Before Eric Morris even flubbed the last kick return, i couldn't see how the coach(s) kept him on returns. all game he was not gaining any yards. and personally i have felt this for weeks now. i think the coaches believe that he is the next Dressler or something because i can't understand why he is still on the field. he is terrible. true i don't have any stats to back up this claim, but the Alouettes know that he is no threat because they were kicking away from Foord all night and directly to Morris.
Also is it me or is Wes Cates not running full speed? he sure is not hitting the holes with much quickness. he seems to be taking his time in the backfield and the occasionally the only play that works for him is the riders version of the sweep when they punch outside of the line.
Both should be benched or cut (in Morris' case). Charles is far more effective and put Dressler on returns. He might as well do that too, he does everything else. Next for Dressler is defense, can't hurt/
I don't want to sound negative or but last week i was in Regina and i had asked one of players in a gym about this season's play. The response was that Ken Miller is one of the biggest morons that ever coached a foot ball team at any level. Must be nice when your own players have nothing good to say about he coach.
Wasn't Morris the one that got the facemasking penalty after Dressler had a good return past midfield? cut that guy. geez. according to CFL.ca Morris has a 5.8 yard average on punt returns and a 17.8 yard average (25 yards is his longest) on kickoff returns. Now i was never a return guy, but to me those averages seem like the MINIMUM amount a player should get regardless. i mean wouldn't Shologan get the same numbers if he was returning kicks? obviously Morris is not a return guy or a receiver for that matter.
looking at the stats it seems that Denatay Heard has some good numbers on the few returns he did. what happen to him?
Anywho, with a sophomorish QB in Durant, the riders need as good field position as possible and Morris ISN'T going to get it for the team.
As for Cates i wonder if he is still nursing an injury or something. He seems very cautious.
Although I am probably alone in my opinion here, but I think the Riders should be just as patient with Eric Morris as a Returner who is also a raw rookie as they are with Darian Durant who is not a raw rookie. I suspect Eric Morris will improve as the overall quality of play with all on special teams improves. I also think Eric Morris has some value as a receiver. He has good hands and is fearless. He was known to take hard hits and make great catches in college. I do not think Stu Foord is the answer. He is neither fast enough nor has the hands to do it consistently. All other players have had their shot as well, Denetay Heard, Hugh Charles, Johnny Quinn, Gerran Walker, all with mixed reviews.
There are lots of things wrong with the Riders’ special teams. An overweight Jocelyn Frenette goes downfield, unblocked and misses an easy tackle which leads to an Alouette return for a touch down. He misses his block earlier against BC on a touchdown conversion. I have seen screws ups on conversions before; bad snaps, mishandling the pin but never one blocked before. All Frenette had to do is stand up and block the player and the convert is made or the BC player touches Frenette when he tries to jump over him and the blocked kick becomes illegal because you cannot "climb up" on people to block a kick. Someone must have been noticing a lazy Frenette in order to try that.
Also, three missed attempts to score from the one-yard line? Does a team really deserve to win when they cannot do that? I cannot think of a better way to pump up the opposition and their fans than three successful goal line stands. And now for eight games in the row, the team's offence cannot get the ball moving, and the defence cannot stop the other team either in the third quarter.
Eric Morris is not the reason the Riders are loosing... That is a team effort just as much as winning is a team effort.
The Riders have not learned how to play error free football. Till that happens, we may be in for more frustrations.
agreed morris' stats are poor but he is a rookie with no CFL experience and to me it seems he is not getting the blocking needed to get going I dont know if the blockers are running way to far downfield or what but tis not working
I THINK (my thoughts) that a return man has to show his stuff in his rookie year or your gone. either you have it or you don’t like dressler showed last year. and you can’t blame the blocking by looking at these stats:
Eric Morris
Punt Returns: 16 for 92 yards - average 5.8 yards
Kick Off Returns: 22 for 392 yards - 17.8 average
Denatay Heard
Punt Returns: 4 for 60 yards - average of 15 yards
Kick Off Returns: 2 for 39 yards - 19.5 average
Weston Dressler
Punt Returns: 8 for 73 yards - average 9.1 yards
Kick Off Returns: 1 for 14 yards
Hugh Charles
Kick Off Returns: 1 for 23 yards
Stu Foord
Kick Off Returns: 10 for 187 yards - 18.7 average
even if his stats may HIDE that he can break one, i and i don’t think other teams feel that he is a threat at all. that’s why they keep kicking to him instead of the second return man.
agreed his stats are VERY poor compared to the others but all in all the SP teams has been poor. I wouldn't mind seeing denatay heard back there but he has made some crucial mistakes that have allowed points, weston dressler absolutly not, Stu Foord could use some more touches back there
Why haven't we brought in a bona fide returner. Dressler has show that the right guy can get decent returns. Are we missing the boat by having Tillman as a part-time GM while he is on leave? Is he doing the job that we need him to do it to remain competitive throughout the season?
i am trying to figure out when the last time the riders had a return specialist that was actually a threat to score TDs on kicks. (besides Dressler last season) as far back as i can remember they had a guy for a few season call Willis Jacox who played pretty good in 1991 if i remember correctly. but other than that i am vague.
was albert brown the return guy during their 89 grey cup season?
Corey Holmes was really good 2002 to 2005 but since then we've haven't had much in the return game. We've had some receivers that could return the ball such as Jason Armstead and now Weston Dressler but it's not good practice to have your top receiver also returning kicks.
I think Eric Morris may still work out as a receiver for us, he's a shifty quick player but I don't see breakaway speed from him or a chance that he might break a big return. What he does good is runs hard and runs north south. I Think they cut McGahee because he didn't have much use outside of returning kicks as he had poor hands and couldn't be relied upon as a receiver.
I am a big fan of Dressler but he should only be back returning kicks in important situations as he's far too valuable to lose due to an injury from a special teams play.