Sammy Green
Re: WEST FINAL LEOS BOMBERS POST GAME THOUGHTS
Great post-mortem breakdown as usual Blitz. The loss was clearly on the shoulders of the offence.
The Western Final was extension of the 2nd half of the Oct. 6 game at BC Place when the Bombers' made adjustments and completely shutdown VA in the 2nd half. In the 6 quarters the Lions' lone TD was the Hail Mary to McInnis.
Very disappointing.
Thanks Sammy. Yes, the loss was clearly on the shoulders of the offence but the reality is that both our offence and our defense are not designed to defeat the Bombers in a playoff game. Offensively, we were not designed to do so last year, even with Rourke and Butler nor were we this year with Adams and Mizzell. Our defense run blitzed from the second quarter forward but had the Bombers had Schoen in the lineup and a healthier receiver lineup that strategy would have been more challenged.
Our B.C. Lions offence is a Spread style offence. It spreads out five or six receivers for a pass dominant style, employs the quarterback in the shotgun exclusively, and utilizes a scatback tailback in an ace backfield most of the time. When we do run the football, we use zone blocking for inside zone read runs with the occasional fly sweep to stretch the defense horizontally with the run game. Its textbook Spread offence. Defensively, our defense is mostly designed to stop a spread offence. We use quick but light defensive ends to rush the quarterback, utilize a nickel back exclusively, rather than a third linebacker, and sometimes use a dime back in situational situations.
The Introduction of the Spread
Back to the Spread offence. It first became became popular in the U.S at the college level. John Hufnagel introduced it to the pro level in Calgary in the 90’s. Back then it was novel and innovative. It created severe mismatches. It often resulted in receivers as Allan Pitts being covered by a slow linebacker or two defenders covering three receivers in the traditional zone coverage that was played at that time. Doug Flutie’s ability to run made it even tougher to defend. The zone blocking for the running attack was also novel, enabling smaller, quicker offensive linemen to get good angles and for tailbacks to find holes.
But eventually defenses innovated. Don Matthews led the innovation. He blitzed the hell out of it. He replaced slow outside linebackers with what were in essence larger defensive backs. Then Dave Ritchie zone blitzed it and mixed in three man rushes (he even only rushed two on occasion). One could find Brent Johnson on occasion intercepting a pass 15 yards downfield on a zone blitz. Ritchie would use 8 or even 9 defensive backs on occasion. Situational defensive football, with different defensive packages became the norm, with linebackers being replaced by defensive backs on passing situations. The Spread 'zone read' inside running play , was defensed by utilizing huge defensive tackles who could plug the running game inside.
The Spread offence, by the middle of the first decade of the CFL was employed by all CFL offences. But most CFL defenses adapted with the utilization of different style of personnel and by strategy. But the Spread Offence, like a drug addiction, continued unabated as a CFL offence. For a short time, in Montreal, under Mark Trestman, a more West Coast style of offence was introduced to the CFL and had some early success. The RPO offence was tried for a short time by offensive coordinators as McAdoo and Jarious Jackson to dismal results, mostly because the starting quarterback, as well as most of the offensive personnel, had all been trained since early college in Spread systems.
The Bombers Say Good Bye to the Spread
But it was the Winnipeg Blue Bombers under Paul LaPolice and Buck Pierce who have most recognized that a different style of offence than an exclusive spread offence was a key to success. The Bombers decided the best way to attack CFL defences was to run the football well and play action of it, CFL defenses are designed to stop the pass, personnel and strategy wise. The Bombers went out and recruited a different style of offensive lineman than the typical zone blocking zone read type that most teams use. They double team at the point of attack, whether that is an undersized defensive end or an undersized defensive tackle.
The Bombers also use everyone to block for the run. Receivers are often used as lead blockers. Canadian receivers as Nic Demski and Rasheed Bailey, two Canadian receivers, are also used as change up runners and lead blockers and not just used for a rare fly sweep. Johnny Augustine, another Canadian, is also utilized as a tailback. Our Leos only rarely use anyone other than the import tailback in the run game and when we do its only for a rare fly sweep to a Lucky Whitehead or an Alexander Hollins.
