This is Buck's team

[No Ordinary Joe]

Injuries or not, not making the proper reads shouldn't have anything to do with being hurt. I like Buck, but I don't think he has been able to use all of his receivers this year, he'll look to his first read and then give up on the play if there's nothing there. He's been quite poor this year with his decision making and I just pray that once he's healthy he'll improve his field vision.

[Sir Purrcival]

The criticism may not be entirely unjustified but basically this guy is still a rookie. I think people have come to expect polish because we have been so pampered with a good team for awhile. Simply put, there is a reason that people are so high on this guy around the league. He has the tools and the smarts to become a great QB. He has shown us flashes but consistency only comes with time, maturity and experience. He will get there. For a young man, he displays more poise and creativity that many older more experienced QB's have shown. Think Michael Bishop for example. So while I agree he hasn't looked as sharp this year as some might hope (who has?), he has nothing but upside and any Coach in this league would love to have him on their roster.

[Blitz]

I like all our quarterbacks and have liked all our quarterbacks except Spurgeon Wynn since 2003. They all have had or presently have different strengths and limitations, from experience, mobility, and approach. I may have preferred one over the other but all have made very positive contributions, in various degrees.

It's been hard to understand why all our quarterbacks this season have struggled, at times, in terms of either missing open receivers or missing throws. The passing plays have mostly been the same as in the past. Neither Dickenson or Buck looked sharp at training camp and both were not as impressive as past seasons to start the year. Jarious had an excellent training camp and while he still struggles with his short game he's the only one who has been throwing an accurate football downfield so far.

Perhaps the problem has been three things. The first is that Wally was determined that all the quarterbacks this season were going to release the football within their 3 seconds of alloted time. That decision was based upon two factors 1) to attempt to protect Dickenson from injury and 2) to avoid the high number of sacks we had given up in the past. This means quicker reads and moving through read progressions a split second faster.

A second reason may have to do with rythym. We've gone to the running game a little more than in the past..we run the ball about 1/3 of the time. There were times in the past when we only ran the football 5 times in a game and our quarterbacks are adjusting to not throwing the football almost every down at times.

A third reason is that most defenses are locked into our intermediate passing game and the recievers who are most open are deep or short. CFL defensive coordinators have all adopted Ritchie's special packages and zone blitzes and the advantages of the five reciever set and the intermediate passing routes we favored are much harder to find open... requiring an adjustment in quarterback decision making.

What we've seen a lot is our quarterbacks lock on to the primary intermediate reciever, a quick second read to a seconday receiver about 8 yards downfield. That primary intermediate reciever has been covered and when the second receiver underneath at 8 yards has been open enough we've thrown to him and if not our quarterbacks have taken off. Jarious in the only quarterback who has looked further downfield immediately and therefore found Geroy Simon open like he did last game. Jarious is also the only quarterback who has scrambled and still kept his head up while running, using the time to find a receiver, rather than just putting his head down and taking off.

Dave Dickenson is a very accurate passer in the intermediate game. So is Buck Pierce and their quarterback ratings last year, in terms of passing completion and quarterback efficiency were one/two in the league. Dickenson the top quarterback in the league in quarterback efficiency last season and has always had a very high quarterback efficiency rating and a very high pass completion average. Buck Pierce started 8 games last year and finished first in the league in passing completion average and second in quarterback efficiency.

I just think it's an adjustment that Dickenson would have made and was staring to make before he got injured. Buck was also starting to look like he was adjusting before he got injured. Jarious's natural tendancy to look deeper has been more of a positive this season as defenses have really focused on stopping the patterns that are favored in the spread offence. However, to do that, they have to give up something to do that and that's the running game, and we've taken advantage.

Dickenson is smart and if/when he returns, with some playing time, would make the adjustment. Buck Pierce is a quarterback who has impressed in only 10 starts in his short CFL career and will make the adjustment. Jarious is very unseasoned in the CFL and tomorrow night is his first CFL start. He needs to get better at his short game as Dickenson and Pierce need to get better at their longer passing attack but all three quarterbacks have more than enough smarts and talent to be able to take what the new brand of CFL defenses are giving up to presently play the style they are.

You have to run the football more, use play action more, threaten deeper a little more often, and dump more often. It's plain tougher for offences to execute in the passing game than it was in 2003-2005. Defenses have changed so much and are so much better. It was starting to get tougher at the end of last season. However, Dickenson and Pierce are just too good to be restricted the way they have been early in this season. Jarious Jackson is the best third string quarterback in the league by a country mile.

We'll be fine with anyone of them longer term. This is a season of adjustment made necessary by the changing nature of CFL defenses. We're ahead of the curve but change involves growing pains when the things that worked in the past no longer work as well. Wally is preparing this team for a second Grey Cup berth and not the regular season. It may seem like an early struggle at times for our offence but in my mind we're on track!

[Luke]

I like all our quarterbacks and have liked all our quarterbacks except Spurgeon Wynn since 2003. They all have had or presently have different strengths and limitations, from experience, mobility, and approach. I may have preferred one over the other but all have made very positive contributions, in various degrees.

