Top Ten BC Lions Good and Bad IMMEDIATE CHANGES

[Toppy Vann]

I was at that Grey Cup game (with Bosco). It would be foolish to pin any blame on starting Dickenson (we scored on our opening drive). Two things stood out at me sitting in the stands 1) special teams sucked. We spent the entire evening trying to kick away from Bashir Levingston, that O'Mahoney had the yips. I recall one punt travelled 9 yards! And 2) Damon Allen was "on" his game. There was good Damon throughout his career and bad Damon. Unfortunately, he picked a hell of a day to be great Damon (undoubtedly motivated by being cut by Wally). He shredded our defense which I thought had come out unusually flat (the Argos scouted our D really well too, and created some mismatches).

All that being said, I recall a fairly long stretch in the 2nd half when we just weren't moving the football. It is my belief that the whole team could have used a "pick me up" by inserting the league MOP in Printers. Would we have won the game? Hard to say. But I am quite certain the change of pace of putting the young gunslinger into the game would have benefitted the team on both sides of the ball.


DH

David- my sentiments exactly.

That is exactly what a change like that can do and the calculated risks coaches must be able to make.

You fail at 100% of the chances you don't take.

[cromartie]

All that being said, I recall a fairly long stretch in the 2nd half when we just weren't moving the football.
DH

You don't suppose tossing pass after pass into a three deep defense dropping nine guys into coverage had anything to do with that, do you?

As opposed to, say, handing the ball off to a guy averaging over 12 yards per carry? You think maybe doing that coming out of halftime might have changed the outcome of the game?

Who was behind Center was irrelevant. Not running the ball early, late and often was where the offense failed. Casey Printers wasn't going to fix that. All he was going to do was chuck the ball deeper and faster into a nine man three deep zone, and you need go back no further than six weeks earlier to see how that worked out.

What differentiated Chaps from Burratto, was this: Burratto took what defenses gave him until they adjusted, then he beat them with other things. Chaps came in with a game plan and was going to implement that game plan come hell or high water (which was in line with Wally's approach). Chaps won the day, and we lost that Grey Cup in no small part because of it.

I'd say it's also human nature to hold a good quarterback to a very high standard and one high standard is for the team that's trailing to fight back with some quick scores to take the lead

And that's the fundamental problem here. "Quick scores" were exactly what the offense kept trying to do, and was the opposite of what was needed here. If you're going to employe a strategy where you live in fear of the opponent's special teams and you have vulnerabilities in the middle of the field on defense, and you're up against an opposing defense that let's you run all day, you keep your opponent off the field and take them up on their offer to run all day. It alleviates your Special Teams problem, it limits your defense's exposure and it helps you win time of possession. A solid game plan wins this game with Dickenson. A bad game plan, which this was, loses with both QBs.

[Toppy Vann]

Cromartie: excellent analysis as your a great study of the game.

What you miss is how a change at QB where a guy gives them a different look can make a difference. Especially if that same guy has had a hot hand and was the CFL's MOP that very weekend and a younger guy who you want to keep and who you know felt dissed with all his friends and family at the game. Some players - no problem - they'd not be affected. Printers and guys like him - it does affect them and I'm convinced too that this led in part to his walking away to a bad scene in the NFL.

[cromartie]

Cromartie: excellent analysis as your a great study of the game.

What you miss is how a change at QB where a guy gives them a different look can make a difference. Especially if that same guy has had a hot hand and was the CFL's MOP that very weekend and a younger guy who you want to keep and who you know felt dissed with all his friends and family at the game. Some players - no problem - they'd not be affected. Printers and guys like him - it does affect them and I'm convinced too that this led in part to his walking away to a bad scene in the NFL.

There's a body of evidence that shows what the difference would have resulted in, and that was the 4 INT loss in Toronto on 10/11. I remember it vividly.

There were different defences against which Printers would have been a much better match up than Toronto's. It's just that Toronto's wasn't one of them. If they had played a defense that employed a more conventional 4-3 look that walked the free safety up or played a lot of man defense, then absolutely Casey would have been the right call, because his deep passing ability was ideal for teams that played more man converage. But Toronto played the worst possible defense for Casey's skill set.