Monday, June 30, 2014

Thoughts on CFL Week 1

The 2014 CFL season kicked off in an exciting fashion for Blue Bomber fans.  On the whole though, a real sloppy week of CFL football to kick things off.

  • Was there a quarterbacking performance better than Drew Willy's (19-27 308 yards 4 TD) in week 1?  With all due respect to Mike Renaud,  no one else was even close in week 1.  We know what to expect from Ricky Ray and Darian Durant over 18 games, but if week 1 in any indication, Drew Willy is primed to join the ranks of CFL elite at the quarterback position very quickly.  The most impressive part of Willy's game was his composure under pressure, moving the ball out quickly and decisively to his targets.  His moderate happiness with both his own and team performance bodes well.  The guy isn't satisfied, content nor surprised with his play.  That is a very good sign.

  • Kevin Glenn threw 4 INT's, but it is too early for BC to panic. Those turnovers were the difference in the 27-20 BC loss.  On the whole, BC played well, Edmonton played average but did not turn the ball over.  The result of this game does not change my view of either team.  BC will be battling for a home playoff game, Edmonton will be fighting to stay out of the league basement.

  • The quality of offensive line play in the Edmonton-BC game was truly horrendous.  Amazingly, Edmonton's offensive line is actually getting better, but Mike Reilly does not help his offensive line by taking his time in reading the defense, and it looks as though he is making most of his decisions after the snap.  They say he won't be running as much, but it sure does not look that way.  Reilly's running remains key to the Eskimos offensive production.

  • Why would you sign a quarterback who has only had success by improvising, using misdirection and moving the pocket and stick him in the pocket on straight drops?  That's the question I'd be asking Kent Austin if I owned the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Zach Collaros does not have the arm to run the kind of offence Hamilton showed in Regina.  They need to be a little more creative.

  • That said, the Roughriders defense did a masterful job of not allowing Collaros to escape the pocket by crashing their ends wide and rushing in waves, leading to 10 sacks.

  • Troy Smith, no accuracy, literally no accuracy.  It is not a compliment when people start comparing your upside to Michael Bishop (career 51% completion, 66 TD's to 76 INT's, 71 QB rating).  If I were Ryan Dinwiddie, I'd only run a zone read play between Smith and Whitaker, and four verticals.  Let Smith bomb it down the field 25 times a game at Duron Carter and SJ Green, if you hit 5 of them you'll have more offence than you did in week 1.  Montreal looks to be in big trouble this season with poor communication between the front office and a coach who was hired by the owner over the wishes of the general manager.  This season has disaster written all over it for the Alouettes, and the play on the field in week 1 did nothing to change that course.

  • Bo Levi Mitchell was inconsistent in his first start as a #1, but he settled down and ended up with 313 yards and 2 TD's. Calgary's offence looks to be a little more reliant on the big play with BLM at QB than it has been in recent years, something to watch going forward.

  • Kyries Hebert's flying jab (video) on Jon Cornish was about the only exciting moment of the Montreal-Calgary game, for the wrong reasons.  It is hard to get suspended in pro football, fines usually being the highest form of discipline, but Hebert deserves a suspension.  Swinging your forearm/fist at another player's jaw is not a football play, not even a vicious football play which Hebert is renowned for, it's just a straight up assault.

Our players of the week:

Offense- Drew Willy WPG
Defense- Ricky Foley SASK
Canadian- Ricky Foley SASK
Special Teams- Branden Smith TOR

Some notes specific to the Bombers 45-21 win over the Argos:

  • The Blue Bomber defense had a great night.  Ricky Ray was off balance.  Much like Anthony Calvillo in his recently concluded career, Ray relies heavily on reading the defense pre-snap, basically knowing where he's throwing the ball before he even touches it.  The Bomber D gave the Argos so many different looks both before and after the snap that Ray could not assume anything.  They also pressured him a dozen times pre-garbage time.

