Bombers Hurting

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TheLionKing
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WINNIPEG -- The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were back on the field Monday for the first time since they fell 26-3 to the Edmonton Eskimos last week, their first loss of the season, and with five quarterbacks throwing balls it looked at times like training camp all over.

In some ways, maybe it is, because the Bombers know they have to find ways to correct flaws in their game that Mike Reilly and the Eskimos did a very handy job of exploiting.

"It might have been a little bit of a wake-up call," said Winnipeg quarterback Drew Willy, who was sacked five times as his offence was held to just one field goal.

"Obviously they are a good defence but we need to play better over all to give our defence a chance, because they played really well."

And a lot. Winnipeg's defence was on the field for more than 38 minutes, their offence just over 21 in the lopsided game that went bad early.

It isn't encouraging that two key starters on that defence could be missing in action when the Bombers visit the B.C. Lions on Friday. Coach Mike O'Shea says defensive back Johnny Sears and lineman Jason Vega are doubtful.

He says Sears has a hamstring issue that will be evaluated later in the week while Vega has a few ailments that likely will keep him off the field.

The coach wasn't pushing the panic button, however.

"We've also got guys that have been practising very, very hard behind them," he said. "We're set up nicely depth-wise on defence, that's for sure."

On Monday, the Bombers also shuffled players on their offensive line and they got their newest quarterback into the game, as Josh Portis learns Winnipeg's offence. He was picked up last week from the Toronto Argonauts to add CFL experience to their backup pool.

"I've learned a lot, being in Toronto," Portis said after practice, praising Ricky Ray as a great teacher.

"The game is different up here," he added. "You've just got to pay attention to small details and the dimensions of the game, the angles of the game are a little different."

With Mason Mills on Winnipeg's practice roster, plus backups Robert Marve and Brian Brohm, who have been around since rookie camp, the Bombers now have five pivots.

Receiver Aaron Kelly was practising again Monday and says he feels fine after being sidelined last week with a swollen knee, but O'Shea says they will also decide whether he's ready to return later in the week.

While the Bombers are coming off that 26-3 home loss to Edmonton, the Lions are riding high after their 41-5 thumping of the Montreal Alouettes.

This Friday also has been officially declared Geroy Simon Day in Vancouver, to honour the receiver who helped lead the Lions to two Grey Cups and added one more ring to his collection with the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year before retiring.

Simon, who spent his first two seasons with the Bombers before joining B.C., is the CFL's all-time career leader in receiving yards with 16,352, ranks first in pass receptions with 1,029 and third in touchdown receptions with 103.

The Bombers also added two more players to their practice roster Monday, international running back Sam McGuffie and Canadian linebacker Kyle Jones.

Jones is in his sixth season in the CFL, with stints in Hamilton, B.C. and Toronto. He has a career 34 special teams tackles and seven defensive tackles.

"Not only can he play special teams and do that well for you, he can get you out of a game in a lot of different spots," said O'Shea, Toronto's former special team's co-ordinator before he took over the Bombers.,

"One thing he can't do is snap to himself, hold it and kick his own field goal. But I haven't asked him to do that, so maybe he can."

Thay may not be a talent he needs in Winnipeg.

Rookie kicker Liram Hajrullahu was pressed into handling punting duties for the Bombers last week as well, after Mike Renaud injured himself during practice. The Bombers didn't suffer for the switch, with his 10 punts averaging just over 45 yards, a little better than Renaud this season.

Hajrullahu says he feels comfortable handling both but wants to get better at punting, which is more complicated.
TheLionKing
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Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicker Mike Renaud will be sidelined for several weeks, head coach Mike O'Shea said Sunday.

Renaud injured his hamstring in the pregame warm-up prior to Thursday's 26-3 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos.

Lirim Hajrullahu will take over kicking duties moving forward. Hajrullahu has a 45.2-yard average this season.

The Bombers play their next two games on the road, beginning with the BC Lions on Friday (TSN, 9:30pm et/6:30pm pt). That is followed by a game in Hamilton against the Tiger-Cats in Week 6.
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MexicoLionFan
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TLK, this is a game the Lions MUST WIN at home...Washington needs to continue to be aggressive and keep pressure on Wlly...

