Bombers/Als

The Bombers misery resumes on the road against the much improved Als who are playing their best ball all season and have won two straight games. Bombers deservedly getting little respect in Vegas as they open 11 point underdogs.

Montreal still has had a lot of talent on the football team this season and aside from the offensive confusion and the lack of buying into a drastic change in coaching tactics the Oline is still strong they still have been able to trot out a big 4 import receiving core and Messam is now the starter and showing his all star form.
The defense is relevent now and are playing better than it ever did during the Trestman era.
Special teams actually has a full time coach and with the players that Popp has made available to him they are solid on coverage teams. As for punting Whyte is what Popp want so the STs have to deal with that. Returners are the guys that they have signed and have not looked for anyone new so again not on the coach. Now that they have 3rd year Qb Neiswander who may not be great but knows the system and is managing games instead of a tru rookie Marsh Gunsling the O is doing much Better. Troy Smith When ready will make them even bettter as he is not a QB manager but a playmaker with much more QB and athletic ability than anyone they will have healthy.
Popps decision not to find a 5th import receiver leaving that job to Deslaures will continue to hurt them. It was one thing when Deslaures was needed for the ratio but with Messam starting they can go with 5 imports wide with Messam in the game.
Poppwants that extra Canadian roster spot so he will continue to trade that for very poor punter instead of bringing in at least an avg punter and leaving the place kicking up to Whyte.
Without a playumaking QB leaving those two things out and the not so good punt returning will keep them from arriving better in the playoffs.
Right now however they are a good enough team to beat anyone in the CFL but not a Grey Cup contender

Je crois que la grosse différence pour les Alouettes est que l'attaque a été remodelée, simplifiée, et n'est plus ce tissu de confusion qu'il était au début de la saison. Les joueurs savent ce qu'ils ont à faire et Neiswander gagne en assurance à chaque partie.

D'autre part, la défensive des Alouettes les ont tenu dans les parties presque à chaque semaine, ce qui fait que les deux dernières victoires ont redonné confiance à cette équipe et l'a soudée davantage. Cela dit, les Alouettes ne pourront aspirer à gagner la Coupe Grey en 2013. Lorsque des équipes moins amochées se présenteront, la marge se fera sentir.

J'ai trouvé déplorable la façon dont Joe Mack a entrepris cette saison, et ce, dès l'hiver dernier. Il m'apparaissait évident que le contrat de Pierce ne devait pas être renouvelé, mais que Mack devait au moins tenter de mettre le grappin sur un quart qui avait une certaine expérience de la ligue. Qu'il s'agisse de Reilly, McPherson, Porter, ou à la limite Elliott, il devait avoir un gars comme ça dans son alignement. Mais surtout, il fallait regarnir la ligne offensive, ce qui n'a été fait qu'à moitié. En allant chercher deux quarts sans expérience profesionnelle, Mack envoyait son équipe à l'abattoir, car il était certain que Pierce tomberait au combat, plutôt tôt que tard.

Rétrospectivement, je trouve que le remplacement de laPolice par Burke n'a pas aidé cette équipe à aller plus loin. Si on compare le travail de ces deux organisations, avec un début de saison trouble, la différence est que Popp a su travailler avec son équipe pour trouver des solutions et finalement faire progresser l'équipe, même avec un jeune quart qui en est à ses premières armes. C'est ce que Burke et ses adjoints n'ont pas réussi. Il y a de bons joueurs chez les Blue Bombers, et cette équipe est à mon sens meilleure que sa fiche. Mais Mack l'avait déjà sabotée avant même que la saison commence.

En terminant, les Alouettes auraient tort de prendre cette partie à la légère. Les joueurs ont leur fierté et veulent certainement rebondir. Les Blue Bombers ont battu les Roughriders il n'y a pas si longtemps, et pourraient bien jouer un vilain tour aux Alouettes s'ils ne les prenaient pas au sérieux. Mais considérant l'importance de l'enjeu pour les Alouettes, je crois qu'ils vont se préparer pour un affrontement sans complaisance.

I could not agree more starting with the Oline for the Als and the We already knew that the Als had a quality OLine but when someone went down they had 3 very capable replacements that could become regular starters.
The BBs and Mack on the other hand did not make any moves at all to upgrade a younger inexperienced Oline. Really not attempting to find any new Canadian Olineman certainly left very little competition in camp on the interior. Putting all the eggs in a basket that not only would Penser be Healthy but also become a starter in just his second season.
January is an All Star LT but Douglas was injured all of last season and was unable to go again leaving them with Boatman who has been not been good anywhere that he has been.
I could list at least 10 import OTs that the rest of the teams have brought in and have been capable if not all star starters.
Mack did not even bring in any import OTs whether they had exhausted NFL options, came from the Arena league or were let go from other teams in the league none where even brought in.
The QB situation as well making last years HC the scapegoat and prying that somehow Pierce would be better ultimately cost Mack his job. Reilly was the top choice with his age but McPherson certainly could have been a second choice to at least be given a chance at the starting role. Choosing to keep left over Goltz and a solid prospect in Hall would have made a bigger difference as well. Even with a bad O line A MAC at least has the ability to run as well as make accurate passes.

Not quite. We had a top-notch defense in 2009 when we won the first of our back-to-back Grey Cups. In fact, we had a markedly better four-man pass rush that year (Bowman, Keron Williams, Eric Wilson, Anwar Stewart) than we have now.

In any case, I expect this to be a hard-fought game. I’ll be extremely disappointed if Montreal doesn’t win, but I certainly don’t expect the Bombers to lay down and give us the W. Both coaches and players are auditioning for jobs next year; a poor showing here could mean unemployment in 2014.