  • Some interesting things the Bomber D did include:
    • Showing up to 8 players on the line of scrimmage and rushing any number between 2 and all 8 of them.  The Bombers rushed 2 once, and 8 once each.  The vast majority of their blitzes were 5 or 6, with the odd 7 man blitz tossed in.
    • Another factor was who was rushing the quarterback and from where.  There was a lot of variety.  All the DL save for Jake Thomas lined up in each gap on the line at various times.  Ejiro Kuale played about 6 different positions and was a big factor in the pass rush.  Louie Richardson played both inside and outside.  Pretty much everyone who set foot on the field defensively rushed the QB at some point other than the corners.
    • When Ricky Ray changed the play, the Bombers D changed their look entirely.  Linebackers traded places, DL shifted into different gaps, Bryant Turner dropped into a LB spot.  All sorts of things happened, and that ability for Ray to know what the defense was going to do was completely taken away.  Toronto counteracted this a little with swing passes to Owens and Durie.  At that point it comes down to tackling and rallying to the ball, which the Bombers did well for the most part.

  • In terms of blitzing (pass rushing more than 4 players), the Bombers blitzed on approximately 30% of Argo passing downs, the Argos blitzed on approximately 20% of Bomber passing downs.

  • Those blitzing numbers are relatively high for a Tim Burke defense.  After the Bombers first drive, the Argos were pretty consistent blitzers.  When they did blitz, it was almost always one or both of Jamie Robinson (SAM/HB) or Shea Emry (MAC) coming as the extra guys.  Burke keeps it simple for his players.

  • Drew Willy handled the blitz quite easily, as did the Bombers offensive line.  The key for the offensive line is to protect their inside gaps and only allow the extra guys to come off the edge if they can't be accounted for.  They did that perfectly.  With the inside gaps sealed up, the QB has to react calmly, move the ball out quickly and decisively, which Willy did, rendering the Argo blitz mostly ineffective.  The 48 yard pass to Watson in the 2nd quarter is a perfect illustration of Willy vs the blitz.

  • Nic Grigsby struggled with picking up the blitz from the tailback position, mostly reading where he needed to be to pick it up and getting there.  When he locked onto a block he finished his blocks.  Grigsby's day running the ball was consistent.  He does not get any yards after contact, but he can make people miss in the open field and hit some big runs.  He could have hit a huge run by breaking one arm tackle on a perfectly set draw play.  Nice game, but I'd still slot him behind Paris Cotton.

  • Chris Randle, Demond Washington and Maurice Leggett were standouts in the secondary.  Randle is a shutdown corner, the Argos got nothing on him, and when Ray finally hit Chiles who got a step inside Randle, Randle ripped the ball out of his grasp before he could complete the catch.  Leggett has taken well to the safety spot in this system.  He made a couple huge pass breakups in the endzone, and a huge hit on Jason Barnes that will make the middle of the field a less desirable place.  One play that showed just how calm and collected Leggett is at safety was one of the swing passes to Owens.  Leggett initially took a poor angle, but rather than simply going as fast as he could and whiffing, he adjusted and made the tackle.  Gave up a couple more yards than if he took the best angle initially, but didn't let Owens bust a big play by trying to overcompensate.  Incredibly smart play for a guy playing safety in his first Canadian Football game.

  • Teague Sherman has a regular role on defense, and he shined.  Extremely disruptive as a blitzer, and becoming a strip specialist.  His ability to play significant snaps on defense will help Jake Thomas stay fresh and allow the Bombers to roll out 4 import DL or have Wild and Kuale on the field at the same time.

  • The Bomber offence is simple in design.  For the most part they ran 3x2 or 2x3 (3 receivers on one side, 2 on the other) formations with Grigsby either set in the gap between guard and tackle or in an I-formation behind Willy in the pistol.  There was the odd formation with a bunch, usually with tight end, a fair amount of double tight end sets and empty backfields with Grigsby motioning out pre-snap too.

  • The offensive line as a whole had a good night.  As I said earlier, there were few major breakdowns and they looked like they had played together for a long time, not a crew with a first-time centre and new right side.  Compared to the line play in week 1 across the league, the Bombers were well above average.  It is a lot easier playing OL for a QB like Drew Willy than QB's like Hall and Goltz.  In particular, Dan Knapp and Chris Greaves stood out in run blocking.  The Bombers ran a lot of designed plays with Knapp pulling from right to left, leading Grigsby.  Greaves did a very good job of sealing his gap to open inside lanes for Grigsby the handful of times the run game ventured between the tackles.  Most of Grigsby's yards were on runs off tackle.

