johnzo

Demski crossing the goal line like a fullback with both hands on the ball...

firewagon football. end-to-end action!

so match coverage is not a new or novel thing ... Lapo says that Rod Rust and Rich Stubler were the guys who pioneered it ... so I wonder what the OC flipside of this is? how do you attack it? play action? crossing routes?

ok, I liked the previous video, but I really enjoyed this one. If you're curious about how the bomber D dominates, you gotta watch this. Lapo shows what match coverage is and how the Bombers used it to create coverage sacks, low-percentage throws, and turnovers against the Lions. The split-second pattern recognition these guys do is astonishing. You've gotta be smart to play DB in this system. I remember Kramdi getting praise for his football IQ and I can see why that's important now. Once again the all-24 view is so great. All we can see on TV is the pass rush while there's a whole ballet happening in the secondary.

this is my favorite lapo video yet, where he isolates the mistakes that are playkillers. the margin for error on these things is so small. Godber doesn't get the right block, the back is bubbled outside and strung out and it's an easy tackle. Harris doesn't read a DB's body posture correctly and throws a low percentage pass that turns into a pick. the rock and roll play was super interesting. the Argos D rolls coverage to handle some horizontal motion in the Rider backfield, but KeeSean Johnson doesn't pick out the right guy to block, and a huge play is aborted.

I'm kinda hoping that if the bombers finish strong and host a playoff game ... the Ticats also go on an absolute tear and take the crossover, just for the novelty of seeing an Eastern team in the WSF...

Sonny Wade threw 89 TD passes in his career ... and 169 interceptions. Man the 70s were a different time....

Halftime show. I don't mind Kate Beirness as a host but she just failed the CFL purity test big-time talking smack about the Argos game winning rouge....

Those vintage Als uniforms are indeed beautiful.

Man the East is taking the West out to the woodshed this year -- East holds a 17-9-1 advantage, and if you eliminate Hamilton, it's 16-3-1. That's not usual.

I love this team.

why weren't the bombers lined up and ready to go when the whistle blew in after the cart left the field? they wasted a bunch of time getting to the line. look to be playing for the FG.

three-man rush with delayed blitz is dope. Hallet zapped BLM good.

Josh Johnson!

Hail the Rouge.

Jeez, does the endzone have a restraining order against Chad Kelly?

aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggoooooooos

paging the MLSE PR staff: you're gonna have to write another apology from Kelly -- this one to #15, who he nearly got killed with a high throw.

one interesting thing about the second BC game was that Stanback gashed us pretty bad but we never really paid for it on the scoreboard and we continued to drop eight or nine guys. I wondered why they didn't try to bullyball us. I've seen the Bombers win games by spamming Oliveira or Harris with just a token passing attack. So, coming back to the Hamilton game, I think Butler is a better back at this point in their careers, do you worry about the TiCats countering our coverage blanket by committing hard to the run and forcing us to adjust?

3 Down Nation has some actual football analysis on Mr. Rourke's wild ride: https://3downnation.com/2024/08/21/no-apology-needed-breaking-down-nathan-rourkes-struggles-against-winnipegs-elite-defence/ (I know, I know, 3DN is hardly a quality brand, but I have enjoyed / learned from Ben Grant's analysis in the past, and the dude is an actual football coach.)

so that set is about blanketing the field with pass coverage and forcing the TiCat QB to go through his reads, right? that seemed to be how it worked against BC. would you adjust that approach based on who's playing QB for Hamilton? Like if BLM is in there, do you really want to extend the play and give him time to find someone? figure the guy knows how to progress through his reads by this point in his career.

I think he's already my favorite. He brings more insight than any of their other commentators. The only color guy who has a skill that Lapo lacks is Matty -- Matty's party uncle vibe is unique to him. I'm happy to hear either of them on a broadcast but I think prefer Lapo.

TSN is doing pretty darn good with color guys right now. Lapo, Matty, and Forde all bring good stuff to the table. I don't mind Suitor all that much, I think a lot of the criticisms of him are overblown, but he rarely says anything interesting nowadays and he really sells out for the game narrative, which is annoying. I like the dynamic when they pair up a straight man with a goofball -- Rod Smith and Matty is a good one, or Neilson with Forde. I think Dustin could turn it down from 11 to about 8 or so, but occasionally an utterly ridiculous CFL game will need an utterly ridiculous call, and he's the man for that job. It's a waste IMO to put Lapo on the sideline. Dude needs to be on the panel or in the booth where he can be the professor, not the guy who's doing the fluffy thirty second spots from the sidelines.

I'll see you a Sheehan and raise you a Jamie Boreham. It's interesting when you look at the net punting stats. Julien in Edmonton and Haggerty in TO are both outkicking Sheehan by 9-10 yards on average, which seems pretty huge, but it nets out to just 3 or 4 yards advantage. So in a punting duel with those teams, we're giving up 3 or 4 yards on every exchange. not great, but not worst in team history. We're also middle of the pack in terms of giving up big plays on special teams, from what I understand ball placement is a giant issue there, tough to get a big return on a ball that's well-placed between the numbers and the sideline. Ottawa's special teams are wicked this year. They've got ten big plays (FG or punt return of 30+ yards or kickoff returns of 40 yards) and just one against. mind you, those numbers don't take Deadmon's ball security issues into account.

looking at the standings, this is such a weird CFL season. Usually by this point in the CFL season you have 3 clear tiers -- 2-3 legit contenders, 2-3 trash fires (one of whom will make the playoffs) and the rest are all mediocre pretenders. But today we have a single elite team, a single trash fire, and everyone else is in the Maybe tier. I could see promoting Ottawa up into the elite tier, they are finding ways to win ... but it all feels so fragile there. Montreal and Ottawa play 2x in the final third of the season, could be the most interesting heavyweight tilts in the East in years.