Eskies at Calgary

Now with Stamps out for the next game vs Calgary with the shoulder injury: was popped out and the medical staff popped it back in. X-rays to follow that will tell the real story on it. Anyways I think they may recall Efrem Hill for replacement, not sure on who else is out there. Down the road we could be 1-9, 2-8 or 3-7 before heading into Montreal. I still have faith for a 3-7 record realistically thinking. :roll:

Next week's game will be ugly.

I have us going into Montreal with a 2-8 record. I think we'll be lucky to have a 3-7 record. I think the one win we'll get will be against Calgary, and that's only because we play them 3 times in 4 weeks (or 5 if you include the bye week), and it's pretty difficult to beat a team that many times in that short of a span. So I think we'll get lucky and get one.

Call me an optimist or dillusional but I think the Esks are going to go on a bit of a winning streak , just a hunch I think the O will start to turn things around and start using jabransky a lot more. there were some good that came out of the TO game.

I’m not optimistic though definitely not as pessimistic as most. Even so I have the Stamps picked coming off a high with a win on the road and playing again at home with the Eskies losing at home and having to hit the road.

The Eskies have a decent chance to win if they achieve at least four of the following goals on which at least they have improved to some varying small degree for each of them in the last two games:

-Allow no more than 1 sack
-Fewer Penalties (averaging >110 yards per game and killing themselves)
-Fewer missed tackles especially on running plays
-Continue to play statistically the league’s best pass defence
-No more than 1 turnover and 0 for touchdown

Good news in that Calgary did not run the ball well anyway against BC with BC with the second worst run defence in the CFL all the same.

Bad news in the Eskimos with the worst run defence in the league by far, in addition to their improving passing game Calgary has an even better effective screen pass play than did Toronto use effectively out of various double tight end and inner slot sets.

That fine screen pass play by the Stamps was used in their second half scoring drives and has the advantage of being disguised without the use of tight ends or inner slot receivers when they play action fake to Reynolds as they send the slotback in motion.

Though the result of the play counts as a pass, defencively one must be solid as if it is a running play. When one linebacker and one defencive back bite too hard on the play action or are blocked successfully, with a weak or no second level on defence high advantage goes to the offence for a first down and then some based on the numbers even before any physical mismatches come into play.

Certainly I hope the Eskies are watching plenty of such film as I forewarned before the Argos game and would bet they overlooked it the way Barker’s play-calls abused the Eskie defence from tight-end sets and/or screen passes as well.

Again for a video breakdown of the Argos’ success in that regard, see the “Throwback Tight End” thread too.

[url=http://www.torontosun.com/sports/football/2010/08/10/14985341.html]http://www.torontosun.com/sports/footba ... 85341.html[/url]

Calgary will be tough, perhaps giving Zabransky the ball wouldn’t hurt?

Sure and why not especially when we are in the red zone? Zabransky’s hungry to execute and perform no doubt and has before.

[url=http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/football/edmonton-eskimos/Game+Snaps/3401076/story.html]http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/f ... story.html[/url]

Game day notes.

The 2010 Esks are bad. Really, really bad. There's no question of that any more. I have no idea where to pin the blame (poor previous GM - for not putting together a competitive team but rather making it out of paper tigers, or the coach - who hasn't been able to coerce a decent, worthy, honourable effort out of the players almost to a man.

The season is done kids... This is as bad of a team as any Esks team that I've followed in 40 some years. Brutal.

^^ I believe I said that last week.

Chief to your credit you’ve been absolutely correct for weekS in your pessimism on the prospects for the Eskies to turn things around. Without Ray back on track and some decent defence, no light at the end of this tunnel until Stamps is back and more shuffling in the coaching ranks. In fact that might not even be light to you.

I guess this is why they call him sometimes The Chief Lord, and as Keith Jackson would say as on those Gatorade commercials a few years ago: “the legend continues.” :stuck_out_tongue:

It's been a disaster of monumental proportions! :x :x :x :x

It's disheartening to say the least. They've got two weeks to get ready for the Roughriders.

Jason Maas = LOL
just as bad as he was in the hammer
Jared Z. = future CFL star, give this guy a shot!

Firing Maciocia was an admission that there are deep-seated problems with this team that can't simply be patched or fixed in the short term. Thus (and sadly) it should be no surprise that the team has continued to struggle following Maciocia's termination. You don't run a team into the ground overnight, nor do you revive it overnight.

The offensive line is absolutely awful. At the end of the day, no offense is going to succeed without strong play from its line. The defensive line is somewhat better but still not really any kind of consistently dominating unit. Too easy for opposing QBs to get the time and space they need to go through their reads and find open receivers.

Fixing the lines is going to take at least one year, maybe two.

^^ That's kind of why I've been saying we should start building for next season. This season is already lost.

Maas looks as bad as he did in Hamilton because our O-line is as bad as the Cat's was (hence the similar awful record's) We haven't had a pro quality O-line in years and trading away draft picks every chance we got did nothing to help that. Is Maas a superstar? No, but I've seen few if any player's with his heart and I wouldn't trade him for nothing. Although I think Zabransky will be good, putting him in with this team will probably ruin him the way Hamilton ruined Maas (and Printers et al...)

Totally agree with you on that. As I said in a different thread, without an OLine that can play consistently there’s little chance for the QBs to execute - and ultimately, little chance for Offensive schemes to even be run as drawn up.

I’d add that our DLine or even front 7 needs some seriously looking at.