Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg @ Edmonton, August 21, 2026

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I looked at it more like we caught them napping. On their minds was their bye week and the battle of Alberta after that.  Letting them back in late in the first half woke them up.

Disagree in the first half Zach was playing like he did in 2021 with full on intensity barking signals and commanding the offence.  Whatever drug he was hyped up on wore off late in first half and he reverted to a lackadaisical zombie state for the rest of the game.

[BBRT]

Disagree in the first half Zach was playing like he did in 2021 with full on intensity barking signals and commanding the offence.  Whatever drug he was hyped up on wore off late in first half and he reverted to a lackadaisical zombie state for the rest of the game.

Sort of agree with your comments - however from what i read elsewhere Brady (who had 100yds or so in the first half) only got two touches in the second half. Can someone confirm that and if so why did they go away from using him?

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Anyone notice the the confusion and delay when Tony Jones went down on the field?  He had a bunch of Bomber staff including Jake Thomas and a few players on the field milling around him and I saw Jaylen Smith pick up Tony's helmet and pretend to wipe the inside down with a cloth.  I believe he was removing an audio receiver from the inside of the helmet, thus Jake's overt concern. 

I often wondered how the defence received their signals on the field as you rarely see Younger do anything on the sidelines but look chill, while Jake seems to be talking into a headset on every play with a play sheet in hand.

Don't know if this is actually accepted or not but have long suspected key members of defences across the league are wired for sound, in almost every game you can catch a glimpse of a defensive player put his hand over his ear hole like QB's often do when blocking out the crowd noise so he can hear a message, after which he frantically begins signalling to teammates. In the  case of the Riders I've seen 3-4 defensive players in a mini-huddle waiting to receive a command telling them what to do next and they're focused on a single player that is not looking towards the sideline.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Sort of agree with your comments - however from what i read elsewhere Brady (who had 100yds or so in the first half) only got two touches in the second half. Can someone confirm that and if so why did they go away from using him?

He would have had more carries if JY and the defense, who cannot possibly say they were tired, could have made any kind of third of forth quarter stops. The Bombers offense was out of sync but they also had very few chances in the second half as JY is clearly determined to only play two quarters of any game at the maximum.

[theaardvark]

The first half minus 3 minutes had me believing again, then Edmonton hit a switch and started playing better. The late TD made me worry. The 3 right after the half, upped that worry. The bunch of 2 and outs solidified the worry. By the time it came down to them needing a drive to win, I knew we were toast.

We owned them in the first half. They owned us in the second half. The better team won and the bad team went back to wondering what to do next.

Did they?

Or did we hit a speed bump and start playing worse?

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Did they?

Or did we hit a speed bump and start playing worse?

It's probably shades of both but largely Edmonton just started playing better. The funny thing is we used to beat teams like that, only playing good football for half the game and still winning, but those days are long over.

We were clearly the less talented team last night and it showed.

[theaardvark]

The throw that clearly led Pokey out of bounds was a killer for me.

And listening to Luke try to explain that Pokey could have turned the other way and caught it with his feet in bounds was insulting.  There is no way to "basket catch" a ball that far out of bounds.

Was it just after the "Sweet Life of Zach and Cody" was run that Zach fell apart?

5 two and outs to start the second half and only allow them to tie you means this isn't on the defense, although by the end of the third quarter, I expect they were bagged.

This was just wrong in every way, and a very difficult loss.