a non-bonehead assessment of the Montreal game

-The Defence played great. I think everyone who started last night should start the rest of the season. Bradley and Kornegay looked good on the corners, Shaw made some smart plays at safety, Goss is always solid, and Cody is our best defender, in my opinion. The D-Line, which got some good pushes last night, will only get better when Cotton's cast comes off, and our linebackers did a fairly good job covering the slots (I hope Brooks isn't hurt too badly because he's a great MLB). I could complain about us not being able to stop Edwards a few times late in the game, but Montreal has the best O-Line in the league, and Edwards never did break a long one.

-The Offence showed they can move the ball, but some poor coaching decisions and dropped balls hurt us. For example, Paopao, why is Ranek continually running the ball up the middle when it is clear you can't do that against the Als? Then too, Kamau Peterson was thrown to multiple times in the first half and didn't catch one pass. This guy is on cruise control. He is clearly not producing like a starting WR should, and should be demoted to backup. I'd like to see Quinnie or Cavil get his spot. Furthermore, Yeast and Ralph dropped sure TD passes. Maas played great. It's not his fault that receivers aren't catching the perfect passes he zips their way.

-Special teams: Boreham kicked well, field goal-wise. The one miss hurt us, but it came at a time in the game when we could overcome it. Fleming, in my opinion, isn't that much better as a punter than Boreham was. So what advantage do the Cats have in retaining him? If anything, I think Fleming's presence on the team has messed with Boreham's mind: since Boreham doesn't punt any more, he has too much time to think about field goals. Am I wrong? Also, I have to address Fleming's attempt at a pass on the fake punt (Hitchcock was wide open...were you waiting for a written invitation?) More food for thought: maybe Marshall's loyalty to Erdman will haunt him this year. Too many men on the field at a critical time? A blocked punt? (when every fan watching the game on TSN could clearly see the Als were stacking the line of scrimage to come at Fleming) Youzers. Brutal.

Penalties: killed us. Particularly the too many men on the field one, the Cheatwood and Belli roughing the passer calls, and the Cox offside. To me, this speaks to coaching. Marshall has no control over his players because they keep taking discipline-related penalties. This hasn't changed in 4 games this year. If firing Marshall is the only thing that will change this, then fire him. We can't win if it continues. We should have won last night, but gave the game away again because of mental errors that would never be an issue on a team where the coach has driven that point home effectively.