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

[Tecno]

Such a result would have sparked wild enthusiasm for the coming season on such a glorious night, instead a black cloud of doubt has slipped over POS and the team's prospects for this season. They absolutely must find a way to beat Hamilton next Sunday.

Freudian slip?  Don't give Riderfans any new slur ideas.     

[Tecno]

You can't argue the 3 import OL is better when our OL has been manhandled in each game, especially the last 2 against better teams.

I'm gonna need Junkie or someone to give us the stats on that.  My distinct impression game 1 & 2 is pass pro was superb.  I guess the quick easy stat is how many sacks did Zach take in each game.  Pressure stat would be better.

In any event, I guarantee you that even if the OL was a bit stinky in pass pro in game 1 & 2, they were infinitely worse in game 3.  Zach had almost no time on a great many passing downs.

I do rewatches focusing on the lines and clearly our memories are differing here.  Not sure I can handle yet another rewatch of game 2...

There is a trade off long discussed that there is a trade off at receiver in order to have a 3 import OL. That became even more apparent when injury forced us into a 4 Canadian receiver group and no DI to replace Wilson.

Ya, but how often do we get an IMP WR injured mid-game?  Like uber rarely.  Is it worth a DI just for that?  Or should we have guys better than Cobb...  In past years it was solved by having our returner also be O-capable (Grant, Lucky).  Just bad luck our returner is on D now.

Add in the fact that Pokey got creamed tackling someone... that's not business as usual.  It's a freak accident.  Do you strike a valuable D DI in order to cover that miniscule risk?  Especially since we're always clamoring for more DI on DL!!

Maybe the problem is Cobb/Corcoran are both waterbugs -- and one waterbug is always fine, but 2 are not optimal.  We need one to be a big body for different looks (even when there are no injuries).  Someone like... Mital or KSB...

[Tecno]

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.

You're totally right.  I think I didn't count BO20, lol.  So technically we can be starting Singer over Cobb?  What on earth are we doing??

[Blue In BC]

You're totally right.  I think I didn't count BO20, lol.  So technically we can be starting Singer over Cobb?  What on earth are we doing??

Yes and no. Our extra DI's after Castillo and Vaval are used on defence. At the moment the extra ones would be Reese, Ayers or Fletcher.

Remove one or the other and we could add Singer or Fredickson as a 3rd import receiver.  It's about roster choices over the whole.

Is the trade off from defence to offence a better choice? The coaches don't seem to agree. If Vaval was more of an offensive player like Grant, then we'd have an offensive type option but we don't don't. He's a defensive emergency option.

Any injury to a receiver and we're a little thin for options.

And yes, it's not uncommon to lose one or more receivers during a game.

[Tecno]

1Q9:10 I think there's an illegal participation -- uncalled -- that would have helped us.  On Vaval's kick-off return EDM #49 is lightly pushed OOB.  He runs down the sideline chasing Vaval, taking many steps on the line.  When Vaval starts to get tripped up by another guy, #49 takes half a step inbounds and instantly has his hands on Vaval to make the final wrap-up.  The foot touching down inbounds and his hand going on Vaval are nearly simultaneous.

He is allowed to keep playing if he "first re-establishes himself in bounds", without any foul.  But I'm not sure one foot down and hands on the guy right away counts as "re-establishment".

@Stats Junkie thoughts?

I think it should have been 10 more yards tacked on.  I won't comment on what ref was trailing #49 the whole way.  That said, it appears the league may have told the refs at some point to be lax on the IP, as there's been so many missed in PS and first few weeks.

[TBURGESS]

If he's pushed out, there's no foul.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I'm gonna need Junkie or someone to give us the stats on that.  My distinct impression game 1 & 2 is pass pro was superb.  I guess the quick easy stat is how many sacks did Zach take in each game.  Pressure stat would be better.

In any event, I guarantee you that even if the OL was a bit stinky in pass pro in game 1 & 2, they were infinitely worse in game 3.  Zach had almost no time on a great many passing downs.

I do rewatches focusing on the lines and clearly our memories are differing here.  Not sure I can handle yet another rewatch of game 2...

Ya, but how often do we get an IMP WR injured mid-game?  Like uber rarely.  Is it worth a DI just for that?  Or should we have guys better than Cobb...  In past years it was solved by having our returner also be O-capable (Grant, Lucky).  Just bad luck our returner is on D now.

Add in the fact that Pokey got creamed tackling someone... that's not business as usual.  It's a freak accident.  Do you strike a valuable D DI in order to cover that miniscule risk?  Especially since we're always clamoring for more DI on DL!!

Maybe the problem is Cobb/Corcoran are both waterbugs -- and one waterbug is always fine, but 2 are not optimal.  We need one to be a big body for different looks (even when there are no injuries).  Someone like... Mital or KSB...

Clercius.

[Blue In BC]

If he's pushed out, there's no foul.

He still has to make an effort to return to the field of play as quickly as possible. I don't know if that was the case, but that's the criteria.

