The Bombers will be in tough . Beating any team, three times in a row is tough. Especially a very good team. Our offence will need to be spectacular as our pass defence is a train wreck.
…AND we have to be healthy…Chungh and Wild back would be great…Unfortunately it looks like Fogg might be out as he is walking around in a boot…We’re very good on the road…we might have to be to advance to the final… :roll:
Jennings would have to pull a Willy in order for Bombers to advance.
Wally would have to morph into Rainman Huard!
I like the Bombers in this one.
They play better on the road, 7 - 2.
Pressure is on BC, having lost twice already to the Bombers and now playing in front of their largest crowd of the season.
Co-ordinators, Hall is better than Khari and Lapo is better than Washington, at this point in their careers. I'm confident we'll have the better game plans going in.
Special teams, I give the edge to the Bombers in the kicking game as I can't see McCallum besting Medlock beyond 40 yards. Rainy could be a handful but so can McDuffie.
Not so fast on Hall…or pass defence has been a joke this year. We are dead last in the league and can’t depend on turnovers in a playoff game. If we give the Lion’s 10 yard cushions all day long we have no shot.
It'll be like any other game. We need to force Jennings into making mistakes like we did in the two games a few weeks ago if we are to have a chance. Forcing a lot of turnovers in back to back weeks like we did against the Lions was a tall order but the D did it, doing it a third time is a tough task but we can do it. Jennings is a good QB and he's shown some improvement since those losses in his decision making, hopefully we can force him back to some old habits. Our secondary is healthy. We could use Wild back, and Bass. I'm curious to see how the Dline shakes out, whether Cole gets back in. I thought our Dline had one of it's better games of late in Ottawa.
On offense, a few days off for Harris might be in order, he's taken a few lumps lately. It's a sure bet he'll be ready to go against his old team again in a playoff game. And I agree, we need Chungh back to restore order to the Oline and push Neufeld back to the sideline. In the insider section of Penton's weekly articles inthe CFL in the Sun after the loss to the Redblacks here, someone said that in big games Lapo goes too conservative. I would agree with that and we can't afford to have him fall into that habit.
Nichols protects the ball, we get 3 takeaways or more in any fashion, there's a good chance we win. I expect a close one regardless.
Big difference in Wpg vs. BC matchup is the trenches.
BC’s d-front 7 will put a hard push on Wpg’s o-line - don’t expect much secondary blocking from miniatures like Dressler & Smith; even Denmark - especially if Chungh is out or seriously dinged and dressed. Should be some easy walk thrus for BC resulting in sad sacks on Nichols . . . .
On the other side - Wpg’s d-line has been spotty this season - especially Westerman who’s been down like the Cdn. dollar. Only 7 or 8 sacks all season - no real push at times, poor discipline and regularly penalized for late hits and offsides. Guys like Shologan, Jakey Thomas, etc. will be too easily controlled by BC’s excellent o-line. Wpg. will have to get massive games from Yuke Cummings and/or Jason Cole to have a sniff.
Jennings gets adequate support, let alone a clean sheet and he’ll be hitting open targets all nite long. Sad ending to a nice Winnipeg season.
Time for Gurley, Denmark, Adams, Smith, Dressler to come up HUGE for bombers to have a sniff…
.....We've beat them twice....time to make the Leo's think of us as their nemesis and dump them again.....Close losses like the Lions have endured against us can get in your head...We have similar problems with the Esks. and Cal and a lot of it get's psychological...I think we have their number and we just have to go out and play our best game period...Rein in Rainey...pressure their young gun qb. into mistakes...He has no playoff experience (Nichols is also shy in that respect as well) BUT Matt has been around longer and is more experienced...I think the Lions will have their troubles with us in a lot of departments...One will be keeping a check on Gurley and Adams in the long passing game while the little guys tear them apart underneath and in the short game ...Harris will just add to their woes and I expect him to have a big game against his former team... IF our D plays their receivers tight and pick Jennings a few times...it could be the difference....Lions are very beatable...we've already proven that :rockin:
Don’t agree with some of this. The trenches IMO are a wash. Winnipeg’s Oline gets both Chungh and Bond back making our best 5 starters available for the game. In the two games with BC, neither team dominated with the sack totals amounting to two for each team. Expect a lot of Harris who had about 250 combined run and pass yards over the 2 games. Westerman’s 8 sacks don’t reflect the season he’s had. Yes his totals are down from last year and maybe he’s been a bit more inconsistent, but that doesn’t tell the whole story. He’s been rotated out more often this year because we have Corney getting reps. And our team sack totals aren’t huge but their pressure has been good overall in the last 2/3’s of the season and a big reason we’ve had so many INTs this year is because the Dline has forced QBs into making bad or hurried throws to avoid the sack. Unfortunately the CFL stats package doesn’t seem to record QB hurries or pressures.
