we are what we are

I am not going to sit here and rip the coaching staff when its obvious, they seem to be the problem. This was suppose to be a game where the real ALS appeared . Indeal temperature for a game, a real football crowd, lots of kids in attendance and the beautiful people came were in attendance. Instead we the paying public were treated to this farce. The team seems to have given up. The HC is lost and the OC is in LaLa land. We dont throw deep and we are so predictable. Dont blame Troy, look at the scheme the OC has implemented. The offense has no structure. Why are we paying to see this fiasco…

:thup: :thup: :thup:

The coaching staff & QB are the 2 of the biggest pillars of a football team, and currently both a woefully inadequate.

On one hand ownership went around it's GM to hire a coach who had been out of coaching for years, instead of following the successful trend in the league of promoting younger coordinators. Meanwhile the GM still doesn't have a clue about finding QB talent, seems more interested in bringing in players for their name recognition (Smith, Johnson) than their ability to play at a high level in the CFL.
Herb is reporting someone is telling him Tebow might be on the way, he'll believe it when he sees it but it just confirms the Als aren't learning from their mistakes and continue to make one desperate move after another.

This thing needs to be blown up.

As someone said earlier, we are the new Winnipeg... meanwhile Winnipeg has found itself a good young head coach & really impressive young QB, showing us it really didn't have to be this way... which makes it hurt even more.

And the Bombers HC was never even interviewed by the Als. Instead “Gave” the position to the man in charge right now who had been out of coaching for 6 years.

Hats off to the Bombers!

That is where it all starts. Dysfunction Junction (The Front Office)
Very predictable. I admire the optimists , however look at the structure and realize.....

We hit a home run with Trestman. No doubt about it and it was multiplied by the marriage of Marc and Calvillo . We caught lightning in a bottle and the good times rolled. We were young and hungry and it all worked, for the most part.

We made the unemployed, CFL newbie coach our business model from that point forward. It's cheaper and hey, it worked once.

You also get a coach that has to defer to the GM in all areas.

That means agreeing to let the GM hire the staff, also CFL newbies ( for the most part) do you find some quality coaches? Sure. I'm not sure of the percentages, but I do no 100 percent of the newbies have a learning curve.

Personnel ? Well if you don't know the league, you don't know the players, do you? So you wind up with mid 30s WRs that have more parking tickets

ITS OK. We can still love the team, but wake up and realize it was TRESTMAN, folks. It was the god fortune of mixing MT with AC. As MT won, he garnered more influence and power in the organization. Trestman replaced assistants that left. He had the say on his staff as he won. He knew personnel and could contribute there.

And then it all went black. Marc and Marcel left and Popp wanted to leave.

The GM, who had one eye on the NFL, spent less and less time here. If you followed anything else I've posted, you know I feel that Marcel Desjardin leaving was the second most critical loss behind MT and we continued to follow our hiring model and we have whiffed twice now.

Blame Higgins or Hawkins all you want. Blame Dinwiddie if you need to. They shouldn't be in those positions. This Friday, get a good look at Chris Jones and Edmonton on the far sideline. Former Al coach, CFL coordinator and a guy that obviously hired his own staff ( there are 5 former Argo coaches on it). I do believe the BBombers followed that model,as well.

It starts with Popp and Bob hiring on the cheap. It was compounded by Popp dragging his heels on this years job and trying to leverage Bob and then Andy calling Popp's move and getting into the hiring business to show Popp who owns the team.

So vent all you want on Higgy and the staff. Popp has his new deal, he can sit back with immunity seeing Andy's power play sink to new depths and we fans are left with the privelidge of paying good money for bad football.

Popp can sit back with immunity? He’s the GM of the team. It’s not in his interest for the team to fail, especially not like this, in a sea of dysfunction. This season is lost, that much is clear IMO. In the offseason, football ops needs to be streamlined and hiring has to happen the right way. Give Popp the mandate to conduct a thorough search, let him hire the HC, and then let the HC bring in his own staff (having said that, Higgins brought in Worman and then fired him a week into camp). And let this process happen QUICKLY. No more dithering, no more waiting until January or February when all the good coaches are already employed. As soon as the season is over, the search should be on. And I don’t want to see the Wetenhalls meddling in football ops anymore. They gave Popp the extension. Whatever we think of Popp, he has a new contract. So let him be GM.

[url=http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/Alouettes+lose+ugly+offence+falls+flat/10084382/story.html]http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/A ... story.html[/url]

Higgins keeps talking about the QB, saying we need more production from that position, but then also says: "We need to sit back and reflect whether it's on the quarterback, the receivers, the play-calling or the protection."

This is a man who spends most of the postmortem piling on the QB but then says we need to look at everything, including the playcalling. Which is it, Tom? Notice how he singles out player positions -- QB, receivers -- but abstracts when it comes to the coaches, who are only referred to indirectly (playcalling).

Here's the thing. I don't believe any of Smith, Marsh, or Brink is a long-term answer for the team. BUT ... I also don't believe that they are as bad as what they've shown this season. Both Smith and Marsh looked much better last year working under Berry, Miller, and Popp. So what's changed? Why do they suddenly look atrocious this season? Why are they unable to do anything right? Smith may not be a starter, and Marsh may be too young, and Brink may be a journeyman, but none of them are this bad, really. The offence is making everyone look awful, every snap. Dinwiddie called his worst game of the year last night. No imagination on first down -- run, run, run, with diminishing returns once Toronto stopped respecting pass or play action -- or on second down -- bombs away, even when it's second and medium!

The owners and the GM are to blame for creating this situation, which basically means the season is lost. I don't expect anything to improve this year. But in the offseason, Popp had better take swift action to repair the damage. And the Ws had better get out of the damn way and let Popp do his job.

:thup:

I am hoping Popp is already thinking about how to repair the damage as oppose to waiting to the off season.
By that I mean who to speak to about a coaching position with the Als next season. ex Dickenson, Brady are two that come to mind.

Tony, couldn't agree more. Popp needs to be evaluating coordinators and assistants across the league as much as players. We have an opportunity to strike first at the conclusion of the season.
Get the right guy, let him bring HIS staff in and get him the players so that we can finally function as a system.

I completely agree. I mentioned Schonert earlier not because I think he’s the best candidate for HC, but because I was trying to figure out why Popp would bring him in now as a consultant. It wasn’t approval of Schonert as HC next year, more like trying to understand Popp’s mindset. In all honesty, I would prefer a thorough search that is mostly made up of interviewing coordinators and assistants already in the CFL and coaching today, not newbies or guys who’ve been out of the game for years.

The problem was that they took so long to decide on a coach that options that MIGHT have existed were gone. From what I have read, Chris Jones would not have considered Montreal. O’Shea and Campbell might have considered it, but were off the table by the time the Als acted.

I agree that they have to evaluate the entire coaching staff throughout this season and be ready to make necessary changes quickly after the Grey Cup.

They also have to look at players that could be acquired in the off-sseason (FAs or trades) and use the opportunity to try players in game conditions. It may be possible to move a couple of veterans for younger players or draft picks in the next few weeks. It should also be a chance to ditch players (e.g., Johnson) who are clearly not in the long-term plans, and see what some “unknowns” can do.