Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg & Montreal - 110th Grey Cup

[GOLDMEMBER]

Last night I woke up at 2am and my heart was racing.

How could have these screwed up like this?

Biggie should not have played.

Where the heck were the Jeffs?

Huston and Parker was both terrible.

Zach either did have a WR to throw to or had the gimps. Wow!

[Blue In BC]

Just got back.  My young son who was with me @The Donut Box is pretty bummed.  My wife reports the toddler at home cried for 30 mins.  The wife is probably miffed she'll get an ornery husband back tomorrow.

First impression is in both losing cups we play too conservatively.  We play the odds and we play to our hype.  We think the other team can't do it and we dare them to.  And then they do.

Both Buck & Hall are to blame, but especially Buck.  And MOS, who probably calls the overall agressiveness.  Just like vs TOR we don't go for the win in the last drive.  We run for squat on first down when everyone knows it.  Then Zach plays extremely cautiously on 2nd and gets sacked.  Basically same as that knockdown last year.  It's your last drive, why not QB draw, which exactly no one would expect.

Brady was very good, but didn't help his NFL aspirations.

MTL literally throws 3 passes: short curl, hitch screen, deep shot.  Throw in just enough runs to keep D's honest.  Everyone knows their penchant for the screen, so why are we giving up 5 to 12 yards on every screen?  Dumb.  Not like we didn't know that.  And Cody and Calvillo have been focusing on the middle mid-pass all season.  We're shocked that's how they get the final TD?

Disappointed, but good close edge-of-seat game for all the non-WPG fans.  Weather was nice.  Stadium was nice.  View of the terrain was nice from our upper deck seats.  Flyby was great.  Green Day was good and a coup for the cup organizers.  Food was good.  Other fans were good.  My buddy, the Landon Rice friend, was very happy for Rice who now gets to be immortal on the cup.  Good for him, a nice MB guy who's been in the league quite a long time now.

Back to the puzzle pieces for next year.  Though really in the end all we might need is more aggressive O play calling.

I agree and it was very predictable. We lost the 3 games in the regular season and the 2022 Grey Cup for similar reasons. In most cases we had the lead and the ball with under 3 minutes left. All we needed to do was string together a 1st down or 2 and run out the clock.

Instead we run the expected running play straight up the middle. Then we don't block the rush on 2nd and long and throw either a short pass or get sacked. Als got the ball back with 1:57 and we knew the prevent defence would fold.

2nd and 18 and we left Fajardo run for 13 yards? Reminiscent of Kelly in last year's Grey Cup. We were out coached.

[blue_gold_84]

Outcoached and outplayed. The last two minutes of the game I'd like to forget.

The Alouettes were better when it mattered. They dominated the second half.

[VictorRomano]

A lot of people felt the Bombers were too old but in the end is was the young guys [Parker and Houston] that couldn't make a play with the game on the line.

Bighill made 1 tackle, did nothing to stop the run game, and got burned on a passing TD because he couldn't keep up.....

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Didn't play our best game but we were one Parker pass break up from victory formation.

[Jesse]

I agree and it was very predictable. We lost the 3 games in the regular season and the 2022 Grey Cup for similar reasons. In most cases we had the lead and the ball with under 3 minutes left. All we needed to do was string together a 1st down or 2 and run out the clock.

Instead we run the expected running play straight up the middle. Then we don't block the rush on 2nd and long and throw either a short pass or get sacked. Als got the ball back with 1:57 and we knew the prevent defence would fold.

2nd and 18 and we left Fajardo run for 13 yards? Reminiscent of Kelly in last year's Grey Cup. We were out coached.

Yes. Went too conservative, thinking it was our game to lose and all we had to do was not make mistakes.

Montreal was hungry and went for it and we let them take it.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Yes. Went too conservative, thinking it was our game to lose and all we had to do was not make mistakes.

Montreal was hungry and went for it and we let them take it.