  • On the whole, the Blue Bombers impressed me as a calm, cool and collected group.  It is easy to see where that is coming from because that is the demeanor of their head coach.  The attitude isn't "why did you do that" (Woods letting the ball bounce into the endzone, then taking it out :() or "why did we let that happen" it is "what happened, how can we do it better next time and let's get it right next time."  There were a few points in the game where it kind of felt like the inevitable Argo comeback was coming, but the Bombers made a big play, a stop or drove the field to respond each time the Argos poked their head out and smacked them back down into the ground. Bring on the REDBLACKS!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Thoughts Between Pre-Season Games

"Great" schedule the Bombers ended up with this pre-season.  A week leading up to the first pre-season game, on a Monday, then 4 days leading into the second pre-season game on the following Saturday. Then 2 weeks to prepare for the season opener on June 26.

Here are some thoughts following a careful review of the pre-season opener against the Argonauts, heading into the pre-season finale in Calgary this Saturday.

Quarterbacks:

The top 2 QB's in Monday's game by a mile played for the Argonauts. Trevor Harris and Mitchell Gale both looked very comfortable and ready to play if the Argos need them.  Perhaps an unfair comparison for Bomber QB's, all of whom are joining a new coaching staff/regime, and all joining a new organization except for Max Hall.

Drew Willy looked poised in the pocket, made good decisions and stepped up or got out of the pocket when he needed to, no hesitation. Most importantly, he kept his eyes downfield and his receivers active when he was on the move.  Willy also showed a willingness to keep the ball on the zone read and turn the corner for a first down, important to keep the defense off-balance, allowing Paris Cotton the chance to run at hesitant defenders.

The biggest negative for Willy was his accuracy.  On some throws, that could be the result of miscommunication with receivers which should improve heading into the regular season with a regular crew of receivers, and some of it is likely on Willy.  To take a positive out of the negative, he kept the ball out of the defenders hands as well as his teammates hands.

Max Hall had a rough night.  Still has the happy feet in the pocket, which takes velocity off his throws and challenges his accuracy.  Ran a couple bad zone reads where he needed to read the end coming hard inside and keep the ball, rollout and pass or run around the edge, instead he sent his tailback on a suicide mission, and the Bombers lost ground.

Hall was 3 of 7, one drop by a receiver, one completion that was badly underthrown and snagged off the turf by Brett Carter.  The other incompletions were an overthrow into double coverage (aka a good overthrow!), an underthrow/miscommunication with Carter on a route he didn't break off, and an underthrown deep ball.

Brian Brohm also had a rough night.  Probably has the strongest pure arm of the Bomber QB's, Brohm and Marve would be close, but poor pocket presence and zero willingness to move around or out of the pocket other than on designed rollouts.  Brohm also had a bad zone read where he should have kept the ball.  

Brohm made one great throw which showed why he's been so highly touted since he was a high schooler, a bullet through a tight window on 2nd and 10 that would have been a first down if not for a Jaymar Johnson drop.  Otherwise, Brohm was a combination of inaccurate and wild, you can't expect a football receiver to catch a 90 mph fastball like the one he fired at Aaron Kelly on a slant on the Bombers final possession of the 3rd quarter.

Robert Marve led a great touchdown drive to close the game for the Blue Bomber offense.  It was a 6 play drive, 5 designed pass plays, 1 run play.  Marve scrambled on two occasions, once getting out of bounds with a yard, and once scrambling for a first down on second and 16, including the head first dive for the sticks.  

The star of the drive was Marve's arm.  He started with a bomb that hit Donavon Kemp in stride.  Each Bomber QB tossed the same seam route at least once, Marve was the only QB who hit his receiver in stride.  Marve's second throw was a perfect dart into a window bordered by the sideline and a defender to Jaymar Johnson just beyond the first down marker on 2nd and long.  Two perfect throws, perfect.  His final throw was a perfect back shoulder toss to Kemp for a 7 yard touchdown following the 2nd and long scramble.  Unfortunately, Marve and Aaron Woods couldn't connect on a 2 point conversion to tie, Marve was blitzed and underthrew a corner route.

The Bombers quarterback situation is this:

Drew Willy- starter
Max Hall, Brian Brohm- battle for #2 spot
Robert Marve- Developmental #3, short-yardage guy

Is it worth keeping the loser of the backup battle, likely Brohm, around? Probably not.  Brohm is already 28.  He's not getting a whole lot better. He's already spent a full season in the league and several years as a pro.  Better to get a look at and potentially carry and develop a QB with upside, rather than one who has peaked.

