The Canadian Press
With one quarter of the CFL season in the books – REALLY?! – it’s time to look at what we have learned in the early going of the season about each team. Forget just wins, losses and standings for a moment and let’s look at how each club has approached the 2017 campaign.
BC LIONS
The Lions are the only team with the task of replacing a starting quarterback for more than a couple plays so far this season which makes them a logical place to start as they offer they only comparison of how a team approaches the same offence with two different men standing under centre.
Two notes of interest popped up when looking at the protection each quarterback received from the Lions offensive line. The Lions are consistently protecting Lulay with less blockers per pass play than they were with Jennings at the helm.
What makes this even more interesting is that Lulay is being rushed by opponents through two games of action far more than Jennings was per pass snap. Could this be teams thinking they could get to Jennings with less pressure or just matchups?
The answer is a bit of both. The Edmonton Eskimos dominated line of scrimmage in Week 1 with just a four man rush consistently while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are varied in their blitz packages.
Either way Lulay is getting more yards after the catch per pass than Jennings was which you would expect from a veteran quarterback who knows how to lead receivers towards the best possible situation.
EDMONTON ESKIMOS
I was really excited to watch John White play all season in Edmonton coming off the playoff performances he put together last season in Hamilton and Ottawa. When he was injured against the Montreal Alouettes in Week 2 I wondered how the offence would evolve.
It FEELS as though Head Coach Jason Maas and Offensive Coordinator Carson Walch have maintained their commitment to the ground game as supported by the 2017 run/pass play calling split from all games.
The Eskimos still lead the league in run play call percentage at 36.6% but a look at the weekly breakdown shows that while they maintained the White based game plan against Montreal after he was injured, the Eskimos have shifted tendencies with Travon Van in the backfield in Week 3 against Ottawa and Week 5 against Hamilton.
CALGARY STAMPEDERS
The Stampeders have always been a rushing oriented team especially since Jerome Messam joined. When Messam was ejected in Week 4 at Montreal the play calling completely changed. The Stampeders only called run plays 14% of the time in that loss but returning home to McMahon with an angry Messam Calgary set a new standard in 2017 for single game run commitment at 47.5% run plays called.
For perspective, the CFL average for run play calling percentage per game is 24%.
Bo Levi Mitchell is also being helped with the most yards after the catch per completion by any quarterback to start all his teams games in the CFL so far this year.
A run game and lots of yards after the catch, a sure fire recipe for success.
SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS
Simply put Kevin Glenn is the most blitzed quarterback in the Canadian Football League.
The 50,000 yard man has been dealing with plenty of heat this season which is something he’s not likely to get properly simulated in practice since the Riders are last in the league when it comes to pass rushers per snap. Saskatchewan owns the gold, silver and bronze of games with fewest pass rushers per snap in the CFL this year.
WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive line is my top graded group of pivot protectors through the first quarter of the season.
This is an absolutely fantastic stat to own the podium of, but the protection has not yet resulted in a constant down field attack for Matt Nichols and the Bombers offence. Nichols is last in the league when it comes to downfield passing completion percentage and accuracy through five weeks of play.
HAMILTON TIGER-CATS
Under Kent Austin, Hamilton has always been a pass first team and the start of 2017 has been no different. The Ticats claim hold to three of the top five pass play calling percentages of 2017.
Against Edmonton last week the Tiger-Cats went off their usual script by calling a run play 23.2% of the time and that isn’t the only offensive evolution happening in the Hammer.
With the right tackle spot improving via the addition or Lamar Holmes in place of Jordan Swindle the Ticats protection grade has shown a marked change in the last two weeks against tough west division opponents.
If there is one number the Ticats can hang their hat on during a tough 0-4 start, it’s that their front seven has three of the top ten pressure creating performances so far this year.
TORONTO ARGONAUTS
Marc Trestman wasn’t joking when he said Ricky Ray is more valuable than everyone else combined and now Trestman is putting his blockers where his mouth was. The Argos have three of the top five games this year in number of protectors given to the quarterback per pass snap.
This has allowed Ray to flourish attaining standards unseen from his hall of fame bound right arm in close to a decade.
I believe part of his success this season is attacking areas of the field few others do including the far left of the field at a rate higher than anyone else in the league.
I chop the field into five zones. 0 being middle (between hashmarks), 1 being near left (hashmark to numbers), 2 being near right (hashmark to numbers), 3 being far left (numbers to sideline) and 4 being far right (numbers to sideline).
For a right-handed quarterback to attack the far left takes a great amount of fundamental throwing mechanics practice and consistency. Something Ray has long been a master of.
Simply put, he attacks areas of the field defenders aren’t used to and is doing it with increased vertical aggression this season aided by S.J. Green.
OTTAWA REDBLACKS
We all know from watching the games that the Ottawa REDBLACKS have been a lot better than their record shows. Trevor Harris is amongst the early season passing yardage leaders and the team has battled with some of the best teams in the league without being able to pull away from the rest of the East Division.
Each offensive play I measure productivity on a 0-5 scale. 0 is a turnover, 1 means the offence left the field for special teams, 2 is a play with no or minimal gain, three is a gain of yards, 4 is a first down and 5 is a touchdown. Here is how the REDBLACKS offence shakes out against the rest so far this year.
Ottawa owns 3 of the top 15 production grades in the CFL this season. There are only four quarterbacks listed in that top 15 of productivity who lost games and Trevor Harris accounts for half of them (2).
Another interesting note on the REDBLACKS is offensive coordinator Jamie Elizondo’s lack of need for a running back in the protection scheme. The REDBLACKS have three games inside the top five (out of 44) in terms of fewest blockers used per pass snap.
MONTREAL ALOUETTES
The Alouettes offence has been hit and miss in 2017. As detailed last week on CFL.ca Darian Durant doesn’t take shots down the field often but when he does he has the best accuracy and highest completion percentage in the CFL.
On the defensive side the Alouettes have allowed four of the top 11 accuracy performances in the CFL this season for opposing quarterbacks.
Now it needs to be said, this could just be a coincidence but I don’t think opposing quarterbacks travel to Montreal, taste the food and win and suddenly get dialed in.
There had to be a reason which after some digging I believe to be a lack of pressure on the quarterback allowing a clean pocket and opposing quarterbacks to have great accuracy.
The top two offensive line protection grades have both come in games against Montreal and Noel Thorpe’s defence needs to get more pressure to push quarterbacks out of their comfort zone, presumably affecting accuracy ratings.
We are just five weeks into the CFL season but these trends are worth watching and i’ll be doing so all year long. If you have any questions feel free to fire away by commenting below or reaching out on Twitter @TSN_Marsh.
