A lack of trust, and not a lack of talent, is at the heart of the Toronto Argonauts' offensive struggles this season, according to head coach Jim Barker.
"We have three weeks to get to a point where we develop trust," Barker said, "because without it in a passing game you have no chance to be successful, and that's where we are right now.
After Toronto lost 30-3 last week to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Barker, who served as an offensive co-ordinator with the Montreal Alouettes and Argos earlier in his career, decided to take a more hands-on approach to his team's offence. He has been more vocal during practices and in offensive team meetings.
Barker said he had no choice but to get more involved. Through 15 games this year the Argos have scored the fewest touchdowns (21) and generated the fewest passing yards (3,263) in the league.
Despite the poor on-field performance, Barker gave rookie offensive co-ordinator Jaime Elizondo a vote of confidence yesterday. He said the former Syracuse University receivers coach has created a quality offensive game plan. The problem lies with the execution.
"Jaime's done a good job, but sometimes you try to ... I don't want to say over-coach, but you want everything perfect ... and for players that sometimes confines them. It's about finding that happy medium where we're still getting guys in the right spots, but they're able to go out and play and be more natural."
The strong play of running back Cory Boyd, who leads the Canadian Football League in rushing yards, has helped the Argos move the ball at times. But teams have been designing defensive strategies to shut down Boyd and put more pressure on quarterback Cleo Lemon and a group of largely unproven receivers.
Lemon has been unable to rise to the challenge thus far. His quarterback rating (76.3) ranks last among the eight starters in the league. But Elizondo said part of the blame for the club's anemic offence needs to be directed at the receivers.
"The players have to learn the little nuances and details, and that's what we're lacking right now -- the details of how to run a specific route and how to win that individual battle," said Elizondo, who calls Toronto's plays during games.
The Argos have been unable to establish a deep threat this season, completing only 15 passes of 30 yards or more, the lowest total in the CFL. Veteran Jeremaine Copeland leads the Argos with 545 receiving yards. Every other team in the CFL has at least two receivers with more yards than Copeland.
Barker said Lemon and his receivers must be more creative.
"I want to see us playing the game the way it's supposed to be played and not just running plays," Barker said.
"You want to be disciplined, you want to do things correctly, but you got to understand the game is not played on paper. Just because a post route is run at 10 yards or 12 yards, well maybe it's not on this one, maybe I got to do this differently, because the bottom line is I got to get open ... I think we try to be too perfect."
While the receivers need to do a better job eluding defenders, the onus is also on Lemon to deliver the ball quicker.
"I think the anticipation of different route combinations and things of that nature has caused us to be off, maybe a second, half a second, but in football that's huge," Lemon said. "So to make up that timing is going to be critical for us.
"[Barker] wants to get everyone on the same page. That's the key. He's just tightening some things up to make sure we don't have any miscommunication on the field."
mmasters@nationalpost.com
Read more: Sport
No comments:
Post a Comment