Official Game Day Thread - Edmonton @Winnipeg, June 25, 2026

[ModAdmin]

Way too early in the season for all this doom and gloom. We'll figure it out. Injuries not helping.

Agree.  Waaaaayyyy to early to write off the season thinking we are doomed.  Last minute changes on the Oline were huge.  The turnovers and missed field goals in the first half were killers.

[BLUEBOMBER]

YOUNGER has got to go.. he is clueless as a DC. HALL.. where are you???

[Tecno]

I'm not convinced a 3 import OL is an improvement at the cost of another receiver

Uh... you did see how crap the OL was tonight, right?  Compare it to vs HAM.  Ya, that's all Eli right there (and Elsbury being out of place).  I told you all he wasn't good enough and we needed to go IMP C -- for 2 seasons!

Pass pro is not our problem.  Pass pro was awesome in game 1 & game 2.  It only broke down because Neuf decided to <something>.

Eli is a great 6th.  Eli is fine coming in for a Q if someone gets hurt.  Eli is NOT someone who should be starting a game.  I have a hunch Vibert gets his job in off-season and Eli retires, or goes PR if we have no DP options.

And... why didn't we keep Els at C and put Eli at RG, assuming we couldn't dress 4 IMP (pulling an IMP REC)?  Eli has played G before and been no worse than he is at C.  Shuffling TWO players was unnecessary and I think it threw off Els.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

The irony is that the offence moved the ball but kept shooting themselves in the foot: Collaros, Demski, Oliveria and Daniels all fumbled.

I was semi right that Fajardo didn't have a great passing game, only 267 yards. we held Rankin to just over 100 yards. The problem is that all happened in the 1st half. 200 yards of it in their 1st 2 series.

Once upon a time the Bombers effectively ran a highly successful hurry up offence, the last time they used it may have been under LaPo. That is the go to plan when you have to sustain a drive with limited time remaining on the clock.  Fajardo has been orchestrating those last minute drives effectively since the time he was a bridesmaid in Sask. 

At one time Zach had the ability to move the ball safely and efficiently down the field on a last minute game winning drive, he did this countless times in the good years prior to 2024.  His last minute drives now look haphazard and disorganized, instead of hitting receivers in predefined routes quickly like the majority  of CFL QB's are able to do in this situation, he's winging it, looking for the receiver beating his man 40 yds. down field with the result that he often gets sacked or ends up dumping the ball off to Brady in the flats more often than not.

[Tecno]

YOUNGER has got to go.. he is clueless as a DC. HALL.. where are you

He's right there in the booth, telling Younger what to do.  Would love to be in on those headset convos.

I think MOS needs to get them both in a room and tell Younger that he's the ops guy and all scheme is now Hall's.  Hall had his moments in the past, but he'd never let you keep creeping to the EZ without stiffening up.  The idea is start soft and go for INTs/mistakes, then stiffen up to stop them from just diming you into the EZ.  No idea what Younger is trying to do by staying soft the entire time.

[Tecno]

It seems the light practices and going with 2 American's at REC backfired on the Bombers as well some of the Off season Signing are not paying of.

MOS said in presser this week that no team can improve tackling because there are no tackling padded practices anymore.

I think other teams are practicing a heck of a lot more than we are.  It's just summer day camp for our guys all week.  No one is taking anything seriously.  I bet the top teams are practicing on their own time & dime, maybe even in pads.  Even if our schemes are garbage, our execution shouldn't be THIS bad.  What are the other teams doing we aren't?  Our entire culture might have just rotted into laxity.  Where's the urgency?  Why don't all our RECs/RBs/QBs go out and practice on their own time to get better.  Why not our DL?

We need a Kavis "there will be consequences" moment.  But no one will do it...

[Tecno]

we knew they were going to be weak and yet we called for Collaros to stand in their and get sacked. Why didn't we employ the Trevor Harris dump the ball off-so we don't lose 15 yards on a first down sack strategy?? We are just so stupid

It was shocking how on most passing downs we didn't have 1-2 hot routes planned.  We knew the heat was coming -- it came all night -- but yet no REC on a quick slant or something or a go-rainbow?  Probably the most frustrating part of the game.  THIS IS BASIC STUFF.  Watch how other teams rip you a new one when you bring heat (see: SSK).

[Tecno]

and whenever the last time Serg decided to have a terrible game, all in one.

Castillo missed on last game too, and maybe the game before?  He's been very miss and hit.  Lots of misses.  Almost no hits.  Acceptable when the team is good, but deadly when our team is as bad as OTT.

[Tecno]

He was a good QB but not anymore. It seems he can't throw long accurate passes anymore.

I think he's very accurate on the deep pass.  That's not the problem.  The problem is he's truncated at 50Y.  All teams know that.  So if it goes longer than 50Y they just hold up, let the REC overrun them, and snag the INT.

