Lions 43 - Alouettes 1 Post Game Stats and Comments

[Toppy Vann]

For me the most amazing part of the turnaround has not been the players but the coaches.

When Wally on behalf of his staff started taking on some of the accountability for the losses and team performance there has been the most amazing change in how this team plays. I agree that talent was not the issue and yes players were dropping passes and failing but the coaching finally coming to realize how they play role in the outcomes was the season changer for me.

[ziggy]

Calgary or the Esks, who do we want to play? Who did we do better against this yr?

Both teams don't scare me. The Lions owned both teams in the regular season. I'm going to order a big pizza and beer next Sunday and watch Edmonton and Calgary go at it. Hope it's cold, windy and it goes into triple overtime.

Calgary looks way more dangerous with Tate at the helm.

[Solar Max]

0-5 was probably the best thing that could have happened.

I don't advocate using that strategy again next season.

No but sometimes shock therapy can be effective. It certainly seemed to be with the coaches. They may say that the players weren't executing, but Chapdelaine's playcalling is vastly better than 11 weeks ago. No way he calls a screen then.

Then there is the issue of audibles at the line; Travis is either following the playcalling, and/or he is much better at reading a Defence. I think it's a bit of both.

[LFITQ]

Then there is the issue of audibles at the line; Travis is either following the playcalling, and/or he is much better at reading a Defence. I think it's a bit of both.

Let's not forget that many of the losses were not by that wide of a margin and Lulay was also getting lots of dropped balls by his receivers at that point. The receivers aren't dropping them now and it is making a huge difference.

[Blitz]

0-5 was probably the best thing that could have happened.

I don't advocate using that strategy again next season.

No but sometimes shock therapy can be effective. It certainly seemed to be with the coaches. They may say that the players weren't executing, but Chapdelaine's playcalling is vastly better than 11 weeks ago. No way he calls a screen then.

Then there is the issue of audibles at the line; Travis is either following the playcalling, and/or he is much better at reading a Defence. I think it's a bit of both.

Wow, what an impressive performance. Montreal was not just a road team going through the motions but a team that was also playing first place, a bye, and the opportunity to host the Eastern Final. Offensively and defensively we destroyed them while our special teams were solid as well.

At the start of this season I posted that our Leos were the most talented team in the CFL. We added to that talent with Kournegay and Bruce as starters but most of our personell was there to start this season. Last night that talent showed itself all over the field.

The tone of the game was set early. I had not seen Brent Johnson's helmet that low in his stance for 3 seasons. It was how he used to line up when he led the leaugue in sacks and Johnson got pressure on Cavillo early. Eric Taylor's hit on Whitaker and Eliminian's hit on S.J. Green set the tone for the rest of the game.

Lets have a closer look:

OFFENCE

ChapBall is dead! JaquesBall has been alive and well since the start of our winning streak and continued to get better. Last night JaquesBall was on impressive display. Remember the days of vanilla pocket passing and no misdirection? We saw misdirection for most of the evening against Montreal.

We ran a lot of two back set on first down, with Lumbala lined up offset at fullback. On the first play of the game, we ran a screen (yes the first play) and Harris raced up the sideline. We rolled Lulay out left and right. Remember the days we always kept our tailback into block against the blitz? Remember last year, when we changed and only sent Robertson out on wide swing passes? No mroe! We set Harris to block and released him upfied into the sweet spot between the midle and outside lienbacker and Harris went in untouched on his first touchdown. On his second touchdown 'Jaques' called a fake dive followed by a fake reverse and Harris was wide open in the same sweet spot again; and all Lulay had to do was make a short throw and Harris rambled again. On Harris' thrid touchdown Lulay steped up instead of escaping right and found Harris wide open again in the seam.

Gore's touchdown was a beautiful call. Pre-snap motion established Montreal in man defense. Gore went in motion right, raced back left on a quick outside slant and there was no way the defensive back could get over to cover him.

Our first two series of the game were play called briliantly by Jaques and Lulay and the offence executed to almost perfection. We've only scored on our first possession three times this season, all in our last five games. Those early scores have been an example of signifcantly improved scripting to begin football games.

We often went two back on first down and lined up Gore at tigth end often. We mutli-formationed and moved our receivers around to create great mismatches. The amount of misdirectionw we used had the Montreal defense overreacting and overpursuing and we took great advantage. This is a different offence than the one that started the season and JaquesBall acheived its finest performance of the season.

