Good the Bad and the Ugly

[TecnoGenius]

Watched the game a second time, remove the anxiety of losing from it and it was a good game.  Lot's to cleanup on, but much of what they wanted to accomplish they did, with a few hiccups along the way.

I think our O was monster and virtually unstoppable, except for the couple of screwups/fumbles.  It was clear early on our gameplan was to chew up clock, win ToP, tire out the TOR D, and basically shun the deep game.  We haven't really gone into a game with that mindset in many weeks.  I think it caught TOR off-guard.  And we were successful.

Our D had trouble against the Oullette/Dukes run for a Q or two but then went into shutdown mode.  However, they did pull Oullette before halftime and he didn't return, and I think he was not injured, so this was another excuse TOR has for losing.  And it's not a bad one, as with Oullette still running maybe they win that game, who knows.  Letting him loose on a couple of huge runs was a big mistake and very frustrating, as literally job #1 vs TOR is stopping Oullette (and their QB runs).  Everything else is peripheral as their R corps is weak.

Whatever excuse TOR had on O (not starting Kelly, yanking Oullette), they did not have on D.  We were playing virtually their starting D.  The only one they really purposely sat out was McManis.  He's great, but his stand-in is very good too, and it's no excuse for TOR's poor D showing.  I think we should take great heart in knowing we can basically dictate the whole game to the TOR D.

[TecnoGenius]

A few people sitting around us asking why Buck went away from the run game for most of the 3rd. quarter. Also on one of ZC8 runs. There seems to be a mix up between ZC8 and BO20, ZC8 follows BO20 down the field for 8 yards.

That's what a good OC will do: setup a D by hammering a certain scheme and then suddenly changing it up.  Get them all tight to the box, which opens up the flat.  Then they adjust to that and you go back to the run.  It was a superb game from Buck and he out-coached the TOR D, which is great to see as that was one of my biggest fears.

Our short pass game was working great, which is also great news.  Other than that infamous quick curl that TOR batted down, everything else was working.

One could argue that had they kept dinking & dunking instead of the 2 Bailey TD attempts, they get a TD on that series.  TOR had no answer.

[Pete]

what i would like to see; we have a back that averages over 5 yd per carry, we need to utilize him more on 2nd and 4 or 5. Anything more than 3 yards its almosr a lock that we throw, or occasionally hand off to Demski. You''d think Brady's average would go up on plays the opponent is expecting a throw.
We should also hand off on two point converts..probably better odds then a 20 yard throw deep into the endzone

[J5V]

That's what a good OC will do: setup a D by hammering a certain scheme and then suddenly changing it up.  Get them all tight to the box, which opens up the flat.  Then they adjust to that and you go back to the run.  It was a superb game from Buck and he out-coached the TOR D, which is great to see as that was one of my biggest fears.

Our short pass game was working great, which is also great news.  Other than that infamous quick curl that TOR batted down, everything else was working.

One could argue that had they kept dinking & dunking instead of the 2 Bailey TD attempts, they get a TD on that series.  TOR had no answer.

Gosh I wish I could agree with all of this assessment but I just don't. I thought Buck's scheme was very vanilla and lacked creativity. I think Zach could have really challenged the Argo D if Buck had him rolling out more often and moved the pocket to different locations on the field to keep the Argos off balance. Instead what we got was a consistent Argo pass rush that kept Zach hurried on almost all the passing plays. Rarely did Zach do anything other than sit in the pocket and was forced to get rid of the ball too quickly not allowing plays to develop. For the sake of Zach's health I wish Buck would do more to offset and disrupt the opponent's pass rush. It'll be better for Zach and our O-line and would really keep the opponent off balance and less likely to blitz.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

I think our O was monster and virtually unstoppable, except for the couple of screwups/fumbles.  It was clear early on our gameplan was to chew up clock, win ToP, tire out the TOR D, and basically shun the deep game.  We haven't really gone into a game with that mindset in many weeks.  I think it caught TOR off-guard.  And we were successful.

Our D had trouble against the Oullette/Dukes run for a Q or two but then went into shutdown mode.  However, they did pull Oullette before halftime and he didn't return, and I think he was not injured, so this was another excuse TOR has for losing.  And it's not a bad one, as with Oullette still running maybe they win that game, who knows.  Letting him loose on a couple of huge runs was a big mistake and very frustrating, as literally job #1 vs TOR is stopping Oullette (and their QB runs).  Everything else is peripheral as their R corps is weak.

