Week 2 - Champs at Ottawa lead up

[Booch]

59 minutes ago, Jesse said:

I also think the coach's know that Thompson's strong suit isn't his coverage, so he's probably not deep for a reason. Whereas Rose probably shouldn't have have been playing as aggresive as he was.

and Rose has gone on record saying as much...I'm sure you won't see that this game again

[wbbfan]

47 minutes ago, Booch said:

and Rose has gone on record saying as much...I'm sure you won't see that this game again

I feel like the team is going to be more than a little upset with some of the execution and flat play last week.  Ott is on the train tracks and the darkside express is coming through at full tilt. 

[Noeller]

I feel like, if last week was in Ottawa and this week in Winnipeg, we'd kick the ever loving **** out of them this week. Being on the road, it might not be a blow out, but I still feel like we're going to win comfortably. Just a gut feeling (....and with a gut this big, I can't possibly be wrong....) 

[Booch]

32 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

I feel like the team is going to be more than a little upset with some of the execution and flat play last week.  Ott is on the train tracks and the darkside express is coming through at full tilt. 

Yup...gonna be some angry vets for sure...this game is gonna be a polar opposite 

[JCon]

I've felt that, since 2019, the reason our defense separates itself from other defenses, is their cohesiveness. That will come back and we know they have the talent. 

[wbbfan]

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

I feel like, if last week was in Ottawa and this week in Winnipeg, we'd kick the ever loving **** out of them this week. Being on the road, it might not be a blow out, but I still feel like we're going to win comfortably. Just a gut feeling (....and with a gut this big, I can't possibly be wrong....) 

Might not be a blow out. But a physical beat down and dominant win is what this squads regular bounce back would be. 

2 hours ago, JCon said:

I've felt that, since 2019, the reason our defense separates itself from other defenses, is their cohesiveness. That will come back and we know they have the talent. 

Idk. We’ve seen pretty good turn over at one dt spot wil and lots in the secondary. I think it’s that they indoctrinate new guys very well and very quickly. I think that’s also part of why dbs excel soo quickly and easily too.  

[Mark H.]

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

 

Idk. We’ve seen pretty good turn over at one dt spot wil and lots in the secondary. I think it’s that they indoctrinate new guys very well and very quickly. I think that’s also part of why dbs excel soo quickly and easily too.  

Yes. But several of the key cogs and lunch bucket types have been there for a few years. Bighill, The Jeffs, Alexander, Thomas, Rose

[wbbfan]

22 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Yes. But several of the key cogs and lunch bucket types have been there for a few years. Bighill, The Jeffs, Alexander, Thomas, Rose

Yeah and that’s a big part of being able to incorporate new guys soo seamlessly. 

[bb1]

I am not sold on our interior DLine yet. Sayles just ain't Stove. JJ being back is huge but i would love to see Sayles or Walker step up. It's early though and best to sort this out now rather than later...i trust the Canadian Mafia to fix this if we have to.

[Mark H.]

9 minutes ago, bb1 said:

I am not sold on our interior DLine yet. Sayles just ain't Stove. JJ being back is huge but i would love to see Sayles or Walker step up. It's early though and best to sort this out now rather than later...i trust the Canadian Mafia to fix this if we have to.

Kongbo and Stove were huge losses, no doubt.  I suspect pressure this year will go from being out of this word, to just steady. 

[SpeedFlex27]

Turns out with his off season injury we'd have lost Stove for the season anyway. 

[wbbfan]

11 hours ago, bb1 said:

I am not sold on our interior DLine yet. Sayles just ain't Stove. JJ being back is huge but i would love to see Sayles or Walker step up. It's early though and best to sort this out now rather than later...i trust the Canadian Mafia to fix this if we have to.

Its not a quality of player difference though, its role. We've leaned heavily on having a nose tackle to eat two blocks and still push the center back onto the qbs lap to free up our ends for a while. We were fortunate in that we could go from Drake nevis to stove.  Now we don't have a guy who can play the nose.  As great as our defense was last year, it was much better especially against the run when he came back from injury. 

 Stove is a 5'10 305 freak athlete. The guy can run, and explodes into blockers and is one of the best inside bullrushers in the business, no matter the league. If he was 6'2 he'd be in the NFL.  Now all our guys are 6'3 ish and all under 290.  Walker is 287 and sayles is 282. Both guys are tremendous inside pass rushers. The type of guy that we'd usually rotate in and out. 

