30 points per game ZILCH so far

Alouettes de Montréal
1

[i]In 5 games so far, the Als have yet to score 30 points in a game. In those 5 games, they failed to score at least 20 points twice!

The average points scored for those 5 games is a little over 21. THAT AIN'T gonna win you many games :x This despite having a QB with a 101.1 rating. So the lack of points cannot be blamed on poor QB play (except for the first game with Crompton).

Schonert cannot run this offence, and Higgins the fossil is not competent enough to help him. What a clusterphock! [/i]

2

Sorry Johnny, this loss is on the D and on Popp for going to the casino with Collins.

The team with the best offense this year is dead last in the standings. http://www.cfl.ca/statistics/teams

Als are in the middle of the pack, just behind the Stamps. I don’t see the smoking gun here Johnny.

3

AlsPhil

1 TD pass not going to win you too many games either.

I do not agree that the loss is entirely on the D.
For once they had a mediocre game and the offense could not put the ball in the end zone more than once.
This to me is a huge problem.

Shonert abandons the run game after moving the ball with Sutton and Rutley.
Focus is mainy on Green who is often in double coverage.

Dickenson showed how to call a game.

For me, there is allot of blame to go around on this loss, not just the D.

4

The offense has scored 16, 28, 23, 17, and 15 points so far. If you think that is even remotely good enough, we'll have to agree to disagree.

And don't bring up the Riders, please. That's just a logic fail. "Oh, look, this team that scored lots of points is 0-6, so NO ONE SHOULD WANT TO SCORE POINTS!!!!" :lol: The Riders are 0-6 for a number of reasons, but offense (until last game, without Durant or Glenn) wasn't one of them. They were losing because of poor defense.

A contending team can win in all three phases of the game. Does that mean we should be posting 50 points every nights and shutting our opponents out? No. But goddamn it, if we can't ask the wretched offense to win us ONE EFFING GAME in which the D surrenders a modest 25 points to the defending Grey Cup champions at home, a game in which our special teams unit gave us an extra 7 points to work with, then there is something wrong with the offense.

5

One more thing: the more time Cato spends learning this "offense," the less effective he becomes. That's very telling, and not in a good way.

6

Look, it has nothing to do with scheme. The fact is Montreal has a rookie QB (albeit a good one) and not enough horses. I am sorry, but take a look at #46’s last catch and fall, #87’s fumble, and for the life of me tell me what does #15 provide (trouble getting open)?

7

I'll get back to you when you start using player names instead of numbers.

8

While it is/was a Jim Popp dream/hope to score 30 points a game, the reality is that is rarely happens. After week 6 of the CFL season-excluding tomorrow's between Hamilton and Toronto- no team has averaged 30 poins a game; the average is 24.5. Edmonton is definitely one the best team,both offensively and defensively; hence, they averaged 28.4 points offensively and allowed an average of only 12.6 points a game. Montreal numbers are: 21.4 and 18.8.

All CFL teams, except Edmonton,Hamilton and Toronto have given/allowed,on average, more points than they have scored.

Richard

9

Johnny DID NOT SAY the Als should average 30 points a game. He said the Als have failed to score 30 so far in 5 games, twice they didn’t score 20! This in almost a third of the season. Rationalise it all you want, it’s not good enough!

10

Edmonton is the only team in the league consistently hitting 30 a game, and they are doing it largely because of a soft schedule so far.

Esks: 46, 32, 30, 23, 11

Hamilton twice (but very inconsistent): 52, 31, 23, 13.

BC has not hit 30 yet (6 pts in OT don't count). 29, 27, 27, 16, 13.

Calgary - CALGARY!! has not hit 30 yet. 26, 26, 25, 25, 24, 11.

Sask (again not counting OT points) no. 29, 28, 26, 24, 21, 5.

Ottawa nada (even WITH OT). 27, 26, 20, 17, 12.

Argos once (not counting OT points). 30, 28, 26, 20.

Bombers once (in week 1). 30, 26, 25, 25, 23, 3.

The entire league has only hit 30 7 times in 46 tries (23 games x 2 teams). Last season 30 was hit 44 times in 162 tries or nearly twice as often. Montreal's scoring output is low and is a concern, but to base it on the fact that they haven't hit 30 yet means nothing. Even with the new rules, scoring is still as low as last year. There are just less high scores and less low scores. We're not seeing 38-31 40-33 and 41-27 anymore, but we're also not seeing 10-7 or 7-5 or 16-11 either.

11

For the sake of accuracy Jim said "To win in the CFL a team has to put around 30 points a game". He's correct. Look how many wins teams have by scoring less than 27 points and you will see it isn't many.

Considering the injury to Hoffman and the age of the group. I'd be tempted to call Taman in Saskatchewan and see what he would want to trade Jamel Richardson to Montreal. They are definitely sellers.

Also looks like Sutton will be out a while. He hurt himself and stayed on the field and took a carry before heading off. What a warrior that guy is. We have nobody on the roster who can fill that role.

Will be interesting to see how Thorpe fixes that defense after what they put on film on the weekend. Dickenson did an amazing job of staying away from the Als Linebackers the whole game.

Knapton needs to raise his game. He's been pretty much invisible since the beginning of the season. So Popp needs to bring in some RB, Some DE.

12

Exactly. Nobody is saying put up 30 points a game every game. But if you aren’t averaging in the high 20s, you are not going to win very often. I am very concerned that this offense has gotten steadily less productive since Cato’s debut. From 29 to 23 to 17 to 15 points in four games. Not pretty and you will not win many games when your offense can’t even hit 20 points on the night.

