There were likely many, many days when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were tempted to dynamite the defensive playbook and start all over again from scratch.
No one in the Bombers organization, after all, has hid from the grotesque total of yards surrendered by the defence over the past couple of years and those dreaded ‘explosion plays’ that became an all-too regular occurrence.
But there has been some good too on the defensive side of the ball, as the club has gone 23-13 over the last two years. And so it was ultimately decided the blueprint for the club’s defensive fix would not involve blowing up the whole thing, but focus instead on three key components, all of which were made official by head coach Mike O’Shea at a media conference Friday.
Those components are:
- An increased role for the head coach on the defensive side of the ball.
“As I sit back and look at the previous four years, I realize I’ve got to make myself more available at certain times to certain groups,” said O’Shea. “Popping in and out of meetings and sitting there in some planning sessions aren’t enough. I’ve got to make sure I’m available whenever they need it and make sure I’m more of a presence around the defensive meetings.”
- The decision not to renew the contracts of two assistants: Defensive line coach Todd Howard and defensive backs coach Tony Missick, and the hiring of long-time CFL player-turned-coach Jordan Younger to take over coaching the secondary.
“I certainly wouldn’t call Todd or Tony ‘scapegoats,’” he said. “As I evaluated it, there were certain things I wanted done differently, and to me, some of these changes are not only going to help (defensive coordinator) Richie (Hall), but help our whole team.
“We have to fine-tune some concepts, fine-tune some teaching, and create some habits that are going to allow us to make more plays.”
Younger, meanwhile, is a former CFL All-Star and two-time Grey Cup champion as a player. He spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons coaching the Toronto Argonauts defensive backs and last season at the Canada Prep football program in Welland, Ont.
He also is a former O’Shea teammate who was a defensive captain in 2012 when the Argos – with O’Shea as an assistant coach – won the Grey Cup.
“I was a grizzled guy on the way out when JY was coming in,” said O’Shea of Younger’s first year in Toronto, in 2004. “He was a pretty-sure-of-himself rookie blessed with a ton of speed, athleticism, and very intelligent. He got it figured out with the help of Orlondo Steinauer pretty quickly. He was a helluva player who played a bunch of different positions all the way out from corner to safety up to linebacker, so he’s seen it all.”
- An increased role for linebackers coach Glenn Young, who will now add coaching the D-line to his portfolio.
“I really like what Glenn has done with the linebackers,” said O’Shea. “I’ve seen them taking their drill work and applying it in games effectively. It’s not a stretch, because the front seven – the linebackers and D-line work so closely together anyway and they’re together all but five or seven minutes in every practice. To put them together, that would certainly help their communication and allow them to flourish.”
All this means that Hall will remain in charge of the play calling as the Bombers look to maintain their ball-hawking ways – their 101 turnovers over the last two years led the Canadian Football League – while cutting down the 14,487 yards surrendered in the past two seasons, an average of 402.4 per game.
O’Shea defended Hall – a man in so many crosshairs – on Friday and insisted the scheme isn’t the issue in the defensive breakdowns.
“If you thought that you’d totally negate over 100 takeaways,” said O’Shea. “There’s a big part of putting guys in the right position that allows us to generate those takeaways. All those things are multi-faceted… Chris Randle making some game-changing plays at the end of games is not just a result of being in the right position, but his anticipation and his athletic ability also. It starts with a bit of play calling and putting guys in the right positions and understanding what they are good at and what the opposition is going to do.”
“I believe Richie Hall is a tremendous asset not only to the defence, but to our organization – me included. He works extremely well with our coaching staff in general because it’s not just about how well he works with the defensive coaching staff. He interacts with LaPo (offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice) every single night when they’re preparing for practice the next day. That kind of interaction is very good and I see that in their meetings; they work well together.
“But,” added O’Shea, “like I said at the end of the year, we’re not by any means going to rest on just takeaways or overall team record. We’re not happy, we’re not satisfied with our overall output.”
That’s part of the frustrating conundrum with the Bombers defence over the past couple of years. The breakdowns defensively often resulted in the dreaded ‘explosion plays’ – none more apparent than in the last two playoff losses in the 2016 and 2017 West Division Semi-finals.
At the same time, the Bombers placed three members of the secondary – Randle, along with T.J. Heath and Taylor Loffler – on the CFL All-Star team, were third in quarterback pressures and in two-and-outs forced.
The end goal, then, is simple.
“Put our players in better spots to be successful and to have them make more plays,” said O’Shea. “The first goal is to have guys come in and understand what we’re doing and for them to really be in the right spot so that we don’t give up the big plays and from there, progress to making more and more plays. We don’t want to sacrifice the number of takeaways we’re making. We just don’t want it to be so costly in terms of when we make a mistake.”
