Winnipeg @ BC Pre-Game

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Better memory than me! But only 2 of those are D. And both got destroyed by Rankin last week.

Oh, and moxey is d, but I'm pretty sure he's not much better than vaval at this point.

So all but moxey are back, what's the excuse last week, and what will be the excuse this week? If anything it'll be harder because Cody can't run like Salter...

Can't forget in that first game against the Lions the offence struggled to stay on the field in the second half, leaving the defence exhausted and primed for that late game collapse.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

[Pigskin]

Going into the last regular season game.

Ceresna leads the DL with 23 DTs, 7 QS.
Fletcher 20 DTs, 6 QS.
Perkins and Wilson lead the team with 8 TDs.
Wilson needs 9 yards to get to 1000. Wilson also leads the team with 492 YAC.
Ayres leads the team with 19 STT.

[Blue In BC]

Texada transferred to PR. That suggests Moxey or Hazen will be added. Moxey would be the logical addition. Whether he starts or is depth we'll see. I believe he will be starting.

Smith listed as questionable but hasn't practised at all this week. OTOH, he missed 2 games earlier with this injury and has now missed another 2 games. He wasn't listed as "Out " so maybe there is a chance he can play.

[gobombersgo]

Spread just jumped to -6.5, possibly more news out of BC of more starters taking a rest.

There are about 17 players listed as OUT on their injury report.

[bluengold204]

Can't forget in that first game against the Lions the offence struggled to stay on the field in the second half, leaving the defence exhausted and primed for that late game collapse.

To be honest that's been the story of our season and I don't expect it to change this week either

[dd]

This game is going to have 2 teams with polar opposite game plans--BC is resting their stars for their playoff run, and our guys are literally playing for their jobs next year and hopefully a playoff spot. I would expect our players emotions and intensity will be high vs BC just trying to get through the game and not getting hurt. This game shouldn't be close....but of course it will. Under these conditions, if our defense gets lit up and we lose the game, Younger should be gone on the spot, but I don't think it will come down to that, but if anyone should be feeling the heat, Younger should be.

[Tecno]

If I was BC, knowing you can almost directly cause WPG to be your matchup for WSF, I'd play to lose but have all of your B-team guys injure the tar out of all of our stars.  Especially the QB.

If you don't need to win, you can take 15 yarders all night long: it's meaningless.  Just need to keep it believable enough that it wasn't intentional.  So spear, but not grade-2, etc.  Heck, if the guy is a C-team guy who never dresses, have him get 25's DQs and suspensions!  Like goons, but for football.

The #1 target for them will be to injure Zach.  A 15 or 25 won't mean squat if they destroy our playoff hopes (hehe, that's a funny 2 words) in one hit.  Target #2, Brady -- and soooo easy to get shady hits on him in the gut piles.

Just sayin'

And yes, they'll probably kick our royal butt in another week without having to resort to anything shady.  But the point still stands -- they can guarantee it if they want.

[Tecno]

Spread just jumped to -6.5, possibly more news out of BC of more starters taking a rest.

Oooh, 3.30 money line now.  Getting close!

Another solid bet for this game (any WPG game) is if your place has live betting, waiting until just before halftime when we're up 10 and it's like 5.5 moneyline for BC.  Buy the heck out of that, then wait for WPG to implode.  Way more than 50% of the time that bet pays off this season, and at 4-1 it'll average out nicely.

Of course WPG might actually win this one game, so you need to think these things through and be willing to lose.  But this was the sure bet for this season.

It's the same as my WPG-loses-Q3 bet from 2025.  Only lost that bet once.

Very strange... WPG's GC-win odds have not changed much with our recent loss.  I thought it would have shot way up to 20-1 after we showed there's no way we beat EDM (and MTL!).

[Tecno]

It's not always that easy. Look at Sask. They almost lost to a backup team.

But not too surprising, and they SHOULD have lost anyhow.  SSK has been hot garbage since after week 5 or so.  The max D&D isn't working this year, and the D is a hollow shell of the monster 2025 D.  Heck, they're so bad we almost won the LDC, and we spanked them bad in the BB!  Now that's bad!

But SSK has tons of excuses because they have SO MANY top guys with injury.  Whereas our team will be fielding almost every desired starter!  SSK won even with excuses, what will happen when we lose with no excuses?  Ouch.

[Tecno]

Fajardo is a very good rushing QB, and Rankin is well...., Rankin, no surprise there. They punished us with the "threat" of a pass, and we took the bait all game long. This game will be different if Salter doesn't have Horvath to try the same antics he did last game.

But for 90% of Cody's runs, they are scrambles when the reads aren't open.  He maybe does 2 called runs in a game, mostly in the red zone.  Salter will have designed and called runs, to make a 2-back (Strev-AH33 style look) where you have no idea which guy is running.  But you know someone will be running!  And it won't be 90% Horvath / 10% Salter: it'll be more like 60/40.  Just like our last BC game!

I suspect he's going to do the opposite of that we expect him to do and he will go pass heavy and were going to be attempting stopping the run.

Ya, except he throws worse than Ford.  He's like a skinnier Ford!  It would be nice if Jones could blow him up early in the game.  100 lb fleetfooted guys look great running circles around everyone, until they're hit.

And he'll be cocky as all heck, like he's still at the end of our last game vs him.  Which is funny, because I don't think he'd beat any other team: even OTT.

[Mick]

If I was BC, knowing you can almost directly cause WPG to be your matchup for WSF, I'd play to lose but have all of your B-team guys injure the tar out of all of our stars.  Especially the QB.

If you don't need to win, you can take 15 yarders all night long: it's meaningless.  Just need to keep it believable enough that it wasn't intentional.  So spear, but not grade-2, etc.  Heck, if the guy is a C-team guy who never dresses, have him get 25's DQs and suspensions!  Like goons, but for football.

The #1 target for them will be to injure Zach.  A 15 or 25 won't mean squat if they destroy our playoff hopes (hehe, that's a funny 2 words) in one hit.  Target #2, Brady -- and soooo easy to get shady hits on him in the gut piles.

Just sayin'

And yes, they'll probably kick our royal butt in another week without having to resort to anything shady.  But the point still stands -- they can guarantee it if they want.

It's really in SSK's and EDM's hands who goes where after we beat BC. SSK wins and they play BC, SSK loses they crossover.

[Ridermania]

Bombers will be the only team this weekend playing as many starters as possible.

Win and your in. 

[Mick]

Bombers will be the only team this weekend playing as many starters as possible.

Win and your in. 

In either situation it's going to be difficult for SSK, CGY, or WPG to make it very far in the playoffs this year. BC and MTL are very very strong, BC is stronger that EDM by far, I feel like beating BC is a bigger task than beating EDM. If it was me I would rather stay in the west for a chance to get to the GC. Sure you could take the crossover and face TOR for a possible easy win, but, I doubt anyone is getting past MTL this year regardless of who it may be.

[Mick]

In either situation it's going to be difficult for SSK, CGY, or WPG to make it very far in the playoffs this year. BC and MTL are very very strong, BC is stronger that EDM by far, I feel like beating BC is a bigger task than beating EDM. If it was me I would rather stay in the west for a chance to get to the GC. Sure you could take the crossover and face TOR for a possible easy win, but, I doubt anyone is getting past MTL this year regardless of who it may be. Last week we played a fully loaded EDM team, playing for something, and came very close, take away the 2 INT and the 2 missed FG. That would have been a very different game.