Official Game Day Thread - Ottawa @ Winnipeg, August 14, 2026

[Blueforlife]

What's wrong with Richie Hall? If it's age I don't buy it. He's younger than Andy Reid and he's just 10 years older than MOS. He could finish the year at the very least.

Moot point because it's never happening. I feel like if you fire Younger, MOS will go too. Probably will come to that. A lot rides on stopping Edm's running game next week.

Hall is great but getting up there.

If you fire Younger the D wouldn't improve this year imo.

Hall was moving very slow warm up, slower than usual.  Throws nice ball.

Yes he could finish the year.  Not what I would do.  Change coaches in offseason as needed.

[barbk]

When I was at the game I notice Stanley Bryant around the refs when they were huddled near the 1st half of the game, then Willie Jefferson came onto to the field and walked Bryant on the field.  I've never seen that before from Bryant, I was wondering why or the reason for it.

[Jesse]

What's wrong with Richie Hall? If it's age I don't buy it. He's younger than Andy Reid and he's just 10 years older than MOS. He could finish the year at the very least.

Moot point because it's never happening. I feel like if you fire Younger, MOS will go too. Probably will come to that. A lot rides on stopping Edm's running game next week.

Hall has dealt with health issues and does not want to be DC anymore. He basically helps out as a favour to MOS but will not be the guy anymore.

We would never fire Younger midseason. MOS revealed last year with Hogan that he will never do that. But he needs to take a serious step back and have MOS or someone else take a more assertive role.

[Blue In BC]

Firing Younger now would guarantee failure.  Hard pass.

No surprise you'd take that position on Younger. How much worse does it need to get?

[Blue In BC]

Hall has dealt with health issues and does not want to be DC anymore. He basically helps out as a favour to MOS but will not be the guy anymore.

We would never fire Younger midseason. MOS revealed last year with Hogan that he will never do that. But he needs to take a serious step back and have MOS or someone else take a more assertive role.

Hall's defence is about the same as Younger's. Firing a coach mid season doesn't happen often or make a significant change in the outcome. It's moot because O'Shea won't do it.

Regardless it does happen. It happened in Ottawa a few times including this season.

Does anyone think Younger will return next season? I also suspect Hall may retire.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I've thought that too - but then it's just a scouting fail. You gotta be able to find a decent receiver who can play ST.

Clercius played plenty of reps but didn't do anything. Daniels doesn't seem to be helping the line. Condell keeps calling zero back fields but someone isn't able to read pressure and pickup the blitz/get the ball out faster.

The offence needs help. 

Zach explained in his post game interview he was often telling Brady to go based on the pre-snap coverage he was seeing, 90% of those dump passes were not the play of choice.  I think Zach went into this season hoping to throw mostly long and medium passes to move the ball quickly downfield and convinced Condell to design his playbook to fit that scheme.  Midseason and both of them are screwed, Zach can't buy the time to find the mid-range targets and Condell has a playbook with a ton of plays that can't be implemented.

[theaardvark]

For all the praise Brady is getting, its a team game, and he gets a lot of those yards because Oline opens holes, and his Rec's make blocks.

He is, no doubt, a huge asset and a monster with the rock.  But he does not do it on an island.

Hall's defence is about the same as Younger's. Firing a coach mid season doesn't happen often or make a significant change in the outcome. It's moot because O'Shea won't do it.

Regardless it does happen. It happened in Ottawa a few times including this season.

Does anyone think Younger will return next season? I also suspect Hall may retire.

Younger was promoted to prevent him from being stolen.  Might have been too soon, but I find a lot of his defense setups interesting, and no doubt Hall's influence is there, whether that is good or bad, I don't know (Younger seems to have a more aggressive set of ideas, Hall may be toning them down, again, good or bad?).  I don't think he has the best assets to acheive results, and offseason upgrades will probably make a big difference to next year's results.