He does seem to have severe problems now hitting RECs in stride, whether crossing or go.  I consider this separate from the deep shot limit.  I've noticed either Zach isn't choosing to try them, or Condell isn't drawing them up.  That means teams that figure this out can ignore any routes that require catching in motion -- concentrate on the sitdowns and you can slaughter us.

[Tecno]

Once upon a time the Bombers effectively ran a highly successful hurry up offence, the last time they used it may have been under LaPo.

Ya, our 2 min drill used to be league-best for many years.  Oh look, mostly our GC win years.  It existed but started petering out under Buck.  It was horrible for Buck's last season here.  It must have all just been remnants from Lapo like you said.

So it was a miracle we were able to get a big chunk in very limited time to win vs CGY.  Normally when we get the ball with 1:30 left I have zero confidence we'll get anything done.

Part of the problem is we ignore the outs.  Most teams (see MTL/SSK) switch to an out-mostly scheme so the clock stops every time.  And for the love of all holy why did we start the final drive with a run??  What a waste of time.

looking for the receiver beating his man 40 yds. down field with the result that he often gets sacked or ends up dumping the ball off to Brady in the flats more often than not.

At the bare minimum every pass should be 10-15Y.  There is no reason to have anyone running a 4Y route at that point.  If you can't find anything then Zach can scramble for 10.  But it all has to be QUICK.  Boom boom decide if it's there then abandon and throw it away or scramble straight ahead or throw ONLY to an out who's already at the rail to stop the clock.  They'll give you that 3Y rail every time, and if everyone is 20-40Y downfield the flat will be empty.

I said in the other thread that no one is spending the time required thinking about this, nor practicing, nor teaching.  Sure, we're spending the required time (which per CFLPA rules is less than 1 or 2 shifts at McD's each week), but no one is putting the time in that's required to turn this around.  And it won't magically turn around itself!

[Tecno]

When it really counted the defense let us down again.  Edmonton marched down the field with ease...over 60 yards taking off 2.5 minutes of the clock for the TD.

Wasn't it EDM taking the clock from about 5:00 to 0:50?  It was worse than them wasting 2.5 mins.

It's times like those, where I think we all knew EDM was going to score, where maybe you let them complete the 10Y pass and all D just sits down to give them the TD and we have 2.5 mins left on the clock so WE get the benefit of a 3-down drive.  I'm dead serious that this should be a strategic option for us when the D lets everyone drive for 100Y every time the opponent has the gas on.

lol at Collaros' response on the final drive.  Guy has 50 seconds left near centrefield - enough time for some intermediate passes to get us within reasonable range of a TD attempt.  Instead all we get are some piddly little passes for a handful of yards before he throws he throws a final pass that is nowhere near the endzone as time expires.  He sure is a good QB isn't he.

100%.  Sickening.  Look at what Alexander does in that situation.  Holy smokes.  And no, this isn't all on Zach, it's just as much Condell and MOS's fault.  And the RECs too.  Never open, crap routes.  Heck, they didn't even give him that juicy 15Y zone sit that's worked so well for us.  And the makeshift garbage OL.

Remember the MTL Miracle game in '17 or '18?  I think the final TD drive started around the 50 (after OSK) and had about 44s left.  And that was with "lowly" Matt Nichols!

[Tecno]

4. We continue to have soft coverage. 2 and 15? No problem for our opponents. Need to throw out to the flat? No problem.

We did far better covering the flat to stop Cody runs & limit Rankin though.  That was vastly improved this game.  I think Cody only got 1 free 1st down out of a run?

But yes, we leave every pass in the flat wide open.  Like the one that won the game.  Just awful soft zone all the way into the EZ.  Dumb.

[Pigskin]

Castillo missed on last game too, and maybe the game before?  He's been very miss and hit.  Lots of misses.  Almost no hits.  Acceptable when the team is good, but deadly when our team is as bad as OTT.

Easy to check. He's 5/8 on the season, with a game winner in Calgary. 8/8 on point after attempts. 

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Agree.  Waaaaayyyy to early to write off the season thinking we are doomed.  Last minute changes on the Oline were huge.  The turnovers and missed field goals in the first half were killers.

Sure anything can happen. But so far this looks like the team that had a chance last year and got blown up by Montreal in the East Semi.

Mostly the same problems. Mostly the same results. And keep in mind this was after a bye week for us and a short week for Edmonton.

[Blue In BC]

We've only been starting 7 NATs (+1 FAKENAT mandated which is invisible & uncharted).  We have not been doing our '24-'25 schtick of starting 8 or 9.  Mostly because of the 3IMP OL.

So we can't blame the over-ratio for the HAM & EDM travesties.

2 OL, 3 receivers, 1 RB, 1 DT and 1 safety. That's 8 Canadians starting. Yes the difference is the change to 3 import OL.