Will
07-29-2012, 10:20 AM
All the debate about Spencer Watt brought up some references to Geoff Townsend of the '83 Argos. This article isn't about Townsend per se, but discusses the revolving door the Argos had at the "X" spot during that season.
By Rick Matsumoto
Toronto Star
Norm Brown was giving serious thought to joining the Los Angeles police force when the telephone rang in his southern California home. It was Bob O’Billovich offering him a job with the Toronto Argonauts.
Now, 10 days later, he’ll be patrolling a beat as a wide receiver when the Argos move into Winnipeg Stadium for tomorrow night’s Canadian Football League game against the Blue Bombers.
Brown is the latest candidate in O’Billovich’s search for what is known on the Argos chalk board as the “X” receiver, and Brown could find that position just as lonely as pounding a police beat on the graveyard shift.
Statistics bear out what most Argos followers know: Argo quarterbacks Condredge Holloway and Joe Barnes direct more of their passes to their “Z” receiver—Terry Greer.
Trend Continues
Last year Greer and Leo Gray, who filled in for one game, had 167 passes thrown in their direction, of which 88 were caught. The four players who played the “X,” or left side, wide receiver spot had only 54 balls tossed their way, of which 24 were caught.
The trend continues this season.
After five games, Greer is the league’s leading receiver, having caught 28 of the 61 passes thrown his way for 541 yards. Scott McGhee (now with Hamilton) and Ken Taylor, who will be replaced by Brown, had 16 throws directed their way, of which they pulled in six.
O’Billovich is convinced of the need for a second top quality receiver to compliment Greer and take some of the pressure off his ace pass catcher.
“We need a guy the quarterbacks will look to out there,” said the Argo head coach. “So far we haven’t been successful. I hope Brown turns out to be that guy.”
O’Billovich rejects the argument that for all the work the second wide-out gets, Argos would be just as well off employing a Canadian in that spot and adding an import elsewhere in the line-up.
“Where would we use the other guy?” he asked. “Using Zac Henderson (who quit the team this week) at rover would not have imporved us. Ken McEachern is playing well enough: that we didn’t want to make the change.”
Holloway, whose hand injury has healed sufficiently to allow him to start tomorrow’s game agreed that a second receiver of Greer’s stature would force opposing defences to change their alignments.
“But Terry Greer is going to get the ball,” he insisted. “That’s a proven fact. Even if they double up on him they don’t cover him. If we ever get one (another top receiver) it remains to be seen what we’ll do. We may have to use two footballs. But we haven’t had a guy there yet with Terry’s speed and ability.”
Brown, who had a tryout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after playing his college ball at Cal State-Fullerton, is well aware of the tendency of Holloway and Barnes to look for Greer.
“Terry’s such an outstanding receiver that he’s got the quarterbacks’ confidence,” he said. “It’s up to me to go out there and show them I can do the job.”
Brown seemed to have the confidence of the Hamilton Tiger-Cat quarterbacks, especially in the second pre-season game against the Argos, when he caught seven passes for 69 yards, tops among all receivers.
But, in the final analysis he could nudge neither incumbent Ticat wide receiver Keith Baker nor Ron Johnson out of a starting job.
“They (Ticats) talked about trying to eventually find room for me on their reserve list,” he said. “But, I knew that Baker and Johnson are good receivers and I’m not the kind of cat who wants to wait around for someone else to get hurt. So it wasn’t me so much a matter of them cutting me. I was ready to leave.”
The point after: As expected, Argos will activate defensive back Marcellus Greene as the sixth member of the secondary to attempt to ground Winnipeg passer Dieter Brock. He replaces injured linebacker William Mitchell…Bob O’Billovich said he would have used running back Cedric Minter, who has missed the past two games with a knee injury, had tomorrow’s game been a playoff match. But as it is he’ll rest Minter for another week and stay with rookie Alonzo Patterson…For the Bombers, cornerback David Shaw is listed as doubtful because of a leg injury and offensive tackle Chris Walby is hampered by a bad ankle. If both can play, then import offensive linemen Val Belcher will sit out in favour of import running back Willard Reaves.
I take away a few things from this article actually:
[i] As Dontrelle Inman improves and Andre Durie and Chad Owens continue to be a threat from the slot, it is even more likely that Watt may be thrown to less in the future. Chandler Williams had a nice game on Friday too, so he can't be ignored either. But, for now he'll continue to probably get some balls thrown his way. With respect to any of the receivers I mentioned, they aren't having a season like Greer did in 1983, which ranks among the finest a CFL receiver has ever had!
[ii] We like to think of the 1983 Argonauts as a offensive juggernaut, but even this article spells out that O'Billovich was (at least early in the season) looking for someone to take pressure off of Terry Greer. This year's edition is also looking for a few guys to step it up and we've started to see a bit of that. Greer was eventually helped by Emanuel Tolbert who proved particularly useful in the Eastern Final against Hamilton.
