June 1, 2023: Preseason Calgary at BC - Game Day Thread

[Robbie]

Game highlights taken by a fan.

[David]

Things that went well:

* Solid outing from VA. Poised, great instincts on when to pull the ball down, led his receivers through the air. This should boost his confidence for the season opener.
* Contested catches from McInnes (who appears to be a steal of FA signing from the Riders) and Dominque Rhymes. Our size advantage with those two and Cottoy can give teams a lot of match-up challenges. Terry Williams looks like he can step in in extra receiving sets and give defenses nightmares.
* Decent pass protection on the night.
* Pressure was intermittent from the D-line but a couple of newcomers (Moore and Siddiq) made life hard on Calgary QBs. Woody Baron has had a good camp and Betts was, well, Betts.

Things that didn't go well:

* Run blocking looked pretty pathetic for the most part, given that Calgary rested its starters along the D-line and we played all of our starters. Let's hope that Kelly Bates was saving his schemes for the regular season but, all too often, there were no holes for Williams and Mizzell, who quickly got swallowed up.
* Special teams were the same as we've been seeing for the past several years: short kick-offs from Flintoft (usually to the 20-yard line) so teams consistently scrimmage from the 40-45 yard line. Bad tackling gaffes. No time for our returners to find space before being swarmed. Bring on Bene! And, by the way, Burnham is a keeper as a Nat'l K.
* I don't know the final penalty count, but the club was not as disciplined as I would have liked.


DH

[Toppy Vann]

Things that went well:

* Solid outing from VA. Poised, great instincts on when to pull the ball down, led his receivers through the air. This should boost his confidence for the season opener.
* Contested catches from McInnes (who appears to be a steal of FA signing from the Riders) and Dominque Rhymes. Our size advantage with those two and Cottoy can give teams a lot of match-up challenges. Terry Williams looks like he can step in in extra receiving sets and give defenses nightmares.
* Decent pass protection on the night.
* Pressure was intermittent from the D-line but a couple of newcomers (Moore and Siddiq) made life hard on Calgary QBs. Woody Baron has had a good camp and Betts was, well, Betts.

Things that didn't go well:

* Run blocking looked pretty pathetic for the most part, given that Calgary rested its starters along the D-line and we played all of our starters. Let's hope that Kelly Bates was saving his schemes for the regular season but, all too often, there were no holes for Williams and Mizzell, who quickly got swallowed up.
* Special teams were the same as we've been seeing for the past several years: short kick-offs from Flintoft (usually to the 20-yard line) so teams consistently scrimmage from the 40-45 yard line. Bad tackling gaffes. No time for our returners to find space before being swarmed. Bring on Bene! And, by the way, Burnham is a keeper as a Nat'l K.
* I don't know the final penalty count, but the club was not as disciplined as I would have liked.


DH

These two Moore and Siddiq got some nice kudos from The Moj and Guilio.

Justin McInnis definitely shone like a keeper with an upside that could makes not miss B. Burnham on those deep routes as much as we would IF they can' t get those end zone balls.

Still haven't seen exactly why 85 Doughtry didn't bring that pass in successfully as from the backside it looks catchable.

Kelly Bates has done a superb coaching job but I'm just not convinced this OC uses much creativity in that regard. Some of these guys envision little when it comes to running the ball.

The new OC for the Riders looked in their game with the Bomber to be calling some pretty effective run plays so they can get their run game going for the opener and on the panel Jim Barker noted that they were changing up where the guys on the line were playing during the game!
Getting your OL as a smooth-running machine should be part of pre-season games at least so you got some flow.

[Robbie]

The game in its entirety.