Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Ottawa - June 13, 2024

[J5V]

You'd be 100% right... except this was against OTT!

How'd we make out with Ottawa last year? I seem to recall a BO fumble that started a 16 point slide that eventually lead to an OT loss. Stuff happens, and we are a team that everyone prepares for and gets revved up to play against. No team can ever be taken lightly in this league and losses to Montreal, arguably the best team in the league and defending champs, and Ottawa, a team that gets jacked up to play us and always gives us trouble isn't exactly shocking especially at this time of year. It's early and I ain't buying the Chicken Little drama. This club hasn't let us down for the last four years. I doubt they're going to start now.

[Blueforlife]

Are you serious? I didn't expect this from you. Five starters injured, lots of turnover to start the season, rain-drenched ***** playing conditions and a rain delay that sapped us of our momentum in a game we could have easily won. Wow man.

The tone on here was gone to panic mode for some.  Get used to it.  Agree all.

[Blueforlife]

As I said above, Strev is more than capable of tossing to an open receiver in RPO.
Down 1 bootleg 17 , JA on the flank, send receivers to the back of the endzone dragging the DB's.  One cheats to hold the line, easy toss.  See an opening, take it.  Lane plugged flip it to JA and make a hole.

Sandlot football, everyone and their dog would know what's coming, try and stop it...

Not as simple as you suggest imo.  Zach is lights years ahead of Strev on the pass.  I would have run the ball. 

[Blue In BC]

Maybe, I have no stance on that.  But I will point out that Ayers was in on a lot of the ST tackles in week 2.  He was flying around and generally in the right place.  He seems good at shedding blockers.

I'm not against Ayers and he may turn out to be a good player in the near future. I'm just thinking that Jones has more experience and very good on ST's as well, plus he's played much more on defence. So in that sense he's more game ready and versatile than Jones is now.

Also noting that Feltmate made 2 ST's in his 1st game and was involved quite a bit.

[ModAdmin]

Upon Further Review | WPG 19 OTT 23

"..."Let me see what I've got for you," began the veteran receiver (Drew Wolitarsky). "I'll start by speaking for myself — I definitely have a play I would like to take back, man. We all probably would. That's the thing — it's a different year here and we aren't in the position now to think that things are just going to happen for us.

"We definitely need to evaluate this film and we definitely need to start faster. We started so slow. We started slow last week. We've got to change something to start faster to bring that energy sooner, to bring that focus in. It's like we're waiting for something big to happen because in the past somebody would make that big play and we had so many guys we could rely on regularly.

"Again, it's just different right now," he said after a moment of further reflection. "We need to accept that and figure out a way to start faster. That's just what I'm feeling. This is a brand new year. This is a very brand new team. We had another three guys go down tonight (to injury, in Deatrick Nichols, Celestin Haba and Miles Fox). We've got young guys coming in... as leaders we need to lead and as leaders we need to teach. This is a different position we find ourselves in where we're relying on guys and some of them this is their first year or their first game. We had some guys who stepped up tonight. You saw that....

https://www.bluebombers.com/2024/06/15/upon-further-review-wpg-19-ott-23/

[TecnoGenius]

Question: When we got to the 7 at the end of the game, why didn't we go tempo O for the 1st down?  Surely at that point OTT still had their pass-defense set on the field, right?

That should be advantage WPG to have our hoggies and R blockers help Johnny to just pound it in after zero substitutions allowed to OTT?  OTT would have hardly any beef in the game, no?

Or was that the point that Johnson took a knee... maybe we were going to do the above and OTT "pulled a SSK" with a bogus injury to get the subs in?

If no injury, I go tempo O and pound it in on 3 tries with Johnny (maybe with a Strev sneak for the final 1 if needed, as subs wouldn't hurt us on the 1).

If injury, then why not bring in the jumbo crew with 7 hoggies plus Strev and let Strev & Johnny take turns running it down their throats?

