Any Comments on Wilbur's Debut?

As I saw it ......

The Good:

  1. He did get off a 50-yarder, when the pressure was on with less than a minute to go, and was tuned-in enough to run down the play clock before calling for the snap.
  2. Caught all snaps and had nothing blocked.
  3. Looked like a CFL veteran punter killing clock time against the wind, awkwardly running around in the endzone, before stepping across the dead ball line to concede the safety.
    The Bad:
  4. On his other 5 punts he averaged under 38 yds.
  5. His average on the 6 punts was more than 2 yds. below Parlardy's 5 game avg.
  6. His KO avg. was a yard and half shorter than DeAngelis' avg. this season
  7. He's an Import.

I thought he played very well and as most CFL experts will tell you, punting average isn't half at important as positioning it and I thought he did fairly well.He was quick to get the ball off, the ball had plenty of hangtime and I think he made the tackle on the opening kickoff.Nothing short of impressed with this guy, let's have a repeat performance :thup:

He also had 2 penalties for illegal punts. Seemed like he was trying to angle them to the sidelines, and they went OOB in the air. His first punt was a moon-shot, and the returner had nowhere to go. Other punts seemed much lower - in effect out-punting the coverage team. He was probably playing conservatively, and (I hope), will be adding greater distance on punts and kick-offs.

He shanked one pretty badly, but he is way better than what we had before. Palardy would have had the very last punt blocked when Winnipeg brought everyone. Wilbur managed to get off a 50 yarder on that one :thup:

He's better then Palardy was and that's all I care about really. He was slightly above average, which at this point,I'm ok with given he is young and will likely improve with more experience.

Wilbur is a keeper.He made the opening tackle of the game. His kickoffs were well placed to Stephenson the slower fullback after the initial kick to the speedy Bomber rookie(whose name escapes me). In the pre-game warmup he showed a variety of punts with a difficult crosswind. He has a "pooch punt" that goes end over end but lands like a pitching wedge with backspin. Wilbur is a professional kicker while Palardy needs further development . :smiley:

Pat Lynch(the old guy in section 7)

The kid played great, this should have happened 3 games ago! :rockin:

He also had impressive hangtime on most of his punts.

he was no better then Justin Palardy Distance wise.
Hang time was good when it stay inside the playing area
for his 1st game he did just okay ..

I think he did very well for his first game.
tho the punt length was similar to Palardy’s the biggest diference was the hangtime
Wilbur’s punts : 42 yards in the air lots of hangtime
Palardy’s punts: 32 yard punts in the air with a 10 yrd bounce…returnable!

Wilbur’s ‘first’ game B- to C IMO…
I grade on a curve :lol: