They are too slow to adjust and anticipate and make poor decisions
I could tell you myself that Rottier was not ready to replace Jiminez and they should have known that and they should have had an American OT ready to go and should have immeditwely brought one in . Too slow to react . The WPG game would not have been as bad if they would have had an American OT .
Two games in a row now the CATS were slaughtered in the 2knd half after the other team made half time adjustments
We have not had a short yardage game now for about 1 and a half years and still don’t .
Garret McIntyre is finally starting at DT . He should have been starting a long tiem ago.
Sandy Beveridge was a weak link at safety and it took them far too long to realize .
Justin Palardy was more of a place kicker in College and should not have been expected to suddenly adapt to being a professional punter.
Chris Thompson was by far our best DB last year and leader of the backfield . He is now having an all-star like year in Edmonton and has 3 or 4 interception while Jason Shivers is leading the league in pass interference penalties at our goal line . The jury is still out on Maurice Mann
Deandra Cobb is not a consistent running back and he cannot run for the tough yards . he has excellent speed and can break a few hear and there but he cannot be relied upon for a few yards when we need it .In my eyes , he will be gone before the end of the season
It's sad how much better the blue teams's secondardy is this year. It seems every year we are adding three new guys. Gone is the crew that took an INT to the bummer's fishing boat last year. Tinkering and improving is a good thing, a complete re-work is not something to strive for on a consistent basis.
As for our dismal record on 1st and Goal, Sam Fournier is 6’0 and 230 lbs. Surely he can hit a hole and drive the ball a yard or two. Darcy Brown is 6’4 and 230 lbs. Unless he has Bauman like hands, why not put him in the slot where he played his college career? Cobb and Thigpen are the same size and style. Right now we don’t have a stereotypical running back or full back. That’s why we can’t score from the one yard line.
It’s interesting that we (or at least I)haven’t heard or read a word from Obie in over two weeks (and two more losses). In his last interview on this site (July 21) he talked of the use of Thigpen on offence and how that created concerns for the opposition D’s. Somebody, since, has decided not to follow that direction, over two games, and also to not choose the Thigpen kick-off return option following 12 of 14 opposition FG’s.
The Cats have lost games this year due to bad coaching decisions and individual player breakdowns at critical times. Hanging onto players who fail to perform, such as Bauman (correct me if I'm wrong, I believe he is in his third or fourth year now with the Cats) and Palardy will come back to hurt you. Some of the blame has to also rest on Obie's shoulders. How is it after having several first round selections in the Canadian draft we have very little to show for it? Due to the unique Canadian content rule, a team's success can be govered by a select group of players who are extremely difficult to replace. This leaves coaches in the unenviable possition of trying to design their plays around their Canadian talent and the fans getting less than their monies worth from the results. There are many talented Canadian players who can hold their own against their better trained American counterparts, unfortunatly there just aren't enough and the teams and their fans suffer because of it. Enough on this I'm getting sidetracked. In most sports coaching philosophy plays a critical role in team play. Simply put, design the wrong plays for the wrong players against the wrong team and you lose. This is what may be happening with the Cats, and the players (I believe) can sense it. There is a tangable lack of excitement on the Cats bench during games and after scoring plays. Many a fan has asked the question... "where have the team's emotions gone"? If they lose a few more games I believe you will see the players' emotions surface in an unproductive accusitory manner.
Like I said in my prior posts - the coaching is to blame, & this will not change unless we bring in someone else.
The summary above was spot on - the other Teams know it too.
Stop blaming the QB. He may not be the best, but anytime you throw for 400+ yards, u can’t blame the QB. Lemon can’t hold a candle to our QB, but they have won 3 games.
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but I can’t see us winning the next 2 games.