[Waffler]

As

Hall has dealt with health issues and does not want to be DC anymore. He basically helps out as a favour to MOS but will not be the guy anymore.

We would never fire Younger midseason. MOS revealed last year with Hogan that he will never do that. But he needs to take a serious step back and have MOS or someone else take a more assertive role.

What health issues? As far as I can tell he moves slow because of his knee, think it was replaced this past off season. I am sure he could run a defense in his sleep, if just for the remainder of a season.

Agree that it will never happen. MOS has 2 years left on his contract, expect Younger to be DC for that long too. Just wondering if eventually Younger takes MOS down with him. The two go back to the days when they played together.  The only way you'd get Younger out is fire/not offer contract to MOS.

[Blueforlife]

No surprise you'd take that position on Younger. How much worse does it need to get?

No surprise you would want to fire him when we still have some hope.  Firing a defensive coach at 5-4 after a win isn't going to happen 99/100 times.

Regardless of the situation, I almost always want coaches retained until the off season.  I have always been this way.

Yes the D is bad.  Combo of scheme and players.

We have a chance at going 500 sneaking into the playoffs and having Zach try one last time.  Nothing wrong with hope for a positive outcome on a down trending team.

Change gears in off season, down shift on the hills, don't give up, just climb one more time and hope the trans doesn't blow.

There are no easy answers on this club for this year, nor any quick solutions.  The sun will set and we will rise again.

[Blueforlife]

For all the praise Brady is getting, its a team game, and he gets a lot of those yards because Oline opens holes, and his Rec's make blocks.

He is, no doubt, a huge asset and a monster with the rock.  But he does not do it on an island.

Younger was promoted to prevent him from being stolen.  Might have been too soon, but I find a lot of his defense setups interesting, and no doubt Hall's influence is there, whether that is good or bad, I don't know (Younger seems to have a more aggressive set of ideas, Hall may be toning them down, again, good or bad?).  I don't think he has the best assets to acheive results, and offseason upgrades will probably make a big difference to next year's results.

Agree x2

Hogs had a good night in run block, so did receivers who Brady mentioned post game I think.

Your 2nd post sums up my thoughts exactly

Zach explained in his post game interview he was often telling Brady to go based on the pre-snap coverage he was seeing, 90% of those dump passes were not the play of choice.  I think Zach went into this season hoping to throw mostly long and medium passes to move the ball quickly downfield and convinced Condell to design his playbook to fit that scheme.  Midseason and both of them are screwed, Zach can't buy the time to find the mid-range targets and Condell has a playbook with a ton of plays that can't be implemented.

Hard to argue with this.

Hall's defence is about the same as Younger's. Firing a coach mid season doesn't happen often or make a significant change in the outcome. It's moot because O'Shea won't do it.

Regardless it does happen. It happened in Ottawa a few times including this season.

Does anyone think Younger will return next season? I also suspect Hall may retire.

You said fire him last night but then say it wouldn't make a significant impact to the outcome.  Then why do it or suggest it? Hmmmm

[Blue In BC]

For all the praise Brady is getting, its a team game, and he gets a lot of those yards because Oline opens holes, and his Rec's make blocks.

He is, no doubt, a huge asset and a monster with the rock.  But he does not do it on an island.

Younger was promoted to prevent him from being stolen.  Might have been too soon, but I find a lot of his defense setups interesting, and no doubt Hall's influence is there, whether that is good or bad, I don't know (Younger seems to have a more aggressive set of ideas, Hall may be toning them down, again, good or bad?).  I don't think he has the best assets to acheive results, and offseason upgrades will probably make a big difference to next year's results.

I agree we may not have the best assets. However, we continue to make too many mental errors. It's one thing to get beaten by a talented offensive player but getting beaten by a player with no defensive player around him is something else.

That goes beyond the soft coverage problems that allows QB's to complete 70% of their passes uncontested.

A few cases in point:

1. The receiver that caught a pass with no defender in the picture and came up lame while streaking for a TD. He may not have scored but this happens all too often.

