Tracker

And now we are speculating whether O'Shea will be given a fourth year to learn what he still seems to have problems with.

Yup. If we fumble our way into the playoffs due to the weakness in the eastern conference, it will be a very short playoff appearance, and an embarrassing one. The Bombers have to earn their way or fans will tune them out.

No mistaking it, we are in tough now. The confidence the team and fans felt during the winning streak in which the Bombers got almost all the breaks has evaporated and the same deficiencies that plagued the team are front and center. Somehow, this has to get fixed and soon or we could go 1 & 3 to finish the season. That might good enough to save O'Shea's job but not enough to restore fan confidence. It will interesting to see if we have a new receiver in the lineup next game, even if he is a Lions castoff.

Maybe we could sign Denmark again?

I would have been more than happy to have him in blue and gold.

Sure. Go ahead. Rub it in.

Turnovers be damned- it comes down to winning. The biggest knock on LaPolice before was his painfully conservative play-calling. The appraoch you describe works well with a dominant defence to complement it, but our defence has sprung holes.

its not just the abscence of Green or any one player- the only D-lineman who was a threat in the last couple of games has been Westerman- double-teamed but no one else has been able to consistently beat his blocker. Not good enough.

And we have consistently been the worst red-zone team in the league- does this fall at the feet of Mr. LaPolice?

Well, the chickens which some here had predicted have come home to roost. For some time during the Bomber winning streak, those here who were wearing rose-tinted glasses ignored the obvious problems: a toothless D-line, a suspect MLB and a lack of a big, fast deep threat to take the double/triple coverage off our best one or two receivers. Both Edmonton and Calgary had O-lines which are hardly all-star, but both managed to keep their quarterbacks upright and with enough time to write home. At this rate, we will probably squeak into the playoffs, mostly due to how pathetic the eastern conference is at the moment, but I don't like our chances against Hamilton or Ottawa.

Feoli Gudino looked solid tonight, if not spectacular and I continue to wonder why he has played so little to now.

Smith did not earn his keep tonight. We do not have a dominant receiver to take pressure off Dressler and Denmark.

Gotta go with Flanders, Fogg and Leggett.

Our D-line which was completely retooled in off-season has not lived up to its promise. Cummings and Shologan are ineffective and the rotating defensive end opposite Westerman is inconsistent as hell.

Cannot agree completely- the Bomber offense scored enough points to win most games, but had to play from behind once again due to Bowman eating the defensive backfield's lunch. And we had two plays that really sank us: Brigg's dumb penalty on the kick return TD that was called back, and the phantom PI call on Leggett what was far less egregious than the PI on Dressler in the 4th quarter.

Bombers were not good enough tonight to win, and we got out-coached. The Bomber D-line has been living on borrowed time for awhile, being bailed out by the ball-hawking d-backs, but tonight against a line featuring Sorenson and Greaves, they were toothless. Bass got steam-rolled on almost every run up the middle. We had no answers for Bowman and the Esk running game, but the Esk defence muzzled the Bomber receivers when it counted.

Willy must feel snakebit by now.

I'm happy that Wild is back for this game- he ought to be able to limit Reilly's scrambling, so all the Bombers need do is shadow Bowman until he has another snit and takes the rest of the game off.

He made some good catches, but maybe not enough of them with Sinkfield on the doorstep.

The biggest liability Dressler has is his age. He's not ancient by any means, but he is playing a position where he gets hit a lot by guys bigger than he is and as we age, it takes longer and longer for owies to heal.

Wouldn't bet on it.

But he has probably made it south of the border by now.

So where does Foketi fit?

I'm betting that neither Wild nor Andrew Harris will take the field against the Esks. We're going to miss Wild more than Harris- Wild might have made the difference between a loss and a win against Calgary. I love that Walters continues to try to improve the talent, but do we really need yet another import O-lineman?

Much as I have distaste for Muamba's antics, he would simultaneously be a stud MLB and an instant answer for our injury-depleted NI talent. He would also make Hurl expendable.