wbbfan

nailed it. Our coaches favourite concept to run is handicapping the team. Not joking even a little. In this case I think buck is really incapable of game planning around QBs, or defenses. Complete freaking joke. Took till Thursday too lol. Surprising that wade hasn’t been fined yet. I bet he gets it tomorrow, they probably waiting to fine wade till after the hit.

lol. I think they’d rather light it on fire than do any thing constructive.

Thanks. I was actually musing about contacting them the other day, my work schedule has opened up a lot. Might volunteer for a local football team instead. Reading the post ldc game articles on 3dn actually made me mad at how bad they were. It makes the reffing in the league look semi competent this year.

I'd love to see a heavily renovated commonwealth host the game in 26. Calgary though, yikes, the league doesn't need to high light that mess.

JY has lead us to running a 30 base front in our defense, but we also saw large changes to our scheme in 2023 as well. I've seen confusion and angst towards the front in many GDTs and else where on line. So I wanted to start this separate discussion around our front, mainly the changes we've made the past couple of years, and why we have gotten less and less pressure since 2021. First I'll throw in a rudimentary break down of the alignments and techniques. 5-4-4i-3- 2-2i-1-0-1-2i -2 -3-4i-4-5 DL technique TE LT LG C RG RT TE Position D C B A A B C D Gap identification Note obviously the TE is used sparingly in the cfl, though heavy sets are becoming more popular with 6ol, its mainly academic having them in as most defenses don't have DL who play a counter role to that other than in short yardage. Down south they also have Techs 6/7/9. With 6 lining up right on the TE, 7 on the inside shoulder of the TE, and 9 outside the TE. An 8 tech comes in when a team lines up a 6th OL beside a TE, also a short yardage type of set. You also see a Wide 9 alignment down south which is generally an even front, where the edge is far outside the furthest blocker on his side. The i alignment means inside shade, and has the DL lining up inside shoulder to out side shoulder on the opposing linemen. So a 1 and a 3 tech are right in the gap equally between the two OL, a 2i and 4i line up half in the gap and half on a linemen. Roles: 0 Tech = nose tackle/nose guard. Their primary role is to push the Centre back, and create pressure opportunities for other linemen. They almost allways draw a double team when executed right, and good ones will play both A gaps (2 gap player.) They generally push the centre to one side to body block it, and if the rb comes to the gap they are standing in, will disengage to make a tackle. These are your Stoves, Drake Nevis' etc. Most often, a 0 tech is seen in 30 fronts. in a 40 front, you see more 1 tech play. 1 Tech. Similar role to a nose, but plays only 1 gap in the run scheme. generally a guy doesn't need to be as much of a thumper or as heavy to play the 1 vs the 0. Its more common in 40 fronts, where you might use 1, with a 3, or a 2i. An advantage of shading the nose vs playing straight up is it can be easier to twist with the DT in a 2/2i alignment, and vs 5 man blocking fronts it basically prevents the offense from doubling your End on the shade side. So if Woods is in 1 alignment, and Adams is in the 3, where ever willy jefferson lines up on that side, hes sure to only be facing 1 ol. Woods is smaller than our previous noses and is really good at both that and 1 tech. But we generally use 1/0 interchangeably. 2i/2 These are the most common alignments in a 40 front, This is primarily a run stopping tech, unless twisting with another DL. Or some times it will be paired with a 1 shade to the other side of the line, in order for the 2/2i to shoot the gap in pass rush, or when the centre/guard is slow/sloppy with footwork and crossing the face of the guard alone creates pressure. 3 Tech, the inside pass rusher. Mainly this player will shot a single gap with the goal of creating pressure/disruption and making a play. Casey sayles is a good example of a 3tech. Lighter than most DT, but heavier than a DE. A bullrusher with a single gap in the run gap, but who mostly plays the same on every snap. Beat the guard, inside or out, get in the back field and tear things up. Usually a good 30 front team will have 1 or 2 3 techs. 2 3 tech guys with a nose tackle. This is often what happens when you see a 30 front get a sack. The tackles pinch in to help, but you can only block soo long before one of the interior get home. Either the nose is getting a 1v1, or one of the 3s gets a free pass to the qb. When successful a tackle is often left upright and unable to get in on the play. 4i. The other common end alignment in a 30 front. This is generally more of a run stopping alignment with a primary goal of turning a rb side ways and denying the B gap. This position does not start in the gap as much as a 2i generally. They tend to scrape into the gap and play that spot no matter the blocking scheme. Previously we used Jonathon Kongbo with great success in the 4i alignment. 