2. The Maier pass that hit the upright with a receiver wide open in the end zone.

3. Re-view the Ottawa TD passes which seemed virtually uncovered.

Sure it's possible that they may not have scored, been stripped of the ball etc etc.

It is a pattern of miscommunication, strategy and / or bad talent we're seeing every game. That is on the coaching to a significant degree. Is the strategy too complicated?

[Blue In BC]

Agree x2

Hogs had a good night in run block, so did receivers who Brady mentioned post game I think.

Your 2nd post sums up my thoughts exactly
Hard to argue with this.
You said fire him last night but then say it wouldn't make a significant impact to the outcome.  They why do it or suggest it? Hmmmm

I said it because he's had enough time to improve and has not. Why would we continue to allow him more time? There might be an opportunity to bring on a new assistant and give him part of the season to develop.

Hall was more of a bend but don't break DC. He didn't give up as many big plays as often as Younger. When he did, we were more often losing contested plays.

It's always a risk but coaches are hired to be fired at some point.

Can you honestly say we have had one complete good defensive game in 2026?

You suggest waiting until the off season to make coaching changes. In theory I agree with that.

OTOH, you have to question why we didn't do that in the off season in 2025. Season record of 10 - 8 and were the crossover team.  Gave up 42 points and over 500 yards to the Als in an early exit.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

For all the praise Brady is getting, its a team game, and he gets a lot of those yards because Oline opens holes, and his Rec's make blocks.

He is, no doubt, a huge asset and a monster with the rock.  But he does not do it on an island.

Younger was promoted to prevent him from being stolen.  Might have been too soon, but I find a lot of his defense setups interesting, and no doubt Hall's influence is there, whether that is good or bad, I don't know (Younger seems to have a more aggressive set of ideas, Hall may be toning them down, again, good or bad?).  I don't think he has the best assets to acheive results, and offseason upgrades will probably make a big difference to next year's results.

I don't think it's the personel, like RB's recently fired DC William Field, Younger's defence is too complicated for the players to follow, the fact he has to rely so heavily on Kramdi to line everyone up is telling.  No need to reinvent the wheel, play solid positional football that limits explosion plays and emphasize good tackling and always running to the ball covers 80% of the basics, just like Richie Hall would teach.

[BomberFan73]

I don't know how many times I saw one (or 2) of our front seven show blitz, and Meier just do a hard count and our guys drop back into empty space.

We don't send enough guys after the QB, and we can't cover WRs. But we have all these LBers just standing around the middle all alone.

We are lucky that pass hit the uprights and that guy fell after getting behind our guys.

How did we go from having a top secondary for years to this garbage?

[Blueforlife]

I said it because he's had enough time to improve and has not. Why would we continue to allow him more time? There might be an opportunity to bring on a new assistant and give him part of the season to develop.

Hall was more of a bend but don't break DC. He didn't give up as many big plays as often as Younger. When he did, we were more often losing contested plays.

It's always a risk but coaches are hired to be fired at some point.

Can you honestly say we have had one complete good defensive game in 2026?

You suggest waiting until the off season to make coaching changes. In theory I agree with that.

OTOH, you have to question why we didn't do that in the off season in 2025. Season record of 10 - 8 and were the crossover team.  Gave up 42 points and over 500 yards to the Als in an early exit.

Agree better to wait.  We got our issues and challenges.  What happens next depends on an incredible tough back half of the season.  Sink or swim.  We likely tread water and kicker the rubber over winter.

I don't think it's the personel, like RB's recently fired DC William Field, Younger's defence is too complicated for the players to follow, the fact he has to rely so heavily on Kramdi to line everyone up is telling.  No need to reinvent the wheel, play solid positional football that limits explosion plays and emphasize good tackling and running to the ball covers 80% of the basics, just like Richie Hall would.

Hard to argue but we lost our communication leader on D and switched him to FS same year.  That hurt x2 big!