Leos/Argos Keys to the Game

[DanoT]

I wonder who is the decision maker on the weird D line with ends playing tackle and tackles playing end? Is it Wally, Tedford, Washington, or Ross?

[Blitz]

I wonder who is the decision maker on the weird D line with ends playing tackle and tackles playing end? Is it Wally, Tedford, Washington, or Ross?

It's often not easy to find out Dano. For example, Wally said this season we would be going with 4 Nationals on the offensive line. Only a HC like Tedford could have gone in a different direction. If Benevedes was here, Norman would be our center (at least until he got injured) and he would have played 4 Nationals (and what National would be playing left tackle now?)

Defensively, it was Buono who first stated we would go with Westerman at defensive end.

In the past, it was often difficult at times to know who was running the show - not just regarding Wally and Benevedes when he was HC but also at the coordinator level.

For example, most fans thought that Chap designed the running game and its blocking. No so after Chap returned after 2007. In 2007 Kruck called all the plays but Dorazio was also co-offensive coordinator. In 2008 Dorazio was OC, Chap was the receiver coach but called all the plays. The following season Dorazio and Chap were co-offensive coordinators with Chap calling the plays. When Chap took over as OC, he did not have control over the entire coordination of the offence. Chap designed the passing plays while Dorazio designed the running plays. Chap, as OC, could call a running play but that was basically all the control he had over the running attack. And Chap could only call plays from the old Calgary playbook. That changed in 2011 because Wally was desperate and Chap was able to change the offence but Dorazio still designed the running game (but with Chap's motion)

When Benevedes took over the situation stayed the same. Chap got hell for our mid-season struggle to run the football successfully in 2013 but the reality is that it was Dorazio's running game. Last season, when Khari Jones was hired it was back to the old Calgary full spread offensive playbook.

You only have to look at the power that Dorazio had was last season when conservative Benevedes had refused to gamble on third and one twice in a game and then Dorazio walked down to Benevedes and suddenly Benevedes was gambling on third and three.

I think Tedford is mostly running the show and he certainly is on offence. How much Tedford is running the defense is hard to know. Tedord didn't make any defensive changes except to add staff (Fields) and hire Ross based on a vacancy. But one thing for sure -Wally mostly interferes on defense. He did that with Ritchie during games to the point that the players asked Wally to stop interfering, becuase Wally went into an alternate universe during some games, when he felt pressure and would start calling out old Calgary defenses that the players had never practiced or knew.

The whole coaching situation as been a bit of a gong show in B.C. with Wally, from pushing Burratto, our OC in 2004 to the press box towards the end of the season when he worked so well with Printers and having receiver coach Chap call the plays at the conclusion of that year, the Kruck-Dorazio co-coordinator situation in 2007(who is the boss?), certain players making the call for Chap to return in 2008 after Buono said he would not have him back, Dorazio being the OC or co-OC while Chap called the plays (who is the boss), the Kruck release, Chap as OC with Dorazio being the run designer, the hiring of Benny, the Stubler scapegoating and release, as well as the Chap release prior to our Grey Cup hosting season with no one on the radar, the Bates release, the McMann loyalty not based upon results and so on.

Buono can thank his lucky stars that he not only had some knowledgeable assistant coaches during his career from Hufnagel to Cortez to Ritchie to Stubler because Wally was a manager coach and not a football coach in the pure sense of the word. Buono was also very fortunate that there was no salary cap in his days in Calgary, that he had a Shivers, an O'Billovich, or an Ackles around for most of his career. Buono has had some good fortune and that continued with Tedford's availability and request to coach here in B.C. this season or we likely would have been in big trouble.

Who is running the defensive show? Hard to know for sure with the close relationship between Buono and Washington. But one thing for sure. Tedford has more power than Benevedes and if he keeps winning that power will grow.

[MexicoLionFan]

Brilliant stuff Blitz, I am literally in shock reading all of this CRAP from the Lion's den...I will digest it tonight and make a full comment tomorrow...but Washington's statements are just FRIGHTENING, as were Wally's!

[DanoT]

Brilliant stuff Blitz, I am literally in shock reading all of this CRAP from the Lion's den...I will digest it tonight and make a full comment tomorrow...but Washington's statements are just FRIGHTENING, as were Wally's!

As I see it, our only hope is that Wally and Wash are deeply concerned as we are about the D but don't want to admit it publicly that the status quo for this D and the way they are playing is a disaster and is unfixed from last year.

[CardiacKid]

"Washington may yet get some rest, right after the season is over."

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers gave Gerry Etchevery all sorts of time after last year defensive performance to sleep in, take naps, have siestas.... And our run defense is very Blue Bomber-esque, circa 2014; namely it isn't deserving of Washington retaining his job if it continues like this. And apparently what contributed to Etchevery getting his pink slip was an unwillingness to alter his non-functioning schemes in an attempt to bolster the run defense.

If the stubbornness of the management and DC is a matter of attempting to save face, why not simply rotate in players from the PR who either enjoy a high regard for their physical skills (Forde) or have the far more typical physical specs of a nose tackle (McFarland or Minter)? The brain trust could still lay claim to getting the right "pieces".... If Wally is turning up his nose at Bolden and Paxson, then at least try out a potential solution that is sitting right in your Surrey practice facility backyard.

Right now, the best team at stopping the run (based purely on stats) is Hamilton. Who has the biggest set of starters in the interior of the line? Hamilton. Who has the smallest interior by a significant margin? The Lions.

You can't force a square peg into a round hole..... And for the benefit of WB and MW, Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.