I’m not trying to lay all the blame on Mark Washington for the Grey Cup loss but is it time to start asking questions about his effectiveness in preparing for Winnipeg?
I kept wondering how it was that when Andrew Harris carried the ball his average gain was 10 yards. We seemed incapable of stopping him. Partially because of his powerful running but also because of sloppy tackling. We also saw his other team-mates getting behind him and pushing him for extra yards.
We all know Andrew Harris is a game breaker. How much preparation was the defence give to contain him. Whatever it was…it was not enough. Also some of those overhead camera shots from behind the Winnipeg offence clearly showed huge open spaces in our defence that allowed far too many first downs and long completions by Winnipeg.
There were some occasional stops on Harris by our D…but in my opinion we were totally out-schemed by the Winnipeg office for most of the game. I can’t count the number of times I groaned out loud and yelled " fer crying out loud stop them!!!"
The game of the year for us… and we couldn’t handle Winnipeg’s offence. It looked like out D was in disarray at times. There was no excuse for that.
Anyone else see the need for a new defensive co-ordinator for 2020?
There is no question but that Paul LaPolice schooled Mark Washington.
But it was a very good defence for most of the season. So I think Washington will not be replaced, and the team will hope he will learn from yesterday’s session behind the woodshed.
Hell no, no need to replace Mark Washington. The whole team played a bad game. All year the defense was lights out, unfortunately last night the whole team was out of sync and the Bombers were running on all cylinders
Overall I think Washington had a good year. Winnipeg played a few notches higher on the intensity scale. Resulting in poor tackling, being out muscled and out of position. So no I think you keep Washington around. Tuggle in the middle however is another question…
I don’t think it is fair to blame the Cats’ D for this one. They had an decent game, but not a great one. They would have needed an exceptionally great one to salvage the mess the offence handed them. They were on the field for 35 1/2 minutes, and were often defending a short field. If the offence didn’t turn over the ball 8 times (eight times!), and produced a couple of longer drives, it would have made a lot of difference. Harris did have a good game (and if you listened to TSN was the second coming). He had 18 carries for 134 yards, an average of 7.4 yards per carry. On the other hand Sutton had 11 carries for 86 yards, an average of 7.8 yards per carry. Which D handled the run better? Our D also held ‘Peg to 222 yards passing, only 7 more yards than the Cats. The Cats’ D allowed 408 yards of offence in 35.5 minutes, an average of 11.5 yards/minute. Winnipeg’s D allowed 355 yards in 24 1/2 minutes, an average of 14.5 yards/minute.
That said, Tuggle should have been the main run stopper. Instead he seemed to spend a lot of time chasing and caught up in traffic. I don’t know if that is a reflection on him, on the Winnipeg O-line/schemes, or the defensive schemes.
And in reply to your main complaint/question, I’m ambivalent about Washington as DC. He was a late hire, and maybe Orlando will want to go in another direction. It’s up to him.
Dave Naylor is speculating that Mark Washington (and Tommy Condell) could “get some attention” (whatever that means) from the Redblacks as they look for a new HC.
Farhan Lalji and Dave Naylor also say Rick Campbell is still the front runner for the BC Lions HC job…but Tommy Condell and Paul LaPolice could also get “heavy consideration”.
Lots of speculation one day after the Grey Cup but I’ll bet it will be January before anything is finalized for BC and Ottawa.
Ghost and BlackandGold are saying the same thing about the MLB spot. If he didn’t get hurt, Chris Frey Jr would have been there by mid-season. Frey played the middle at Michigan State, you know in the conference where 235 pounders with speed are always slamming the ball up the gut. (Think Wisconsin.)
Our DLine just got outplayed by their OLine. The amount of times they showed Paddy Neufeld beating Laurent and Wynn is insane. Laurent and Wynn are probably the best Dtackle combo in the league.
Unless he is hired as a HC somewhere else, Washington is here to stay, are we are lucky to have him.
His players just didn’t execute in the Grey Cup.
Laurent and Wynn getting schooled by Neufeld? How on Earth does that happen?
G-Gared Davis and Simoni putting on their invisibilty cloaks?
Rico Murray getting beat on a TD pass by Streveler? (if Murray just looked up, and exhibited any football awareness, he could have easily knocked it down)
Tuggle letting Harris run wild up the middle, over and over again?
Andeleke dropping a sure int in the end zone?
Washington will be back, but after he re-watches Grey Cup film, I’d say at least two of the players I mentioned (Murray and Tuggle) won’t.