Burn the Guelph Witches Thread, Vol. 1

A tough loss to Pigskin Putrescence is always hard to swallow. Obviously there will be a lot of things to work on, particularly the lack of a sustained pass rush from the d-line. I am optimistic after this hard effort that the Cats can rebound.

More thoughts from me on the game later.

Oski wee wee,

Russ

Spot on,Ouizer...

Little to no pressure from the D-Line (just like last year) is a major factor because it amplifies the weakness in the Secondary...

Too many breakdowns in the Secondary from some of the usual suspects BUT...I did think James Patrick played well as an individual...

Other than two plays by Markeith Knowlton (The UR penalty and the poor positioning on the Kackert TD) the LB's played pretty good...

Offensively???

Pretty much an excellent display!!!

I was pleasantly surprised with the running backs...Andy Fantuz played lights out...Ellingson seems to be a find...Burris was very good but missed a few throws...

The Defence is going to be the project...This should be an entire year dedicated to talent evaluation so I'm not expecting that much...

It still sucks to lose to Toronto like that,though...

Losing Dee Webb in the first quarter caused a 4-player positional change that Ray punished. Peach got hurt in the 4th, and that led to a change on the D-line. Not excuses, but an explanation.

Dee Webb was not having a good game up to that point either. Missed tackle on Owens, blown coverage assignment on Barnes TD, PI call to extend TDot drive. Don't want to throw the guy under the bus but this was not his best game. He seems to get over hyped up when playing his former teammates in Toronto.

Anyways ... Other observations & grades.

Fantuz was obviously a stud. Ellingson was solid as well. I may have to look in my fridge to see if pictures of Giguere, Grant & Jones are on milk cartons ... !!! Were they just not getting open or was Henry too dialed in and focused upon Andy & Greg?

Gable was very good up until "the drop". It's too bad. If not for that, there would probably be a thread dedicated in praise of his performance and his jersey would be getting produced as we speak for sale @ TigerTown.

Lamar was also solid. Wish we would have seen him used more on offense in the second half. Seemed he was only used on specials in Q3 & Q4.

OLine was solid overall. Kept Henry upright & clean only until late when Henry was holding onto the ball too long looking to make a big play.

Delahunt wasn't used enough. He needed to be used to extend drives and punish Toronto's lb's and make them respect a FB coming out of the backfield.

Overall on offense, it was an okay performance IMHO. They did leave points on the board settling for field goals and missing one FG in particular. A couple 2/3 and outs that don't help. No turnovers which is very good. But overall just an slightly above average grade since they left too many points on the board and didn't close and put this game away when they could have done so.

Defensively ... Hmmm ... Where to start ... How about the good ...

I liked Delvin Breaux's performance overall. He played aggressive and the PI call late on him late in the game was weak. I know some will want to see him demoted in favour of Brown or Hobbs, but Breaux was not to blame this game.

JJ played okay at MLB as well. May have misread some gap assignments on a couple of Kackert's big runs but without knowing the gap assignments who knows if it was him or the DLine or whatever. He made plays though.

Markeith had a tough night. Got washed out early on the weak side with some runs by Kackert. Obviously got beat by Barnes easily when he switched momentarily to SAM. You can see it his pursuit that he will get some strips and forced fumbles. He's there, but just a little more adjustment needed for playing WILL.

I liked when they brought Erik Harris in at SAM and left Markeith at WILL much better.

Simoni Lawrence played well on specials. He's always around the ball. It's going to be hard to keep him off the field defensively. Unfortunately that may spell the demise of Kowleton.

As said previously, Dee Webb under performed. Also wasn't that impressed with the veteran McCullough. Patrick was okay. Hinds was absolutely brutal. I'd give him an apple and a roadmap. He's cost the team two games at Rogers Centre in two years. Demote him to PR and release when you find anyone else. Terrible.

Colclough wasn't terrible. Was asked a lot of changing positions med game. Thought he adjusted fine. He's a good athlete with a nose for the ball.

Dine wasn't great since the obviously didn't get any sacks but I don't think they were absolutely terrible. Peach though may be out of his league. Ad that's coming from someone who's defended him in the past. But I think he needs to sit.

Moore gets great push. Boudreaux is very athletic and all over the field and valuable in Steinhauer's blitz schemes. Didn't see anything from Hazime or Bulcke that makes me want to get their jersey.

Overall, obviously the Defense is still not what we'd hope and like it to be. I don like how they fly to the ball much better. Not happy with the blown coverages. Hopefully with film work and practice those blown coverages get eliminated.

I wish they could find a way to get five starting imports in the secondary (adding Brown or Hobbs, perhaps both with Webb's injury). Hinds and Bucknor then become backups. There are no comfortable ratio ways to do that but they could start C-C as a receiver which means that (after Ellingson's great game) one of Grant or Jones has to sit (or become a DI, but I don't think that is the way to go). It would be too bad because I think both of them are good players and it would leave Diston as the only back-up receiver (although they could use Lamar and Delahunt). But the problem is defence not offence.

In terms of the loss, this is what stood out for me, in no particular order:

  • 2 late drops (Hinds and Gable) that probably would have one the game if at least one of them was caught.
  • Ineffective pass rush
  • Only scoring 3 points in the second half.

Reminded me a lot of last year's losses.

Oh well, on to the next 17 games.

Burn Captainkirk not the Witches!!!

Russ,

Great seeing this thread again. Almost a Cats tradition, like losing season openers! LOL

Anyway, i am not judging the Austin era until Labour Day, so I will keep the witches on "medium" heat until then.

Keep up the tradition,

ETMRaw

Alumni Stadium, Section 111 (the "Treble One Boys")

And I will pucker up! :slight_smile: