Hall needs to take harder line on player accountability

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This article was published 08/01/2018 (2816 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richie Hall’s defence is a puzzle.

The reason his return as Bombers defensive coordinator is controversial is a quandary. How can the Bombers be so good at things like taking the football away and intercepting (in which they’ve led the CFL over the last two seasons) while at the same time being so bad at surrendering yardage? They’ve given up the most yards per game in the CFL in 2016, and the second-most in 2017.

People don’t like what they don’t understand. The contradiction of successes and failures from Hall’s defence is more a head contusion-and-concussion than a head-scratcher.

So how do you account for a defence that is seemingly either busting a coverage, making a spectacular interception and returning it to the house, or surrendering an easy score? Potentially all in the same game? From my experience playing defence, the allure of the big play can often cause players to ignore their assignments and go rogue.

On every defensive snap, you are surrounded by risk and reward. Most frequently,you are rewarded simply by executing your techniques properly. Depending upon the game, and whether you are being targeted, you can make a lot of plays executing your techniques and upholding your responsibilities.

Other times, no matter how well you are accountable to the scheme being employed, there may not be a lot of action coming to you. An overwhelming desire to be rewarded, involved and applauded can often lead defensive players to go outside of the scheme, their techniques and responsibilities.

From a defensive line perspective, there is mainly one style of play up front. Get off on the snap of the football, attack and maintain the integrity of the gap you are responsible for, fight pressure from the offence and react appropriately to your keys. Seems simple enough.

The breakdowns defences encounter, however, happen if someone is reached, walled or loses control of their gap, ignores their run responsibility — or against the pass — aren’t disciplined enough to stay in their rush lane. Some of the temptations you find yourself with as a defensive lineman would be “peaking” into another gap, back-dooring a blocking scheme, or coming inside of a block when your responsibility is outside, i.e. losing contain.

Historically, there is one rule that governs rogue defensive line play. If you did something you weren’t supposed to, you better make the play. Otherwise, there will be hell to pay.

A part of being a veteran football player is knowing when to overcome your coaching. That’s essentially knowing when the rules you’ve been taught are not applicable to the situation, and you need to go outside your technique or responsibility. Very few coaches are overly critical of a player that ignored his responsibilities, but made a big play.

However, if you freelance on a play, and the defence gets gashed or busts a coverage, there is no time in your career when you will be more heavily criticized. Or should be.

So essentially, to some degree, football is a game of knowing when to pick your moments, and balancing cost and reward for the situation. If you cheat your responsibility on occasion, you better win, and not be the reason the defence fails. If you cheat all the time, but make a bunch of big plays in the process, you are still a liability to the defence, because no one knows what you are going to do in any given scenario.

When it comes to a defence that has both awful and awesome moments, regularly, experience tells me that the players aren’t afraid of the consequences of shirking their duties more often than is usual.

Three things usually keep players in check, and from doing whatever they want on the football field. The first is their allegiance to their teammates and the desire to not be the weak link in the chain and undisciplined. Another is knowing full well there will be consequences if they take too many freestyle shots in a game. The third is not letting their ego, and their thirst for applause, get bigger than the defence they’re playing in.

Hopefully, with the increased presence of the head coach defensively, and a harder line approach to accountability, things will tighten up considerably in the back end in 2018, or we can expect to see more of these Jekyll-and-Hyde type statistics, and more first-round playoff exits.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97