wbbfan

Gray at guard was interchangeable with Dobson in pass protection. Gray actually took more penalties in pass pro as well. Really every ol has struggled next to neuf. Eli can’t even play guard at all even though his first start here was at guard before kola and he was ok. I don’t want us to pay Dobson any kind of big deal. That said we are just rebuilding our ol depth, and stand to lose atleast one body in the off season imo. Where we will pick, we aren’t likely to get a turn key first year starter on a gc contender either. so I think losing him would be a big issue. But not one worth a kramdi or Lawson type pay day. Toronto was running twists, stunts, gap shifting and cross face routes all day. It really isn’t as cut and dry as Dobson struggled vs ceresna as to why they kicked our lines butt. Though he did struggle for his part. And ceresna is a good ass dl. If we had him over our Jake, forget it. Toronto has been a dl factory for a bit now. Eiben has done a great job and this year Maxie has been phenomenal, before this year Maxie was doing great work with the elk too. With the 2 dc system is Toronto, Maxie is kind of hard stuck. Some one is gonna give him an expanded role at some point and he’s gonna shine. In fact if hall retires this year, I would love to poach him to be our dl and new special dc assistant under jy.

We started about as bad and ended up better, but we also under performed heavily early on. I think considering mace would’ve been fair. But the default coach of the year position is first place teams barring some thing in sane. I think jarious Jackson fell just shy of that too.

Some of that Toronto and late season stuff was kola, who played the worst games of the season when we tried to close out first place. But you’re right he certainly did take a bit of a step back. I think Dobson needs to take a step forward next year. He hasn’t gotten down field in run pro enough, or washed guys out crossing his face enough yet. I think he will turn that corner and become that guy. It’s slower than I thought he would be or should be. Though playing next to a turnstile can hurt or help development some guys step up and do more. Some guys struggle with doing too much, and others give up easy on plays. Kola along with Jake is a guy who we badly need to be rid of. Wallace is a giant threat imo. But I think neuf will retire and Wallace will take his spot next year. I would actually give him practice and pre season reps at RT. He played that spot in college, and despite still being a bit heavy this year his mobility has been very very good. I think we are too quick to send all ol prospects to G and not give them time at rt. At worst, you have a back up who can shift over in case of injury. If it works out and you can go 4 ni ol, that’s massive. Gray should’ve been a RT too. We might still lose Dobson tbh. Hes from the north east, so the Ontario teams are close to home, he’s been starting here, his pedigree and athleticism are top tier for a Canadian. He isn’t desjarlais and won’t get that money, but some one could well over pay him as a starter in hope he turns into a Drew with them.

Thats certainly true for the most part. In th cfl big bodies are more limited and that does limit your fronts a bit more. Hall did a great job with diverse looks from the front and rush paths. Jy pretty much lines up his 3-4 and sends em straight. Like that tight 30 front with all 3 inside the guards. Like a bear front with out the two wide 5 rushers. And usually 2 Canadians who don’t do any thing in the rush. And thats the spicy front in our d lol.

Pretty much. To get further into it, in a 40 front D (which most teams run) and a Sam lber in coverage your wil and mac have to take inside gaps in the run fits. Then the Sam takes the out side edge gap (c usually) and a half the other side edge gap. Then the S is generally the back up inside if some one blows it. If you play with that alignment, the wil/Mac are stuck between the hash marks. So if the rb hits the flat between the tackle and the side line below the WRs, the lbers just can’t get there in time. Even if they are spying the back when not in run fits, they would have a big gap to close and have to flip their hips and run to the rb, so with a break down field you break the angle from the lber and force them to make a sharp hard pivot which few nfl athletes can do with any momentum. with all teams running variations of the spread, and the hash change defences have gotten smaller. The Mac is the size wils used to be, and wils are old sams. That means they struggle more to play the gap. If any thing, especially with the amount of read, option, and zone run schemes, you need an extra body inside. In a D like ours, you either have a lber on hook curl flat or medium interior wall coverage. Then a corner, Sam or half often has the flat. But they seldom are following the rb or taking them into consideration. So that db is generally run off in a pass play. Usually in a heavy run situation you see our lbers in the tackle box. Other wise, they are generally deeper and spread to the tackle width or more.

It’s just the degradation of our game plan. Brady’s hands are as good as Harris. Tbh, Harris benefited from playing with the check down master in nichols, zach is significantly worse at throwing good screens, and short tosses. If any thing, Brady has better hands. Catching down field passes from zach is sonically easier than short stuff. Down field you have more time to set up and snag it. The jet sweep package has died, along with other packages and plays we have the pieces for. Remember the counter toss to Harris? The direct snap? The draw? 2nd and longer than 10 was a favourite for the draw to Harris.

