July 18th 2012: Winnipeg Blue Bombers vs. Toronto Argonauts

[Nob]

I don't think that anyone is ragging on Ray. I think people here are suggesting that of his brief Argo career that wasn't his best game, but it is farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr better than any QB play the Argos have had in many years. I think we are also all excited to see how great this offense can be when everyone is clicking.

The whole offence struggled tonight. That's going to happen on a lousy short week. As such Ray didn't have much support.

I though that the OL struggled tonight. Ray was under a lot of pressure. If he had more time he would have been even better.

That's it. That's all. I think that every poster on this board is bowing to the west and thanking Tillman for sending Ray to the Argos. Best QB the Argos have had since Flutie.

[KCargosfan]

I don't think that anyone is ragging on Ray. I think people here are suggesting that of his brief Argo career that wasn't his best game, but it is farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr better than any QB play the Argos have had in many years. I think we are also all excited to see how great this offense can be when everyone is clicking.

The whole offence struggled tonight. That's going to happen on a lousy short week. As such Ray didn't have much support.

I though that the OL struggled tonight. Ray was under a lot of pressure. If he had more time he would have been even better.

That's it. That's all. I think that every poster on this board is bowing to the west and thanking Tillman for sending Ray to the Argos. Best QB the Argos have had since Flutie.

Once again, I agree with Nob. I think people are glad this is considered a "not great" game, and I honestly don't remember reading anything being all over Ray.

If you are referring to my post pw13, keep in mind that it came early in the 4th quarter after a huge stretch where we did nothing. Even then, I don't think I was being that critical. Perhaps I should have clarified it to "second half" again at that point.

[ArgoRavi]

The Argo offence had some trouble getting into a rhythm (in Ray's words) in the second half. They had at least a couple of occasions where they got into second and short and then botched those plays. In fact, I can think of at least three times on second and short in the second half where they ran Boyd and the Bombers were able to stop him which forced the Argos to punt. There were a couple of turnovers and at least one penalty that killed drives in the second half as well. The great thing was that they were able to put together a TD drive when they absolutely had to and that hasn't happened often over the last several seasons. I don't think that anyone will say that this was a great game offensively by the Argos but Ray still threw for over 300 yards which has been a rarity in Argoland from '09-'11.

As for the defence, they played very well IMO. They only gave up one TD drive on that night and that was with the Bombers working on a short field. They did have some problems handling Chad Simpson in the first half but pretty much shut him down in the second half. They got lots of pressure on Brink as well which clearly had much effect on him.

Finally, the special teams coverage was excellent tonight. Our return game struggled a bit but you have to give Winnipeg some credit as well.

[1argoholic]

I keep having to tell myself that we played that game with basically no practice. NOw we have plenty of time to work on things for Montreal. We need to push the ball downfield more often. The dink and dunk stuff looked like the last few years.

[Will]

I give credit to Winnipeg's D for keeping them in the ballgame in the second half. Our receivers were blanketed for the most part and Cory couldn't really get much going either. But, big credit to Jason Barnes for coming up in the clutch to get the winning TD. I got a bit scared on the ensuing kickoff when WPG got a nice gain, but Brink was horrible for most of the night. He kept pushing the ball downfield in the first half and completed maybe one of those passes to Denmark. I never realized his stats (9-34) were that brutal and I was actually worried about facing him more than Pierce! Brandon Isaac nearly took his head off in the first half.

[Argocister]

Just a few thoughts on the game....... I was impressed with the crowd last night. 22,000? I guess maybe more in the 200 level? But the enthusiasm was good for a Wed night. Maybe summer weekdays aren't so bad.... But a short week sucks and was evident in the play.
It seems that we play to the level of our opponent...... So next game we'll be great.
Defense saved us in the second half.
I'm glad we got some great punts from Swayze. I'm sure he will settle in...... Glad to know Pre is around to help out.
Still more work to be done with the receivers.... but I was impressed to hear that the play to Barnes was an impromptu play designed by Ray .... And I take the coach..... Based on what the Bombers D gave him. I like adaptability. This shows great confidence and communication between the coaches and players ....... Looking forward to a great season.

