Adam Gagnon
Former NFL broadcaster and head coach of the Oakland Raiders John Madden knows very well about the importance of discipline. Madden once said, “Discipline is knowing what you are supposed to do and doing it the best you can. On third and short yardage, the Raiders don’t jump offside.”
In the game of football you have enough of a challenge playing your opponent who are doing everything they can to disrupt your game plan. It’s much worse for a team when they add the daunting task of trying not to beat themselves.
The Eskimos have lost four of their last six football games after racing out of the gate with a 7-1 start. Their latest setback came last week in Toronto losing 33-32 to the Argonauts. The Eskimos were flagged 18 times for a whopping 224 yards. That’s 41 yards off the CFL record for most penalty yards in a game set by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1992.
The amount of penalties taken must have felt like a snowball going down a hill and getting larger and larger. Head coach Chris Jones says the lack of discipline is hurting his football team especially when it comes to the number of major fouls his team is taking.
“You know taking a 15 yard penalty means 75 per cent of the time means they are going to get some kind of points,” Jones said. “We have to reduce the number of 15 yard penalties that we take or we are going to continue to give up points. We’ve lost two East Coast games, one by two points and one by one point and we didn’t play good in either one of them and yet we still had a chance to win the game late. A penalty here or there and that’s points.”
There were two unnecessary roughness penalties on the Eskimos which led to six points for the Argos and as Chris Jones referenced, his team lost by just one point so take one of those penalties away and Eskimos stand a good chance at winning the game.
Regardless two full football fields of penalties is making life so difficult on yourself. The Eskimos did a good job of reducing the number of flags thrown not too long ago. Chris Jones says the team’s average of number of penalties taken stood at 14.3 after Week 3. The team was then able to shave that number down to around 11 penalties per game. In the Eskimos last three games they have taken 11, 12, and 18 penalties for 415 yards.
Penalties are the responsibility of the head coach as is everything. What about the players? Do players need to challenge each other and be accountable to one another in this area?
Quarterback Mike Reilly who is one of the Eskimos leaders says yes.
“Those are all players taking penalties so it’s 100 per cent on us,” Reilly said. “Taking over two football field lengths of penalties makes it hard to win when you are battling against yourself. I don’t think any of that is attributed to coaches. We know what the rules are and how the refs are calling it.”
Coaches do their very best to try and emphasize the importance of not taking bad penalties. Some penalties are taken when a player is going full speed and simply trying to make a play. Those are easier to live with. It’s when you have the mental mistakes that drive coaches and teams crazy. Offside’s, procedures, taking an extra shot at a player on the ground who has already been deemed down, taking a too many men penalty on third and 10.
The Eskimos have shown the ability to stay disciplined and its group that has high character and wants to play the right way. At 9-5 the Eskimos are in a great position with four games to go. The team is tied for second place in the West with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and win already under their belt against the green and white.
This team is still in the process of learning how to play the right way. One lesson they are learning is the second half of a CFL season and much different than the first half. The Eskimos were able to overcome penalties, slow starts, and come from behind to win games early on. Now it’s much harder to duplicate because teams are much better at this stage of the season and have already seen you at least once. Your margin of error is so much thinner because the magnitude of the games is greater.
On Thanksgiving Monday the Eskimos face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers which will be a tough enough challenge.
The Eskimos need to eliminate battling themselves.
