No need to respond, gentlemen. I just wanted to post an upper case recognition of who I believe is the most dominant defensive player in the CFL this season; a player who will also, most likely, lose to some western conference guy when it comes to the voting for defensive player for the year. In other words, I am wishing to make a public statement as much as spark a conversation on this man's remarkable achievements in 2013.
Als defensive players NEVER get the recognition they deserve. They have to work twice as hard to be considered half as good. Cox is elite at his position, the best SAM linebacker in the league, hands down. But it's not just him. Billy Parker gets absolutely no love despite being (IMO) one of the best cover men in the league year after year...
The team’s record often comes into play in voting and Western Journalists I believe are much bigger homers than their Eastern counterparts but there is no doubt to me anyway that Chip Cox is the DPOY and Mike Edem is the ROTY. Ahead of Duron Carter (most big plays of the season in spite of playing only half the games) and Brett Jones OL for Calgary. OPOY, MVP and CPOY should all 3 go to John Cornish this year. This guy has been playing with 3 QB’s and missing two starting OL in Federkeil and Tsoumpass and he ran for 242 yards today. That’s just sick.
What’s even more crazy is that before Hebert got injured he was the most dominant defensive player this year.
Il est vrai que pour que les joueurs défensifs des Alouettes aient le moindrement de reconnaissance, ils doivent surpasser de loin leurs concurrents.
Je ne sais pas à quelle sorte de ressentiment cela tient, mais c'est à mon sens plutôt injuste pour ses joueurs.
Billy Parker est effectivement un de ces gars qui n'obtient pas tout le crédit qu'il devrait. On pourrait ajouter John Bowman (quelqu'un peut-il dire à Matt Dunnigan qu'il s'appelle John), Keron Williams alors qu'il était avec les Alouettes, et d'autres que nous avons vus à l'oeuvre.
It's been an issue for years. Defensive guys have to be all-stars here before anyone even knows their names. The defensive coaches we produce are only recognized as masterminds after they leave Montreal. I rarely heard the names of Chris Jones or Tim Burke spoken until they were no longer with the Als. Bowman gets no pub. Billy Parker flies completely under the radar. If Mike Edem were playing for a western team, ROTY would already be his. Jerald Brown's amazing comeback year is getting no attention as a storyline.
More fuel for the fire as they say to keep playing the way they have this season!
I should clarify remarks I made in a previous post suggesting the Als were berefit of pride on Monday. When Ford ran 69 yards to set up the winning touchdown, it was a testament to the Chipper's attitude and pride that he never gave up and prevented a very fast and capable back from scoring. Many players would have given token pursuit for 10 or 15 yards and let Ford take it into the end zone.
Chip never lets up. No other linebacker in the league could have run down Ford on that play with the head start Ford had.
We got gashed for crippling gains on the ground against Winnipeg, but that's OK. Even the best D is going to have an off-game. Brown's gambling got him burned on the TD Winnipeg scored right before half. I expect the D to play a much sharper game against Hamilton...
They got one big run. He averaged less than 2 yards a carry on his other 12 carries. They had given up running the ball and caught us. It happens.
Yeah, it was basically that one big run. An aggressive one-gap defense like ours is going to give up that type of big play every once in a while. If we hadn't turned the ball over seven frackin times, that long run wouldn't have mattered...