Lulay had 11 interceptions last season in a shortened season, due to his shoulder injury. While Glenn has thrown a few balls that he should not have, the major problem for both quarterbacks has been too much pressure and a passing game too oriented towards the slots and tailback due to that pressure...and the result has been a lot of defensive cheating.MexicoLionFan wrote:Great comments Blitz and everyone else...lots of excellent points made...as for the game, the Lions will be in tough with the key injuries they have, and being on the road in the east where they have been poor for quite a while now...like Blitz said, on O when we run the football well, we win...on D, if we don't put pressure on Ray, we will be in trouble...if Washington plays passive against Ray, he will pick us apart...as for S Ts, we have lots of talent, we just have to get the proper coaching in place to use it effectively...
Big question also, when does Lulay play...with Kevin Glenn's appalling lack of care for the football, it should be sooner than later, but we will see...again, great job everyone!
I have a question for you MLF. Last season, you often bemoaned the loss of Khalif Mitchell (as did I) as well as our lack of a big penetrating tackle who could take on a double team. Last season we finished second in the CFL in run defense, giving up only 94.4 yards per game.
This season, with Khalif Mitchell back in the fold, we are dead last in shutting down the run in the CFL and giving up an average of 110 yards per game. This stat is not due an increased focus on pass defense either - last year we were best against the pass in the CFL while this season our pass defense is second best in the CFL, so far this season. This season we are 7th in the CFL in sacking the quarterback while last season we were sixth.
Bringing back Khalif Mitchell, signing free agent Jamal Johnson, and going with a bigger nickel back (Josh Johnson) over the sligher Korey Banks was supposed to make us a better team against the run, which, in retrospect, wasn't all that bad at 2nd in the CFL and a hell of a lot better than this season.
What do you think are the reasons for this drop in run stopping ability by our defense so far this season MLF? I'm really interested in your thoughts on this.