I'll try to find out if there are any articles that discusses Geoff Townsend's status as the "X" receiver, but he was on the team by this point because he caught a TD pass from Joe Barnes in the 82 EF.
By Rick Matsumoto
Toronto Star
Norm Brown was giving serious thought to joining the Los Angeles police force when the telephone rang in his southern California home. It was Bob O’Billovich offering him a job with the Toronto Argonauts.
Now, 10 days later, he’ll be patrolling a beat as a wide receiver when the Argos move into Winnipeg Stadium for tomorrow night’s Canadian Football League game against the Blue Bombers.
Brown is the latest candidate in O’Billovich’s search for what is known on the Argos chalk board as the “X” receiver, and Brown could find that position just as lonely as pounding a police beat on the graveyard shift.
Statistics bear out what most Argos followers know: Argo quarterbacks Condredge Holloway and Joe Barnes direct more of their passes to their “Z” receiver—Terry Greer.
Trend Continues
Last year Greer and Leo Gray, who filled in for one game, had 167 passes thrown in their direction, of which 88 were caught. The four players who played the “X,” or left side, wide receiver spot had only 54 balls tossed their way, of which 24 were caught.
The trend continues this season.
After five games, Greer is the league’s leading receiver, having caught 28 of the 61 passes thrown his way for 541 yards. Scott McGhee (now with Hamilton) and Ken Taylor, who will be replaced by Brown, had 16 throws directed their way, of which they pulled in six.
O’Billovich is convinced of the need for a second top quality receiver to compliment Greer and take some of the pressure off his ace pass catcher.
“We need a guy the quarterbacks will look to out there,” said the Argo head coach. “So far we haven’t been successful. I hope Brown turns out to be that guy.”
O’Billovich rejects the argument that for all the work the second wide-out gets, Argos would be just as well off employing a Canadian in that spot and adding an import elsewhere in the line-up.
“Where would we use the other guy?” he asked. “Using Zac Henderson (who quit the team this week) at rover would not have imporved us. Ken McEachern is playing well enough: that we didn’t want to make the change.”
Holloway, whose hand injury has healed sufficiently to allow him to start tomorrow’s game agreed that a second receiver of Greer’s stature would force opposing defences to change their alignments.
“But Terry Greer is going to get the ball,” he insisted. “That’s a proven fact. Even if they double up on him they don’t cover him. If we ever get one (another top receiver) it remains to be seen what we’ll do. We may have to use two footballs. But we haven’t had a guy there yet with Terry’s speed and ability.”
Brown, who had a tryout with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after playing his college ball at Cal State-Fullerton, is well aware of the tendency of Holloway and Barnes to look for Greer.
“Terry’s such an outstanding receiver that he’s got the quarterbacks’ confidence,” he said. “It’s up to me to go out there and show them I can do the job.”
Brown seemed to have the confidence of the Hamilton Tiger-Cat quarterbacks, especially in the second pre-season game against the Argos, when he caught seven passes for 69 yards, tops among all receivers.
But, in the final analysis he could nudge neither incumbent Ticat wide receiver Keith Baker nor Ron Johnson out of a starting job.
“They (Ticats) talked about trying to eventually find room for me on their reserve list,” he said. “But, I knew that Baker and Johnson are good receivers and I’m not the kind of cat who wants to wait around for someone else to get hurt. So it wasn’t me so much a matter of them cutting me. I was ready to leave.”
The point after: As expected, Argos will activate defensive back Marcellus Greene as the sixth member of the secondary to attempt to ground Winnipeg passer Dieter Brock. He replaces injured linebacker William Mitchell…Bob O’Billovich said he would have used running back Cedric Minter, who has missed the past two games with a knee injury, had tomorrow’s game been a playoff match. But as it is he’ll rest Minter for another week and stay with rookie Alonzo Patterson…For the Bombers, cornerback David Shaw is listed as doubtful because of a leg injury and offensive tackle Chris Walby is hampered by a bad ankle. If both can play, then import offensive linemen Val Belcher will sit out in favour of import running back Willard Reaves.
I take away a few things from this article actually:
[i] As Dontrelle Inman improves and Andre Durie and Chad Owens continue to be a threat from the slot, it is even more likely that Watt may be thrown to less in the future. Chandler Williams had a nice game on Friday too, so he can't be ignored either. But, for now he'll continue to probably get some balls thrown his way. With respect to any of the receivers I mentioned, they aren't having a season like Greer did in 1983, which ranks among the finest a CFL receiver has ever had!
[ii] We like to think of the 1983 Argonauts as a offensive juggernaut, but even this article spells out that O'Billovich was (at least early in the season) looking for someone to take pressure off of Terry Greer. This year's edition is also looking for a few guys to step it up and we've started to see a bit of that. Greer was eventually helped by Emanuel Tolbert who proved particularly useful in the Eastern Final against Hamilton.
I'll try to find out if there are any articles that discusses Geoff Townsend's status as the "X" receiver, but he was on the team by this point because he caught a TD pass from Joe Barnes in the 82 EF.