My Game Thoughts
Offense
They did just enough to win. The passing game is really hitting it's stride. OL has been better last two weeks in protection, albeit those all-star DT's in Calgary gave the interior of the line some issues all night. That was reflected in the run game as well. However gotta love the development of the WR's here with Agudosi and Schoen looking like breakout rookie stars. As I mentioned previously as good a night as Agudosi had, it was inches/couple looks away from being even bigger. Ellingson is a football vacuum, anything thrown close to him i caught. I was just meh on the signing as the Lawler replacement but I was proven very wrong here early. The concern remain Bailey. I watched him specifically at times to see if he's getting open and Collaros just isn't finding him, but I didn't see it. He is just not being effective out there. It's weeks away, but when Alexander returns they'll need to turn a WR spot back to Canadian (hopefully Demski/O'Leary-Orange are healthy by then), and it may even be Bailey as the odd man out in the WR corps at that point. The run game I'm not sure what more needs to be said. It's not being effective. Oliveira's 3.2 yard per carry is good for 43rd in the CFL right now. Lots of QB's/WR's some with under 3 carries on that list, but still. It's bad. Augustine's 4.5ypc is better but still not good enough. We saw though that today starting only 7 Canadians it was hard for them to find packages for McCrae, so it's really we need one of these guys to seize this role. I wonder if the Bombers will kick the tires on Maleek Irons?
Defense
Got some luck with Calgary drops no doubt, but a 12/28 187yds, 1td, 1int out of Bo Levi is about as good as your going to do. DB's looked solid. Houston had a good night. Teams continue to not even throw anywhere close Nichols. Malcolm Thompson is the one weak spot, great in moving up in run coverage but REALLY struggles in pass coverage. The one big play to Begelton was on Thompson. We are really missing Kyrie Wilson in the run defense. The runs were mostly on the LB's, IMO. He was our best guy in run coverage, now we have two LB's that excel in pass coverage, IMO (Bighill and Clements). So we'll see how this evolves on our run D. Carey is quite good, but he had too easy a time. Maruo had a great pop as he's seeing more D reps as well which is cool to see. DL was disruptive all night. Willie had a slow start but he's starting to round into form. Jackson Jeffcoat might not have got on the stat sheet last night (maybe did idk) but he was getting a good push consistently as well making Bo Levi move. Cameron Lawson had a lot of D reps last game, I think he's developing but I didn't see anything too noteworthy.
Special Teams
Well Grant dropped that fumble early put us in a hole. Then that punt run was still a good decision by Liegghio (it would easily have been blocked and likely a TD against if he doesn't pull it down. And I swear he threw it away for an incomplete pass. Good coverage for the most part, other than that obvious hold on the PR which allowed Logan the return. Liegghio still struggling with XP. He's a solid 15/17 for 88.2% (good for 4th in CFL) on FG. But a baffling 11/15 for 73.3% on XP. Only Lewis Ward at 66.6% on XP is worse right now, but that's just 2/3 and he'll improve past Liegghio after today's game is counted. He's hitting the FG, so it's in his head. The talent is there, the only option is to let him play through it, IMO.
Overall it hasn't been the prettiest season per se. But it's 6-0 for the first time since 1960. Hard to complain very much. It's a veteran team that know they haven't hit their full stride just yet. It is going to be hard to avoid a let down game next week. After two back to back huge tests and a Calgary rematch coming in 2 weeks this next game visiting the lowly Elks does seem like a natural spot for a trap game. But it's hard not to be confident in the Bombers spot here.
