Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Calgary, August 18, 2023

[Blue72]

Is this the same ST coach we had last year when MOS had to step in to clean things up?

[TecnoGenius]

Is this the same ST coach we had last year when MOS had to step in to clean things up?

Ya, it's all Boudreau who (IMHO) shoulders around 30% of the responsibility for losing the '22 GC on the Sayles blocking whiff.  (Put the hoggies in on a must-get FG, not Sayles!)

He's been the ST coach for a lot of our ST woes.  He seems really good on the return game when Grant is in (good blocking schemes), but seems to not be awake on LoS blocking for our punts.  Our guys are disengaging the line way too soon to go downfield when they need to be assignment-sound to block the kick rushers!  Clearly CGY has spotted a weakness in film and now every team will exploit!  This is what we used to do to others, not them do to us!!

[TecnoGenius]

Have to give a separate shout out to Brady. He dropped one catchable pass, but he ran hard and with heart, and was our best player on offense. He's having a hell of a season.

Brady had a great game, even without the stats.  CGY was playing to stop the run and they still failed... except on 2nd & 3, which they stuffed ~4 times (do some passes!).  Brady on first was amazing.  Our other run plays on 1st were also amazing.  Brady deserves tons of cred, and his hard last couple of runs sealed the very-much-in-doubt game.

[TecnoGenius]

I agree if it was one yard you go for it. But I think this was closer to 2, although I'll have to go back and rewatch. Fact that Drew was lining up in shotgun, and looked when the ball was snapped like he was looking pass suggests this was not an "automatic" one yard Prukop plunge, in which case I think you have to punt. Although I also agree that our pathetic punt coverage makes me think twice about this decision.

Ah, you mean the 2nd-to-last 3rd down gamble where we took a timecount?  I think I/we thought you were talking about the final Prukop sneak right at the end.  I thought the timecount play looked like a handoff to Brady, but maybe you're right and it was a RPO pass.  But that would be even more insane??  When have we ever done that??  Never.  I'll go check too.

[northof30]

I know, that was ridiculous. Forget dave ridgeway, lui passaglia or dave cutler, Rene s the best in history. Laughable. Absolutely laughable. And you can?t ask him to kick a field goal to win the game?? Excuse me jimbo, but that?s the exact reason you have a kicker, he needs to make those kicks. Ridiculous comments by a buffoon.are they that hard up for people on the panel???

Barker is an idiot. I hate watching the TSN crew now because of him. All I remember about him was how he screamed to the referees for a Penalty on every other play when he was coaching.

[TecnoGenius]

I like the call to go for it at the end.  You have had a punt blocked already and I think one close to being blocked, you have given up a bunch of yards on returns and they have a great FG kicker. Get one yard and win the game.  Quite the push on the run by BO to make it close enough, he was stuffed and then got assistance from the big boys. 

I agree on the other points - not sure if you can challenge unecassry roughness penalties ??

UR: looks like coach cannot challenge, but Command can with automatic review and it doesn't have to be within 3min.  "Called penalties that are not coach challengeable penalties".  That phantom UR was an egregiously bad call and every CFL fan saw it, and that's the type of thing Command needs to step in on and correct on the fly without challenge.  It's not good for the league if that is left standing.  It's obvious to even blind CFL fans.  I bet the league apologizes for it.  This can't be made the new standard.  Holm had every right to try to catch that ball.  He was tracking it better than the receiver.

And yes, going for the Prukop sneak at the end on 3rd was critical.  With our ST and their returner and their punt blocking and us kicking from the 15(ish) yard line, 50/50 chance they return it into instant FG range.  And Maier was able to move the ball on mid plays quite often, and you just knew the refs were gonna DPI us on any little contact.  Definitely go for it on 3rd and if we fail the sneak, then so be it, we deserve to lose.

[TecnoGenius]

The replacements aren't getting it done..exhume is not the answer.

Exume seems to be a gunner, from what I could discern.  His job is to direct the returner into the lane.  He seems to be doing a good job, as I think the returner only got outside the gunner lane once?  What I saw on the sideline returns is the 2nd wave was playing too far off the rail and the returner was too fast to push him out in time.  That's nasty.  Must seal that rail.

With our weaker ST coverage unit I think we are purposely giving more space in 1st and 2nd wave and giving up yards in order to ensure we stop the TD.  It looks ugly on TV, but it has worked: no ST TD against in many games.  We might look better once our ST beasts come back.

Agree, big issue all year.  Both those guys will help but might be schemes too?Good point

Bingo bango.

[TecnoGenius]

Yes of course the players will not assault fans, that was joke.  Great a grip.  Respect the player.  It's not hard.

Unless they play for TOR 

[TecnoGenius]

Could the cry baby Dicky brothers be on the same unemployment line next year?

Dickerson The Greater whines and cries and yells.  Dickerson The Lesser just stands on the sidelines like a deer in the headlights, truly and totally stunned and frozen.  Riderfans forum comes up with the best nicknames for those two... which I'm not allowed to repeat here 

I'll hand it to Dickerson The Lesser though, I've never seen him cry or whine.  Or yell.  I'm not sure there's much of anything going on upstairs nor in his adrenal gland. 

