Ottawa @ Winnipeg.

[Pigskin]

I am hoping Kody Case can get into the line-up sooner then later. 5'10", 182, and has 4.44 speed, also very good hands. 

[jdrattops]

The next two weeks are the season, the Bombers need to go 2-0.  Lose to Ottawa and they're 4 games behind a crossover.  Lose to Calgary and they're 3-4 games back from 3rd in the west (also losing the season series with Calgary).

[TecnoGenius]

I am anticipating Ottawa comes out and stacks the box in an attempt to stop the run and force us to pass-which hasn't been our strong suit so far.

That would be the smart move.  They can run and pass blitz at the same time and leave the DBs to fend in cover-0... The solution for the big blitz is the ol' BLM back-pedal and dump-screen over the top.  Unfortunately, Zach has never been great at that... he never back-pedals enough, nor looks as worried as BLM feigns to.  I really wish we could get better at that play.

Hitch screens might work too, but gotta get that ball out mega-uber-fast because the edge guy will try to jump the lane for a knockdown: something we've struggled with for 1.2 seasons now.

So you can say we re going to run the ball until they stop the run and force a bunch of 2 and outs and then the boo birds will be howling!!!

I expect boo birds to come out immediately if our first series is an ugly 2&out like last home game (bad hand-off to Johnny).  Basically, and really ugly rookie-QB-level play by Zach will get people riled up real fast.

As for us, I hope no one here boos the team.  Y'all know about my booing your team theories!  Football is 30% morale, and if we boo them their morale goes to 0% and we have a 30% less chance to win.  In no case has booing your own team ever led to them playing better that day.  Maybe next week... but never that day.

[TecnoGenius]

Riderfans forum often would say about Zach that he'd look like a normal or bad QB if WPG's OL wasn't as good.  They point to Zach performance in SSK and his last season in HAM.

I think they are right.  Zach is elite when given a great OL, but clearly starts to regress to less-than-average when faced with unending pressure.  It's because he thrives when we are dictating his pocket position and roll-outs.  If the other team is dictating them, he's much weaker than the young/mobile QBs that are dominating the league right now.

The solution isn't to get rid of Zach, or blame him for everything.  The solution is to do whatever we need to do to solve the, frankly, crap OL performance he has had to live with the last couple of weeks.

If you cut Zach (which we can't do, but just pretend), he'll just get picked up by another team that has or obtains a great OL and Zach will be back to 118 QB rating and we'll be crying.

We've started solving the WR personnel issue, and I expect we'll do more.  We now have to turn our attention to the OL issues.  WFC is grading those guys out all the time... they know who the weak link(s) are.  Make the hard choices and find solutions.  If we have to plug&play in a Bond, do it.  If we need a new NAT or IMP C, do it.  RT?  Do it.  LG?  Do it.  I don't care what it is, throw away the lowest grade guy (or PR) and bring in a real solution.

I don't care if plugging in new OL makes us lose 5 games, as long as the guy is legit and will help us win the remaining 9... because we're going to lose the next 5 games anyhow AND the remaining 9.  Something has to be done.

At this moment our OL is bottom-3 in the CFL.  Maybe even the actual bottom-1.

And so the $600k QB plays as well as a $250k one, mostly because he has no protection.

[dd]

In all my 60 plus years following sports and being a fan, I have never verbally booed the team I'm cheering for. I always figured when the going gets tough, that's when they need you the most so how could you possibly boo them then turn around and cheer for them?? Didn't make much sense to me.

I am hoping this is the game they pull out of their funk and move the ball and score some points. We score points and we ll be ok, if we don't, gonna be a long night at PAS

[Waffler]

Riderfans forum often would say about Zach that he'd look like a normal or bad QB if WPG's OL wasn't as good.  They point to Zach performance in SSK and his last season in HAM.

Zach is on record as feeling hamstrung by their short pass offense. The same one Fajardo ran. They didn't use him right.

[theaardvark]

Zach's best moments seem to come from the broken play / scramble mode.  This was amplified by Schoen's synergy with him in scramble drill.

When scramble mode becomes every down, and you don't have Schoen, well...

Love what Zach has given us, but this is what have you done for me lately time.  He needs to get his game on lockdown and put the team on his shoulders. By the end of next year, when the GC rolls around, I really hope we aren't looking towards Ottawa and wondering "What if".

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Zach's best moments seem to come from the broken play / scramble mode.  This was amplified by Schoen's synergy with him in scramble drill.

When scramble mode becomes every down, and you don't have Schoen, well...

Love what Zach has given us, but this is what have you done for me lately time.  He needs to get his game on lockdown and put the team on his shoulders. By the end of next year, when the GC rolls around, I really hope we aren't looking towards Ottawa and wondering "What if".

Teams have learned to defend against Zach's preferred method of attack, he either learns to adapt and becomes more of a drop back pocket passer like Matt Nichols or it's over for him.  Bombers are looking down the barrel of a rifle in regard to their future and I don't think Strev. is the answer.

[theaardvark]

Millanovic has "fixed" Bo's issues.  Time for Buck to look at Bo pre and post Millanovic and figure out how to do the same for Zach.

[Blue In BC]

Anyone at practice? Who is lining up with # 1 offence at receiver?

Still nothing official about signing Whitehead.

[Jesse]

Anyone at practice? Who is lining up with # 1 offence at receiver?

Still nothing official about signing Whitehead.

Only thing that's come out so far is that Collaros is not practicing today.

[Blue In BC]

Only thing that's come out so far is that Collaros is not practicing today.

Bruised ribs I suppose. Every week it's a question about whether this player or that player will dress for the game. So much for transparency.

The other site mentioned that Garbutt is back practising today. I thought he couldn't start until after game 5 on the 6 game IR? Either way, I doubt anyone comes off 6 game IR early.

[Blue In BC]

Chris-Ike added to AR roster and Bridges moved to PR. That's another curious move ratio wise. I thought there was a chance a receiver might be added offsetting another moved to PR from AR.

Not quite sure what this means especially in light of Holm listed as DNP today. Murphy also listed as DNP. I wonder if Chris-Ike is just a swap in of a Canadian with Murphy going to 1 game IR or PR?

Noah Hallett and Garbutt both back to full practice on 6 game IR.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Chris-Ike added to AR roster and Bridges moved to PR. That's another curious move ratio wise. I thought there was a chance a receiver might be added offsetting another moved to PR from AR.

Not quite sure what this means especially in light of Holm listed as DNP today. Murphy also listed as DNP. I wonder if Chris-Ike is just a swap in of a Canadian with Murphy going to 1 game IR or PR?

Noah Hallett and Garbutt both back to full practice on 6 game IR.

I don't know why you get so hung up on roster moves prior to game day. They mean very little usually and sometimes are for entirely different reasons other than who will play or who will start.

[bluebeard]

Millanovic has "fixed" Bo's issues.  Time for Buck to look at Bo pre and post Millanovic and figure out how to do the same for Zach.

Stoll the TI-Cats are not winning any more games then us.