OT: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 2023 Season - Another terrible disappointment. NEXT: Tough Decisions on How to Rebuild.

[roccerfeller]

Game Thoughts

Not too high, not too low.

I coached (hockey) for a lot of years. It was my favourite saying. It applies to both sides of the coin. One play, one half, one game do not make a season. There are lessons to be learned here. The lesson is NOT that the Bombers are suddenly a bad team.

Offence
Hard to find many positives here. But the one I have to highlight was the play of Brady Oliveira. For a guy who was doubtful and his status was in doubt up until a few hours until gametime he had plenty of burst early in the contest when it mattered. Game script got away from the Bombers and meant he touched the ball less but overall it was a solid performance from him.

That's about all I got for this unit. Outside of that it was a poor showing.

The guy I had in the good category was Nic Demski. He made a nice snag early, had a key blitz pickup block, and even got in on the run game with a standard RB handoff for a good gain. But that drop into a Lions players hands late was very uncharacteristic. Albeit I do recall a drop into a defenders hand in that Sask playoff game in 2021 where they had 5/6 turnovers in the first half. Carlton Agudosi had a lot more targets for sure, but some bobbles late won't look good on tape. Schoen didn't make much of an impression and Bailey was non-existent. But it's hard to put too much blame for this on the receiving corps, they didn't have much of a chance.

Zach Collaros has rarely struggled since donning a Blue and Gold uniform. He did tonight. Talk all you want about the OL (and believe me, I will), but one thing Collaros gets himself into to trouble is that he wants to force the field too much sometimes. The heat was on, the OL couldn't block. Where was the quick slants, the quick crossers? They were open. He missed an open Bailey late in the endzone on the rollout where he tried to force it to Wolitarsky. Yes he was under pressure lots, but pressure opens up it's own advantages sometimes. He will need to improve quickly as everyone is watching this film and saying bring the heat.

The OL. This has been the strength of this team for years, since they started to become relevant again back in 2017ish. This was a nightmare game for them no doubt. Stanley Bryant looked completely lost at times. Geoff Gray and Patrick Neufeld were not holding up inside at all. Hardrick and Dobson also struggled at times. Kolankowski was probably the best of the bunch, but it's not saying much. Listen this will be talked about endlessly, Gray is a bust, Hardrick, Bryant, Neufeld are too old, etc. This is the same unit which received great scores in games 1 and 2. They didn't forget how to block. It was a rough one, but I have a hard time believing they just suddenly started to suck. It's a long year.

Defence
Not much better to say here. Again I like to start with positives and I think overall the DL was pretty decent. Celestin Haba is looking like a real quality DE. Makes good reads and has some serious speed on the outside. But showed off his strength as well carrying a latched on OL to VA for a sack. Ricky Walker and Jake Thomas did a decent job plugging up the middle, Walker even getting a late meaningless sack. Willie was a little off his game.

Bighill wasn't terrible, but didn't really do anything. Clements had a couple ok moments, but meh.

The DBs were not great. The Bombers were missing their top 2 corners, and it showed. Daramy-Swaray and Lawrence were not having a banner night at all. It was struggles there no doubt. But really hard to point the finger too hard at them. Deatrick Nichols was out of position at times. Alexander was invisible. I can hardly believe it but by FAR the best of the night was Evan Holm. He made a couple of knockdowns, saw him up on run defence making plays. Liked his game.

It's nice to see young guys like Holm and Haba making plays. But if they are the standouts, it's not a great night.

Special Teams
Wins best phase of the game by default.

Sheahan really showed up his range of kicks. I read an interview with him where he talked about how he has 15-20 different styles of kicks. He was showing them off tonight. It's just never a good thing if the punter is your best player.

Janarion continued to be a great returner. Another solid outing from him, rest of team did him no favours.

Castillo was 2/2.

Summary
Yeah you know I got nothing else. It sucks. But to put it in perspective, until about 5-7 years ago the CFL STARTED the season on Canada Day. The Argo's got absolutely clobbered 45-3 by BC early last year and went on to win the Grey Cup. In the end, I don't think this means all that much. Except maybe as a nice reminder that hey the other teams pay their players too. There's 8 other teams that have been gunning for the Bombers for years now. It's not always going to be all rainbows and sunshine. You need the rain to help things grow.

Damn good post man

Labour Day is when the real season starts

Our 2019 run we were not the top team either.

That’s football. Rough game tonight though hope the boys bounce back I am hoping for a third cup this year

 

[SLAYER]

Holy smokes that was a tough one to watch. Not the end of the world, or even the season; just surprising. We still got this.

