WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers haven’t lost two games at home since 2018, but the BC Lions handed them their second loss at home and third this season as they came out on top in a 26-24 victory at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday night.
Great game in Edmonton as the Panthers lose 3rd straight. Maybe we see a Canadian team win a CUP again finally.
Lions/Bombers - saw the highlights. Adams is red hot. As for the Bombers, one of the great rock bands, Canadian or other wise, said it best.
They’ve come undun.
It’s too late,
They’ve gone too far.
They’ve lost the sun.
They’ve come undun.
Da de de de de de de
Da da de de - DAH.
Injuries haven’t helped but they’re clearly not in the same league as the Als or Lions, personnel wise, at this point.
It depends on whether you account for the injuries you mentioned. If you do arguably they aren’t on par with anyone personnel wise with half their starters out. Lost Schoen and Wheatfield Soul last night and Brady part time at best. Minimum half their defence out including all world Nichols.
Once their injured starters return we’ll see how their personnel looks. They may not reach Montreal’s level but I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to conclude that BC has superior personnel. I thought BC would win by more last night, but the Bombers showed great heart and character with what they had to work with and almost won. You intimate that you didn’t even see the game, but rather only the highlights. The West seems to me to have complete parity so far.
No need for panic buttons. Last year at this time the Als were in the midst of their first 3 game losing streak and the last two Grey Cup winners were about .500 at mid season. I can’t reach the conclusions you do given the small sample size and injury factors and general history of the CFL. The regular season dominant Ticats of 2019 and dominant Bombers of the last two seasons didn’t win the Cup remember.
for sure. Lions are fully capable of screwing up and not making the Grey Cup. Saskatchewan and Calgary are in the same boat. A lot can happen in the next 20 weeks including playoffs.
I see extreme parity in the West this year Ted. The Bombers off to the start they are but only a fool would write them off for the year with 15 games left.
The East is a little harder to say that for and Montreal looks a little better than the rest and Toronto’s QB situation clouds things, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find great parity there too as the season progresses. There didn’t appear to be parity there last year in a runaway Argo regular season but lo and behold…
Watching the game last night here are a few thoughts. After a shaky beginning for Winnipeg, I thought they came back and held their own. Certainly a better game for them than the first two of the season. It could have been even closer if they had had a few more seconds for a field goal at the end of the first half.
On the Lions side, Vernon Adams Jr. is looking good. Three games into the season now and only one interception thrown. He has a high efficiency rating and completion %. I remember when he was playing for Montreal and every game felt like a crapshoot…you never knew who was going to show up. So happy to see VA Jr. finding his stride, confidence and consistency. Kudos to the Lions coaching staff for developing this potential…a bit like the Als have done with Fajardo.
At the end of the day, stats and skill set is one thing, but creating the right environment for players to flourish is key.
Funny how VAJ & CF are similar in this regard
Having a little light-hearted fun, Jon. I purposely stated I didn’t watch the game & that I’m talking about personnel wise comparisons “at this point”. 
BUT, Jon, despite the injuries it’s easy to see that the Bombers out of the gate were going to have problems on DL, with a bunch of new guys & their two 33 year olds. And they were going to have problems in the back end with 2 new CB’s.
That’s what’s been playing out all 3 games - inability to apply consistent pressure on the QB, big explosion plays on the back end. The highlights last night show the “veterans” like Holm & Alexander chasing Hollins around all night. The good news, the OL I am told played very well. That’s a big plus going forward.
Injuries are absolutely a significant factor, and last year the teams with the most injuries were generally the lowest ranked teams. I do recall that wasn’t allowed as an excuse last year for the Stampeders who were the most injured team including to some of the of their top players on both offense and defense.
Injuries can happen to anyone but they tend to pile up as players get older. That could be part of the problem Winnipeg is experiencing now. Last year Winnipeg had a number of older players that were not fully available because of nagging injuries, their players on average have gotten older.
