Bombers sign QB Payton Thorne, release Parker & Echols

[Tecno]

No legitimately good defense has ever operated the way we did last year.

I'm all for thinking outside the box and trying new things.  As such I'm fine with the all-cover no-rush experiment.  However, clearly it needs tweaking as it failed badly against MTL and SSK last season.

I could also say that "no legitimately good offense has ever operated the way" SSK did last year.  3-4 starting NAT RECs at times, and mostly bad ones at that.  4 IMP OL at times.  Mostly-short game.

If I told you in 2022 that this was going to be SSK's road to success, you would have said no way.

Hey, what if instead of going straight 4 man DL in '26, we double down and rush 2, 1 or 0?  We could basically run a zone AND man coverage at the same time.  We instantly negate the value of a team having 5 OL on the field.

Just once in '25 I would have liked to see us bring only 2 pass rushers.  Just to see what would happen.

[Tecno]

(NFL probably has stats on what kind of socks, and underwear players wear)

What's the over/under on boxers vs briefs?

[markf]

What's the over/under on boxers vs briefs?

😀

[markf]

I'm all for thinking outside the box and trying new things.  As such I'm fine with the all-cover no-rush experiment.  However, clearly it needs tweaking as it failed badly against MTL and SSK last season.

I could also say that "no legitimately good offense has ever operated the way" SSK did last year.  3-4 starting NAT RECs at times, and mostly bad ones at that.  4 IMP OL at times.  Mostly-short game.

If I told you in 2022 that this was going to be SSK's road to success, you would have said no way.

Hey, what if instead of going straight 4 man DL in '26, we double down and rush 2, 1 or 0?  We could basically run a zone AND man coverage at the same time.  We instantly negate the value of a team having 5 OL on the field.

Just once in '25 I would have liked to see us bring only 2 pass rushers.  Just to see what would happen.

Can't be that bad

"The 3-4 Defense has stretched across pro and college football.

Between two coaches running the 3-4, 9 College football national championships have been won using a version of this defense since 2005. In the NFL, 7 Super Bowls have been won in that time frame from the same coaching tree.

That's 16 major championships from 3 coaches, all coming from the same 3-4 coaching tree. Belichick, Saban, and Smart all use a version of the 3-4 "

The thing I recall is that our blitzing has not been effective. Starting with Bighill... who seemed to accomplish very little when he blitzed. Maybe I have that wrong, don't know.

Don't know if that's player related or if we don't disguise the blitz very well.

I'd be surprised if they stop using it cause they probably just look at the defensive statistics for the team and think, it's a ok. And I thought they had Willie doing contain more than actually trying to get to the qb. Again could easily be  wrong

[Sir Blue and Gold]

3-4 defenses that are effective still generate pressure. Lots of it.

Fact: No Super Bowl champion since 2005 has won without generating pressure at an above-average rate.

Find me one. It doesn't matter what type of front you play, what matters is you attack the quarterback and make him play faster than he wants to. No one who follows football should be able to disagree with this. It's fundamental and it's plainly true.

[Pete]

I think the 3/4 defense can work, but we have to do a much better job of disguising which lb is rushing. I agree pressure is the key and we need to upgrade our dline as many have pointed out

[theaardvark]

I'm sorry, my understanding is limited (ask most here), but isn't the 3-4 concept one that increases DB's and reduces DL in an attempt to cover receivers better to allow the DL time to get to the QB, correct?

Weakness is if the DB's cannot cover all rec's and a QB gets the ball out quick.

The twist is bringing extra LB/DB on a blitz.

I guess if the package is well coached and manned by talented players, it is most effective?

Like any set, it needs execution and talent to succed?

[Blue In BC]

I'm sorry, my understanding is limited (ask most here), but isn't the 3-4 concept one that increases DB's and reduces DL in an attempt to cover receivers better to allow the DL time to get to the QB, correct?

Weakness is if the DB's cannot cover all rec's and a QB gets the ball out quick.

The twist is bringing extra LB/DB on a blitz.

I guess if the package is well coached and manned by talented players, it is most effective?

Like any set, it needs execution and talent to succed?

The 4 stands for 4 LB's instead of 3 and 3 DL instead of 4. That said the 4th LB could be someone that could be a good coverage player as well as someone strong at the LOS etc.

Think of the days when we had T. Jones, J. West, G. Battle and P. Randolph. Offences never knew which LB ( or more ) might be added to rushing the QB. Deception is problem for an offence.

In theory a 34 is more vulnerable to the run and better against the pass. It does take very talented players to do that well.

As players in general have become more talented and athletic, it's not that uncommon to see that used more in the CFL.

Woodbey for example seemed to be a very good addition to that type of mix. He's defined as a LB but title don't mean what they used to mean.

Our problem was that our DL were not exceptional and the strategy used not that effective. That put the pass coverage out to dry too often.

[Tecno]

The thing I recall is that our blitzing has not been effective. Starting with Bighill... who seemed to accomplish very little when he blitzed. Maybe I have that wrong, don't know.

Don't know if that's player related or if we don't disguise the blitz very well.

You're not wrong.  Our blitzing has been bad since probably 2023.  Certainly since 2024.  It got so bad in '25 that we rarely even tried.

And if you're doing a 3 man DL, bringing "1 more" isn't even a blitz and shouldn't even count.  You need to bring +2 or +3 to get a "real" blitz.

Sometimes we got somewhere bringing the house, but that's about it.

It's all completely pointless until we get 1-2 top-3 monster DTs.  And that will cost big money.  So there's a reasonable chance we just stick with the '25 D scheme into '26.