores, 3rd and 2, with almost 4 minutes left. They go for a deep shot which, not surprisingly, fails. That was a thank you very much Ottawa from Bomber fans. It wasn't desperation time yet. Furthermore, the Redblacks seemed to give up after that even though they still had a chance. Very disturbing if your a Redblacks fan.

I get the play, I get the idea. 

No, not desperation time, but getting a full 2 yards on the ground against a team that is ready for you is tough.  Going for the surprise factor in the endzone shot with a QB that has a hot hand to Gino Lewis makes sense. 

Not sure who defended Lewis on that pass, but I'd guess Allen?  Whoever it was, that was a game saver.

[buckzumhoff]

The good. 2 points.  The bad.  Nothing. The ugly . Hit on wheatfall And Ottawa player celebrating .wheatfall is a very good receiver not used very much..

[Pigskin]

The good. 2 points.  The bad.  Nothing. The ugly . Hit on wheatfall And Ottawa player celebrating .wheatfall is a very good receiver not used very much..

Agree. Yes, it was a big hit. But, once you see the player is injured, put the brakes on the celebration.

[bomb squad]

I get the play, I get the idea. 

No, not desperation time, but getting a full 2 yards on the ground against a team that is ready for you is tough.  Going for the surprise factor in the endzone shot with a QB that has a hot hand to Gino Lewis makes sense. 

Not sure who defended Lewis on that pass, but I'd guess Allen?  Whoever it was, that was a game saver.

I get it. Just think there's a weak case for that in this situation. Coach smart. Don't hurt your team. Maas and Dinwiddie like to play on the edge of bold and smart and it seems to work for them, for the most part. But I don't believe they would have made this call. 

[bunker]

I get the play, I get the idea. 

No, not desperation time, but getting a full 2 yards on the ground against a team that is ready for you is tough.  Going for the surprise factor in the endzone shot with a QB that has a hot hand to Gino Lewis makes sense. 

Not sure who defended Lewis on that pass, but I'd guess Allen?  Whoever it was, that was a game saver.

Vaval

[theaardvark]

Vaval

So, Vaval won the game for us... in more ways than one... Streveler owes him a nice dinner.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

The good. 2 points.  The bad.  Nothing. The ugly . Hit on wheatfall And Ottawa player celebrating .wheatfall is a very good receiver not used very much..

Comes back to using excessive force on a defenceless receiver, poor Wheatfall just trying to hang onto the ball!  Reel it back, BA, Loffler, Demond Washington on Fred Stamps, all received penalties or extra punishment for nearly killing receivers with perfectly clean body shots.

[TecnoGenius]

Loffler, Demond Washington on Fred Stamps, all received penalties or extra punishment for nearly killing receivers with perfectly clean body shots.

This is true.  Loffler is the first one they started cracking down on.  So many completely bogus flags on him when the protection rules didn't even exist, on hits that were half as hard as the Wheatie one.

The league really seems to have taken a step back on the player/QB protection this season.  And I struggle to understand it.

Remember Loffler hitting Begelton in the air, not even hard, and he spins around and writhes and he got flagged?  Ya, there would be no flag for that this season.

[TecnoGenius]

I get it. Just think there's a weak case for that in this situation. Coach smart. Don't hurt your team. Maas and Dinwiddie like to play on the edge of bold and smart and it seems to work for them, for the most part. But I don't believe they would have made this call.

'23 GC, 3rd & 3 Maas calls a ~20Y wide-out pass (so like ~30Y total distance) to Mack(?) to basically seal the game (next pass was Philpot TD, but they had 3 shots and plenty of time).

Dickenson The Greater also would do a deep on 3rd & 2.

Sometimes you need to be BOLD.  You often do catch teams off guard.  And if you hit it, it means a likely win.  Whereas if you just go for the 3 yard pass for 1st down, you have a good chance of incompletion, and even if you hit it it hasn't bought you much.

I think the best approach is balance.  Keep the D guessing.  Mix it up with 33% run, 33% deep, 33% short (tweak a bit as desired).  If you're always deep (as Dickenson has been doing last few years) then Ds will blanket cover.  If you're always run (us), teams will stuff the box.

Our problem in the last 2.5 seasons is we're always short-pass in this situation.  Dumb curls and such.  So every team just cheats up for the INT or easy pass breakup.  This limitation has cost us series, games, and cups.

[bomb squad]

'23 GC, 3rd & 3 Maas calls a ~20Y wide-out pass (so like ~30Y total distance) to Mack(?) to basically seal the game (next pass was Philpot TD, but they had 3 shots and plenty of time).

Dickenson The Greater also would do a deep on 3rd & 2.

Sometimes you need to be BOLD.  You often do catch teams off guard.  And if you hit it, it means a likely win.  Whereas if you just go for the 3 yard pass for 1st down, you have a good chance of incompletion, and even if you hit it it hasn't bought you much.

I think the best approach is balance.  Keep the D guessing.  Mix it up with 33% run, 33% deep, 33% short (tweak a bit as desired).  If you're always deep (as Dickenson has been doing last few years) then Ds will blanket cover.  If you're always run (us), teams will stuff the box.

Our problem in the last 2.5 seasons is we're always short-pass in this situation.  Dumb curls and such.  So every team just cheats up for the INT or easy pass breakup.  This limitation has cost us series, games, and cups.

I knew you would bring that one up. Sorry, not nearly the same situation. There it made sense. Appreciate your input though. By the way, it was 3rd and 5.

[TecnoGenius]

I knew you would bring that one up. Sorry, not nearly the same situation. There it made sense. Appreciate your input though. By the way, it was 3rd and 5.

Hehe, and I knew someone would know I'd bring that up. 

It was a somewhat similar situation, surely you'd grant that.  Ok, OTT didn't only have 45s left.  But it's the same "go longer than we need to for a lower-percentage pass" thing that WFC would never in a million years do (unless they read my BOLD thread).

And the MTL situation was 3rd & 5 or the OTT situation?  My MTL memory was 2nd & 20, Cody scrambles for 17 after Willie "slips", 3rd & 3 total game-winning situation for WPG and Parker looks like final-season Randle flailing around an unexpected man-on-man 50/50 20ish yarder to Mack (might have been Spieker?).  The whole situation is burned in my brain like a slow-mo car crash that kills my dog.

[TecnoGenius]

I knew you would bring that one up. Sorry, not nearly the same situation. There it made sense. Appreciate your input though. By the way, it was 3rd and 5.

Oh ya, and Dickenson The Greater HAS called even dumber low-percentage plays or dumb off-the-line runs instead of sneaks MANY times in the last few seasons -- with like 90% failure rate.  (Less so this year since he has a good team again.)

Point being, Dyce isn't the only one.  And I fully agree it was the wrong call, but I do like the BOLD.