DEFENCE LOOKS TO TIGHTEN UP SLOPPY TACKLING
Coach says mental mistakes to blame after Roughriders receivers run wild
The Calgary Stampeders defensive backs aren’t making excuses, but they’re not panicking, either.
On Saturday, the Stamps allowed Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros to throw for 352 yards. It was only the third time this season that a quarterback has managed to toss for more than 300 yards against the Stamps.
In and of itself, the yardage total wasn’t the end of the world, but a series of uncharacteristic missed tackles can’t be allowed to happen again.
Defensive backs coach Joshua Bell doesn’t believe he has to worry about that.
“You know, a wise old expression is ‘players are gonna play.’ We made some mistakes, we missed some tackles, we overpursued,” Bell said Tuesday from McMahon Stadium. “I don’t think we missed too many, ‘Oh, he’s in my arms and broke a tackle and ran for 40 yards.’
“It was just us being excited and overly aggressive and wanting to make the play, having maximum effort and speed going into it, but just not taking our minds with us and not taking out pursuit angles. That’s something we work on from Day 1. It’s not really something where you panic as a coach.”
That’s not to suggest the Stampeders aren’t taking the team’s defensive performance seriously. Yes, there’s a body of evidence to suggest their struggles stopping the pass against the Riders were an aberration, but they’re well aware that the rest of the CFL was watching and will be looking to expose the same supposedweaknesses going forward.
And the tackling wasn’t up to snuff. Jordan Williams-Lambert rambled for 51 yards after catching passes. Kyran Moore added 42 more. Only four receivers had previously had that many yards-after-catches in a single game against the Stampeders all season.
Nobody’s particularly worried that the Stamps have suddenly forgotten how to tackle, but it’s still something the team’s working on in practice.
“Honestly, you always do fundamentals,” said Stamps head coach Dave Dickenson. “They do it every day. They do angles and where you want them to look. Mentally, if you’re locked in, you should be tackling. We went up against good opponents, but you’re going to have that each and every week.
“We don’t necessarily teach them: ‘You put your hat on this side or tackle the football here.’ But we talk about it. I think that was a telltale sign defensively, that we were there, but maybe not as locked in as we needed to be, and it can’t happen again.”
Tackling wasn’t the only concern in the defensive backfield on Saturday, though, as the Riders continually found ways to extend drives when they needed long gains on second down, particularly in the second half.
Part of that might have been that the Stamps defence was simply exhausted. The offence struggled in the first half, and even positive moments like Romar Morris’ punt return touchdown meant the defence didn’t get much of a break.
But as Bell explained, it’s also a little bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, because the defence didn’t help itself in the second half when it allowed the Riders offence to stay on the field.
“We played a lot because we couldn’t get off the field, that’s why,” Bell said. “When they convert on second-and-10 and second-and-15, that’s why you’re on the field a long time. We didn’t make the normal, average plays we normally make, and that makes the game look drastically different.”
The Stampeders fully expect to get back to making plays on Friday when they play the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg.
Adjustments could include more man-to-man coverage.
There’s one thing they won’t do, though, and that’s panic.
“We’ve just got to get better. We know we’ve got a couple more games left in the season,” said DB Emanuel Davis. “Every game we go into, we never play a perfect game, so there’s always a lot of room for improvement.”