Congrats to the Als

Carter was worth the ticket price all by himself.

Felt good for Nieswander, he`s been here for 3 years and has had to keep dealing with the media building up flavors of the month Marsh and Smith. He made a couple of throws he would probably like back , but was 21/36 with no interceptions. He comes across in media scrums as such a reserved guy, but he seemed to be taking charge on the sidelines. Essentially a rookie, hopefully he continues to build on this.
I hope he's the guy for the rest of the season, he deserves that chance. AC, if he becomes healthy, won't have enough game time to be effective- it will be like pre-season all over. Smith seems to need more time, and given Neiswander's progression, Popp has the luxury to wait.
Even Whyte regrouped and had a decent game after his poor start.
Had I access to wifi, I would have started a well-deserved 'Release Sean Whyte' thread at the beginning of the game. I have to admit his last few punts were excellent. Still I'd like to see what Graves can do.
And of course London seems to have lost all focus, ironic seeing that a couple of years ago he was making the same type of plays we are seeing from Carter.
If I were Popp, I'd replace London with Clowney to see what he has. Clowney is still here despite a bad pre-season, London is going south, what's there to lose?
Felt good for Nieswander, he`s been here for 3 years and has had to keep dealing with the media building up flavors of the month Marsh and Smith. He made a couple of throws he would probably like back , but was 21/36 with no interceptions. He comes across in media scrums as such a reserved guy, but he seemed to be taking charge on the sidelines. Essentially a rookie, hopefully he continues to build on this.

I hope he’s the guy for the rest of the season, he deserves that chance. AC, if he becomes healthy, won’t have enough game time to be effective- it will be like pre-season all over. Smith seems to need more time


Smith had one series in the game yesterday. Hardly the chance to really see what he can do.

Nicewander is improving with each game which is very encouraging. Thing is the ball takes forever to get where it needs to get and on the long ball they’ve been either completely off or they are anybody’s ball. Berry did a good job of shortening some of these routes. As for Smith on that screen he threw under pressure you saw the arm strenght. A little flick of the wrist on his back foot and the ball was right there in Messam’s hands. Not sure this dink & dunk offense is suited to his strenghts but he won’t have a hard time making those throws anyway.

I haven't liked what I've seen of Neiswander's deep ball either, but I wonder if that's more mechanics than anything else. He wasn't planting and stepping into those throws properly a number of times yesterday...

Probably right and a lot of QB have had careers in the CFL without a powerful arm.

Indeed. Calvillo never had a cannon arm but he made up for it by reading the field and distributing the ball. I just wonder what Mike Miller is doing now, if not working with Neiswander on his throwing mechanics. He may still be the titular OC, but really he’s the QB coach, and with Marsh and Calvillo sidelined, you have to think Miller would have the time and focus to give to Neiswander.

Les problème est qu’il ne réussit pas assez souvent à se démarquer. Il enlève une option au quart au lieu d’en ajouter une.

Pour ce qui est de London, sa saison me fait penser à la dernière saison de Richardson à Regina. Peut-être plus profondément mais ça ressemble à ça.

L’an dernier, nous étions tous très enthousiastes à propos de London et il nous donnait raison à chaque semaine jusqu’à sa blessure. Cette saison, je crois qu’il se sentait obligé de faire mieux et n’a pas réussi à le faire. Ça s’est mis à trotter dans sa tête et il doit combattre ce démon. Cela dit, London n’a jamais été le gars qui gagnait du terrain après l’attrapé. Sa plus grande qualité a toujours été sa capacité de sauter en l’air et redescendre avec le ballon dans les mains. Je trouve que cette saison, les receveurs des Alouettes en laissent beaucoup tomber et ça me fait croire que Campbell ne donne pas les entraînements qu’il faut pour régler ce problème. Lorsqu’un problème de cette nature devient endémique, on est en droit de se poser des questions sur l’entraîneur en charge de la position.

Relativement à Duron Carter, ce gars-là a beaucoup de talent. Il peut réussir les attrapés en couverture serrée, mais il peut aussi gagner du terrain ave ses jambes. Il est très agile pour un gars de son gabarit. C’est la grosse différence entre London et lui. Carter commence à jouer le rôle que Richardson avait il y a seulement 2 saisons de ça.

