Pro's and Cons of Week One VS ESKS

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
#1

I thought that this was a really good game for the BB'S, alot of positives come out of this game. The Defense which had so many question marks, played really well holding the ESKS to only 19 points (which is tough to do). LeFors started slow but showed some flashes in the 2ND Half, Reid played awesome as usual and Special Teams with the exception of the retuned TD played excellent.

Lefors was competetive in the 2ND half, but did show signs of his weak arm, i am not impressed with the offense play calling in the first half and when Randall was in, same play a QB Sneak 2ND and Long twice, don't go back to that play, especially on 2ND and Long. I am not pleased with Ritchie Halls time-out call AFTER the ball was snapped, Serna made that first one, can't blame Serna for the loss. I think the Refs had no right to blow the whistle AFTER the ball was snapped, the facemask on Fred reid COMPLETELY missed by the Refs and they were right there, i am not using these as excuses, but the officiating was AWEFUL.

19-17 against Edmonton shows that we can compete, and if Lefors played the first half like he did the second, i believe we would have won this one. At least we didn't get blown out like the TI-CATS and our defense looks solid, we can hope that Lefors turns his game up a bit and we will be just fine. I will say it once again, almost every second and long the Bombers either ran the ball or tried running the ball or pitching the ball, which is totally ineffective and just plain dumb, that play needs to be scrapped. We never started to actually air the ball out until the fourth quarter, we need to air it out more. But all in all, alot of positives came from this loss and you learn from your mistakes, Kelly said we would come out and play our a$$es off and we did.

Bomber offensive player of the game - Fred Reid
Bomber Defensive Player of the game - Barrin Simpson

Give Renault credit for his great punting, but we do need a returner as i feel Franklin just isn't the guy, neither is Johnson.
Kudos to the BB'S for fighting til the end, i feel really bad for Serna, i feel he got robbed on that field goal, the ball was clearly snapped before the whistle and he made the first attempt. Don't worry, we showed that we can compete and we will learn from our mistakes and only get better, next week we will beat CGY at Canadinns Stadium and then waltz into Ivow Wynn and blow out the Ti-Cats. Also i loved the way they used Ralph on the reverse, he has alot of speed and was fun to watch, Bowman made a good impression, Edwards played his Heart out, Franklin had a good game, but Armstrong was invisible.

cannot forget that Brown was out on the Dline, but i liked his replacement, looked very sharp for a 23 year old rookie, but we missed Brown on the line as he is usually double covered, which would have opened up some holes for Walls, Perry ETC. to pressure Ray alot more. Don't worry BB fans, i see a 9-9 season and second place by the end of October. i liked what i saw, very intense and entertaining second half and we fought til the end. See ya next week against CGY at the Stadium.

Cheers

#2

Imagine what they could do if they get

a kicker
a punter
a returner
a QB

#3

…What game were you watching…Renaud had a good game …same with Serna…a Qb. … give him time my friend …give him time…a returner has to be on the way… :wink:

#4

Kicking was awful. By my count Bombers lost 150 yards on punt exchanges and around 75 yards on kickoff's. That's a lot of yards to make up.

Lefors was less than 50 percent, that needs to improve as well.

I liked the way the defense tackled and obviously the receivers and running backs are first class.

#5

Oh man, I absolutely feel awful for Serna. First attempt of the year from close to 50 on those field conditions. He hit it good but it just missed wide. Hard to imagine many kickers being able to make that kick twice.

I thought the defense was extremely good. Lobendahn was my player of the game, snuffed out lots of plays and made good tackles. Simpson was excellent against the run tonight and made lots of tackles as well. Shebazz had a great game as well. I was fretting over no Brown or Williams tonight but I thought the front four was good, got enough pressure. The secondary was hit and miss. Walls is a keeper and a few others played good but some guys seemed out of position. Still too much 'Greg Marshall' letting them make the catch and then try and contain them. Holding the Esks to 19 is a good way to start for them.