[Hollaway]

Yeah, defence saved our butts, I thought we were going lose at one point, this was closer then everyone thought it was going to be, to close for comfort.

[Will]

Just a few thoughts on the game....... I was impressed with the crowd last night. 22,000? I guess maybe more in the 200 level? But the enthusiasm was good for a Wed night. Maybe summer weekdays aren't so bad.... But a short week sucks and was evident in the play.
It seems that we play to the level of our opponent...... So next game we'll be great.
Defense saved us in the second half.
I'm glad we got some great punts from Swayze. I'm sure he will settle in...... Glad to know Pre is around to help out.
Still more work to be done with the receivers.... but I was impressed to hear that the play to Barnes was an impromptu play designed by Ray .... And I take the coach..... Based on what the Bombers D gave him. I like adaptability. This shows great confidence and communication between the coaches and players ....... Looking forward to a great season.

Yeah, there were also more people on the west side stands from my perspective, and they weren't all away fans too, which is good.

[ArgoGabe22]

I'm still 2-0 when watching the Argos haha. Surprised to see Ricky Ray at the Clarkson GO station going on the same train 4 hours before the game

[Hollaway]

Really kool, is he living in Mississauga?

[Will]

I'm still 2-0 when watching the Argos haha. Surprised to see Ricky Ray at the Clarkson GO station going on the same train as me.

Did you talk to him at all?

[ArgoGabe22]

Did you talk to him at all?

No, I just saw him standing there and I think he saw us wearing Argo shirts so we just nodded and said hi & good luck. You don't want to disrupt his pregame focus, he's got to be in the zone. You don't want to throw your starting QB off his gameplan even though it was 4 hours before the game.

[Will]

No, I just saw him standing there and I think he saw us wearing Argo shirts so we just nodded and said hi & good luck. You don't want to disrupt his pregame focus, he's got to be in the zone. You don't want to throw your starting QB off his gameplan even though it was 4 hours before the game.

Ah, I thought you had seen him this morning and not yesterday.

[ArgoGabe22]

Ah, I thought you had seen him this morning and not yesterday.

Yeah it was before the game which was shocking. The new guy from the US using the GO Train? Wouldn't be surprised to see Jeff Johnson or Andre Durie but Ricky Ray?

[mchesher03]

Didn't see it mentioned yet but 22k at the SkyDome and only 18k at BMO last night - not shocking.

Our offence will be fine - we're moving the ball, the red zone will take care of itself - especially with more time for montreal. Been a while since we came out of Molson Stadium with a W!

[Will]

Didn't see it mentioned yet but 22k at the SkyDome and only 18k at BMO last night - not shocking.

Our offence will be fine - we're moving the ball, the red zone will take care of itself - especially with more time for montreal. Been a while since we came out of Molson Stadium with a W!

Well, we won a meaningless game there at the end of the 2010 season, but I think the last win before that was in 2005!

[ArgoGabe22]

Back to this game, I posted on twitter that for someone who loves to talk how good they are Jovon Johnson just got burned twice by Chad Owens and Jason Barnes for TDs. I think Jovon is highly overrated like many Bomber players. Anyways I get a message saying 2011 defensive player of the year....stop hating. Go back to see who sent it and it was deleted.

[anthonyrussell]

Have ploughed through the highlights and just about to sit down and watch the full thing. Closer than I imagined and Owen's hands of stone didn't help but the job got done, the d only gave up 22 pts and the offence came through in the clutch. Will need to improve against Montreal

[mchesher03]

Have ploughed through the highlights and just about to sit down and watch the full thing. Closer than I imagined and Owen's hands of stone didn't help but the job got done, the d only gave up 22 pts and the offence came through in the clutch. Will need to improve against Montreal

The Montreal game is very winnable - I did also say this about the Edmonton and Hamilton games as well

key in montreal is to score majors early and often - get montreal playing desperate. I didn't like how close Winnipeg was to sneaking out of here with a W last night -but an ugly W > any loss

[argotom]

Yes an ugly win is still a win.
It should not have been this close as it should have been a blow out after the first half.