Yep, the philosophy of not screwing up, screwed it up, Buck's offensive game plan was far too conservative and Zach played with little urgency to accomplish the task at hand. 

[kkc60]

Bighill made 1 tackle, did nothing to stop the run game, and got burned on a passing TD because he couldn't keep up.....

Such a waste to play him. Clements and Cole have juice. Pretty sure the only reason he was dressed was to get his name on the GC or MOS got the jitters telling him he wasn?t playing.

[Doublezero]

The ball control game-manager offensive plan was a result of 9 turnovers by the Argos in the East Final. Buck figured the way to beat a staunch Montreal D was to guard against turnovers and trust our vaunted Defence. Not the best plan, esp when the D falls flat too. OTOH Oliveira was excellent, esp considering Montreal schemed for him. The fact that Schoen, Demski and Sheed were less than 100% really limited what the O could do. Also, Collaros is very clearly on the downswing as an elite CFL QB. The other thing coaches need to answer is why Montreal came to play and Bombers did not. It was not "just another game".

[Lincoln Locomotive]

#4 did impact the game for the Bombers....however it was a negative one this time.   Sometimes MOS is too loyal to his veterans....to a fault.   The Als had Lemon and Sankey and they did have an impact.   Both were confident they would beat us and they did.    Both WJ and JJ were not impactful and Cody had time in the pocket and when he had to run late in the game he got back 13 of the 18 yards he needed for a first down with his legs.  Then he threw two more strikes and the game was over for us.
Had we been able to get one first down late in the game we would like have held our lead and two would have sealed the deal.   Montreal stuffed us cold and sacked Zach yet again on 2nd and long after Brady was stuffed for only 2 yards on first down.   Montreal was simply better and their best players were better than two of our best players who were playing at maybe 60% which just wasn't good enough.
In retrospect, would MOS allow this to happen again?    Thoughts?

[ModAdmin]

This was not about the better team won IMHO.  This was entirely about us not defending well during the game but, in particular, in the 4th quarter when we were up in the score and had the opportunity to seal the deal. We were ahead virtually the entire game.  Our pass defence let us down when it counted the most.

[blue_gold_84]

Yes. Went too conservative, thinking it was our game to lose and all we had to do was not make mistakes.

Montreal was hungry and went for it and we let them take it.

Bingo.

This was not about the better team won IMHO.  This was entirely about us not defending well during the game but, in particular, in the 4th quarter when we were up in the score and had the opportunity to seal the deal. We were ahead virtually the entire game.  Our pass defence let us down when it counted the most.

Wouldn't that make the Alouettes the better team? They made the plays they had to in order to win; the Bombers did not.

[Blue In BC]

Bingo.

Wouldn't that make the Alouettes the better team? They made the plays they had to in order to win; the Bombers did not.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. But they did make the play when it counted. It happens just like in Ottawa. That didn't make Ottawa the better team, just better in the moment.

[blue_gold_84]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. But they did make the play when it counted. It happens just like in Ottawa. That didn't make Ottawa the better team, just better in the moment.

Not sure I'd compare last night's tilt to what happened in Ottawa in mid-July.

The Alouettes were down by 10 at the most last night; they continued to compete in what was a tight game in the second half.

IMO, they were the better team, particularly in the 4th quarter.

[Blue In BC]

Not sure I'd compare last night's tilt to what happened in Ottawa in mid-July.

The Alouettes were down by 10 at the most last night; they continued to compete in what was a tight game in the second half.

IMO, they were the better team, particularly in the 4th quarter.

Well yes and no. Would you have said that if we knocked down the pass on 3rd and 4 and won the game? The team winning is not always the best team. We dominated most of the game but gave up the ghost on the last series. Of course that cost us the game and the Als are full credit for making those plays. However those were desperation plays that succeeded than great offence per se.

I'd expect a team to fail on 3rd and 4 most of the time. Not last night as it worked out.