Dein erstes Forum » usion, he said. The gold props up li

For the first four weeks of the regular season, the Montreal Alouettes - led by arguably the greatest quarterback in CFL history - struggled badly offensively. It was unfamiliar territory for a team and star quarterback when you consider that this team has had the top-rated passing offense for three of the last four years, and the only year they havent been rated first during that time was last year when they were second. It has been a high powered offense that has led the Als to four first place finishes in the East in the last five seasons. During those five years, Marc Trestman was the man in charge. A quarterback expert, who upon his arrival in Quebec handed the keys to the franchise to Anthony Calvillo. In 2008, in one of his first meetings with the TSN crew, he explained his philosophy when it comes to the starting quarterback on a football team. "Everybody matters in an organization but the quarterback is the most important person, including the owner," said Trestman. "Your quarterback gives your entire organization hope." It was Trestmans system, with input at the time from Scott Milanovich, and ACs job was to execute the plan; which is exactly the way Calvillo likes it. Have the coach call the plays and the quarterback executes them, and it produced three Grey Cup appearances and two championships in five years. When Trestman took the job as the head coach of the Chicago Bears this off-season, it was assumed by many that the new boss, Dan Hawkins, would simply ask Calvillo to make a copy of the playbook he had been using for the last five years, give it to offensive coordinator Mike Miller and they would hit the ground running on day one of training camp. In theory, it was a good plan. AC had to know it well enough to teach the finer points to the coaches, who could then teach it to the rest of the team. It was a theory, however, that had one major flaw - it would require one of the best quarterbacks in CFL history to also become one of the best coaches. Trestmans student would now have to become the teacher and that is something that Calvillo is just not ready to do at this point in his career. This week, AC recalled those first three days of camp, saying, "the plan was to keep as much of the old playbook as possible, and in the first three days we tried to do that," he said. Then slowly shaking his head said, "but I could tell after three days that it wasnt going to work." The old book was put on the shelf and now already at day four of a two week training camp, AC and the coaching staff would sit down and chart a new course of action. The consensus was; it would be easier for AC to learn a new system then to try and become a player-coach and implement the old one. This, however, didnt put the offense behind the rest of the league by four days, but by months when you consider all off-season you are working on your playbook. So, it shouldnt come as that much of a surprise that Montreal struggled out of the gate. The Als started the season with a 1-3 record and the offense over that one month span barely had a heartbeat. Football fans across the country thought that the solution to the problem was a no brainer and quickly pointed fingers at Dan Hawkins, and maybe more specifically OC Mike Miller. Most could not figure out why Miller wouldnt just run whatever Calvillo was comfortable with and let him do what he has done for the last five years. However, as previously noted and again according to Calvillo, the team did give Trestmans system a shot and realized it wasnt working. Also, what if after trying the old way and asking the quarterback what he wanted to run, the QB said out of respect for his new offensive coordinator that hes good with running your offense? What if AC asked Mike Miller to implement his system and also made it very clear that he would prefer that Miller call all the plays? After four weeks of the season, Miller had become an easy target for frustrated fans and quietly took the heat. The perception was that Miller was forcing AC to run plays he wasnt comfortable with, and that perception was reinforced when Calvillo showed his frustrations outwardly in the first couple of weeks of the season. The truth is, when Calvillo was asked by Miller what he would like to run offensively, AC deferred to the former Arizona Cardinals coach and asked Miller to install his system and began to commit himself to learning it. When things didnt go well out of the gate, AC became frustrated because this was new territory and a very unique circumstance. In the meeting this week without being prompted, the all-time passing leader in football said, "you know most of the time when a coach, leaves he is fired because things are going so badly. But in Trestmans case, our offense was running well when he left, so when we started from scratch and struggled early, it was really frustrating." AC also discussed all the great things he can see in Mike Millers style of offense and prior to the Als second win of the season vs Edmonton said, "its time to stop making excuses and time to buy into this new system. This stuff is solid and I have to learn it." In the final analysis, Hawkins and Miller tried the old play book and AC was the first to admit it wasnt going to work. Miller also asked AC to be part of building a new system. However, Calvillo respectfully declined and would rather run the plays than write them up. Miller is a Calvillo fan and in our meeting, first took full responsibility for the slow start by saying "I am the OC and I am fully accountable for what has happened so far and Im not happy." Miller went on to praise not only what AC has done in the past but what he believes he is still capable of accomplishing and said "Anthony is a great quarterback, but an even better person, and this offense will get better." Although a lot of people, especially in Northern Alberta, believe that Edmonton should have won that game, the win versus the Esks was a step in the right direction. The Als scored 31 points and AC was able to kick-start Brandon Whitaker (162 rushing) and Jamel Richardson (leading receiver) on the night. It remains to be seen how long it will take for everyone to learn the new way of thinking in Montreal, but one thing that was clearly evident in our meetings this past week was that there is great mutual respect between Anthony Calvillo and Mike Miller. Millers philosophy on the starting quarterback is not much different than Trestmans - they both understand the importance of the position. What is different is the system and now it is up to AC and the rest of the offense to, as Calvillo put it, "stop making excuses and learn it." Custom Yankees T-shirts . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Tommy Kahnle Jersey . It just didnt show when he hit the ice. Berra made 42 saves and Kris Russell scored at 1:32 of overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. http://www.customyankeesjersey.com/custom-estevan-florial-jersey-large-2104i.html . The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the Lions have not announced the hiring, which was first reported by ESPN. 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RIO DE JANEIRO -- Osea Kolinisau didnt want merely to win Fijis first ever Olympic gold medal, he was determined to do it by showing the world how rugby sevens should be played.Done, and done.With his prime minister among the Fijians in the crowd, and knowing 900,000 more back in the Pacific expected nothing less than a gold medal, he kicked off a five-try, first-half barrage against Britain in the gold-medal match by reaching his arms back over his head as he was being tackled to score an early try in the corner.The long-time entertainers of rugby sevens peaked in perfect time, running in for seven tries in a 43-7 win that showcased their fitness, finesse, physicality and the famous one-handed passing.Its a massive achievement to get a first medal for your country, especially a gold medal, said Kolinisau, the most-experienced Fijian ever on the international sevens circuit. The achievement will be part of our history back home.After ensuring the victory that had been in the making since the International Olympic Committee in 2009 added Fijis national sport to the program for Rio de Janeiro, Kolinisau and his teammates huddled solemnly in the middle of the field and sang a hymn.The deeply religious Fiji captain told his teammates before the match that it all was all pre-ordained, that theyd been gifted the countrys best chance ever to end a six-decade medal drought at the Olympics.Its really emotional -- to lead ones country, especially to be the flag bearer, Kolinisau said. Coming into the final, I knew it was up for grabs. I told the boys, `We need to have fire in our heart, but have ice in our mind -- be cool-headed.They were smiling by halftime, leading 29-0, and the dominance wasnt just with ball in hand -- they didnt let the British players cross the halfway line while in possession.When these guys are on fire, its very difficult to combat, Britain captain Tom Mitchell said. Theyre very worthy champions.Leone Nakarawa created all kinds of trouble for the British players with his sheer size and brute strength. He played a part in the leadup to a try for Jerry Tuwai, and went within a meteer of scoring himself before he was dragged down in a desperate cover tackle.ddddddddddddJasa Veremalua scored to make it 17-0 and the Fijians scored again directly from the kickoff when Semi Kunatani gathered the re-start and passed to Nakarawa, who sprinted away to score.The Fijians scored twice more in the second half -- the only blemish being Dan Nortons try. It seemed as if they could break the defensive line at will, and the British players were almost powerless to stop them.Ben Ryan, the Englishman who took over as Fiji coach in 2013 and applied strict discipline to mold a naturally-talented team into a consistent, professional unit, said it was almost perfect.We did say we wanted to show people the way to play the Fijian way, he said. And we were great that we delivered that in fairly spectacular fashion.Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama thanked the IOC for including rugby sevens at the Rio Games.We hope the brand of rugby we played today has justified the inclusion, he said. The gold props up little tiny nations like us. We dont have the money and the bucks and support that England has -- but we managed to beat them.Bainimarama declared a public holiday -- probably unnecessarily as nobody could work anyway.Everything stops back home, he said. Our productivity has been nil for the last couple of days, but hopefully the GDP will go up in the next couple of days.No. 2-ranked South Africa won the bronze medal with a 54-14 win over Japan, which produced some of the highlights of rugbys return to the Olympics with an early upset win over New Zealand.Britain coach Simon Amor was grateful to reach the final, having held off South Africa 7-5 in the semifinals and had a close call with a golden-point extra-time win over Argentina in the quarterfinals.There were a couple of single-digit winning margins, but nobody really got close to the Fijians.Wonderful that Fiji got the gold medal. Such a special team, Amor said. First time being in the Olympics, its probably right. ' ' '