[dd]

the rule states that he has to re-establish himself before making a play, it doesn't say as quickly as possible, it s a loop hole that needs to be closed

[Tecno]

If he's pushed out, there's no foul.

dd is right.  You have to "re-establish" yourself in the field of play before having anything to do with the play.  That's literally in the rule.  That's the whole point of my post.

BinBC: There's no text saying you have to get back in as fast as possible.  There should be!  But there's not.  So the dude running 30Y down on the rail completely OOB, while looking bad (and seeming unfair), doesn't matter here.

In the same motion his first foot touches inbounds, his hand is onto the carrier.  To me that's not "re-establishing yourself".  That is lunging from OOB straight onto the carrier.

The funny thing is, I don't think the refs pondered this and considered him "re-established", I think the refs were completely oblivious to the fact someone was OOB!  I think it's the same problem as the PS.  They simply are clueless about it because they have 100% focus on the ball.  I think the league needs to remind them they need to keep track of OOB players.

[Tecno]

Clercius.

Ya, but he's a similar body to Nield, and Nield didn't do much last game.  And none of these guys we have is as talented and producing as much as KSB and Mital and McInnis.  Mital is having a season for the ages, and KSB finally got his mojo back post-injury.

And Nield is the expensive guy who's supposed to be our Mital and KSB!!  Not Clercius, who hasn't established himself as much of anything.

[Tecno]

Finished the rewatch.  What a disgusting pile of poop.  Maybe even worse than when I saw it in person.

Completely outplayed, out-planned, out-executed, out-brained, out-practiced, out-physicaled, out-coached, out-everything.

The thing that stands out most is every EDM unit outplayed both our same unit and the unit they line up against.  Their DL was better than our OL and our DL, etc.  We didn't win a single match-up.

We made their rookies and retreads look like all-stars!  I'm not even joking.  Cephus & Luther outclassing Demski, Nield, Pokey, everyone.  Rankin showing Brady what a real RB can do.  Shamefully, lowly low-wattage-bulb Cody miles better than Zach.  Their not-so-hot OL stopping nearly everything we tried.  Ceresna did absolutely nothing, might as well started Fatboi.  Broxton did absolutely nothing -- worse, he was a detriment.  Rand was better.  Eli/Elsbury blowing it every other snap.

Their OL, impenetrable.  Their DL, unstoppable.  Their RECs catching nearly every heater, even when off-target.  Their DBs in every hip pocket in man, and tight in zone to punish every catch or knock it out.  YAC was unheared of.  Rankin was held to the lowest this season, but still got way over 100.

And our D scheme.  So awful I can't even take it anymore.  Critical drives and downs and every deep DB was 10Y off the REC!  95% of the time they couldn't even make it to the underneath throw in time to have a hope of disrupting the catch.  That's not our DBs, that's scheme.  It's pathetic.  With no one anywhere close in front, what is the point of this?  You're not getting an INT.  What are we doing?

The O had many chances to win it but couldn't duplicate what EDM was doing.  We made EDM (EDM!!) look like GC champs.  They implemented the all-dink&dunk against us, that every good team has been using vs us for 2.5 years now.  I think Cody threw one deep pass all night, and it failed.  But everything underneath except maybe a Mack drop was complete, except for the handful of miracles when our DL actually got pressure and Cody threw early -- then he was less than 50%.  Hmm, almost like there's something to that...

Our O scheme was equally awful.  Just playing normal Bomber ball like it's 2021 and we have AH and Lawler and Yoshi.  Don't you guys get it?  Those guys are gone.  Nield and Cobb are not going to do anything spectacular!  No one is going to get open in man!  No one is coming down with a 50/50.

Where. Was. The. Hot. Route.  All night long the blitz would come and all 5 RECs would be oblivious.  Zach had zero options other than ending up on his butt.  It's truly disgraceful.  You call this a prepared team?  It's a joke.

And our final drive.  You have a certain amount of time.  You have a certain distance to cover.  Run the math!  50s and about 60Y and after 3 plays you've gotten 15 or so?  Math!!  It doesn't matter if guys are double covered, you need to move the ball in chunks.  20Y minimum target every pass.  Or. You'll. Lose.  Math.  You want to lose with a shot at winning, or just lose in boring hopeless fashion?

The only thing I can think of is Zach is worried about his INT stats.  That's it.  Gun-shy because he knows we'll lose but wants to preserve his stats.  Maybe he chose himself in fantasy and didn't want the -2!  Surely it can't be coaches thinking points, because those don't matter for the season series -- as we face EDM 3 times!

Ironically, our O was probably good enough to beat 2025 EDM.  The problem is they've improved a bit.  And we've moved backwards.  Especially our D.  "Mark Killam is a bad HC and won't win" some say.  Ya, well Killam spent all off-season with his coords planning out how to beat everyone, and so far they're executing it perfectly.  And I bet his players put in extra time; because they want to WIN and they know it won't just be handed to them.

