Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Toronto July 27, 2024

[Pigskin]

Just got back from Toronto. Large group in our box at the Jays game today. Everyone talking about the CFL command center. Everyone agreed that the ND10 call should have been PI.

 

[TecnoGenius]

Why not give us more flexibility with the ratio by designating one of our imp starting vets as a Nationalized American so we can dress players who give us the best chance to win?

I'm nearly positive the "magic roster/chart" the team provides to the league every pre-game designates a FAKENAT (NA).  I think it also designates the DNA/DNS.  Most of the rule wording for these goofy things says "MUST", not "CAN".  As per Junkie, the team/league do not have to share these state secrets with us plebes.  Thus we are left guessing even who the DA/DIs are!      

My point being, we are probably designating all of these things; us "fans" are simply not worth informing.

[TecnoGenius]

Why is the o line decent at run blocking and terrible at pass protection?

Ironic, because to start the season we were terrible at run blocking and decent at pass pro!  Did you see our run stats for the first 3-4 games?

It's like 1 steps forward, 2 steps back.  Frustrating.

[TecnoGenius]

Anybody else surprised they didn't review Castillo's field goal in OT? It looked like it went right over the left upright. I believe in the NFL that's ruled as good. Anybody know if it's the same in the CFL? I can't find anything on it. At the very least, I thought they should have reviewed it.

Because CFL is too lame to have a high EZ-plane cam to be able to triangulate the moment the ball crosses the plane.  And too lame to have top-of-post-aiming-up cams.  Hey, it saves them $20!!  That gets them more donuts at Tims dontchaknow.

My take on the comp-PVR is that it was oscillating between in/out and it may have just gone out at the worst moment.  I have no problem with the call.  If it had been lower, it likely hits the post -- whether it goes in or out is anyone's guess.  Every player took their turn costing us the game...

[TecnoGenius]

I was surprised they didn't review the IC on Demski in the OT.

That IC was horrifically egregious, thanks for reminding me.  Demski was mauled, 100% IC.  Refs didn't care, though they are often against making calls like that at the end of a game because then it really does look like they are manipulating the game.

If Zach saw it, he should have chucked it at him to draw the DPI.  Command would have to review that as a potential score in the last 3 mins.  A missed bad IC mauling may have finally gotten command to be fair with us.

[TecnoGenius]

The refs called PI the same both ways. They allowed contact. Personally I thought the Pick 6 was PI & the deep ball at the end of the game was PI on us, but that's not how they were calling it.

The potential DPI on us wasn't because even though we held the arm down a bit, we let it go for the R to make a full play on the ball well before the ball got there.  And while pushing the arm down we didn't impede the R in any way.  If that armbar was still going on when the ball arrived you can bet it would have been DPI.

So it's not the moves that were happening, it's the timing of when they were done.  Brilliant play by our D.

[TecnoGenius]

Guys, I know we don't want to sound like tinfoil wearing nut jobs, but there can be no doubt that we are being screwed over by this league for some reason. The nonsense in Regina followed by the crap in Toronto cannot be denied. Even Farhan Lalji came out with a statement today saying that Demski was clearly interfered with on the Argo pick-six play.

@FarhanLaljiTSN
#CFL officials do a far better job than they're given credit for. Command Center generally gets it right, both with review & eye in the sky, & the league is better for its use. But this is PI & should have been overturned IMHO.

@FarhanLaljiTSN
His right arm is pulling Demski away from the ball and preventing him from getting there. This isn't incidental.

There's no debating the interference on Demski. Defenders right arm is clearly on Demski shoulder and twisted his body prior to the ball arriving, that is taking away Demski s opportunity to catch the football, and that by definition is interference. It's not even close. What's sad is after video replay CC doesn't have the stones to overturn the bad call.

Yes.  As per precedent, that we've seen so many times, if the R's body twists away from the ball due to a tug from behind right when they are playing the ball, especially by a very-early-contact defender, that is DPI every time.  If on-field refs miss it, command will correct on review.

I have yet to read something from anyone other than command that thought that that wasn't DPI.  There are a lot of every-game-for-a-decade watchers of CFL on many forums.  It's not just a peanut gallery.  These people have a great feel for how penalties will be called and have a great hit rate on guessing how command will adjudicate a play.  When all of them say command got it wrong, command got it wrong.  Farhan is the icing on the cake.

[TecnoGenius]

Ya, you'll never see the league apologize for the poor officiating, it just won't happen. They'll go about their business and meet post game and do their evaluation and try and eliminate the bad calls, but they'll never come out and apologize for the bad calls.

https://globalnews.ca/news/2243212/cfl-issues-statement-after-game-changing-call/

This is the one I always bring up.  This is what was called for in the SSK faux-DPI game, IMHO.

[TecnoGenius]

Vanterpool actually has lots of experience as a guard. I would find a way to get him on the roster.

Was Bond put in mid-season or in FA?  If mid-season then there's your proof it can be done.  Bond came in and instantly made our OL go from hot crap (worse than our current one) to above league average.  He was basically Stan-lite.  Imagine if we had 2 Stan-Lites at guard right now??

