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

[blueandgoldguy]

Yes, more Streveler and, eventually, Wilson. They need game reps. When Matt Nichols went down in 2019 we turned to Strev and he managed to win a few games. Then, for insurance, we traded for Collaros and Lapolice basically used the 2 QB Streveler-Collaros tandem to take the club through the playoffs to win a Grey Cup. Today, Collaros is older and less effective. But Strev might be better than he was in 2019. We will never know unless he gets more playing time. Let's go 2 QB tandem system. It might be ugly before it gets pretty but having Jarious Jackson around should help.

They brought in Collaros because Streveler wasn't very effective in the starter's role.  The team was slumping badly with Strev as a starter losing more games then they won...3-5 I think after a 7-2 start under Matt Nichols.  Strev was throwing a tonne of interceptions at this point and it was obvious that the Bombers were not going to go far in the playoffs with him as the starter.

[blueandgoldguy]

My question is why did we extend collaros without him playing a down in 2025 when its obvious his performance is on the downturn? Its not like he gave us a bargain.

Indeed.  I brought this up in the Zach Collaros signs extension thread.  He didn't earn that type of extension based on his play the past 2 years and almost every playoff game.  If anything, he should have taken a paycut this year based on how mediocre he was for much of 2024 and how awful he was in the Grey Cup...you know, like how Bo-Levi Mitchell took a paycut at the beginning of the 2024 season and has rewarded the Ti-Cats with good play ever since.

Imagine if Zach had taken a $100,000 paycut for this season, and do the right thing by the team in a Grey Cup hosting season.  We could have spent an extra 20,000 here and an extra 30,000 there on 3 positions on the Bombers to strengthen the club.  Case in point,  Walters could have righted a wrong he committed in 2024 and used some of that extra money to bring back Grant.  Instead we are stuck with the awful Vaval and likely a second year in a row with the worst return game in the league.

[blueandgoldguy]

I accept losing games, most of the early season losses last year were relatively close games.  What I don't understand is where these blowout losses come from, it's as if the team is totally unprepared and unable to regroup within the 60 minutes allotted to mount a comeback.  If this team gets down by more than 2 TD's they're generally dead in the water, might as well throw in the flag cause they're not coming back.  That's why I asked if anyone can recall Zach mounting a significant comeback in the last few years.

Not with Zach.  Dru Brown on the other hand lead us to a huge comeback win a few years ago, when Zach dug a hole for the team before he left the game with injury.

[TBURGESS]

I don't think we collapsed. Calgary simply out played us in every phase of the game.

[BBRT]

I don't think we collapsed. Calgary simply out played us in every phase of the game.

I agree with your comments! Calgary simply out played us in every aspect of the game. It happens to all teams over the long schedule. Let's see how the Bombers rebound after the bye as I believe they have Calgary at home. Sports teams trends as in Business, tends to need to be analyzed over time. Let's see how things evolve over the next few games.

[Pete]

One thing in this game that stood out was the number of passes Zac threw to stationary receivers vs the edmonton game where he hit players in stride.
Allowed Calgary to have time to come up and make plays/ interceptions

[Waffler]

MOS mentioned on the coaches show that many players, due to easier travel, already had tickets booked home from Calgary. To me this explains part of the lack of focus.

[blue_gold_84]

Collaros decline did happen in 2023 though...but at the halfway point of the season.  All you have to do is look at his stats on a game by game basis from the midway point of the 2023 season to the present and you will see a marked increase in his TD-INT ratio.

Collaros' first nine games of 2023: 16 TDs, 5 INTs (3.33:1 ratio)
Collaros' last nine games of 2023: 17 TDs, 10 (1.7:1 ratio)

This is just another example of cherry-picking, IMO. And here's why:

Collaros' first nine games of 2024: 4 TDs, 8 INTs (1:2 ratio)
Collaros' last nine games of 2024: 13 TDs, 7 INTs (1.86:1 ratio)

He actually improved last season. And yes, I'm being facetious by also cherry-picking.

There's no doubt Collaros' play has declined but the TD:INT ratio alone doesn't even start to paint the full picture here.

[Waffler]

* Maybe I need to lighten up a bit, but I found the post-game
celebrations to be a little much. They had a stage set up, and players
were posing for pictures as the commissioner proclaimed Calgary
"Stampede Bowl champions." Champions? It felt too much like a Grey
Cup celebration, which is a lot of hype for an event that might not
even stick around. Fortunately, the Stamps won, because there's no
way a team coached by Mike O'Shea would have gotten up on that
stage. Something to consider, as Winnipeg is expected to be
Calgary's opponent in the Stampede Bowl for the next few years.

