WestCoastJoe wrote: ↑Sun Sep 17, 2017 3:01 pm
First pass play after some successful running plays. Evans jumps the route. Not only is Burnham covered, when the pass arrives, but two other Stampeders are well prepared and close on the play extremely quickly.
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The play looks like a rerun of the West Final of 2005, when the Eskimos defence was calling out our plays before we ran them.
You're correct WCJ. An outstanding quarterback, playing at his very best, executing with a very high level of precision, skill, and intelligence can move the football and score touchdowns, even with our poor offensive line play, predictable scheme, and lack of touch in play calling.
But the question is for how long can a Leos quarterback do that before the hits, sacks, pressure, injuries, and pressure take their toll. Travis Lulay did that for four games this season and even his fine play was not enough to beat Edmonton earlier this season. Jennings played at a very high caliber in 2016. Printers did that in 2004. Buck Pierce did the same in 2008. Lulay in the second half of 2011 and a chunk of 2012. But its very difficult to sustain and in fact, I believe its impossible to sustain.
Travis came into this season healthy, not only physically but mentally healthy. He hadn't started in a long period of time. He had gained a lot from his experience both 'coaching and mentoring' while also practicing. In other words he was fresh, as was Jennings last season.
He also got hurt, as did Dickenson, Printers, Pierce, Jackson, before him. Jennings got hurt in the first game of the season when he took a hell of a hit. Yes, quarterbacks get hurt on other teams too but the games our quarterbacks have missed due to injury in the Buono era is very high.
They are either hurt in the pocket or they are hurt running with the football. Its imperative that our quarterbacks are mobile. There is no place for a Bo Levi style of quarterback here in B.C. Even Dickenson had to use his legs to pull out the 2006 Grey Cup victory.
To move the football against good defenses, our quarterbacks have to have it all...the ability to make quick reads, to make quick decisions, to escape the pocket, to stand in there and be hit time and again to complete a pass, and to constantly make plays. In other words, they need both a very high level of skill, talent, and precision, they need to be incredibly tough, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and they also need to pull a rabbit out of their hats and often.
The 2011 Grey Cup season was an anomaly....a magical season that began 1-7 before we got on a roll and then confidence and momentum took over. But that season both obscured our problems and it also made too many fans forget the 2009 and 2019 seasons and the issues went with those seasons. In fact those issues were there between 2003-2007 but we were so talented in those seasons that, other than the playoff losses, those issues were not prominent.
There were some fans who thought that all we needed was Buono back on the sidelines and all would be great again, just like 2011. They didn't consider that perhaps not all would be right again, like 2009 and 2010.
We won four more games last season under Buono, mostly by defeating teams from the East on the road, something we didn't do the season before as we went though 3 different quarterbacks and brought in a lot of youth.
For those who thought we would take another step up this season, didn't consider that we would regress. We have. If we were attempting to do something differently, on offence or defence, it would provide some hope.
But that hasn't happened. It didn't happen during the bye week, when the opportunity to do so was there. We made some changes in the bye week in 2011. But this time the rigidity has remained. Its a form of arrogance, a belief that everything drawn on paper is best and all we need is for our players to execute it or to put a different player in that position.
If we want to save this season, it will take more than that. It will take some imagination and unfortunately, imagination is not a strength of our leadership.