Offensively, we led the leaugue in giving up the most quarterback sacks in 2005, 2006, and 2008 and we have always been right up there in getting our quarterbacks sacked and injured. No more. Lulay started all 18 games. He has only been sacked 6 times in the last 9 games and for the first time we finished the season protecting our quarterbacks as the best in the league. Kudos go to the offensive line and backs and receivers who have blocked but this stat is as much about our new scheme, new found ability to combat the blitz, and unpredictable play calling than just blocking ability. However, that aspect of our offensive game has also improved and Angus Reid peeling back last night to pick up a lineman coming off the edge was an example of that improvement.

Our offensive weapons were on display last night and when it was over Montreal's defense was confounded, frustrated, and defeated.

DEFENCE

It may have been created by an injury but using both Taylor and Mitchell at defensive tackle has been a godsend. Not only did they shut down the Montreal running game but they got great pressure inside with pure strength and willpower. Hunt rotated in at tackle to keep the pressure on Cavillo relentless and when they flushed him Brent Johnson and others were there in his face.

We went into the game with Reddick still out and I was worried that Benevedes would again move Banks to nickel and Phillips to shortside halfback, creating a lot of changes. Instead Benevedes did what I was hoping for when Reddick got injured. He used Dennis at nickel and kept Banks at halfback and Phillips at corner. It was a key move as we double covered Richardson and kept him more than in check. Without the ability to go to Richardson and with Cavillo under tremendous pressure, Montreal's offence stuggled badly.

Banks was more than impressive, Kournegay also had a great game as did Marsh. Eliminian was all over the field and Khalif and Taylor played possessed again. When Keron Williams comes back I''m hoping that we will take Smith out and use Johnson with Hunt alternating at both tackle and end...it would be a better lineup.

Our defense shut down Montreal to one point, we made their vaunted passing attack look like a pea shooter offence, and we shut down their running attack to boot. Benevedes and Miles executed a great game plan and the impact of Randy Melvin was more than obvious in this game.

How effective was our defense? Brandon Whitaker, the league’s leading rusher, had just 14 yards on five carries. while Richardson had just two catches for five yards while we held Calvillo to nine-of-17 passes for 63 yards.

Talent and speed and pursuit were on display in abundance on defense and the experience and anticipation of our secondary also were also key factors in our outstanding defensive performance.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Paul McCallum is in such a zone that almost every field goal he hits goes down the center of the goal posts and he makes a difficult task look like a breeze in the woods. McCa;;i, made 50 of 53 attempts during the 2011 season, his percentage of 94.3 breaking Passaglis's previous record set in 2000. Don Sweet calls McCallum the best field goal kicker of all time.

Our downfield coverage was decent and Brown and Iannuzzi ran hard on returns and most importantly continued to secrure the football. Ryan Thelwell's presence was also obvious on special teams and he was often the first one downfield or making the tackle.

WRAP

What more can one say? From coaching to talent to execution to motivation this was more than an impressive victory against a strong adversary with both teams playing for a lot of marbles and we dominated. It was our greatest margin of victory against Montreal in 57 years. A remarkable regular season and one that will likely never be repeated. The WDF is going to be exciting to watch!

[1greatmysticbushape]

Calgary looks way more dangerous with Tate at the helm.

the beast must feast

[1greatmysticbushape]

signature officially changed! excellent job WB, MB, and The Chap... great game Lions! From worst to first.... FIRST IN THE ENTIRE CFL!!! 2 more wins to cap off the most unbelievable season ever. Let's go Leos!!

I like it!

[joe kapp22]

I happpened to catch the Calgary v BB's game yesterday, tbh Tate did not impress me very much at all.

Calgary OL did a great job keeping pressure off of him, but mostly he and Brink were inaccurate passers with poor command of their respective offencive playbook.

I suspect Tate has smallish hands as I watched the ball just slip out of his hands 2 or 3 times.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

The O played just as well in the second as they did in the first. It was a first rate blowout. Not one that I would call exciting, but one that I would call satisfying considering how Trestman ran up the score against us in the 09 Eastern final with a score of 56-18. I would say to Trestman, karma is a b*****.