It's been hard to understand why all our quarterbacks this season have struggled, at times, in terms of either missing open receivers or missing throws. The passing plays have mostly been the same as in the past. Neither Dickenson or Buck looked sharp at training camp and both were not as impressive as past seasons to start the year. Jarious had an excellent training camp and while he still struggles with his short game he's the only one who has been throwing an accurate football downfield so far.

Perhaps the problem has been three things. The first is that Wally was determined that all the quarterbacks this season were going to release the football within their 3 seconds of alloted time. That decision was based upon two factors 1) to attempt to protect Dickenson from injury and 2) to avoid the high number of sacks we had given up in the past. This means quicker reads and moving through read progressions a split second faster.

A second reason may have to do with rythym. We've gone to the running game a little more than in the past..we run the ball about 1/3 of the time. There were times in the past when we only ran the football 5 times in a game and our quarterbacks are adjusting to not throwing the football almost every down at times.

A third reason is that most defenses are locked into our intermediate passing game and the recievers who are most open are deep or short. CFL defensive coordinators have all adopted Ritchie's special packages and zone blitzes and the advantages of the five reciever set and the intermediate passing routes we favored are much harder to find open... requiring an adjustment in quarterback decision making.

What we've seen a lot is our quarterbacks lock on to the primary intermediate reciever, a quick second read to a seconday receiver about 8 yards downfield. That primary intermediate reciever has been covered and when the second receiver underneath at 8 yards has been open enough we've thrown to him and if not our quarterbacks have taken off. Jarious in the only quarterback who has looked further downfield immediately and therefore found Geroy Simon open like he did last game. Jarious is also the only quarterback who has scrambled and still kept his head up while running, using the time to find a receiver, rather than just putting his head down and taking off.

Dave Dickenson is a very accurate passer in the intermediate game. So is Buck Pierce and their quarterback ratings last year, in terms of passing completion and quarterback efficiency were one/two in the league. Dickenson the top quarterback in the league in quarterback efficiency last season and has always had a very high quarterback efficiency rating and a very high pass completion average. Buck Pierce started 8 games last year and finished first in the league in passing completion average and second in quarterback efficiency.

I just think it's an adjustment that Dickenson would have made and was staring to make before he got injured. Buck was also starting to look like he was adjusting before he got injured. Jarious's natural tendancy to look deeper has been more of a positive this season as defenses have really focused on stopping the patterns that are favored in the spread offence. However, to do that, they have to give up something to do that and that's the running game, and we've taken advantage.

Dickenson is smart and if/when he returns, with some playing time, would make the adjustment. Buck Pierce is a quarterback who has impressed in only 10 starts in his short CFL career and will make the adjustment. Jarious is very unseasoned in the CFL and tomorrow night is his first CFL start. He needs to get better at his short game as Dickenson and Pierce need to get better at their longer passing attack but all three quarterbacks have more than enough smarts and talent to be able to take what the new brand of CFL defenses are giving up to presently play the style they are.

You have to run the football more, use play action more, threaten deeper a little more often, and dump more often. It's plain tougher for offences to execute in the passing game than it was in 2003-2005. Defenses have changed so much and are so much better. It was starting to get tougher at the end of last season. However, Dickenson and Pierce are just too good to be restricted the way they have been early in this season. Jarious Jackson is the best third string quarterback in the league by a country mile.

We'll be fine with anyone of them longer term. This is a season of adjustment made necessary by the changing nature of CFL defenses. We're ahead of the curve but change involves growing pains when the things that worked in the past no longer work as well. Wally is preparing this team for a second Grey Cup berth and not the regular season. It may seem like an early struggle at times for our offence but in my mind we're on track!
T

Wow. I've been racking my brain for two or three weeks over what the problem has been with our Quarterbacks, and the bucket came up empty.

[Blitz]

They will be coming hard, really hard at Jarious tonite and will keep the pressure on unless we can hurt them Luke N.

I'm guessing we may see a lot of two back set and some double tights tonite. If we have Green and Smith in there we can keep both backs in at times or keep Green in and slip Smith out in the flat if they don't blitz as many on certain downs. We may also see Smith and Smart on occasion as well, depending on what is happening out there.

What I would love to see is Green and Smith out there at fullback/tailback and then, on certain downs, have Green move up to tight end and slide Clermon in to tight end as well, giving us two looks without a substitution.

That would do a number of things. First of all we could use Green to double Fred Perry with our offensive tackle if we needed to. Secondly, we could have Clermont or Green, at tight ened, chip Fred Perry, before going out on a route, helping out the offensive tackle.

Double tights will also force Perry to line up wider and that would be an offensive advantage.
We could also double Perry in the running attack and pound him a little with Jiminez or Murphy along with the tight end on that play.

Green and Clermont have both played some tight end and can catch the football from those positions. One of Clermont's best games last season was when he played the tight end positon last year against Montreal. We could also run a quick screen to Perry's side because he comes upfield so fast.

Will we see all of this...hard to say... but if we can run against the Riders and also provide enough time for Jarious to hurt Saskatchewan we could force them to go with three linebackers and five defensive backs. That would give us four receivers against five, with the linebackers playing pass defense. That means it's "Geroy time' and also allows us to isolate a back against a linebacker in the passing game!!