Vanilla playcalling took the flavour out of Marve’s multi-faceted attack

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This article was published 17/08/2015 (4027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After one game at the controls, many of us pundits are less concerned about Robert Marve’s potential and ability to run the offence than we are about the offence he is being asked to run.

With his first start at quarterback for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Friday night, Marve showed us both things we knew he could do, and limitations we did not yet know about.

We knew he could scramble with the football and extend plays — he evaded the rush a number of times and was able to move the chains and keep drives going.

We also knew he would put it all on the line and put himself in harm’s way for the betterment of the team when the occasion called for it.

We knew his teammates would respond to his energy and dynamic play, as it was a spirited contest that came down to the wire in only his first performance as field general.

And, we knew he had the kind of work ethic and commitment to his craft that is keeping him in the city over the next seven days — all of the days that the players have off — so he can work on his weaknesses and scrutinize the film.

What most of us didn’t know, before this one-game snapshot, were his struggles with deep ball accuracy and touch, and his difficulties making some of the throws you need to make in the CFL.

Whether these deficiencies are permanent, or merely something he can improve on and overcome, we will find out soon enough.

But what was more discouraging from Friday’s 27-20 loss to the Toronto Argonauts were the limitations put on him by the offensive system in the second half, and/or the play-calling that defied logic and did not put him in positions to be successful.

In the first half of the game, the entire playbook was his oyster. Though Marve missed some opportunities down the field — including a fallen defender in coverage that was a sure touchdown — and got into some trouble throwing deep, the Argonauts had to respect that dimension of the passing game.

The second half was a completely different story. Not only did Toronto adjust to what they learned about Marve, like looping defenders to the side he likes to scramble to when under pressure, but when the play-calling got conservative and stopped stretching the field, the Argonauts simply committed to stopping the run and swarmed all over the short and intermediate routes.

In spite of this stanza of offence that was as vanilla as your favourite soft-serve dish, the team still found itself driving the football with a chance to tie the game as time was expiring. With 30 seconds left in the contest though, with no more than a yard to go on the most critical of third downs — already in enemy territory — the team lined up in shotgun formation. That’s right, Marve was miles away from the line of scrimmage when they only needed one yard. Not only was it evident to all 27,000 in attendance that the zone read option play was what was going to be called out of that formation, but defensive end Ricky Foley had it figured out too and wasted little time heading for the exchange point.

When you have a 200-plus-pound power running back that’s having a breakout game, and a near million-dollar offensive line in front of him, you don’t put the outcome of the game at the mercy of an offensive play that requires timing, reading, and about 700 repetitions in practice to perfect. You either QB sneak it, or hand it off from under centre. Predictable yet effective, and a high percentage play.

Now that opponents have an entire game of film on Marve, it is going to get harder before it gets easier for him as a starting pivot, no matter how much he improves.

If he is playing in an offence that ignores logic and circumstance, and is trying to limit his exposure as a quarterback on top of that, it is going to be much easier to shut him down the next time around.

It takes a lot of courage to make aggressive play calls with a QB at the controls that hasn’t yet shown he has all the tools in the chest, but it is a risk this team is going to have to take if they wish to try and stay relevant.

 

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.

@DougBrown97