Congrats to the Als in their season opener

Alouettes de Montréal
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It was great to see the Als pull off the victory. Kevin Glenn played like Kevin Glenn. When he's hot he's almost unstoppable. He's been on the roster of every team in the CFL except Edmonton but has yet to win a Grey Cup ring. Maybe this year?

The way Winnipeg started coming on in the last 5 minutes of the game makes the CFL so exciting. I don't follow the Als all that much so I don't know if they played well or mediocre. The game was low scoring for most of it which makes me wonder. Had Winnipeg's premier receiver Dressler not gone down with an injury I wonder if the outcome would have been different. It doesn't matter though. The Al's season opener goes into the win column. They will review the game film, make adjustments where necessary and hopefully come out even stronger in game two.

Glenn will be able to take this team far as long as he doesn't get injured but I must caution all of you Al's fans. Kevin Glenn can be a stinker. He played for the Lions in the 2014 season. It was one of his worst passing seasons in several years although Kevin has a respectable total yards passing record. In some games he was brilliant. The Lions made it to the semi-finals in a cross over to meet up with none other than... yes, you guessed right...the Alouettes! The Als destroyed Kevin Glenn and the Lions by beating the Lions 50 to 17!

Kevin Glenn has the ability to take any team far but be prepared to ask yourself. " Hmmm... which Kevin Glenn will we be seeing today?" You will have your answer the way he throws the ball. He's not a scrambler and sometimes you wonder who he was throwing the ball to. Sometimes no one was there and at other times it was to the wrong jersey.

The Als appear to have some very good go to receivers and this will help Glenn's efforts I'm sure.

Another Als acquisition that should help the team is Stefan Logan. The guy has decent stats. How he's utilized will be important. He can rip punt returns wide open but too often Lions fans watched him get stuffed time and time again for very little gain. He can be very exciting when he breaks a punt return wide open so don't be going out getting a beer when the opposition is punting the ball.

It was nice to see Anthony Calvillo coaching and mentoring the players on the sidelines. He brings phenomenal experience and wisdom to the game. The Als will do well by him.

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Thanks for the thanks. Re: Glenn, we're under no illusions about what he is, but we also have Rakeem Cato waiting in the wings to take over, and Vernon Adams for the long term, so we're not putting all our eggs in the Glenn basket. :wink:

I have to watch the game today -- couldn't watch it last night -- but I will say that judging by the stat line, the highlights, and the comments of fellow Als fans who watched the game, we dominated the game but made WPG look better than they actually were with penalties and turnovers.

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I am currently watching it again also. That one-hour delay did me in.

In the first half, great game plan by AC and good execution by Glenn et al. Some of Glenn’s deep balls were thrown short. However, the Als’ O dominated. A stupid penalty by Green and an even stupider challenge by Popp killed one drive. The Sutton fumble at the goal was the result of a good strip by the Bombers’ D. The long bomb to Carter TD was killed by a stupid penalty as Ruby learns the ropes. We’ll probably see more of that before the season is over. Nonetheless, I saw a series of good, time-consuming drives; that bodes well if we can come up with good planning and execution down the line.

The D, however, were monsters! Attaboy to Bowman and Cox! The D kept pressure on Willy all during the half. No QB is going to do well under those conditions.

Too bad the Als couldn’t push the ball over the goal line a few more times in the first half to put the game away early, but at least they took a two-score lead into the clubhouse at halftime.

I have to do some food shopping now and am looking forward to the second half. Looking good so far.

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Don't want to come across as negative in a game that showed so many positives but KG has been throwing his receivers short a lot both in pre-season and last night. Not sure if he can't get the ball to them or if it is where he's asked to throw the ball but it will be worth keeping an eye out.

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Agreed Hfx. That's what I saw too.

Congrats to AC for calling a game plan where KG could compete well, i.e. the short and intermediate routes. He did get off one mah-velous long bomb to Carter for a TD that was called back because of a stupid penalty. However, the end-around/double reverse to Carter were nice touches that led to long gainers.

Sutton/Rutley/McDaniel need to be in the mix going forward, as these players can keep the ball moving and the clock ticking. This will be important for Glenn who, while he executed well enough to get a W (which should have been even more convincing on the scoreboard), is not, I believe, the ultimate answer in the long-term scheme of things for the Als. Cato...or others need to step in. AC, who knows a thing or three about the QB position, will be a great mentor to young QBs.

Notwithstanding, a W is a W. The Als had sustained clock-killing drives, and kept Willy and the Bombers bottled up for most of the game. That's usually a winning combo in football.

So, way to go Als - more of the same, SVP!!!

