WEEK 5: STAMPS vs Riders

[HotHotHeat]

Love the way the Stamps won that game. Love beating those idiots.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Jesus I never thought I'd say this but based on tonight's efforts from both these teams Edmonton still looks like the class of the West.

Still early of course but Durant and Burris are both really struggling right now.

[Saint Troy]

Impressive effort again by the Stamps D, still not sure how Bryant is alive after that hit.

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Jesus I never thought I'd say this but based on tonight's efforts from both these teams Edmonton still looks like the class of the West.

Still early of course but Durant and Burris are both really struggling right now.

No, just NO!

As bad as we played against them last week, we almost had the win. We really need to get the running game going on consistent basis and try some deep passes. Love our D (still need a pass rusher).

[arloiginla]

First game I've watched in its entirety this season, have some thoughts:

-Calgary's o-line doesn't know how to run-block. Their pass protection is decent but other than one big run late each by Cornish and Reynolds the o-line had no push at all and was manhandled putting the offense into 2nd and long all night long. It's weird because run-blocking is generally the easiest and most fun aspect of being an o-lineman.

-Dave Dickenson is turning Calgary into a dink-and-dunk team. I understood the rationale behind it early on as it kept the Riders from pinning back their ears and going after Burris, but it is Ricky Ray-like conservative and that's not good. Also in order to run dink and dunk successfully you need a good run game and the Stamps don't have one yet.

-Dickenson seems to be trying to turn Burris into a no-mistakes, game-managing kind of QB like he used to be. Burris is cautious, ready to pull it down and run instead of forcing it (good) but doesn't want to throw downfield (bad). I think Henry is the kind of QB that is a high-risk, high-reward guy and you shouldn't try to change him...managing the ball better is fine but you need to let him use his cannon arm more and take the good with the bad instead of trying to change who he is.

-What is up with using shotgun formation on every single play? Hard to establish a running game that way.

-No surprise Rambo and Bryant's stats are down this year...they are deep-threat receivers and the Stamps are letting their talents go to waste.

-Greg Fassitt is a helluva ball player. Great find by Hufnagel.

-Geoff Tisdale is a rock...like Anderson except without the bad penalties and the mouth. Awesome pickup.

-Those who say the offense didn't execute are dead wrong. They executed extremely well, they will score around 20-25 points every game unless they start opening up the offense. But they did execute their game plan to perfection.

-Parades won this game with his 47-yarder, he misses that and the Riders only need a field goal to win and the offense isn't forced to air it out at the end.

-Chris Jones is the MVP of the Stamps. Hopefully for their sake no other team has caught on and tries to hire him as a head coach. An absolute mastermind.

Now on the Roughriders:

-You can really say the Riders have been exposed for who they were all along - a team that relied on great receivers to come down with 50-50 long bombs or draw the PI call. Dressler's good but he's tiny and only having one deep threat receiver has really exposed Durant and the offense - they have no legitimate RB and are incapable of moving the ball in short chunks when forced to. Their season probably hinges on Fantuz coming back from the NFL.

-Jerrell Freeman is going to be a good one.

-Tristan Jackson is a dud. Have Riders special teams ever been good?

[Bertuzzied]

What a catch and hold by Bryant. That is the play of the year so far for the Stamps.

[Traditional_Ale]

Originally Posted by arloiginla

-Calgary's o-line doesn't know how to run-block. Their pass protection is decent but other than one big run late each by Cornish and Reynolds the o-line had no push at all and was manhandled putting the offense into 2nd and long all night long. It's weird because run-blocking is generally the easiest and most fun aspect of being an o-lineman.

When you have the running backs the Stamps do, there is simply no fathomable excuse for this. Great point. It's been driving me insane all year.

-Dave Dickenson is turning Calgary into a dink-and-dunk team. I understood the rationale behind it early on as it kept the Riders from pinning back their ears and going after Burris, but it is Ricky Ray-like conservative and that's not good. Also in order to run dink and dunk successfully you need a good run game and the Stamps don't have one yet.

-Dickenson seems to be trying to turn Burris into a no-mistakes, game-managing kind of QB like he used to be. Burris is cautious, ready to pull it down and run instead of forcing it (good) but doesn't want to throw downfield (bad). I think Henry is the kind of QB that is a high-risk, high-reward guy and you shouldn't try to change him...managing the ball better is fine but you need to let him use his cannon arm more and take the good with the bad instead of trying to change who he is.

Even when the Stamps won their last Grey Cup in MTL, there was always the whole thing about "which Hank is gonna show up today? Gunslinger or dimwit?" and I was cool with that, because when he can be himself out there he is way more gunslinger than dimwit, but I'll take the bad days/mental lapses over the idea that he has to be perfect. Him not making any mistakes in this case I would argue is making him ineffective at his position. Hank does his best playing full out balls to the wall no holds barred effing go-for-it style ball. The whole team did that year, which is why the Stamps won it all.

-What is up with using shotgun formation on every single play? Hard to establish a running game that way.

-No surprise Rambo and Bryant's stats are down this year...they are deep-threat receivers and the Stamps are letting their talents go to waste.

This would play into my last point so no need to go over, but very much agreed.

-Greg Fassitt is a helluva ball player. Great find by Hufnagel.

-Geoff Tisdale is a rock...like Anderson except without the bad penalties and the mouth. Awesome pickup.

Agreed.

-Those who say the offense didn't execute are dead wrong. They executed extremely well, they will score around 20-25 points every game unless they start opening up the offense. But they did execute their game plan to perfection.

If barely managing a poor game plan ill-suited to the team and it's strengths, then okay I guess.

[arloiginla]

Originally Posted by Traditional_Ale

If barely managing a poor game plan ill-suited to the team and it's strengths, then okay I guess.

You misunderstood me. I wasn't in any way saying that it was a good game plan and that the Stamps have nothing to worry about.

I'm just saying that the blame should not be on the offense for not executing when in fact they did execute very well. Lots of talk about how Burris was ok but not great, my point is that he had a fantastic game given what Dickenson was trying to accomplish.

The blame needs to fall squarely on the man calling the plays. It's tough to complain when you win on the road against a divisional opponent. But this dink-and-dunk business had better not become the norm and Reynolds better start getting more than 6 carries in a game.

Edmonton has proved for years now that dink-and-dunk without a running game doesn't work. It's like the two teams have traded playbooks...the Eskimos are starting to stretch the field (with a poor deep passing QB no less) and the Stamps are getting lots of completions and some yards but can't finish drives and few points on the board.

Once you enter the red zone, is when defenses start blitzing and taking chances being aggressive. If you continue to go with 5 yard screen passes and quick outs you'll be settling for a lot of threes. The Stamps need to start taking shots downfield, they have the best receivers in the CFL and may as well give them 50/50 balls in the endzone. It's worked for the Riders for years now (albeit the Stamps won't get the obligatory PI calls in the endzone as often).

[Flickered Flame]

Originally Posted by arloiginla

-Calgary's o-line doesn't know how to run-block. Their pass protection is decent but other than one big run late each by Cornish and Reynolds the o-line had no push at all and was manhandled putting the offense into 2nd and long all night long. It's weird because run-blocking is generally the easiest and most fun aspect of being an o-lineman.
-Dave Dickenson is turning Calgary into a dink-and-dunk team. I understood the rationale behind it early on as it kept the Riders from pinning back their ears and going after Burris, but it is Ricky Ray-like conservative and that's not good. Also in order to run dink and dunk successfully you need a good run game and the Stamps don't have one yet.
-Dickenson seems to be trying to turn Burris into a no-mistakes, game-managing kind of QB like he used to be. Burris is cautious, ready to pull it down and run instead of forcing it (good) but doesn't want to throw downfield (bad). I think Henry is the kind of QB that is a high-risk, high-reward guy and you shouldn't try to change him...managing the ball better is fine but you need to let him use his cannon arm more and take the good with the bad instead of trying to change who he is.
-What is up with using shotgun formation on every single play? Hard to establish a running game that way.
-No surprise Rambo and Bryant's stats are down this year...they are deep-threat receivers and the Stamps are letting their talents go to waste.
-Those who say the offense didn't execute are dead wrong. They executed extremely well, they will score around 20-25 points every game unless they start opening up the offense. But they did execute their game plan to perfection.

Here is what I have noticed, yes they are becoming a very conservative style offence but they have tried for the big play but a variety of things have happened to prevent the play from working.
1) The first several weeks here Burris has had little time to allow Bryant or Rambo to make the double move and get open for the big pass. The line has opened up the running holes yet but at the same time they haven't been good in pass protection either. Last night was easily their best performance in both areas.
2) Henry's passes have been off, there have been a few times where he has had someone open down the field and he has either over or under thrown them or has checked down to a much shorter pass.
3) Burris and the receivers haven't been on the same page. There have been several times this year where Burris is expecting the receiver to run the route but the receiver runs a different route.
4) The biggest issue for me is that they still really haven't tried to establish a running game. That makes a huge difference when it comes time to pass, especially to open up the big play.
It seems to be a major work in progress but for the most part they are getting better each week. It is frustrating because they are such a veteran unit but I would rather see them struggle now and be good in November when it counts rather than jumping out to 9-1 records and dropping off down the stretch.

