Toe to Toe – Lockout ends and the Bulldogs offence
Two combatants from Cogeco’s Sports Firing line Frank “The Toe” Caruso (left), and Chris Dawson (right) now take their arguments to the web with a new BayToday.ca weekly sports opinion feature called, “Toe to Toe.” Photo by Lee Anne Dawson.
Two combatants from Cogeco’s Sports Firing line Frank “The Toe” Caruso (left), and Chris Dawson (right) now take their arguments to the web with a new BayToday.ca weekly sports opinion feature called, “Toe to Toe.” Photo by Lee Anne Dawson.
The NHL and its players reached a tentative agreement that will end the 301 day NHL lockout. Who won in this deal?
Chris:
”This is quite a joke that here we are 301 days later, the players had a deal that they should have accepted back in February that on the surface appears to have been a better deal than this one which includes a much smaller salary cap.
“The dumbest thing from this whole process is that here we are in the middle of the summer and the two sides are holding these marathon sessions to try and get a deal done, why weren’t the players and the league doing this back in February? There is more desperation to get a deal done in the middle of the summer than there was to get a deal done when it needed to get done to save the 04-05 season. You know why it happened this way? Because of all the animosity between the two sides plus Bob Goodenow figured the owners would cave in and they didn’t. He should be looking for work once this deal is ratified because now the players will get paid less in this deal and they have lost a year’s worth of salary in the process”.
Frank:
“I agree. However Chris let me tell you something right now, number one, like I’ve said in the past I knew a deal was going to be done before July 15th. I’ve stated that in many articles before and also on a TV show (Cogeco’s Sports Firing Line) that we do together. I said a deal was going to be done before the 15th because the advertising people wanted a deal done before the 15th, and we are here on the 15th and it’s done, okay that’s number one. However, the players association didn’t do as bad as everybody thinks, the pension is better, they got free agency after seven years at a younger age, they can go wherever they want where the money is. The people that are going to hurt here are the third and fourth liners who are not going to be on a team for more than three years because just like the NFL when they needed to cut somebody on a salary cap or for salary cap reasons they’ll cut those guys. So who hurts here? The minimal players they are the ones that are going to suffer here, the fifth and sixth defencemen and the third line, fourth line players.
“But like I said, the NHL players association didn’t do so bad. My beef is what was Bob Goodenow when this is getting done and he’s watching the baseball all-star game in Detroit? I don’t understand, get rid of Bob Goodenow, I think Bettman did a good job for the owners, there’s no doubt about it, as much as you might hate Gary Bettman, he did do a good job.”
The North Bay Bulldogs have scored only 8 points in their last four games and they’ve been shut out three of those contests. What’s wrong with this offense? What can the Bulldogs do to fix it and should they look at hiring an offensive coordinator?
Frank:
”First off, I feel sorry for guys like Mark Mcleod okay. The guys tried to take the team and put it on his shoulders and plus the running backs, the Bilz brothers. I’ll tell you something I think its too late to get an offensive coordinator, we knew at the beginning of the year they needed to get an offensive coordinator they didn’t do so. They are very bland offensive team. They wanted to win with defense and try to run the football like the Baltimore Ravens, it doesn’t happen. Some of these teams are big and they are fast, they are more athletic than the Bulldogs, because of the numbers of players they can draw from in Southern Ontario. What everyone is saying is open up the offense, I think they have to be smarter and they have to catch teams off guard. I think they are going to have to do play-action and you have to run the football to do play-action. Give the guy some time, they don’t have to roll out all the time. Put him in the pocket and let him throw the football, that’s what they are going to have to do offensively, defensively they are a good solid team. Don’t let that 39-0 game fool you about their defense, this is a sound defensive football team, but offensively they’ve got to drive a little bit, they’ve got to get the defense some help, they have no imagination on offense and its too late to go get an offensive coordinator.”
Chris:
Frank, you score more goals in four weeks in our Italian Hockey League games Monday nights than the Bulldogs score in four weeks of football! Amazingly, one of those games was a victory. I think this club could use a guy like Larry Tougas to help repair the struggling Bulldogs offense, I also believe that Jason Ferriera would inject some passing life into a pathetic passing attack. However, I know both of these options, for different reasons, cannot be fulfilled.
“The problem is that the quarterback, whether its Mark Mcleod or Dave Wilson, has absolutely no protection to create any form of a passing game. That’s why when you see the highlights on Cogeco and MCTV, the only passing you see is done when the quarterback rolls out of the pocket and completes a pass. If your line is depleted you have to do something about it and if that means moving a defensive player into a lineman position then do it. The defense is strong and if they do some switching around then that might help. I don’t know if any of those big guys on the line can play iron man football, but it might be an alternative over watching this anemic offence.
“From a receiver’s perspective, they need to get the ball to Ford Morland. He’s your deep threat, but once again, you need quarterback protection before you can look at throwing deep balls.
“As for an offensive coordinator, I don’t have any solutions, but Marc Mathon should look at getting some help next fall in that department or start allowing the quarterback to be in charge of making the calls in the huddle.”
Toe to Toe can be seen every Friday on BayToday.ca.
