WestCoastJoe wrote: ↑Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:30 am
I do not expect to see Wally trading away players to teams gearing up for the playoffs. We are not mathematically eliminated from the post-season. If he sold a key asset, it would just increase the perception of a team and an organization in a downward spiral.
If we win the next one, and the Eskimos lose the next one, the game is on.
I am not putting any great hopes in such a scenario, but stranger things have happened. We still have good talent. And one thing about Wally is that he never gives up. The many high character guys on our team have not given up.
At this point, I have mixed feelings. If things broke our way, that would be very cool. I have great affection for many of our players. If things do not go our way, well, we have had time for lowered expectations to set in.
I would hope that we play with pride as the season draws to a conclusion.
I believe we will play with pride. Other than the second Riders game, this team has hustled and played hard. I don't see a lack of effort out there by the players at all and I doubt we will see a lack of effort.
In fact it would not surprise me to see us play better in these remaining games. The bigger question will be whether the Eskimos and Riders will go into a slump or not. Stranger things have happened and the season is not over, even though the odds are not good.
Jennings is playing better. Manny has his speed back. Burnham is a tremendous competitor with talent. Shaq Johnson has had a good rookie season.
If we could get Vaillencourt healthy and back at guard, Steward at left tackle, our offensive line would be better and we could play four Internationals at receiver.
Still, we've put up a lot of yards offensively and Jeremiah Johnson has also had a good season.
The bigger problem is on defense and how do you fix it. Bazzie is back, but until we get a better pass rush, getting our defense fixed is not goin got happen.
With Sol E., Awe, and Fenner, our linebacking unit is talented. The second area needing fixing is our defensive backfield but how does it get done?
Yell and Lee are very good defenders so our boundary side is fine. Yes, Lee got burned against Ottawa but that happens....overall, Yell and Lee have had a good year.
The problem is our wide side and I don't believe we can just fix the problem with personnel. Its more of a scheme issue. The problems of our wide side from last season were not changed with new personnel, whether its been Thompson, Purifoy, or Gaitor at field corner, whether its been Gaitor, Jackson, or Purifoy at wideside half, or whether its been Purifoy or Thompson at safety.
Anthony Gaitor played excellent last season at both boundary halfback and boundary corner - the two toughest spots in the secondary. He also beat out Buddy Jackson for a starters job this season. I don't believe his play is a question of his ability. Purifoy also looked confused on a play in our last game. Very often this season there has been confusion on coverage between Gaitor, Purifoy, and Thompson but there was also confusion when we had Purifoy playing safety, Gaitor playing halfback, and Thompson playing corner.
I still wish we were playing Fenner at halfback and Purifoy at nickel but even leaving that alone, I wonder about the mix
Sometimes I wish we played more man defense. Its easy to hold a player responsible for a completion in zone defense when its not his man.
I can recount numerous times this season when the corner thought he had the flat and the halfback was taking the deep route outside and the safety was taking the post and the halfback went with the receiver running the post pattern. When the outside receiver catches a deep ball and the corner is 10 yards up when the reception is made and in a chase position it can look as if the corner blew the coverage when the play was not his fault.
Calgary was up on us by 30 points in the West Final last year at half time. Calgary knew our zone vulnerabilities and coverage problems and exploited them. They would have done so, no matter if we had Barrin Miles, Larry Crawford, and Les Brown at the peak of their careers, covering our wide side.
Can we please goat Dave Ritchie out of retirement??