We have the ratio to start 5 IMP OL.  I'd start replacing the worst-scoring OL each week one by one until there are no NATs left.  Sure, it's not a long-term option, but it will send a message to the decent NAT hoggies to stop sucking while they warm the bench.  Maybe in the end we'll only need to really start 3 IMP OL.

[TecnoGenius]

The league has apologized for this sort of thing in the past. That's why their silence now is deafening. I also cannot understand the silence from the Bomber management side. Where is Wade Miller?

Wade can say things behind closed doors, and maybe he is.  But as MOS makes abundantly clear, they can't say anything to the media or they get a huge fine and then the refs/command will treat us even worse.

[TecnoGenius]

My question is, and I have watched most every game this season, how many phantom calls/non-calls have you seen teams not named the Blue Bombers suffer? Is every team experiencing this?

Over a season, most teams will get crap calls.  This season, the worst calls have been the 1 (maybe 2) DPI on us vs SSK (no review), the Blind-Bradbury non-overturn DPI/INT on us in TOR, and the completely unfair shouldn't-be-reviewed SSK incomplete/fumble last week.

Other than that I've noted a bunch of chintzy/weak ones, but those are fairly normal for the CFL.

So the answer is: yes, WPG seems to be on the receiving end of more bad calls (3) than usual... so far... Have we irritated someone at command?  Is the league keen to make sure WPG doesn't go to the cup for a 5th year, which would bore the heck out of every non-WPG fan?

[TecnoGenius]

I dunno but did you see Biggie get trucked by Carey? He absolutely blew him up. Biggie has never been the biggest LB but played bigger than his size. That is no longer the case.

Biggie got trucked, but look at the very next run play.  Biggie braces and clobbers Carey right back.  Defenders will plan for the different RBs in different ways.  Carey is usually a speed/shifty guy who won't try to Strev-you.  So not bracing so you can adjust is a good strategy against Carey.  I bet that's Biggie's thinking.

But then he adjusted and absolutely hammered Carey next run.  Go watch again!  This was Biggies best game in a long time.  If Biggies back that will make it even harder to run against our D.

[TecnoGenius]

Why wait for NFL cuts. The problem of our OL is in the interior. Replace Kolo and Neuf with Eli and Wallace.

Wallace not even close, and he's clearly not a "start in first year" find like Chungh, Couture, Desjar, Gray.  I think he's more a dev-for-year-2 guy like Speller, Dobson.

Remember, Wallace was drafted only 17th.  That's the 7th OL taken in 2024.  How many of those other 6 are starting right now?  Definitely not anywhere near 6!

[ModAdmin]

Wallace not even close, and he's clearly not a "start in first year" find like Chungh, Couture, Desjar, Gray.  I think he's more a dev-for-year-2 guy like Speller, Dobson.

Remember, Wallace was drafted only 17th.  That's the 7th OL taken in 2024.  How many of those other 6 are starting right now?  Definitely not anywhere near 6!

He's not starting because he is behind a veteran line of players.  He is not starting because he is "not even close".  He could potentially replace someone this year.  He is a bulldozer when he gets in and you can't say he will be "dev-for-year-2 guy" nor can you definitively say he is not "anywhere near 6".  Those are very subjective statements.  In fact, you may see him start the next game in place of Neufeld. 

[TecnoGenius]

Those are very subjective statements.  In fact, you may see him start the next game in place of Neufeld.

Yes, everything I say is subjective.  But they are based on a multitude of factors, including the combine reports, TC reports, and what we've seen in jumbo.

The overarching theme pre-season was Wallace is "slow".  I'm not sure we can survive an addition to our OL of someone even slower than Lofton.  His positives are he's enormous and heavy.  Good luck trying to push him back to collapse the pocket.

In any case, my point about first year starter vs not is more a function of numbers.  First year starters good enough to leapfrog the expected heir ("group 1") are rare.  The only ones that were huge gems in the past decade are Chungh, Couture, Desjar.  Some are put into first year duty and do ok (Gray) but aren't really there yet (group 2).  The rest go into our dev process and often (usually?) come out on the other end as legit starters in year 2 or 3 (group 3).  Very few just fail out (Spooner) (group 4).

What I'm saying is Wallace is most likely in group 3 (dev guy, good for the future), and if we're lucky, group 2 (same but can start a few games in year 1 and no suck rocks).  You're hinting he'll be the next Desjar.  The odds of that are slim, especially given his draft placement and scouting reports.

Is Neufeld going to be out long term?  Who knows.  Is Wallace "the guy" instead of Eli if he is?  Maybe, probably?  50/50 chance, that's for sure, because there is no one else other than Wallace/Eli.  Will Wallace start and show so good he steals Neuf or Dobson's job?  Unlikely... but if he does, I'll be the first to congratulate him and love that our OL might actually be improving.

Now, all that said, if Neuf is out, and our 2 FBs are on the 6GIR, then we have no super-jumbo package, and are very limited on TE sets.  Was it BinBC's idea to call up Seal Jackson?  Ya, I'm looking long and hard at that idea!