I think the game rests with the QBs. Can Nichols handle the noise and move the ball consistently while avoiding the mistakes that have dogged his last few weeks? And with Jennings I expect he’ll chuck it and a lot at that, probably throw for over 300 yards given how porous our D has been. But can he avoid all those turnovers? If we get one early does it get into his head and rattle him a bit?
This is a tough one to predict.The Bombers could get blown out or they could control the game and come out with a solid win . I'm all over the map on this one.Go Blue!
I've read and watched everything. I know what this team can do, so, all I can say is GO BOMBERS !!!!
......Why did we sign Gurley again...???I see he's out for this important game... Fogg also out...Other than that, I'm happy to see we our healthy and ready to go...Go get em BigBlue :rockin: :rockin:
Bit surprised Kohlert was benched for Gudino at the start of the game.
Great first half, need another strong 30… and a way to slow up Rainey and Johnson in the run game. Those two are basically driving the Leo’s offense and the more they get the ball the less chance Jennings is turning over the ball.
Ugh, we go conservative and we pay for it.
…Yeah I’m afraid so wolverine…I did not like the play calling of the last half at all… or the D schemes…There will be changes and it has to be in the defensive coaching side of the ball no 1…Wasn’t thrilled with Lapo’s play calling but it should have been enough if we would have shut down Jennings with the big lead we had…same old same old with this team…Get a lead…orrrr another failing is that we have the opposition deep in their end and we let them walk down the field… :thdn: :thdn: There has to be changes…Should we consider it a success this season…just making the playoffs… I guess BUT that won’t sell many tickets to next year, after all of the failing years…and this one looks just like another one…
We let them back in to it. A fault we have had all year… One lousy point…
Personally I thought that hit by Loeffler that knocked Arceneaux out of the game was OK, bang bang play where Loeffler assumes the catch is made and he's trying to jar it loose, no helmet to helmet and at full speed you can see Loeffler had no chance to pull up. I get why they called it though. In the end it was probably helped the Lions win the game. They moved to a quicker passing attack using shorter throws, used the backs seemingly even more than they did in the first half, and we had to answer.
Bad decision by O'Shea to go for that FG, but I don't think he had enough confidence in what Lapo was and the offense were doing. If we went for it I would imagine Lapo either calls a hand off to Harris or a pass to Harris in the flat. We spread the ball around early, then forgot about half the offensive unit for most of the second half. Lapo exceeded his last playoff game in BC, but not good enough again.
Unfortunately I'm not sure if any heads roll. Getting into the playoffs finally will be considered progress. Pressure is on Walters to keep as many key cogs and make the 2 first round picks count. Would be nice if Thorpe comes loose after the changes in Montreal, would like to see what he can do with this group.
Choke!
Was hoping that O'Shea wouldn't let Lapo and Hall fall into their old ways this time around but it looks like he is no better than them in crunch time.
Sad really because with the right coaching this team would give Calgary a run for their money.
I was not worried about BC or Cal. or whoever we met in the GC, I was worried about us beating ourselves or allowing another team to beat us AND that's what happened.
The negatives aside, we were light years ahead of last year. :thup:
And it will all be for not unless they can follow it up next year.