Pour moi, la plus grosse déception à l’attaque demeure Messam. Il est excellent pour courir dans les trous que personne ne manquerait, mais il n’arrive qu’excessivement rarement à aller chercher du terrain par lui même. Il n 'est pas très bon en réception et demeure un bloqueur moyen. Il semble être le demi par défaut plus que par mérite. Mais pour ma part, le cas de Messam montre que dans la LCF, il ne suffit pas d’avoir de la puissance en course. Il faut l’agilité, l’accélération, la capacité de bien changer de direction, savoir bloquer et pouvoir devenir un dépanneur fiable. Pour comparer des comparables, disons que Cornish possède beaucoup plus de tout ça que Messam. J’ai souvent l’impression qu’il se ménage. J’ai certainement tort d’avoir cette impression, mais chose certaine, il n’ajoute aucune menace à notre attaque.

Petite statistique : Durant n’avait lancé que 5 interceptions au cours des 4 dernières parties. Il en a maintenant 8. Les Alouettes ont vraiment le tour de le déranger. Certes, l’interception de Brown était un attrapé exceptionnel, mais il demeure que Durant ne l’avait pas escompté sur le jeu, tout comme il n’avait pas escompté la présence de Tisdale en première demie. Ceci pour dire que l’attaque des Roughriders se limitait peut-être à Kory Sheets. Tant que Sheets gagnait le terrain, Durant n’était pas obligé de lancer autant. Sheets sur le carreau, l’attaque repose plus sur son bras qu’avant, avec les résultats qu’on voit.

I notices Miller is now on the sidelines instead of up in the booth.

A lot of plays, his job is to run obstruction which he must be doing very well LOL ! He did however get called yesterday. He’s done a better job this season then in the last five years.

As for London dropping 3 balls in the numbers yesterday is unnacceptable. One thing I did notice is Neicewander throws the ball very low, where AC tended to throw it high and use the receivers size. London seems much more comfortable catching balls at eye level than he does low. Does not excuse his poor play this season but just something I"ve noticed.

Two reasons why the Als won that game.

  1. Chip
  2. Cox

One can perhaps make an argument that 2 more reasons were:

  1. Duron
  2. Carter

But Cox was all over the field as usual yesterday and of course outfought the much taller Getzlaf on the last play. Plus he was not Chippy like in the Hamilton game.

Definitely has to be the leading contender for CFL defensive player of the year.

The defensive player of the week will be: Adam Bighill of BC or Patrick Watkins of Toronto or Chip Cox of the Als. I say Chip.

Duron Carter of the Als will be/should be offensive player of the week.

Jabari Arthur of Calgary will be/should be the canadian player of the week.

The special teams player of the week will be: Tim Brown of BC or Tristan Jackson of Saskatchewan.

Richard

I now think that Patrick Watkins of the Argos will be chosen as defensive player of the week. He had 1 sack,2 interceptions and 1 forced fumble.

Richard

Mais Cox a empêché 2 touchés, dont un qui donnait la victoire aux Roughriders. Cox a réussi 5 plaqués et Watkins en a réussi 2.

Cox a encore des chances.

And Watkins played against Edmonton and Kerry Joseph vs Saskatchewan and Durant... Case can be made for all 3 of them but I think Cox deserves it. Even one of the Riders said before the game Cox is the Defensive player of the year in the CFL. He's in a class by himself this year.

Cox is playing at a freaky level this year. I mean, he's always been a great SAM backer, but he's getting better with age. Instinct, athleticism, intelligence, and work ethic -- all the time, game after game. I don't think there's a better form-tackler than Chip in the CFL TBH.

He can run down just about any receiver in the league too. Some can sprint quicker but over the course of a game his game speed does not drop. Also needs to be mentionned that it was Jim’s idea to ask him to move over from HB to SAM.

You can tell from his motor and compete level that he’s likely a beast when it comes to training and fitness. Not too many guys who can perform like that in the fourth quarter game after game.

Also needs to be mentionned that it was Jim's idea to ask him to move over from HB to SAM.
Yes, and credit where it's due. One of Popp's best moves.

There are 3 Als plays in the CFL top ten plays of the week:

Duron Carter (twice) and Gerald Brown's one-handed interception.

Kudos to these two and to the Als, who are improving week by week.

Gerald Brown ! Here is a man the Als didn’t even want to offer a contract to. It looks like none of the other teams wanted to pay much for him either. Must be quite a few GM kicking themselves in the a… He’s been fantastic all year.