Pour l’instant, je préfère m’en tenir à ce qu’on voit sur le terrain.
Je ne cois pas que les entraîneurs des Alouettes aient capitulé au sujet d’Adams. Le 2ième étage avait peut-être capitulé avant même d’être en fonction, mais je ne sens pas la même chose sur le plancher des vaches.
Je pense que le message que Jones tente de passe à Adams est qu’il doit passer au prochain niveau MAINTENANT. Il a assez de vécu pour être exposé à ce qu’il doit accomplir avec succès. Adams a toujours du mal à se rendre à sa 3ième lecture, et ce ne devrait plus être le cas. Sa précision demeure une faiblesse qu’il ne pourra pas compenser éternellement, donc, il doit être précis maintenant.
Ceci dit, cette saison vient tout juste de commencer. Il y aura des ajustements et je ne vois pas d’un bon oeil de retirer le ballon à Adams maintenant. J’aimerais mieux qu’on lui donne assez de corde pour se reprendre… ou pour se pendre. Je pense qu’Adams sait qu’il est à la croisée des chemins et qu’il doit faire mieux pour être à la hauteur de son contrat, voire d’avoir un prochain contrat comme partant. Considérant les autres quarts en situation de partant, je vois peu de destinations qui pourraient s’offrir à lui présentement s’il perdait le poste de partant des Alouettes.
Une autre question est de savoir SI Jones veut un autre contrat avec les Alouettes. J’ai l’impression que ce n’est pas l’amour fou entre l’imposteur et lui, mais ce n’est qu’une impression.
Somewhere along the way, Khari forgot that the reason he had any success with the Alouettes was when he used Vernon as a dual-threat QB in an RPO offense. Stop trying to turn Adams into a prototypical pocket passer and call a game that makes him a threat to run, which should open up lanes for running inside and for the receivers. Imagine if coaches had told Damon Allen to stay in the pocket, LMAO. We're dangerous when teams have to respect our ability to attack the whole field, sideline to sideline.
They'll have to call a different game for Harris against SSK obviously. Probably more of a short-passing game to get Harris in rhythm. But that type of game depends on precise routes, good use of pre-snap motion, and picks/rubs and we have not shown the ability to do any of that so far. My guess is that it will be the same old predictable, bombs away vertical game with some runs inside. With the same old results. I hope Khari proves me wrong!
Vernon's detractors will say, with some justification, that he only has one good season (2019) to show for his time in the league. By the same token, look at every offense Khari Jones has run in this league and you'll see that he too only has that one season (2019) to his credit. You put Vernon Adams on a team with a good offensive coordinator whose playbook isn't drawn in crayon and who isn't stone-cold predictable in his playcalling, and you'll see a different story IMO.
It is exactly the situation he is in sadly. Jones and Calvillo were pilons, they have never executed or been part of a “run and shoot” offense, they can’t design one. It is much easier for them to regurgitate what they absorbed from Trestman, Maciocia, Ritchie and company than to get out of their knowledge zone, we won’t even get into the fact that while they learned the ropes they had the two best running backs in league history in Mike Pringle and Charles Roberts. To their defense Damon Allen was successful with very few coordinators in the CFL. He had a symbiote in Adam Rita who was instrumental in Damon having the career he had in the CFL. Rita would win GC with Allen in Edmonton, BC and Toronto and went .500 with the expansion Memphis Mad Dogs. Having said that I think Damon had a stronger arm than Vernon but Vernon has more potential on his feet and Damon rushed for 11 000 yards.
If KJ and AC were thinking straight or capable of doing more than coaching pocket passers, they would have:
Involved VA on the ground from the first snap of the first game.
Rolled the pocket more to let Vernon throw on the run.
Developed a package of wildcat plays involving Dominique Davis.
Shown some effing creativity in formation with two-back option sets, jet formations.
The other thing with Khari is, he wasn’t a winner as a player. He had that one magical MVP season when Stegall was catching everything thrown at him but the Bombers still never won a Grey Cup with Jones under center, despite Stegall and Roberts and all that talent. I think his playbook is completely stale and dated TBH.
I would have expected more flexibility from Calvillo, given that he backed up Tracy Ham, a running QB, for a long time, but we also don’t know to what extent he is or isn’t involved in running the offense. It’s possible that his only job is to work with the QBs on mechanics and reading defenses, and that the plays are still in Jones’s and Bolduc’s hands. In any case, Khari has to wear this. He is the titular offensive coordinator, this is his playbook, it’s year four of his offense, no excuses are left.
