Als-Ticats The Sequel

Well, a W next week means a tie for 1st. So, let's not call for the pall bearers just yet - this thing is far from over!

Sure hope the injury to Anderson is not that serious; we'll need him. Pierce appeared eminently beatable today. So, the "Swaggervillagers" are coming in with a little less swagger - that's good. AC played like the AC we know. The D-line did a great job today. My only concern at this point is the secondary. Have to say, though, that Seth Williams appeared to acquit himself very well today.

Go Als go!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZlKc9sZGHU

RIP ticats and Swaggerville. For a week anyway. :wink:

Great win by the Als; we also received help from the Riders. We gained 519 yards to Hamilton 246.If we beat Winnipeg next Sunday,we will be tied with Winnipeg for first but ahead because of the win,if the season was ending. We control our standing,since we will play Winnipeg 3 times and Hamilton once.

I could be wrong but the Perry Floyd experience may be over; if Maypray is not OK,I hope that we will give a chance to Bo Bowling.

Richard

I think Bo Bowling should get a chance anyway; he's feisty. Shall I say it? He reminds me in many ways of BC!

one more picture version of today’s game on how the ‘birds’ beat the ‘cats’ especially at 2:44.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgZtyND4q4k.

Looks like the birds are still alive and ‘kicking’ lol :wink:

Why? Because he’s white and short? :wink:

Bo Bowling will have to succeed in this league for many, many years before I’ll even consider putting him in the same conversation as Ben Cahoon. :cowboy:

Agreed. I liked what I saw from Williams today. He plays press-man coverage well, and he’s not afraid to get his hands up and make a play on the ball. I can see why the coaches were bullish on him during TC.

Not sure what the “white and short” remark means other than that is the only resemblance. Bowling showed moxy during TC and indicated that he really wanted to make the team.

We’ll never know anything about him unless he gets a chance to play. Other players have had starting roles, in some cases for over 2 years, and have not lived up to their demonstrated potential. Sure he is short, but if a player has the moves, he can make it in this league. I would like to see what he could do on O, but he may be able to return punts also. To date, we have not intimidated anyone with our return game. So, why not start him at some point?

I’m fairly certain that that is exactly what it means. … that it is the only resemblance.

Floyd has looked less than dynamic. Hasn’t fumbled mind you, which was apparently the reason for his release in Winnipeg, but he hasn’t done much to warrant anointing him our primary returner.

Maypray, Ferri, Bratton, and Dix have been, at best, adequate. At worst mediocre.

We could use an upgrade here. . . so I don’t mind dressing Bowling and giving him a shot at it to see what he can do.

Something tells me however, since we’ve used so many returners this season with not much to show for it, that the problem relates more to the blocking schemes than it does to the identity of the returner.

The only area of our return game that is working well is our coverage unit. … Walter Spencer and Kitwana Jones are playing really well in downfield coverage.

Nous verons dimanche prochain si cette partie aura réellement été une inspiration. Ce n'est qu'une partie où tout a bien fonctionné. Très heureux, mais une partie ne fait pas une saison, et une partie n'efface pas les difficultés des 7 précédentes.

Les Blue Bombers peuvent être battus, mais ils peuvent aussi nous battre. L'équipe devra jouer aussi bien contre eux pour en venir à bout.

Il semble que les sorties publiques de Stewart aient produit leur effet. Les Alouettes ont enfin joué 60 minutes comme les Alouettes. Il faut que ça continue. D'ici la fin de la saison, on rencontrera les Timinous encore une fois, les Blue Bombers 3 fois et les Stampeders une fois. 5 parties qui seront déterminantes. Il y aura aussi les Eskimos et les Lions. Les Lions ont joué du meilleur football dernièrement et les Eskimos ont tout de même massacré les Stampeders la semaine dernière. Ce ne sera donc pas une fin de calendrier facile pour les Alouettes. Mais au moins, ils sont toujours dans la course pour le premier rang.

Agreed, MJ.

But a good returner, IMO, is able to make instantaneous reads and make cuts as appropriate. You can coach that to some extent, but this is mostly innate ability on the part of player. This is what I saw in BC and in the pre-season games where Bowling was playing. You are quite correct in stating that our blocking schemes on returns are still a work in progress, but the other half of that equation is the returner. That said, we have been spoiled over the years with returners taking it to the house. Quite obviously, we can’t expect that every time. The ST returner’s job is to give the O decent field position.