EDIT: Hats off to BC for really prepping for this game, they came ready to play and it showed.

 

[Huffer]

That was a tough one to be at, but maybe a loss like that early in the season can be used in the right way to get everyone's head on straight and know they can't sleepwalk through the year.

Can't add much to Holden's typical excellent summary. O line was terrible, our coverage was weak, and I didn't see much in the way of pressure (although I'm not sure if part of that was a game plan to contain VA and not rush).

It's concerning that there wasn't anything in the way of an adjustment or pushback though.

 

[snowkiddin]

That was a tough one to be at, but maybe a loss like that early in the season can be used in the right way to get everyone's head on straight and know they can't sleepwalk through the year.

Can't add much to Holden's typical excellent summary. O line was terrible, our coverage was weak, and I didn't see much in the way of pressure (although I'm not sure if part of that was a game plan to contain VA and not rush).

It's concerning that there wasn't anything in the way of an adjustment or pushback though.

Yeah, the Bombers checked out about five minutes into the 3rd. It’s strange, because the score hadn’t even gotten away from them yet at that point.

Whatever, good to get the stinker out of the way now I guess. I don’t trust VAJ in the long-run, the Bombers should be fine.

 

[BobTheSolarsystem]

Game Thoughts

Not too high, not too low.

I coached (hockey) for a lot of years. It was my favourite saying. It applies to both sides of the coin. One play, one half, one game do not make a season. There are lessons to be learned here. The lesson is NOT that the Bombers are suddenly a bad team.

Offence
Hard to find many positives here. But the one I have to highlight was the play of Brady Oliveira. For a guy who was doubtful and his status was in doubt up until a few hours until gametime he had plenty of burst early in the contest when it mattered. Game script got away from the Bombers and meant he touched the ball less but overall it was a solid performance from him.

That's about all I got for this unit. Outside of that it was a poor showing.

The guy I had in the good category was Nic Demski. He made a nice snag early, had a key blitz pickup block, and even got in on the run game with a standard RB handoff for a good gain. But that drop into a Lions players hands late was very uncharacteristic. Albeit I do recall a drop into a defenders hand in that Sask playoff game in 2021 where they had 5/6 turnovers in the first half. Carlton Agudosi had a lot more targets for sure, but some bobbles late won't look good on tape. Schoen didn't make much of an impression and Bailey was non-existent. But it's hard to put too much blame for this on the receiving corps, they didn't have much of a chance.

Zach Collaros has rarely struggled since donning a Blue and Gold uniform. He did tonight. Talk all you want about the OL (and believe me, I will), but one thing Collaros gets himself into to trouble is that he wants to force the field too much sometimes. The heat was on, the OL couldn't block. Where was the quick slants, the quick crossers? They were open. He missed an open Bailey late in the endzone on the rollout where he tried to force it to Wolitarsky. Yes he was under pressure lots, but pressure opens up it's own advantages sometimes. He will need to improve quickly as everyone is watching this film and saying bring the heat.

The OL. This has been the strength of this team for years, since they started to become relevant again back in 2017ish. This was a nightmare game for them no doubt. Stanley Bryant looked completely lost at times. Geoff Gray and Patrick Neufeld were not holding up inside at all. Hardrick and Dobson also struggled at times. Kolankowski was probably the best of the bunch, but it's not saying much. Listen this will be talked about endlessly, Gray is a bust, Hardrick, Bryant, Neufeld are too old, etc. This is the same unit which received great scores in games 1 and 2. They didn't forget how to block. It was a rough one, but I have a hard time believing they just suddenly started to suck. It's a long year.

Defence
Not much better to say here. Again I like to start with positives and I think overall the DL was pretty decent. Celestin Haba is looking like a real quality DE. Makes good reads and has some serious speed on the outside. But showed off his strength as well carrying a latched on OL to VA for a sack. Ricky Walker and Jake Thomas did a decent job plugging up the middle, Walker even getting a late meaningless sack. Willie was a little off his game.

Bighill wasn't terrible, but didn't really do anything. Clements had a couple ok moments, but meh.

The DBs were not great. The Bombers were missing their top 2 corners, and it showed. Daramy-Swaray and Lawrence were not having a banner night at all. It was struggles there no doubt. But really hard to point the finger too hard at them. Deatrick Nichols was out of position at times. Alexander was invisible. I can hardly believe it but by FAR the best of the night was Evan Holm. He made a couple of knockdowns, saw him up on run defence making plays. Liked his game.

