Defence played good tonight against the Stamps! The offence however, did a total 180 from last week. I do not understand, they didn't do anything that worked for them in Montreal? Not 1 playaction rollout pass all game. DD as a pocket passer is not working, and will never work. Pocket passing lead to 4 sacks tonight, and at key times in the game. He needs to be a threat to run to be effective. Even the analysts are wondering why DD is not rolling out more. Am I missing something, is DD injured perhaps? Is it safer for him to stay in the pocket and get hit on ever play? Anyways, things are quite puzzling this year, good game defence. :x :x
The defense has steadily gotten better, they had an okay game against Hamilton and then stepped up big time last week. This was their best game of the year and to limit Calgary to 22 points (3 of which they had nothing to do with) was huge.
I also am starting to wonder if Doug Berry shouldn't be given his walking papers. They didn't play horrible on offense but they also didn't continue to work on what they had success with previously. A couple of big drops (one by Clermont that should have been 7) also contributed to the problems. The O-line played well again, however the loss of Cates back there to block was noticeable.
The defence played alright but they can't make the hold when it counts. I still think our secondary schemes are questionable as we too often give up first down yardage in 2nd and long situations. I was totally frustrated in the last 2 minutes of the game when we allowed Calgary to move the ball so that we get it back with only 20 seconds left. Either we don't have the right personell or RH is not the guy for the job. I still believe the later is the case and wish we had brought in some new coaching blood instead of recycling RH because of past glory.
Did they bring back Hall before they hired Marshall? Just wondering if we can blame Tamen for that too. lol
No, Marshall came first.
Sorry, you can not expect much more from the D than that. They played an amazing game. Holding a team to 22 points in the CFL typically means a win.
That is true we did hold them to 22 points but we constantly gave up field position. Numerous times we had Calgary pinned in near their goal posts and could not hold. The end result may not have been points but they ended up kicking to us from midfield rather than their own 20. I reiteate that the biggest dissapointment was their inability to force Calgary to give the ball back to us with time enough on the clock to mount a comeback. I would be very hesitant to call their performance amazing but would instead rate it a lukewarm - competant but not good enough.
it is a bend don't break defense. You let them chip away until they make a mistake. As far as a long field...well, yeah, that is obviously the downside, but every now and then the O has to be able to march from their own 20 and get to mid field or even better, get in FG range. That did not really happen last night, largely due to a great game by the Calgary D, but also a few drops here and there. The Riders lost, but I would not say they played bad. Sometimes you lose even when you play okay.
Playing "okay" is what they have been doing along. "okay" is only good enough if your standards are set low enough that a victory is counted when you say"we played well enough to win." This may have been the way with the Riders of 5-10 years ago but we have been told to expect excellence from this organization and I for one am holding them to their word and I expect excellence not almost good enough or "okay" performances.
Word of advice for our opponents:
Throw 5-10 yard outs all game and you'll do fine.
The Riders aren't jumping the routes even though those outs routes are as predictable as me not winning the 50/50 draw.
I say take a risk and jump a route every now and then. Get a pick. That way you at least scare the opponents into not doing it over and over all game long.
Tristan Jackson jumped or tried to jump a few routes, and was probably our best DB out there. Jerrell Freeman was everywhere, the guy is very fast and always in good position. It also amazes me how James Patrick is always in the right spot for those tip drill plays.
I thought our defense played good. You can’t fault them for the field goal before the half, so all in all they gave up 19 points, sacked Burris a few times and came away with a turnover.
I agree Jackson and Freeman were all over the field. Was good to see. That hit by Jackson was crazy, can’t believe he held on to the ball. Frazier was burnt on two deep plays, that he should not have been. Uncharacteristic of him, I think he may be trying to play above his level, causing him to think more than react. Fully expect him to get back on track as last year he was our best db in my opinion.
Also you can’t fault the defence for us giving up a safety so really they held them to 17 points.
I'm tired of people saying "You can't fault the defense." I say you're wrong. The defense did not hold when it mattered - when Special Teams had pinned Calgary deep 3 or 4 times - each time we allowed Calgary to gain back field position. Finally in the last 2 minutes of the game we let Calgary waltz out of the shadow of their goal line when we needed to get the ball back - Instead of a 2 and out we let them fritter away time until we get the ball back deep in our end with 20 seconds left. Yeah good job defense - keep it up. You may not be able to fault the defensive players but you sure as heck can fault our DC.
198 yards passing and 73 on the ground. You see this as an issue? That is plain old good D.
You can try to fault the D as much as you want, Calgary moved the ball out of their end…good on them. Did the Riders? NO. This can not be placed on the Riders D at all. The offense gave up a safety, and punted the ball giving the Stamps a FG before half. I will take the D giving up 17 points any game. They can not win it alone.
They didn’t have to win it on their own - special teams did a spectacular job on coverage pinning Calgary deep only to have our D give back any ground gained. Compare our performance on D to that of Calgary who kept us pinned in our own end when we were back there. Comparing our D to Calgary’s - who would you say stepped up to the plate and made the plays who had the better D?
I would say the defense played about equivalent. basically the same stats for both teams. The Stamps pinned the Riders deep by a combination of good D (good on them) and ineptness by the Riders O (ie time count poor play calls). The Riders D had the same numbers and also forced a turnover. The Stamps put together some first downs when deep, the Riders did not. I just can not see how someone could say the D played poorly. Your general goal is holding a team to under 280 passing yards (check), 100 rushing yards (check), winning the turnover battle (check), giving up under 26 points (check…by the way 26pt is supposedly the mathematical average of what winning teams score in the CFL…don’t know if that is true, just something I have read a few times). Okay, the Stamps moved the ball when pinned…they are not an inept offense, one should expect that at least half the drives the Stamps will get a first down or 2…sorry, that is just the realism of football. The Riders on the other hand did not move the ball when they had bad field position except for once or twice…a strong offense has to be able to do this 50%+ of the time…not even march the field, but even a couple first downs.
The Riders O was more often than not predictable. I would like to think that some of the new receiving corps means that they are simply keeping it simple, but we saw the same issues last year:
- not enough rolling with a mobile QB
- passing 5-7 yards on 2nd and 15+
- passing 25 yards on 2nd and mid (I mean do it to keep the D honest, but not 90% of the time)
I have watched several games with fairly casual football fans that are calling the Riders next play far too often. If we are doing it do you not think that the defenses are? The Defense was horrid at the start of the year, but have been playing better each game, and the last 203 looked pretty good…better than I expected out of them this year. Heck, we are even getting some pressure on the QB. DD is not throwing interceptions…that is great, but the offensive coordination of this club is…well…offensive
Oh, I think Andy Fantuz summed up the p[lay calling best after last year's grey cup. find a link to that, and it could have been a recap of more than one game so far this year.
Berry has the ability to come up with some amazing play packages, but those are overshadowed by the rest of the game. It is like he can only call 1 to 1.5 good quarters a game.