9-49, 12-42, 11-43 rushing. 9-80, 1-9, 6-60 receiving. thats 283 yards from scrimmage over 3 games with him. Averaging out to 16 touches yielding 94.33 yards per game. That, in warm weather. I’m mainly concerned if we will use Brady enough. He’s a real hard guy to take away from the O. You can’t really be aggressive in the gaps and the flats with out massive down field problems. I’d really like to see us send Brady on a wheel deep. Teams struggle to get to the flats on him, send him deep and they will have nightmares.

I bet all 3 of those guys are working in the league next year. Mean while **** won’t finish the year.

Divisional all star votes are a joke. Dobson improved an awful lot over the year. Especially in the back half. Don’t think he’s an all star calibre guy though. May be worthy of that next year with more consistency. (And I love Dobson) Most of those guys got their nods on reputation and hype. I believe he signed a futures deal for next years camp with the ALs. But tbh he wasn’t my favorite of that group and they are all really close. I think and hope this will be it for biggie. Wade has done a fantastic job since he took over. Since the 19 gc, it’s been gravy. Our franchise is gonna be secure for a long time.

Ah that’s right to I forgot about that

It’s sad how far they fell in such a short time.

I’d like us to explore adding a ratio breaking if we get the chance. Especially in the front 6. If we can get a good Canadian pass rusher, or tackle box guy that’d go a long ways. I’d look long and hard at flipping a guard spot, though Wallace might be ready to start next year. More ni wr depth would be big. Ol are always at a premium. Might be time to invest in a good vet tackle.

Leake would be brilliant. Rotational super sub at rb, wr, and return guy. Run some two back go-go stuff with he and Brady. I’m sure it won’t happen but that’d be a wicked get. I wonder if we bring back any of the lbers from camp this year. Thomas, petrishen, gemmel and moses all had big time flashes. I’d suspect Thomas and gemmel would be high on the list for the mafia. But I’d be happy to see any of them back.

My question is, how many of that younger crowd are getting free tickets through grass roots initiatives? It’s been done a lot of times in a lot of places. At times it’s built strong young fan base, other times it’s created an unwillingness to pay to support the team.

I think bc will win vs ssk. Then we will be spanking vaj but in a close game, leading to him being pulled for rourke. Bc with vaj is hands down better than ssk imo. I hear if you peel back his name plate on the jersey it says Dan Clark underneath.

Fix it by micing the cc booth and letting them break down the replay as well as tsn. Don’t let them hide behind anonymity. Also grading official performances (including cc) and releasing them after each game (like mlb). Then simplify what they can and can’t review on their own and with a challenge. Finally, don’t have the CC exist to support the refs. Their primary job should be getting the call right not limiting embarrassment for refs. For a bonus point, add a couple camera specifically for the end zone, side line and line of scrimmage. Nothing crazy, some thing parallel to the lines from each end. Also give teams an official review per time out, and cap each review at say 2 minutes outside of the last 3. Last 3 let em have 3 minutes. Imagine what the league could do with a couple mid tier hobbyist drones, the line wire cam etc?

Sit around and watch the cars rust.

That’d be a great way to roll it out!

I have a heavy bias against ref collusion type stuff in sports. But it does happen, just almost never the way people think or for the reasons people think. But with out question the leagues best interest is in eastern teams doing well. Especially the Ontario teams. As well as I desire to keep Regina alive as the top market (which it hasn’t been for years) and in aiding doman in B.C. I don’t think that extends to game to game enforcement of the rules, nor do I think the refs are competent to even do that. But I certainly see it in other aspects like supplemental punishment, and so far as off setting misconducts.

I don’t think it’s even that much. It’s just that what they are letting slide is more beneficial to some teams than others. It’s not a big help for us but is for teams with young ols and who run pressure fronts. Which happens to be bc on o, tor and mtl on D. It’s like in the nba how in the LeBron era, they started calling every thing an and 1. In that case the nba does bend calls more towards star players I don’t think it’s as prevalent here.

It changed early this season. Doug on one of the early games calls was talking about how long we took to get the ball snapped (tons of early season snap count violations and time outs) and that he was signalling basically for buck to stop talking in the head set. It’s become a problem in general with OCs all over football, over talking through the head set. In some places they basically don’t stop. It got drastically better by mid season. I suspect bucks move to the side line was to change and improve the communication with zach, and reduce the excess. I’ve even seen mos do play call and signal on offence this year. Zach has been fired up more in the last season and half to 2 seasons than I’ve ever seen him. At pass pro, WRs you name it. He’s also been hit as much in that time as he has since he left the riders, and was with them the last year or so. I could see zach being frustrated with buck to the point of a rift this year. Though not a crazy big one. If buck doesn’t leave in the off season (really hope he does) I would be surprised if we don’t add a qb coach to the side line and send buck back up stairs. I could also see buck being frustrated with zach this year especially early to mid. Physically he wasn’t were he needed to be, he’s struggled making decisions this year, and for most of the year couldn’t hit with the same accuracy/touch he has in the past. Arguably buck could’ve been running a basic offence all year because he didn’t think zach and our ol could accomplish more. And while we’ve seen much better flashes from buck prior to this year, it doesn’t make sense in terms of actually running systems to counter what opponents do and or build off what works.

