I disagree, Hamilton has had nothing but pitiful defense for at least the last five years and probably more. The continually give up points at the end of the halves, they play loose in the DB coverages, and the lack in sacking power. A good defense can win you games by scoring points on turnovers, giving the O decent field position, and by changing the momentum of a game. BRING BACK DEFENSE TO HAMILTON FOOTBALL!!!
If you hire a young rookie DC, you should be prepared to suffer through his growing pains for at least a season. Creehan is by far the least experienced of the DCs in the CFL. Stubler, Campbell, Hall, Nelson, Burke / Garber, and Jones: all are seasoned CFL veterans who have been coordinators in the league before and who understand how to make halftime adjustments. Reinebold in Montreal is new to the DC job but isn't new to the league or to coaching; he's been around for a long time. Creehan is the kid right now, and moreover, his GM hasn't given him the personnel he needs to put together a dominant defense. So why turf him now?
Because that’s what happens here. Just look at the last couple of off-seasons. People screamed for change after the 2010 season, wanting Mike Gibson and his crap offense gone and being happy that Greg Marshall was hired by the Riders. They wanted new blood and got it with Khari Jones as OC and Corey Chamblin as DC. Then, when things didn’t go smoothly and lead to an 18-0 regular season, people wanted Chamblin and Jones gone. So they get their wish, along with Glenn (who was everyone’s whipping boy) and Bellefeuille (public enemy No. 2), and still aren’t happy. Patience is not something many Tiger-Cat fans have.
Yeah but patience is wearing thin because of so many losing years and mediocrity. It’s true that fans want change over and over but that might be a sign that the right people aren’t being hired in the first place. That would be on Obie and the management.
No, patience is for losers… we have the worst Grey Cup attendance record of all teas in the league stretching back to 1989
i feel sorry for the caretaker… someone in head office is selling him a bill of goods…
Obie is past his due date…and Danny Mac isnt impressing me much either…(wait for it… the deluge of danny fans will descend on this post like a swarm of bees…)
blogskee wrote:
"Patience is not something many Tiger-Cat fans have."
This is another example of why this team continues to wallow in mediocrity. This team has made bad decisions for years. Coaches who turn out to be busts. Players who turn out to be busts. Players who have talent but don't get to use it because of poor coaching. It goes on.
Any fan who is willing to put up with this ....deserves the results we are getting.
Thank goodness for fans who know mediocrity when they see it and say something....instead of trying defend it.
Patience from the fans is not the issue here Blog. The issue is value for money. Bob Young has sunk a lot of money into this team's on-field product but has been let down by his management folks.
I just hope the Caretaker has the patience to stick with all of this mediocrity. He deserves success on the field. But I don't see it happening unless more changes are made.But one season or less than one season isn’t enough time to tell. Also, the bad years under Greg Marshall have nothing to do with the bad years under Charlie Taaffe or the decent years under Bellefeuille or the bad half year under Cortez. They are all different and one has little to do with the other. It’s not Cortez’s fault that Marshall didn’t do much as head coach after his first year. This is his first season as coach and he should be judged on that alone, not on some past that he has no control over.
All I know is that constant change leads to constantly starting over which leads to slow starts and mediocre results. The one season in the last five where the Cats had continuity from one season to the next was 2010 (all the main coaches and players came back). Yes, they finished 9-9 and lost in the playoffs, but Glenn set team records at QB and the defense gave up the second-fewest points in the league. Yet after that season, because of a 16-13 playoff loss, people wanted everyone gone (losing Marshall would have happened even if the team wanted to keep him). I know that the last 10 years have been trying, but becoming a consistent winner doesn’t happen overnight. People call for new blood, get it and then want them gone at the first sign of adversity. Sometimes you have to stick things out. Starting over all the time only means you’re always starting over.
Well, Tiger-Cat fans have no patience and the team still loses. So clearly the whole “no patience” thing hasn’t really worked, now has it?
Every year there are changes and every year it is the same thing. We were told that firing Bellefeuille would make the team “more better” (Obie’s words) and that trading Glenn for Burris was an upgrade. So instead of sticking it out with two guys who got the team to the East Final, we see massive changes and worse results. You mean to tell me you actually think this team would be WORSE with the same core from last year? Maybe they’d only be 5-4 right now and tied for second place, but that sure as heck beats being 3-6 and one game out of last place.
And patience is always an issue. I’m sick of the losing as much as the next person, but I know that change doesn’t happen instantly. I knew that Khari Jones and Corey Chamblin were going to struggle in their new roles last year because it was the first time they were in them. I knew that Casey Creehan and George Cortez were going to struggle in their new roles this season because it is the first time they are in them. You want to get rid of Bellefeuille and Glenn because they never got the team over the hump after three seasons, that’s fine. Now we’ve skewed the curve so much that nine games is the standard? Nine games is now enough time to let a new coach in a new role prove if he is a success or not? Tiger-Can fans are always calling for change and when they get it and it doesn’t INSTANTLY pay dividends, then they call for more change.
Yeah but like I said earlier. It might be because the right coaches aren’t being hired in the first place. You can have a poor coaching staff and fire them. Then optimistically replace them with another subpar coaching staff and get the same results. Keep doing this over and over and you will have a perpetual loser.
