Ok our DLINE has shown nobody can rush the passer and we have no linemen that stop the run .
Here is my nutty ideas :
Go with a 3-4 Defence and put EIBEN in the middle as he is very experienced and very good against the run keep him on the short side middle ..Put Williams on the long side middle so he can use his pursuit skills and speed ...put knowlton on the long side next to williams and put johnson on short side outside ..We can have one of williams and johnson blitzing most downs and both other times with eiben there to cover screens or draw plays etc ...
then we bring in a 32 year old aron hunt who has played the middle all his career with many cfl allstar years ...he can clog up the midlle with eiben behind hime and williams and johnson running around ....
then we let bruce davis battle with PEACH and other NFL cuts for one defensive end spot and bring in anwar stewart for th other spot with bordeaux the other guy learning on the job ..ronnel brown can learn from hunt
oH AND TO AFFORD hunt and Anwar we can let Colburne go
so the depth chart looks like this
BRUCE DAVIS ARON HUNT ANWAR STEWART
PEACH RONNEL BROWN BORDEAUX
Jamal Johnson Kevin Eiben Rey Williams Markeith Knowlton
TISDALE
No offense, but that simply isn't feasible. If your D-line can't pressure the QB in a four-man front, there is no chance they'll be able to do the same in a three-man front where the line is expected to occupy at least four O-linemen on the pass rush. You need a dominant nose tackle to run a proper 3-4; Hunt was released from Montreal precisely because he wasn't able to power through double-teams in a 3-4 alignment to reach the QB.
As for your linebackers, Eiben's days of being a legit starter are over IMO. For the rest, your LB corps might be a bit undersized to run a 3-4. Remember, at least one of those LBs has to be more of a tweener DE, someone with the size and frame to beat his block on a pass rush.
Please, enough with the Anwar Stewart stuff. You've been bringing his name up every week (or at a minimum, after every loss). Stewart is not coming to Hamilton and no offense to him, but his best days are very clearly behind him. Bringing in a 36-year-old who hasn't played all year won't really solve any problems.
As far as going to a 3-4 and using Hunt is concerned, D&P summed that up perfectly. Whether we like it or not, this is the defense we are going to have. Perhaps some players get airlifted in after NFL cuts in a couple of weeks, but that's about as far as the changes will go. There will not be anything drastic done. It will be little tweaks and that's it.
I agree with what most of you guys are saying ..... i was just trying to clearly state the needed for experience on this line while the younger players learn like ronnel and bourdeaux and Bruce Davis
Hunt I still think has something left and I won't mention AS anymore ..most of our issues on the line are due to lack of experience as the guys are over pursuing at time and chasing the running back on a fake etc ....
eiben has experiece too and is a good tackler and has a year left in him and is better than average canadian ...
We are not going to any GREY CUP with this dline or a tweaked version of it ....
teams easily run on us by pulling the line left and then the back doubles back right and usually rey williams has rode the momentum of the line and there is not much left to tackle the back out of the backfield as the end has bitten the line movement as well so it leaves either jamal or carlos to take on the back one on one
Shawn Crable was decent linebacker in the NFL he could come back
..I see him as a decent tweener as 4th linebacker ....maybe put him where I had Rey Williams and put Williams where I had Eiben
8) Oh please, I don't know what team you have been watching, but you can class Hunt in the same class as A Stewart,
a washed up has been at this point.
If you had watched Eiben in the first game of the year, you would have seen that he couldn't even cover a running
back coming out of the backfield any more !! He is just a special teams player and a back up linebacker now.
Nothing against Eiben personally, because I always liked him as an Argo.
Shawn Crable you say ??? For heaven sakes let him go. He was a joke in the NFL and the CFL as well, and you want
to bring him back for the 3rd time now ???
As far as Ray Williams goes, I still don't think he is big enough, or tough enough to be our middle linebacker !!!
I still think Eiben has a lot left in the tank. They should be using him more, especially when trying to stop the run. It's funny he had one bad game and people think he has nothing left, but when the other linebackers have a bad game then we shouldn't worry about it.
I agree whole-heartedly with CC regarding Eiben. Especially in the Calgary game when stopping the run was paramount in the 4th quarter. (In fact this has occurred a few times this year when the opposition decides to ground & pound in Q4)
I'd like to see them use Eiben @ WILL, Rey @ MIKE & JJ @ SAM when it's plainly obvious that the opponent is going old school run attack.
I don`t think there are any crazy ideas for defense.....something has to be done.
Unfortunately, Creehan doesnt agree....he thinks they have the right players and philosophy and only lack consistency...hmm....I would say consistent`is something the defense has been!
Creehan better be right, or they`ll run out of time to fix it....
They have the right players. Its small changes in deployment, utilization & looks that the offense sees that is the difference.
I for one thinks Creehan is a very good positional coach & perhaps even a raw-raw motivational guy. But he is way in over his head as a coordinator.
There were things I saw during training camp that left me uneasy. This coming from someone who has played the game at a high level, coached, managed, mentored & motivated people. (As I'm sure many of us have)
I agree with disciplineandpunish. To run a 3-4 you need a monster for a nose tackle and 2 very dominant ends because 3 guys have be able to take out all 5 O-linemen. The nose tackle needs to be double or triple teamed on every play, with the personell the Ti-Cats have the opposing offence could take out the nose tackle with a running back.
William Perry of the Bears back in the '80's was like that but players like him are few and far between. I'm not even sure if any NFL teams use a 3-4 as their regular defensive package anymore.
With NFL cuts coming in the next week or so there should be some decent players available if Obie can find them. I expect to see changes on the D-line by Labour Day or the following week.
Eiben is a good linebacker but I think his best days are behind him as he has lost a step. He provides good experience and is good on special teams but as a starter he's not at that level anymore.
Care to elaborate? Did you see problems with Creehan’s schemes? Or did you feel he wasn’t able to put the right players into the right positions on the field? Or something else entirely? I’d be curious to get your opinion.
As for the 3-4, a good nose-tackle commands a minimum of two blocks, allowing each end to take one block and putting the fifth lineman in a bind, because he doesn’t know where the fourth pass-rusher is coming from (that fourth guy isn’t in a three-point stance and could be one of several linebackers moving parallel to the LOS pre-snap). Send in a fifth pass-rusher and it’s trouble for the opposing offense.
But it all starts with the nose tackle in the middle. If he can’t occupy at least two o-linemen on the rush, everything collapses, and you end up with an undersized 4th pass rusher and a line that can’t get to the QB in time.
Sadly this defense plays prevent all game. They love to let the other team march down the field running and passing. Coverages are loose, tackling is poor, and attitude is bad. The love to demonstrate to all of us how good they are when they make a big play. Sadly, those plays are few and far between. Can any of these DB's actually catch a ball?
Trestman isn't stupid. He might get beaten once on a weird look, but eventually he'll adjust. Montreal's O-line did a great job in pass protection last night (run-blocking too, come to think of it), so really, it wouldn't have mattered.