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1st game gentlemen so no need to nitpick. Remember last year? the start of the season? every back alley hotshot has complaints about the als!! ask me if I care? leave the coaches and players be and let them work the process!!

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KR/PR/RB logan knows his stuff which last year with the alouettes was top shelf!! why wasn’t rutley dressed? I don’t want to see adams on the field this season PERIOD!!

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your description of KG sorry is incorrect. your observation is of henry burris!! appear to have good receivers? you think!!

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OK, I just watched the game on ESPN replay. My quick thoughts:

The penalty situation was about 50% us shooting ourselves in the foot and 50% terrible officiating.

The O-line had protection issues all night and it was only thanks to AC's playbook and Glenn's quick release that we weren't sacked a ton. We were letting guys come clean off the edge or through the A gap too often for my liking. The Glenn interception was entirely due to protection breakdowns. To be expected from this group in their first regular-season game. I'm confident that Sweet will straighten them out.

For the most part, I thought AC called a masterful game. Our first trip in the red zone, the one that resulted in an INT, I wasn't a fan of the max protect package he sent out. It gave us only 3 receiver targets and allowed WPG to flood the end zone with coverage. But overall, he did great, particularly on stretching the field horizontally and working the Bombers off play action. I would have liked a bit more variation in the run game but it's early in the preseason and they have likely kept the playbook compact enough for the players to handle.

We seem to be running a lot of 3-4 looks with one of the linemen (Martin?) out of an open stance behind the line to create confusion. And it was very effective.

WPG's Yandle was great in coverage. Harris was a beast on the ground. Generally, LaPo's offense was kind of how I remembered it from his last stint in the CFL: great on the ground, mixed bag in the air.

Cunningham didn't help his case for staying on the active roster with that fumble.

Green needs to get his head in the game, stopping yapping and drawing URs or going offsides and just catch the damn ball.

I agree with Hfx: either the playbook is calling for throws to a certain spot and the receivers aren't where they need to be, or else Glenn is underthrowing them. I wasn't a huge fan of his accuracy, particularly on the deep balls where he can't hit Green or Carter in stride, but that's what you get with KG. He still did a great job running the offense and throwing the ball under pressure.

Verdict: I have not felt this optimistic about the Alouettes since the 2012 season. The offense, in particular, looks to be in great hands with OC AC and Chapdelaine as the consigliere (both were at field level last night, though I imagine someone is in the spotter's booth). When it came to coaching matchups, I thought we won on both fronts: AC outcoached Hall, and Thorpe outcoached LaPo. :thup:

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Overall I was impressed. This team looked far more prepared for Game 1 than anything we saw from Hawkins and Higgins in the past 3 seasons.

The O-Line appears to still be a work-in-progress. Bombers were getting close to Glenn - especially in the 1st half. Better front 7's (they're out there in the CFL) would have created more chaos than Glenn experienced last night.

Another issue with the Als run game was the tendency to run routes around the O Tackles - not just the stuff that Carter ran, but Sutton too. Almost as if AC doesn't yet have confidence in the line's ability to create inside running gaps.

Sweet has some work to do, but overall ... a good performance.

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4 the 1st game of the new season your far to critical!! problems to iron out YES but give the process a chance to work!! praising AC as OC is really funny after lowlifes ripped him and popp a new arsehole all off season!! MTL's OL is still a work in progress as the playbook is a piecemeal affair!! T ruby, G gagnon grade out with a B grade for 1st time starters!! C matte and G blake grade out at new positions with a B+, T perrett earns an A and piotrowski gets a C!!

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Per RDS last night, Cunningham dressed as a precaution because Carter and Green were dinged up a bit last week.

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Hopefully it is more timing than simple lack of arm strength; which would also help the OL (that looked somewhat surprisingly good).

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[i]The Als were creative on offence, Glenn distributing the ball to many receivers. The playbook under Anthony Calvillo, in his first full season as the team’s offensive co-ordinator, is more imaginative than since the days Marc Trestman was coaching the team.

“We’re good, man. I’ve got a lot of confidence in this group. It feels like we’re taking steps in the right direction,? said receiver S.J. Green, who scored an eight-yard touchdown at 6:25 of the third quarter, increasing the visitor’s lead to 19-3. “You can tell the difference in the organization of the offence. As long as we’re on the field, teams are going to be in trouble.

