Official Game Day Thread - BC at Winnipeg, June 21, 2024

[dd]

I don't have a problem with them going for it, I see what MOS wanted to do, we are struggling offensively so let's score when we re on the 5. The person to be upset with is Collaros. He knows he has to get the play off, so 3 step drop and get rid of the ball. As soon as he rolled out the half was over, and he knows better than that.

[Tiger]

Keric Wheatfall. I like him but the injury is the worst possible timing for him.

Habba

[TecnoGenius]

I don't have a problem with them going for it, I see what MOS wanted to do, we are struggling offensively so let's score when we re on the 5. The person to be upset with is Collaros. He knows he has to get the play off, so 3 step drop and get rid of the ball. As soon as he rolled out the half was over, and he knows better than that.

Ya, he even mea culpa'd in his postgame presser.  But still doesn't make it a good call to begin with.  I was wrong in my previous post, when I rewatched they had 5s, not 6s!  That means you have 4s because you need 1 on the clock!  That is virtually impossible, and certainly even if you get good at it you aren't going to succeed even 50% of the time in live action with live Ds and a competent DC.  Too many variables.

If they are wasting all their thinking time, brain power, and practice time on iffy 5s plays, then they truly have lost the plot!  80/20 rule.  Focus on the plays that will get you 80% of your yards/points, and those plays clearly need some focus!!  Worry about this piddly stuff once you have perfected the bread & butter.

[TecnoGenius]

1.dline is a mess, Willie again except for one disruption did nothing,I know he was keeping containment but we need him to apply pressure.

Willie was getting double-teamed every single play.  They don't respect the other guys so always have 1-2 spare blockers to hold up Willie.  There is no way Willie can beat that, even with his superpowers.

Exactly like last season when Jeffcoat was out.  You need another stud in there to split the inevitable double-teams.

4. What wasn't new is that when ever the opposing team needs a first down  its almost a given that they throw a short out and are successful.

Giving up the short wide-out is the Hall trademark.  We did that all of last season too.  Once in a blue moon we'd greelight Houston to jump it.  But it's always been our M.O. to play this way.  The thinking is it's a long and difficult pass, so mid-percentage, not 100%.  But when it's a decent QB like VAJ it becomes near-100% and you give up 1st down after 1st down.

It's not a mistake, it's a conscious choice.  I don't see them changing that anytime soon, unless maybe Younger gives Hall some major grief.

Speaking of Hall... since Younger is on the field, is Hall still up in the booth?  I really wonder who is really in charge and who is really calling the plays.  However, I kind of like the idea of a "split-DC" with one on the field.  If anyone sits east side and can tell me if they can see Hall in the booth, that would be great!!

[TecnoGenius]

I just read that Schoen didn't play in the 4th Q, Wheatfall also got injured. On defence Woods got nicked.

I have very bad news for y'all.  I surveyed the field for a long time right after the game with the binocs (kid likes going on the field, so no rush post-game)...

Schoen was helped off the field by 2 players carrying him on either side.  Schoen was putting zero weight on one leg.  It looked bad.  Not many injuries will require an exit from the field in that manner 45 mins after the injury!  And most of them are mid/long term injuries.

Also strange is they didn't already have him in a boot.  Just his normal outfit.  No ice.  Those last 2 points are reaaaaallly scary when you think about it.  "Easier" injuries you tend to ice or boot up...

If it's achilles or ACL we're well and truly up poop creek and this season is lost.  We simply cannot win with both Lawler and Schoen out long term.  There is too much non-refundable SMS tied up in those guys.

If anyone has any idea which play caused the injury, let us know as I want to scour the coverage for any hints.  I'll give it a try later if no one can find it.  If it wasn't on TV at all, that's even scarier, as it may have been a non-contact away from the play.

Things just keep getting worse right when we show some promise, and we can't seem to catch a break!!  I can't ever remember a season this injury-laden to such important players (and rookies too).

[TecnoGenius]

I rewatched (yet again) the last 3 mins of this game.

The choice on 3rd & 6 to punt it:

In 2019-2023 this is a good choice.

