Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at BC October 6, 2023

[Blitzer]

He had 352 but Collaros still did better. Sorry.

[Blueforlife]

I think it was Edwards-Cooper.  I think booth said stinger, but it looked more like dislocated shoulder or something broken.  He might be gone a few weeks, maybe.  He's a top DB for them.

He also just slotted into the AR this week, so he was coming of an injury already, or something.  I'd have to go back through all the charts to see when he went out before.

So both teams took some damage in a slugfest.  We may have escaped with the W and less overall damage.  That's a double win in such an all-out-effort game.

That's who it was

[TecnoGenius]

I do believe we won the ST yards battle.  Williams did mostly nothing except that nice return to end the 1st H.

We lost the FG battle in terms of misses (1-0), but won in terms of FG-made?

I noticed something: it's not so much that Grant is faster or more elusive (he is though), it's that he gets a huge cushion of respect from the coverage.  Instead of the 2 gunners making an attempt they hold back with the 2nd wave to form more of a wall to try to take away all the lanes.

They don't do that with our "other" returners.  And it makes sense.  It's the smart play.  They managed to cover Grant fairly well all game, even though they had to give up 20-30 yards every time.  That may have been the slight extra edge we needed to keep the game close and then win.  And maybe that explains our ST coverage in prior weeks a bit: we're showing respect to the good returners.

[Blueforlife]

I do believe we won the ST yards battle.  Williams did mostly nothing except that nice return to end the 1st H.

We lost the FG battle in terms of misses (1-0), but won in terms of FG-made?

I noticed something: it's not so much that Grant is faster or more elusive (he is though), it's that he gets a huge cushion of respect from the coverage.  Instead of the 2 gunners making an attempt they hold back with the 2nd wave to form more of a wall to try to take away all the lanes.

They don't do that with our "other" returners.  And it makes sense.  It's the smart play.  They managed to cover Grant fairly well all game, even though they had to give up 20-30 yards every time.  That may have been the slight extra edge we needed to keep the game close and then win.  And maybe that explains our ST coverage in prior weeks a bit: we're showing respect to the good returners.

Good observations

[TecnoGenius]

He had 352 but Collaros still did better. Sorry.

That makes more sense.  It was 252 in the 1st H and 100 in the 2nd incl OT, and 65Y of that was on the big Rhymes mistake at the end of regulation.  Our D was a total shut down D in that half.  Shows that we can do it when we need to and Hall gives them the green light due to constantly being behind by 1-2 scores.

[TecnoGenius]

You want your mind blown.  On the final regulation play mixup by Rhymes:

1. Kramdi whiffing on the tackle won us the game.  If Kramdi was a better tackler and brought Rhymes down, it would be with 1s left and we lose by an easy FG.  Ironic because a "losing play" by him turned into the winning play.  Credit to Kramdi though, he knew the deal and went for the strip more than the tackle.  Our D may have been more situationally aware than BC, and that hints that this stuff may have been coached/practised.

2. Holm arguably did the right thing by jumping in front and going for the batdown instead of sitting back and going for the tackle.  If Rhymes makes the catch and then gets an instant tackle, it's a 52Y FG, which I bet their guy makes (80% chance?).  And if Rhymes gets even a bit of YAC, including his 2Y "fall forward" freebie, it's even easier.

3. If not for Parker's supreme effort hustle, we lose because it's a TD with 0:00.  I think Parker reached in and found something he didn't know existed.  He probably didn't even know he was that fast.

Of course I don't believe in "football gods", but if there was ever a game where you could imagine them smiling upon the victor, it's this one.

[BLUEBOMBER]

This game could have gone both ways
.. the advantage Winnipeg might have in the West Final will be the cold weather... But then again, it's no guarantee as B.C. coaches are pretty smart and will watch a lot of film to try to find weaknesses in the Bomber offense and defense.

[Stats Junkie]

IDK, Parker seemed ok walking to the sideline. Houston should be back by the next game so we have insurance in that sense. I didn't hear anything about Schoen in concussion protocol but he'll have time to get healthy if this wasn't just precaution.

