YOUR MORTGAGE NOW: ETCH’S & O’S

BY: Gary Etcheverry
For www.yourmortgagenow.ca

“20%-back” & “balanced” versus “unbalanced” lines

One of the least-understood rules of the game is the significant difference between the rules governing offensive versus defensive play.

Defence really only has one rule (you can play with 12 or fewer players on the field, not more, so maybe that’s two rules):  All defenders must be a yard or more on the defence’s side of the football.  That’s it.  Wanna have all 12 in a straight-line, backs to the ball doing jumping jacks as the offence puts the ball in play?  No problem.

Offence is different.  To put the ball in play, there are a handful of “procedural” (thus when violated, “illegal procedure”) rules the offence must adhere to.  Short of detailing them all here, let us attempt to explain the most “central” one.

The offence must deploy a MINIMUM of seven players on the line of scrimmage (within one yard vertically from the football).  Therefore a maximum of five can be “back-of-the-line-of-scrimmage.”  (Thus: “slot-BACKS,” “half-BACK,” etc.)

A fun way to explain which game is older between the U.S. game and the Canadian game; the CFL is the oldest professional or pay-for-play game.  HOWEVER — with the same MINIMUM of seven rule in the states — the U.S. (college) game is the oldest form of football.

If the Canadian game was the oldest, with the same MINIMUM of seven rule, the quarterback position would be a misnomer.  Twelve minus seven leaves five, therefore what we now refer to as quarterBACK might instead be “one-fifth-BACK,” or “20%-BACK.”

To continue:  since seven is an odd number, there is a middle-player among those seven that make-up the LOS (line-of-scrimmage).  The Centre.  When the line is “balanced” (the Centre is the centre), the Centre has a Guard on both sides, a Tackle on the outside of both Guards, and Ends (tight or split) on the outside of both Tackles.

Choosing to deploy MORE than the minimum of seven is perfectly legal, however — based on other “procedural” rules — for each additional line-player above seven, it reduces the number of eligible (that can legally catch a pass) players.

According to these rules there is nothing stated that dictates that the Centre must be the centre, however.  The Centre usually puts the ball in play each play, but anyone on the LOS can put the ball in play.  An extreme example of this is that an End could put the ball in play, having a minimum of six other folks on one side or the other.

You probably won’t see much of that because a defender wouldn’t have to travel far to get to the quarterback, thus the ball…

More “unbalanced” lines are deployed game-in, game-out than the average fan realizes.  The relevance this past Sunday was some of the formations Hamilton Tiger-Cat coach Kent Austin deployed.  Easiest explanation:  an unbalanced line is when the Centre is not the centre.

This will come up again further down in the column…

EASTERN SEMIFINAL: MONTREAL 16 AT HAMILTON 19 OT

Let’s dispense with the end of regulation first.

Yes, it was clearly pass interference in the endzone against the Tiger-Cats.  Uncalled by the officials.

Now what?

There are five seconds left in regulation.  Had it been called, Montreal would have had first-and-goal from the one-yard-line, trailing 13-10.  WITH FIVE SECONDS REMAINING ON THE GAME CLOCK.

Are you going for it?  Going for the WIN?

Hoping that, worst-case scenario, if unsuccessful with whatever play you call, the play will be stopped with one-second remaining on the clock?  We’ll let you report your findings on Rod’s chat-forum blog thing here.  But we think, based on the game clock, the only play was to kick the field goal, tying the game, go to overtime (no doubt, it would have been closer from the one-yard-line than from the 32; and with the weather/wind conditions, there would have been significantly less breath-holding).

SORRY FOLKS, THIS WAS A DEFENSIVE GAME!

The sick fun of it all for us here is that for Alouette senior advisor/offensive thought-leader/coordinator Doug Berry and Hamilton head coach, VP of Etc., Kent Austin, this kind of game had to be eating away at each of their guts.

We believe here they each hate this brand of football.  Especially Austin.

In regulation the two teams combined for just two touchdowns.  In Hamilton’s case it scored its only major in regulation with just a minute-and-a-half left!