Ugh, when AH33 was here we knew what to do...  The only thing saving me from conniptions is this was just a week 2 game, not a GC.  I'd go apoplectic if we lost a GC this way. (knocks wood)

[Blue In BC]

Question: When we got to the 7 at the end of the game, why didn't we go tempo O for the 1st down?  Surely at that point OTT still had their pass-defense set on the field, right?

That should be advantage WPG to have our hoggies and R blockers help Johnny to just pound it in after zero substitutions allowed to OTT?  OTT would have hardly any beef in the game, no?

Or was that the point that Johnson took a knee... maybe we were going to do the above and OTT "pulled a SSK" with a bogus injury to get the subs in?

If no injury, I go tempo O and pound it in on 3 tries with Johnny (maybe with a Strev sneak for the final 1 if needed, as subs wouldn't hurt us on the 1).

If injury, then why not bring in the jumbo crew with 7 hoggies plus Strev and let Strev & Johnny take turns running it down their throats?

Ugh, when AH33 was here we knew what to do...  The only thing saving me from conniptions is this was just a week 2 game, not a GC.  I'd go apoplectic if we lost a GC this way. (knocks wood)

The answer to the 1st question is that we also wanted to kill as much time as possible. That's another reason we should have run or throw a screen on 1st down. Scoring on 1st down was not necessary. Moving forward a few yards would have created easier choices from the 2 - 4 yard yard for example.

[TecnoGenius]

The answer to the 1st question is that we also wanted to kill as much time as possible.

But you can go tempo-O and still kill clock!  Tempo is just saying you aren't going to substitute and thus the opponent cannot either.  You can still sit there after that and snap the ball with 2s left on the play clock!

So ya, I still wonder why we didn't go tempo to keep the passing D in and run it down their throats, after bleeding the clock down.

[Blue In BC]

But you can go tempo-O and still kill clock!  Tempo is just saying you aren't going to substitute and thus the opponent cannot either.  You can still sit there after that and snap the ball with 2s left on the play clock!

So ya, I still wonder why we didn't go tempo to keep the passing D in and run it down their throats, after bleeding the clock down.

That's a two street and we don't change personal. As some have pointed out, getting Streveler into the game as an option.

I don't remember who we had on the field and I've deleted the game from the PVR. Regardless there was no real excuse for not being able to score. Lousy play calling and worse execution.

[TecnoGenius]

I rewatched the week 1 game.  I'm not sure anymore that the OL problem is Dobson.  I saw a ton of Ko-man mistakes.  Like lots.

There also was a lot of whiffing and blocking air on run plays by nearly everyone, even Big Stan.  Lofton, Ko-man, Stan and the 6th would often be out there blocking nothing when there were D guys coming in behind them, or needing blocking at the point of attack.

Sometimes the widest 5th or 6th (Lofton or Wallace) would waste time on a kick out block when the run play was away from there and they'd be better served running downfield to block the LBs.

The extra blocking receivers (like Demski) were sometimes late into the box and completely whiffing on their blocks.  Brady was getting molested in the backfield by these Ds blowing up the C gap.

I didn't notice Neufeld sucking at all.

The OL was definitely getting played by MTL D looks.  Any stunt whatsoever was fooling us.  Thorpe's version of Hall's show-X-bring-Y was completely confusing the OL and Zach.  We simply had no answers.  Many times they'd end up bringing 3 and still beating us and harassing Zach.  Same with 4.

The MTL D basically looked like the WPG 2019-2021 D.  They did all the same tricks.  Had the same strengths.  Forced the same errors.  Thorpe basically copied Hall.  MTL out-WPG'd us.  Sad, sad day.

There is lots the OL needs to do to improve in every aspect; and Zach in terms of reading the pass rush.  If I had to pick 1 OL to replace after looking at week 1, it'd actually be Ko-man.  A bit of a surprise.  I'm not sure Eli is the answer.  Has a CFL team ever played an IMP C??  We have nothing to lose by trying...

When I rewatch week 2, also focusing on the OL, maybe I'll have to alter my opinion.

[Jesse]

I rewatched the week 1 game.  I'm not sure anymore that the OL problem is Dobson.  I saw a ton of Ko-man mistakes.  Like lots.