In 2024 this is a horrible choice, and doubly horrible in this particular game.  On nearly every drive BC got 3 or 7.  From memory I think they punted once?  Maybe add 1 or 2 more times, but you get my point.

Given that, it's virtually guaranteed BC was going to get 3.  No one thought our D was going to stop them from at least getting a FG.

And there's the clock to consider.  Even if we stop them from 3 or 7, BC can still bleed off a lot of clock, and no matter what happens we need that clock to score.  If we give them a long field, we also give them a lot of room to bleed clock.

So we should have gone for it on 3rd.  We get it, we're in the pound seats to win with a walk-off FG.  If we whiff, BC gets the ball at the 40-ish and is guaranteed a FG.  We just need to stop a TD, which we were pretty good (but not great) at doing all night.  I'd say 50/50 chance we stop a TD.  We were much better stopping their O when they had a short field than when they had the whole field as a target anyhow.

And no matter what BC gets it bleeds less clock because they will do whatever they need to do quickly, and always go for the FG on 3rd.

If they get a fast TD, at least we still get the ball back with decent time remaining to try for our own TD and OSK.  I'd have more faith in pulling that off than our D doing anything useful!

If we had decided on the first snap of our last drive that we were in 3 down territory, then we don't have to take that wasted Demski shot.  We do the short game to keep bleeding clock and worst case we have to go for it on 3rd & 3 or something.

When you suck, especially on D, sometimes you have to be aggressive with the gambles.  We weren't going to win "normally", throw that 2023 book away.  We need to do like when Lapo went for 2PAT a few years ago to let his junk OTT team win by 1 point instead of going into O/T.  That's us now.  You take your shots when you have the chance.

Was MOS worrying about fallout?  If he punts on 3rd with 2 min left he can point to how he always does that and it's "by the book", blah blah.  He might think no one will fault him for that.  However, he admitted a lot of this decision is situational depending on how the game went so far.  And the D was going really bad, and getting worse every series as more players got injured.

If he goes for it on 3rd and fails and then BC TDs, he may be thinking he'll get crucified.  But he could easily explain it in the post-game saying based on whole-game performance he didn't think the D could get a 2 & out.  I don't think anyone would disagree with that!  Just explain everything I said above.  He wouldn't be wrong.

I hope in the future he gives us a fighting chance, and puts the weight on his 65%-of-SMS O.  We won't win any games unless we grow some big ones.

[theaardvark]

Willie was getting double-teamed every single play.  They don't respect the other guys so always have 1-2 spare blockers to hold up Willie.  There is no way Willie can beat that, even with his superpowers.

Exactly like last season when Jeffcoat was out.  You need another stud in there to split the inevitable double-teams.

Giving up the short wide-out is the Hall trademark.  We did that all of last season too.  Once in a blue moon we'd greelight Houston to jump it.  But it's always been our M.O. to play this way.  The thinking is it's a long and difficult pass, so mid-percentage, not 100%.  But when it's a decent QB like VAJ it becomes near-100% and you give up 1st down after 1st down.

It's not a mistake, it's a conscious choice.  I don't see them changing that anytime soon, unless maybe Younger gives Hall some major grief.

Speaking of Hall... since Younger is on the field, is Hall still up in the booth?  I really wonder who is really in charge and who is really calling the plays.  However, I kind of like the idea of a "split-DC" with one on the field.  If anyone sits east side and can tell me if they can see Hall in the booth, that would be great!!

If they doubleteam Willie, stunt him.  Or start him inside. Adams was getting 4-5 seconds a drop, Willie on a stunt can get there in that time. 

Fake dropping him into coverage, let the OT commit, then rush. 

There are so many ways to get him to the QB, Hall had a lot of schemes to do it.  We are so thin at DE though, maybe the Cheetah package is not an option right now.  That really seemed to work.

[TecnoGenius]

If they doubleteam Willie, stunt him.  Or start him inside. Adams was getting 4-5 seconds a drop, Willie on a stunt can get there in that time. 

They were stunting Willie.  And he was doing fake drops, and every other trick.  BC just left 2+ blockers to spy Willie the whole time.

And Willie's jumps for knockdowns were ineffective because VAJ was always throwing it 30+ yards which is too high.