 |
 Ricky Ray says he hasn't seen a lot of man-on-man coverage in the last three years. (Sun Media/Darren Makowichuk) |
MONTREAL -- Man, oh, man, is Ricky Ray really going to get to see man-on-man?
Ray almost never gets to see man-on-man. Not for the last three years anyway.
But Montreal coach Marc Trestman says he's going to see it Thursday.
“We're going to get after it more with less zone coverage and more man-to-man coverage,” said the second year head coach of the Montreal Alouettes.
When it was suggested that such news would likely be welcomed by the Eskimos quarterback, who has thrived most times he's been able to get teams into man-to-man, Trestman said he doesn't think it matters whether you go man or zone against Ray.
“I don't think it matters if you play man-to-man or zone against Ricky Ray. He's great against both. We talked about him all week. He's a dynamic player with a championship level of resiliency.
|
"He never stops playing. He never stops coming at you. You just try to limit the big plays, that's all.”
Eskimos' rookie head coach Richie Hall says he'll believe it when he sees it.
“Montreal showed a lot more man coverage in their game against Calgary. They showed a lot of zone the last time they played us. Any confident and talented quarterback likes man coverage. It starts with the quarterback. If he has good receivers who can get open, he'll prefer man coverage.”
Ray admits he'd like to see it.
“We've been successful most times we've gone against man-to-man coverage. They tried a lot of that against Calgary last week but usually teams that have done that one week haven't come back the next week and done the same against us.
“The thing about man coverage is the defender doesn't have a lot of help. Man forces match-ups.”
Ray says he hasn't seen a lot of man-on-man in the last three years for one simple reason.
“We haven't been able to run the ball. We've seen more zone because of that.”
Maybe the Als are expecting Arkee Whitlock, the import running back who will get his first start with Jesse Lumsden having been put on the nine-game injured list, will get a run game going.
“I can't wait to see what he can do for us,” said Ray of the player who spent two years on the Minnesota Vikings practice roster and looked outstanding in the pre-season.
“He can make guys miss. He can turn a no-gainer into a gain of five and sometimes a gain of 30.”
Trestman made another interesting statement in his pre-game press conference here yesterday.
Asked if he even recognized the Edmonton defence from the last time the two teams played, with the Eskimos coming here with eight new starters, Trestman said they've spent more time looking at last year's Saskatchewan defence than the Eskimos new defence.
“We've spent a lot of time looking at Saskatchewan and those tapes due to those changes. We're mostly concentrating on structure,” he said of Richie Hall's defences with the Roughriders.
Hall says that makes some sense to him.
“There are a lot of things we do on defence which are, conceptionally, like we did in Saskatchewan. We have some new wrinkles to. We've adapted from Saskatchewan, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton,” he said.
Als veteran centre Bryan Chiu says maybe the Eskimos defence is different but he's going to recognize the two guys he has to deal with most.
“I recognize Dario Romero and Maurice Lloyd,” he said. “I know I'll be seeing a lot of them. After games playing against Romero I feel like I've been in a train wreck.”
Quarterback Anthony Calvillo says it's definitely a different Edmonton defence. But that doesn't mean it isn't going to provide a challenge.
“They're very physical. They're big up front and are obviously very fast in the secondary. They are a lot bigger and faster. They'll be a challenge for our offensive line.”
Calvillo says they'll be looking at a different Montreal offensive philosophy, too.
“Motion is the No. 1 thing we do on this offence. We keep the defence off balance.”