From the Lark's Nest

Jack Davis, aka MadJack, weighs in on the Als domination of the 'Riders last week.

Well, for the first time this season, we can actually say that we finally put it all together.  That match against the Green Riders was the most complete effort we've seen from the Als this year.  The offence, the defence, and the special teams were pretty much firing on all cylinders.

So much good from this game; Calvillo looking like the Calvillo of old; Anwar Stewart playing like a man possessed; Duane Butler and Tim Strickland flying around and creating havoc; interceptions by Karikari and Sanchez; the continued and impressive development of receivers Terrance Edwards and O'Neil Wilson; seeing Marcus Brady instead of Nealon Greene getting the call to mop up.

A few negative notes: still too many penalties, especially by the offensive line (hello again, Luke Fritz);  lack of a consistent running game; and some strange calls by Chris Jones.  Last year, when we went away from the pressure defence, Jones seemed enamoured with a scheme whereby we only had a three man rush and everyone else dropped back in coverage.  I didn't like it then and like it less now.  And, sadly, Jones used it a few times in the game.  Once, when the Riders were pinned deep in their own end in the first quarter, we went to a TWO MAN rush.

What is up with that?  In the CFL, receivers and quarterbacks are just too good to get away with that kind of nonsense.  No matter how good your personnel is, with only a two man rush a receiver is going to have time to get open and the QB will find him....and that's exactly what happened, they got a 20 yard or so gain out of it.  Please, let's not go to that defensive scheme every again, I see no percentage in it.

But let's not harp on that too much.  We won, and we won big, and it is nice finally to savour a solid effort by the whole team.  Here's hoping we keep it up.

The Argos kept pace by hanging on to defeat Edmonton, so we must not let up.  We face these same Riders again on a short rest.  That should hurt them more than us, since they have injury problems at QB. 

Going forward, I think the key areas we need to address (other than getting Cahoon healthy; if it's bruised ribs, keep him out on Friday, let Stala take his place) are the penalties (we still take way too many) and the running game.

We have three good running backs; Lapointe, Edwards, and Diedrick.  Let's take a page out of the Argos' playbook from yesterday, and try having two of them in the backfield at the same time.  Looking forward to a possible Grey Cup appearance, think of Winnipeg in November. The weather might be nasty.  Having a strong running game will be essential if we want to come out with a win.....working on a two-back backfield will be time well spent.