I think it’s understandable that no one has posted on the last embarrassment. My son came home from the Hamilton game dressed in his Bomber gear and felt like he had just wasted his time and money. I’m not going to point out all the mistakes this team keeps making. Between watching and shutting the game off I happened to hear one poignant comment that I think is very relevant. At halftime one of the Ti-Cat ‘D’ was being interviewed. He was asked how the ‘D’ could still play so good in spite of the lead the Cats had, what kept the ‘D’ so aggressive ? His answer was that the coaches used to rile them up but now the team mates do it all by themselves. They discipline themselves to play hard !!!.. Wish we had a HC with some fire. Look at the difference between Ham. coaches and ours. Down by 31 pts., our HC looks like he’s out walking his dog. Wonder what Doug Berry is doing ?
Players love playing for Mike O'Shea, they say it time and time again, couple of the FAs comment on how great he is as a HC. But he's starting to wear on me. He's not terrible by any means, but the manner in which he protects the players is a bit over the top. I don't expect him to be like Burke and throw players under the bus with comments like our players are terrible and such but show there's some accountability. Instead of answer a question about Oline play and giving up sacks with - well there are a lot of factors from the QB to the Oline to the pass rush to receivers not getting open so we'll look at the tape. At the very say something to show you're not happy with the performance like we gave up to many sacks and hits to the QB rather than providing possible excuses. You can do that with having to point fingers. And I don't think you have to stomp back and forth on the sideline yelling at players all game long to do it, but strong leadership includes among other things accountability and, at least publicly, there seems to be little of that in comments from the coach.
The biggest problem for me in terms of accountability is the special teams unit. Are O'Shea and Walters to loyal to their old CIS coach Pat Tracy? And at this point I'd like to see Stoudamire sit once Moore is healthy enough to play again. Unfortunate Ticat bounce on the return causing the turnover but he really should've made a better attempt to catch that in the air and get the 15 yards no yards penalty. He continues to run sideways all too often trying to get one or two more yards and in the process losing 4 or 5 and he hasn't regained that form he showed when he first suited up for us last year. Yesterday the first pick six was off a Dlineman tip and those happen and put us into a bit of a hole but it was the special teams yet again that buried us. It's mindboggling to me that specials errors are happening on a team coached by Mike O'Shea who had one of the best special teams units in Toronto. And more often than not, those special teams breakdowns are happening after something happens with Willy (injury, pick) at the most inopportune times and giving the opposition momentum to feed on from which we can't recover.
I excused the Oline after the Edmonton game as them having a bad day and though the first 4-5 games of the season they were actually improved over last year. With Chris Greaves the only regular on that line from last year I expected they would get better as the season wore on but it's actually going backwards. 4 sacks against vs the Leos, could have been more if Willy didn't run out of the pocket so often with his one good leg. 7 more sacks yesterday and Willy gets taken out of the game for the 3rd time this year, this time possibly forcing him to miss his next start(s). Stanley Bryant I don't think has earned his money to this point and an interview with him played pregame on TSN1290 he sounded as if he had no clue the Bombers have given up the most sacks in the league to this point. This goes back to my original question - with O'Shea making excuses and sheltering the roster when answering questions from the media, are players unaware when they aren't performing well? Is the problem Marcel Bellefeuille's schemes? Is it Wylie's coaching? I can't figure out how Pat Delmonaco, who we had as the OL coach here under LaPo and Burke when our Oline sucked, is getting his Oline in Calgary to perform with all the injuries and constant shuffling. Meanwhile we've been relatively healthy on the Oline and we're giving up sacks yesterday with 5 OL, a RB, and a receiver in max protect and the Ticats rushing 4 guys.
Frustration now vented, I expect we'll have a good performance this week vs the Argos given how the team is alternating good and bad weeks.
I could care less if the players love him. It's wins I care about.
As Dan pointed out, I was surprised (maybe not?) that the coaching staff that seemed more upset, and trying to correct mistakes was the one that that was dominating the game and not the one being dominated.
Too often it seems we just sit back and stay status quo when sometimes we need an emotional rally.
Also a few of our starting Canadians are lacking right now. WTF was Briggs doing on that blocked punt? He basically let the guy come in untouched. He also had a few other plays where I was like - who the hell is that #40?
Bucknor on the first TD - he looked silly trying to hit the guy on the goaline, and was burnt alot.
Agree with you about the special teams. They are letting big plays go against us at the worst possible times, almost like clockwork. Once that momentum turns, it's like the blowout is on. Are our guys properly prepared each week? It's not looking like it.
And Willy - yes he's taking a beating, but you really have to wonder if he's durable enough or if this is another Buck Pierce situation. i just want to see him get through a couple games without getting injured! That Oline was terrible yesterday. Even when they rushed 4 guys and we had 6 at the line they were getting pushed around. We got bullied all game by the Cats Dline.
The first 40 seconds of the game, Bass & Veltung (and Marve at the end) were about the only things to like about yesterday
I can't disagree with what's been said. The O-line performance has been a big disappointment, after all the offseason moves I thought it would be significantly better than last year, and it hasn't been. So if the team has now better personnel on the O-line but with the same results (too many sacks), seems to me you have to look at coaching and schemes rather than personnel. The comparison to how Calgary is faring with all their O-line injuries is very telling.
And agreed about Bucknor; I like the guy, but man he had a rough outing yesterday.
Given all that, let's give credit where credit's due. That Hamilton defence is ferocious. Steinauer is doing a tremendous job in mixing up coverages, disguising the blitzes, and even when not blitzing disguising where the push is going to originate from down to down.
So maybe it is not as much how weak the Bombers' offence is, but rather how good Hamilton's defence is.
I'm all for accentuating the positive, like O'Shea keeps saying, but if you keep telling players that their failure is OK because they are working hard, like O'Shea keeps saying, then failure will be accepted... Hurt feelings be damned, I'd be cracking a whip. Go home to mommy if you don't like it.
So far there have been 5 blowouts (margin >20) this season:
Hamilton 52, Winnipeg 26
Edmonton 46, Ottawa 17
Edmonton 32, Winnipeg 3
Edmonton 30, Saskatchewan 5
Hamilton 38, Winnipeg 8
So we lost 3 of them, and 0-7 Saskatchewan only 1.
Twice Willy got injured and then we got blown out.
This time we got blown out and then Willy got injured.
Don't know what to make of this beyond the obvious but methinks it should tell the coaches something.