Kyle Walters Press conference

[Pete]

The difference is Sask. often used blitzing LB's to add pressure while Younger used the extra man in pass coverage.  Bizarre formation in the ESF highlighted by TSN had Tony Jones stranded in the flat in pass defence a couple of times while the Als ran the ball straight up the middle.

One of the issues with the 3 man front wasnt just the lack of pressure by that group, it was they didnt even create enough disruption for the blitzing lb to be effective. We did have to do a better job of not telegraphing which lb but also tying up more olinemen to create opportunities

[bunker]

To me, Willie was a big part of the problem of no pressure. Jake was obviously not impactful in the middle, but Willie mostly made one attempt to go wide, and once it didn't immediately work, he would back off and spy the QB while waving his arms around the line of scrimmage. Sometimes that was due to a double team, but often it was not. Vaughters was actually more impactful most of the time in terms of pressure.

I don't know if  Willie's play was a product of instructions from Younger, a bit of laziness, or lack of motor due to age and too many reps. But I hope it changes this year. Hopefully the disruption caused by Ceresna will open up more opportunities for him. And hopefully the 2 new "J" ends get some reps leaving Willie fresher when he plays. He took far too many reps for his age last year.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

To me, Willie was a big part of the problem of no pressure. Jake was obviously not impactful in the middle, but Willie mostly made one attempt to go wide, and once it didn't immediately work, he would back off and spy the QB while waving his arms around the line of scrimmage. Sometimes that was due to a double team, but often it was not. Vaughters was actually more impactful most of the time in terms of pressure.

I don't know if  Willie's play was a product of instructions from Younger, a bit of laziness, or lack of motor due to age and too many reps. But I hope it changes this year. Hopefully the disruption caused by Ceresna will open up more opportunities for him. And hopefully the 2 new "J" ends get some reps leaving Willie fresher when he plays. He took far too many reps for his age last year.

I wouldn't have brought Willie back and I wouldn't have brought Stanley back.

[Tecno]

The difference is Sask. often used blitzing LB's to add pressure while Younger used the extra man in pass coverage.

To be more clear, in the GC SSK used 3-4 more than you'd think, and most of the time actually only brought 3.  In fact, there was so little blitzing going on by SSK because their normal 4 (or 3) could get significant pressure most of the time.

Either SSK's DL was that good, or MTL's OL got really bad since '23, or both.

[dd]

Carney and Micah Johnson were beasts on their line both gone this year waughters will help but they need another solid iceman to makeup for what they lost

[Sir Blue and Gold]

To be more clear, in the GC SSK used 3-4 more than you'd think, and most of the time actually only brought 3.  In fact, there was so little blitzing going on by SSK because their normal 4 (or 3) could get significant pressure most of the time.

Either SSK's DL was that good, or MTL's OL got really bad since '23, or both.

Why are you hyper fixated on the Grey Cup and then extrapolating that to draw season and multi-year conclusions? Zooming in on one game is noise. The Riders defense was primary a 4-3 in 2025. Saskatchewan's defensive line really was that good last year and Montreal's offensive line was a bit above average. It makes no difference how anyone played in 2023 to any point you're trying to make.

[Tecno]

Why are you hyper fixated on the Grey Cup and then extrapolating that to draw season and multi-year conclusions? Zooming in on one game is noise. The Riders defense was primary a 4-3 in 2025. Saskatchewan's defensive line really was that good last year and Montreal's offensive line was a bit above average. It makes no difference how anyone played in 2023 to any point you're trying to make.

I said at the outset I was noting the SSK GC D scheme because it seemed to differ from what they did most of the year.  I wasn't extrapolating it across the season, I was noting the contrast.

Zooming in on one game is fine when that game is the most important one of the whole year!

Except when MTL's OL in '23 was probably league-best and helped win them the GC, and AFAIK much of the personnel has remained.  I made the comment because I thought MTL's OL in '25 was still dominant.  When 3, 4 or 5 OL remain constant year to year it's perfectly valid to make comparisons.  For instance, we've usually only changed 1-2 OL every year during the Dynasty Years.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I said at the outset I was noting the SSK GC D scheme because it seemed to differ from what they did most of the year.  I wasn't extrapolating it across the season, I was noting the contrast.

Zooming in on one game is fine when that game is the most important one of the whole year!

Except when MTL's OL in '23 was probably league-best and helped win them the GC, and AFAIK much of the personnel has remained.  I made the comment because I thought MTL's OL in '25 was still dominant.  When 3, 4 or 5 OL remain constant year to year it's perfectly valid to make comparisons.  For instance, we've usually only changed 1-2 OL every year during the Dynasty Years.

Generally speaking, if you're looking at teams playing in the Grey Cup, you're probably looking at teams that  have good to great offensive and defensive line play on the whole.