Well, that was
a fine way to start the new season!
Many questions
that we had coming into this season were answered in strikingly positive ways.
First off,
would Marc Trestman fall flat on his face because he has no CFL
experience? Most emphatically, NO. That was a brilliant coaching
performance, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. What a
creative, imaginative offence we had. It was a treat to watch, especially
after the boring, predictable, and downright dull offence we had to watch last
year. Screens, counters, reverses, misdirections, lots of multiple motion
sets…….this offence had it all. So………major laurels to our owner and our
GM for having made the selection of Marc Trestman as our new head coach.
AC looked in
his prime; he was on target all night, controlled the game well, and clearly is
much happier in this offence than he was last season. I see only better
things coming as we continue to develop in this offence.
Avon Cobourne
played unquestionably his best game ever as an Alouette. So too did Danny
Desriveaux. Kerry Watkins ate Hamilton’s corner Lawrence Gordon
alive. Bratton, Deslauriers, and Richardson, while not as dominant,
certainly made contributions when called upon, and so too did Dahrran Diedrick
and Kerry Carter.
Even the
offensive line, much maligned after last year’s poor showing, performed well
overall. Sure there were some breakdowns (Perrett in particular), but the
main question going in was whether or not the problems last year were due to
personnel or to scheme. From this first game, looks like it was
scheme. Time will tell.
On the
defensive side, the main question marks were pass rush, middle linebacker, and
safety.
Well the pass
rush wasn’t dominant, but it was there, so there’s some hope. D’Wayne
Taylor at MLB and Pascal Masson at safety, again while not dominant, certainly
didn’t embarrass themselves. The star on defence, to me however, was T.J. Hill…….he was a monster out there, all over the field, hitting, tackling,
covering……other than missing Casey Printers on a blitz once (and credit that
one to Printers’ athleticism, not any knock on Hill), he played a basically
flawless game.
The special
teams were very effective; not much in the way of long returns, but we sure
limited the Cats’ returns effectively, I though rookie Emry was particularly
impressive.
All Als fans
are no doubt happy with an entertaining, efficient, and successful opening
game. It augurs well for this season.
Is there a
dark cloud in here somewhere? Well, I suppose so. It was, after
all, Hamilton. They were the worst team in the league last year, and off
last night’s performance do not look terribly improved. So, were we that good
or are they that bad? Probably a bit of both, I suspect.
Our next game
will no doubt tell us much more about what kind of team we have this year, as
we’re up against a team that would be, but for Kevin Glenn’s broken arm, the
defending Grey Cup champs.
Our offence
will be up against a much better defence than Hamilton’s. We will be trying
to match wits with Greg Marshall, who is a superior defensive coordinator to
Denny Creehan (who got fired in Calgary last year for running a poor defence);
our offensive line will be up against a much more fearsome defensive front four
than Hamilton has. This will be a significant test for our offence.
Winnipeg has
the incomparable Charles Roberts and a stellar cast of receivers (even with
Milt on the limp), so our defence will also be tested more than they were
against the Cats.
So, from our
first game, we look like we have the makings of a really season ahead of us,
and our next game will go a long way to seeing just how good we can become.
I’m sure I speak
for most Als’ fans when I say to the team, from ownership to water boy,
congratulations on putting an exciting, efficient, and entertaining product on
the field!