“There are so many motions that created chaos.?[/i]

^ This, right here, is what I've been harping on since Trestman left. Last night, we used motion to spring receivers for completions that didn't require them to use pure ability to beat their man every time. I saw stacked formations, picks and rubs out of trips bunch sets, overloaded alignments, crossing routes that forced DBs to bubble laterally across the field -- basically a smorgasbord of motion/formation tricks designed to help receivers get open. And -- surprise! -- they got open. I actually think we'd have been even more productive if Glenn had checked down more effectively; more than once, he had Sutton open on the RB flat route or an underneath receiver in man coverage but he chose to throw to his favored targets (Green and Carter). Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

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I was totally frustrated with trestman over his last 2 years in Montreal. His offense was stale with nothing new added. so it’s nice to see AC using his experience and knowledge to totally revamp a lame duck offense with a breathe of fresh air!!

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Trestman certainly had his issues, which frustrated me too. He was too conservative with his playcalling in the back half of games and he ignored the run too frequently. But let’s not forget that but for a couple of dropped passes in playoff games in 2011/2012 (Whitaker in 2011, Bratton in 2012), we could have been playing for the Cup in both those years. And the 2011 loss was entirely on the injury-ravaged defense under Tim Tibesar.

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trestman was just to conservative after winning back to back GCs!! note his farce in chicago where he lost the locker room early!!

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Comme entrée en matière dans les parties qui comptent, j'ai été content de ce que j'ai vu en général dans cette partie. Ce n'était pas parfait, loin de là, mais c'était généralement une bonne partie. Le niveau d'exécution était à la hauteur et la cohésion de l'attaque était au rendez-vous. Sans être spectaculaire, Glenn a complété 71% de ses passes pour des gains de 332 verges. Surtout, il a été capable de se servir du système offensif pour faire avancer l'attaque même lorsque la protection ne lui donnait pas beaucoup de marge de manœuvre. Beaucoup de petites passes (moyenne de 11 verges par passe), mais Glenn a eu l'intelligence de prendre ce que l'adversaire lui donnait. Il a bien distribué le ballon et beaucoup de receveurs ont touché au ballon.

Ruby a commis quelques erreurs, mais la ligne offensive avait quand même progressé en termes de cohésion. Westerman n'a pas fait la pluie et le beau temps avec Ruby et les Alouettes ont eu la sagesse d'ajouter de la protection à l'occasion avec Beaulieu, Lewis ou Piotrowski.

Le jeu au sol m'a un peu déçu, hormis les jeux renversés avec Carter, et le travail de Bridge sur les faufilades demeure horrible. Ce sera quelque chose à travailler, mais je crois que Calvillo n'a pas exposé tout son arsenal dans cette partie.

La défensive a joué un match très solide. Quelques 2ièmes et long sont revenus la hanter, mais moins souvent que ce qu'on a déjà vu auparavant. La ligne défensive des Alouettes comporte le gros avantage d'être maintenant capable d'appliquer une pression constante sans nécessairement avoir besoin du support d'un secondeur. Ça laisse beaucoup de marge de manœuvre à la ligne d'engagement et ceci a bien servi l'équipe. Les nouveaux demis se sont bien débrouillés et le solide plaqué de Davis sur Dressler a donné le ton à la partie. Je ne me réjouis surtout pas du fait que Dressler a été sonné sur le jeu, mais Davis a lancé un signal à l'adversaire : si on veut le tester, il y aura un prix à payer. Sans doute ont-ils été aidés par la tenue de la ligne défensive, mais ils ont tenu leur bout à leur première partie dans la LCF. C'est bon signe et si Mincy est un substitut, on peut croire que Henderson est censé pouvoir faire encore mieux. C'est encourageant.

Évidemment, ce n'était que les Bou! Bombers. Non que cette équipe ne se soit pas améliorée, surtout en attaque, mais ils ne constitueront probablement pas une grande puissance de la LCF cette saison. Pour les Alouettes, c'était une parfaite entrée en matière. La partie de cette semaine sera un test beaucoup plus significatif et la défensive devra jouer très solidement pour retenir Burris ou Harris. Ottawa a montré beaucoup de cohésion sous la houlette de Harris et leur victoire en prolongation leur a permis de montrer que cette équipe a du caractère. Curieusement, je n'ai pu m'empêcher de penser à ce premier match entre les Alouettes et les Roughriders en 2010. Un match revanche qui va en prolongation et tourne à la faveur de l'équipe qui avait concédé la Coupe Grey à leur dernier affrontement.

Je dis donc chapeau aux Alouettes et espérons que la prochaine partie en sera une de progression.

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ruby’s coming along and having lewis, piotrowski, beaulieu, bodanis, sutton or whomever chip the DE or OLB helps him with footwork and positioning!!

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Trestman avait aussi un autre gros défaut : il n’accordait pas suffisamment d’importance aux unités spéciales. On a encore vu l’an dernier toute la différence que ça peut faire.