It's nice to see young guys like Holm and Haba making plays. But if they are the standouts, it's not a great night.

Special Teams
Wins best phase of the game by default.

Sheahan really showed up his range of kicks. I read an interview with him where he talked about how he has 15-20 different styles of kicks. He was showing them off tonight. It's just never a good thing if the punter is your best player.

Janarion continued to be a great returner. Another solid outing from him, rest of team did him no favours.

Castillo was 2/2.

Summary
Yeah you know I got nothing else. It sucks. But to put it in perspective, until about 5-7 years ago the CFL STARTED the season on Canada Day. The Argo's got absolutely clobbered 45-3 by BC early last year and went on to win the Grey Cup. In the end, I don't think this means all that much. Except maybe as a nice reminder that hey the other teams pay their players too. There's 8 other teams that have been gunning for the Bombers for years now. It's not always going to be all rainbows and sunshine. You need the rain to help things grow.

Reminded me of the Charles Roberts/Earls-era hangover games...

Feels like my minor criticisms last game were glaring this game...

When Collaros didn't get in sync immediately, we had no answers. This offence is missing the Andrew Harris quick hits and screens - either BO is not picking up on that or Collaros is looking downfield too much - don't know but it bit the bombers hard this game. Once BC realized they could bring the house, they sure did.

Bombers were a bit late but they proved Lucky Whitehead right...

Sloppy play by the DBs but again it comes back to the DL - they were not getting pressure that Hall needs - this also includes the LB blitzes that he likes as well... Haba is pretty good but he's not Jeffcoat... I know its not all his fault but I am just not sold on Clements - he needs to make better reads. Teams don't respect him at all.

Mostly, that DL needs depth and needs rotation. That's a deployment issue though.

Really believe that Bighill is knicked

This is two games that Buck reminded me of Lapo with his unwillingness or inability to make adjustments at halftime...

A lot of bad coaching decisions in this one - Osh can't have games like this. There were various opportunities for a challenge or timeout that could have slowed the snowball effect - maybe I missed it but I didn't see him take charge of that game. And use the Designated National or whatever it is already... get another import out there.

There were some really bad plays out there all night... but Im more concerned about guys like Clements and Oliviera that are decent players but seemingly not game changers

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

I was super impressed with BC - I'm surprised the bombers appeared to let bad breaks get the better of them. They were the better team in the first quarter, but couldn't capitalize, and it seemed to snowball from there.

The missed challenge of the obvious no-catch before half was a sneaky turning point IMO. That's 4 points right there.

 

[FonRiesen]

The 2 biggest coaching errors IMO were not challenging the non-catch on the sidelines near the end of the 1st half that led to a TD (that's likely on the video replay coach, don't know who has that responsibility), and the other was not declining the offside penalty in the 2nd half (the repeated 2nd down turned into a long pass and 1st down).

I thought they went to play-action and away from the run too quickly. BC hadn't switched to keying on the running game yet, they were content to pass rush. Oliveira was doing really well until he stopped getting touches. As others mentioned, quick out were not used much.

I liked the punting - some nice spots. Can't complain about FG's, and the kickoff was really good...

Way too many penalties taken... And there were at least 2 possible interceptions had our secondary just turned around instead of steamroller through the receiver. And we were an inch away from a pick as well.

It was surprisingly close, despite feeling like we were being dominated - a couple of bounces going our way earlier in the game would have allowed us to keep running it.

Despite our overall defensive woes, we actually did decent vs BC's rushing game. Only 50 yards for Mizzel, though Adams had 30 sneaking. Of course, when the secondary couldn't stop anything, why not pick them apart?

Long season, one bad game, it helps keep the egos in check. These guys will work hard in practice this week...

I was super impressed with BC - I'm surprised the bombers appeared to let bad breaks get the better of them. They were the better team in the first quarter, but couldn't capitalize, and it seemed to snowball from there.

The missed challenge of the obvious no-catch before half was a sneaky turning point IMO. That's 4 points right there.

Possibly 7 (or more on a good missed FG return) - White was shaky last night. IIRC it would have been a longer attempt.

 

[snowkiddin]

I wonder if the Bombers just don’t have the depth they’ve had in past years to absorb injuries, particularly on defence. Jeffcoat, Wilson, Rose, Houston, Parker all out … that’s almost half of your starters on defence …

Lawrence has been getting cooked all season, too many backups in the secondary combined with Hall’s weak zone and a lack of pressure on the QB was just killing us defensively. Adams was making tons of bad passes and terrible reads too, a competent QB would’ve hung 50 on us the way we played last night.

