Les botteurs

Il y avait plusieurs bons articles de Mathieu Boulay dans le 'Ournal ce matin.

Particulièrement savoureux, celui sur la compétition entre Whyte et Alvarado plaçait bien les enjeux.

Higgins pense toujours n'utiliser qu'un botteur. Il a constaté qu'Alvarado est plus puissant mais que Whyte est plus régulier sur les placements.

Not holding my breath. It’ll be Pippin to start the season, just like it’s always been. And there will be the usual array of excuses for why his punts have no hangtime, or why he can’t hit a field goal longer than 40 yards, or why his kickoffs lack distance.

With the extra roster players, it’s just silly to cling to the “if we dress two kickers, who sits?” canard that coaches have used until now. Do you want to sit an ST body? No, of course you don’t. But you know what’s important than one effing ST body? THE KICKING GAME. In this league, it’s a true third of the game. Having a good kicking game is vital. It can be the difference in a win or a loss. Dress both kickers, use that extra roster spot. Use Alvarado for punts and Whyte for field goals and kickoffs. If one falters, give the other all kicking duties. It’s called competition, for God’s sake. The only time I’ve seen Whyte rise to the occasion is when he’s being pushed by another kicker.

Provided he has an ok outing this week. Whyte has done "enough" to hang on to his job.

If I had been ST coordinator. I would have a tackling evalutation between the two. Have the two kickers on one side of the field and have them take turn kicking to a column of guys doing returns with no cover team and see who has the most guts and best tackling ability. Since the competition is close. That would be the determining factor for me.

Seems like it would be very hard to simulate with any degree of accuracy. In any case, we have three years of Whyte being a pitiful last-man tackler as evidence. Higgins shouldn’t need to simulate to know, in this case.

Je serai très déçu si les dégagements et les bottés d'envoi sont laissés à Whyte de nouveau. S'il y a quelque chose qui DOIT ABSOLUMENT être amélioré, ces deux points en font partie.

Je serai très déçu si Higgins ne peut s'en rendre compte. Whyte a cassé l'an dernier et il n'est pas du tout fiable au-delà de 40 verges. Le problème, c'est que son ineptie sur les dégagements et les bottés d'envoi forcent les Alouettes à beaucoup de tentatives au-delà de 40 verges.

Si le positionnement de l'attaque au départ était meilleur, les Alouettes seraient plus souvent en position pour faire des placements en-deça de 40 verges, et dans ce rayon, je serais surpris qu'Alvarado ne soit pas aussi efficace que Whyte.

From 2011 through 2012, it was a combination of blaming Andy Bischoff and saying we didn’t have the right personnel. In 2013, it was apparently not training in the offseason that made him less effective down the stretch. NO MORE EXCUSES. In 2014, he needs to perform. Put up or shut up.

One thing I’ll say about Sean, he’s mentally tough. Putting his head down during the off season and coming back to Montreal. We’ll see how it goes for him tonight.

Dunno about that. Where else was he gonna go? Would any other team have taken a chance on him for the same financial terms we were offering?

In any case, let’s see how he does tonight, as you say. My fear is that he’ll do well tonight, because he’s being pushed by Alvarado; Higgins will release Alvarado; and Whyte will go right back to his usual self once the regular season starts. I really, really hope Higgins keeps them both and dresses them both on game day: Alvarado for punts, and Whyte for everything else, until/unless one of them falters.

If he wins his job... we can't really hold that against him. I have a feeling unless he's brutal and Delbert is perfect the Als will give Whyte the Job and develop the young kicker they drafted on their practice roster.

No, but I can hold it against Higgins. :smiley:

Our kicking game is my biggest concern on that team. The other 3 teams have big legs and if we average 40 yards a punt and 45 yard kickoffs. We will start 100 to 150 yards behind the opponent every game. The next concern is health, lots of really good football players but with a a lot of mileage. Bourke , Perrett, Richardson, Whitaker, Johnson, Brouillette, Hebert, Jourdain, Parker, Ferri, McElveen, Stala, Brown. What's the chance most of these guys can stay healthy ???

C’est ma crainte également, hélas!

La façon brillante d’aborder le poste serait de garder les deux pour débuter la saison, laisser la compétition se prolonger sur le terrain.

Je confierais les bottés d’envoi et de dégagement à Alvarado et les placements à Whyte, pour voir s’il s’est réellement replacé mentalement pour les placements ou pas. Si finalement Whyte s’avère aussi erratique qu’à la fin de la saison dernière, ce n’est qu’une charge de plus à donner à Alvarado. Mais pendant ce temps, les Alouettes seraient plus compétitifs pour la bataille du positionnement.

Si dans cette bataille on concède 110 verges par parties, il n’est pas difficile de concevoir qu’on part un touché en arrière de ce qu’on devrait. Dans une ligue où plus de 30% des parties se décident par moins d’un touché, c’est capital.

Je serai très amèrement déçu si l’équipe se départit d’Alvarado.

Exactly, LeStaf. Field position is huge in this league. Moreover, we aren't running our Trestman offense from a few years ago, which could basically march down the field and score even with a deficit in field position, most of the time. In this untested offense led by a young, unproven QB, we can't afford to have a subpar kicking game. It could be the difference between a safety and a punt, a field goal or a punt, or field goal and a touchdown.

[url]http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2014/06/18/bataille-a-finir-entre-sean-whyte-et-delbert-alvarado-chez-les-alouettes[/url]

So as we already knew, Higgins wants to go with just one kicker for all duties. Say hello to another season of Pippin! :oops:

Unless Sean or Delbert has a very bad game tonight, I will be extremely surprised if the Als don’t include both Sean and Delbert on the active roster. Will the 2 dressed? That is the question.

The fact that 2 more players will dress in 2014, including at least 1 Int. -International- player, will help but let’s not forget that 1 Int. player will have to replace Nat.-National- player Shea Emry. If or when the Als don’t have to dress an Int. OL will most probably mean that Delbert will play.

Richard

That is an assumption. We will never know as he signed before free agency.

And thanks to the non-disclosure of salaries, we won’t know what deal he got or how it compares to the kickers for other teams.

It’s an assumption, but when a player has a crap year statistically, even by his own admission, and he’s a free agent, are teams going to be beating down the door for his services, all other things being equal? Not a stretch, man.

Wasn’t defending how he performed last season, he is not my preferred choice.

Just saying that given that we don’t know what terms he was signed for is difficult to predict what other teams would have paid; especially in a league where contracts are not guaranteed, players can get dumped in TC if they don’t perform and an extra team had just been added.

Based on tonight's game, I doubt that the Als will keep 2 kickers. I think that Sean Whyte will be the K/P.

Richard