Your point on the offensive line is quite interesting. Other than Winnipeg, I think all teams are in the same boat with weak or below average offensive lines. Winnipeg wins games because their offensive and defensive lines are superior to everyone else. They are fortunate to have 3 very good starting Canadians who have been injury free and played every game for them this year.Sir Purrcival wrote: ↑Wed Oct 20, 2021 11:10 amI agree with most of that and I think that there isn't little point to stirring the pot now by making wholesale changes but the coaching staff may not want to be too comfortable in the off season if the team continues in the current vein. Most significantly in my books is the ongoing, never ending search for a defensive line that can put significant pressure on the opposition. How many years have we been talking about that? 10, 15? It is ridiculous. The same can be said about our Offensive line. When was the last time that those on this board could generally agree we had a top notch Oline? Was it the Murphy, Jimenez (sp?) era? Cause I can't seem to think of anytime recently where we have been able to say that we have had QB protection that is necessary to do that job.
Our run game basically went with Andrew Harris. We have had some success there during brief interludes but nothing sustained. I don't know what it is with this organization but the issues that seem a plain as day never seem to get adequately addressed. It just goes on and on and in the off season we will see new signings and they will supposedly be the answer and then they fall short by a considerable margin. Just look at our DLine. Is there one name that jumps out as above average? or even average? . If the goal is to win, then what has been done isn't good enough by a long shot and hasn't been for some time.
We have 3 of the top ten paid offensive lineman on our line. Figueroa (4th) $139k, Chungh (5th) 139k, and Mathews (10) $126k
Part of the reason for our poor offensive line play this year is the injuries to our tackles as Mathews has only played one game and Figueroa missed a couple. On top of that Chungh has had a very poor season.
But I believe that the overall poor offensive line play on our team and in our league is due to the amount of Canadians that teams put on the offensive line. Teams always stack their offensive lines with Canadians. For instance last game we started 2 Canadians on defence and 7 on offence ( which includes 3 on the offensive line)
It is tough to find good starting Canadian Offensive linemen that can compete with all the Imports that are on the defensive side of the ball. But the bigger problem is, if one or two of your offensive linemen get injured in a game or during the season, the drop off in talent is very steep when you replace a starter with a backup.
If an import offensive lineman goes down it is relatively easy to find another one of similar capabilities.
The only team this year that has had their starting QB start every game has been Winnipeg. Its not surprising that they also have the best offensive line. I find it puzzling that teams continue to risk their quarterbacks to injury by plugging so many Canadians on to the offensive line.
One solution is to drop the amount of Canadians that start and let the best players play. If the Canadians are good enough then so be it. We as fans are paying top dollar to see the games. We should not have to watch inferior talent, just because Canadian players are guaranteed a spot over a player that may be better than them.
One of the reasons our defence got ravaged against Winnipeg was the very poor play of Canadian safety Thompson. If he was an American he would never play a down in the CFL.
I am sure that purists out there would not be happy if we did not keep the guaranteed Canadian spots But if the CFL wants to keep their marquee quarterbacks healthy and the fans coming to the games, they should change the ratio that keeps the same amount of Canadians on offence and defence, or at least a rule where you need to have the same amount of Imports on you defensive and offensive lines.
I got on a bit of a rant because every year our offensive line is over matched, and not just our team but most teams in this league have weak offensive lines, which results in more opportunities for quarterbacks to get injured. The common denominator to this problem is the amount of Canadians on the offensive line.
