Mark Masters
CFL.ca
TO: Ken Miller, head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders
FROM: Concerned Canadian Football League fans
SUBJECT: Ensuring a competitive Grey Cup game
Dear Coach Miller,
Congratulations on your big win Sunday night against the Calgary Stampeders. Your team went toe-to-toe with the defending Grey Cup champions four times this season and did not lose once. You are worthy Western Division champions.
Your team showed composure and resilience in responding to a slow start to post a convincing victory in the Western Final. However, if you are still celebrating, please stop.
Nobody should celebrate earning a date with the buzz saw known as the Montreal Alouettes.
While you were preparing for the matchup against Calgary the Alouettes were pummeling the BC Lions. Was it a mismatch? Yeah, just a bit. Like Verne Troyer facing LeBron James in a jumping contest.
The Grey Cup game is the most watched football game in Canada each year. It is crucial that the fans, both avid and passive, in this country get a good show. We need you to make this happen.
The Alouettes are 16-3 this season and two of those losses are tainted, one by a controversial call (at BC) and another due to a lack of interest (at Winnipeg). Montreal’s 2009 campaign included two big wins against your club. They outscored you in a pair of meetings by 42 points.
We want Saskatchewan to be competitive in the big game and that’s why this letter is being written. We want to do our part to ensure Sunday’s game in Calgary is a celebration of football and not a coronation.
As you’re reviewing film this week please take note of the following:
(1) You will be facing the best quarterback in the CFL in Anthony Calvillo. It was just another ho-hum 300-yard, five-touchdown performance for the league’s likely Most Outstanding Player award winner on Sunday at Olympic Stadium.
The Lions only sacked Calvillo once and for much of the day it looked like the veteran pivot was simply toying with a defence that boasted CFL regular season co-sack king Ricky Foley. Let’s be honest, it is hard to completely shut down the Montreal offence, but to contain the high-powered Alouettes attack you must put pressure on Calvillo and force him into quick decisions.
Against Calgary Renauld Williams had a hat trick of sacks. He’ll need to get up close and personal with Calvillo as well. Maybe offer every defensive player on your team a bonus for any sack recorded against Montreal. It would be worth every penny.
(2) It is impossible to focus on any one threat beyond Calvillo. During their shellacking of the Lions in the Eastern Division Final the Alouettes rushed for more than 100 yards.
Meanwhile, six different receivers (Jamel Richardson, Andrew Hawkins, Kerry Watkins, Ben Cahoon, Brian Bratton and Avon Cobourne) collected at least two catches. You can’t look to shut any one of those guys down because the others are capable of hurting you just as badly.
(3) The Alouettes defence is basically without weakness. Consider this: during Sunday’s game vs. BC the Montreal defence featured six different players who had either a sack (Chip Cox, Anwar Stewart, J.P. Bekasiak and Jermaine McElveen) or an interception (Billy Parker and John Bowman).
Casey Printers, who can scramble better than eggs at a diner, looked helpless against the Montreal pass rush. Supposedly a weapon with his arm and his feet, Printers rushed for the same amount of yards as the fans in the stands: zilch.
(4) Finally, we want to warn you that the Alouettes look like a team on a mission, desperate to wipe away the bitter disappointment of last year’s loss in the Grey Cup game. There is no way they will lay an egg in the big game this year.
They will come out firing and you guys better start from the opening kickoff on Sunday. None of this falling behind 10-0 stuff. You think playing Montreal is tough try playing them from behind.
Now having written all of this there are a number of reasons why your team will be more than competitive and possibly win the game against Montreal.
(1) Darian Durant is playing mistake-free football. In the latest chapter of his coming-of-age season Durant threw three touchdowns and no interceptions while maintaining his calm in front of what had to be the most raucous crowd he has ever seen.
The big knock on Durant this season was that he threw untimely picks. You must stress to Durant that he continue to play high-percentage football. He doesn’t need to match Calvillo for you to win the game. He need only avoid a major mistake to ensure your team stays in it until the final moments.
(2) Remember Wes Cates? This season every team in the league had a running back break the 1,000-yard mark, except for you guys. Cates ran for 57 yards on 14 carries against Calgary and added three catches for 25 yards. Cates has become the forgotten man in your attack this season and Grey Cup time may be the perfect occasion to let him run loose.
Montreal held the Lions to a measly 14 yards rushing in the Eastern Final. Martell Mallett had more carries (six) than yards gained (five). If you can somehow make the Alouettes respect the run, just a little bit, then that will go a long way to opening things up for the passing game.
(3) Trick plays and the return game are ways for you to keep pace with the Alouettes. Jason Armstead’s 42-yard pass to Rob Bagg in the third quarter of the Western Final is the perfect example of how creative play calling can change the dynamic of a game. You must ensure these types of plays make it in to the Sunday game plan.
Montreal surrendered a special teams touchdown to BC on Sunday, which gave the Lions a glimmer of hope during the Eastern Final. Armstead has to be good for at least one big return during the Grey Cup, which is important because wining the field-position war is crucial.
Giving an all-star quarterback a short field is a bad idea, just ask Bill Belichick.
Your team can ill afford to give Montreal a short field because a short field will equal a long day for your players.
(4) The price of watermelons is about to go way up in Calgary as local vendors prepare for Rider Nation’s arrival in the Grey Cup city. The crowd at McMahon Stadium is likely to be pro-Roughrider, which will give your side a quasi-home-field advantage without the added pressure of playing at home.
Try and take advantage of this early on by starting strong.
So there you have it, just a few tidbits from Sunday’s divisional finals. There are so many other factors that will determine who hoists the silver chalice on Sunday, but rest assured the notes above will come in handy as you ready your troops for battle this week.
Congratulations again on a fine performance in the Western Final. You have a lot of work to do to prepare for Montreal.
Remember: Everything Matters.
– Concerned Canadian Football League fans
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
Lions receiver Geroy Simon gets some football advice from an unexpected source:
@geroysimon Ok my daughter just told me to watch more football to get good so we can win the Grey Cup! How funny is that. Gotta love the kids.
It appears Simon and his team mates didn’t watch nearly enough football in the lead up to the Eastern Final.
Saskatchewan’s Tad Kornegay and
Calgary’s Nik Lewis allowed their team’s rivalry to spill over into the Twittervesre during the week leading up to their big game. Here’s a selection of the trash tweeting:
@T2daK: @nikel18 so lil nikky … ur gettin chubby over there. Heard they’re moving u to guard this week. You ready for that?
@nikel18: @T2daKLitte tad pole, whats up, U should change ur name to Gay Korn, now that’s funny
@T2daK: @nikel18 haha. That was cute. Reminded me of elementary days. U better cool it before Daddy Huff puts you in timeout again?
@nikel18: @T2daK I think I am a pretty cool guy who likes 2 have fun, no matter what end of the joke I am on, so lets make this fun and not personal
@T2daK: @nikel18 I see they put a muzzle on u. Lol. Did u get a spanking?
Looks like Kornegay got the last laugh. Now the question: which Alouettes player will he start bugging in the lead up to Sunday’s championship tilt? Perhaps @brianbratton or @kerrywatkins81.
Meanwhile, it appears Rider Nation truly is everywhere …
@mhaubs Most unexpected thing about Vegas: loud/sizable contingent of Saskatchewan Roughriders fans in the sports book for the CFL semis. Seriously.
One thinks the Riders fans were a little heavier in the pocketbook after Sunday’s game.
