Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/12/2014 (2099 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

IN April of 2014, we took a peek through a door to the alternate universe of Gary Etcheverry, where he shared with Bombers employee Kim Babij-Gesell his first order of business was, "...telling these players, you’re going to have to forget everything you think you know about football. And if they are successful in doing that, I think we’ll be able to make real sweet music together."

We can’t be certain the resulting Barry Manilow LP playing in reverse was because the players actually did forget everything they knew about football, or because they didn’t wipe their memories completely clean like he wanted, but suffice to say, no matter who is hired in 2015 — sources say it will be Richie Hall or Mike Benevides — they better start resetting their football minds to the original default settings.

While this group did not come close to achieving the goals their former co-ordinator set out for them, there is a good chance with a more conventional system this roster of players will only need to be tweaked and augmented to be successful, instead of being completely junked. For after spending time reviewing game film and practice habits of last year’s team, it became clear the system they tried to implement not only ran contrary to many football fundamentals, but it completely ignored addressing the biggest of their weaknesses.

To further beat the dead horse of last season’s inadequate run defence, you might be surprised to learn — or not surprised at all — this team never had a dedicated inside-run drill in practice. Not one the entire year. Sure there were running plays scripted during the team periods, but the Bombers defence in 2014 never once had a single period during practice where it explicitly worked on stopping the run.

In 15 years of pro football, on three teams in two countries, I can assure you nary a week of football prep went by without at least one inside-run drill. Not only did this team actively try and recruit smaller players less adept at stopping the run, but almost completely ignored it in their preparations.

Another omission was one of the most fundamental lessons you learn playing defence at any level — keeping your shoulders square to the line of scrimmage. When you slant into a gap — like this team had their defensive line do almost exclusively against both the run and the pass — it is very difficult to get your shoulders squared up again, let alone adjust your rush to another gap like they were often asked to do. When you consistently slant your defenders into offset gaps, not only do you limit the scope of their playmaking ability, but you make it easy for savvy offences to wall or wash you away from the play.

The defence we saw on display last year also seemed to emphasize players taking up or occupying blockers, to get miscounts and to spring free rushers instead of attacking and beating them one on one. You can actually see countless examples of defenders almost tracking offensive linemen around the field instead of reading and reacting to the blocking scheme and pursuing to the football.

The statistics from the 2014 defence may lead you to believe this roster of players is incapable of transforming into the kind of unit the Blue and Gold will need if they wish to be relevant in the discussion for the 2015 Grey Cup. Yet, by merely working on their weaknesses in practice, and adopting sound fundamentals for the front seven, whoever ends up leading this group in 2015 may be pleasantly surprised by the number of competent and workable tools in the machine shop.

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The deeper you look into last year, the more you discover the deficiencies were more about schematic and technical flaws than the limitations of the personnel.

They just need to remember everything they learned about football prior to last year.

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

Twitter: @DougBrown97