Lions will be much improved when Lee and Hatcher come off the IR
With Sportsnet and CBC doing a complete analysis of the hockey game already, why would TSN do a similar analysis on both TSN1 and TSN3? They could have used one of those two to do their postgame for this game. I always enjoy the panel discussions and the player interviews.
It is arguable that if Hatcher and Cottoy played Winnipeg’s secondary would have been utterly outmatched.
BC was missing 3 O-Linemen, 2 of their best receivers, their best DB, and a pair of D-Linemen.
What the game came down to was - when they really needed to come up with a stop - Winnipeg’s defence couldn’t even slow BC down. BC did exactly what they needed to - got the ball deep in Winnipeg’s end, and ran out the clock.
Except that the Bomber players that were out are better than the BC players that were out and there are more of them. Hatcher and Cottoy, good as they may be, do not equal Lawler and Schoen and no one equals the impact Nichols has in pinching the area the opposition QB can throw to, namely only where he ain’t.
Not an excuse. Just a fact. The Bombers have the most impactful injuries in the league right now as well as the most. That’s the way she goes. Other teams have been in that boat in the past and will be in the future and hopefully most of the Bombers injured players will recover (we know some are done for the year already).
Reality can’t be changed. That is why I was so happy with the Bombers heart and character and comeback last night and am not disappointed with the loss one bit. By contrast I was very disappointed with the Bombers effort and loss in Game 1, even though they were playing a superior team.
I imagine I’m not alone in thinking that I never expected Winnipeg to start 0-3.
Hatcher was the #2 receiver in the CFL last year, Hollins #4. You keep ignoring one thing. It’s a 46 man roster that dresses every game. You’re only as good as the last man on the roster.
The Bomber brass decided to blow the wad by spending 30% of their budget on 6 players. If you’re complaining that these Bomber injured are so much more important to your team than anyone else’s, then that means there is so much more dropoff in talent than there is with other teams.
Maybe if you weren’t offering peanuts to Bailey, Grant, Jeffcoat, Hardrick you wouldn’t be in this position.
NOTE: of the QB’s who were already under contract coming into this season, ALL of them - Kelly, Adams, Harris, Bo, Maier, Fajardo restructured their contract to be able to bring some veterans back. Zach - apparently not.
Congrats to the lions and HC Campbell on the win. Without taking anything away from the Lions Winnipeg did start to come back in the 2nd half , but Collaros now has had 3 games where he has failed to throw a TD. Streveler was very instrumental in how well the Bombers played. He is a bull and makes the yardage necessary to convert the downs, Without his playing I suspect the Bombers would have been blown out. He did get a hat trick of TDs on the ground. Coach O’Shea really should have taken the FG in the first half, but Collaros got greedy or too slow and ran out the clock missing the TD with a bad pass. One can only speculate how different the game results would have been if the FG was attempted.
Injuries aside (because both teams had them), the bombers are not the team of the past. Last year the Stampeders and Maier didn’t have the same receivers 2 weeks in a row. No one was making the excuse but many were certainly blaming Maier ! How can a QB ever get anything going if the targets are different every week? Now with the consistency on the Offense the Stamps are doing much better. But again injuries are a part of the game that is why there are secondary players for all positions.
Agree with most here but a couple points:
Can people please stop saying “the Bombers are not the team of the past”?
No kidding they aren’t! Who is actually saying that?
Secondly, it is more that we now have at multiple positions (WR & DL) where the backup to the backup is out, and mostly out longterm.
That would really impact any team.
Now if Schoen is actually out also, I really don’t know what else to say…
Well I also highly doubt with 5 seconds on the clock that is was Zach being greedy that I influenced the play call to go for a TD and not the 3 point attempt. When a fan from an opposing team says crap like that … Well they would have found found fault if the team went for three by saying the coach had no confidence in the QB to make the play..
Just the usual trash talk from the usual suspects
I thought the previous play where Oliveira ran was puzzling as well. They passed up a shot at the end zone there.
I don’t know…I do think it was miscommunication between Zach & Schoen. Maybe Zach did think he could get it there, but it looked like DS gave up on the play to save time. Either way it was ugly, and shouldn’t have happened.