Hey guys,

 

Had a brainstorm with a friend of mine who is also a football geek this weekend, and we decided to start a new blog on the Bombers and CFL.  We were actually talking with a couple other friends about all the NHL and Jets blogs that we look at, and that there's not much on the Bombers or CFL.  It will be long-form analysis, and will be really good during the season if we stay motivated.  We were talking about it and we think there is a real demand for some in-depth looks at the teams, players and games, and that's what we're going to try to do.  We'll really get going with the grading of players and advanced stuff during the season, but for the off-season we are going to do a critical overview of every teams roster, and we'll do some stuff around the draft.  

 

Our first post is up, part of our "Mid-February roster analysis," it is on the Bombers QB situation.  We're going to look at the Bombers in 6 parts (QB, RB/REC, OL, DL, LB/DB and special teams) plus an overall assessment/discussion.  Then we'll look at the other 8 teams, likely in much less detail.

 

Check it out.

 

http://2ndand10.blogspot.ca/

Definitely about the bombers if its second and ten lol

Thank you for doing this.  With untalented lazy hacks like Wiecek being the norm in our mainstream media the more knowledgeable people getting involved in publishing good CFL Intel the better.

Will definitely check this out in the morning. Noticed the plug -- thanks a lot for that. If I could pick one guy to read insights from during the year, it'd be you do I'm stoked to see what you guys do with this project.

Enjoyed your informative posts and looking forward to the blog

JBR, I think your inside football writing is terrific so I'm pumped to hear you're going to do more of it.

 

Will you do any Q&A type stuff?  I know I have two or three questions after every game.

Great job, JBR. Look forward to reading more.

I read your first blog...great job! I will look forward to the new entries. One statement you made stood out to me where you refer to Max Hall's "lack of a quick release". My observations of Hall are that he has a very quick release and that is one of his strengths and is one factor that made the OL look better in the games he played in.

Great! Looking forward to it....but....please do something to the background...eyes hurt 

Cool.  I would change the background on that page though.  It's super distracting/hard on the eyes.

Cool!

Cool.  I would change the background on that page though.  It's super distracting/hard on the eyes.

And heat when I'm trying to read it at work

 

Looking forward to reading your blog, JBR

Cool.  I would change the background on that page though.  It's super distracting/hard on the eyes.

 

It's supposed to brainwash you so all you can see are W's...everywhere.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

JBR, I think your inside football writing is terrific so I'm pumped to hear you're going to do more of it.

 

Will you do any Q&A type stuff?  I know I have two or three questions after every game.

 

For sure.  Drop questions in the comment section of the blog or ask on here too.

 

If there are specific things people want to know/have questions about, we can try to put something together to answer, especially in season when we have some fresh games to look at.  We're going to try to analyze every Blue Bomber dressed in every game (offence and defense) as much as we can in terms of some basic advanced stats (stuff TSN doesn't talk about), but we're also going to try to make it simple and practical so eyes don't glaze over, like mine sometimes do with some of the hockey advanced stats, like when Player X is on the ice in the state of New York after a neutral zone faceoff, his team spends 35% of his shifts in the offensive zone.  We won't get that crazy, we'll do stuff like how many yards per carry do our running backs get when they run into Chris Greaves gap.

Good stuff, not a lot of griller quotes though...??? 

Okay, here's a question: what are all the throws that a CFL QB needs to be able to make?  I know that out patterns and hitch screens and corners are different for CFL QBs because of the width of the field, but are there any other unique throws that a CFL guy has to be able to make? 

 

Who are some QBs who can't make some of those throws?

The gold on black/blue is hard on the eyes

What I'm personally most interested in is OL analysis. You're one of the only people I've seen on this forum who can actually give in-depth analysis on individual linemen.

Okay, here's a question: what are all the throws that a CFL QB needs to be able to make?  I know that out patterns and hitch screens and corners are different for CFL QBs because of the width of the field, but are there any other unique throws that a CFL guy has to be able to make? 

 

Who are some QBs who can't make some of those throws?

 

The quick answer is to Google "football route tree" and read a bit about that, it's the same on both sides of the border with the obvious physical field differences, most teams usually run all their primary reads to one side of the field, the difference in field width is a big advantage to the offence, NFL QB's need pinpoint accuracy much more than CFL QB's and they need to use routes like back shoulder fades just to generate open space.  The same route tree used in basically every level of football, communicated between the quarterback and receiver, often with a depth that becomes understood through repetition, live play in practice and at a certain level, film work.  For example, the depth of a post route run by a slot will change on the down and distance, strength of the field (is he on the strong or weak side), what both he and the quarterback read the coverage to be (junior/CIS and beyond, not many high schools run advanced passing attacks) 

 

The QB needs to be able to hit guys on all of those routes, ideally from the pocket, although teams can work around that by moving their QB around ("moving the pocket") to open up one side of the field and lessen the difficulty of certain throws.  My personal opinion is that if a quarterback can't consistently make a read and a good throw from the pocket, their success will be limited, of course there are some outliers like Doug Flutie or Damon Allen who lived on rollouts and scrambles, but for a defense a scrambling QB who can't throw from the pocket is the easiest QB to stop.   There are some degrees of difference when someone says a guy can make all the throws.  Michael Bishop can make all the throws, yet he's a terrible quarterback because he can't put the ball where it needs to be consistently.  Is it a be all and end all, no.  A perfect QB would be able to make the throws and reads in any situation, against any rush, against any coverage.  That QB doesn't exist.  It is a combination of arm strength (obviously most of us can't chuck a 50 yard pass with any purpose), accuracy, intelligence and release.  Most QB's can't truly make all the throws, they all have strengths and weaknesses, so it is a relative statement.  It is really saying (especially with young QB's), this guy has the raw stuff, he's shown the raw stuff, we can work with that and see if he turns into a good quarterback.

Very well done and the colours are not nearly as bad as the folks here are complaining but i am colour blind lol. Doesnt hurt the eyes and i found it easy to read.. Content was very good too..

Looking forward to more OL analysis - an area of great interest to me - but I've always been just a casual observer.

 

Unless you count pick up games where we decided counting steamboats was boring.