Alouettes blow chance for playoff bye with 29-15 loss to Tig

[url]http://montrealgazette.com/sports/football/cfl/montreal-alouettes/alouettes-blow-chance-for-playoff-bye-with-29-15-loss-to-tiger-cats[/url]

Boy, does Herb ever tear Higgins anew one about the Als inability to notice that three times an onside Hamilton player had the opportunity to recover a punt, demonstrating a complete lack of awareness by the Als; especially after Swayze waters recovering one last week:

[i]The Als also made another special teams mistake in the quarter. During a punt, the ball hit the shoulder of Hamilton’s Ed Gainey and was recovered by Craig Butler, who was onside. That marked the second consecutive week during which the opposition recovered a short punt on Montreal.

Head coach Tom Higgins, coincidentally, is the Als’ special teams coordinator.[/i]

Wow, I hope Tom can sit down after that. :roll:

Higgins placing himself in charge of special teams does put that on him. A HC does often put himself in charge of one of the three Units. Usually as the OC and DC. Leaving the opposite Coordinator entrusted more with his unit as well as a Teams Coordinator.
Pretty much Thorpe has the D with the adde title of Asst HC as well.
The offense took some time and changes but adding Garcia, with knowledge of CFL defenses as well a playing QB in the CFL, and Shonert on as receivers coach but with much experience as a OC has turned the offense around.
As they reshuffle the titles in the off season Higgins may be best served getting a ST coordinator in place.

Absolutely. I was “tongue in cheek” commenting on the bland/mild reference that Herb tossed in. Hopefully he may follow-up later this week in more depth; but I am not holding my breath,

Les Alouettes ont laissé aller cette opportunité, mais statistiquement, les séries de 7 victoires consécutives sont très rares.

I pointed out in the game thread that was perhaps the only potential positive, as each win in a long winning streak makes the probability of the next win less. Streaks don’t last forever.

Yeah and I was thinking the same thing too. It’s not the loss that bothers me, it’s the way we lost, which underscores all of the same flaws we’ve been discussing all season long:

  • idiot HC
  • disastrous special teams/ idiot STC
  • OC who abandons run when we need it most
  • Crompton’s inability to make touch passes
  • Crompton’s general lack of field generalship

I’d be far happier if we had lost a shootout with no big ST plays given up, because it would have at least offered proof of concept that the team was making progress towards fixing its flaws. But that game just brought out every ugly trait we’ve seen through 18 games this year and this time it cost us, big time.

Special teams have been an area of concern the past couple of years ( before Higgins ). Its unfair to place all the anger at our loss to Hamilton on Higgins. I agree with Steve's comment that perhaps for next season we should spend effort in locating a specialist re Special teams.