It might look like a blowout on the scoreboard but I'd have to believe WB is thinking of how the offence only scored one TD in the whole second half.

That is all.

Give the Als defence some credit. They made enough adjustments to hold the Lions to five field goals instead of five TDs. It might have been a lot worse.

[notahomer]

I didn't think a blowout would be fun to watch but it was. The two time Grey Cup defending champs blown out when a win would have given them a bye! Surprising. I did not see this coming. Anything that could go right did go right, IMO. Even when the Al's could try to get on the board, Whyte lines up for a long field goal, BLOCKED. Big sacks, big hits.

The way this team was frustrating to watch early in the season, it is now fun to watch. I was amazed at how many people stayed to the end. I guess we fans have seen enough times where the Lions had a chance to do something big and just stumbled. Last night instead, they ripped control out of the Al's hands and just never let it go.

My big complaint (already mentioned) was the broken 20 second clock. Many also complained about the 'breeze' that seemed to appear at times. One theory was the stadium opened some vents to clear the leftover smoke from the fireworks. With a draft like that why not just open the roof? But it was obviously just a short thing as it seemed to go away. Those fireworks must leave some kind of residue too. Had a guy in our endzone running out to pick up little pieces of something (I assume leftover from the fireworks).

[AC/DC Rocks]

Awesome job and congrats to the Lions organization, what a turn around.
Johnson sacked AC with one arm on I think it was his second sack, what a play!

Lets sell out the west final and cheer the Leos on to the Grey cup!!

[notahomer]

No real surprises with the annual Lions awards either. I did chuckle because there is one Lions award that the players share, (one offensive, one defensive and one special teams). Funny seeing the three guys holding the award....

[David]

Players and coaches are starting to sense a certain "mystique" or feeling of invinsiblity about BC Place which is a good thing. In his post game address to the players, the first thing out of Wally's mouth was that the "magic of BC Place is real." And don't think the players don't notice the crowd noise. That building was rocking, even when we'd built a big lead. Some of the players took to Twitter to thank the fans. A sample:

geroysimon Geroy Simon
Thank you @BCLions fans for your support all year! You guys are great. We will need you guys big time in 2 weeks.

TravisLulay Travis Lulay
Great regular season finish tonight, major thanks to @BCLions nation for the support. Season 2 begins in 2 weeks, c u all @bcplace!

DH

[Luke]

Wow, what an impressive performance. Montreal was not just a road team going through the motions but a team that was also playing first place, a bye, and the opportunity to host the Eastern Final. Offensively and defensively we destroyed them while our special teams were solid as well.

At the start of this season I posted that our Leos were the most talented team in the CFL. We added to that talent with Kournegay and Bruce as starters but most of our personell was there to start this season. Last night that talent showed itself all over the field.

The tone of the game was set early. I had not seen Brent Johnson's helmet that low in his stance for 3 seasons. It was how he used to line up when he led the leaugue in sacks and Johnson got pressure on Cavillo early. Eric Taylor's hit on Whitaker and Eliminian's hit on S.J. Green set the tone for the rest of the game.

Lets have a closer look:

OFFENCE

ChapBall is dead! JaquesBall has been alive and well since the start of our winning streak and continued to get better. Last night JaquesBall was on impressive display. Remember the days of vanilla pocket passing and no misdirection? We saw misdirection for most of the evening against Montreal.

We ran a lot of two back set on first down, with Lumbala lined up offset at fullback. On the first play of the game, we ran a screen (yes the first play) and Harris raced up the sideline. We rolled Lulay out left and right. Remember the days we always kept our tailback into block against the blitz? Remember last year, when we changed and only sent Robertson out on wide swing passes? No mroe! We set Harris to block and released him upfied into the sweet spot between the midle and outside lienbacker and Harris went in untouched on his first touchdown. On his second touchdown 'Jaques' called a fake dive followed by a fake reverse and Harris was wide open in the same sweet spot again; and all Lulay had to do was make a short throw and Harris rambled again. On Harris' thrid touchdown Lulay steped up instead of escaping right and found Harris wide open again in the seam.

Gore's touchdown was a beautiful call. Pre-snap motion established Montreal in man defense. Gore went in motion right, raced back left on a quick outside slant and there was no way the defensive back could get over to cover him.