There also was a lot of whiffing and blocking air on run plays by nearly everyone, even Big Stan.  Lofton, Ko-man, Stan and the 6th would often be out there blocking nothing when there were D guys coming in behind them, or needing blocking at the point of attack.

Sometimes the widest 5th or 6th (Lofton or Wallace) would waste time on a kick out block when the run play was away from there and they'd be better served running downfield to block the LBs.

The extra blocking receivers (like Demski) were sometimes late into the box and completely whiffing on their blocks.  Brady was getting molested in the backfield by these Ds blowing up the C gap.

I didn't notice Neufeld sucking at all.

The OL was definitely getting played by MTL D looks.  Any stunt whatsoever was fooling us.  Thorpe's version of Hall's show-X-bring-Y was completely confusing the OL and Zach.  We simply had no answers.  Many times they'd end up bringing 3 and still beating us and harassing Zach.  Same with 4.

The MTL D basically looked like the WPG 2019-2021 D.  They did all the same tricks.  Had the same strengths.  Forced the same errors.  Thorpe basically copied Hall.  MTL out-WPG'd us.  Sad, sad day.

There is lots the OL needs to do to improve in every aspect; and Zach in terms of reading the pass rush.  If I had to pick 1 OL to replace after looking at week 1, it'd actually be Ko-man.  A bit of a surprise.  I'm not sure Eli is the answer.  Has a CFL team ever played an IMP C??  We have nothing to lose by trying...

When I rewatch week 2, also focusing on the OL, maybe I'll have to alter my opinion.

Do people really have a high opinion of our centre play? For me, he's the obvious weak link. He's just some guy we picked off the street when Couture got injured, isn't he? I'm shocked that Eli hasn't been the starter since he re-signed.

[The Zipp]

But you can go tempo-O and still kill clock!  Tempo is just saying you aren't going to substitute and thus the opponent cannot either.  You can still sit there after that and snap the ball with 2s left on the play clock!

So ya, I still wonder why we didn't go tempo to keep the passing D in and run it down their throats, after bleeding the clock down.

Tempo is best for a high performing offence that is firing on all cynlinders and players are playing as a cohesive group, they can almost read each others minds...that is not us at this point - not even close.  the risk is far too high that someone will make a mistake and turnover or take a bad penalty.

[Pigskin]

Do people really have a high opinion of our centre play? For me, he's the obvious weak link. He's just some guy we picked off the street when Couture got injured, isn't he? I'm shocked that Eli hasn't been the starter since he re-signed.

Well, he has been with the club since 2020. Of course there was no football that year. In 2021 he was on the PR most of the year but ended up on the AR for the GC. In 2022 he started 15 games for the Bombers while Couture was injured. In 2023 he became our starting C. So, he has been with the Bombers for a few years now.

[TecnoGenius]

Do people really have a high opinion of our centre play? For me, he's the obvious weak link. He's just some guy we picked off the street when Couture got injured, isn't he? I'm shocked that Eli hasn't been the starter since he re-signed.

Ya, but the couple of starts or spells Eli was in at C he was getting trucked onto his butt or whiffing even worse than Ko-man.  Doesn't mean he hasn't dev'd better by now... but I wouldn't bet money on it.

That's why I ask if some beast IMP C doesn't exist somewhere... CFL always focuses on IMP OTs because they are the most critical position, so there's so few good IMP OTs left to choose from (hence why they are coveted like Yoshi).  But the USA U system is also putting out gobs of IMP OG and Cs... the same number of them must be available to the CFL as OTs.  So in theory there should be many good beast ones we can look at?

Just because it's not traditionally done, doesn't mean we can't do it.  Since we're always 1-3 over ratio, there's absolutely nothing stopping us.  And an IMP C would by definition be an ELC, so it fits within our budget.

Yes, I do know C has a ton of responsibilities for calling out D formations, but I don't think that differs too much between Canada & US?  They might be able to pick the game up quickly.

[Road Griller]

Streveler is our best player.  Hands down, sign him long term!