I spent most of last nights game watching formation, motion, and our offensive line. I did not see our offensive line beaten or block badly on most one on one matchups.
I did the same thing for the MTL game and I posted the same thing...in fact, Steward was cleanly beaten once against very good MTL pass rushers, and only struggled twice the entire game mano e mano...the only one last night that got beat clean was Valli, and that happened twice. As I have said time and again Blitz, the talent on the OLine is more than fine...as TLK said, and has said many times, lets just line guys up in our sights and fire off the ball...the thing that kills me about Jones is that as a QB and an OC, he was known for big formations, running the football, and then PLAY ACTION passing. Where is our play action this year? We did it once in the first game and Glenn horribly over threw a wide open receiver...If I'm Jones, with Dorazio coaching the OLine, I retreat like Chaps did back to basic formations, a twin set backfield (splitting Lumbala and Logan with Harris), add in as a basic feature the jumbo set, and run the ball in a vertical pattern with dives and traps...because right now, even bellies are too slow developing for this line to adequately block. So far this season when we run dives (I haven't seen a single trap) out of a power formation, we are averaging about 7 - 8 yards per carry. Why aren't we doing this until teams stop us? Now you and I know Blitz that the first thing they teach you in coaching, when something works use it until they prove they can stop you at it...but its more than just that. When a dive works out of a power formation (that's typically 6 OLinemen, 2 Backs, QB, and 3 WRs (Arceneaux, Taylor and Gore) that means we can fake the dive and play action pass...if you run trips receivers to one side, then you can have Gore run a hard crossing pattern across the middle, have Taylor rub Gore's "man" with an intermediate out, and then run Manny Deep, preferably on a flag pattern so the safely can't come across for help (not every team has LaRose). On top of that, Lumbala can stick and roll off of his defender for a quick out, and Harris can run through the fake straight down the middle, putting the safety in a quandary. Now that's just off a simple, quick hitting dive, in the power formation. You can even wrinkle in the Jumbo set with another OLineman, make him WR eligible, and he can go out on a pattern...typically, just delay and go straight ahead. TONS of options for Glenn, with a high chance of success, and a low chance of him being hit.
Now, if a knuckle head like me can diagram this out, ANYBODY can! And how about our offensive woes inside the D's 10 yard line??? HOW??? Here a secret that I thought all OC's knew...once inside the D's 20 yard line (in the CFL, not NFL due to the size of our end zones) defences largely go man to man making them EXTREMELY susceptible to rubs and picks...If the Lions ran a trips formation to the wide side, with Harris cutting across underneath them, we would have a TD 10 out of 10 times...a defence can't simply defend this unless they went zone...and the problem with going zone inside the 20, is that receivers can easily sit down anywhere inside zone coverage for a quick, easy catch, which could be a TD...that's why you "can't" play zone inside the 20. So again, why don't we do this? Why the panicked look on everyone's face when we get inside the 20 yard line? This is easy stuff...RBs have to be covered by LBs inside the 20, unless a Defence goes zone...then you just audible to say an "all hook" call, inside receivers hook at 8 yards, outside receivers at 12 yards, and you take what they give!!!
When basic stuff like this isn't happening, like Washington not being able to design an effective blitz against a SUBPAR WPG OLine, you HAVE to question the coaching.
Finally Blitz, if most of this is on Dorazio (as I now suspect), than I can certainly offer a partial apology to Chapdelaine...however, JC simply wouldn't STAY with what worked...the moment we got on any role, he wanted to go right back to his spread offence, which was brilliantly designed but COULD NOT be properly executed with the personnel that we had...now, if that was due to Dorazio, then as an OC (not matter who the coach and GM is/are) you MUST make a stand and demand FULL CONTROL of the offence. This is likely why the Lions have had so few Cups during our brilliant run with Wally (sound familiar Wally?) because Dorazio's OLines have not been able to execute what the OC diagramed. But that is no excuse...in fact I have NEVER heard of an OC not having complete control over an Offence until Wally's tenure here.