Lastly, I too am glad to see that Winnipeg is finally addressing its problems at O-line and QB. It will be a painful process, but the end result is worth it. Good teams live and die on the strength of their lines (D and O)…

I suggest you go listen to Mike Reilly interview on the Jason Gregor show. Montreal's defense is bad azz. He says Montreal is a different animal that no matter what they show you pre snap you can't read anything into it prior to the snap. Zero tendancies you can read. You have two choices bring in max protect and try to go deep or sell the deep routes and have receivers run under. Forget about running the ball... That's from Mike Reilly's mouth. I'll take that over relying on a four man pass rush any day.

Popp and company have gotten the Als playing much better football since we last saw them. The QB doesn't have to be spectacular and just protect the ball. The D is playing well enough to keep them in games. Carter has emerged as a legit threat to help balance an offense that maybe tried to rely on SJ Green a bit too much after Richardson went down. The direction this team is going, they could surprise someone in the playoffs.

I don't expect much from the blue, sadly, unless Neiswander makes a few mistakes. The offense showed some strides, though it didn't look like it on the scoreboard. Overall there were fewer two and outs, just no sustained drives. The D had a poor showing and one has to wonder what kind of effort we'll see now that it's without one of the few bright spots it had in Hall. It'll help to have Washington back if he's ready. I'm assuming one of the new DEs signed after the roster expansion will get onto the Roster in Hall's spot.

…We are in next year mode…Some players will want to show enough to keep their job, that’s about it…Don’t expect much noise from the Bombers…Long ball :lol: :lol: :lol: good lord man…Hall is lucky to throw it 20 yds and those are sometimes ducks…He doesn’t have a long ball, one of the reasons he won’t be here next year…As far as listening to Mike Reilly…I think he’s still dizzy from one of his last games…I wouldn’t put too much stock in what he has to say :lol: I think Esks. are crazy to play Reilly anymore this year and risk their franchise qb…They’re in the same boat as us…up the creek…I don’t think they’re acting rationally in the igloo…Brain freeze I suppose… :roll:

But for us it is a game we can’t afford to drop if we want a chance to host a playoff game. I estimate we have about one out of four chance to get second but Bombers could play spoilers here.

Receiving corps.

Burke figures he deserves to stick around as head coach next year because of the talent deficiency he inherited......that'll go over well with Bomber fans. Can't wait to see how the four year plan pans out and how many Burke actually witnesses.

…FOUR YEARS…Burke is dreaming…This team has to turn things around NEXT year…Tim better plan for his exit… :thdn:

More like a 1-2 year plan would be accepted. Toronto, Saskatchewan, and looks like Hamilton have proven you can turn things around in a season or two.

Edmonton has no O-line and Mike Reilly is a young QB who is still learning how to read the field. Of course it’s easier to confuse him pre-snap than it is to confuse, say, a Burris or a Ray.

I'll take that over relying on a four man pass rush any day.
Um, you do remember that we won a Grey Cup behind that 2009 defense, right? ;)

And I wasn’t insulting our current D BTW. I was simply responding to cflsteve’s assertion that our D is playing better now than they ever did during the Trestman era. That’s flat-out not true. That 2009 D was, in its own way, every bit as good as our current D. They didn’t have the INTs, but they didn’t need 'em, because the four-man rush was so fierce we could afford to drop linebackers into coverage and still rack up the sacks. And nobody ran on us then either…

If I were Burke, I would be saying the stupidest things I could right now too, just to guarantee that paid vacation he has coming at the end of the season.

The game itself will be a beat down, this team packed it in weeks ago.

I will regress my comment during the Trestman era the defense had become very poor hitting probably their all time low last season with the hiring of a coach that was questionable at best.
In Trestmans 2011 season a playoff loss to Hamilton giving up 50 plus points says it all about how much time Trestman put in to keeping his defense up to Grey Cup Champion level.

It’s nice to see that Madjack knows the "I before E, except after C rule. Your welcome Madjack!

[i]Really, this year’s Defense is as good as the 2009 defense? :roll: Please stop smoking crack! The 2009 defense was one of the best defenses ever! It was complete and had no weaknesses. It gave up 324 points, the second best total in an 18 game schedule in history (the 1989 Eskimos gave up 302) That defense produced tons of pressure with a 4 man rush, and the secondary could play man coverage 85% of the time. It also gave up nothing to the running game.

This years defense is tough and exciting; much like a Don Matthews’ defense. But, in terms of points scored, none of the Matthews’ defenses in Montreal did better than 371. Every other year was over 400, and over 500 in 2005. /i]

Yup, Johnny predicts a final score of 52-17 Alouettes.

Well, I agree and disagree. Out of Trestman’s five years, the last two didn’t feature good D. In 2012, it was just a flat-out terrible hire in Jeff Reinebold. In 2011, though, we were absolutely ravaged by injury on the defensive side of the ball, to the point where the backups of the backups were getting carted off the field. We lost 3/5 of our secondary to season-ending injuries in the early part of the year (including Jerald Brown and Mark Estelle with what would turn out to be a career-ending injury). Emry, Ferri, and Guzman (three of our starting linebackers) missed the last part of the season with injuries. Even the backup (Bear Woods) was injured in the EDF. We also lost an entire line’s worth of D-linemen to injury. In that situation, Tibesar did the best with what he had.

The reason why we had good D from 2008 to 2010? We had a good coordinator (Burke) and we managed to stay relatively healthy.