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News August 30, 2024

48-Hour Primer: “The most important thing for me would be that the players trust me.”

@EdTaitWFC

It is an unfinished painting, a song still needing a few more verses, a book with some compelling chapters yet to be written.

That said, through 11 games of the Canadian Football League season the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence continues to evolve into a work of art that has so many across the land pulling in for a closer look-see.

This is a unit ranking second in points allowed at 19.5 (Montreal is first at 18.7), first in fewest touchdowns allowed at 18, first in yards per game surrendered at 315.9 and first in yards passing per game allowed at 222.5.

And new defensive coordinator Jordan Younger’s fingerprints are all over those numbers.

“He’s a guy that learns from every rep we take in terms of trying to figure out things. He’s just very creative,” said veteran linebacker Adam Bighill of Younger in a conversation with bluebombers.com this week. “He has all these visions in his head of how things look and tries to put us in position to see if we see it the same way and if we play it the same way. It’s then how we amalgamate that to be most effective.

“He’s been a major driver in the last four or five years since he’s been here in terms of our creativity in the back end and on defence in how we cover. He’s ever growing and he’s very dynamic.”

And so what was a question heading into the season — how does Younger manage in his first year as the club’s new defensive coordinator? — has already been answered, even with his unit still a work in progress.

Working with veteran assistant Richie Hall, linebackers coach James Stanley and defensive line boss Darrell Patterson, the Blue Bombers have been especially stingy of late, holding opponents to under 20 points in five of the last seven games.

Over the last five games teams have scored just 69 points, just 62 against the defence.

“It’s fun to watch them have success one week and then chase it the next week,” said Younger. “They want more so they’re always trying to figure out what more they can do. Now it’s almost like I have to keep them reined in and focussed and headed in the right direction so we’re not doing too much. But that desire to keep going, keep doing more and keep evolving as a defence and embracing new roles within the defence is fun.

“Every good defence, it doesn’t matter how good you are at it, if you only do certain things they’ll catch up to you… because the offence dictates, they’ll get in front of you. One of the things we strive to do is add a new wrinkle each week so we can try to keep other offences off balance or second guessing with, ‘is this what I thought it is?'”

Critical to the Blue Bombers success on that side of the ball — and a staple during Hall’s days as coordinator — is how many players have a piece of the defensive success. Younger has tweaked that even further, with more defensive alignments and personnel packages.

“A lot of these guys have already earned it,” he said. “I do believe in the adage, ‘best players play’ but there’s something to be said about guys that do all of the dirty work with a smile on their face and then trying to get them a role in the defence and then seeing them excel at that role. That then empowers everybody else to buy in a little bit more.”

Tony Jones has bought in, big time. A cast-off by the Edmonton Elks, he’s found a home filling in for an injured Kyrie Wilson and has also taken snaps in the middle.

“J.Y.’s a great coach,” said Jones. “He’s always fixated on the task at hand and so whenever we’re in our install you’ve got to learn all the ins and outs, the key phrases and words to help the other players out there. There’s such an attention to detail to know where you’re supposed to be and playing as a group, all 12 on the same page.

“He does a great job when we’re in the meeting rooms of explaining what exactly he wants and then our guys do a good job of asking questions so when we can go out there and play well.”

Earlier this week we asked head coach Mike O’Shea about the growth of Younger as a coordinator, even through the first 11 games. And the boss was effusive in his praise.

“‘Growth’ is an interesting word because I think J.Y. showed up in the CFL extremely intelligent and ready to go,” O’Shea said; “I’m sure he would talk about learning and the processes he went through in understanding the nuances of this game and the guys he latched onto to learn as much as he could. But he’s always been, and always will be, a lifelong learner. He will never be satisfied. He’ll never believe he’s arrived.

“As coaches do I’m sure he’ll take joy in an outcome and then get right back to work. It was quite evident how smart he was when he showed up and it’s just a natural progression as he goes along. He could have been a coordinator a long time ago. Absolutely.”

The Blue Bombers defence has been described as many things this season, from stingy to multiple to stifling. Asked what compliment would mean most to him, Younger thought for a moment and then offered this:

“The most important thing for me would be that the players trust me,” he said. “I work hard and do the work to make sure I know what I’m talking about and can get the image in my head on a board so they can see it and then come out here and execute it. Being able to do that consistently is important.

“I’m evolving play to play. Literally. At the beginning of the season when we were losing and struggling, I was still evolving. Now we’re having a little bit more success and getting some wins, I’m still evolving. You have to be in this game.”

SICK BAY UPDATE: The Blue Bombers did not practice on Friday, but the club remains hopeful left tackle Stanley Bryant — who hasn’t been on the field all week — will be good to go on Sunday in the Labour Day Classic.

DISCIPLINED: The CFL’s weekly discipline report  singled out three incidents from last week’s win over Hamilton, with two Blue Bombers receiving fines.

  • Winnipeg linebacker Tanner Cadwallader has been fined for delivering a blindside block on Hamilton long-snapper Gordon Whyte.
  • Winnipeg defensive back Brandon Alexander has been fined for delivering a high hit on Hamilton wide receiver Kiondré Smith.
  • Also from last week’s game: Hamilton fullback James Tuck has been fined for making late unnecessary contact with Winnipeg wide receiver Lucky Whitehead.