The coaches’ chess match in the CFL will be on display this Friday when the Saskatchewan Roughriders, led by Chris Jones, invade Commonwealth Stadium to play Jason Maas’s Edmonton Eskimos.
The Chess Match
The key match-up between Eskimos head coach and offensive coordinator Jason Maas against the Riders head coach and defensive coordinator Chris Jones. Jones is the evil genius who designed the schemes and game plans that took the Eskimos to the Grey Cup last year before jumping ship to the rival Riders. Maas is the offensive innovator who built the top offence in yards from scrimmage last year with 7332 yards, propelling the Ottawa Redblacks into the Grey Cup.
While Jones battling Maas is the main event, the undercard is just as interesting, featuring the battle of conservatives. This match-up has coaches Mike Benevides, the new Eskimos defensive coordinator, versus offensive coordinator Stephen McAdoo of the Riders. While Maas and Jones is more interesting, the undercard will most likely decide the game.
Safety Gambit
The best way to describe Chris Jones’ defence is as a hybrid. It is an attacking man-to-man cover defence that uses disguised pressure on one set of downs. Then the next set of downs it morphs into cover 3 zone with only three man pressure. It is intended to be consistently inconsistent, driving the opposition into guessing rather than reading and executing. However, there are some tendencies that Maas can exploit to his advantage.
The Jones hybrid defence uses the safety to fill voids created when the defence is attacking. For example, Pat Watkins had two sacks on cornerback blitzes last year where halfback Marcell Young rotated out to the corner and Cauchy Muamba filled Young’s position. Shifts such as these often catch the offence by surprise, but it also leaves the defence without middle-high coverage on the long ball. The bet is that the added blitzer can help overwhelm the pass protection, allowing the pressure to get to the quarterback before he is able burn the defense. Jones lost that bet in week one last year against Trevor Harris, who went up the sideline on a switch crossing route with a 57 yard catch and run to Brandon Whitaker. Can Maas anticipate a similar look and can Reilly execute against it on Friday night?
Jones also likes to disguise coverages dropping defensive linemen and linebackers in coverage daring the offense to run the ball on second and five plus. The Riders middle linebacker Greg Jones will be tasked with stopping John White, but the opportunity for the Eskies when the Riders drop into coverage is to go off tackle and run right at where Oath Foster should be. Foster is a very good tackler, but in cover 3 the sam linebacker in Jones’ defense drops to the strong safety level played in eleven man football. While he drops, the defensive end also drops to outside linebacker level. Going right at the retreating defense while using an offensive guard like Matt O’Donnell to block downfield should lead to big runs. The gamble is that the opposition will have more faith in their pass than run on second down. Can White have big gains against the Riders like he has in the past?
Maas Attack
The Eskimos offence is built to take shots down field, and Maas will look to make the Jones hybrid defence pay every time they call cover zero blitzes. However, Jones is a cagey play caller and Maas will need to mix in the running game, short passing game, and sideline fades to Derel Walker in addition to go routes. Maas’ offence is a no huddle spread offence. It is not dissimilar to McAdoo’s offence, other than being more aggressive in its use of tempo, motion and willingness to stretch the field. The use of motion and blocking schemes while attacking the weakest point are key, but so is scoring first. When the offence strikes first, Jones’ hybrid defence has to shrink its playbook on both sides of the ball to keep the Riders close on the scoreboard.
Maas uses side to side motion, not just forward, to get a running start. The up-tempo offence gets plays off in two-thirds of the normal play clock, while adjusting for reads with motion and blocking sets. Once the play is off, the routes are designed to pull man coverage apart creating mismatches. The weakness is the length of time some plays take to develop, giving ample opportunity for the defence to pressure the quarterback. The running back or fullback is often held in to help with blocking. Of course, the more in to block, the more double coverage is created down field and it is imperative that the blocking backs sneak out to become a check down receivers.
Mike Reilly’s reads are also key. He must take the play call from relay Thomas DeMarco and quickly determine, based on his pre-snap reads, whether he needs to adjust the play. Reilly must find a way to win the cat and mouse game with Jones, by adjusting on second down and finding the soft spot of the defense. His reads must be quick and decisive to keep the Riders from changing players regularly, allowing the Esks to run the Riders front four out of gas. Once the front four is tired, the defensive playbook becomes even more shallow and the Eskies offense can dictate what the defense can call.
Benny Flex
Much maligned Eskimos defensive coordinator Mike Benevides had a tough day at the office on June 25th against the Ottawa Redblacks. Any time a defence gives up 522 yards passing and 43 points against, even if it was in overtime, people are going to talk. However, the Jones defense in Edmonton did give up 49 points to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in week 9 in 2015, and 381 yards in the air to Bo Levi Mitchell in the western final. Before panicking hardcore Eskimo fans need to take a breath while they see where this is going. If by the end of the first third of the season adjustments are not made then the fans will have every right to be upset. Until then, Eskimo fans need to show patience and understanding; the Benevides defence has a high degree of complexity.
The Benevides defence plays mostly in a 4-3-5 combination zone, with the wide side in zone and the boundary side in man cover. On the wide side the corner plays deep off the line, allowing him to cover the deep third zone along with the free safety. The nickel or sam linebacker along with the wide side half back are the mid third zone and J.C. Sherritt covers the the short third. From this formation, the Eskies can play cover 3 zone where both corners and the safety are high, cover 2 zone or cover 1. Benevides is baiting the offense to pass to the wide side and then have Kenny Ladler or Cord Parks jump the route for a pick. However, it takes high football IQ players to know when to let a receiver go to another defensive back or to tighten up on a receiver. It also takes corners that shut down the sideline mid and outside deep balls. Over time, players can learn each other’s decision tendencies, then start jumping routes.
One of the main complaints after week 1 was that the Esks defense was only using four man pressure. However, they are looking for pressure not from the defensive ends, but up the gut from Eddie Steele and Almondo Sewell. In this defence, the edge rushers stay in their lanes and contain the quarterback while the centre of the defensive line collapses the pocket. Small adjustments in week 3 can bring big dividends to the defence, such as bringing speed rushing defensive tackle Jabari Hunt to support and keep Sewell fresh. Additionally swapping national defensive tackle Gregory Alexandre in for national defensive end Elie Ngoyi. Although the Esks may lose something on special teams, the move allows special teams hero Reuben Frank to get reps as a backup at both defensive end positions. Both Frank and Hunt look like playmakers who can bring pressure on a four man rush and take the stress off of the secondary.
McAdoo’s Nickels and Dimes
The Riders offensive coordinator Stephen McAdoo is running the same conservative ball control offence in Saskatchewan that he ran in Edmonton. The intent is to keep mistakes to a minimum while moving the ball slowly down field, chewing up the clock and giving the defence a rest. Whether with a pass or run, this offence always calls the high percentage play to ensure success in increments. Occasionally, to keep the defense honest, the McAdoo offense will take a shot downfield with a roving slotback like Ricky Collins.
Eskimos fans can also expect to see short sideline throws to Shamawd Chambers and Naaman Roosevelt to test the Eskimos corners. McAdoo will also mix in digs, curls and drag routes to test the middle of the secondary going after mismatches on size against the smaller Eskimos defensive backs. It will be brains against brawn, with McAdoo betting on brawn winning out in the Eskimos secondary versus the Riders receivers.
The Endgame
This Friday the coaches’ chess match will take place at Commonwealth Stadium with the 0-1 Riders at the 0-1 Eskimos. The winner gets another week of patience to develop their team. The loser will have its core fans pushing the panic button, raining down chaos and adversity that brings grinding pressure on their coaches.
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