Malgré tous les déboires de ces deux équipes, la prochaine partie en demeure une où la foi plus que la raison en détermine le pronostic.
Les Timinous n'ont jamais dominé les Alouettes cette saison, ces derniers l'ayant fait une fois à Montréal.
Chaque équipe subit son lot de blessures et porte son lot d'espoirs. Les Timinous ont terminé leur saison de belle façon et pourront entreprendre cette partie avec confiance, forts de leur fiche de 4-2 à leur 6 dernières parties. Les Alouettes ont une fiche identique dans cette période, mais leur jeu est plus erratique. En ce sens, la progression des Timinous a été plus constante que celle des Alouettes, et ils semblent plus en position d'aborder les éliminatoires que l'équipe montréalaise.
En même temps que tous les espoirs sont permis, toutes les raisons de craindre le sont aussi.
Justement. Lors de la victoire des Alouettes contre les Timinous, les Alouettes avaient joué du jeu discipliné. Les punitions avaient prolongé des séquences offensives des Alouettes et tué des séquences des Timinous. La discipline peut donc être un facteur déterminant comme elle l’a été à Montréal.
If we don't see some creative variation in the playcalling this week, in the ESF with the season on the line and NO reason to hold back, I do not frankly see how anyone can justify bringing back Berry, Miller, or Jim Popp (in HC capacity). Win or lose, we had better show something on offense beyond the insanely predictable and largely ineffective diet of quick slants and ins, off-tackle runs, screens, and occasional deep shots. If we don't have a plan to leverage Troy Smith's escapability off play action and on designated rollouts, we do not have the right coaches for this team...
There are some things that have boggled the mind. The one that is the most upsetting has to be the absolute ignorance (I can't use another word) in how Pat Lavoie has been used. To take that kid that accomplished so much in his rookie season and completely write him out of the offense is unforgivable IMO.
Like you say they now have a 3 game tournament to show us if any of it was worth it and at least sent a message that next year they can compete at the top.
Jim who has the one ring is going with Pippin ! If he gets burned and Whyte is responsible for the loss. It will be very difficult decision to justify to the fan base and will make it very difficult to get the media to back him staying behind the bench. Good Luck !
He’ll say it’s a team effort and that no one player is responsible for the loss, or the win. I only hope that Popp doesn’t send him in for any kick longer than 35 yards. If he does, I’ll be pulling what’s left of my hair out, before the snap.
At least Pippin won't be punting (assuming Dales is healthy). That's something. But if the game comes down to Whyte missing a makeable field goal...
As for Lavoie, it's outright insane how he's been dropped out of the offense this year. Kid has talent, work ethic, and determination and yet we see Eric F. Deslauriers on the field more frequently in those stale five-receiver sets that were all the rage about 10 years ago. You cannot tell me having Lavoie as the H-back who can block, split wide, and make tough underneath catches (sometimes as a check-release safety valve) wouldn't help a rookie CFL QB like Troy Smith. Absolutely ridiculous.
Il y a plusieurs choses étranges qui sont survenues cette saison, et aussi des choses étranges parce qu'elles ne sont pas survenues, comme le cas de Lavoie.
L'idée que ça me fait, c'est que Berry, Miller et Cie ne sont pas assez allumés pour se servir de tous les atouts d'un joueur comme Lavoie. Ils n'ont pas de vision de ce qu'ils pourraient tirer de toutes ses qualités. Il a été opéré et blessé, et qui sait s'il n'en ressent toujours pas des séquelles, mais il est certain qu'on pourrait faire des jeux intéressants avec lui, particulièrement des remises directes sur des feintes de bottés de dégagement, des jeux d'attirée dans le champ arrière lorsqu'on a 2-3 verges à gagner, et surtout, ce qui nous manque depuis le départ de Cahoon, des tracés intermédiaires à partir d'une position de bloqueur pour créer un surnombre de receveurs. Avec un gars mobile comme Smith, ça pourrait se faire en combinant ça à un déplacement latéral de la pochette de protection. Lavoie commence comme bloqueur mais décampe comme receveur avec un tracé court ou intermédiaire.
Le cas Alvarado est une autre chose étrange qui est survenue. Je crois que le DG a passé une commande à l'entraîneur-chef, soit de poursuivre avec Whyte parce que, d'un, il a joué toute la saison avec l'équipe de remise, ce qui fait qu'ils n'ont pas, en théorie, à peaufiner leur synchronisme, de deux, parce l'entraîneur-chef veut montrer à ses joueurs que lorsqu'il leur demande d'appuyer leurs coéquipiers qui ont de la difficulté, il fait la même chose, et de trois, pour montrer comme DG aux joueurs qui ne sont pas dans l'équipe que les Alouettes ne tentent pas de discréditer leurs joueurs qui ont une saison difficile. Ceci contribue à l'intérêt que ces joueurs pourraient témoigner à venir jouer à Montréal. Est-ce que c'est souhaitable? Pas si l'objectif immédiat est de gagner des parties de football, ce qui devrait être le seul but de l'entraîneur-chef, mais ça peut l'être si l'objectif à long terme est de favoriser le recrutement, ce qui est plus la préoccupation du DG.
