Stampeders 33 - Lions 16 Post Mortem

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sj-roc
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ballhawk wrote:In games which meant pretty much the same to both teams for playoff positions, interesting that the Lions attracted 34,000 to the game on Friday, while the Roughriders drew an attendance just over 20,000. A stark contrast to the semi-final game I attended last year in Regina against the Lions where it was a sell-out and absolutely freezing. So well done Lions and Lion's fans. There were the usual negative posts on this website forecasting how poorly Lions' attendance would be. It's always a great feeling when you see such negativity crushed. The negativity is such a drag.

On a further note, my trip to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland gave me an wonderful opportunity to attend the Canadian Bowl on Saturday. Good to see current Lions Paul McCallum, Jordan Matechuk and Whitman Tomusiak at the game. Also saw Daved Benefield in the sell-out crowd at McLeod Stadium. Needless to say, the Saskatoon Hilltops defeated the Langley Rams for the championship.
Not from me. In fact a couple days before the game I reckoned ticket sales were around 33.5k. Final tally was 33,752.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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ballhawk wrote:In games which meant pretty much the same to both teams for playoff positions, interesting that the Lions attracted 34,000 to the game on Friday, while the Roughriders drew an attendance just over 20,000.
That's interesting. I missed the Rider game. What's the story? The Riders have attracted 32-33K all year. Was it the weather? I can`t believe that Rider fans have given up on their team.
ballhawk
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MexicoLionFan wrote - "So my message to you and to everyone here is that the turnaround in BC will be swift and demonstrative with a new, effective staff...they are obviously available because pretty much EVERY OTHER team in the league has now put together strong coaching staffs. This team can certainly get younger in certain areas, but with our LB Corp and a secondary of talent and a NEW SAFETY the defence will stand up well to some key changes on the DLine...keep the faith in our talent, its there...guys like Hunter Steward and Kirby Fabien are going to be stars in this league with decent coaching!"

It's a big gamble changing the coaching staff, either the head coach and/or a number of coaches on staff. First of all, we don't really know who is out there or available for the jobs, and the Lions could then find themselves in a tough position. The Lions could end up with new coaches who really have difficulty and the team could be worse off. I was shocked that the Lions changed both OC and DC, and with that change, many posters are very unhappy with the new coaches, Jones and Washington. IMO I believe the current coaches should be given another opportunity to improve the team's performance for another year. Too many injuries at key positions and some young (new) players this year to really evaluate the team properly IMO. The fact that Lulay couldn't play was absolutely a major blow.

Why did the Riders have only 20,000 fans? A good question. I don't think the weather was particularly bad. Watching the game on TSN7 (or whatever number), it was unbelievable to see all the empty seats.
"the 1996 season was a very difficult period... I couldn't imagine telling people that I was part of the last days of the CFL... it seemed that there would be no end to the continuous stream of catastrophic problems... it was like living in a toxic fishbowl... if they had known how serious the situation was, but we couldn't make it public, for fear of a total meltdown". (from Bigger Balls, The CFL and Overcoming the Canadian Inferiority Complex, by Jeff Giles)
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ballhawk wrote:MexicoLionFan wrote - "So my message to you and to everyone here is that the turnaround in BC will be swift and demonstrative with a new, effective staff...they are obviously available because pretty much EVERY OTHER team in the league has now put together strong coaching staffs. This team can certainly get younger in certain areas, but with our LB Corp and a secondary of talent and a NEW SAFETY the defence will stand up well to some key changes on the DLine...keep the faith in our talent, its there...guys like Hunter Steward and Kirby Fabien are going to be stars in this league with decent coaching!"

It's a big gamble changing the coaching staff, either the head coach and/or a number of coaches on staff. First of all, we don't really know who is out there or available for the jobs, and the Lions could then find themselves in a tough position. The Lions could end up with new coaches who really have difficulty and the team could be worse off. I was shocked that the Lions changed both OC and DC, and with that change, many posters are very unhappy with the new coaches, Jones and Washington. IMO I believe the current coaches should be given another opportunity to improve the team's performance for another year. Too many injuries at key positions and some young (new) players this year to really evaluate the team properly IMO. The fact that Lulay couldn't play was absolutely a major blow.

Why did the Riders have only 20,000 fans? A good question. I don't think the weather was particularly bad. Watching the game on TSN7 (or whatever number), it was unbelievable to see all the empty seats.

Sorry, but that's a "bury your head in the sand" response. If the other 8 teams in the league all have solid staffs, the Lions can put one together. You ABSOLUTELY do not stand pat with a coaching staff that has NO ANSWERS. This is the key...all coaches can have tough games and have difficulty with certain coaching staffs, but not against every team, every game. We do not make adjustments and haven't for a long time, making adjustments are WHAT WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS which explains why Wally's teams have struggled in must win games.