An important key to the Bombers offence is that they use two Canadian running backs in Oliviera and Augustine. Olivera is a big, strong back who gained the majority of his yards this season after first contact whereas Augustine is a quick hard running back who had the same average yds. per carry this season as Olivera. Prior to Oliviera and Augustine in the Bombers backfield, Andrew Harris blossomed in Winnipeg where he won the Most Outstanding Canadian award after leading the league in rushing and setting the record for single-season receptions by a running back.
Offence in Leo Land
Meanwhile, back here in Leo Land, we used a standard zone blocking scheme, an import lightweight scatback who doesn’t break tackles and can’t pass block, and the inside zone read almost exclusively when we do run the football. We could have designed our offence differently to have the best chanc to beat a team as the Bombers in the playoffs but we chose not to. Their defensive ends in Jefferson and Jeffcoat are lighter than our own defensive ends. Double team blocks using our offensive tackle and Cottoy and running off tackle could have paid huge dividends and not allowed the Bombers defensive ends to tee off and pass rush every play. Play action would also have slowed them down. But just mentioning Jevon Cottoy is a good example of why the Bombers are going to the Grey Cup again and we are not.
Jevon Cottoy was an obvious talent but we did not know how to utilize him in our plug and play spread offence for far too long. This season Cottoy was used more often and gained over 800 yds of receiving on 59 receptions. But this is a Canadian football player who is 6’5 inches, 230 pounds, who has great hands, is fast, and very difficult to bring down. Yet this is a receiver we targeted once in the West Final. Think the Bombers were taking him away as a first read? Think again. Here was a receiver we should have targeted quickly and often. He is a coverage nightmare for a linebacker or a defensive back.
Defensively, we have a ton of defensive players who can get after a quarterback. But a defense also has to stop the run when needed. We went into the West Final with 9 (count ‘em) nine defensive lineman, we got one sack, and we had to run blitz on almost every play from the second quarter on because the Bombers ran the football 9 times out of 10 on their first drive and mauled us like we were a high school defense taking on the pros.
The Bombers build around their talent. We plug and play guys into a spread offence that we have been watching unabated since the 2003 season, with the exception of the 2007 season - "You know, you know, just 'execute'".
The NFL was mostly spread offence for a while but the Patriots led the way to abandoning it . Before New England lit up defenses with a variety of schemes, NFL offenses were largely all the same, bland and homogenized, just as what still mostly exists in the CFL today.
Offensive Scheme Variety
In the NFL now there is so much offensive scheme variety. The Shanahan Offence, now implemented in many NFL franchises, does not spread out at all and instead uses fullbacks, two back sets, and tight ends while basing its offence off the stretch outside run. The McVey and Shanahan offences are all about condensed formations. The Seahawks line up with three tight ends at times with their Pistol Offence, an offence that features a diverse rushing attack, along with its high tight end usage.
In the NFL we see Option Offences, RPO dominant offences. Wide Zone Offences, and what I will call Throwback Offences or Old Pro offences that feature power running games, play action vertical shots, and in-breaking routes. Many NFL offences incorporate a direct snap from center now as an aspect of offence and are no longer exclusively in the shotgun.
Copycat Behavior Means Being Behind the Curve
Our Leos have won six Grey Cups since 1954. That is 6 Grey Cups in almost 70 years. The time has more than arrived for us to figure out that what we are doing needs changing if we want to get to the Big Dance other than hoping the Bombers get old. Its been a long, long time since our Leos played in the Grey Cup game. With only 8 CFL franchises the odds should have been winning the Grey Cup game every 8 seasons. With either five West teams ( even four West teams at various times) the odds should be that our Leos, played in the game every five or four seasons. With a number of present CFL franchises in deep trouble or significant duress at various times (Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa) the odds should have even been better. Those stats put it all in appropriate perspective.
Smart coaches have always have been more creative and diverse than their counterparts. If you are using the most copied offensive system in CFL football, you are definitely not ahead of the curve. We are still using a 1990's offensive system that defenses adapted to decades ago. Its why Buck Pierce is calling plays in the Grey Cup and Maksymic is watching.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
