Official Game Day Thread - Winnipeg at Calgary, July 3, 2025

[Sir Blue and Gold]

Our corners are the weakness in our secondary, but I think Bonds is actually decent. Part of the problem is that our D-line has to get more pressure so that VA doesn't have time to get to his second, and third reads. Thats making our corners look worse. And no matter good your defence is, its hard to win a game in the CFL when your offence scores 16, and give up 14, going a net plus 2. It think in the end Zach was a bigger factor in our loss than Bridges. That holding penalty on Randolph was a killer also. Add in Vaval trying to run a punt out from the endzone, and it was just too many mistakes and poor play to overcome. I think (?hope) it will be very different in 2 weeks time.

100%. And the offense has to throw the ball somewhere on our defense. It's never going to be at our halfbacks so where else is it going to go?

Edmonton tried Kramdi last week and failed.

We gave up a couple plays but it wasn't a trainwreck in the secondary either. And VA had plenty of time most of the night. Time beats every defensive back.

[Big Daddy]

You want tinfoil... that ceremony looked preordained!  Like it was planned for CGY to win.  With the commish standing there handing it over like it's the GC, and them hanging out an MOP award?  What on earth was that?  The most bizarre thing I've ever seen.  (Banjo Bowl never does any of that.)

Looks like a massive Stamps promotion that couldn't have ended any other way.  This is their get-fans-in-the-seats hype moment.

I had thought about that before doing my pickems... sometimes I wonder...

I agree that it looked like a total Stamps promo from pre-game through the game, and post-game.  Of course it was hype to promo CFL in Calgary.

But don't take the extra step into conspiracy Tecno - it would be huge to influence the outcome of a game by the league.  Just don't see that as possible in this day and age where everyone records everything and no one can get away with anything.

[J5V]

The toughest part of the next two weeks is going to be living with the stink of this game for that long. My word, why do we seem to fall flat going in to bye weeks?

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I agree that it looked like a total Stamps promo from pre-game through the game, and post-game.  Of course it was hype to promo CFL in Calgary.

But don't take the extra step into conspiracy Tecno - it would be huge to influence the outcome of a game by the league.  Just don't see that as possible in this day and age where everyone records everything and no one can get away with anything.

Even techno doesn't believe techno's conspiracy theories because if he did he wouldn't be cutting corners and being sad about Vanterpool. You'd be advocating for putting out the same lineup that went 3-0 and hoping for "not a conspiracy" in two weeks.

[ModAdmin]

Count me more than happy Calgary is coming to Winnipeg after the bye week.  Best possible scenario for the Bombers and their fans.  As has been said, we are 3 and 1 and play Calgary twice before mid-August.

[TecnoGenius]

100%. And the offense has to throw the ball somewhere on our defense. It's never going to be at our halfbacks so where else is it going to go?

Except it's a truism that in the CFL a vast majority of the pass traffic goes to the inside slots, not the wide out.  This is why the insides are so much more valuable in fantasy.  And the wide out is often the NAT placeholder.

So not matter how good our HBs are, teams, by the very design of every O, are going to have to throw and test the HBs.  It was actually quite strange to see CGY's O be able to throw to the CBs so much, but then again, maybe VAJ having 10 mins after each snap had something to do with it.

P.S. CGY basically played WPG ball and beat us at our own game.  Perfect pass/run mix, great run execution, almost no 2nd & long, timely and successful deep shots, D making game-changing plays.  And we played like CGY is "supposed to".  LOL

[TecnoGenius]

But don't take the extra step into conspiracy Tecno - it would be huge to influence the outcome of a game by the league.  Just don't see that as possible in this day and age where everyone records everything and no one can get away with anything.

Ya, we'd like to think.  But since I started betting on the games I've noticed that WPG tends to lose the ones where the odds are outsized.  This one KO'd with -5.5 WPG advantage, which is pretty high.  And the GC with like -10.5 or whatever.  Someone betting against WPG when we are the wild favorites is making bank...

If we're strongly favored we poop the bed consistently.  Weird.

[Pigskin]

CGY hasn't beaten us in how long?  Did CGY's O look like they knew everything and its dog about our D?  Maybe tinfoil, maybe not.

They beat us last season.

[TecnoGenius]

Even techno doesn't believe techno's conspiracy theories because if he did he wouldn't be cutting corners and being sad about Vanterpool.

LOL, put down the chablis.  I mentioned Vanterpool once and you seem stuck on that.  When a team goes from hero to zero in 1 week you start by looking at the changes made.  I never said anything beyond that.  I have no idea how Vanterpool impacted anything until I do a rewatch and grade out the OL.  Zach certainly wasn't clean tonight.

But I can probably say with confidence that it couldn't have been worse with Wallace in, because nothing can be worse than what we saw.

[TecnoGenius]

They beat us last season.

Oh ya, when we were still "bad", in week 4.  Let's hope it's the same this year!

[Pigskin]

If we have a problem at DB Parker can take Bridges spot and Allen can go to safety.

[TecnoGenius]

If we have a problem at DB Parker can take Bridges spot and Allen can go to safety.

That might make things worse with a rookie.  Back in '23 was Parker a corner or HB?

The super tall supersized CGY REC corps made it hard for our avg-to-short DBs.

[TecnoGenius]

Let's not forget there's a chance we get Pokey back sometime later in the year.  Pokey in for Sterns would be a huge upgrade.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

If we have a problem at DB Parker can take Bridges spot and Allen can go to safety.

Yep, Parker could move to corner and Vaval or Allen could possibly fill in elsewhere, they're not short on options.  Hopefully this debacle spurs some roster experimentation and they change things up for the next game, it would be disappointing if they fielded the same lineup and didn't reset giving a few of the healthy players waiting in the wings a shot like Jon Jones.

I think Schoen may be gone for awhile so that opens the door for Mitchell, also time to add a little DE help to see if they can't create more pressure, Vaughters and Willie couldn't get near VA tonight.

[BBFANDM]

I think Schoen may be gone for awhile so that opens the door for Mitchell, also time to add a little DE help to see if they can't create more pressure, Vaughters and Willie couldn't get near VA tonight.

So far I am not sure Vaughters is any better that our younger DEs from last year.