Its Time to Play Football Again - Leos vs. Als
Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2017 8:44 am
The bye week is over. Our Leos have had the opportunity to 'self-scout, including the coaching staff, as Lulay recommended.
As the players broke for the bye week, Leo players were outspoken about wanting changes to our approach and strategies.
For this game, Ken Boatright has been actived and will start at defensive end. Awe will start at outside linebacker, where he should have been staring many games ago, rather than the uninspiring Tony Burnett.
Personnel changes reflect that our Leos didn't get their free agent signings right in the off-season. Of the free agents signed this off-season, only Chris Williams is a starter. Swayze Waters was released early in the season and Bucknor, Jackson, and Burnett have failed to impress. Evans remains injured and Dylan Ainsworth was never healthy enough to play. Facault is a backup lineman while Olifioye anchors the Montreal offensive line with his stellar play. Johnson and Palmer, who have both played tackle for us remain concerns.
But outside of the tackle position on offence and the defensive end position on defense, this is a very talented Leos team. Awe will add speed, aggressiveness, and presence to our lineup.
The key aspect of this game is the decision to go with Travis Lulay as our starting quarterback. Perhaps, even more importantly, with Travis starting is his potential impact on our Leos offensive system. We need Travis to continue to play very well at quarterback but more importantly we need him to mentor Khari Jones.
Its been obvious on the sidelines during games that Lulay has been explaining to Jones, as well as Jennings, what the defense is doing on the field. Hopefully in this bye week, Lulay has had an increased impact on our passing attack design.
Travis knows the weaknesses of our offensive system. For example, in our last game, the first two times we ran the inside zone read, Travis faked the handoff to Johnson and attacked the edge. He knew that defenses crash down their ends against our running game, knowing that we only basically use one running play - the inside zone read with zone blocking.
Travis is also excellent at finding the tailback out of the backfield. Its essential to be able to do that when defenses key our predictable passing attack.
The problem with our offensive pass game is that is has always required a very high level of execution. It requires pin point passing by the quarterback and outstanding routes by the receivers because usually our receivers are well covered. In other words, our players constantly have to 'make plays' , as Buono emphasizes often, because our offensive plays are not well designed to get players open by design.
I'm hoping that we will have made some offensive strategy changes in the bye week. Chris Rainey was right. We have to get the football to our playmakers. More importantly, we need to get the football to them in space so they can do what they do best.
Manny took off his knee brace last game and looked revitalized. Bryan Burnham is one of the CFL’s top recievers. We have tons of offensive weapons in Burham, Manny, Williams, Johnson, and Rainey. Shaqu Johnson also gives us speed on the outside.
One play that I would love to see, with Lulay at quarterback, is a play that Chap used often in that 2011 season. Basically, its an option play, with an inside zone run by the tailback, a reverse, and a fake reverse and throw.
We would set up the inside zone run and then run the reverse or fly sweep off of it. Lulay would then fake the reverse and bootleg right. He had the option of throwing downfield, hitting the tailback out of the backfield after his fake run inside (Harris was very good at finding space) or Lulay would run the football himself.
We could run the reverse with either Rainey or Williams. The play would also open up the inside zone read by forcing the ends to play wide.
Travis Lulay is enjoying his best stint as a pro quarterback. His quarterback efficiency average of 108.5 leads the CFL and so far this season is the best of his career. Lulay is also completing 73.5% of his passes. To compare that with Lulay’s previous seasons, Lulay only completed 58.7% of his passes in his MOP 2011 season and had a quarterback efficiency average in 2011 of 95.8.
In previous seasons, Lulay started 11 games for us in 2013, completing 64.6% of his passes and a 95.0 quarterback efficiency average. He missed almost all of 2014 but returned as our starter for 2015. Lulay started 10 games for us, completed 62% of his passes and had a poor quarterback efficiency average of 84.4. In relief last season Lulay had the lowest quarterback efficiency average of his career at 80.9.
So with a revitalized Travis Lulay, playing the best football of his career, things look much more positive. But a football team is not the quarterback position and we need to give Lulay the protection he needs and the best tools to utilize and in the best way.
This is a game we should win. We are playing at home. Montreal will be out of its time zone by three hours. We average 412 yds of offence compared to Montreal's 362 yds. per game. Our Leos have outscored Montreal this season by a substantial margin.
Our Leos are 14-3 at home against Montreal since 2000. While the Alouettes have two of the East Division's three wins this season versus West Division teams, they're a dismal 0-4 on the road this season.
Despite the off-season acquisition of quarterback Darian Durant, the Alouettes have struggled offensively. They're ranked second-last in offensive points (19.1 per game), net offence (346.1 yards), passing (265.3) and interceptions (11). What's more, Montreal hasn't scored an offensive touchdown in two of its last three games.
Our time of possession is 2nd in the CFL while Montreal ranks 8th. That difference wears down a defense if the offence can take advantage.
B.J. Cunningham is Montreal's go to receiver and we need to pay attention to him but we also have to be very aware of Ernest Jackson, who is now playing wide receiver for Montreal. He has great hands (never dropped a pass last season in Ottawa last season) and is also a threat deep.