C'est là que la confusion des rôles ne convient pas à Popp. Il ne manie pas assez bien, contrairment à ce qu'ont fait Wally et Hufnagel, par exemple. Et même Wally, à ses dernières saisons, a peiné comme entraîneur-chef avant de réussir par miracle à aller chercher une dernière Coupe Grey.
If I was Lavoie I'd ask to be traded or left unprotected. Every team would love to include him in their offense. Most teams have tried to emulate what Trestman did last year by converting guys.
If I could use one word to describe Doug Berry's offense, it would be "stale." He's just running a dated "CFL spread" type offense that worked 10 years ago, when defenses were less sophisticated and offenses were still riding the 5-receiver set wave inaugurated in the '90s in the Flutie era. Since Trestman and Hufnagel came into the league, that offense has gradually died out. Because T&H were so good at using pre-snap motion to attack the field horizontally as well as vertically, defenses had to step up and find ways to neutralize different formations, alignments, and plays. Trestman NEVER ran five-receiver sets as frequently as we do now, even before Lavoie arrived, when Kerry Carter was the fullback. He knew how to use the fullback as more than just an extra blocker, which created matchup problems for teams.
Berry? It's been Retro 2003 all year and it sucks, including his failure to use crossing patterns in his pre-snap motion. We make life dead easy for enemy DBs, because we rarely cross receivers on patterns, which would allow our players to get separation on DBs...
This hits the nail right on the head for me. Our offensive coaches IMO don’t have the vision and the football IQ to recognize player ability and then put those players in a position to succeed. You think about how Lavoie broke out last year, Trestman and Brady noticed and started designing plays for him. This year? He’s being treated like some ham-and-egger ST body while Eric F. Deslauriers gets paid to impersonate a receiver…
I agree that Lavoi should be used way more. The 4 receiver and TE set with Lavoi was great.
With that being said has Lavoi been healthy on a regular basis this season. It seems like he had spent a lot of time on the one game IR. Could this have something to do with his lack of use by the offense.
Also if so and he has not been consistanly healthy all season just falling back on Deslaures without looking to employ 5 import receivers when Messam was in the backfield?
TiCats Coach Austin brought in Masoli and a wildcat offense to face the Als last meeting which, did some to limit our famed defensive blitz. The TiCats scored enough to win and, our team provided enough misplays to defeat itself. I'm wondering what new play options will Austin next reveal. Their coaches outplayed ours by a wide margin. It was frustrating to view this self defeated debacle.
They should have adjusted to it at halftime. With the time to watch film, I would expect that the defense will be well prepared to counter it. It can easily be countered by blitzing the A gap to disrupt the pulling guards on the ‘sweep’ variation of the Wildcat. On the ‘power’ variation, we would probably need to get Edem closer to the LOS.
Make no mistake, that is not why we lost and I do wonder if Austin would be so bold to try pulling that rabbit out of the hat again. As an Als fan, I hope that he does pull out the wildcat again as I would much rather have Jeremiah Masoli running with the football in his hands than Brandon Banks or Chevon Walker.
I am glad to hear that Ed Gainey will step in for Byron Parker. He’s shown superior stuff to Ben Wells in my estimation. I also think that Brouillette for Hebert is a wash. Glad that Edem returns in his place. I only wonder whether or not Alvarado will step in for Whyte or not. I will be very disappointed if he does not.
" TiCats O line ready to take on the blitz," a feature story today by Kyle Myers, notes that the TiCats utilized 3 QBs with a new wildcat formation which held the Als blitz to only 2 QB sacks compared to 5 sacks in the prior game between these two teams.Watching the latter game, I too thought that this new formation, featuring new plays, was the Ti Cats catalyst in their victory over the Als, Yes,Whyte's errors were responsible for our team's low scoring, but the TiCats offense was indeed a large factor in the Alouettes loss. We have to give Credit to Austin for coming up with an offense that scored winning points in the struggle between these two teams. The Als failed to adjust, at half time, to the TiCat's wildcat offense. Austin did out coach Popp and company. Most likely the Als will make the necessary adjustments should we again face the wildcat offense. I perceive Austin as a real savvy coach and, believe he will again present some newness in the TiCat game.