To the offense. The first half was nauseating. The playcalling was a bit bland and plays seemed to take way to long to develop. Am I the only one who thought the running back was lining up too deep in the first half? The offensive line has to improve, they couldn't sustain their blocks long enough. Reid was great when he had the blocking. Receivers played well, even on run plays they made blocks down field for the runner. No drops that I can think of. Oh, and that package with Randall is awful. Really makes him look bad. More creativity has got to come from that.

Lefors just seemed uncomfortable tonight. Some plays him and his recievers didn't look like they were in the same book, let alone the same page and that worries me. Some bad throws but that ball had to be slick. Would have liked to have seen him go deep some more. That pass to Edwards for the big gain was nice. No INTs is a good thing but I wasn't real impressed.

#6

Yeah, I thought the O-line was pretty bad. LeFors wasn't terribly impressive, but looked a lot better after that bomb to Edwards, it seemed to give him a boost of confidence. Should've started going deep sooner. If he can play like he did in the fourth quarter consistently for the rest of the year there won't be any problems. Definitely were a few miscommunications but hopefully that can be solved with another couple weeks of practice. He was pretty slippery back there I thought, avoided a few sure sacks.

I saw a lot of good from the Bombers today. The offense was absolutely terrible in the first half but they started to get it going and hopefully that's what they're going to do more often starting now.

A returner, though, is definitely necessary as soon as possible. Hopefully someone's on their way right now. The field didn't help but we all knew when Taylor was released anyway that there was no real return man here.

#7

....There's more to the punting game than total yds.......i seen some pretty good directional punts to the sidelines that were un-returnable.....i'd say that's good punting.....Lefors woke up in the second-half....a couple of his passes were dead-on the money for big gainers......Given a little time his game will improve......he sure evaded the rush from a Ritchie Hall d ....no-sacks on this guy....unlike a predecessor who's name will go unmentioned.... :wink:

#8

I was fairly happy overall with what I saw. Looks like the defence will be able to hold us in games while the offence gets it together. Frankly I was pretty impressed with the D.

I'd like to see LeFors throw deeper more often, it's too easy for the other team when they only have to defend 10 yards downfield...but obviously we're gonna need some better blocking for that to happen. He didn't have a whole lotta time back there.

Pretty good effort all round.

Special teams with the exception of the punt returning was pretty good. If you kick/punt to Tristan Jackson that many times in a game, to hold him to one big return and little else is very good in my books.

Love the effort and attitude on the team. I'm optimistic.

#9

Pro's:
-Reid still has it, and might be even better than in '08
-Lobendahn (hope I spelled it right) had a great game on D and special teams
-Terrence Edwards made a very nice catch

Con's:
-Serna still having a bit of trouble
-Lefors didn't seem comfortable in the pocket and couldn't get much passing done
-Edwards was injured, don't know how bad.

#10

Consider that one to be the last pre-season game.

I have no complaints as yet because this was purely a fine-tuning game for the coaches to see where the attention must be paid in practice this week.

D-backs have all of the tools to be a fine group - good hitters and nice close on the ball. They do need to come up to game speed on coverage but that comes with experience.

O-line looks OK but lack of communication hurt last night. Not enough blocking support in the back-field but, again, that comes with game experience.

Loved the special teams play. As good as the defence was I would have to say I was most pleased by the gutsy play on specials.

#11

Big CON here...

Derrick Armstrong REFUSING to play...

Had himself a bit of a hissy fit when told he was gonna be a DI. Not good. Have to wait and see what happens here.

#12

It was a painful game to watch....on both sides of the field.But be honest,the bombers are a go no where team.

#13

He did that to Mike Kelly !

He's just bitched himself right off the roster and probably will be in Hamilton by week's end....

#14

Terrible...clearly not putting the team first.

Hate to lose him, but maybe we can get somebody for him.

What a shame.