Bombers just not in same class as Stampeders

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/08/2018 (2618 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When all was said and done, Saturday’s game was the football equivalent of trying to successfully court a partner several levels out of your league. In football speak, this is referred to as “outkicking your coverage.”

The Blue and Gold faked it, they postured, they bluffed, they were valiant in their attempts for more than half the game, but in the end they got exposed for who they really were: ambitious and eager, but lacking in the most desired fundamentals. And then Calgary went looking elsewhere for a true peer equivalent.

So why don’t the Blue Bombers measure up to the Calgary Stampeders? Why would people stare and snicker and make hushed remarks about this oddball pairing if they saw them together in public? It’s not as complicated as you might think.

At the beginning, like most doomed relationships, it looked like it had potential. You could tell they had spent some time coming up with a strategy to woo the Stampeders that was both creative and effective in the early going. Making the move that they did on second and short — a true throwaway down — got the Stampeders’ attention and had to have had them wondering if they had truly met their match. But like any relationship with partners on different levels, when the smoke and mirrors run out, and the trick bag is empty, all you can rely on is the fundamentals you bring to the table, and the Blue and Gold came up short.

The first thing that jumped off the page in this contest was the tackling. The Stampeders are incredible tacklers in space. Much of the Bombers offence seems to rely on completing short, high-percentage passes to their weaponry that are then converted into big gains. Players such as Andrew Harris and Nic Demski — and sometimes Darvin Adams — are incredibly difficult to bring down one on one, and even more so when they get the ball in space, and have only a single defender in the vicinity. Heck, I would dare suggest that the checkdown to Harris in the flat has been one of the most successful and consistent plays this offence has run the past three years, because Harris makes people miss, and can turn relatively short, innocuous passing plays into big gains.

In the game against Calgary, the first defender on the scene against any of the aforementioned players almost always secured the tackle and sealed the deal. For an offence used to getting a lot of yards after the catch, or yards after contact, they were completely, and utterly, shut down.

There is nothing fancy about the ability to run fast and change direction in pro football, either, but that is another fundamental that the Stampeders outclassed the Bombers with. Kamar Jorden set an all time record for receiving yardage in the history of the Stampeders’ organization when he caught 10 passes for 249 yards. It doesn’t matter what scheme or technique you are playing if the man you are attempting to cover can run faster and change direction quicker than you can.

With eight games remaining in the season, this team still has the opportunity for self-improvement. With some more time spent at the gym, a few classes at finishing school and maybe an MBA (masters of blocking administration), you never know — maybe they could convince the Stampeders to give them another chance, or another look. If they choose not to improve their esthetics and fundamentals soon, though, they will simply have to lower their expectations and settle for a dance partner of lesser calibre.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97