Where Bowling is concerned, he impressed the coaching staff enough to be retained on the roster. They obviously saw in him potential, and I agree there is. I like a comment made many years ago by Viktor Tikhanin, the Russian coach during the 1970 Canada-Russia hockey series. He liked North American football and used the analogy of “bears and hares”, the hares being the smaller, faster players capable of turning on a dime. Well, I think Bowling is one of those and deserves a shot.

Tout à fait! Et lorsqu’un problème existe au début de la saison et qu’il ne s’est pas amélioré passé la mi-saison, il y a fort à parier que le problème est plus du côté des entraîneurs que du côté des joueurs. Amenez Bowling si vous voulez, le résultat ne sera pas si différent.

Pour ma part, j’ai trouvé qu’en général, Floyd avait plus d’instinct que Maypray pour tenter de percer la couverture adverse et une meilleure accélération. Mais en fin de compte, comme les autres, ses résultats d’ensemble sont à l’image des blocs qu’on lui procure. En passant, on ne peut pas dire que les retourneurs de bottés se distinguent particulièrement cette année. Alors les performances de Floyd ne sont peut-être pas si mauvaises. Est-il celui qui va arracher le poste? Je ne crois pas, mais il représente une amélioration sur Maypray, à mon avis.

Evaluating a return game is much more than a one-off affair.
Hopefully people will have some perspective on that.
We gave Maypray 2 years to show his stuff…he had none.

Game one against the Ticats the return game was arguably the best element on the team.
and everyone chimed in with a hearty “Tim who?”
The Cats tightened up in coverage…hardly a surprise in a back-to-back series.
Floyd misjudged one ball and everyone is back on the Maypray express?
No
It’s just as ill-considered as everyone suddenly being down on Maypray because of one bad game this year.

Don’t get me wrong. Maypray’s been brutal since he joined the team.
It’s just annoying that folks need the roller coaster to break before anyone realises how foolish the whole idea is.
The return game has been slow around the league this year.
Teams (other than the Alouettes obviously) have focused on coverage and been pretty successful at containing just about everyone.
This makes it especially hard to evaluate just how good one returner is over another.
Still…one game shouldn’t decide things for one returner…any more than it should obliterate the career of another. Nor should the offhand comment by some duffus TSN announcer about going north/south.
some of the best returns you’ve ever witnessed started with some lateral decisions.

Maypray has had his chance.
Whether it’s Perry Floyd or some other hotshot
He needs to be replaced.

Who is on the “Maypray express”?

I don’t recall seeing any poster, this year, arguing in favour of Maypray as our primary returner. . .

Good
I've heard several people suggest we should go back to Maypray

As hard as it is to believe
This isn't the only place where the Alouettes are discussed and fretted over

Still and all
Maypray has had his staunch supporters in this forum
Hopefully...as you suggest...they've come to see the error of their ways

:wink:

Well the world is back on its axis today, the Als first place destiny is in their hands.

Weve been hard on Wilson, Stewart and Watkins at times, but sometimes a team is greater than the sum of its parts. There are intangibles such as veteran leadership that come into the picture. Provided of course there is a good game plan thats well executed!

And amazingly enough we did it without Anderson, Estelle, Boulay, and Brown. Dix played very well and I don`t recall Woldu getting beat.

We`ve all agreed for the need of a balanced attack and one interesting thing Josh Bourke mentioned yesterday in a CJAD interview was how the o-linemen appreciated the screen passes. This allows them to do some chop blocking and causes defensive linemen to hesitate a bit in their pass rushes.

Avon`s constant tweets brings satisfaction when he is shut down like yesterday, but to his credit he admitted it was a "whooping".

I had to wash my mouth out with soap last night for cheering for Sask. But we now have a chance to turn Swaggerville into Staggerville!

As others have mentioned the only real negative was that I had been expecting more from Floyd. Trestman mentioned on RDS last week that special teams personnel were much improved over last year, that there were more "thicker body types". So again is it the blocking or the returner that is the problem?

Beaucoup du premier et un peu moins du deuxième. C’est un domaine où on est simplement pas bons. On a besoin d’un coordonnateur à ce poste, malgré tout le respect que j’ai pour Bischoff.

This is from Drew Edwards Hamilton Spectator blog:

"I asked Bellefeuille after the game: why can't this team get over the hump after knocking on the door for a season-and-a-half. This is what he said.

"I've seen teams knock on it for seven years. Saskatchewan before they won, Calgary before they finally won. I'm trying to speed the process up for us and for our fans. We're not quick to explain these things away but they are not unheard of."

Those in the .500 forever school will be enraged by this comment and those inclined to take the long view will grimace and nod their heads."

Is this the message you want to send to your players - relax, you have another 5 1/2 years to meet expectations? I`m not sure the Hamilton brass will appreciate those comments either.