Official Game Day Thread - Montreal @ Winnipeg, August 28, 2026

[Sway]

I don't like the penalty.  Find a way to beat them down within the whistles and without getting caught.  You know, like other teams do.

Yoshi teabags DL and LB on like every other run play.  That's the way you do it.  You can mess with their heads and make them feel worthless without taking any flags.

We just got lucky it was after yards were gained.  Look at where dumb penalties put us on that 2nd & 30 drive.  While MOS is publicly defending Neuf, you can bet he's telling him exactly what I just did above.

I hope he did.

In a closer game those penalties could have killed us.

They were stupid and there should be no justifying it.

But if you are in Osh old boys club you get a free pass.

[Blue In BC]

I hope you realize the Bombers were playing against the best offence in the league with a few of the most talented players and were not about to shut them down completely, please take the stats with a grain of salt.

Yes. Did you see the Als complete a 2nd and 20 when Alexander rolled left, poured himself a coffee and read a newspaper before he found a receiver wide open. No Bomber is sight while he viewed the field.

How about the 37 yard TD play where several players botched tackles?

Yes I know that was the best offence in the CFL. It's one thing for an offence to make a good play. It's another to allow a 70 yard drive in 3 plays.

[Blue In BC]

Your TOP idea is correct once we were up 16.  But at all times before that MTL was fully allowed to run.  A high-powered O doesn't care if they are down 10, or even 14; especially before the 4th Q.

If Theis was getting explosions and good average early, they would have run him a lot more.  The reason Theis didn't get those things is because the D stopped them, just as they stopped Rankin early vs EDM.  The only difference is EDM insists on sticking with Rankin (adding in those hitch screens), and MTL doesn't care as much because Alexander + Philpot can normally kill every D.

Ironically, once Alexander was nicked MTL should have gone to running MORE.  Once again, a high-powered O sputters against our D where a dink & dunk motif would have succeeded.  I had a feeling MTL wouldn't get the plot, and that's why I bet on WPG.

Why run when you can pass for 10+ yards?  Are you seriously defending the Bomber defence in the 1st half?

[Pigskin]

Yes. Did you see the Als complete a 2nd and 20 when Alexander rolled left, poured himself a coffee and read a newspaper before he found a receiver wide open. No Bomber is sight while he viewed the field.

How about the 37 yard TD play where several players botched tackles?

Yes I know that was the best offence in the CFL. It's one thing for an offence to make a good play. It's another to allow a 70 yard drive in 3 plays.

Agree, both of these plays were sloppy and sad. Willie had to keep contain on the 2nd. and 20. And, on the 37 yard TD our tackling was a gong show.

[blue_gold_84]

Nice win on Friday. A pleasantly surprising performance by the offense - probably their best game as a unit all season.

Still in the hunt!

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Agree, both of these plays were sloppy and sad. Willie had to keep contain on the 2nd. and 20. And, on the 37 yard TD our tackling was a gong show.

Part of the problem with Willy and Ceresna chasing the sack lead is they sometimes abandon containment responsibilities in an attempt to boost their sack numbers.  Just giving fans what they want.

[Tecno]

Why run when you can pass for 10+ yards?  Are you seriously defending the Bomber defence in the 1st half?

Sort of. They weren't that bad. It's the mtl d bad? They gave up more yards and points than our d did.

The o always has the advantage, that is the nature of football.

I maintain our run d was very good all night, and especially so in the first half.

Remember, we didn't just stop theis, we stopped qb/rb hybrid Alexander from running too!!

[Tecno]

Challenged 1st play of game

Got it on maybe the weakest PI I've seen this year

Interestingly, in another game this week (either the OTT or the SSK game) there was the exact same DPI, and it was unflagged.  And it was challenged.  And it was upheld.

There was only ONE tiny difference: the DB did not have his arm on the REC's arm.  He still had the left hand on the hip, and seemed to turn the REC.  But no arm-bar.

So it would appear the main thing that got us the challenge win was the hip-hand twist AND the arm-bar.  Or maybe just the arm-bar.  But the hip-hand twist, which usually/often was enough, was not enough in this other game.

And I thought the hip-hand twist in the 2nd game was more egregious than the minor twist in our game.

It's hard to figure out exactly what the command standard is any given season.  It does change subtly.

[Tecno]

JY reminds us who is in charge on that last drive haha. Not to worry!

You're not analyzing it correctly.  MTL's drive started at 4Q4:55 and took 2m32s, or more than half the remaining time in the game.

Letting them get a TD in 2:32 is not a failure, it's a wild success when up 3 majors.  We get 1 or 2 first downs then we win.  The best MTL could ever hope is to match our 2018 "MTL Miracle" game, which took us 1:44 to get 2 TD.  So all we'd have to do is get them down to 1:44 still down 2 majors.  Even worse for MTL is they needed 2 2PATs too.  Virtually impossible, and I'd say totally impossible if we get them to 1:44.

[Tecno]

we had nobody back to field the ball there.  Why?

At the stadium I thought WPG screwed up not having Vaval deep.  But on TV I can see that we totally knew they might kick deep.  Holm was already deeper than the rest and he was geared up to run backwards -- zero hesitation and even cheating up to it.

I think they've reviewed this scenario, and schemed the best response.  Obviously they feel the extra guy playing the OSK is more useful than the returnability of Vaval deep.  Clearly they've practiced this with Holm as "the man".  I wonder if that little kick Holm did on the ball was by accident though?  Or is that to give him more time to recover.  Remember, Holm is probably the 2nd or 3rd fastest guy on our team.

[Tecno]

Who did Clercius replace and when did he come in? Good size receiver and good hands today.

Clercius was in a fair bit, often for extra downfield blocking, like for screens.  On my Tecno's Takes (upcoming) he has 5 good blocking assists, in addition to his good catch (I think -- stats page is down right now).

That makes him about on par with Daniels, who is on the field a lot more.

As for who he comes in for, it seems to be Cobb, who is rarely out there with all of these bigger sets.  But sometimes it might be Nield (or both when it's Daniels/Eli + Clercius out there)

[Tecno]

We are the best team in the league

Cute thing, my 7 y.o. (who was at the game) said the same thing.  She's like "we beat the best so we're the best, daddy!".  I was trying to explain football isn't quite like boxing, but then I was like, nah: let her have this win (after losing all the rest of the stinkers at home this season).

One thing we for sure did show, though: if we make it to the cup via the West, MTL isn't a lock to win.  And if we go through the East, they aren't a lock to eliminate us.