Until we revamp quite a few things, I now don't see any chance of us beating anyone except OTT (if we're lucky!) and BC.  Even if our O scores on more drives, our D will give up points on nearly every drive against.  And it's not even that I think our players are garbage -- they aren't -- it's that there is no coaching going on, no leadership, no time put in to plan, no ideas to improve.  Worst of all, I think the team has lost faith.  It will take weeks, or the whole season, before we have any hope of getting that back.  And this is the optimistic take...

[Tecno]

My breakdown:

IMPACTFUL BAD PLAYS:
broxton 3
wallace 2
elsbury 2   * wrong spot, he gets a pass
eli 2
brady 1
jenkins 1
lawson 1
ceresna 1
vibert 1
willie 1
stan 1

Wallace still can't hold a candle to our past LGs that have gone on to greener pastures.  Sad.  Broxton looks horrible.  What a waste.  Does he suck?  Or is it that a RT can't learn LT?  So lost and useless out there.

IMPACTFUL GOOD PLAYS:
willie 4
fletcher 3
williams 3
jenkins 2
griffin 2
kramdi 2
lawson 1
kyrie 1
holm 1
jones 1
ayers 1
elsbury 1
eli 1

Don't you talk smack about Willie.  If you pay attention he's still our best weapon.  Fletcher is making an immediate impact.  Leave him on the AR!  Except game 1, he's been doing more than Ceresna.  He has hustle, and outstanding speed!  Williams is an amazing find.  Rookie year, couple of games in, and he's already better than Bond was.  Another keeper, and rising star.  Younger guys Jenkins, Griffin making an impact.

Zach was throwing great deep shots -- just mostly not connecting.  But look at the perfect spiral and arc and enough strength he was doing 50Y quite a few times.  And eminently catchable.  Well, if we had top quality RECs.  Zach's mid/deep ball is better than anyone's except BLM, IMHO.  But his short game -- soooo slow, no zip; no chance at all for RECs!  Compare to the heat Cody put on the short pass.  Ouch.

Ceresna wasn't just out for the 4th, he was out for the 2nd half of Q1.  Many drives he was absent all game.  It's kind of hard to differentiate him with Lawson though -- almost the exact same body type and 94 blends into 99.  Fletcher too!  Makes it really hard to tell who is who on the ubiquitous side-shots.

I saw at 2Q2:31 Ceresna got his ankle rolled on (friendly fire?).  He was in after that, but maybe it started being less.  If there's anything wrong with him, probably ankle.  No idea why the rumor is he was passing out, though no law says he can't have 2 issues.

Lots of Ayers in the early game.  At one point he tracked & sealed Rankin in a way that seemed impossible.  Wow!  Less of an impact later on, but didn't see him much.  Maybe he knows he's the bubble DI and is trying to stay on the team?

No D honors the outside on Brady runs.  It's usually wide open.  Why we never have him kick out just once in a blue moon to keep D's honest is beyond me.  See: Rankin.

1Q9:37 Ceresa gets absolutely owned being tossed down like garbage by OL and leaves the Rankin TD gap wide open.  Our OL got tossed down a lot too.  How can both our lines get so dominated by this mediocre team?

1Q8:53 Wallace has a hard time with a smaller DT, and drops him too early and tries to get on a LB, but that DT just waits him out and goes in behind Wallace to stop Brady for a tiny gain.  Timing is all off.  Zach/Brady are taking way too long to decide things and do the hand off, and the 1st level blocks are shed before he even reaches the line and the DL makes an easy tackle as Brady is surrounded.  And he always refuses to bounce it outside even though it probably would work!  This is so common for us.

1Q5:37 Again worrying about 2nd level before the DL is fully taken care of = blowup Brady & fumble return for 95Y.

1Q0:14 KJG clutch catch when EDM backed up to their 2, is the exact same catch as Bailey did in the '19 GC: one hand has it normally the other has it with the back of the hand.  Since his body rolls on top of it and the ball touches the ground extensively, I guarantee the ball moved relative to that back-of-hand.  Command stole that catch from Bailey in the GC.  This shouldn't be a completion either.  Since he was falling down to catch it, he has to survive contact, and have full control before his body rolls onto the rail.  He does a great job selling it confidently before he even got up, which I think influenced the refs.  Every ref not named Major was atrocious.

2Q10:54 Bad spot, gave Cody the 2 when his knee was down when the ball was at the 3.

3Q7:02 Late hit on Collaros was exactly the same timing as the RTP Cody got a few series earlier, but no flag for Zach.

4Q8:52 why is the EDM DB beating up on Perkins after his big run?  Well after the whistle, 100% should be OC or UR.  I hope he gets at least a fine, not like that helps us now, though.

4Q3:27 Completely erroneous spot on the EDM final TD drive; ball never reaches the 49, not on 1st effort, not on 2nd.  Yet after the 3min warning break the ball is at the 47.5 and 6" from the 1st down.  What on earth is going on here?  It's not even an obscured or tricky spot.  It's clearly obvious to everyone.