This is an opportunity for a break out game in which we really roll and get our confidence and our mojo for the stretch drive.
Go Leos!!
As the players broke for the bye week, Leo players were outspoken about wanting changes to our approach and strategies.
For this game, Ken Boatright has been actived and will start at defensive end. Awe will start at outside linebacker, where he should have been staring many games ago, rather than the uninspiring Tony Burnett.
Personnel changes reflect that our Leos didn't get their free agent signings right in the off-season. Of the free agents signed this off-season, only Chris Williams is a starter. Swayze Waters was released early in the season and Bucknor, Jackson, and Burnett have failed to impress. Evans remains injured and Dylan Ainsworth was never healthy enough to play. Facault is a backup lineman while Olifioye anchors the Montreal offensive line with his stellar play. Johnson and Palmer, who have both played tackle for us remain concerns.
But outside of the tackle position on offence and the defensive end position on defense, this is a very talented Leos team. Awe will add speed, aggressiveness, and presence to our lineup.
The key aspect of this game is the decision to go with Travis Lulay as our starting quarterback. Perhaps, even more importantly, with Travis starting is his potential impact on our Leos offensive system. We need Travis to continue to play very well at quarterback but more importantly we need him to mentor Khari Jones.
Its been obvious on the sidelines during games that Lulay has been explaining to Jones, as well as Jennings, what the defense is doing on the field. Hopefully in this bye week, Lulay has had an increased impact on our passing attack design.
Travis knows the weaknesses of our offensive system. For example, in our last game, the first two times we ran the inside zone read, Travis faked the handoff to Johnson and attacked the edge. He knew that defenses crash down their ends against our running game, knowing that we only basically use one running play - the inside zone read with zone blocking.
Travis is also excellent at finding the tailback out of the backfield. Its essential to be able to do that when defenses key our predictable passing attack.
The problem with our offensive pass game is that is has always required a very high level of execution. It requires pin point passing by the quarterback and outstanding routes by the receivers because usually our receivers are well covered. In other words, our players constantly have to 'make plays' , as Buono emphasizes often, because our offensive plays are not well designed to get players open by design.
I'm hoping that we will have made some offensive strategy changes in the bye week. Chris Rainey was right. We have to get the football to our playmakers. More importantly, we need to get the football to them in space so they can do what they do best.
Manny took off his knee brace last game and looked revitalized. Bryan Burnham is one of the CFL’s top recievers. We have tons of offensive weapons in Burham, Manny, Williams, Johnson, and Rainey. Shaqu Johnson also gives us speed on the outside.
One play that I would love to see, with Lulay at quarterback, is a play that Chap used often in that 2011 season. Basically, its an option play, with an inside zone run by the tailback, a reverse, and a fake reverse and throw.
We would set up the inside zone run and then run the reverse or fly sweep off of it. Lulay would then fake the reverse and bootleg right. He had the option of throwing downfield, hitting the tailback out of the backfield after his fake run inside (Harris was very good at finding space) or Lulay would run the football himself.
We could run the reverse with either Rainey or Williams. The play would also open up the inside zone read by forcing the ends to play wide.
Travis Lulay is enjoying his best stint as a pro quarterback. His quarterback efficiency average of 108.5 leads the CFL and so far this season is the best of his career. Lulay is also completing 73.5% of his passes. To compare that with Lulay’s previous seasons, Lulay only completed 58.7% of his passes in his MOP 2011 season and had a quarterback efficiency average in 2011 of 95.8.
In previous seasons, Lulay started 11 games for us in 2013, completing 64.6% of his passes and a 95.0 quarterback efficiency average. He missed almost all of 2014 but returned as our starter for 2015. Lulay started 10 games for us, completed 62% of his passes and had a poor quarterback efficiency average of 84.4. In relief last season Lulay had the lowest quarterback efficiency average of his career at 80.9.
So with a revitalized Travis Lulay, playing the best football of his career, things look much more positive. But a football team is not the quarterback position and we need to give Lulay the protection he needs and the best tools to utilize and in the best way.
This is a game we should win. We are playing at home. Montreal will be out of its time zone by three hours. We average 412 yds of offence compared to Montreal's 362 yds. per game. Our Leos have outscored Montreal this season by a substantial margin.
Our Leos are 14-3 at home against Montreal since 2000. While the Alouettes have two of the East Division's three wins this season versus West Division teams, they're a dismal 0-4 on the road this season.
Despite the off-season acquisition of quarterback Darian Durant, the Alouettes have struggled offensively. They're ranked second-last in offensive points (19.1 per game), net offence (346.1 yards), passing (265.3) and interceptions (11). What's more, Montreal hasn't scored an offensive touchdown in two of its last three games.
Our time of possession is 2nd in the CFL while Montreal ranks 8th. That difference wears down a defense if the offence can take advantage.
B.J. Cunningham is Montreal's go to receiver and we need to pay attention to him but we also have to be very aware of Ernest Jackson, who is now playing wide receiver for Montreal. He has great hands (never dropped a pass last season in Ottawa last season) and is also a threat deep.
This is an opportunity for a break out game in which we really roll and get our confidence and our mojo for the stretch drive.
Go Leos!!