Esks.com
Every week in the Canadian Football League we see similar-looking plays over and over again.
Why? Because they work.
Quick play action throws to the slotbacks, bubble screens and double slants routes are just a few of the many concepts that most CFL offences would label ‘the basics’.
It’s not that those ‘basics’ aren’t entertaining. On any given play, quarterbacks can thread the needle, receivers can make a sensational catch and a lineman can dominate his blocking assignment.
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With that being said, the fun really comes when offensive coordinators and their staff mix it up.
Once in a while, coordinators will take a play they’ve run so many times and tweak it slightly, creating a dramatically different challenge for the defence. Most of the time this tweak happens in the score zone – or red zone depending on your preference – and leads to defenders looking befuddled by how the guy catching a touchdown got so open.
On Thursday night, CFL fans will be treated to two of the best play-callers in the game when Edmonton Eskimos offensive coordinator Carson Walch and Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice compete for offensive play-calling supremacy.
To give you an idea of why both Walch and LaPolice should be regarded amongst the best score zone tweak artists moving forward, we have to look back at how they have confused defenders already in 2017 en route to calling plays for the second (Winnipeg) and third (Edmonton) highest scoring offences in the CFL.
While being equally creative in the score zone this season, LaPolice and Walch have gone about twisting minds and bodies in different ways.
Walch and the Eskimos have become adept at using their star quarterback and leader Mike Reilly as a running option, which causes all kinds of issues for defenders.
Reilly is by no means the only quarterback using his legs with the goal line in reach. Kevin Glenn actually leads all CFL quarterbacks with five rushing attempts – excluding short yardage sneaks – when inside the opponents’ 30-yard line. With that being said, he is by far the most effective quarterback in the CFL when taking off to run near the end zone.
Against Hamilton, the Eskimos had second down and goal to go from the Ticats’ five-yard line and were up 13-11 with 2:25 remaining in the first half. Hoping to expand their lead before the break, Walch set two receivers (Bryant Mitchell and Chris Getzlaf) and two fullbacks (Alexandre Dupuis and Calvin McCarty) to the wide field side.
Not something you see on a play-to-play basis in the CFL.
Mitchell and Getzlaf motioned across the formation, leaving Dupuis and McCarty — who were both tight to the offensive line — as the only eligible receivers on the left side of the formation:
By condensing the wide side with motion and formation, Walch and the Eskimos created an easy read for Mike Reilly on a speed option. McCarty hack blocked down the line on Simoni Lawrence, leaving Reilly and LaDarius Perkins two-on-one with Tiger-Cats defensive back Dominique Ellis:
No chance. One good decision by Mike Reilly later, the Eskimos were in the end zone.
The following week in Ottawa, Walch and the Eskimos went back to using Reilly as a running threat with McCarty as the tight end. This time there would be no cross ball motion or speed option. Instead, McCarty would simply chop down his defender in space – legal as a called run – and Reilly read off the defensive end before beating Serderius Bryant to the front corner of the end zone:
Two plays, two weeks, different look, same concept of using alignment to create an advantage and trusting the quarterback as a runner. Deadly stuff:
In Winnipeg, Paul LaPolice has not yet employed much in the way of called quarterback runs. Instead, his score zone tweak has been to run traditional CFL plays with creative motion in order to confuse defenders on their assignment.
Down around the goal line, a typical offensive play involves a play action fake to the running back with a slotback or fullback crossing behind the line of scrimmage from one side of the ball to the other before receiving a pass at or near the line of scrimmage and running away into the flats for a touchdown:
The play described and shown above has long been a staple of Ricky Ray’s incredibly high career completion percentage and resulted in Argos fullback Declan Cross receiving his first career touchdown in Week 6.
Everyone in the CFL runs these types of plays but Winnipeg threw in a wrinkle in Week 8 in Hamilton, which guaranteed success for Julian Feoli-Gudino when he scored on a first and goal from the Hamilton six yard line up 12-6 with 1:31 remaining in the first half:
Instead of having a slotback or fullback cross the formation from a relatively traditional position, the Bombers motioned Feoli-Gudino down the line of scrimmage from his wide side receiver position to become the primary receiver who, just like Argos fullback Declan Cross above, crosses the formation behind the line of scrimmage and catches the ball in the flats for a wide open touchdown.
At this point. you’re probably wondering what the big deal is. Who cares if the wide receiver is the primary receiver instead of a slotback or fullback?
Defences do.
By exchanging receiver responsibilities on simple plays and having pass catchers capable of running any route on any play, the Bombers’ passing offence led by LaPolice becomes increasingly difficult to both scheme for and defend.
If you watch the play above closely, you’ll see Tiger-Cats field cornerback Richard Leonard tell the field halfback and SAM linebacker Dominique Ellis the motion is coming. At the snap, Feoli-Gudino is running full speed away from Ellis, who has no chance of catching up to Feoli-Gudino while the Ticats’ defenders on the near side of the field have no idea Feoli-Gudino is running at full speed to their side.
A nearly indefensible play created by a creative motion and new assignments to play off previous tendencies. A play worthy of anywhere on the field but saved for the opportunity to put points on the board.
Paul LaPolice and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have not reinvented the wheel with this concept. Several teams have run variations of it including Ottawa REDBLACKS offensive coordinator Jaime Elizondo for a Brad Sinopoli touchdown in Ottawa’s second game of Week 5.
Just like in Hamilton for LaPolice, Nichols and Feoli-Gudino, it worked.
Anything and everything listed above has been done by most teams and will be run several more times this season by every team. But not every offence has produced the way Edmonton and Winnipeg have through the first eight weeks of the season.
My fingers are crossed in hopes of more creativity and imagination from Walch and LaPolice on Thursday night. If they call the game with the same cunning intellect shown through the first eight weeks of 2017, the defences could be in trouble — and we could be in for a show.
