The REAL problem

Winnipeg Blue Bombers
1

Week 1, it was expected really, on the road to open the year in bc vs the defending champs, Geroys record, it was just.. bombers couldnt win, but hung in there, the D played well enough to win that game, the O struggled hard (to be expected tho)

Week 2, The O was moving the ball, really were, two 2 and outs all game really.. they would move the ball, settle for fg's tho instead of touchdowns, couple pi calls against montreal probably saved a touchdown or 2, if im all teams, i definitely pi the bombers near the goal line because they cant score..

The real problem tho..

THE D..

Swaggerville is Dead.. cant spell Dead without the D and last weeks game, well, swaggerville died.

The D is the real problem.. had 7 take aways at this point last year, were a plus 4 or 5 after 2 games, this year after 2, a minus 1 or 2..

The D just, they look lost, sure injuries play a part but... not sure thats the only reason.

The D is terrible, perhaps, well, people like to throw lapolice under the bus, well, Perhaps its time Burke started to take some heat too..

After all, its his defense that got eatten alive by montreal.

Is the real problem Tim Burke??

lets be honest, 31 points for should win u games, it did last year.. 74 points given up in 2 games... that says all you need to know, hamiltons given up 82... most other teams, less than 50.

2

Another problem that we have no control over and has happened in the past is playing against a team that just got smoked in their last game. We walk into Mont. right after Cal. trounced them. They took it out on us.... Now we go to Edm. in almost the same situation. Do you think the Eskimos are a little upset with last week's performance? Not an excuse, just an observation.

3

Thinking they will beat the 1 point they scored vs SK. Did Semenko get that goal for them?! :slight_smile:

4

Semenko never scored, did he?

5

...The real problem...how many would you like

Management blowing the schedule for us by alluding to a certain occupation of our new digs in 2012
Off season moves that were not made to compensate for lost talent
Too much 'me first twitter crap' rather than doing your job and being a team first guy
Key injuries piling-up at the worst possible time (although good teams play through them)
Instead of a revitalized new look offence, we have the same crap that was dished up last year

.....Although we have only played two games, this team looks like it's lost more than it's swagger and failing fast...It's still early and we can correct the course BUT a few people better start playing football like they are capable of....And for cripes sake....Buck better forget his 'whole hog' business and start getting his head straight and go out 'whole hog' for the Bombers..We need a 110 percent from Pierce RIGHT NOW.. :rockin: ....problems solved

6

Last goal ever scored in the wha! lol

7

The real problem is we are missing a lot of starters due to injuries. When Watson, Bowman, Suber, Stewart, Douglas, etc are back in the line-up we will be a much better team.

8

you mean Brown, Willis, Lobendahn and Kent, jj :wink:

9

Can't fault the D for game 1 vs BC. Ineffective offense going 2 and out way to often, hard to keep a talented offense like BC down. Game 2 is another thing entirely. The D was off for sure, and it all started with ineffective play in the front 7 - all 4 on the Dline, Doe, and Labbe/Muamba. Didn't help losing Stewart partway through the game either. No pressure on Calvillo and they couldn't keep Whitaker in check. Injuries and the fact we're only 2 games in make it too hard to pass judgement on them as of yet. Hall and Collier haven't given them what DBrown and OWillis did, jury's still out on if they even can.

Is burke the problem? I'd think probably not. He had the Als going well enough to help them get into the playoffs and have post season success before coming here. He's done a good job with in game adjustments and getting strong play out of the guys he has. Far too often those adjustments have come after they've given up early points.

The way they manage their roster has had a lot to do with it. Preferring to stay younger works better with the imports, not so well with the NIs on the team. Letting go some of their NI players and not being aggressive enough with some more experienced NI players may have forced them to sacrifice some in the short term with the hope of long term gain. For example they committed to a NI starter at MLB in either labbe or muamba pretty early on in the offseason and didn't give themselves options in the way of competition in camp to even consider deploying the ratio differently.

Personally, I wasn't a big fan of how they let Kent go. The guy had a couple of great years here. Cutting him was one thing, I'll leave that decision to the coaches, but leave the reasoning as he got beat out in camp by one of the other talented DBs. Didn't see any reason to disparage with the lost a step excuse trying to explain themselves. Especially after there was nothing negative about him during camp. Poorly handled IMO.