Keeping that in mind and referring to your comment about starting over leads to mediocre results, all you have to do is look at what happened in the two seasons of 1997 and 1998. Sutherin led us to a 2-16 record in '97 and was replaced by Lancaster for the '98 season. The result was a massive turnaround and a 12-5-1 record and an appearance in the Grey Cup which we ultimately won the year after. So complete turnarounds are possible but again it was because the RIGHT personnel was hired in the first place and got the job done. The brains for these decisions has to come from the upper brass like Obie and Mitchell. If they fail at this task then it’s a trickle down effect through the whole team and even to us disgruntled fans posting in the forums.
That soft prevent defence late in the game was the second biggest gift the Argos received today - - the biggest being Smilin Hank’s pick six.
That’s a pretty popular gift as we gave it to the Als the week before.
For someone who's supposed to be a leader on defense, Williams isn't exactly demonstrating leadership with this little quote:
“The first drive was bad and that one (in the fourth) was a bad one,? Williams said. “Coach said we weren’t very aggressive but they are going to move the ball right? Ricky Ray found a hole in our defence and that’s what it took. It was a hole in the defence we were in. As a player you have to play what coach calls and that’s what we did. Other than that for the most part I thought we were aggressive.?
[url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/Hamilton/2012/09/04/20165466.html]http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Football/CFL/ ... 65466.html[/url]Way to throw your DC under the bus there, Rey.
good for Rey/ It confirms what we have suspected, poor ill conceived schemes and play calling on defence is what is holding our defence back.
Easy to fix.
No offense, but you’re fooling yourself if you think it’s easy to fix. All cover schemes have holes; there is no magic solution that guarantees a stop at a given stage of the game.
It’s not easy to fix. And for the love of god, to all those people calling in on the 5th quarter, bringing in Greg Marshall is not the answer.
As many have pointed out, there is no guarantee that Marshall would even be willing to come back to coaching this year or next. Why should he? He's getting paid a nice chunk of change to sit at home and spend time with his family. And even if Marshall were to return, there is no telling what changes he'll want to make to the personnel on defense. Lastly, what worked in 2010 may not work in 2012 (or 2013). The league evolves every year.
Marshall's defences were only marginally better than what we have now. Those people are looking for change for change's sake only. Whether he wants to come back or not really isn't relevant. I can't see Cortez changing coordinators in mid season when he's acting as the OC himself.
"Fix it" may entail canning Creehan and replacing him with someone else ASAp. No guarantee that would work, BUT, there is a guarantee based on 9 games that Creehan's defences WILL NOT WORK. Which do you prefer?
Another "fix it" option, which is less dramatic overtly but would have substantial impact on the field , is that Creehan be ordered to change his style of defence NOW. It is not as if he has to insert a new defensive playbook, the first half showed that our defensive players are capable of playing high pressure defence. They have also shown in spurts all year long.
What they are incapable of playing, and perhaps no complement of players or team in the league can, is play the 4 man rush rest drop off in coverage scheme of Creehan's, the very scheme that has lost us multiple leads all year.
Creehan can make the change and we have hope, or he can balk and quit or be fired. I doubt he would do that as he would not be able to get a high school job later if his ego made him defy an order from the head coach.
All is not doom and gloom with some changes. Philosophically, high pressure defences can lead to big scores, but only if the QB and receiver on immediately on the same page and can execute. With only split seconds to make that read, the high pressure defence tends to create more mistakes on the offence and more turnovers. The offensive line has to make instant reads, the back has to pick up the right guy, loads of issues.
It is intersting to see that the 7 other defensive coordinators in the league are more experienced and use high pressure defences far more than out rookie DC. All are more successful.
So why do we persist in our futility?
Blame has to spread to Cortez, Obie and Mitchell for allowing this nonsense to continue.
Faulty logic. It has been in no way guaranteed that Creehan’s defense won’t work. Nine games for a young DC with questionable personnel (issues on D-line and in secondary) is not enough time to make that assessment.
Another "fix it" option, which is less dramatic overtly but would have substantial impact on the field , is that Creehan be ordered to change his style of defence NOW. It is not as if he has to insert a new defensive playbook, the first half showed that our defensive players are capable of playing high pressure defence. They have also shown in spurts all year long.With respect, it's just not that simplistic. Sure, the HC can order Creehan to change his defensive style. But it is not nearly as straightforward as 'blitz more' or 'pressure defense.' Those are just buzzwords. Any good DC is going to respond to the in-game situation; no one blitzes all the time, because doing one thing too often will gradually prove to be ineffective.
Furthermore, Cortez is a rookie HC in his first year in Hamilton, and also doubling as OC. I don’t think he has the time and resources to micromanage Creehan and it’s pointless to expect him to try, particularly since Creehan could legitimately say, “I’ll do better when I have better players.” Blitzing requires the right kind of personnel and takes time to implement. If all you’re doing is throwing the same blitz look, enemy QBs are going to figure it out very quickly and dissect you, the same as if you’re only rushing four.
It is intersting to see that the 7 other defensive coordinators in the league are more experienced and use high pressure defences far more than out rookie DC. All are more successful.So what you're saying is: Creehan should go because he's young and inexperienced? Why hire him in the first place, then? And also, who replaces him midseason and actually does a better job? Look at what's happening in Winnipeg. Huge midseason changes rarely do anything to improve the season currently in progress. If you want to can Creehan, you're far better off waiting until the end of the season and then conducting a proper search than knee-jerk firing him midway through 2012.
If you want stats.....play the cats! :lol: