Mike O'Shea said our Defence played pretty dam well

[Blue In BC]

Concerning about Vaval to be sure but Lawson has bounced back.  Need to shore up our weakest link on the back end.  I like our defensive schemes and rotatations.  So many moving pieces and faces.

Vaval seems to be playing fairly well. Lawson has picked it up. All that said it makes me wonder if there continues to be some sort of miscommunication or is it bad luck? By that I mean does a given DB try to jump a move or slip making a speed turn? How does any receiver get that open? I mean that's job one!!

Bombers defence still uses a lot of bend but don't break strategy. That works against lesser QB's that will make more mistakes. Good QB's will nickle and dime you all the way down the field and at times find that open deep shot.

I wouldn't say our DB's consistently contest receptions. Notice how quickly Riders surrounded our receivers and either knocked down a pass or delivered heavy hits.

However as several posters have mentioned our defence played well enough to win both games. Turnovers, missed FG's and an offence with only 2 good receivers makes it difficult to win. When was the last time we played close to a perfect game?

We're last or close to last on turnover ratio. That usually means you are losing games.

I don't know if Houston gets added this week but I would like to see Vaval just as the returner at the moment. His returns have dropped off since he has been doing double duty. That's tough on a 1st year player.

As always, it creates another possible ratio problem unless we flip the OL back to 3 Canadians next week.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

So was Brady's TD in LDC.  Sauntered in.

Sometimes you do make the perfect play call, and the OL executes perfectly.

Maybe SSK psyched us out with all those outside runs (this week and last) that we were so busy protecting those we had too much space in the middle.

SSK's coords have been running circles around ours in both games.  They seem to actually think and plan.

In fact, I would say SSK is built 100% to be "Bomber Killers" this season.  That's literally their whole goal all FA, all TC, all everything.  That's why they sucked vs CGY.  Too bad for them we're only a so-so team this year and it's probably CGY they'll have to beat in WDF.

You know that Mace's job is now 100% secure for several years no matter what happens because they beat the dreaded Bumblers in the season series, and coveted LDC and BB.  That's all it takes to keep your job in SSK.

The funny thing is, Bob Slowik the Stamps new DC is being lauded for running a very simple basic defence that the players all understand and buy into.  Which means everybody gets to play the position they signed up for and doesn't have to make decisions or multi-task on every second play.

[Blueforlife]

Vaval seems to be playing fairly well. Lawson has picked it up. All that said it makes me wonder if there continues to be some sort of miscommunication or is it bad luck? By that I mean does a given DB try to jump a move or slip making a speed turn? How does any receiver get that open? I mean that's job one!!

Bombers defence still uses a lot of bend but don't break strategy. That works against lesser QB's that will make more mistakes. Good QB's will nickle and dime you all the way down the field and at times find that open deep shot.

I wouldn't say our DB's consistently contest receptions. Notice how quickly Riders surrounded our receivers and either knocked down a pass or delivered heavy hits.

However as several posters have mentioned our defence played well enough to win both games. Turnovers, missed FG's and an offence with only 2 good receivers makes it difficult to win. When was the last time we played close to a perfect game?

We're last or close to last on turnover ratio. That usually means you are losing games.

I don't know if Houston gets added this week but I would like to see Vaval just as the returner at the moment. His returns have dropped off since he has been doing double duty. That's tough on a 1st year player.

As always, it creates another possible ratio problem unless we flip the OL back to 3 Canadians next week.

Agree Vaval needs one job
Good assessment

[Sir Blue and Gold]

It doesn't really matter so much who is covering at corner if we can't get any pressure on the quarterback. Houston can't cover for 10 seconds any better than Vaval can.

[Horseman]

We also did something that made them go away from Liver King mid/late in the game.

"Liver King" LOL!, nicely done, slow clap Techno!

[dd]

When Houston comes back, I d move Vaval over and bump Lawson to the bench, he's been awful. Vaval is too good an athlete to take out of our secondary, twice the athlete Lawson is. Keep Lawson around in the event of injuries to others

[Blue In BC]

It doesn't really matter so much who is covering at corner if we can't get any pressure on the quarterback. Houston can't cover for 10 seconds any better than Vaval can.

