RedBlacks 27 - Lions 16 -- Post Game Stats and Comments

[VictoriaFan]

bye week while other teams were up to game speed I think didn't help. Tackling was horrible , even Solly looked sluggish, has he bulked up? Biggie was flying around but when the linebackers are doing the work it means the d line is letting them through. Kicking sucked, too many Mcallum type shanks. At least we weren't the grey cup champs getting owned by Montreal. And at least Tedford wasn't spazzing out on the sidelines like Benny would, all in all it was to be expected , actually I was surprised that the o-line protected Lulay as well as they did. Most annoying thing was the guy with the cowbell under the announcer booth.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/foot ... story.html

From the column by Mke Beamish ...

Tedford, 0-1 in his baptism as a CFL head coach, said there was some positive takeaways, despite the missed scoring opportunities.

“Some guys played well,” he said. “We protected the passer, for the most part (Lulay was sacked twice). Some guys made some tough plays. But there’s not enough good, unless you win the football game. You have to figure out how to get it done. We’ll work on that next week (in practice). We have a good foundation. And I hope our guys will respond, in the right way.”

[TheLionKing]

Farhan ripping the Lions on 1040 live now.

I could only find the first hour of the post game show available for on demand listening on the TSN site. Does anyone know if the rest of the show with the Lalji segment is available anywhere online? I see Lalji was less than complimentary to the o-line from his twitter feed; was the 1040 segment more the same?

Farhan was not impressed with the play of the "import" linemen. ie. Foster and Draheim

[TheLionKing]

Like a lot of fans I too was disappointed at the Lions performance on Friday or lack of performance but I'm not about to be jumping off the Lions Gate Bridge any time soon. It's only one game folks. As Angus Reid once said, the offence line needs to play as a cohesive unit. Takes time for the players to know the tendencies of the guy playing next to you. There is no short cut in developing continuity other than playing.

[dupsdell1]

Maybe lions should drap off lower bowl too.

Yes because not even family and friends will be there for there first game WHAT A JOKE OF A TEAM .

[dupsdell1]

[quote="Toppy Vann"]Farhan ripping the Lions on 1040 live now.[/quotAs he should


As He should be there is a long way to go for this team.

[pennw]

Maybe lions should drap off lower bowl too.

Yes because not even family and friends will be there for there first game WHAT A JOKE OF A TEAM .

How was Seattle ?

[Toppy Vann]

As others have mentioned, Travis did look good in the first 3 quarters, but started to fade in the 4th. I think, at this early stage of playing following rehab, he needs to be managed like you would a pitcher in baseball (with a pitch count). The Lions should have planned for this by having a 2 QB system.

I didn't think it was as much as TRAVIS fade but the Lions predictable play calling based on the fact this team can't run, can't vary the play calls for whatever reason and Travis was forcing balls in predictable patterns and coverages.

[DanoT]

The play of Foster and what's his name at LT (no point in learning his name because he isn't going to be around for much more than a cup of coffee) was very disappointing.

The Lions might as well start bringing in some recent O line cuts from other CFL teams because that is what you do when you have the worst line in the league. What they didn't make as a priority during the draft (the O line), they need to make now as an urgent priority.

When you factor in NAT vs INT, does anyone think that Foster is an upgrade over Norman at centre?

[Blitz]

It was a disappointing season opening loss for our B.C. Lions against the RedBlacks, who were only playing their second game of their second season as a franchise. The game showed how low our B.C. Lions have fallen from those lofty times from 2004-2007, when we were a model franchise of success.

Our Lions have now lost one out of the three games so far we have played against a new franchise in the Redblacks and we barely won in Ottawa last season with a 7=5 victory in Lulay's last start prior to this game. Ottawa has attracted free agents, made good trades, and drafted and selected wisely. They've put together a decent offensive line, an excellent receiving core, and an aggessive defence in this early second year of their operation. If only our Leos could be functioning at the same level.

