Woke up to a replay of the 2023 Grey Cup this a.m. on TSN. Since nothing else was on other than news loops on CBC, CTV, MSNBC, CNN, etc. I watched. In horror, to be sure!
Notwithstanding Mike O’Shea & Buck Pierce were totally outcoached by Mr. Mediocrity, Jason Maas, the game was tilting both ways until Fajardo closed out the Bombers in the final seconds.
Observations:
Both Bomber OT all-stars Lord Stanley Bryant & Jabba Hardrick had their worst games of the year. I’d grade Bryant a D, Hardrick and F+. Made it hard on Zach to have any reasonable level of pocket time. I’d grade Zach a B-, pretty reasonable effort - but more was expected.
Bombers dressed too many wounded warriors, especially Bighill & Schoen. Neither man were any more than average. Give Bighill an A for effort but a D+ for poor positional play and playing on only one good leg. Schoen gets a C+ - just not enough to have put the Big Blue over the top.
Discipline. Bombers were the most disciplined team in the league - until Grey Cup Day. Then it all came unravelled. I suspect Hardrick & Bryant (others) were overwhelmed by a kamikaze Als defense and started to get nervous, especially in the 2nd half.
Best Bombers - Grant (KR) gets a B+, Brian Cole a strong B, Olivera an A-, Demski a solid B+, Wolitarsky B-, Neufeld B+, Holm B+, Willy J a B, Prukop an A-.
Worst Bombers - coaches and management who let too many injured boys dress (and start, to boot). Suspect it wouldn’t have made much difference as Bombers have little to no real depth behind Bighill, same for Schoen. Schoen was totally limited on long routes. Given Als level of effort and near error free ball, it wouldn’t have made much difference so a bit of a moot point.
Old Glenny - while Rockin’ Rod Smith put in one of his best performances at age 64, Old Glenny (Suitor) flubbed his way thru most of the cast. Suitor was dumbfounded when discussion came around to Oak Park High School producing 3 amazing all-stars. First, Old Glenny called it Oak Bay High School (Nice research Glenny) and then he couldn’t name the coach who brought Demski, Harris & Olivera into the world. Again, nice research. Based on this game alone plus obvious declines the last 2 or 3 years if I were TSN I’d offer Suitor a part-time contract as the 3rd colorman for 2024, then thats the end of the road. Time for new blood. The ageing Smith might have 2 or 3 years left in the tank, plus not much behind him other than Johnny Eager out of Edmonton. I’d also look at reducing the droll Duane Forde’s future workload, too!
Future - don’t like Bombers chances to grab a Grey Cup in 2024. I still think they’ll be the CFL’s top trial horses (opponents) for much of the season. Just too many guys on last legs (Bighill, Hardick, Jeffcoats, Mike MIller (didn’t even play) and the slowish Alexander. Some rot has set into the organization as they really don’t have guys in the hopper to replace Bighill, or even Schoen, should he bolt for bigger money. Might have guys ready to take over for Bryant & Hardrick but are they as good as the current guys who were all-stars until the wheels fell off this season. Also, Bombers have virtual sludge in their DT positions, no real animal surge.
Last year and this year - virtually the same mind-blowing experience. O’Shea, Hall, Pierce, Collaros all let down the side. Collaros couldn’t produce a needed 1st down when it counted. Hall’s defense couldn’t have stopped a herd of comatose sheep. How can you expect them to do better in 2024? You can’t is the correct answer.
CANADIAN HORROR STORY - WOULD STEPHEN KING PLEASE REPORT TO THE BOMBER DRESSING ROOM. STEPHEN KING!!!
Bombers came close, extremely close to winning. Cody F made extremely fantastic passes or they lose. If Bombers won, the injured guys would be cheered as gutting it out. It was another great GC where heroes and losers were a whisker different
Actually, I believe we need MORE of Duane Forde; in particular, he should work every game with Dustbunny. For some reason, the Dust Monster behaves best, and actually sounds like a rational adult when teamed with Forde.
I SO wish Dustdevil would get a regular job in the Maritimes so he would be assigned Eastern games instead of Western.
My major quibble with Forde is he sounds so laconic. But his information and presentation are top drawer, no question.
As most of you know, Old Glenny tries to cram 10 pounds of crap into a 3 pound bag. He’s all over the place, sticking to pre-planned gamenotes regardless of unexpected turns in the games.
Baby Huey (Dustin N.) tries too hard to make up for his inexperience and lack of CFL history with his ‘Rod Black style’ histrionics and shrieks - but I guess it kinda worked out for Rod Black for over 35 years (until he was unceremoniously canned) - so why not?
I’ve mentioned before that what bothers me most about Dustbuster is the collection of no-information exclamations that he uses to keep his mouth running while his brain tries to catch up.
Every time I hear Glenny’s voice, I invariably remember his trying to kiss some portion of Keith Urban’s anatomy during GC107. That was the most FEEBLE attempt to try to show his non-existent knowledge of how music works that I could imagine.