Rey Williams: "We're trying to get [Casey] to blitz us more"

In an interview at a press conference Rey Williams was asked how Casey Creehan could highlight his linebackers better, after Creehan had brought up the topic earlier this week. To me this sounds like the defence's struggles definitely come from the system, and the players know it.

“We're [He and Jamall Johnson] trying to get him to blitz us more. That's one our strengths that we haven't utilized yet,? Williams said. “We've been sitting back there, being really vanilla, trying to chase things down. When you blitz, big plays happen.?

Hopefully we do see some more blitzes like we did in the first half last week, and better utilization of all the players, not just the linebackers. A blitz scheme mixed with a bit of bend-but-don't-break would work wonders for our defence in my opinion, and I believe we saw a bit of that last week and it worked. How many points did the Argos score going into the fourth quarter? A season best 11.

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Just confirms how Creehan is primarily responsible for the team's plight

It's pretty bad when the players have to straighten out their own DC.
I hope Coach Cortez is listening to what they are saying.

Interesting for sure.

And to think of all the fuss when Zeke Moerno was mic'd up saying "Send me a play!"...

What I find most interesting & puzzling is from my experience watching training camp this past season and what I believe to be the main issues with the Defence.

Creehan spent literally 99% of his time during unit drills with the defensive linemen. He barely spent any time with LB's & DB's. When they split up and do inside/outside skeleton drills, once again he spent his entire time with the inside group over-seeing the run & run defense drills. At first I interpreted this as the relative inexperience of the dlinemen & the relative experience of the linebackers. While I think that this still holds true to a point, I think it says more about his hard-headed determination and/or believe that you rush 4 dlinemen & cover with 8. I assume this was because of his experience in Winnipeg where they had solid defensive line play. But again, this confuses me as he was not the Dline coach in Winnipeg not Montreal. He was the linebackers coach. You would think that as a linebackers coach he would recognize the talent he has & utilize it, and err on over using it at times. He seems to be trying to replicate a system that he's witnessed in other places yet really had no integral part in building or executing. I question if he truly understands the systems he's been a part of in Wpg, MTL & CGY.

You would also think that for all the work, and I truly mean 99% of his time, being with the defensive line, they'd be performing better. While I watched his raving lunatic routine on a daily basis, I began to wonder how effective he'd be as the defensive coordinator. There's a fine line between tearing a man down to build him back up & tearing a man down to the point where he will no longer listen to you and no longer respect you. I understand training camps. Been apart of many myself. I understand the stick & carrot approach to coaching and management. But this was 99% stick. I was not surprised when Maurice Forbes "retired" from football in only his second year. Creehan belittled, berated, and bullied him to the point that I was not surprised he quit. It was brutal. Not saying that we lost an incredible player. Maurice was not in particularly great shape nor was he going to be a standout. But he was Canadian, and one of two Canadians at defensive tackle. I saw him as a younger version of Eddie Steele and saw him as his backup. But Creehan's treatment of this kid put the team into a ratio predicament from Day 1.

As far as the DB's go, he spent hardly any time with them at all. Perhaps he should have. Yet looking at what he's achieved with the defensive line I'm sorta glad he hasn't.

I think he's worked alongside some great position coaches and coordinators with guys like Burke, Harris, Jones.

He's a linebackers coach who is not using his linebackers and is failing in areas he has little experience & it shows. And now we're seeing that he's lost the confidence of his veteran players and leaders. The only surprise to me is that it took this long.

Great post Fender Guy. Thanks for the insight.
Cortez and Obie need to something with this problem and quick.

8) An excellent synopsis of this whole situation, "FenderGuy69".
  Just adds further proof that the ongoing problems with our defence are not entirely player related !!
   When star players are speaking out like this regarding the coaching philosiphy, then you know those said players are
   very frustrated with the system, and the coach who is implementing them.

    Something needs to be changed now, or anarchy could very well result quickly (if it hasn't already) !!

    By the way, thanks for finally telling us what you saw at training camp, that really disturbed you !!    <!-- s:wink: -->:wink:<!-- s:wink: --> 

     This whole situation is becoming very disturbing at this point in time.

Very interesting stuff, Fender, thanks for sharing. Disturbing, too.

If what you’re saying is true, a coaching change in the offseason may be in the cards.

I THINK THE PLAYERS HAVE TUNED HIM OUT AND ARE SICK OF HIS BS SYSTEM . Not blitzing at critical times in a game??? look at the 4th qtr of the LB game just shows what this coach is smoking :cowboy:

Why wait to the end of the season to change!

is Greg Marshall out there? does anybody know??? he did bend not break defenses too.. but he knew that bend had to end somewhere on the way to the goal line... not like Casey.....

For about the millionth time, Marshall is still under contract to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He’s getting paid six figures to sit at home. Forget him; he’s not coming back.

Fenderguy succinctly sets out, with confirming material, what I and others have suspected. The time to dump Creehan is now. This is not the same as firing a head coach which I agree, should rarely happen mid season. However, given what precious ltlle Creehan brings to the table, and in fact, how much he has hurt us all year (9 games of incompetence), he has to go the next time our D disappears. Sure, Marshall would be great and do not think for a moment that financial packages with Sask and Marshall can or may have already been discussed. However, it would still be an upgrade if one of the other defensive position coaches took over. It would be termporary, to the end of the year, and heck, can the replacement DC do any worse than Creehan.

The question isn't whether the replacement can do any worse, it's whether the replacement can do much better taking over in the middle of a season. The replacement won't be able to change much at this point. He can't install a new system, and while he may be able to work a few new blitz packages into the playbook, such changes are unlikely to have the kind of drastic effect on the D that most fans are hoping for. If blitzing were the cure-all, every team would blitz 80% of the time.

middleguard:

             I agree with your assessment of Creehan. He has to go.
             Whether Marshall is the answer(probably not) or whether we bring in someone else temporarily....the change has to be made. 
             I have this "better is better" slogan in my head. C'mon Obie follow through on that...now. 
             There needs to be a sense of urgency here. We HAVE to make the playoffs!!!