If we go to 1-6, I say there will be some heads rolling. I hope it is the right ones…
What I've observed is a complete lack of urgency. When the Head Coach goes around saying things like "we're a good team that's not playing well," and "I know we lost but I'm encouraged by our progress," week after week, players translate this message. It means winning is not important and we won't be held accountable for the way we play. Coach is just going to make excuses for us. It reminds me of the time Pete Carroll (then the HC of the Patriots) said something like "its only a game, Why can't we just sit back and enjoy the entertainment?" He was dumped a week or two later and some guy named Belichek came in with a different attitude. The CATS came into this season complacent, believing they were the team to beat. That coming off a 500 season where, after a fast start, they consistently lost and squeezed into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. Then promptly got beat at home by the 4th place team from the West. There was no justification for the pre-season arrogance, and Marcel's astonishing lack of urgency is the reason he should be fired. The team follows the coaches energy and here we are in week 6, ocne again tied for last overall. I agree that it is a long season, but that does not justify throwing away a handful of winnable games through poor coaching, poor execution, and overall the worst kicking in the league. Sandro is entitled to some slack given his history. Pallardy should never have made it out of training camp or past the second game. But when the Coach figures that showing improvement is more important that winning, and tells his players they are a good team when they're getting consistently beat, you can expect a long season. Again...
I Agree that MB is in way over his head and is too positive and forgiving and lacks urgency to win and to kick butt !!
The next ones to get booted likley will be Cobb , Shivers , Baumann and maybe Mann if he doesn't shape up .
Has anyone noticed how quiet are big play linebackers have been thus far .
I still think this team has way too much talent and they can win 3 of the 4 next games on talent alone especailly snce they now have an american right tackle , barker at safety , a real kick returner , a real punter and BRUCE has broke out .
i think most of these issues could have been avoided as no CFL team other than teh cats would start a 2knd year candian at the reserved for stud import right tackle or start a rookie canadian 6th round pick place kicker ar punter or a journeyman canadian that couldn't flatten a fly in berverridge .
I think it is time to start using thigpen more and maybe cobb a bit more on screens and draws as well as throwing the ball a bit more to Mann .
I am looking forward to the game to see :
The new punter and hopefully he is kicking off too
Big hits from Floyd and Johnson
Mcintyre and is contunuous running engine
Thigpen's return potential and big play potential on offence
Barker showing he belongs with big hits and big plays
I agree with just about everything in this post. The cats are have treated the first 5 games like part of the exhibition schedule. The o-line was mistake from day 1 along with our choice of receivers and punter. Shivers looks horrible on d and Beverage was not a starting safety. I warned everyone last week when I heard Bauman was starting that this guy drops way to many balls and sure enough his drop in Saskatchewan turned the game around. I hate to think most of our problems are because they don't want to spend the money. The band aid approach is not working and we need a few quality players in key spots for this team to contend.
Maybe just trying to get some actual football topics to the top of the list vs. one of the twenty or so stadium discussions? (And for that, I thank him. We have enough stadium discussions going on up here, and we don’t even have a team - yet.)
"We have enough stadium discussions going on up here, and we don't even have a team - yet."
Catsfan: You are right...we [b]don't[/b] have a team yet. Maybe that's the reason there is so much going on over on stadium discussion threads.
We should be able to come up with a win tonight. If not then we are in deep trouble and it's time to look at coaching changes. The experiment has gone on long enough. I would rather see a new OC (even a temporary one) and see what happens. If it's more of the same then it's time to move Greg Marshall up into the HC's job. He looks like the only member of the coaching staff who has been able to make half-time adjustments.
These kinds of changes don't seem to have been a problem for the Blue team or Winnipeg.
The Cats lack that killer instinct. After they score they seem to give up easy yards and big plays to the other team. All in all, though they may not give up that many touchdowns they do allow teams to pretty much move the ball at will. Also, usually at the end of the half or game, the Cats give up BIG PLAYS.
As far as receiving goes, other than Stalla and Bruce the remainder of the receivers just don’t seem to have it. Too many dropped passes, and we seldom if ever his the big play for a TD.
Cobb is not as effective as last year, however, I am not keen on your run blocking. At times the defenders could almost take the handoff. I think some of the running plays could show a little more imagination.
Not taking the kick-off after field goals is driving me nuts after what the return team showed early in the year. Even if the return guy gets hit right away it's usually not much further back than 5-10 yards (i would guess). The possible reward seems to out weigh the risk of a slightly worse field position, especially since Thigpen seems to be pretty sure handed with the ball.
The only thing I have noticed is Thigpen seems to be letting quite a few punts hit the ground, maybe he is trying to get under those kicks, but from my angle it doesn't always look that way.