Exactly and now he has a b2b against the Riders to save his job. Cause there is no way that owner handles going 1-3 or 0-4. He doesn’t have the nerves. He needs a monster effort from his players.
For a QB like Adams to be successful he needs an OC who will build a playbook around him and those are few and far between, especially now that they essentially don’t practice. I’m not sure Damon would get a fair shot in today’s CFL.
Marshall Ferguson now says he believes Khari Jones pulling Vernon Adams was planned all along because there was no seemingly logical reason to do so early in the game.
Mike Daly thinks while it is great to say the Als have 2 quarterbacks, the Als offense is setup for Adams.
Ferguson notices that whenever Trevor Harris is in the game, Christophe Normand comes in as the 2nd running back more often than when Adams is the quarterback. Ferguson says this is done so Harris has fewer pass defenders to read. He thinks the Als also use 4 receivers on one side and 1 on the other formation more often when Harris is in. Essentially, Ferguson thinks the Trevor Offense is: 2 running backs, simple route concepts, and then throw it high towards Geno Lewis.
Daly says this style of play is not what Harris is best at. Harris is more effective at spreading the offense, making quick decisions, and just taking short throws the defense is allowing. With 2 running backs formation, the defense could instead just drop back the man guarding to fullback; especially on 2nd and Long where running the ball is unlikely. Daly says that is a hard way of playing offense unless your QB has a big arm or the receivers can get open. However, the Als receiver strength is that they are big bodies.
Ferguson then says the Als made a QB change for the sake of making a change. It did not make the team better as Harris made mistakes.
Daly notes that the change was not fair to either quarterback as Harris had to run a gameplan designed for Adams. To Daly, it looks like somebody wanted Adams and somebody wanted Harris with the party who had the more influence getting their way.
An accurate summary of the problems here. I’m at a loss to understand why they have simplified the playbook for Harris in this way. He’s not a raw recruit. He is a seasoned veteran who has had success in offenses tailored to Ricky Ray, a Hall of Fame quarterback. Why limit him?
And yes, another issue is that we have two different types of quarterbacks. Trading for Harris last year made sense, because we had lost Vernon for the season. Bringing Harris back to be #2 behind Adams, when they are substantially different quarterbacks, makes a lot less sense to me. I’d have preferred Adams, Davis, and Alexander as the 1, 2, and 3rd quarterbacks. Or, if they really wanted Harris, release Adams, sign Harris to a two-year contract, and devise a playbook suited to his strengths. But they did neither. They brought back the CFL’s QB odd couple and forced both of them to work to a playbook that isn’t suited to either one of them. Bananas.
Harris didn’t win us the Toronto game. One could say he was just as responsible for losing it (turning the ball over, missing the two-point convert) as Adams was in the Calgary loss. Adams posted 27 points in a loss; Harris posted 16 points in a loss. It was nonsensical to bring him in after a quarter of football against Toronto.
This whole “chuck the ball and hope our big receivers come down with it” philosophy is exactly my problem with KJ’s offense. There is no help given to receivers through misdirection: waggle, rout angles, rubs. It’s a child’s version of a pro offense that only works if receivers fight to make physical plays or if there is a massive breakdown in defensive coverage. If Stanback is running through defenses and Lewis and Wieneke are catching everything, we are productive. Otherwise, nothing. Calvillo would have been eaten alive if he’d had to run this offense as a player.
Khari had all offseason to improve his playbook and he’s done squat. This is why I think he’s taken the team as far as he can. We’ll never win a Grey Cup with this playbook.
IMHO the ideal QB combos for Montreal’s offense (if you’re stuck with VA) would’ve been VA and Arbuckle or VA and Masoli. As of now Masoli is out of the question but it’s still possible that Arbuckle could wind up in a Montreal uniform if Chris Jones decides to go in another direction.
I can still fondly remember Danny Maciocia standing on the sidelines in utter disbelief as Milt Stegal miraculously scored on a last second hail mary pass from Kevin Glenn a few years back. Afterwards Glenn revealed that both he and Milt were stunned that the coverage on that play was completely wrong. Maciocia kinda forgot to change it up. Yeah. Maciocia’s the GUY you want back on the sidelines all right.
Just make sure he’s there when we roll into town August 4th. We need all the help we can get.
Maciocia swore he would not take over the HC position. Which if he is honest likely means he will give the job to his Bestie Noel Thorpe who’s sitting at home collecting a salary from the Elks. but it would also mean that one of the stooges in place would become offenisve coordinator.