I’m confident the O-line will bounce back, although I think when Eli is back that he should be chasing Gray to the bench. He’s been killing us. Last night it wasn’t just him, but he’s been a weakness for a while.

Adding a top 3 WR in the league will be a welcome addition, but I’m pretty disappointed with how the offence showed against BC even without him.

It’s been three and a half weeks since the Lawler suspension, original timeline was 3-4 weeks so I wonder if we don’t get him back for the next home game on July 7.

 

[BobTheSolarsystem]

I wonder if the Bombers just don’t have the depth they’ve had in past years to absorb injuries, particularly on defence. Jeffcoat, Wilson, Rose, Houston, Parker all out … that’s almost half of your starters on defence …

Lawrence has been getting cooked all season, too many backups in the secondary combined with Hall’s weak zone and a lack of pressure on the QB was just killing us defensively. Adams was making tons of bad passes and terrible reads too, a competent QB would’ve hung 50 on us the way we played last night.

I’m confident the O-line will bounce back, although I think when Eli is back that he should be chasing Gray to the bench. He’s been killing us. Last night it wasn’t just him, but he’s been a weakness for a while.

Adding a top 3 WR in the league will be a welcome addition, but I’m pretty disappointed with how the offence showed against BC even without him.

It’s been three and a half weeks since the Lawler suspension, original timeline was 3-4 weeks so I wonder if we don’t get him back for the next home game on July 7.

Trouble is that Lawrence shouldn't be considered a 'backup' - starting to look like he was a rookie sensation and then a bust... Same goes for Gray - he should be better than he's playing...

 

[Slimy Sculpin]

I’ve followed the Bombers for many decades and, although BC played very well, that was one of the worst efforts that I’ve seen from the Bombers. Everything but the kicking was “off” and that includes the coaches. I could go into details but most has been covered well by previous posters…..Thanks.

On a slightly different note, anyone know what happened with one of the fan forum websites that dealt with the Bombers?

 

[Holden Caulfield]

CFL.ca seems to be writing off the Bombers in favour of the Lions and the Argos...

 

[gojetsgo]

 

[Gabe Kupari]

CFL.ca seems to be writing off the Bombers in favour of the Lions and the Argos...

View attachment 721359

BC and Toronto are the 2 biggest markets really so not overly surprising. Winnipeg gonna draw 30k a game without hype

 

[bustamente]

Pigrome realeased as the Bombers re sign Prukop

 

[snowkiddin]

Pigrome realeased as the Bombers re sign Prukop

A shame about Piggy, but I’ll be happy to see Prukop and his rushing back

 

[Holden Caulfield]

We don't know the full story, perhaps Bombers told Pigrome to stand by and that if they have an injury we'll call you back. Perhaps they offered a PR spot that Pigrome just rejected. Or it's possible that despite the pre-season success, Bombers just weren't that high on him as we similarly saw releases of pre-season darlings in Caleb Thomas and Matt Cole.

But no matter what it kinda sucks to lose a guy who appeared to have some considerable upside at the games most important position.

 

[nobody imp0rtant]

We don't know the full story, perhaps Bombers told Pigrome to stand by and that if they have an injury we'll call you back. Perhaps they offered a PR spot that Pigrome just rejected. Or it's possible that despite the pre-season success, Bombers just weren't that high on him as we similarly saw releases of pre-season darlings in Caleb Thomas and Matt Cole.

But no matter what it kinda sucks to lose a guy who appeared to have some considerable upside at the games most important position.

I wonder how many of these "surprise" releases were because the player just didn't FI and had to FO.

 

[gojetsgo]

 

[None]

It's good that they're aware of the obvious deficiencies in the secondary.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

It's good that they're aware of the obvious deficiencies in the secondary.

Demerio will be back Saturday so that'll help. Not sure on the timeline on Rose's injury, but gotta think with Lawrence's struggles that Rose will get another shot at FCB when he's healthy.

 

[None]

Demerio will be back Saturday so that'll help. Not sure on the timeline on Rose's injury, but gotta think with Lawrence's struggles that Rose will get another shot at FCB when he's healthy.

Glad Houston's back already and hopefully Rose can find some consistency once he gets back. His consistency was what made him great in my opinion, the playmaking was secondary

 

[bustamente]

 

[bustamente]

D Lawrence definitely out and a whole lotta of questionable for Canada Day

 

[BobTheSolarsystem]

D Lawrence definitely out and a whole lotta of questionable for Canada Day

So basically everyone plays except Lawrence... who sucked anyway haha

 

[bustamente]

A few roster changes