[OzSome]

Better effort especially on offense. I like the way Burris played last night, he was running the ball when he has to instead of just looking for receivers to be open. It is something that confuse the defense especially overhyped Minister of Defense MLB Barrin Simpson. It was not a surprise that Reynolds and Cornish started getting some good runs close to the end of the game. One thing I noticed was with the shotgun formation all the time, Burris handing the ball to RB seems to be so slow and very predictable. I am sure they will fix that in the next few games. Burris to Bryant, Burris to Lewis and Burris to Forzani seems to be clicking right now but the Burris to Rambo combo still need some work. Those guys hooked up so many times the past few seasons so I am not really worried.

As for Defense, they pretty much won this game for Stamps. MLB Robert McCune was a rock, the DBs are much, much better this season and not getting a lot of PI calls. Too bad Brandon Isaac mishandled that INT that gave Dressler a TD. Just love the way Glen Suitor giving Dressler a lot of credit on that TD and so as James Patrick tipped INT. That's how playmaker does, they know where to position. Such as a BS Glen Suitor. If Nik Lewis caught the ball James Patrick would be on the highlight of the day because Lewis will either jump on top of him and just bulldozed him. He should given the guy who tipped the ball to Patrick because the guy made the nice play coming back. I agree with Arlo, Tisdale and Fassit are good. Not sure if Brandon Browner will have a spot if he gets cut in Seattle, the way those two players play.Charleston Hughes was a freaking beast out there.

Special team is getting better and so much better in return game. Larry Taylor is so much better than Deon Murphy. Even Landan Talley was so much better than Murphy.
Next up vs Hamilton.

[Frequitude]

Offense looked much better today, but Burris needs to stop floating those 10 yard passes off his back foot. Throw it in there for christ's sake.

[PeteLFan]

Once Edwin Harrison is back it should help the offensive line. This line right now is real bad, Stanley Bryant is a disaster.

Since 2005 when Burris returned, I don't think seen him scrambling so much, we usually give up the least sacks and hurries.

Offensive rythym really starts with your line, if they can't block your offense no matter the weapons will be in shambles.

[Da_Chief]

Originally Posted by PeteLFan

Once Edwin Harrison is back it should help the offensive line. This line right now is real bad, Stanley Bryant is a disaster.

Since 2005 when Burris returned, I don't think seen him scrambling so much, we usually give up the least sacks and hurries.

Offensive rythym really starts with your line, if they can't block your offense no matter the weapons will be in shambles.

Huh? We watching the same games or no? Bryant has been ok. That first sack which the Rider came right through was Tsoumpas' fault. Bryant took the outside guy and Tsoumpas was suppose to take the next guy instead he went for the double team. No one has been perfect but calling Bryant a disaster has me scratching my head. The guy who needs to be replaced fast is Myddelton, get Deane or Gott in there.

As for as Deane on the Dline, that was a disaster, he had no technique what so ever. Hopefully the boys get healthy and he can go back to the offence.

[troutman]

Why won't CGY run on 2nd and 3, or 2nd and 2? Heck, two QB sneaks will get you the first down.

The score flattered SASK. A fluke TD and fluke interception kept them in the game. If Cavillo didn't get hurt last week, they are probably 0-5. They could still make the playoffs too if BC keeps losing.

[PeteLFan]

Originally Posted by troutman

Why won't CGY run on 2nd and 3, or 2nd and 2? Heck, two QB sneaks will get you the first down.

The score flattered SASK. A fluke TD and fluke interception kept them in the game. If Cavillo didn't get hurt last week, they are probably 0-5. They could still make the playoffs too if BC keeps losing.

They did run it in those situations but kept coming up short. Offensive line has been awful run blocking.

[PeteLFan]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

Huh? We watching the same games or no? Bryant has been ok. That first sack which the Rider came right through was Tsoumpas' fault. Bryant took the outside guy and Tsoumpas was suppose to take the next guy instead he went for the double team. No one has been perfect but calling Bryant a disaster has me scratching my head. The guy who needs to be replaced fast is Myddelton, get Deane or Gott in there.

As for as Deane on the Dline, that was a disaster, he had no technique what so ever. Hopefully the boys get healthy and he can go back to the offence.

We did watch the same game? Guys are coming off the edge and runs are being stuffed, the line has been real bad. Bryant and coddagon both have sucked, at lease coddagon was better last game.