The Turning Point

[Bigblue204]

1 minute ago, do or die said:

Question is......how much actual improvement have we seen from them - from when they started .....to last week.   

not much. Which is why this season was a bit of a disappointment for me. Not really. I mean 12-6 is great. But with the way the season started, the way they were playing in the first half of the year I was convinced they would only continue to improve as the colder weather came on. I posted about it often, how they hadn't played their best game yet (back in august). and that they were only going to get better....turns out they had played their best.  

[Atomic]

4 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

not much. Which is why this season was a bit of a disappointment for me. Not really. I mean 12-6 is great. But with the way the season started, the way they were playing in the first half of the year I was convinced they would only continue to improve as the colder weather came on. I posted about it often, how they hadn't played their best game yet (back in august). and that they were only going to get better....turns out they had played their best.  

That's ignoring that Adams, Leggett, and Westerman were gone.

Take Zylstra, Ladler, and Willis out of the Esks lineup and that's a very different game don't you think?  And put Reilly on a gimp leg and break his ring finger while you're at it.

[Bigblue204]

7 minutes ago, Atomic said:

That's ignoring that Adams, Leggett, and Westerman were gone.

Take Zylstra, Ladler, and Willis out of the Esks lineup and that's a very different game don't you think?  And put Reilly on a gimp leg and break his ring finger while you're at it.

Good points I suppose. Still I'm not sure I'm convinced the D would have improved. Maybe the O would have been able to carry them a bit more had Adams been in there.

[SPuDS]

25 minutes ago, Noeller said:

I did what now?

absolutely nothing,.. I be dense.

Edited November 14, 2017 by SPuDS
pure, unadulterated stupidity

[Atomic]

11 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

Good points I suppose. Still I'm not sure I'm convinced the D would have improved. Maybe the O would have been able to carry them a bit more had Adams been in there.

Hey I'm on board with getting rid of Hall.  I just think it is unwise to ignore the absence of 3 of our best players.

Maybe it would not have made a difference, but maybe it would have made a huge difference.  Leggett in particular is, IMO, one of the best defensive players in the entire league.

There is an argument to be made that our depth should be better.  But Edmonton faced a test of their depth mid-season and it eventually caught up to them, but they had time to recover.  Winnipeg faced a test of their depth late in the season and didn't have time to recover.

I think we all want to look at things in black and white... it's natural.... this team won, that team lost, so this team is good, and that team is bad.  But it's never that simple.  And making knee-jerk decisions at the behest of passionate fans and media is what throws teams into multi-year spirals of failure.

[White Out]

7 minutes ago, Atomic said:

Hey I'm on board with getting rid of Hall.  I just think it is unwise to ignore the absence of 3 of our best players.

Maybe it would not have made a difference, but maybe it would have made a huge difference.  Leggett in particular is, IMO, one of the best defensive players in the entire league.

There is an argument to be made that our depth should be better.  But Edmonton faced a test of their depth mid-season and it eventually caught up to them, but they had time to recover.  Winnipeg faced a test of their depth late in the season and didn't have time to recover.

I think we all want to look at things in black and white... it's natural.... this team won, that team lost, so this team is good, and that team is bad.  But it's never that simple.  And making knee-jerk decisions at the behest of passionate fans and media is what throws teams into multi-year spirals of failure.

Halls run the worst D in the league for 2 years in a row. Time to go, along with several crap players who are too dumb or too stubborn to play in a system.

[Atomic]

Just now, White Out said:

Halls run the worst D in the league for 2 years in a row. Time to go, along with several crap players who are too dumb or too stubborn to play in a system.

Ahh what a fresh take.

[17to85]

So here is how I break down the defense in terms of players comparing this season to last season...

I think they 100% improved the DL. Jeffcoat and Poop and Ogopogo were great this year and Nevis did more here than Euclid Cummings did. 

Now linebackers I give a clear downgrade to. Missing Wild nearly all year hurt, Bass was just flat out better than Hurl in the middle and Mo was hurt a lot this year. 

Secondary I also give a downgrade to. Walker and Alexander both showed flashes but did also make those glaring errors in coverage. Throw in Loffler not being as impactful as he was last season and that's 2 of the 3 phases of the D that were not as good as last year just based on the players on the field.