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 Eskimos head coach Richie Hall's face says it all. (AMBER BRACKEN/QMI Agency) |
Danny Maciocia was standing in the hallway outside the Edmonton Eskimos dressing room in Regina back when they were 0-3.
“It’s not the talent and it’s not the coaching,” he said.
Wrong on both counts, genius.
The most obvious things wrong with the Eskimos in their 29-28 loss to the Toronto Argos were this:
1.They were badly out-coached.
2.They were out-played beginning and end again.
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The biggest part of fixing what’s wrong here is to admit what’s wrong. And I didn’t hear anything from head coach Richie Hall Saturday which came close.
I also didn’t hear it from president and CEO Rick LeLacheur who took a trip out of town yesterday and was unavailable for comment or from Dan McKinnon of the trio of interim general managers replacing the fired Maciocia including Ed Hervey and Paul Jones who had returned from scouting NFL camps to nominate Hall interim GM spokesperson for the day.
According to general manager spokesperson Hall, head coach Hall will coach the Eskimos again in Calgary Sunday. According to head coach Hall, all his assistants will be there with him.
No chance of him replacing any of them this week?
“No. None whatsoever,” he said.
With Danny Maciocia no longer here to sell him as a fellow genius, how can you go on any longer with Kevin Strasser as offensive co-ordinator?
The Eskimos suffered so badly in comparison to Toronto in offensive creativity in the first half Friday it was not only embarrassing, it was damning.
If the Eskimos can fire offensive co-ordinator Rick Worman when the team was 5-4 after Labour Day last year, they can gas this guy right now with the Eskimos 5-14 since he took over.
Worman insisted he was fired by Danny Maciocia not Richie Hall. And if Worman can be fired between Labour Day games on a Monday and Friday, Strasser can be sacked in a stretch where there is one game between now and Aug. 28.
Richie Hall has to show — right now — that while he may be the nicest guy in this history of football, he’s tough enough to begin solving the obvious Danny Maciocia-created problems from within on his coaching staff.
The Strasser problem you can see from the cheap seats.
But to hang this on one assistant coach won’t work.
A wise old coach once told me that you blame first quarters on coaches and fourth quarters on players.
First quarters are game plans and motivation.
The Eskimos were outscored 11-0 in the first quarter against Toronto and have now been outscored 40-13 in first quarters this season.
Fourth quarters are talent fusing with heart and will.
The Eskimos have been outscored 75-24 in fourth quarters so far.
It’s not the players or coaches my ass.
Asked to explain the Eskimos once again not being ready to play, Hall said: “I wish I could pin-point it.”
You don’t need a pin point, you need a mirror.
He said he didn’t think it’s players not being ready.
“I won’t say we weren’t ready to play, I’d say we weren’t ready to execute.”
If Richie Hall ends up having 2009-2010 on his head coaching gravestone, you can put that quote with it.
Hall himself brought up the phenomenal failure to convert second-down plays, especially second and short.
“That’s just beating the man in front of you,” he said.
Or sending in the same damn play again and again when you know the odds of the guys on offensive line beating the man in front of them on that play just isn’t going to happen.
Hall’s defence, the worst team against the run all season, just got worse.
And that, you have to believe, is having players in place who just can’t get it done.
“We were able to stop the run at times,” said Hall. “The best defensive lineman in the league isn’t going to stop the run if he doesn’t get in the gaps.”
OK. Have it your way. Then it’s coaching.
“It’s players and coaches. A combination of both.”
So we’re agreed. Replace a combination of both.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca