CFL Teams Need to Run Their Way into the Win Column

How many times do CFL teams need to lose before listening to me?

Kent Austin was understandably fired from the Toronto Argonauts for not running the ball enough, and teams are consistently proving me right. Your passing game must be perfect or pretty near perfect if you expect to win without the run.

Rich Stubler found that out the hard way against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Teams are just not going to key on your running back if you don't use them.

There are things that teams try to do to offset the lack of a run game, but it doesn't always work. It does help having a quarterback like Kerry Joseph to run if he sees an opening, but it does not take the place of lining up in the "I", or every once in a while mixing things off with a delay hand off to the single back in the backfield.

These little things keep the defensive coordinator guessing, and can often benefit the pass more by giving some space for the receivers to run.

As soon as an offensive coordinator stops using his run game that way, it says one of two things about him:

1) My pass game is invincible. Try and stop it.

or

2) I'm too chicken to waste one of my two downs on a wimpy two-, three-, or four-yard run.

Teams get pass happy early on and get themselves in trouble early and in the end can't use the run because they need huge yards very quickly. By that time it's too late.

You may be wondering why I pick on Rich Stubler, seeing as they had the lead late against the Riders. Give the Riders' defense credit. They held them in check, but the Argos offense couldn't stay on the field.

There are a few opportunities where shuffling a run or two into the mix could have kept the Riders in check a little. That's not to say it would have worked, but keeping the clock rolling and giving your offensive linemen a chance to punish the defensive line can have a huge impact on the outcome of a game. 

The Argos had 27 yards on eight carries from their running backs. Kerry Joseph had 39 himself, and that's even a slow night.

Give the Riders credit though, their defense took out any semblance of a run game, and used their own running back to keep Toronto's offense off the field.

It's become a little cliche to say, "Use the run to set up the pass, and use the pass to set up the run." The truth is that it works. It takes courage to try to use one of your downs for a possibly short run when you don't have the lead. But ask Ken Miller and Paul LaPolice why they won Monday night.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers went away from Charles Roberts' way too early at the beginning of the season. Against Calgary his numbers weren't huge, but the 14 times he lined up to run the ball left the possibility of the run in the minds of the Stampeders defense.

It wasn't Roberts' performance that won the game, but I'm sure the Stamps were always a little cautious of "Blink's" ability to break one, and kept the defense focused a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage.

Another example is the Hamilton/Edmonton game in Week Five. The leading rushers for each game each had 10 carries. Jesse Lumsden had 55 yards for Hamilton and Al Harris had 49 yards for the Eskimos.

Now Lumsden was injured recently. Maybe he wasn't in full game shape, but the TigerCats are not a team that can handle only running the ball 10 times.

Edmonton has Ricky Ray, who is good enough that if he doesn't want to run shouldn't have to. Casey Printers and Richie Williams aren't in that category right now, and therefore need to use their running backs more than that.

I was going to go back through the years to prove my point, but you don't need to look past this year's games to see that the lack of even the appearance of a running game will make it that much harder for your passing game to be successful, therefore making it that much harder for your team to win.