- Jeff Hamilton, Free Press

I was wondering the same thing. Or if they even would have a had a celebration at all. How many fans would have stayed?

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

* Maybe I need to lighten up a bit, but I found the post-game
celebrations to be a little much. They had a stage set up, and players
were posing for pictures as the commissioner proclaimed Calgary
"Stampede Bowl champions." Champions? It felt too much like a Grey
Cup celebration, which is a lot of hype for an event that might not
even stick around. Fortunately, the Stamps won, because there's no
way a team coached by Mike O'Shea would have gotten up on that
stage. Something to consider, as Winnipeg is expected to be
Calgary's opponent in the Stampede Bowl for the next few years.

- Jeff Hamilton, Free Press

I was wondering the same thing. Or if they even would have a had a celebration at all. How many fans would have stayed?

From a marketing standpoint they probably should schedule Sask. in that time slot, especially if it's always going to be against the same team.  So many Sask, natives in Calgary, improves the chances of a good turnout with a long history of bad feelings, might even get both premiers to attend as they're there for Stampede anyway. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

It's not the O playbook, it's the D playbook and inside details / philosophy, that's what you buy Biggie for.  Lots of wide open mid/deep RECs and 8sec in the pocket plays by their O... BC (even with Rourke) and EDM didn't "figure it out", but CGY did.  Hmmm.

Sounds like Biggie helped the Stamps Defence out quite a bit. Wpg. Sun article below by Paul Friesen.

While Bighill couldn't bring his usual brawn to the field in last week's tilt, he brought his brain, which holds an expert-level knowledge of what the Bombers like to do.

Standing on the sidelines with an I-pad at the ready, he was quick to help the Stampeders linebackers identify his former team's strategy on offence.

"I still understand the philosophy of everything that they're trying to do," he said. "I still understand how they like to attack people. Pretty much right away you can start seeing some of the game plan they have and some of the second-down passing game, where you can identify, 'Okay, this is what they're trying to do.'"

There's no way to measure that impact, but the Stamps did hand Winnipeg it's first loss of the season by a lopsided, 37-16 count, a gut punch the Bombers aren't accustomed to taking.

https://winnipegsun.com/sports/football/cfl/winnipeg-bluebombers/show-them-what-youre-about-ex-bombers-star-bighill-eager-for-more

[dd]

I dunno, Houston played on Calgary last year and he knew our defense as well, so why did we beat the crap out of Calgary last year if Houston was playing there and knew all our defensive plays??

You can know a team is in man or a 3 man deep zone or whatever, you still have to execute on offense, and we didn't do that, not even close to that. We played sloppy turn the ball over O, don't have to be a genius to defend that!!

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I dunno, Houston played on Calgary last year and he knew our defense as well, so why did we beat the crap out of Calgary last year if Houston was playing there and knew all our defensive plays??

You can know a team is in man or a 3 man deep zone or whatever, you still have to execute on offense, and we didn't do that, not even close to that. We played sloppy turn the ball over O, don't have to be a genius to defend that!!

Agree with your last sentence, but you can't compare Houston's knowledge of the D to Biggie's, he might have understood his own position, but not everyone elses as well.  According to O'Shea, Bighill spent as much time teaching and breaking down film in the defensive meetings as Richie Hall did.

[TecnoGenius]

That's why teams have DC's. There isn't anything about the Bombers that they don't know. It's about execution. You think that's why a team signs a player from another team often and it's still just another conspiracy theory of yours.

But it's not.  Scheme is critical, and guessing what your opponent is going to do any given play is half the battle.  If an OC can guess precisely what a DC is going to call, and precisely what certain LB/DB tendencies are, then they can draw up the perfect play that gets a guy wide open.  Even if the D is executing perfectly.  That's the chess match.

Football seems to be a mix of:
Talent
Scheme
Execution
Morale
Momentum

Assign percentages of importance as you see fit.  Is execution the most important?  Dunno.  My guess is, nah.  What I do know is if you're dealt a garbage hand in one of those (say talent), you can sometimes still come out ahead if you ramp up some of the others.  And scheme is the thing that can overcome many woes.

Scheme won the '23 GC on 3rd & 3 with 2 receivers out.  Scheme allowed can't-win Arbuckle to march the field over and over again for TDs to nobody, and for their D to clobber our much-better REC corps.

[TecnoGenius]

Not sure what you mean by coasting. That was our hardest first place and in fact required "an act of God" in the final moments of our last game.

I meant more the WDF game, which was over in 1Q.  However, even the reg season left us at the end with only 1 real competitor.  But yes, much harder than the other seasons where we got to take a couple of games off at the end.