What’s Henry Burris got to be thinking?  No doubt he should be thrilled to be going to the East Final after 2012, where along with Winnipeg, the Ti-Cats missed the playoffs both with a CFL’s worst 6-12 record.

But this season has personally been challenging for him in virtually every way.  Burris has thrown 19 INT’s and 24 majors.  Compare that to last year, with George Cortez’s systems, Burris threw 18 picks but 43 TD’s!!!

Here are the main ingredients for Hamilton’s 2013 turn-around:

— Remove Marc Trestman as head coach in Montreal.

— Have BOTH Montreal and Winnipeg be total cluster-F-bombs this season.

— Schedule Winnipeg (CFL-worst 3-15) FOUR times.

— Have arch-rival Toronto’s QB Ricky Ray miss a significant clump of the season.

— Have the Argo defence be less than a shadow of itself.

— And, speaking of defence, here’s the big one: have the league’s worst defensive system in 2012 (32-points-per-game allowed) move from Hamilton to Winnipeg for this year (the exact same 32-points-per-game allowed in 2013! — we can’t make this stuff up).

As has been chronicled here before, the only dominant unit in this season’s eight-team CFL has been Montreal’s defence.  And what makes it dominant is the threat of its “blitz.”

At the risk of sounding arrogant, no one currently coaching in the CFL understands that blitz better than we do here.  Many ideas regarding that blitz system have been “borrowed” (unattributed) from us here over the years.  No intellectual properties protection in football.

And the best way for Kent Austin — he has decided — to “defeat” that blitz is to not see it.  Or minimize the number of times his offence sees it.  His own defence deploys it, with mixed results.  (as do Toronto and Calgary).

The rub for Austin is one of the only ways to not see that blitz (he believes) is to play a brand of football that he barely has the stomach for; a QB-running offence.

The challenge there is that it’s very “expensive” in terms of preparation time.  And doing it the way Austin and offensive coordinator Tommy Condell have elected to do it, it’s not very productive as far as points go either.

No question, Austin’s gamble paid off.  Montreal didn’t blitz much in that fashion back in their game 17 clash that determined the home team for this one.  And it blitzed less on Sunday.

The Tiger-Cats employed a variety of concepts that dissuaded the Als from lining up in the blitz.  They even “shifted” the entire offensive line with a tightend, deploying both balanced and unbalanced lines at times (an unbalanced line is where the centre is not the centre of the line).

But there’s an old saying in football:  “Dance with the one who brung ya…”

Yes, Burris had a VITAL 12-play, 97-yard, four-and-a-half minute drive within the final six minutes of regulation (QB Dan Lefevour had two runs for 5- and 2-yards, and was one-of-two passing) that accounted for Hamilton’s lone major in regulation.

In the overtime period, after Als QB Troy Smith completed two short passes, and inconsistent to-say-the-least kicker Sean Whyte made good on a 34-yard field goal, it was Hamilton’s turn.

Burris started the possession with a nine-yard completion.  Three plays later he returned for another nine-yard completion.  The other six plays were all Lefevour runs.  Single-wing football. Touchdown. Game over.

In this era in the CFL, if anyone other than Austin was to author such an offence it would be seen as “gimmicky,” “high school-ish,” whacky, unconventional, etc.  Even by personnel folks in his own Ti-Cat organization.

Credit where credit is due though:  Austin is building into this team an incredibly important sense of “Whatever It Takes!”

And that can not be understated.

We’ll see how sustainable that is moving towards Regina via T.O. (if the Argos choose not to “blitz,” it won’t be an issue).

WESTERN SEMIFINAL: BC 25 AT SASKATCHEWAN 29

This

one

was

DIFFERENT!

This one was fundamentally about Saskatchewan QB Darian Durant.  His maturity as the team’s leader.  His coming-of-age.

After the Rider victory Sunday evening, coach Corey Chamblin alluded to a “Darian I remember,” who by scrambling/running kept Chamblin from a “couple of championships,” according to the coach.

Chamblin was referencing the 2009 and 2010 Western Finals, in 2009 in Regina, and the following season in Calgary.  But the coach’s memory has failed him, very possibly in the postgame euphoria of his most significant win as a head coach.

