The common misnomer in professional football is that you have to establish the run to win. This is false. You do not run to win. You run because you are winning.
Only in rare instances, such as our 2007 offensive line, and in college level mismatches, can you run the ball constantly and win the game.
I'm less critical of running on first down, because I believe that it can be an important component of keeping defenses off balance, sets up play action opportunities later on, and creates a time of possession advantage. Whether you should walk in with 50% or not, I won't speak to. cromartie
I don't have any problem with a run/pass ratio of 50/50 cro on first down over an entire season. Obviously with that ratio the defense doesn't know if you are going to run or pass unless you tip them off by tendency (formation, personnel, motion etc) However I also don't have any problem with a 30/70 run pass ratio if the team is a very good passing team and not so good a running team and vice-versa.
But each game is different and each defense you play is different and defenses make adjustments within a game. A team just needs to take advantage of whatever the defense is giving them and not try to fight something that is stacked against them (like when a defense loads the box on first down).
I liked the fact that Lulay was in the spotters booth and PaoPao was on the sidelines. Lulay knows our offence better than PaoPao and has looked at CFL opposition defenses a lot more recently than PaoPao has...while Joe is a calm, sage guy so having a receivers coach on the sidelines was probably an asset, although I think good pass blocking and taking Ottawa deep against man defense was much more important than either.
I still really believe the type of offensive system a team uses, along with play calling, are much more important than often given credit. I learned that the hard way personally. I usually don't discuss things on Lionbackers in this way but one example I want to share comes from a different sport
At one point in my life I was asked to coach a Senior Mens Basketball team. The team was comprised of one half ex-university basketball players and one half just very good basketball athletes. The team was considered very talented but not playing to its potential and also, over 3 previous seasons, had been beaten handily by its nearest competitor each and every game they had played. The previous coach stepped aside to become the GM as well as serve as my assistant coach.
The previous coach had tried two different offensive systems without great success. I came in and brought in a system that had been very successful for me in the past and it also seemed like a good fit for the players that I was coaching. It didn't work either. Half-way through that first season, I came to the conclusion, as did the GM/Assistant Coach before me, that while the squad had very talented individuals it was never going to jell into a championship team. We saw it as both a lack of chemistry and a lack of execution - they just didn't play well together...even though they were unselfish and were all considered 'team' type of guys.
Frustrated, one evening, I decided to blow up what I was doing, thinking anything might be better. I wrote down the strengths of each individual player and designed a brand new offensive system. I didn't hold out a lot of hope. With only a few practices, we played the same team that had dominated us in previous seasons and that season. We had them down 65-12 at half time and won the game as handily. I was hopeful but guessed the win was probably an aberration and they had taken us for granted. With basically the same players on both sides, as it had been for three seasons before, we never lost to them again for the next two years and went on to win the championship in that first year.
In some ways it was almost a fluke but it taught me, as a young coach, that systems don't just matter, they can matter A LOT.
Yes, we played Ottawa (but they have played very good defense at times this season) and yes, Ottawa played a lot of man defense but more than Lulay in the spotter booth or PaoPao on the sidelines but we also did a lot of things differently offensively against Ottowa, scheme wise and play call wise, in this game, and I believe it was the most important difference.
And I agree with you cromartie...you run the football because you are winning...and you run the football when its wise to do so.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
It would seem that for the recent Ottawa game the Lions went back to the Jedi Mind Trick Formula. 
