I think the team would be stupid to trade the rights to Giguere right now. He's a monstrously athletic Canadian who's been able to hang around a top NFL team for two years. While he hasn't signed with us yet, the likelihood that he'll be coming to the CFL (albeit more likely in the spring) is more apparent now than it has been at any other time in the last two years. Patience is a virtue.
I am watching the first Bagg TD on my PVR. Heyward lines up on the outside corner across from Bagg and Dennis is lined up inside across from Getzlaf. As the play develops our two DB's criss cross and Heyward goes after Getzlaf. But Dennis stops and lets Bagg get wide open down the sideline. Two questions. Why did Heyward leave his man and go for Getzlaf and why did Dennis hesitate in no man's land. Which one is responsible for the blown coverage?
I guess I should have quoted BYF's post, as he mentioned the two big plays and then proceeded to imply that they were Bo Smith's fault. I agree that Bo wasn't providing the best coverage we've ever seen, but neither were the other four. Just my impression; I hope I find time to watch the game again to see who did and didn't do what.
I didn't mean to imply that either of those plays were his fault. I understand that he was not the one to blame for them. And I mentioned Smith after that because I wanted to point out that he did not have a good game either. I was trying to give something of an overall assessment of the secondary.
You could watch that again on TSN.ca, but I personally don't think I need to see that again now.
Sadly, one weak link is all that's needed to blow the whole thing wide open. Bo Smith is one of the worst defensive backs I have ever seen.
Maybe you didn't imply it, but that's what I inferred from your post. You had the two quotes about the big plays, then immediately went on to criticize Smith's play.
I agree that Smith did not look good, playing off the receivers too much, and got burned a lot. I remember that from last year as well, and was hoping that he had magically improved during his NFL tryout. Oh well. But then, the rest of the secondary was playing like a sieve, not able to stop anything.
I know what you mean about not wanting to watch the game again. But I probably will anyway.
I don't get it...
You see it, I see it, almost everyone I talk to can see it.
But still we brought the guy back and he proved us all right.
Well, I thought that because the thread title was about the defence, my post would not be misunderstood that way. I did make one statement immediately after the other, but that did not mean one was related to the other. But I can see why I might've had to clarify what I was getting at. I also mentioned the entire secondary with my next statement, and did say I didn't want to point the finger at one guy.
But anyway, with our depleted secondary, could we talk Beveridge out of retirement? Our secondary gets burned so much, we could use a firefighter back there .
The secondary did not look good at all last night, and got burned on a lot of big plays that really cost us.
I don't know that any of them had a good game, but while watching live, I didn't think that Bo Smith stood out as being exceptionally poor.
The player that I noticed more than any one was Dennis. He left Bagg on the easy 70 yard touchdown to try and stop the QB. Possibly he thought someone else had the deep coverage, but from what I saw live, I believe he originally went down field to cover him. Dressler has so many catches for big gains out in the flats and Dennis was never any where near him.
After Dennis, I was also not impressed with Barker's coverage. He is often nowhere to be found on deep passes, which means he is either too slow to make those plays, or he doesn't read plays well enough to know when to help out with deep coverage. At least he showed he can actually catch a football.
The most innexcusable play was the catch for the touchdown at the end of the half. You can't give up points that easily when time is running out. If the secondary was even close on the play they could have tackled the player before he got in the endzone, and at least stopped the Riders from getting a touchdown.
As stated by many this was not addressed in the off-season. The best DB we had we let go. I still think this was done to reduce the salary cap, which really sucks.
PJ
Last night, I had the feeling that Smith was being beat all the time. So I just watched the defensive plays again looking for his coverage. Turns out he was thrown against only three times all night. I think it may have been the fact that the overthrow to Bagg at the end of the first quarter and the pass to Getzlaf early in the second were so close together, and he was well off the receiver in both. But on the only other throw his way, late in the fourth quarter, Smith was right there with Getzlaf.
I'm thinking I was a little hard on him with my earlier criticism.
I could be wrong but I really don't think that's right...
There were at least two times right in front of me that he was beat.
The three plays I saw were:
- Q1 1:59 - Overthrow to Bagg streaking down left (camera) side ahead of Smith. Throw from Sask. 35 to Ham. 30.
- Q2 15:00 - Pass to Getzlaf on cutback on left (far) side. Smith was about 8 yards away, slipped, but still made the tackle. Throw from Ham. 44 to Ham. 30.
- Q4 3:20 - Pass to Getzlaf on cutback on left (camera) side. Smith was just about touching Getzlaf when he caught it. Throw from Sask. 32 to Sask. 43.
There were other passes to his side, but from what I could tell, they were to Tisdale's man, not Smith's. But I could be wrong too - maybe fast forwarded past one or two?
IMO_ in todays CFL you cannot blitze with your safety.plane and simple! you will get burned 8 times out of 10.
blitze with a corner, or a db but not the safety!
Just double checked, and I did miss an early throw towards Smith, an incompletion meant for Koch. Smith was right on top of the receiver, but the throw was short.
Here are the DB stats (comp / incomp) from the game:
Dennis: 7 / 0
Heyward: 3 / 1
Knowlton*: 1 / 1
Smith: 2 / 2
Tisdale: 6 / 4
I have not included the three screens or the pass into zone at the end of the first, as I have no idea who should have been covering them. I included Knowlton's two because they were both deep drops - pretty impressive coverage on Fantuz both times.
These stats confirm what I remember seeing. The DBs did not have a good game, and the worst of them was Dennis not Smith. They must have thrown to Dressler in the flats about 5 times, and Dennis was no where near him every time. You think sooner or later the guy woud make a read and jump one of those passes, at least knock one down, or even play close enough to limit the yardage. It was like conceding 15 yards for free every time they ran that play.
Ultimately this group needs to play better if this team wants to get better.
It would also be nice if we had a ground attack that could get a yard or two every time, not once in every 5.
PJ