Official Game Day Thread - BC at Winnipeg - November 11, 2023 - Western Final

[Ducky]

Offense sputtered after the first brady drive BUT the D was outstanding.

Cole was excellent replacing the injured Bighill.

Couple cool facts as per the broadcast:

Never been a Montreal vs Winnipeg Grey Cup

Collaros will be the first starting QB to be in 4 consecutive Grey Cups

[TBURGESS]

Great game.

We set the tone with the Brady O drive. We scored on special teams with the blocked punt. The DL got about 10 sacks. Everything went our way in the first half except that last play hail Mary.

BC came in with their 3rd string MLB against our best in the league running game and it showed. They lost their best receiver and 2nd best DB. VAJ got injured in the first half.

I was expecting a blow out in the 2nd half but it never materialized.

The best team is off to the Grey Cup!

[Lincoln Locomotive]

Zach hasn't really had a stellar performance albeit he didn't turn the ball over or throw any picks in this game,  The first and only TD drive was all Brady who the BC defence keyed on in the 2nd half.   He did make a few good throws to Kenny Lawler who made several outstanding catches....especially that backwards leaping and stretch grab on the sidelines where he managed to get his elbow in bounds and still hang onto the ball,...one of the best catches he's made this season imho.   His one gaff was a time count violation which actually set the stage for that last second Hail Mary throw to the end zone that suddenly put them within one score going into the second half.    Not sure what happened there but there was really no way we should have given them the ball back with only 49 seconds left in the half and 3 downs to run out the clock.   That was really bad clock management coming from a team with this much experience.
Our team managed to find other ways to get the win and that's a credit to our overall team first mentality.   Zach  doesn't need to carry the team on his shoulders and our defence and special teams managed to pull this one out.  BC does have a solid D and credit to them for limiting Zach to only 175 yards passing, even without one of his favourite targets in Dalton Schoen MIA.    What I absolutely love about Zach is his ability to bounce back and reset when it matters....he's one of the smartest QBs in the league if not THE smartest.
His leadership is evident and he has high praise for his teammates who will follow him into hell and back....this is what makes our team so special.

[J5V]

Zach hasn't really had a stellar performance albeit he didn't turn the ball over or throw any picks in this game,  The first and only TD drive was all Brady who the BC defence keyed on in the 2nd half.   He did make a few good throws to Kenny Lawler who made several outstanding catches....especially that backwards leaping and stretch grab on the sidelines where he managed to get his elbow in bounds and still hang onto the ball,...one of the best catches he's made this season imho.   His one gaff was a time count violation which actually set the stage for that last second Hail Mary throw to the end zone that suddenly put them within one score going into the second half.    Not sure what happened there but there was really no way we should have given them the ball back with only 49 seconds left in the half and 3 downs to run out the clock.   That was really bad clock management coming from a team with this much experience.
Our team managed to find other ways to get the win and that's a credit to our overall team first mentality.   Zach  doesn't need to carry the team on his shoulders and our defence and special teams managed to pull this one out.  BC does have a solid D and credit to them for limiting Zach to only 175 yards passing, even without one of his favourite targets in Dalton Schoen MIA.    What I absolutely love about Zach is his ability to bounce back and reset when it matters....he's one of the smartest QBs in the league if not THE smartest.
His leadership is evident and he has high praise for his teammates who will follow him into hell and back....this is what makes our team so special.

What a great post! I just have to quote it in it's entirety. I believe you've nailed the one intangible on this team that comes through time and again ... leadership. Zach has it and Kelly doesn't. Kelly has even been called out by his own teammates for his lack of leadership and it was evident yesterday. You could see him pouting and depressed on the sidelines when the wheels came off yesterday and Andrew Harris tried to console him. I remember one point when a pass attempt was knocked down by a pass rusher and he wheeled around and glared at one of his O-linemen. You'd never see Zach do something like that. Once again we see that a true team is greater than the sum of it's parts, as it was for the Blue and Gold yesterday.

[the.inkster]

Just took a quick look through the player stats from the game. Did I miss something? Betts didn't register a single stat on the night?

[The Zipp]

Just took a quick look through the player stats from the game. Did I miss something? Betts didn't register a single stat on the night?

Never heard his name once...if he wasn't injured or dealing with a significant injury I am labelling him the fraud of the year.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Great game.

We set the tone with the Brady O drive. We scored on special teams with the blocked punt. The DL got about 10 sacks. Everything went our way in the first half except that last play hail Mary.

BC came in with their 3rd string MLB against our best in the league running game and it showed. They lost their best receiver and 2nd best DB. VAJ got injured in the first half.

I was expecting a blow out in the 2nd half but it never materialized.

The best team is off to the Grey Cup!

Do you think MOS is a great Coach yet?

