Grey Cup appearance starts on offensive line

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2014 (3942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

‘YOU Belong Here,” is what the Winnipeg Football Club decreed as their slogan, four days ago, for the 103rd Grey Cup they will be hosting. While it’s always nice to hear rationale to support the decision thousands of us make to stick around for yet another inhospitable winter, most of us are hoping it’s an early message to the roster of 2015 as a goal to be in the championship game at Investors Group Field.

As we all know though, just because you belong somewhere doesn’t mean you are going to be there, so with just over six months until next season kicks off, the “belonging here” work should be happening in earnest.

While there is a grocery list of items this team needs to improve if they don’t want to be forced to hand over the keys to their locker-room — like we were forced to do in 2006 — there is nearly provincial consensus this overhaul needs to begin with the offensive line, and all things associated with the 300-pounders.

When you allow 71 sacks on the season — an average of almost four a game — and have only three games where a running back rushed for more than 100 yards, there is considerable work to be done.

The most daunting aspect of this pending overhaul is the team started three “internationals” on the line for nine of its games this season.

If you look at the two strongest offensive lines in the CFL — Saskatchewan and Calgary — they each started, for the majority of games, only one international.

If the thinking in the CFL is — on average — the American player is superior to his Canadian brethren, well then you can see just how far this group has to go.

Most teams try to stuff as many Canadian starters as possible on the offensive line, so they can use their internationals at possibly higher-impacting skill positions.

If this football club started three internationals on their offensive line, yet still got bottom-of-the-barrel production from them, well, you can see how far and long the road is ahead.

The trickle-down effect of burning internationals on the offensive line instead of say, at receiver or defensive tackle, further exacerbates the problem. The Bombers literally robbed Peter to pay Paul in 2014 and still didn’t get the production they needed.

While overcoming injury concerns to Patrick Neufeld — who just signed a new deal — and evolving through growing pains with rookie draft pick Matthias Goossen should produce at least a third national starter on the offensive line next year, it isn’t just about the quantity of Canadian starters in Winnipeg, it’s a concern of quality and durability, too.

Even with the second pick in the 2015 draft sure to be a future big-and-tall shopper, and probably another one with the next pick, you still cannot hang your hat on these youngsters coming into the starting lineup and being difference-makers from the get-go.

No, if the team truly wants a shot at belonging here next November, not only will they have to get lucky with their draft — and with the health of Neufeld and progression of Goossen — but they will have to lie, beg, cheat, steal and hope for one of the projected quality-Canadian linemen to make it to free agency, and then sign him.

Last year this team won quarterback Drew Willy by losing Zach Collaros and Henry Burris, but the odds of that happening again in this year’s free-agency sweepstakes are remote.

Not to be forgotten in this spotlight on earth movers, should be the scheme, co-ordination and coaching these players are receiving. While 2014’s unit may have given up the most sacks in the CFL, no one would be surprised to learn they probably also moved the pocket the least, and threw the ball a ton without changing many launch points and protections during the course of the year.

For some reason or another, we may belong here in this bizarrely likable tundra, but if this team wants to contend to belong in the Grey Cup next year, the most dramatic of changes must come in this one area.

 

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97