The team was very poorly prepared in all aspects of the game.
The offensive play calling was terrible . I saw very little seperation on any play.
None of the new players were ready to play . Charbooneau looked scared and was offside a lot. Norwood was also offside a lot.
Parks left number 85 open by 20 yards on one play . Eric Harris does not know where to go on most plays . It's easy for offensive co-ordinators to confuse these guys ..see the Charles wide open play and compare that to out last play where we isolate lamar with sherrit ( who just so happens to be last years leader in tackles ) and to other eskimos. Austin says you have to put players in a position to succeed..hmm tell lamar that one ...
Giguerre is still clueless and aloof and disinterest and has no killer instinct ..he plays lile he is humming this famour nursery in his head when he is playing
Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?
Sonnez les matines! Sonnez les matines!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.
I would not be surprised if we see Austin stop by the walmart and grab an axe after this game ..Giguere may be gone ..I think burris was losing it over his receivers lack of desire or ability to get open..grant also did not show much desire ..
I really don't know what to say ...I mean burris played terrible too ..gable looked horrible ...
breaux and jamal looked ok .that's about it ...
this looked like the 2 worst teams in the cfl today ....
we are playing like we are still in training camps and nobody seems to care ....
I really don't know what to do for next week ..shomari looked very slow too ..very slow ...
I think we may see Chevon in next week for gable .
I still think we need to put jamal and makieth back to their original positions
without a true middle linebacker we are going to get burned for a few big runs per game
put bussey or Lawrence in there and let those play where they have had success /
at this time our sam linebaclker os getting killed anyway
I don't like what I see from Patrick either
ingersol likely was told to not come back to Hamilton ..he was destroyed by willis early one and this is the first time I have ever seen an import replaced by a non import in the first 5 minutes of a game ...
In a recent interview Austin said that he is building a team to win NOW. Unfortunately, there's way to much turnover of players from last year. Most of these newcomers have played pretty hard but haven't figured out all the nuances of the CFL game yet. That's why there's been so many blunders and penalties so far. Fans can barely get used to the new names and numbers on the jerseys before they're plucked out and Austin re-inserts another plug and play rookie. The lack of continuity is disconcerting. The entire receiving corps around Burris was all rookies with the exception of Giguere and Grant. No wonder Hank was running for his life all night.
Even more baffling is how the axe swings down on proven veterans like Avon Cobourne. He might have been getting up there in age but his performance was still stellar as was his attitude and work ethic. Intangibles that can't be taught. So Cobourne ends up being a salary dump and now as a result we have absolutely NO running game. Gable will never replace Avon.
So basically Austin wants to win now, but only with cheap, unproven players. It's not gonna happen.
I agree totally, you cannot let go of a Vet and 1000 yard rusher like Avon Colburn to be replaced by Mallet who was cut, Walker injured and Gable still trying to figure himself out? Give me a break Ti-Cats get Avon back, we need a vet who can rush. Also
the receivers like Samuel Guillere he should have been tearing up the field yesterday, but no where to be seen, I think much of these players are over rated and unproven, get some guys who are. It's amazing how other teams in the CFL can bring in talented receivers like Calgary, BC and Sask why cant the Cats do we always have to hope by a miracle that Chris William will return or that Dave Stala's knee injury will only keep him out for a few games? We need good recruitment, and players should be replaced at key positions ASAP and if you cant good quality replacements bring back some vets! Deandra Cobb, D.J. Flick come to mind even if they were sitting at home they would be a huge improvement to what we have now??
All this chat about getting a bunch of old guys back with CFL experience. We have not had many good players on the team for ages, hence our record. We need guys that are young, skilled and ready to play. It takes some time for these American kids to get used to playing the wider field and the nuances of the Canadian game. Looked to me there were some blown coverages, some confusion, though at times I saw some good play and good tackling. We need to improve. I think Austin will make sure that happens.
That being said. Hank looked like a guy that was throwing darts. No step and throw, just aim and use a half arm motion. He cannot throw the long ball. Generally receivers have to turn and wait for the ball. Lamar mishandled so many punts after he just let the ball bounce around and chased it. Not a good sign.
steve wrote:
"We've played two games. The season's 18 games. All this business of fire everyone in sight after a loss... players, coaches, etc., is bizarre."
steve: I seem to remember this kind of "in-denial" post from some poster (almost word for word) every year since Bob took over the team after the first two or games when we lost.
Unfortunately these early season lossess have proved to be the pattern for all of our losing seasons.
These first two games are crucial. Every other team in the league improves as the season goes on. That means we not only have to improve to the game 2 level the other teams are already at....but we have to get even better to catch up to where the rest of the teams will be by mid-season. That's a tough thing to do.
In many ways we seem to be in worse shape than last year when we had Avon and Dave Stala....even though Cortez did not want to use Stala too much. This year have no core of good players to rely on. No middle linebacker, solid running back, or reliable receivers (based on what we have seen so far). Ellingson and Gant look like they have potential but how many times did we see Burris scrambling around with no open receivers to throw to? Giguere is a puzzle. He works hard to keep himself in shape and he works hard during practice but he seems to lack a strong motor on game days.
The Defence shows some signs of improvement but too many Edmonton players were wide open yesterday.
I think we can forget about a quick fix for this season. Kent Austin will need a couple of seasons to produce a competitive team.
And let's hope Eric Tillman can still show some of his old magic when it comes to trades and finding new players.