In the Canadian Football League, you win games in the kicking game, especially as the stage gets bigger. What we did today is counter-intuitive to every tone-setting, challenging, contender mentality I know. ICING YOUR OWN KICKER!
i agree. we only got two two-and-outs all game, and our punting couldn’t pin the eskies deep, as ricky ray would just start to march down the field on us, again and again and again, no matter how deep he started.
there were at least three times when sandro could’ve been called in to kick a long field goal, of 50 or so yards.
guess what? sandro makes one of them, and we win the the game. he makes all three and we win going away …
because guess what? that’s what pro kickers do. they drain the long ones.
that’s what sandro is paid to do, and i have every confidence that’s exactly what he would’ve done.
he had the opportunity to be the game changer, the game breaker, and he was denied that chance.
that’s bad coaching!
and now he’s probably thinking that marcel would rather do anything but send him out for a long field goal, which is screwing with his confidence.
and that’s not good coaching either…
by the way, sandro's career longest is 56, one yard off the ticat record of 57 shared by bernie and ozzie. like i said, if he makes one of the long ones, we win.
he drains all three, which he is capable of, it's buh-bye! see ya!
but ... we only needed the one.
Sandro has not been very effective kicking field goals even at close range. The coach realizes this and knows that on a long field go try the chance of a good run back on a miss is high. There the safest decision when the game is not on the line is to punt and hold them down in their end.
In regard to Thigpen, he had a few good runbacks early in the season. Afterwards he miss played kicks and punts and often ran parallel ran than up field. He has not really been that effective. Also, given that the Cats, got penalties on the majority of the returns, putting us deep in our own zone, (note where we started on the interception that resulted in the Edmonton touchdown) the coach chose what he believe the best alternative.
I was a DeAngelis supporter for a long time this year, but given the coaches’ lack of confidence in him, I’m thinking it’s time for Obie to start looking around for a replacement. If our field goal kicker can’t be depended on to kick field goals, why pay him the big bucks?
The only reason I can see for not doing this is if he has an undisclosed injury. If this is the case, bring in a replacement for the rest of the year and put DeAngelis on the 9-game IR, saving some room on the cap. Even a rookie would be able to hit the FGs the coaches are letting DeAngelis try. (Maybe we let Palardy go too soon?)
I’m not happy with Sandro’s performance so far, but let’s not put Palardy on a pedestal just yet. Palardy isn’t proven yet and missed one from 30 yesterday.
You guys are absolutely right...Sandro CLEARLY was responsible for Glenn throwing that crucial interception, and Cobb making that crucial fumble, and Johnson dropping that easy pick, and Bruce dropping those easy passes, and Hickman going offside twice extending Edmonton drives leading to points, and the secondary leaving receivers wide open, etc., etc., etc...WOW!!!
I can truly see both sides of this one. I would have liked to see them try those field goals, but I can also clearly see why they didn’t have the confidence to do it. In a game like that, with a returner like Jackson, a missed field goal could be returned for a TD and that could have killed us. Problem is that when you can’t count on a guy to make it from inside the 40 on a regular basis, it’s not hard to realize that they aren’t going to try for one from outside the 50.
Some perfect examples of coaching NOT TO LOSE THE GAME rather than coaching TO WIN THE GAME. You went out and got the most accurate FG kicker in the league last year. And now, in a close, late-season game when you’re trying to secure a home playoff date, you don’t even let him try from 40+?
Am I blaming the loss on him? No. Am I blaming the coaches’ decision to punt instead of try for the field goal on him? You bet. The coaches don’t trust him to hit anything longer than about 35 yards. What I’m saying is that a less expensive kicker could do what they’re calling on him to do, so why pay the big bucks for the equivalent of a rookie?
Unless there’s something we’re unaware of, like an injury. In which case, bring in a backup and let him rest.