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Originally Posted by arloiginla
He didn't need to be returning kicks, Jon Cornish could have been given a shot as could have Rambo. Heck, even Copeland's returned a kick for a touchdown before. Nate Curry sucks (they need to cut him) but he was around too. How about Brett Ralph? He's shiftier than he seems, has underrated speed and isn't on the field on every offensive down so he would have had the legs.
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Fair enough - I don't disagree. However, Reynolds is leading the CFL in average yards per kickoff return and I expect they were looking for more of the same.
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Cornish did well running the ball when called upon...its not so much a fact of using Reynolds more, its running the ball more in general...ESPECIALLY when the passing game isn't working. Start putting the d-line on its heels, make the linebackers think twice before dropping into coverage. Nik Lewis was hurt. Ryan Thelwell got injured. They had practically no one left out there to catch the ball other than Copeland and Ralph, and they insisted on forcing the ball through the air, especially of the 25-30 yard variety when what they needed to do was control the ball, the clock, and keep the tired defense off the field a little longer. Good thing Copeland came up huge, or we'd be giving up on the season already.
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A bit over dramatic, imo. I am guessing, that aside from finishing the season in first place, the easiest road to the Cup from the West will be through the crossover.
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This team isn't close to the one we saw before Labour Day. The secondary had its best game in ages and still they gave up a ton of big plays, especially on 2nd and 10. The d-line had a great 4th quarter but the 3rd was brutal.
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Good offenses will make big plays.... and that is a good offense. But in the CFL when you force any teams number one offensive threat to be their running back, particularly a team like Edmonton, then you have done an outstanding job both with the defensive game plan and with the execution.
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And the offense has dried up, the run is being underutilized and Burris is forcing the ball a little bit...looks like last year.
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Reynolds leads the league in carries and yards... or certainly did before getting hurt on Monday and was on pace to smash his previous personal records for carries, yards and TD's. Hard to convince me that is underutilizing the running game in general.
The offese hasn't dried up - putting it in the endzone has though. Despite that, Calgary ranks right at the top of the league in nearly all offensive categories. Burris is hitting on 66% of his passes and has a QB ranking of 100. Hell, even yesterday when he was "forcing the ball" (as you say) he still had a tidy 300+ yard game with 3TD's and no int's - which I expect any quaterback in any league will take any day.
Do the Stamps have a LOT to work on and improve?
You bet.
Are they likely to win it all this year?
Probably not.
Are they headed in the right direction?
Absolutely. Except for an embarassing team performance labor day(and those things do happen) they have been getting better and better as the season goes on. That was their third straight road win - something they haven't done in a long, long time. Clearly this team is starting to come of age - and that will mean very good things going forward... but there will still be some bumps along the way.
They have played solid, entertaining football this season and I am prepared to give them a bit more time to learn from their hiccups.... as it seems to me they are - and they never, ever did under Higgins and not really since Wally was run out of town.
Cheers to a great rest of the CFL (and mostly Stampeders) season.