I just can't get over how great a job Chris Jones has done in EDM...#1 D in the league and it isn't because of their talent!
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Shi Zi Mi
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MexicoLionFan wrote:TLK, this is a game the Lions MUST WIN at home...Washington needs to continue to be aggressive and keep pressure on Wlly...

I just can't get over how great a job Chris Jones has done in EDM...#1 D in the league and it isn't because of their talent!
IMHO, their talent on the Dline and the fact they keep 8 of them on the 46 man roster is the primary reason they're winning.
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Rammer
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Shi Zi Mi wrote:
MexicoLionFan wrote:TLK, this is a game the Lions MUST WIN at home...Washington needs to continue to be aggressive and keep pressure on Wlly...

I just can't get over how great a job Chris Jones has done in EDM...#1 D in the league and it isn't because of their talent!
IMHO, their talent on the Dline and the fact they keep 8 of them on the 46 man roster is the primary reason they're winning.
You have to remember that going into last season, the only thing that the Esks had was a top end D. Then when Reilly arrived on the scene that flip flopped and their D couldn't do anything and the O was their weapon to find wins. With that in mind, Jones got that D back on track and Reilly has run for yardage to continue drives, and the results are compiling. I do agree with 8 DL fresh as a game moves along it is a huge benefit, just look at their sack total for the answer, making their secondary not have to cover as long so they can jam receivers off the line.
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green road kill
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Just some thoughts about the Montreal game and the game friday. First forget the the two games , to many the first couple games are just add ons to the pre season and the leo's are proving them wright. It mite have taken a couple games to sort things out but the Lions are improving each and every game. The Oline ; the first Montreal game was the low point (and fore the offence as well ) injurries and players leaving fore NFl camps left the left side in a bad way. TG PLAYER showed promice and CAVE ( never should have been here ). The return of Kerbey F was huge it changed the whole line ,and in the Rider game it showed the lions had one spot to fill not two,the running game got going and Glen had more time to run an offence ( did 70 mister studley even play ) .Hunter Steward guess what ,we have a national left takle , in the Mountreal game he held his own and better.Yes at times he was left to sink or swim ( most times the more you try to protect someone the worse it gets ) and swim he did. This Oline is ownly going to get better each time it plays. Kevin Glen thank you ,thank you ,thank you Ottawa it may have taken a few games to sort it out but with an inproving Oline and a running game ,Glen is showing tha he is the QB we all hoped.Manny leads the way , boy did he ever step his game up a notch or ten , he will give every DC in the leugue fits. CT, Jackson, Gore all played well and the more time spent with Glen the Better the'l get. Harris and Logan THE DYNAMIC DOU THOUNDER AND LIGHTNING , BE EVR SO HAPPY WE HAVE THEM , WOULD NEVER WHANT TO PLAY AGAINSNT THEM With the iimproving Oline ,the best running back tamdem in the league ,Glen gelling with his recievers ,there is know telling how good this offence could be. The deffence one touchdown in three game says it all.I woud put our frount seven up against anybodies. Give them credit fore the game on Sat they played very well (Montreal put up 33 points against Winnepeg ) . Bazzie showed on Sat that he learned from his mistakes ,and could be the rush end where looking fore. MOUNTRIAL is supposed to have one of the best Olines in the league , but had it's hands full against our Dline (even without Mitchel ) Wessrman and Gorden both had good games (Wessermen needs to play more ) . Our linebacking core is simply the best ,if any one has an anser for Biggy and Sole they havent shown it yet. I was worried at the start of the year about the changes in the secoundary, but it has turned into a mix of young speed and old time smarts. YES Mountreals QB aint the best in the world but they pritty mutch shut down DD Rider game.I cannot understand why so many have sutch a hate fore RYHAN PHILIPSwhen you spend games board ( nobody throws the ball your way ) it says something.The beat down of Mountrial sent a message to the other 8 teams IT'S OUR HOUSE YOU DON'T WHANT TO BE HERE.The game on Friday is one I fully expect the Leo's to win ,simply put thsy are a better team than WINNEPEG. The Bumpers got off to a fast start against weak eastern teams and are better than last year (could not be any worse ) but faced there first real test against the Esks and caved . DREW WILLY is a good young QB but as a first year starter he will strugle against better teams Glen will give us an advantage in this game. The Bumper Oline is weaker than ours with far less upside,running game nowhere near as good ,Linebacking not even close and the DB's are mostly rookies ,plus ECHES DEFFENCE can be had. Looking forward to being 3 and 2 after Friday
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DanoT
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Greenroadkill,

