First of all, this intro in a Lowell Ullrich article in the Province today
Mark Washinton played for our Leos from 2003-2008. Chapdelaine was our offensive coordinator in 2005-2006, of those seasons. Our offence finished 2nd in the CFL in scoring in 2005 and 1st in 2006. In the seasons that Mark Washington played for our Leos our offence, in terms of scoring finished 2nd in 2003, 1st in 2004, 2nd in 2005, 1st in 2006, 1st in 2007, and 3rd in 2008.The current disparity in the level of play between the defence and offence is no different now than when Mark Washington played for the B.C. Lions, when he sat in on meetings and occasionally had teammates wonder why the unit formerly run by offensive co-ordinator Jacques Chapdelaine couldn’t score.
It is the pursuit of perfection that is responsible for maintaining proper focus these days now that Washington is the defensive co-ordinator of the CFL team. Keeping his group grounded while the offence under Khari Jones is behaving as the Lions once did under Chapdelaine requires only requires a simple act.
Mark Washington didn't have to sit around in meetings as a player wondering why our offence couldn't score. However, I'm sure there were some offensive players during that time who worried if Washington could defend the opposition receiver. Washington only had 8 interceptions during his career with our Leos and he had to be moved to nickel (he was replaced by rookie Ryan Phillips) because his pass coverage skills were the weakest of our secondary during his time with our Leos.
The second article is by Mike Beamish and it's even more deceptive. It begins as follows:
Beat goes on for bruised, bandaged brigade
Struggling squad refuses to feel sorry for itself despite near-record injury list
Then after piling up a list of our most recent injuries the article states:
This is very deceptive. It makes it seem as if the need to use so many players in a starting role has been due to injury. The reality is that we did not have many injuries for most of this season. The use of so many starting players has mainly been due to rotational choices at offensive left guard and tackle, receiver, and defensive line.According to the Canadian Football League’s chief statistician, Steve Daniel, the Lions have used 40 different players in a starting role at least once this season, and 65 players have dressed for at least one game. That is four short of the team’s all-time record of 69 players employed in 2002.
We've had a lot of injuries to key players lately but for most of the season to date, we did not suffer a lot of injuries.
The Beamish article has an "appearance" that he went out to dinner with Wally and Benevedes the evening before writing the article and was added to the Lions publicity department. The article sounds so all heroic as the 'struggling squad marches, without feeling sorry for itself as it marches on through adversity.
The reality is that we lost most of our games this season due to poor play by our offence, when most of our starters were in the lineup, including Arsenault, Taylor, Harris, Logan, etc. We also lost to Ottawa with Lulay as our starter.
Numerous posters have written on Lionbackers that injuries would be the excuse to keep on going next season with our same Leo coaching staff.
It seems like the spin is on.