Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
It’s something that coaches at every level of football struggle with, but very few manage to rein in. And it’s something that, when it comes time to send their players out on the field, they’re ultimately helpless about.
A trace of a laugh slipped out of Jason Maas on Wednesday in Edmonton, before the Eskimos’ coach tried to address that his team’s penalties have gone down of late.
“We’ve tried everything for the two years I’ve been here,” he said. “We have a penalty accountability board. We talk about penalties all the time. We do pushups after every penalty. We run guys, we watch every single penalty in the game to learn from them.”
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The Eskimos finished this season as the second-most flagged team in the CFL, with 158 infractions. Montreal had the most, at 174, with Hamilton right behind Edmonton at 157. You’ll notice something about those other two teams.
“We keep track of all the turnovers and penalties in our league,” Maas said. “We see where we ranked through the entire year and used it as motivation so your team understands that that’s important.
“We’ve talked about how the last three years, the teams that are at the very bottom of that in turnovers and penalties, don’t usually make the playoffs and they’re usually the worst teams in the league, record-wise.
“It’s all about motivating your team and having your team learn from mistakes.”
In Sunday’s Western Semi-Final win over Winnipeg, the Eskimos only took five penalties. That’s down from their season average of 8.7 per game.
“We are well aware when we create penalties. We have a keys to victory board where we have a key, there’s a number on a key, and when you screw up it gets moved to a discipline part (of the board). Everyone’s fully aware,” Maas said.
I saw the last 10 weeks, particularly during our losing streak, our guys said, ‘Enough’s enough. We’re fed up with this crap’. They started to fine each other, we started doing the pushups and we started doing extra stuff.
Jason Maas on the Eskimos’ approach to discipline
As the coach and a former Esks’ QB, Maas has been on both sides of the penalty issue.
“At the end of the day it’s accountability on their part,” he said. “Coaches can spew all they want, they can talk all they want about discipline and all they want about other things. Until players buy in and they all hold themselves accountable, you don’t get anything done.
“That’s what I saw. I saw the last 10 weeks, particularly during our losing streak, our guys said, ‘Enough’s enough. We’re fed up with this crap’. They started to fine each other, we started doing the pushups and we started doing extra stuff.
“Our last six games, if I kept track of it I’m pretty sure we were right up one, two and three in penalty ratio and turnovers in our league. Ultimately we were 5-1 in those last six games.”
It’s a snippet in the game, but an important part of the Eskimos’ now six-game win streak and their turnaround from their six-game losing streak.