Offensive Line-

On the whole, the offensive line play on both sides was fairly respectable.  Quarterbacks had a lot of time for the most part.  Clearly both teams were not doing much in terms intricate blitzing or twisting and pretty much rushing straight ahead, making the game very simple for the offensive lines.

On the Bombers side, four guys particularly stood out as struggling.  
Among the starters, Jarvis Jones had a rough time at right tackle.  He was consistently beat off the snap around the edge by Thaddeus Gibson (who looks like he could be a player for the Argos).  A couple times, Willy was forced to throw early, leading to an inaccurate toss, and a couple teams he stepped up and out of the pocket and was able to find a receiver.

Quentin Saulsberry and Tyson Pencer were both bullied by guys who likely won't make the Argos.  Pencer in particular looked very slow getting out of his stance.  Not sure where Jesse Peterson played in college, but I'm guessing he wasn't a tackle. 

On a positive note, I really liked Dan Knapp at right guard.  He did a lot of good work with Steve Morley in zone run blocking, and got up to the second level.  Say what you will about Morley, but it's been a long time since we've had a centre who could actually block as well as him, like back to 2006 Obby Khan.  Snaps were good too.  Outside of the first team OL, run blocking was poor, especially on the inside.

Matthias Goossen looked ok at both centre and guard.  He was driven into the pocket a few times at guard, but to his credit he stayed on his block and gave the QB a chance.

Is Knapp an option at right guard?  How many imports will the Bombers be playing on the line?  They started 3 on Monday, but unless they get extremely creative with the ratio, it is hard to see a scenario where more than 2 imports play on the offensive line.  Based on what we saw on Monday, I think our best offensive line right now would be:

LT- January
LG- Greaves
C- Morley
RG- Knapp
RT- Neufeld

6th- Goossen or Kowalczuk, Jarvis Jones or Cordaro Howard on reserve.

It will be interesting to see how teams use their 2 new roster spots, might be a 7th OL in one of them.

Receiver-

Jaymar Johnson...a lot of good, a lot of bad, a lot of opportunity. Jaymar Johnson is clearly a guy that the coaching staff wanted a long look at.  He did enough to warrant further consideration, a nice sideline grab for a first down and a nice back shoulder touchdown grab called back for another receiver offside, but also had two flat-out drops, and a stumble out of bounds 2 yards short that killed a drive.

Mario Urrutia looks like a mix of Greg Carr and Chris Matthews.  Tall and thick, made a couple nice grabs in traffic, we didn't get to see him on a deep route.  Looks like he has the boundary WR all but spot locked up to start the season.

CJ Tarver made one real nice catch over the middle for a first down, but had one terrible drop and could not adjust on a couple deep balls to make a good effort on them.  Also let a punt hit the turf and didn't look too dangerous when he finally decided to pick it up.  I'm surprised he made it to the second pre-season game.

Julian Feoli-Gudino looked like a player.  Solid blocking when he was called in by his QB to do so, and made a nice grab for a TD releasing off a block.  May have to play a lot more than expected depending on the health of Watson and Kohlert, and I'm excited to see what he can do.

Donavon Kemp didn't get a lot of opportunity, but just produced on the Marve drive, catching the long bomb and the touchdown.  I expect to see him get some more action on Saturday to show if he's the real deal.

Aaron Woods looked ok in a vanilla offence.  I expect we'll see him in a more defined and individualized role when the season starts, he's got a skill set that Bellefeuille has maximized before with Corey Holmes and Marcus Thigpen.  Showed great hands on the first down catch he made, but he's not a guy you want on corner routes like the 2 pt convert attempt.  

Clarence Denmark, damn he looks like he's coming in still hot from 2013.  Wouldn't be surprised if he ends up leading this team in receiving.

Nobody did anything good or bad to change the depth chart at receiver in my opinion.  The starting 5 are still Urrutia, Moore, Denmark, Watson and Kohlert.

Running Backs-

Paris Cotton was great.  Good vision, comfortable running behind zone blocking, found the gaps, make a quick cut and got upfield.  Ran with power and through contact.  This performance should put him at the top of the depth chart, and he'll have a chance to solidify a roster spot in Calgary.

