Official Game Day Thread - Grey Cup - Winnipeg & Toronto - Nov. 17, 2024

[ModAdmin]

This is what it is all about.  Grey Cup and the best team in the CFL.

Bombers are odds on favourite to win but it's one game and you win or lose.  The Bombers 1 and 0 strategy is about to be test one more, important time.

The Bombers appear to be ready.  As Kenny Lawler said today, ""This being the last Day 3 right before the Grey Cup, it's an honour to have been on this field with all these men here because you can't take any season for granted because they're all different," he said.

"There's a special feeling in the air. The guys, we've been through a lot. We've overcame a lot, whether it was injuries at the beginning of the season to the adversity we had then. So, to get to this point is a great feeling because of the sacrifices we've all made as teammates, the roles we've had as teammates, and we just continued to put one foot forward after another. We put the team first.

"To just get to the playoffs is a special thing because not everyone gets that opportunity in their professional careers," he added. "Locking up the first seed isn't easy to do, either. So, we honour that, and we honour our teammates by putting in as much work as possible."

Injury-wise we are in, arguably, the best shape we've been in all year.  The Injury Report for November 14th is...



Every sense indicates the Bombers are ready and motivated to win.  Let's get it on for our Blue Bombers!

[blue_or_die]

Here it is...the last GDT of the year. Truly bittersweet - on one hand, here we are again getting to watch our team play for a 5th championship in a row. We get to cheer them on until the very last second of the season...again. Imagine going back in time to even 2019 and telling your past self that we would go on this kind of streak. After years and years of complete misery, has the universe ever made up for that.

...And on the other hand, regardless of the result, I am sad that next weekend there will be no CFL. Hoping the Jets can continue keeping me entertained through the long winter, and may the spring thaw and training camp reports come quick.

As for the actual game, all I gotta say is do what got ya there. Back 7 on D need to be everywhere on the field at once like they were last week. Collaros needs some time from the OL but needs to be smart with the ball. They're gonna come after him hard so we will need play action and short-medium outlets to get positive yards on every down. Get Brady going and let him bully the Argo D and get us to second and manageable every first down attempt. Give a shot to Kenny, Nic and Pokey more than often and let them come up with it way down field.

Avenge 2022.

GO ****IN' BOMBERS GO!!!

[GOLDMEMBER]

Here here @blue_or_die

I never thought of it from the angle no CFL ball next week. You're right it is sad.

It was another truly blessed year. Back in 2019 this level excellence could have not have been fathomed. We can only hope the Bombers can do 3 of 5 Grey Cup wins.

The way I see it, as long as the Bombers can keep Grant in check and OL wins the TO DL battle we should win comfortably.

Buck needs to call a better game than past GC game loses.

Younger needs to do what he did last week against Harris and the Riders. Now facing Arbuckle this is a big down grade from Harris, all we can do is cheer and hope.

Thanks for the top notch GDTs through the year. As always I have loads of fun on here.

Go Bombers...

[gobombersgo]

I think Woli might replace Kelly in the line-up.

[TecnoGenius]

blue_or_die is right.

The game will come down to if we can give Zach time to throw.  TOR pass pressure will be immense.  Inhuman even.

TOR almost always pass-rushes 1 less than the blocker count.  So a normal 5 REC out has TOR rushing 4.  They pretty much stick to this formula every down, because they don't need to blitz to be effective.  Also, they rarely rush less, like 3.

We'll need to be creative with our jumbo sets, and keep them guessing if it's pass or run on 1st with jumbo.  We'll need the usual short hot route as well as (and this is important) deeper "throw to a spot" hot routes.  TOR will get pressure and be ready to clobber the short hot.  We need to make them pay with an unseen or deeper hot outlet.

This is the game that we'll need to keep pounding with Brady even if it doesn't work well.  TOR will be grinding, and we can grind too.  Our grind will work better than theirs and we should come out ahead even if their D is stifling on both pass & run.

Our D just needs to do what it does.  I like our 3 man rush against the near-impenetrable TOR OL.  We just need to have the dropped coverage get back into run stop when they run, just like we did vs SSK.

I don't mind taking shots on O when we get enough pass-pro.  I think we'll have to earn that ability though by grinding it out early.  I doubt we'll get the opportunity before then.

TOR full well knows they'll have to win this game on D and ST.  I fully expect them to play like they are possessed.  Hopefully we'll be able to wear them out and if their O is ineffectual we'll have their morale destroyed by mid-3Q.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Not a fan of taking out a healthy player for limping "limited" participant.

[Pigskin]

Not a fan of taking out a healthy player for limping "limited" participant.

I think Woli might replace Kelly in the line-up.

Would love to see Woli in the GC.

[Blue In BC]

Not a fan of taking out a healthy player for limping "limited" participant.

Who said he was limping? He had a rib injury and not anything to do with his legs. Kelly and Hallett are the ones with leg injury.

Demski has an ankle injury.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Would love to see Woli in the GC.

IF effective.

Looking no further what we did last year with bigHill and Schoen. Not great!

[theaardvark]

Demski was limping noticibly after the injury, went off the field and got spatted up really hard. 

After that, he seemed off stride, Collaros missed him on a deep route by a lot.  He didn't seem to limp, but that amount of tape obviously slowed him down, threw off the timing.

Who knows what happened after the game, how badly it swelled or how he has recovered.

Yes, I want Woli and Demski in the lineup, *IF* they are 100%.  Not just healthy, but unlikely to aggravate the injury easily.  Last thing we need is to have 40% of our starting receivers come up lame on the first offensive down of the game.

This is the Grey Cup we're talking here, not a regular season game.  Its hard enough to win with a full roster.

Who dresses if they don't?  Well, Clercius is already in for Woli, so that's a no brainer.  Don't really have a NAT SB for Demski, other than Murphy... not sure if a hobbled Woli or Demski isn't a potential better choice than that...  sigh.

[markf]

Here it is...the last GDT of the year. Truly bittersweet - on one hand, here we are again getting to watch our team play for a 5th championship in a row. We get to cheer them on until the very last second of the season...again. Imagine going back in time to even 2019 and telling your past self that we would go on this kind of streak.
And on the other hand, regardless of the result, I am sad that next weekend there will be no CFL.

GO ****IN' BOMBERS GO!!!

Great comment.  I feel like this every year, including the days before The Grey Cup wins.....

[dd]

Would love to see Woli in the GC.

Eh, more sentimental than anything. We have enough veterans to lead this bunch and the young receivers we brought in more than made up for woli s absence

I look at the leadership Willie Jefferson is showing this year by not wearing the go pro camera— he's serious and dialed into winning the cup just not enjoying the moment of being there. The past losses have left their mark, we won't be denied this time . I m 100% certain on that

[dd]

Not worried about Toronto's pass rush we ll use our 6 man front and control that just like we did vs the riders

[Pigskin]

Who said he was limping? He had a rib injury and not anything to do with his legs. Kelly and Hallett are the ones with leg injury.

Demski has an ankle injury.

Yes, Woli82 has been running for weeks at practice with some of the injured players.

[TecnoGenius]

Not worried about Toronto's pass rush we ll use our 6 man front and control that just like we did vs the riders

I'm worried.  We use 6, they'll send 5.  We use 7, they'll send 6.  We may even see our 8 max-pro a few times.

Look how quickly the extremely good MTL OL got defeated every snap in EDF.  Ya, you can only hold those TOR guys back for so long.  And it's not very long.  If they beat MTL's OL, they'll beat ours.

The solution has to lie in getting the ball out in 2.7s, not trying to beat that DL.