In the big picture, a lack of judgment by our Leos brass has gotten us to this place, where we were chosen to finish last or fourth in the West by most prognostictors this season. The hirings of Mike Benevedes and Khari Jones, the release of Rich Stubler, the continued retention and expansion of the role of Chuck McMann (now running backs coach as well as special teams) and the release of Kelly Bates, who did such a great job of both the draft and the running backs have resulted in a price being paid.

The treatment of veteran players, who have not only given their heart and soul to the team and the community, have also not gone unnoticed across the CFL nor thas the way we have handled contracts. Getting a quality free agent to come to B.C. is a tougher challenge than getting milk from a bull.

We attempted to address a team in demise and inner turmoil last season by bringing in a very experienced Head Coach in Tedford, an offensive coordinator in Cortez who has both experience and success, and a new offensive line coach in Malone who has a proven record of successfully coaching offensive lineman.

But instead of a quick turnaround, its going to be a work in progress. Tedford inherited a team with a converted guard playing center and with no backup depth at the position, a quarterback who had a background of serious shoulder problems and who had hardly played in a year and a half, an average receiving corps, and a lack of quality depth at the backup quarterback position.

He also inherited a defense whose best pass rusher is a a 35 year old defensive end, a huge hole to fill in the interior of the defensive line, and the challenge of attemtping to convert a defensive tackle into a rush end. In this game, Roh, a college player who has never played inside, lined up for his first pro game ever in the unfamiliar position of defensive tackle, a spot he didn't even practice at for most of training camp. This is not champion building stuff.

Obviously, there are serious improvments that need to be made and I anticipate that when NFL cuts happen, we'll see more change this season than in previous seasons.

Here are some post game thoughts.

OFFENCE

Travis Lulay showed he could make all the throws he needs to make as a starting quarterback in this game. However, the greatest strength of Lulay has never been sitting in the pocket reading and making throws. His success has always been as a double threat quarterback who could throw on the run, make plays, and run the football upfield. He only ran once in this game and more than his shoulder, Lulay not being a threat to take off with the football is limiting.

A positive in this game is that we did a better job of protecting the quarterback than we have for the past two seasons. No quarterback can be successful without adequate pass protection. Kevin Glenn, for example, was 33/40 for over 477 yards passing for the Riders. He obvously had better protection in that game than he ever had with our Leos last season.

The negative was that, with three Internationals, we really struggled to open holes for the running game and it hurt our offence. It will take time for this offensive line to gel and I believe the day we have Hunter Steward back in the lineup, will be a huge step up. (hard to beleive we initially pegged Steward as a backup guard going into training camp)

Manny Arsenault looked so much better back outside at shortside wide side reciever. Austin Coliie showed that he is going to be a great addition.

However, for an innovative coach as Tedford and an offensive coordiantor with the experience of Cortez, I would have thought we would have seen a much more imaginative and dynamic offence out of our new scheme. This was a game that we really needed to show that we could be an exciting offensive team again to attract a fan base that is dwindling, Didn't happen.

DEFENSE

Our defense was hurt again by the same things that have plagued us under Mark Washington. Those three things are 1) an ineffective pass rush 2) the inability to close down the oppostiion teams running game and 3) vanilla zone defense and a passive approach to playing defense, dispite some very agressive style linebackers and defensive backs.

A 40 year old Burris can still pick a defense apart if he is given time and he gets a lot of the same look. We gave Burris too much time to often to make throws and we played a lot of vanilla zone.

Mark Washington was a Wally fave. He did a decent job taking over Stubler's defense to begin last season but it was a defense in decline as the 2014 season progressed and it certainly didn't look much improved against Ottawa.

Ryan Phillips, who has always been a favorite of mine and is an excellent cover guy was injured. I never want to see a player hurt but perhaps with Parks at wideside half and Tillman at wideside corner, we'll be a better defense. We'll miss Phillips coverage skills and experience but he has never been a great tackler.

The positives in this game on defense were the play of Khareem Smith and we finally saw the kind of safety play that we haven't seen since Barrin Miles played. Rwabukamba was unlucky not to have a number of intercpetions but he tracked and closed on the football that was a joy to see, after such a long absence from seeing any safety in a B.C. uniform to that.