4/5 Tech. A 4 tech alignment is often more of a bull rusher in the cfl, like jackson jeffcoat, or you might use a 4 when you send a blitz (like our DB delay off the edge package) off their side. 5 tech is the prototypical pass rushing spot, think Willy jefferson on most of his edge snaps. We havent made a ton of use of wide alignments, forcing the Tackle to reach and possibly over commit to the end. It is also a bit dependent on the pass rushers moves. Our ends currently mainly try to curl around the edge of the tackle, rather than trying to sprint on a dart. We have seen some of that play from Montreal, and BC in the past. In the earlies mafia days we started bringing in, and excelled at finding, Nose tackles. We pretty much fit our DL scheme around the nose. Often in 0, or some times a 1 tech, with a 3 tech DT and 2 4/5s. In 19 we used nevis and stove with jake rotating inside, two guys capable of playing nose and 2 guys who could play 3 tech. We let Nevis walk in 21, and stove missed a chunk of the season, so we let him walk in the off season of 21. Late in 21 we started working in more Cheetah front as well. where all the guys put on the DL can all pass rush especially with speed. Some times this would include stove on the nose with 3 des, other times it would be 4 Des with hansen, kongbo, jeffcoat, and willy, or 30 fronts with 3 of those guys on, often with willy on the nose. Though willy aligned on the nose in this front, he mainly played like a 3 tech, trying to shoot the inside gap on the centre. This is especially effective if the OL gap spread is wider than normal, or if you have a good combination of a quick end and a slow/sloppy centre. At the end of 21 we let stove walk, and made another wholesale change to the strategy of our front. We put jake at a 1/0 tech frequently, with casey sayles playing a 3 tech, and willy/JJ on the 4/5. It was kind of a hybrid from our cheetah pack, with the goal of jake drawing a double and forcing teams to block the other 3 one on one. But Jeffcoat missed almost half the season and dipped in his production. 22 Ended and again we let our prized FA dl walk, casey sayles left, with the spot filled internally by Ricky walker. We moved walker around a lot in 23, tried him in the 3 tech spot to modest success, then as the extra end rotating inside out, this to more success. But still the interior was a fraction of the force it was with stove, and sayles etc. JJ and WJ enjoyed a good year doing the same as usual, but better and a bit healthier. Cam lawson took a big step forward as the rotational piece, providing us with the most impact in the fewest snaps along the interior. But JJ still missed a good chunk with age catching up and we let him go in the off season of 23, also letting walker go. Lawson has missed all of this year to date, and we have tried to again fill the gaps internally with garbutt and habba, to very little success. This year we saw the largest shake up on our DL in a few years, between loses and the change to much more 30 front. We've had success with Adams and Woods, but both have seen stints on the PR sitting behind Jake, garbutt and habba. We've at times tried garbutt and habba in 3, 4, and 5 techs. Habba has been worse than his limited play last year and garbutt not much better. Jake has deteriorated to a fraction of his former self, and WJ has struggled with oppressive double teams killing his drive and his motor. We also got away from the no-thrill-for-bighill package that certainly shortened his career. Frequently sending Biggie on a "blitz" into a guard to try and force on on ones for willy. It seldom succeeded, as Jake doesn't demand double teams in side. And bighill rarely got pressure or disruption in the face of 300lbs guards. We have seem glimpses of all import 30 fronts, with woods at 0, Adams at 4i/3 and WJ in 4i/4/5 alignments. Which has done a tremendous job of creating pressure and closing gaps. Hopefully this is more of what we will see in the future, especially next year. We could easily succeed and disrupt the back field with that unit and a rotation including a healthy lawson, a second year Hubert, and the better of habba/garbutt or a new end. We could weave in 40 fronts with mainly different guys playing different alignments. Hubert could play some 3 tech, lawson 0 through 3, and adams just about any where. Those snaps have been far too few though, as our once vaunted pressure packed front has gone from the forefront of our defensive scheming, to an after thought. JY has done a tremendous job with the secondary, and limiting the bleeding of wasted snaps with edges who cant get pressure and blitzes that only waste a man. Taking the DL front to the next level is the key to our long term success on D, as we saw in the LDC, you can always get openings and create offence in the CFL if you have time to pass.

