Oski-Oui-Oui's End Zone

The 38-23 score of last night’s Edmonton wipeout of Hamilton didn’t do the game justice. I only caught the second half, but by then the competitive phase of the game had effectively passed!

I’m going to cut and paste some of my thoughts on the current state of the team here from posts I’ve made on ticats.ca the last two days. Here goes….

Re the question of re-replacing Kevin Glenn with Quinton Porter or someone else at QB:

There are no miracle saviours who are going to come into this situation and magically cure the Hamilton offense. You cannot give up 35 points a game and win in this league. Has never been done! Cannot be done! To expect Quinton Porter to put up 35 points a game at this stage the way he locks into the primary receiver is a colossal joke. Sorry to burst whatever bubbles are out there, but I cannot hold my breath for that. He is a WORSE option than Glenn, period.

Is there another option for next season? It seems to me that Marcel and Glenn at this point are joined at the hip, football speaking. We will not have this discussion in January because I do believe that if this team continues on its current path Marcel will be gone after another playoff exit. Who knows? I might be wrong — the West might cross over. That is the scenario that I may amend my gut feeling to sooner than later…

Quarterbacks that throw for 5,000 yards in the CFL do not grow on trees. Kevin Glenn will have to be replaced by a better option. There are no immediate alternatives that I know of that will come into the fold, pick up the offense in a few weeks, and transform this team’s fortune come November. I remember the Casey Printers debacle and this club isn’t going to do any better at conjuring dynasties with the coaching staff in place with anyone off the street this time, either!

Is Jason Boltus an answer? Time will tell if he is given a shot or not in meaningful action when Glenn falters. I have more concerns about a team that cannot execute and a coaching staff that cannot stick to game plan approaches that have worked from week to week than whether Kevin Glenn cannot erase 14-point deficits on a regular basis. Until the defence shows it is not some blitzing sieve that escaped an Arena Football 2 alumni weekend, all this is moot.

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Without a balanced attack, the Cats do not impress me offensively at the moment. Cobourne is being abandoned way too early because the defence is being gashed and the run game hits the bricks pretty fast in Ticat games these days. Kevin Glenn is not going to stretch a defense vertically if the run game is absent. He is a seam passer, not someone who can attack deep on the edges of a defence. Look at the LB drops of recent games…these are precisely the areas that teams are jumping his throws on.

Chris Williams is a real weapon that can counteract this trend, yet there is no sustained and effective effort to get him, Thiggy, or Avon for that matter loose in the short and intermediate zones to attack the flats and force defences to defend the width of the field. It is a case of teams sitting on Stala’s routes and neutralizing Williams enough that the rest of the receiving corps is left to be the butterfingered mirage it seems to have become the last few weeks.

I look at what AB3 is doing out in Vancouver and I have to shake my head. Maybe Marcel and Khari could have figured that an all-star slotback with Glenn at the controls should have stayed…a slotback. Putting him out on the edge with a QB that has never demonstrated an ability to consistently hit wide receivers on the edge of defences was not very bright. I recall last night that Glen Suitor pointed out that Matt Carter likely ran the wrong route on the Thompson interception, so it begs the question: who steps up and becomes the coverage nightmare that allows Chris Williams not to be neutralized at crunch time.

As far as I’m concerned, Williams is the most dynamic open field runner we’ve had since Winfield. So it stands to reason, how do we capitalize on defences when they seek to stop the only weapon that seems to cause any panic in the passing game because that is what is happening. We are not capitalizing enough.

To me, this team needs a burner on the opposite side of the field to force safeties to respect the entire field. Marcus Thigpen could be that guy, but instead we get the Mann-Grant-Kelly-Carter no-headed monster that simply hasn’t filled the void left by Bruce’s departure. This offense doesn’t scare anybody when it doesn’t force defences to adjust. It’s “wait for the Cats D to collapse, put a safety over the top on Williams, have them abandon Avon, sit on Stala’s routes” and it is gravy time. I’m a fan and I see this.

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I note that a few on the cfl.ca boards (some are Rider fans) have been comparing the Ticats’ .500ish mediocrity of the last two seasons to be similar to the Riders’ own brand of it before the Austin-Miller GC runs. The fact that Marcel has been part of both phenomena may be purely accidental…or not…but I think we have hit the tipping point here. It is now or never for this team to begin to contend under this regime. Fans have just about had it with the Jekyll and Hideousness of this team under Marcel Bellefeuille — and I may be seeing the toxic waste container as half full. Ugh!

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Finally, the two wins today by Saskatchewan and B.C. have really put the spectre of a West crossover into the East come playoff time as a real possibility given the state of Hamilton’s hold on third in the East. Another debacle by the Tabbies in Moncton against the Stamps next week and playoff expectations may hang in the balance by Thanksgiving.

Russ Harrison

oski-oui-oui.ca

Montreal, QC

http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=375592

Quite the role reversal from Labour Day! Hamilton still cannot win in Montreal (stretching back to 2002). The regular season series between the two clubs will boil down to an October 16 showdown back at Percival Molson Stadium.

Russ Harrison

oski-oui-oui.com

Montreal, QC

http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=375207

TSN.ca has the story of the Tiger-Cats’ big win against the Alouettes!

Russ Harrison

oski-oui-oui.ca

Montreal, QC

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats continue their tradition of Labour Day games at home, but this time they will face the Montreal Alouettes in the first of a key back-to-back series for the East Division standings.

TSN.ca’s game preview is here.

The second half of the traditional CFL Labour Day doubleheader is another installment of the Battle of Alberta as Edmonton takes on Calgary at 4 p.m. et. The TSN.ca game preview for that contest is here.

For information on B.C.’s 29-16 win over Toronto on Friday night, click here.

For a recap of Saskatchewan’s big 27-7 triumph over Winnipeg yesterday, go here.

I will be blogging here and on the Ticat forums today on the Als-Cats and Esks-Stamps games. Enjoy the games!

Russ Harrison

oski-oui-oui.ca

Montreal, QC