You may be a knowledgeable fan, but your all one paragraph, stream consciousness, poorly spelled and punctuated post is, for me, unreadable.
TheLionKing
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MexicoLionFan wrote:TLK, this is a game the Lions MUST WIN at home...Washington needs to continue to be aggressive and keep pressure on Wlly...

I just can't get over how great a job Chris Jones has done in EDM...#1 D in the league and it isn't because of their talent!
Lions need to continue doing what they've been doing the last 2 games. Pressure, pressure, pressure, run the football. Make the opposition adjust to what you're doing.
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sj-roc
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DanoT wrote:Greenroadkill,

You may be a knowledgeable fan, but your all one paragraph, stream consciousness, poorly spelled and punctuated post is, for me, unreadable.
:whs: Thank you.

I don't even really mind the occasional typo here and there, and I mean no disrespect but this "Wall of text — ACTIVATE!" mode is something that just makes my eyes gloss over. I don't hold myself up as the gold standard, but I usually limit myself to three sentences or less per paragraph.

I often see big paragraphs on other blogs and chat boards, too, and usually just skip such content. As a readability metric, newspaper articles often use just one or two sentences per paragraph, and this is with a far lower character count per line of text than what I get on my screen here.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Coast Mountain Lion
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Apparently Ricky Schmitt has a shoulder injury from a motor scooter accident so he's out for this game. The punting game will get interesting again.
green road kill
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Sorry oldts comespunter noes spellscheck or fanceees stuffI bewelderrrs noe use punters on joobs makes parageraffs but no stay wen poa goods things to piontts outss nowwss bester tries again
TheLionKing
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Coast Mountain Lion wrote:Apparently Ricky Schmitt has a shoulder injury from a motor scooter accident so he's out for this game. The punting game will get interesting again.
Schmitt's injury will have a trick down effect. Who will now be holding the ball on extra points and field goals ? Will the timing be off ?
TheLionKing
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DanoT wrote:Greenroadkill,

You may be a knowledgeable fan, but your all one paragraph, stream consciousness, poorly spelled and punctuated post is, for me, unreadable.
X3. I hope the teacher's strike is over soon so they can get back to teaching correct grammar, spelling and sentence composition.
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First of all green road kill..thanks for taking the time to post and share a lot of your thoughts on our Leos. Your post reflects that you have insights to offer on Lionbackers.

If you break your text down into shorter paragraphs, they will be easier to read.

I agree with you that the last two games were more important than the first two games, even though the points or lack thereof count the same. The trend is more your friend.

However our wins have come against a Rider team that seems to struggling offensively and a Montreal team that has usually played dismally on the West Coast. We should never have lost to Montreal. I think the Edmonton game surprised us, in terms of how much they have improved under Jones. Certainly coaching is proving to be an important factor, as is being demonstrated presently in Winnipeg and Edmonton and also was the key factor for both of our losses and both of our wins.

Winnipeg is hurting and lost to Edmonton. I thnk I will feel much more confident if/when we beat both of these vastly improved teams as well as Calgary. Right now Saskatchewan, Hamilton, Montreal, and Toronto are not off to great starts and Ottawa is a new franchise. The big three at this point are Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

I'm looking forward to the Winnipeg game. I certainly don't doubt our talent level and if we can come up with a good game plan against Winnipeg, as we have in our last two outings, I anticipate a hard fought victory.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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Lions4ever
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Coast Mountain Lion wrote:Apparently Ricky Schmitt has a shoulder injury from a motor scooter accident so he's out for this game.
Um, wut?
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