[dd]

Never heard his name once...if he wasn't injured or dealing with a significant injury I am labelling him the fraud of the year.

Betts would be the west nominee for fraud of the year, and Kelly would be the easts, with Kelly winning the award!!

[theaardvark]

DN10 and RB88 both with no stats. Nic was moving well but just couldn't make a play. Bailey was not moving well. Looked uncomfortable all night. DS83 still limping on the sidelines. Can't see him playing in the GC. 

ND10 was 3 of 5 for 37 (32YAC)
RB88 was 0 of 2

Regardless, they were on the field and taking coverguys.

[TecnoGenius]

Cole was excellent replacing the injured Bighill.

Collaros will be the first starting QB to be in 4 consecutive Grey Cups

I think they went platoon after Biggie went down?  I thought I saw Clements, Cole and Gauthier all in at MIKE at times.  Our D didn't skip a beat.  I think we'll be fine as all 3 guys (and they'll probably roster in Maruo for GC?) have taken a ton of live snaps and even starts at MIKE and WILL.

Crazy stat on Zach and 4 GCs in a row.  I guess 80's EDM changed their QB mid-dynasty?

[TecnoGenius]

Just took a quick look through the player stats from the game. Did I miss something? Betts didn't register a single stat on the night?

Never heard his name once...if he wasn't injured or dealing with a significant injury I am labelling him the fraud of the year.

Betts also didn't do squat against us in the 2 earlier BC games we won.  I'm pretty sure that's because he's basically just a great pass rusher.  He's pretty useless against the run.  There's not much balance there.  Luckily for BC and Betts most CFL teams are pass-heavy.  So he looked good all year against the pass.

Oh ya, and we purposely schemed to pick on Betts and keep him away from the play, just as we did earlier in the year.  It's like when teams decide to double and triple-team Willie: they can neutralize him, but at what cost.

I would not downplay his talent though.  He is "just a NAT" remember.  Wouldn't we kill for a NAT every-down DE?  He's like Kongbo but 10X better against the pass (but weaker against the run).  Given the right coaching and schemes he could probably  become more effective against the run too.  Imagine Betts in our lineup with our coaching??  It's a thought if Jeffcoat retires.

[TecnoGenius]

Do you think MOS is a great Coach yet?

Major LOLz.  Even he is starting to come 'round, one would have to believe 

[TecnoGenius]

ND10 was 3 of 5 for 37 (32YAC)
RB88 was 0 of 2

Regardless, they were on the field and taking coverguys.

Sheed got that long TD attempt and he was blanketed and misread the final contact point.  Even Kenny may have whiffed on that... maybe.

BC's DBs were all the heck over our receivers the whole night.  Majorly contested everything.  Every deep shot had no separation.  Tons of man coverage.

I put no fault on Sheed, as Demski and Lawler were getting mauled (or "booted", grin) on all those passes too.  Most of his yards came from that no-contest screen.

I'm thinking we would have done better if Zach had put a little more air, or thrown a touch earlier on most of those balls.  Luckily I think MTL's DBs aren't as good as BC, so we should be able to connect a little easier.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Still haven't seen either playoff game yet due to being involved in a hockey tournament this weekend, was waiting on Waders27 to upload the replays on YouTube but his copy is so bad it skips and jumps all over missing major segments.  He's aware of the problem and promises to re-load again on Monday, his edited version is much preferred to the TSN "Games on Demand" which includes all of the annoying commercials and mindless commentary and is at least an hour longer in duration.  I'll catch up by mid-week!

[TecnoGenius]

What the heck was Hall doing on that last play??! Everyone knows its a long bomb coming in and we only rush 1 off the edge?!!! Every right handed Qb rolls to his right to buy more time to make the bomb work and we don't take that away???!!Worst play call of the year!!!!

Maybe.  It's pretty normal to leave the QB with just a 3 man rush and let him sling it.  Especially since VAJ would have to chuck it 70Y+!  Most QBs can't chuck it that far.

The one guy spying VAJ may have had a shot to tackle, sack or disrupt VAJ but instead of sprinting to tackle/disrupt he jogged and held back to maintain his spy role.  If he over-rushes then VAJ could take off.  However, it's unlikely VAJ could run that 60Y himself without getting tackled, so maybe the smart move would have been to sprint to VAJ and spying be darned.

I think the biggest takeaway from this is the D needs to work on having 1 or 2 of the D guys sit back in the ricochet role like McInnis.  If this is the "new Hail Mary" where it's all about the rebound, then we have to play the rebound.  5 guys in the pile didn't help anything.  2 would have been fine.  In fact from my slow-mo work it was Parker who tipped it to McInnis, not Rhymes!!  He did try to get the ball to go down to the turf, but he lost the handle.