Refs didn’t see him playing that’s for damn sure

“I definitely was interested and had every intention to go to Winnipeg and play (that year).” “but I just had my first child and I was contemplating retiring because I just had a baby and I wanted to be there and going to Winnipeg would have took away from that,” These two contradictory quotes were half a sentence a part lmao. You can’t be contemplating retirement and have every intent to come here. Such a clown. Either it’d be mos, or more likely buck he talked to. Football isn’t family friendly. And that sucks. It’s fine to change your mind after your kid is born, and is go so far as to say he made the right call in retiring and staying home with his kid. Stealing the bonus cash however is greasy af. Lying about it now is also greasy. Such a prick.

Tomorrow for sure. man I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen more shuffling or bringing guys in. Aside from the fact that Adam’s, wheatfall and one of case/smith should be on, it’s pretty ugly. We really need to look at some des, tackles (not guards), lbers, maybe a returner and punter. So far this year habba and garbutt have combined for 11 games 13 tackles and 1 sack. Pressures? No lol not really. Hubert alone in 8 games has 8 tackles despite dropping off a cliff along with his reps the last month. Woods in 11 games has 14 tackles and 2 sacks as our rotational nose lol. Adam’s has had 3-4 stints on the pr, and played every spot on the dl with 14 tackles 4 sacks and a teams tackle in 10 games. The schmeckel 11 games 2 tackles lol. We are burning soo many reps on the dl and failing to develop ends it’s sad. Blink is gonna be here for the induction too right?

At this point, not good. But, once the best available qb on the market is gone in the off season any thing is in play. Unless some one gets hurt. I mean we did pick up zach off the scrap pile in the same way and Toronto picked him up from ssk too on a big deal no one though was playable. I wouldn’t.

Boy I hope he’s 100 or close to it. Having him off the bench again and on teams would be huge. I don’t agree the knock on fajardo was consistency, it was being bad in the clutch and predictable with limited ability to throw to parts of the field. a qb is never all out of options in the cfl. They can always find a team. right you can just push around guaranteed cash, which wouldn’t help a new team unless we did his deal ate all the hit then sent him away. Which I’m sure they have to lock mos in his office with no phone or net lol The savings aren’t as huge as you’d like, since a lot was bonus money heavy. But we could give him the cash in appearance money lol I think it has a chance of happening. They love Cole and if biggie is out it probably happens. We used Cole in the dime/wil spot a lot before he was hurt.

Soo much of his money is guaranteed now after renegotiating his deal twice I don’t know that you can take much out of it any more. I think the only option for him to be on a cheap deal would be to retire, be deemed a Fa after that (which involves some league and team stuff) then sign an all new deal. I wonder if it could be renegotiated into public appearance money lol the lions don’t care they could pay him to be qb3 lol

Is that supposed to be good in the cfl? all of his incompletions came on 2nd down, leaving us 2 and out 4 times. Plus the sack on 2nd down in the 4th. 19/23 for 236 0 TDS and 1 pick is a good way to lose a game in the cfl. No matter the time of year. Fajardo went 21/26 290 3tds 1 int. You don’t win very often in the cfl when you can’t throw tds. The offence actively let us down and cost us the game the D, atleast held up for a while before folding. Defences wear out, when the O isn’t scoring points, goes 2 and out, turns the ball over, can’t score majors and get consistent bad field position. most of Cody’s play off games have been close, not playing some soft prevent trash time. and the teams he’s started for have had those games hinge on his play.

If we’d actually use him properly. More likely he’d sit as a di on the bench. No chance on no chance lol. Would be sick though.

Cody Fajardo has 6 play off starts he’s put up 1497 8.6 8 and 8, plus 255 rush yards and 2 tds. That’s 292 yards per play off start, 1.66 tds per game and 1.3 picks per. The stats just don’t support this concept that the passing league stops being a passing league in the play offs. Try and find another mop winning qb with similar play off numbers.

Dollar coffee at macdonalds, buck fifty and stats will buy you coffee most places, just saying. How many QBs do you think he’s out played in our play off games? Did Phil pot or Fajardo put up reduced stats in last years grey cup? You can disregard a stat in isolation, but when it’s backed up by that many games over several years and his precipitous drop off this year and moderate drop off last year, tossing the stats out the window is just burying your head in the sand. Not to mention when that stat line meshes almost perfectly with the grouping of his worst games in the regular season previously and all of this year. Fact is, the majority of our team played similarly in the play offs to how they did in the regular season. Just not zach. If that was the case how did Fajardo win gc mvp? Along with modern winners like blm twice, Mike Reilly, and Hank Burris? Those guys weren’t passing for 250 1 and 1 either. How did Chad Kelly come off the bench and slap us off a win vs Toronto?