Whatever excuse TOR had on O (not starting Kelly, yanking Oullette), they did not have on D.  We were playing virtually their starting D.  The only one they really purposely sat out was McManis.  He's great, but his stand-in is very good too, and it's no excuse for TOR's poor D showing.  I think we should take great heart in knowing we can basically dictate the whole game to the TOR D.

The Argos also sat out Big Oakman, arguably their most destructive D-lineman and a load for any O-lineman to handle one on one.  His replacement Brinkman is one of the beefiest run stoppers in the league, but coming fresh off the 6-game he was gassed by the end of the game.  Brady has to show more patience before abandoning his blocking duties, couple of times it was his guy that put Zach on the ground.  Wonder if Zach could divert Jackson on some of those plays, when he knows LB's are coming off the edge.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Gosh I wish I could agree with all of this assessment but I just don't. I thought Buck's scheme was very vanilla and lacked creativity. I think Zach could have really challenged the Argo D if Buck had him rolling out more often and moved the pocket to different locations on the field to keep the Argos off balance. Instead what we got was a consistent Argo pass rush that kept Zach hurried on almost all the passing plays. Rarely did Zach do anything other than sit in the pocket and was forced to get rid of the ball too quickly not allowing plays to develop. For the sake of Zach's health I wish Buck would do more to offset and disrupt the opponent's pass rush. It'll be better for Zach and our O-line and would really keep the opponent off balance and less likely to blitz.

Agree somewhat, Buck did not use any jet-sweep plays which can add a lot of complexity to the run game, as any receiver other than Woli can execute them very well.  As for the Argos pressure that's going to be consistent throughout every game, no sense thinking they can somehow prevent it from happening.  They have to deal with it and try to exploit it by moving the ball quickly into the gaps.

[theaardvark]

Agree somewhat, Buck did not use any jet-sweep plays which can add a lot of complexity to the run game, as any receiver other than Woli can execute them very well.  As for the Argos pressure that's going to be consistent throughout every game, no sense thinking they can somehow prevent it from happening.  They have to deal with it and try to exploit it by moving the ball quickly into the gaps.

Pretty sure they used Lawler on a jet sweep...

[Pigskin]

Agree somewhat, Buck did not use any jet-sweep plays which can add a lot of complexity to the run game, as any receiver other than Woli can execute them very well.  As for the Argos pressure that's going to be consistent throughout every game, no sense thinking they can somehow prevent it from happening.  They have to deal with it and try to exploit it by moving the ball quickly into the gaps.

I also can't remember a screen pass?

[The Zipp]

I also can't remember a screen pass?

one this year so far...that is all i can remember

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

one this year so far...that is all i can remember

They've used screen passes a couple of times in the Redzone,  Brady, Woli and Bailey have all scored TD's on screen passes.

[J5V]

Anyone concerned with the play of Adam Bighill of late? I can remember counting on him to make a big, impactful statement whenever we needed it but haven't seen much of that lately from him. Is age catching up to Adam?

[dd]

We had this discussion earlier this year. Biggie is one of our leaders, but ya, he?s lost a step out there, still gives his all, but a step behind this year. Time catches up with everyone

[GOLDMEMBER]

Bad- it took dd 4 days to appear on here.

[TecnoGenius]

Agree somewhat, Buck did not use any jet-sweep plays which can add a lot of complexity to the run game, as any receiver other than Woli can execute them very well.

Aards spotted the Lawler sweep.  It was beautiful.  Zero of that D expected Lawler to take that ball, and I think he got 8 yards on it.  We've never once ever (well, not for over 1.5 years anyhow) given Lawler a sweep.  It's stuff like that I love from Buck.

Part of the reason we didn't have Zach rolling out much was there was that one loss we had (the BC one?) where the whole D was basically on Zach contain waiting to pounce as he rolls out.  Zach was getting happy feet in games earlier this year and vacating a secure pocket.  I said we needed to work on that and they have.  He trusts the pocket more.  And it worked pretty well even with the couple of Neuf and Brady whiffs which got Zach pasted.

After teams stop keying on Zach's roll right then maybe we can add that back in carefully.  And hey, why not some rolls left??

[TecnoGenius]

Anyone concerned with the play of Adam Bighill of late? I can remember counting on him to make a big, impactful statement whenever we needed it but haven't seen much of that lately from him. Is age catching up to Adam?

Biggie was doing great in this TOR game.  Sniffing out balls and getting to the action.  I saw a couple of plays where I swear he looks like he's gotten faster vs a few weeks ago.  He was effectively chasing some speed guys down.  His DL work (blitzing and hole stuffing) was also looking better.

Complain about Biggie all you want, but I would exclude this game, he was doing a great job.  If he keeps this up, maybe having paced himself in-season, he'll be a force down the stretch.