Having BA over the top, and a good nose tackle allow us to have biggie do more and not play in the middle all that often. Frequently the wil is our guy who picks up the rb and scrapes to the ball. Biggie drops back deep completely messing up a qbs pre snap read, or picks up a zone / match zone short route, or joins the pass rush. When we didnt have stove last year and had biggie out of the middle we got torched in the run game. 

Having a nose also allows willy to play pass lanes more frequently rather than just pass rushing every down. He isn't a cameron wake pass rusher.  Thats jeffcoat in our defense. Every snap JJ is coming for the qbs @$$. WJ using dropping back to disturb reads, and knock down passes, but also to set up twists and delayed pass rushes. He's an incredibly unique end who has massive impacts on the game even away from the qb when he can do what he's best at. 

Our great defense is really built on versatility. We aren't a big blitzing team, we don't run exotic looks or complex schemes, but the nose, wj, biggie and BA can do soo many things that others at their position can't that it's a nightmare to try and prepare for or execute against. Missing 2 of those 4 and JJ for the first game is very rough. Its a big adjustment and we started to see those especially in the second half of the first game. 

 

Sayles and walker will be fine. Sayles had a pretty good game but every one on the DL is figuring out and getting used to some big changes. Losing kongbo really makes it hard too. Having a guy who can spell the ends especially WJ and also allowing us to run 2 imp dts or various other looks ratio wise is huge. You don't come by a talent like that in the cfl with a NI passport very often.

Edited June 17, 2022 by wbbfan

[Booch]

totally agree....we can tho run 2 import DT's together with the Jeffs....as I know we designated 6 Nationals on offence and 1 on defense...the 8th (2nd on defense) isn't required to be on field...so we do have options there

Kongbo I said from get go was gonna be the bigger missing piece than Stove, and to a lesser extent Thiadric....allowed a lot of flexibility, and also allowed us to run that cheetah with 4 ends...which was highly succesfull and created a lot of havoc...I actually think Kongbo will be shaking fee, so hopefully he decides coming backa nd gettin a paycheque makes more sense than trying to find a PR spot somewhere

[wbbfan]

14 minutes ago, Booch said:

totally agree....we can tho run 2 import DT's together with the Jeffs....as I know we designated 6 Nationals on offence and 1 on defense...the 8th (2nd on defense) isn't required to be on field...so we do have options there

Kongbo I said from get go was gonna be the bigger missing piece than Stove, and to a lesser extent Thiadric....allowed a lot of flexibility, and also allowed us to run that cheetah with 4 ends...which was highly succesfull and created a lot of havoc...I actually think Kongbo will be shaking fee, so hopefully he decides coming backa nd gettin a paycheque makes more sense than trying to find a PR spot somewhere

100%. From a front office stand point, you can find another nose or maybe running 4 DL who can really pass rush just replaces that. But you can't just get another Kongbo. Good point about hansen too. He wasn't some gimmick or coaches boy getting more burn than he deserved. That guy is a player. I hate that he isn't here this year and how it went down. He's one of the hardest nosed players in a generation. Guys who will dive on a grenade for his team mates change locker rooms and have a big effect on intensity. 

I could see kongbo shaking loose too. Just soo many guys in the NFL that are big freak athletes at DE. Especially raw young projects with out a big pedigree as a pass rusher. If he sticks, it'll be because his coach loves his FIFO attitude and work ethic. You can find shinier project players with more upside, but you wont find a big athletic DE with big school experience with a better ability to actually fulfill his potential. If he comes free I think he's on the same tier of importance as Desjarlais for us. Though we miss the roadgrader we do have some very good young OL. 

[Booch]

yup...Kongbo was greatly undervalued here by the causal fan eye...he did a lot and allowed our "stars" to be able to do what they did 

 

[wbbfan]

Just now, Booch said:

yup...Kongbo was greatly undervalued here by the causal fan eye...he did a lot and allowed our "stars" to be able to do what they did 

 

If TSN tracked Pressures or showed highlights of gap play he'd be far more popular here and league wide. I think people would be shocked if they realized how many snaps he played vs willy j, or how many sacks he created with initial pressure. 

[Booch]

Just now, wbbfan said:

If TSN tracked Pressures or showed highlights of gap play he'd be far more popular here and league wide. I think people would be shocked if they realized how many snaps he played vs willy j, or how many sacks he created with initial pressure. 

yup....totally....if he gets back, and BA arrives in late july/Aug...we be sitting really good on defense