Wally had a chance to do a PROPER coaching search when he retired and passed on a number of guys that are now having good success as CFL coaches with LONG FUTURES in front of them. He settled on a guy who was a master of nothing...not an X's and O's expert...not a great motivator...not a great communicator...and not enough success or experience to be a help to his positional coaches, including S Ts (which is where he started) and has NOT been able to help improve them.

We have the WORST opening drive and 2nd half offence in the league...this is PRECISELY COACHING where strong game plans and effective adjustments decide between winning and losing! Stay with this staff (with the other teams settling in with their new, effective coaching staffs and better player personnel) and by the mid point of next season we will be behind everyone else in the league.

Confident coaches ATTACK, frightened coaches DEFEND, there's a huge difference. You MUST take chances and try aggressive, even risky things every game to show teams that you are unpredictable and that they MUST ACCOUNT for all possibilities...that frightens opposing coaches. We don't scare a soul, even on defence. What stunts, fakes, trick plays have we shown all season??? Besides Manny's reverse TD throw, we haven't show diddly squat! Certainly you save some things for the playoffs, but you can still introduce the formations and run vanilla off of them to give opposing MORE AND MORE to prepare against. ANY DC around the league must quietly chuckle to themselves when they see the Lions on the schedule...we make everything SO EASY for our opponents...2nd down??? No worries, we will serve up our empty backfield, 6 receiver set so that you can blitz us JUST LIKE YOU PRACTISED! No thank you's necessary! Even opposing OC's all have effective game plans to attack our defence...EDM gave the rest of the league a blueprint!

Things must change, or it will only get worse...and Dano we CANNOT go another year with JR LaRose on our roster...how many years in a row can a team continue to hammer its own thumb before it realizes it hurts???
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MexicoLionFan wrote: Sorry, but that's a "bury your head in the sand" response. If the other 8 teams in the league all have solid staffs, the Lions can put one together. You ABSOLUTELY do not stand pat with a coaching staff that has NO ANSWERS. This is the key...all coaches can have tough games and have difficulty with certain coaching staffs, but not against every team, every game. We do not make adjustments and haven't for a long time, making adjustments are WHAT WIN CHAMPIONSHIPS which explains why Wally's teams have struggled in must win games.

Wally had a chance to do a PROPER coaching search when he retired and passed on a number of guys that are now having good success as CFL coaches with LONG FUTURES in front of them. He settled on a guy who was a master of nothing...not an X's and O's expert...not a great motivator...not a great communicator...and not enough success or experience to be a help to his positional coaches, including S Ts (which is where he started) and has NOT been able to help improve them.

We have the WORST opening drive and 2nd half offence in the league...this is PRECISELY COACHING where strong game plans and effective adjustments decide between winning and losing! Stay with this staff (with the other teams settling in with their new, effective coaching staffs and better player personnel) and by the mid point of next season we will be behind everyone else in the league.

Confident coaches ATTACK, frightened coaches DEFEND, there's a huge difference. You MUST take chances and try aggressive, even risky things every game to show teams that you are unpredictable and that they MUST ACCOUNT for all possibilities...that frightens opposing coaches. We don't scare a soul, even on defence. What stunts, fakes, trick plays have we shown all season??? Besides Manny's reverse TD throw, we haven't show diddly squat! Certainly you save some things for the playoffs, but you can still introduce the formations and run vanilla off of them to give opposing MORE AND MORE to prepare against. ANY DC around the league must quietly chuckle to themselves when they see the Lions on the schedule...we make everything SO EASY for our opponents...2nd down??? No worries, we will serve up our empty backfield, 6 receiver set so that you can blitz us JUST LIKE YOU PRACTISED! No thank you's necessary! Even opposing OC's all have effective game plans to attack our defence...EDM gave the rest of the league a blueprint!

Things must change, or it will only get worse...and Dano we CANNOT go another year with JR LaRose on our roster...how many years in a row can a team continue to hammer its own thumb before it realizes it hurts???
X2 The argument of "who's quailed out there" is brought up everytime change is mentioned. The fact is there is a lot of qualified candidates out there. Just a matter of doing a comprehensive search. Think outside of the box.
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notahomer
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TheLionKing wrote:X2 The argument of "who's quailed out there" ............
Sounds like a load of skeet to me.... :wink:

Now that its been a few days I'm kinda looking forward to taking a break from Lions games for a few months.... There will be changes. There were changes the year AFTER they last won the Grey Cup. I realize their year IS NOT YET DONE but regardless I hope our home field returns to being a place that is defended again......

(of course what I mean by defended is other CFL teams not coming here and winning by double digit margins....)
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