Let’s go back to the season before that time, 2008.

Durant battled with others throughout to become the Rider starting QB by season’s end.  The next year Darian became the organization’s starting pivot and has remained since.

If one chooses to see it through offensive eyes, that’s fine.  In both playoff games — in particular 2010 — Calgary’s offence was fundamentally ineffective.  And Saskatchewan’s was less-so.

That 2010 season, by the way, and the previous one, Durant led all CFL QB’s in interceptions.  In ’09 with 21 (Michael Bishop in Winnipeg that season followed with 20, and Henry Burris, then of the Stamps with 16).  By comparison, Anthony Calvillo, who would go on to QB Montreal’s Grey Cup winning teams had just six that year and seven the next!  In 2010 Durant threw 22 picks (Burris had 20 that season, and was selected as the league’s Most Outstanding Player).

In that 2010 West Final Calgary led 11-0 after the first quarter.

With just under four minutes remaining in the first, Durant threw his only pick that day.  It was returned 27-yards to the Rider 25-yard-line.  Two plays later Burris connected with one of his receivers for a 22-yard scoring strike.  That would be the only major the Stampeders would score that day.

Later, with just under six minutes remaining in the half, Darian led an eight-play, 80-yard, almost four-minute drive that did include two runs.  The first for five-yards, the second for four.  But Darian was six of six passing.

In the ensuing possession, Burris was intercepted by the Rider safety James Patrick (who led all CFL thiefs that season with nine), who returned the ball to inside the Calgary 15 with just under a minute left in the first half.  Three Durant passes later (no runs), and the Riders would score their second of two passing majors that day.

In the third period Saskatchewan running back Wes Cates capped an 11-play, 75-yard drive that took almost seven-minutes off the clock.  And that drive did include a Durant run of 11-yards.

Durant had six rushes for 51-yards that day.  His longest was for 22-yards in the first part of the second quarter, part of an inconsequential 4-play drive that ended in a punt.

In the ’09 Final, Durant had five-rushes, with a long of 12-yards, for 29-yards.

The point is that in Darian’s first two seasons as a full-time starter for Saskatchewan, he was a significant part of the team.  He was feeling his way through those formative years, surrounded by a strong TEAM.

He lived through a mishmash of offensive coordinators, and schemes, winning his first two seasons.  And mostly losing his next two.

Until Sunday, Darian Durant was a significant part of a Rider TEAM that brought him along for the better part of the past four-plus seasons.  During most of that time he was not in the conversation with the Calvillos, Rays or Burrises.

But on this Sunday he more than returned the favour!

This game was NOT about halftime adjustments.  (If it was, explain why, with the Riders closing strong to within one-point to end the first half; B.C. took the second-half kickoff to its own 33-yard line, and then had a seven-play, 77-yard drive — with only one pass play of 12-yards — for an easy score)

No, this game was about Darian Durant taking charge.  It was about coach George Cortez considering Durant’s observation of space being available to run/scramble, and running.

Yes, there was the 61-yard beautiful screen pass to Kory Sheets.  (The Lions fundamentally shut-down Sheets as a runner.)  And yes, Darian found Weston Dressler twice in the endzone.  Durant also threw zero INT’s in this game.

But after an ill-advised decision to “go for it” on third-and-MORE-than-one-yard to go near mid-field, and failing on that poor play choice, beginning with the next Rider offensive possession, it was all about Durant.

He had just six carries in this game for almost 100-yards, with the longest of 35-yards (and another of 28!).  Most of it late in the game, contributing to the insurance of this all-important victory.

To be sure, it is Darian Durant’s time.  This season has led up to this.  One of the best “plays” of the season may have been to sit him out for the entirety of the finale versus the Eskimos.

Either way, Calgary will have a lot to think about for these next few days.  In his fifth season as a full-time starter, Darian Durant is part of any good conversation on the subject of quarterbacking in the CFL, right there with the best of ’em!

(Follow Gary Etcheverry on Twitter at @coachETCH)