Nic Grigsby was the opposite of Cotton.  Couldn't find the gaps, looked very uncomfortable and cut into traffic several times, didn't survive contact either, and Grigsby saw more action with the first team offensive line.  One big run where he went right around the edge, otherwise a lot of 0-1-2 yard gains.

Will Ford better get back in the lineup for Saturday if he wants to hold off Paris Cotton's challenge for his starting RB spot. 


Defense-

On the whole, the defense did not look good.  The "rally to the ball" philosophy was not evident.  Pass coverage was very good, but the Bombers should have two concerns coming out of the first pre-season game.  First, the amount of yards after catch (YAC) given up.  The Argos ran the same playaction pass to the opposite flat a dozen times, and yet they turned it into first downs more often than not.  Second, the amount of yards the Argos piled up on inside runs was obscene. Sometimes they burst right through the line, other times they ran around it because the inside was sealed, but where was the rally to the ball?  A tailback shouldn't be able to run for 10-15-20 yards completely untouched, and certainly not multiple times in a game.

There were some individual standouts:

So far a name we've heard a lot in the media is Don Unamba.  I wasn't all that impressed with his game, he had a lot of tackles, but only one close to the line of scrimmage, he was getting beat for a lot of YAC.  He is all hustle, just not sure that he's very good.

Maurice Leggett looked very solid on both special teams and defense, all over the field and fast.  He didn't make the official stat sheet, but I have him in on at least 3 special teams tackles, being the first contact twice.

Marty Markett was huge on D, to the point if I'm in charge of the Blue Bombers that I need to find a way to get this guy on the field.  Forced a fumble, nearly had a pick 6 among his 3 passes defended, and didn't let any YAC happen when he wasn't able to breakup the pass.

Bruce Johnson was tested a couple times, and passed with flying colours.  Would have had an INT if not for a teammate deflecting the ball away from him.

Matt Pierce lined up at linebacker and got home on a few blitzes, as did Graig Newman.  If that is a key attribute Etcheverry is looking for, those guys showed it.

Teague Sherman forced a huge fumble at the goal-line.  He should have the team made on special teams, huge bonus if he can take some snaps on D.

In terms of incumbent CFL stars, Demond Washington and Chris Randle were solid.  Randle was not challenged at all, a sign of respect. The Argos spent the first quarter successfully picking on Alex Suber. Ian Wild had a great game, and I think he'll be a very good player at MAC in this defense.  Wild made a slew of excellent open field tackles, a couple of them preventing huge runs.

On the defensive line, Zach Anderson and Jake Thomas performed well on the interior.  Both got licks in on Gale and Pachall, Thomas grabbed a tackle for a loss too.  Greg Peach had a flurry of sacks, but on the whole the pass rush was pretty tame.

Special Teams-

In terms of returns, nobody distinguished themselves.  A lot of punts hit the turf, which will drive the coaches nuts.  Even on Cotton's big punt return, he let it roll on the carpet for a couple seconds then scooped it and took off.  The returner gig is Aaron Woods' to lose, and nobody is giving him a big challenge yet.

In terms of kicking, wow, what a battle.  Brett Maher received a huge opportunity to prove himself, and he did quite well.  He outkicked his coverage once on a punt, and didn't place his punts all that well, usually hitting them closer to the hashmarks than the numbers.  But his leg is huge, as his 67 yard kickoff average shows.  Lirim Hajrullahu showed very well too.  Big leg, also a 67 yard kickoff average.  His punts were placed a little better, but he appears to be more of a placekicker. Neither kicker missed a FG, and both hit kicks of 40+ yards.

As of right now, I'd favour Maher to do all 3, and stash Hajrullahu for development.  He's got a future.

A few non-QB Argo standouts:

#11 Natey Adjei, another very good Argo NI receiver.

#6 Thaddeus Gibson, rush end, dominated a pretty good OT in Jarvis Jones.

#83 Terrell Sinkfield, receiver/returner, if the Argos cut him, wouldn't mind a look in Winnipeg

#1 Anthony Coombs, cool to see him in a CFL uniform, but I think he got a first-hand taste of how his running style needs to change, he isn't going to open up any gaps going east-west, just lose ground.