That's true but there is a difference between being close to a receiver and not in the same area code. We've seen receivers 8 yards behind our DB's.

Take last week. Allen was only a bit off on his timing and about a yard away on that 79 yard score. This week Vaval was not close to the receiver on the 1st completion. Whereas on the 2nd completion he took a PI. So the 2nd one was a technique / timing issue and the 1st one was a blown coverage.

I haven't re-watched the game to " time " how long Harris had to throw.

[Blue In BC]

When Houston comes back, I d move Vaval over and bump Lawson to the bench, he's been awful. Vaval is too good an athlete to take out of our secondary, twice the athlete Lawson is. Keep Lawson around in the event of injuries to others

Vaval has more upside but the double duty thing is not the best plan. I'm not sure which played better yesterday. Vaval was the one that gave up the 49 yard completion and then the PR. So it's debatable for present and future. Yes he's more athletic but it's not that simple. Good players win between their ears with football IQ and ability to react.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Vaval has more upside but the double duty thing is not the best plan. I'm not sure which played better yesterday. Vaval was the one that gave up the 49 yard completion and then the PR. So it's debatable for present and future. Yes he's more athletic but it's not that simple. Good players win between their ears with football IQ and ability to react.

Lawson seems to be capable of more physical play, saw him help out tackling Oullette a couple of times.

[BBFANDM]

It doesn't really matter so much who is covering at corner if we can't get any pressure on the quarterback. Houston can't cover for 10 seconds any better than Vaval can.

Agreed but it seemed to me that SASK was doing a lot of Holding and it wasn't getting called.

[Blueforlife]

When Houston comes back, I d move Vaval over and bump Lawson to the bench, he's been awful. Vaval is too good an athlete to take out of our secondary, twice the athlete Lawson is. Keep Lawson around in the event of injuries to others

It's not that simple imo.  Vaval and Lawson are at similar abilities and point in their career.  Both shown flashes of good, bad and ugly.  Vaval plays teams and is also very good at that.  Saying Vaval is twice the athlete Lawson is isn't correct.  I would try to rotate all three but might not have the roster flexibility to do that.

[Jesse]

Vaval has more upside but the double duty thing is not the best plan. I'm not sure which played better yesterday. Vaval was the one that gave up the 49 yard completion and then the PR. So it's debatable for present and future. Yes he's more athletic but it's not that simple. Good players win between their ears with football IQ and ability to react.

I'm not sure I buy into the fact that the double duty thing is a big deal. This is the CFL. Many starters play on ST. 

He's a professional athlete. A handful of extra snaps a game isn't affecting him. They can rotate him out for a play if he's temporarily winded at any point.

[GOLDMEMBER]

Sort of have to agree with your comments. I think the issue is pretty plain and simple. Not enough talent on the team coupled with poor management from the top down. And if Zach is done for the year so are we!

we need to make a trade for someone's back up again! Tre Ford? lol

[Blue In BC]

I'm not sure I buy into the fact that the double duty thing is a big deal. This is the CFL. Many starters play on ST. 

He's a professional athlete. A handful of extra snaps a game isn't affecting him. They can rotate him out for a play if he's temporarily winded at any point.

Not every play gets hit at full speed like returners. It depends on how long the defence is on the field TOP which would factor into the statement.

He's also a CFL rookie and that alone is a factor. Many USA college players only play 12 games and have longer between snaps. Some get burned out about this time of the season if they've been starting regularly.

[TecnoGenius]

He's a professional athlete. A handful of extra snaps a game isn't affecting him. They can rotate him out for a play if he's temporarily winded at any point.

The risk of relying on Vaval for both is returners OFTEN get injured.  Sometimes only for a couple of series, sometimes for the rest of the game, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes the rest of the season.  See: Janarion Grant.

If Vaval became top at his spot, then it would really suck if/when he got injured in ST (remember Fogg getting injured?).  Yes, that problem is lessened by him being no better than Lawson (so far) and probably way worse than Houston.

And in any case it's perfect if Vaval does return only AND is the backup IMP DB.  Then we don't need to dress another DB, and we have that comforting insurance.

It's actually ideal.