Our first two series of the game were play called briliantly by Jaques and Lulay and the offence executed to almost perfection. We've only scored on our first possession three times this season, all in our last five games. Those early scores have been an example of signifcantly improved scripting to begin football games.

We often went two back on first down and lined up Gore at tigth end often. We mutli-formationed and moved our receivers around to create great mismatches. The amount of misdirectionw we used had the Montreal defense overreacting and overpursuing and we took great advantage. This is a different offence than the one that started the season and JaquesBall acheived its finest performance of the season.

Offensively, we led the leaugue in giving up the most quarterback sacks in 2005, 2006, and 2008 and we have always been right up there in getting our quarterbacks sacked and injured. No more. Lulay started all 18 games. He has only been sacked 6 times in the last 9 games and for the first time we finished the season protecting our quarterbacks as the best in the league. Kudos go to the offensive line and backs and receivers who have blocked but this stat is as much about our new scheme, new found ability to combat the blitz, and unpredictable play calling than just blocking ability. However, that aspect of our offensive game has also improved and Angus Reid peeling back last night to pick up a lineman coming off the edge was an example of that improvement.

Our offensive weapons were on display last night and when it was over Montreal's defense was confounded, frustrated, and defeated.

DEFENCE

It may have been created by an injury but using both Taylor and Mitchell at defensive tackle has been a godsend. Not only did they shut down the Montreal running game but they got great pressure inside with pure strength and willpower. Hunt rotated in at tackle to keep the pressure on Cavillo relentless and when they flushed him Brent Johnson and others were there in his face.

We went into the game with Reddick still out and I was worried that Benevedes would again move Banks to nickel and Phillips to shortside halfback, creating a lot of changes. Instead Benevedes did what I was hoping for when Reddick got injured. He used Dennis at nickel and kept Banks at halfback and Phillips at corner. It was a key move as we double covered Richardson and kept him more than in check. Without the ability to go to Richardson and with Cavillo under tremendous pressure, Montreal's offence stuggled badly.

Banks was more than impressive, Kournegay also had a great game as did Marsh. Eliminian was all over the field and Khalif and Taylor played possessed again. When Keron Williams comes back I''m hoping that we will take Smith out and use Johnson with Hunt alternating at both tackle and end...it would be a better lineup.

Our defense shut down Montreal to one point, we made their vaunted passing attack look like a pea shooter offence, and we shut down their running attack to boot. Benevedes and Miles executed a great game plan and the impact of Randy Melvin was more than obvious in this game.

How effective was our defense? Brandon Whitaker, the league’s leading rusher, had just 14 yards on five carries. while Richardson had just two catches for five yards while we held Calvillo to nine-of-17 passes for 63 yards.

Talent and speed and pursuit were on display in abundance on defense and the experience and anticipation of our secondary also were also key factors in our outstanding defensive performance.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Paul McCallum is in such a zone that almost every field goal he hits goes down the center of the goal posts and he makes a difficult task look like a breeze in the woods. McCa;;i, made 50 of 53 attempts during the 2011 season, his percentage of 94.3 breaking Passaglis's previous record set in 2000. Don Sweet calls McCallum the best field goal kicker of all time.

Our downfield coverage was decent and Brown and Iannuzzi ran hard on returns and most importantly continued to secrure the football. Ryan Thelwell's presence was also obvious on special teams and he was often the first one downfield or making the tackle.

WRAP

What more can one say? From coaching to talent to execution to motivation this was more than an impressive victory against a strong adversary with both teams playing for a lot of marbles and we dominated. It was our greatest margin of victory against Montreal in 57 years. A remarkable regular season and one that will likely never be repeated. The WDF is going to be exciting to watch!

I have goosebumps after reading that recap. Thank you.

[Hambone]

From 1-6 to this. Simply amazing and remarkable!!!! Now two weeks to soak in the build up to hosting the Western Final with being the host team for the Grey Cup game now just 60 minutes away.
What a time to be a Lions fan.

Western Final tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10 a.m.

Oh me of little faith. When they lost to the Bombers in the manner they did to drop to 1-6 I figured I might as well start booking my Grey Cup flights for the usual Wednesday departure. I thought there was no way both the WDF and GC would be held in BC Place. Looks like I'll have to rebook the departure to Saturday and stay the week. Who would've thunk it? It's going to be most satisfying change of flight fee I've ever paid.