Schoen appeared to hurt himself on his catch midway through the 4th quarter. He remained in the game for one more play and pulled up as he hit the line of scrimmage. He then hobbled off the field and was replaced by O'Leary Orange. No tent went up and he remained on the sidelines.

[TecnoGenius]

Schoen appeared to hurt himself on his catch midway through the 4th quarter. He remained in the game for one more play and pulled up as he hit the line of scrimmage. He then hobbled off the field and was replaced by O'Leary Orange. No tent went up and he remained on the sidelines.

Thanks, I will look for it.  Was it a head2turf hit?  Do we know if he was EITS-pulled or Bomber-trainer-pulled?  One would guess the former.  Oh, I guess it could also be a self-pull, but that's virtually unheard of.

Crossed fingers and prayers.  No Schoen for WDF/GC would be a massive blow.

[TecnoGenius]

More fun:  Watch our OT TD by Brady.  This makes me so overjoyed, I can't describe it.  Buck at his finest, channelling his best Lapo spirit... Live we all thought it was a great OL and Brady play, right?  Nope, it's Buck.

Here's what really happened: Kenny comes on the jet sweep fake.  Remember how I remarked vs TOR that we gave Kenny a sweep which is never done, has never done, don't ever do?  Ya, well that was the setup.  So BC studied all that TOR film and they were drilled all week to watch for that Kenny sweep.  They hadn't seen it all game and then suddenly they're faced with the Kenny sweep in OT in a critical moment and BOOM their heads go mental "he I know this play, I'm gonna make a big stop!".

Every single DB and LB who's not engaged in the box bites on the Kenny fake.  There isn't a single DB or LB unengaged to the right of our LT!!  Not one!

The jumbo OL walls off the right, Bailey(!) and the Demski(!) alone wall off the left and Brady moseys through the hole.  The MLB gets a tiny crack at Brady's feet, but he's gone.

This is an insane play, all setup because of that out of character sweep to Lawler last week.  Kudos Buck, and kudos team for perfect execution.

For even more fun: the 2pt convert goes back to Kenny on a sweep-look pass, who now BC treats as the decoy, with only 1 guy assigned who then gets rubbed by Woli.

[TecnoGenius]

Listen to the crowd when WPG is on O in OT.  Now listen when BC is on O.  It's the same noise level.

MOS always says the WPG "fans are smart" and know when to make noise.  You might think he's just pandering.  What's he going to say, that they're dumb?  But I think he really means it because just look at the BC fans... they have no idea when to be quiet, because the contain a lot of new and fairweather fans who have no clue.

Now, I'm not bashing new or fairweather fans, because the CFL needs more butts in seats and popularity.  BC bringing out a lot of new people this year is a great thing for the Lions and the league.  And, hey, they helped us win this one by giving VAJ a ton of noise to deal with, at least at the end! 

It's up to the seasoned fans to get up and do the "be quiet" motion at times like these.  Or have the jumbotron guy put up a hint or something.  Got to give cred to the Rider fans: they know how to be quiet as well, or even better, than we do.

[TecnoGenius]

Post-game when they show players doing the "good game" thing, they show Willie and VAJ.  It looks like Willie gave VAJ the "you played a good game, you're a good player, don't get down" pep talk, and shakes his hand vigorously.  All well and good in most situations, except... the way you beat VAJ and BC is you get in their headspace and make them defeat themselves.

I don't want anyone picking up VAJ's spirits, I want him to feel destroyed for the next week and fear the WDF.  Morale and headspace is at least 30% of the game: maybe 50%.  Save this enemy pep talk for after we hose them in that game and they are no longer the enemy.

It may seem awful and brutal and counter to good sportsmanship: but you can just say "good game" and shake their hand without the rah rah "you're going places kid" talk.  Just my 2c.

[GOLDMEMBER]

WJ5 had a game. No night off tonight.

agreed he made those plays that we needed!

[Stretch]

That was an enjoyable game to watch.

If you're a defibrillator salesman. 

[Stretch]

Just think if they could a full 60 minutes like they did the second half.

This. So much this.