My favorite Dickerson The Greater move is definitely the "I'm the boss!" headset mic dramatic whip up, whip down, whip up, whip down.  Man, when he's finally gone I'll really miss his antics, just like I miss Kavis, the mac daddy of all time team chew outs.  Love ya Kavis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jogIFynycWI
(EDM could use Kavis right about now.  And SSK.  And CGY.  And HAM.)

[TecnoGenius]

Bombers need to seriously try to get Parker back on the roster to return kicks. McCrae was costing us field position every kick including that last missed FG. We did manage to run out the clock but catching the miss on the run gets a few more yards if we failed getting a 1st down.

McCrae did have 2(?) great 1st down runs(?) for good yards to mix things up.  CGY didn't seem prepared for him at all on O.  He's a great tendency breaker and sows confusion.  Parker can't do that for us.

Not saying I disagree with you, but McCrae does add something we are having success with.  And he still hasn't lost us the ball on returns.  Ya, he finally fumbled today but it didn't count because of NY, and we recovered anyhow.  Maybe he knew it would be NY the way he was running up on it and thus knew he just had to touch it?  It might have actually been a brilliant play; maybe MOS will speak to it this week.

I haven't checked the stats yet. We seemed to abandon the run more in the 2nd half especially going into the wind. The run plays we ran were very predictable. With little success passing that made taking Oliveria out as a threat easier.

I saw a lot of non-Brady runs tonight and they seemed to have very nice success.  Mostly all on 1st down.  Most went for 7 to 10 yards, which is really ideal.  Bailey sweeps finally worked.  Demski doing his slippery butter thing.  McCrae surprising the D.  And hard Brady running.  Buck knew he had to support his "newbie" QB and called a pretty good run game on 1st down, so Dru didn't have to throw much.

Defence didn't get enough pressure on Maier for most of the game. However the stopped the run and didn't give up a TD. At least 6 points given up were due to ST's. Blocked punt and return yardage.

We may have had the best game stuffing the Carey/Mills combo of any team this year (previously or in the future).  Our run D was astoundingly good.  Clearly Hall played to stop the run.  We knew Maier couldn't run (well, he did once).  And we gambled he couldn't pass.  We didn't do so hot on the pass because our pass rush stunk major rocks.  But we did stuff that run and that was enough!

Fantasy pickers choosing Carey got hella burned tonight!  Kinda like my Kenny pick! 

[TecnoGenius]

Overly critical, too early to know.  Classic pile on a guy when down.  Bad year for him.  He still could figure it out.  Not a great chance but he might slowly develop.  Deep balls were nice.  Overall not a good showing.  Int was bad.Agree all.  A nice balanced analysis of a key member of our club.

Tecno I'll eat a half crow pie.  I though Brown would be better but I'm still happy with his effort.

Ok, I'll take your crow mea culpa.  It's fair.

And ya, Maier isn't horrific, he just needs to keep developing.  He only threw one INT?  That's not bad.  If his receivers don't drop like 3 more passes the game looks completely different.  They really let him down, and he needed them as much as Dru needed guys to step up.

I think his receivers have learned to correct for his noodle arm by planning to come back for the ball, so they show a deep go and then put on brakes and come back while our guy keeps running.  I don't think we should have bothered covering the top of the deep routes, get under the receiver and stay there for the INT.  His arm is good for 45 yards tops.

Jake Maier is the Marc Leigghio of QB's

He will be replaced.

Haha, ouch.  Seems like it at the moment, but I think both hang around in the CFL.  Maier will keep a job (somewhere) simply because there are no other choices.  I think CGY keeps developing him.  Since when have they FA splashed for a QB?  Not since before BLM.

[TecnoGenius]

Someone asked about illegal participation on Exume 4Q14:54 because he stepped OOB.  I checked and it was ok because Exume takes a big hit from a blocker that pushes him out.  By rule he can still play.

[TecnoGenius]

4Q2:02 is a timecount foul on CGY on critical 2nd&6.  Uncalled.  Hits zero.  6/10ths second later they snap.  Clear enough to see live.  Luckily for us it's a tip/incomplete.  So it's the same missed FG regardless.

I mention this because it's ironic it's right after they call a timecount on us.  Ours was more egregious though.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

4Q2:02 is a timecount foul on CGY on critical 2nd&6.  Uncalled.  Hits zero.  6/10ths second later they snap.  Clear enough to see live.  Luckily for us it's a tip/incomplete.  So it's the same missed FG regardless.

I mention this because it's ironic it's right after they call a timecount on us.  Ours was more egregious though.

6/10th of one second? Ref looks at clock that says zero. He then looks to see if ball is snapped. If it is, no flag. Lol 6/10th of one second lol.

[Blue In BC]

Re-watched the 2nd half this morning.

On the Stamps last drive: Kramdi separates the receiver from the ball on 2nd down. I'm not sure the receiver was going to catch the pass but Kramdi made sure. If that pass was completed the Stamps are much closer for a FG attempt, could run out the clock or even a FG miss results in a single point. So critical play by Kramdi.

McCrae lines up for FG attempt on dead ball line to avoid giving up a single. I'd take that as a coaching decision. I'm good with that but why not send a 2nd returner into the end zone  closer to the goal line if the kick is wide and shorter?