Flat out wrong. I broke down Zack’s play off stats as a bomber after last years gc loss, I dug them back out for this. More picks than tds, barely 200 yards per game, more 2 and outs than tds and big plays combined. 19 our run game blew out Hamilton, 21 our D won the day. The last two we’ve had the ball in Zachs hands with a chance to win and came up short. That isn’t game management, it’s just poor play. The funny thing is, Zachs stats this year are going to be similar to his play off numbers here, but worse. Has he been in game manager mode all year? 9 starts 6 tds 8 ints 1854 yards(206 yards per game) 144/209 (68.89%, 8.87 ypa) in a full season of his play off games he’d be on track for 12 tds 16 picks 3707 yards

True too he has been really boom or bust all year. 3 games for half his production, 8 games with the other half. Still, over 900? Yards from the line in his first 11 games shows tons of potential. The league is kind of in a rut with rb talent right now. Leake has been similar, I like his talent too though.

Coleman was in camp and on our pr for idk a week?

Yeah I expect him back. I think it was entirely preventative keeping him out. Course he does.

Makes all the sense in the world. I only wonder why they waited soo long to pull the trigger.

Rbs cut armstead for morrow. Wonder if this is more of a move about his off field issues. Bet some one grabs him though https://3downnation.com/2024/09/03/ottawa-redblacks-release-starting-rb-ryquell-armstead-sign-former-riders-jamal-morrow/

It’s hard to say if Randolph needs reps in general in the pros/cfl or if he needs time and polishing with Marty. I’d love to pick his brain about some of these guys. I would think best case scenario for his development would be to be on the field this year and maybe slide him to te over the t in the heavy set. I don’t think neuf will be back. Size and injuries certainly played a huge part in yoshis down turn. Especially when you compound that with age. Imo, super tall linemen drop off more from age. Right up there with super heavy weights weighing 340+. Which again yosh was probably 350 plus last year. loftons struggles have been speed off the edge epically on deep paths. Which isn’t mobility based imo, we saw him kick step like he was trying to win a 2 stepping race this year. (Right into Zachs lap lol) I think his primary limiting factor is his ability to improve mechanics. He makes the same mistakes now as he did in his first trip here. He’s gotten better, but he’s basically a guy that you’re doing a favour when you bull rush him. He doesn’t seem comfortable, fluid or natural at kicking or sliding. And he doesn’t seem to know what technique to use any time other than locked up in position. Which worries me when it comes to his upside. That said, I don’t think neuf was made worse by Lofton. Certainly by kola though. Lofton wasn’t struggling with inside rushes, or pick ups. Kola always does, but nuef has played a lot of games next to kola. He knows what to expect, and played better beside him early in kolas time here. I actually don’t think Wallace would’ve been much different from either project imp “tackle”. But he has upside that makes sense to develop imo. Randolph has upside but the pass port is huge. I agree we should be pilfering and searching for big bodies. Until Lawson is back and close to 100%, which I doubt happens this year now, we could use a big pile pushing Canadian dt. Not a guy who looks like he’s running the 100m relay going from a yard off into the ol. I wish we recruited imp ol like we do ni ol and imp dl. Try and polish athletes who can knock guys on their ass. Not character experienced guys at playing inside.

This. He looked great in the limited reps on heavy set. In pre season he showed much more motor than we saw from him last year, but it hasn’t translated to the field at all on D. I’d continue to carry him as the 7th ol and a general two way big body, but also have him work as an ol in practice. Especially at C. He’s not a huge guy by any means, but he’s a fairly average size Ni C. That motor and mobility could be huge at C, if he can get down snapping. the wheels fell off yosh pretty fast. It’s really a testament to how much worse our ok was last year than neufs play as well. He looks 100% toast to me. Larnel Coleman? He was cut a ways back. Randolph has been good at guard, and does have the mobility to play T, but he needs a lot of time and polish there.

Same here. I’m really hoping he goes to Edmonton to be their hc but at this rate idk if any one will make him an offer.

Normally I might agree based on +/-, but in this case I think it’s due to games with qb injuries, and being a young good team they’ve won once by a healthy margin and been routed twice. Other wise they are winning close games. They are a ball possession offence not a downfield team aggressive team