There is still a lot of work to be done on this defense and Washington is not giving me the feeling that we are better off with him than Stubler..that's for sure.

SPECIAL TEAMS

We chose Leone over Fera because of his punting but Leone did not have a great first game. He shanked a punt, his directional punting was lacking, setting up potential dangerous returns, and he lacked the ability to pin a team deep when the opportunity was there.

The only real postive in this game was that Murray-Lawrence showed the speed and ability to take a return all the way.
Hopefully that burst will also make our coaching staff consider using him as a rotational tailback and give him some plays that can best utilize that speed into our offence.

WRAP

Not the way we wanted or needed to start this season. Poor tackling, bad penalties, veteran mental mistakes, and being outplayed were not inspiring takeaways from a team that really needs to get its fan base back.

Tedford has his work cut out in front of him. His voice reflected that in his post-game comments. Now that Teddord has seen our team in real game action, with his starters against another team's starters, he can better assess what he has and what he doesn't and what needs to be done to get this team turned around.

[WestCoastJoe]

A 40 year old Burris can still pick a defense apart if he is given time and he gets a lot of the same look. We gave Burris too much time to often to make throws and we played a lot of vanilla zone.

Ain't that the truth? Burris has amassed some big time stats in his years in the CFL. Not by accident. Not by luck.

Thank you for your excellent, detailed analysis, Blitz.

I still have high hopes for Jeff Tedford. A top level coach, with a very good staff. One can only imagine how low we would have fallen, if we stayed the course of Wally's mentorship program.

Agreed re Mark Washington. Many coaches, including Mike Benevides, talk about aggressive, attacking defence, but in the face of the risks involved, they back off. In his second year on the job, it looks like Mark W will play it safe as his philosophy. This usually leads to a slow death.

[cromartie]

As long as we run a defense predicated on a four man rush, and don't have four men who can actually rush the passer, we aren't going anywhere. Everything else, I think, will resolve itself in time. Whether that's in time for us to finish at .500 or not remains to be seen.

[CardiacKid]

Based on the ineffective pass rush and loosing the one-on-one battles along the line scrimmage in the Ottawa game, I am hoping we get to see Maxx Forde and Jamarkus MacFarland in the game day roster soon. MacFarland is the only guy left on the roster who isn't injured that tips the scale over 300 pounds...some of that heft is worth seeing in action if only to see if it can do a better job of collapsing the opposition pocket. And Forde was described as having great analytics prior to the CFL draft despite having been banged up his senior year.

Hell...can't really be any more ineffective could they?!?!?!?

[Blitz]

I still have high hopes for Jeff Tedford. A top level coach, with a very good staff. One can only imagine how low we would have fallen, if we stayed the course of Wally's mentorship program.

Agreed re Mark Washington. Many coaches, including Mike Benevides, talk about aggressive, attacking defence, but in the face of the risks involved, they back off. In his second year on the job, it looks like Mark W will play it safe as his philosophy. This usually leads to a slow death. WCJ

As long as we run a defense predicated on a four man rush, and don't have four men who can actually rush the passer, we aren't going anywhere. Everything else, I think, will resolve itself in time. Whether that's in time for us to finish at .500 or not remains to be seen. by cromartie

I still have high hopes for Tedford. My worry, regarding our Lions 'work in progress' is more on the defensive side of the football. We have good assistants but I have concerns regarding Washington's defensive philosophy. He is much more in line with a Buono, Benevedes defensive philosophy than a Ritchie or a Stubler type of defensive mindset. Washington keeps it simple, vanilla, and predictable.

That can work if you have great talent in all three defensive units. We do have excellent talent at linebacker and defensive back but without an effective pass rush, and especially with the CFL's new defensive contact rules on receivers, we're going to continue to be handicapped. Not being able to stop the run only adds to the challenge.

[Lions4ever]

Like a lot of fans I too was disappointed at the Lions performance on Friday or lack of performance but I'm not about to be jumping off the Lions Gate Bridge any time soon.

I'd try the Pattullo. Faster moving water pull one down quicker.