10

Doug Brown: yes, the rest: no

11

regarding the schedule, i dont see it being a problem, dont think losing to bc or montreal the last 2 weeks is because we were on the road, i think we’d be 0-2 even if we started at home.

loss of starters? Week 1, both tackles, running back (1st and 2nd string), canadian receiver, starting lb… yeah it has hurt.
Week 2, 1 tackle came back, the rest were still out.
week 3, noones back, suber and stewart out… have to admit tho, i like pasco. beasley, probably has something to prove after his off season twitter remarks so not overly concerned. i like HEF at linebacker. Guess we shall see.

I guess after thinking about it, i’d rather us struggle now then later, we started 7-1 last year… almost 8-0 really. it was a last second fg or something away from being 8-0. perhaps a TJ harris non fumble away from being 8-0.

Since then we’ve struggled, had turnover, coaches,players,etc… guess reality is people get concerned that guys like Willis,Kent,Lobendahn,Labatte,CARR,khan,brown(the only one i think that makes a legit difference) arent around but reality is after our 7-1 start last year, we went 3-7, 4-8 really if u throw in the east final and the cup game… 4-10 in our last 14 games really. The team started to struggle last year with those guys i mentioned, changes needed to happen… 7-1 to start yup but 4-10 since then… 11-11 in our last 22 games played. Changes needed to be made.

12

Let’s look at the player dif. from last year one by one:

Willis…was rotating in a good portion of last season…was not happy other guys were about to take his spot…bad attitude/no loss
Lobendahn…injured for half the year…in fact that’s where he is on the stamps roster …the ir/no loss
Labatte…was not playing up to par last year as far as i was concerned…was eyeing a return to saskabush…no team guy/no loss…now sitting on riders ir
Khan…done like dinner/no loss
Kent…really slowed down this year and i will go with a very good defensive mans( Burkes) assessment of his play/no loss
Carr…we have recruited a player in Matthews who is as good and will be better/no loss
Brown…now a lot of people will be surprised to hear me say that I think Dougie had lost a step as well…Although he was still double teamed a lot he never had that ‘bull-rushing’ quality he once possessed…He knew it and that’s why he retired…Even so that was a loss…Great team guy and hard to replace

So all in all…were losing any or all of these guys a huge travesty to the team…I don’t think so :wink:

13

Losing a guy like Doug Brown is a loss,eventho he may have indeed lost a step or 2 last season. He was a starting canadian. A ratio changer really. having him allowed us to play an american middle linebacker however, pretty sure labbe got a lot of reps last year in the middle too.

The rest are pretty much replaceable. Starting Canadian Defensive Tackles,Dominant ones, for the most part, at that is difficult to replace.

14

Yes brown was a step slower, and he rotated in and out more the last couple of years. I think not having him on the team has hurt the leadership in the locker room. Brown and Khan for that matter were two of the more senior members of the team. The team collectively is younger than last year. Who’s left in the locker room to provide that veteran leadership? Edwards? January?

Papa I would agree with most of your assessments but disagree with this one. Lost step or not, his understanding of the D and veteran savvy would have helped stabilize the LB corps with 2 new starters in Doe and Labbe/Muamba, particularly with Bowman out with the injury. Instead you have Stewart, who is a great player in his own right but had to learn a new position on the fly first 2 games into the season. Releasing Kent just added to the degree of transition on defence. But if it had to be done, better to have the growing pains now than midseason.

15

Doug Brown thinks the real problem is the heat is scrambling fans and reporters brains. :lol:
[url]Winnipeg Free Press

16

The real problem is our turnstile O-line that required 3 QBs to finish the beatdown in Edmonton.

17

Buck Pierce can’t read defences and that doesn;t help his cause in the pocket. Brink was running for a first down and he didn’t get down quick enough.

18

The number one reason is that Mack is a cheap jerk who ruined this team and the season!!!!!!!!

19

We were brutal in our last 10 games last year too. People forget ,we have won 3 games in our last 13 dating back to last year.

20

Thats true but we lost good talent to other teams and Mack did very little off season. I see a pattern like the Toronto maple leafs with Harold Ballard years back in hockey.