The first weekend of 101st Grey Cup Playoff action gave us exactly what we would have hoped: Close football and great finishes. With Hamilton advancing to Toronto on Sunday, and Saskatchewan punching their ticket to Calgary for the Western Final, we also had to say goodbye to two more teams.
In a lot of ways, both Montreal and BC would like to put 2013 behind them, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some good things to reflect on.
The heir apparent?
The Montreal Alouettes started their 2013 campaign hoping things would follow a familiar script from years past. With Marc Trestman departed, the Als welcomed a new Head Coach with a similar set of credentials. Like Trestman, Dan Hawkins had no CFL experience, but had an extensive resume south of the border with plenty of successes in the U.S. college game.
Unfortunately, the results were very much different.
It took just five games for Hawkins’ tenure to come to an end in Montreal, as GM Jim Popp relieved him of his duties on Aug. 1.
As we wrote here that week, it was the right call and one that helped the Alouettes salvage their season. They were 2-3 when the firing happened, and no one will ever know how the rest of the season would have played out.
We here at the MMQB believe it would have been significantly worse than what we ended up seeing.
It was a nightmare year in so many different ways in Montreal. Not only did they have coaching turmoil early on, but they also could not escape major injuries to crucial players. Starting with quarterback Anthony Calvillo, the Als played without running back Brandon Whitaker, receiver Jamel Richardson, and offensive lineman Scott Flory to name just a few.
And yet they came within an eyelash of winning a playoff game, eventually falling 19-16 to Hamilton in overtime.
Most importantly, Montreal may have found out who to turn to when they finally move on from Calvillo. Nobody knows whether AC will be returning for 2014, but just like the last number of years, there is a sizeable chance he’ll be saying goodbye to football.
Thanks to what we saw in 2013 from Troy Smith, that may not be as catastrophic as once thought.
Now, I’m not saying Smith was in world beating form against the Tiger-Cats on Sunday. He had his problems, much like he had his troubles throughout his shortened season.
Now, maybe it’s just me, but what I saw from Smith in a very limited sample size is something we haven’t seen from most pivots called on to fill-in for Calvillo. Smith showed poise, explosiveness, and more importantly, he showed presence.
You can tell he’s played in big games before, and you can tell he’s confident when in control of the offence.
There’s no doubt Smith will have to work on his accuracy and general grasp of a CFL offence. But let’s not forget the circumstances that were his 2013 football season. Smith joined the Als once the season was underway and was given a crash course on the league, and the team’s offence.
It wasn’t nearly enough time for a player new to the CFL and who was fresh off a year-long break from the game.
Here’s the thing: For those of us who liked a lot of what we saw from Smith this year, there is good reason. But there’s also more than enough evidence that there’s a lot of work to be done. A completion percentage hovering around 50 isn’t going to get it done as a long-term starter in this league.
There’s now ample time for Smith to work and learn so that come 2014, if called upon, he’ll have a much larger grasp on what this league is all about. It’s just another interesting off-season story to watch when it comes to Montreal quarterbacks.
Affirmation and confirmation
Yes, BC’s offence stalled in the second half of their 29-25 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday afternoon. Yes, Travis Lulay didn’t throw a touchdown at Mosaic Stadium. But what we saw in the Western Semi-Final in Regina was something we already knew: This team is defined in many ways by their starting quarterback.
Thanks to a shoulder injury, Lulay missed six games of the regular season and didn’t have much lead-time prior to a start in a single elimination playoff game. But, even still, Lulay was able to move the offence in a way we have become accustomed to. And, more noticeably, he controlled an offence that was far more effective than when Thomas DeMarco and/or Buck Pieree were behind centre.
Nobody is surprised to see Lulay look like a top-notch quarterback, so there’s not a whole lot else to say on that matter. However, 2013 affirmed more than just the quarterback situation for the Lions.
There was a time last season where many felt linebackers Adam Bighill and Soloman Elimimian couldn’t effectively be on the field at the same time. Both were tackle machines, and both were used to roaming the middle of the field as defensive generals. Yet, 2013 showed us that now only could they share the same field together, but they could do it in a very dominant way.
The two combined for 165 tackles this season and both finished in the top 10 for the category. And just as importantly, having lateral range from two linebackers like these two bring opens things up all over the field. As such, defensive coordinator Rich Stubler was able to bring out even more from some of his most dangerous players on the field.
Guys like Korey Banks and Dante Marsh were made more dangerous while using their two-headed monster setup at linebacker. And I’m not taking one thing away from Saskatchewan’s impressive comeback, but you certainly wonder if the Lions would have looked a little different in the fourth quarter if Elimimian hadn’t been a late scratch with a hamstring injury.
When using a very specific, and unique, deployment in the middle tier of your defence all season long and then subbing in a less mobile guy last minute is going to be an adjustment. Anton McKenzie did an admirable job filling in, but he’s just not anywhere near as mobile or rangy as the guy he was replacing.
Bighill and Elimimian are very similar football players, which is why many felt they weren’t a good fit on the same time. Stubler decided to buck conventional wisdom and use them both, and it worked out very well.
A look ahead
So now we know our matchups for the Division Finals. When the Riders visit Calgary, I’ll be watching to see what kind of game plan we see from offensive coordinator George Cortez.
Against BC, the Riders ran into a very stiff test running the football, especially in the first 40 minutes or so of the contest. Will they have that same type of stiff test at McMahon Stadium?
In some ways, the losses of defensive linemen Demonte’ Bolden and Micah Johnson will make the job of Riders running back Kory Sheets a little easier.
Calgary lost both of their starting interior linemen to finish their regular season, which will be a big loss, make no doubt about it. Bolden and Johnson gave the Stampeders their most effective inside push in a number of years.
However, if Saskatchewan and Sheets do run into another stiff wall, I don’t think they’ll be able to rely on their quarterback as much as they did against BC. Darian Durant ran for an impressive 97 yards on six carries, all of them crucial.
That said, we’re talking about a Calgary team that finished with 63 sacks in the regular season. Charleston Hughes and company will be ready for Durant’s wheels, and the Stamps boast a lot of speed all over the field. Sheets saw 17 carries against BC, and my guess is we’ll see at least that, if not more, in Calgary.
As for the Tiger-Cats, they really need to make sure they’re far more effective early on. Hamilton won’t have to worry about the wind in their Eastern Final against Toronto, but they will have to be concerned about taking advantage of opportunities early on.
As much as we extolled the virtues of Troy Smith earlier, the Alouettes quarterback and his offence didn’t necessarily light the world on fire in Guelph. As such, Hamilton could hang around with a whole lot more ease in a game they were out of sync offensively themselves. Against the Argos, I’m far more skeptical that will be the case.
Yes, there sounds to be a fairly large chance running back Chad Kackert won’t play for Toronto this coming Sunday. But the Argos offence is lead by the East Division’s Most Outstanding Player Ricky Ray.
Not punching in majors and turning over the football are not going to slide the same way they did this past weekend, and the Tiger-Cats know that.