I agree with your point. Tv ratings were pretty good too out side of ctv. I however also don’t trust those numbers. Any one who thinks ssk was up in attendance has lost it. But some times actual attendance is hidden with give aways and tickets being sold but those people not coming. I think fan engagement wise the cfl is in ok shape, but a league like this does need to constantly be grinding away to improve it any way they can. That’s our life blood.

I don’t think the CC favours any one. It is soo completely inept that it can be a big swing in terms of luck. If you live and die by the CC you haven’t done enough to win the game. A lot of mediocre teams fall into that range though. And some teams are more susceptible to specific rule enforcement. Several times this year the cc and refs ruined the competitive balance of games. I’d say more this year than the last 5 combined. I also think the lack of escalated punishment for cheap shots contributed heavily to a chippy dirty trending play after the whistle that spun games out of control, and lead to many injuries. I don’t think it was intentional, I think it was mass incompetence and attempts to protect refs while micro managing Ds to create offence. I think the hash mark change caused a temporary blip in scoring, but that since defences have adjusted it’s actually lead to a reduction in scoring and making the game less fun to watch on O and D. TLDR, league screwed the league up. Inept not corrupt. No difference in feeling between being screwed by ineptness or corruption. tldr 2 I’m bad at tldr

They did and they are good at it. That’s really what they are designed around. We didn’t move away from the run because they forced us to. We had 1 run in the first Q for 6 yards from Brady. We had 7 runs in the first half, 3 went for 3 yards, 4 went for 5+ and we averaged over 5 per rush with Brady. 2 of the runs were read options where zach made the wrong call as well. The game plan was clearly possession passing to force feed Wilson and Demski their 1k and chuck to lawler when in doubt/need. A couple 3 yard runs instead of 5 don’t force you to pack in the run. It just wasn’t the game plan. We’ve seen games in the past where we are hammering away for 3-4 till we break the D with physicality. I wouldn’t say the bend but don’t break worked. The ALs pulled Cody in the 3rd and still gave us every thing we could handle and more. Took a literal miracle occurrence to win it. The big issue is play calling and game plan. If a team packs the box and plays the run aggressively, that’s when you bust them with counter traps, counter jet sweeps, pa screens, pa boots, wide zone etc. play action wheel route to the rb is deadly too. The issue is our offence is one dimensional. Buck had no progression for the curls to Wilson, to the counter to our run (which was a decent battle but not a win by any means for them) or a plan to punish the ALs for sending pressure, or any thing. We have no 1-2 combo. No counter punch. All we do is throw one punch constantly. Jabs with the run, jabs with short passes, or haymakers with deep shots. Strategy with out tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics with out strategy is the noise before defeat. Bucks upside as an oc has been strategy with out sound tactics to achieve the strategy. His downside has been tactics with out strategy. And it’s been a down side heavy year. OT but I wish they’d add like 1-2k tickets for standing only in the rumhut area. I know a few people who are in that pack that’d love it.

He certainly seems the type. I agree it sucks we didn’t get him in a game to see. Yeah I’m sure that’s some of what we do. He also just free lances a lot, you can see especially if he’s faced double team a few times he just doesn’t rush much or jogs on the back end of plays. Honestly his ability to finish pressures has always been an issue, he’s never been a great tackler. But the last year and a half the oppositions have consistently run read plays off him and he hasn’t made the play once. When he turns it on ya, you can see he can still get off the line with the best of them and whip tackles with speed. Which pretty much makes him the most frustrating bomber to watch. Jake shouldn’t be out there at all, but wj can just be confounding. agree 100%, using him as a stand up rusher would drastically improve his effectiveness and decision making, and add length to his career. Rotating him more again would be huge too. At his best he wasn’t an every down guy or close to it. He was a 50% of snaps guy playing his best ball. I think we’ve seen glimpses of that. And that next year, or maybe even in the play offs we will start to see more of that. Selective times we throw those explosive imp tweeners into rushes clean off the edge. We had one effective blitz this week late in the game and boy was it pretty. Montreal was not prepared for that. Gives me a lot of hope moving forward. Absolutely. I think we have the pieces to temp fix it and be decent. But idk if we will. I actually rather doubt it. It also makes me wonder what we’d have done if Lawson didn’t get hurt? Clearly with that pay day he was gonna be dt1. Would they have cut woods/adams? Or would Jake have been a rotational back up?