Thorpe got outcoached by Dickenson but that shouldn’t be a surprise. Thorpe won the meeting the first time we played and Dickenson came back with a good plan. Tit for tat. What bothers me is this expectation that the D has to carry the day every game in order to win and if they don’t, we should blame them. That is not normal. When your offense can’t score more than 15 points while turning the ball over twice in crucial situations, they are the reason you lost. Not the D, which was average but which still only allowed Calgary 25 points. Not special teams, which gave us a punt-return TD. The offense.

This loss is on Schonert. I am steadily beginning to lose faith in his ability as a coach. The more we see of his playbook, the less effective we become. I don’t see any picks or rubs in his pre-snap motion, which makes it much easier for DBs to stay with their assigned receivers. There’s no creativity or strategy. He had two weeks to game-plan and came up with squat. Giguere and Lewis are not being properly used. We’re not crossing the field horizontally or diagonally to create different layers of separation for our receivers. No variation in how we run the ball except for that stupid end around which can’t be used effectively more than once per game. We’re not using the RB as a checkdown option in the flats or on short ins. In short, we’re the same pop-gun offense we were before Cato came, which is unconscionable when you consider how well Cato has played.

Yeah, I wasn’t happy with the D last game either, but you know what? Noel Thorpe has spent over two years earning my trust and respect as a fan. Sure, he has off-days like any other coach, and last game was one of them, but why should every effing off-game by the D result in a loss for our team? Consider how many games our defense has won for us despite offense and sometimes even special teams being absolute crap! Many games in which they saved our bacon and gave us wins we had no right to. Now ask yourselves: when was the last time the offense manned up and won us a game in which the D was not at its best? You’ll have to go back a LONG time to find that game and it certainly hasn’t happened yet this season. And that is why I’m upset.

Schonert was a mediocrity in every league he’s coached in and his tenure in Montreal has been no different. He doesn’t understand how to run an effective CFL offense and he’s frankly not smart enough to make up for his CFL neophyte status the way Trestman did. He has the job because we waited so long to hire an OC that he was the only viable option left, not because he was the best possible candidate. So our crap hiring practices have come back to bite us yet again. I hope he improves as a coach and turns the O around, but I am not hopeful at all, and if we continue like this, he should be canned at season’s end along with Tom “The Figurehead” Higgins. Time for us to get some real coaches in here.

13

As far as I am concerned and based on stats, Gabriel Knapton is playing very well; he is the best Als DE ; he already has 19 tackles en route for roughly 70 in 2015; he had 34 in 2014. John Bowman has 11 tackles. In terms of sacks, Gabriel has 2 and John has 4. I blame the coach-Noel Thorpe- for reduction on sacks,particularly for Gabriel. Thorpe plays more a prevent defence than an aggressive defence. Quite often, only 3 DL put pressure on QB's and DEs back off. I hate this defensive scheme. One of the reasons why the Als defence is one of the worst to stop opponents and second and long.

Aaron Lavarias-DE- should be ready to play next week against Edmonton.

Yes, the Als have to bring in a RB. As I wrote yesterday, Nic Grigsby comes to mind. He would be a good addition,so I think.

Richard

14

I agree with the prevent stuff. I don’t know why we’re doing that more now. We used to be more aggressive. And yes, the second and long D drives me nuts.

15

There are some issues with some of the schemes. I can't count how many times opponent started around their goal line and allowed to march up the field. They can't protect leads. They have also become a much less physical defense. I get that Thorpe likes smart players but at this point Edem and Hebert would add much needed grit to that defense IMO.

They had Calgary rattled and they couldn't put them away. I"m not targeting the defense. Offense stopped producing as well.

Als now have the persona of a "Higgins Team"... I'd prefer they took on the identity of a Chris Jones...

16

Anyone else pissed off at Giguere giving up on a live play. What's the matter with that guy. He needs electroshock therapy.

http://ib2.huluim.com/video/9631593?region=US&size=600x400

17

Yup. I have no idea why we’ve stopped being aggressive. Not saying we should blitz all the time but we have to do it more often and put that awful 3-man prevent crap straight into the garbage. Generate pressure from an overload or LB blitz and trust your DBs to make the play. We’ve got a good secondary so coverage shouldn’t be the issue. Turn that front seven loose to intimidate the hell out of enemy O-lines, make teams have to worry about matchups.

18

While I tend to agree with your general approach, is it just me or has Billy Parker lost a step or two? So too, it seems to me, has Cox this season; he’s been exposed frequently when in pass coverage.

Combine that with Hefney’s penchant for bad penalties at bad times (as if there’s ever a good time for a penalty), and the frequent dropping of Cox back to safety where, frankly, he’s a fish out of water, and our secondary might not be good enough to trust them to make the play when needed.

19

They’re being exposed IMO because we’re not generating a strong pass rush. No DB is going to be able to cover indefinitely if the pressure doesn’t get there fast enough. Also there’s a matchup issue. If other teams are getting their Z receiver on our SAM linebacker then we’re doing something wrong with our schemes.

and the frequent dropping of Cox back to safety
This reminds me of how Reinebold used Cox in 2012. It was awful. He had Cox playing deep safety zones instead of turning him loose to be a heat-seeking missile at the LOS and playing sideline to sideline. I don't know what Thorpe's up to but he seems to be either afraid of the new no-contact rules or outsmarting himself by fixing things that weren't broken to begin with.
20

Gotta agree there. I think that rather than what we’ve been seeing (Cox getting beat in medium to deep coverage), we should be using more the way the Don used to use Duane Butler, now there was a heat-seeking missile!