CFL's perspective of the 2014 BC Lions season......
http://cfl.ca/article/season-rewind-bc-lions
CFL websites BC Lions rewind....
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Even though I got a free ticket out of the deal.... my low-light of the season was probably watching the Riders beat the Lions on my birthday during 'Guaranteed Win Night'......
Or maybe the playoff loss...
Or maybe the playoff loss...
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Toppy Vann
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notahomer wrote:Even though I got a free ticket out of the deal.... my low-light of the season was probably watching the Riders beat the Lions on my birthday during 'Guaranteed Win Night'......
Or maybe the playoff loss...
I think the guaranteed win night was emblematic of the way the Lion season was heading. Even Skulsky has now admitted it was unwise to do so although I found a lot of folks here liking it before we saw the result.
You never ever ever give an opponent extra motivation by dissing them. The ONLY time in BC Lion franchise history that worked was when the Bombers (IIRC) coach was asked by Annis Stukus to trash the Lions as there was no hope the Bombers would be defeated and Stuke wanted to sell tickets to the home game so the Bomber coach accommodated him and called it a Mickey Mouse team etc. It worked as angry fans came out to boo and of course the Lions predictably lost but it sold tickets.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
I agree ToppyVan. I didn't like Guarantee Win night when it was launched and still don't like it - even though ultimately, it put more bums in the seats.
Highlights of the year:
Sublime (and consistent) play of Solly
Comeback 25-24 victory over Calgary on 8/1
The improved play of Ernest Jackson (along with his increased role)
The thoroughly dominant 41-3 win over Ottawa on the heels of a 3-game losing streak and an injury depleted roster
The attendance that night - 31,217. Sure, some were from Guarantee Win promo, but after a 3-game losing streak against an Eastern (expansion) opponent with the Canucks playing across the street? Impressive.
So were the debuts of Hunter Steward, Ronnie Yell, David Menard, Josh Johnson
Lowlights of the years:
The longest game in the history of football, that ugly Eastern Semi no-show 50-17 pasting in Montreal
Kevin Glenn's widely sporadic performances and Mike Benevides' rather unfortunate pronouncement that giving up a 1st rounder for him was "the steal of the century"
Our lousy home record
Losing Travis for the season after only one game
2nd half collapse against the Riders on 8/24 that magnified the stupidity of telling another team that we will win the game. Guaranteed.
The hastily planned and rather awkward "Geroy Simon" night on 7/26 (that only drew 25,321)
Khalif Mitchell, who mysteriously morphed from Superman last time he was here into Clark Kent. I still can't figure it out
Jamall Johnson. Just never really stood out.
Ill-timed, selfish penalties
Injury bug. Although many players stepped up and performed admirably, it was ultimately too many players out for too long
DH
Highlights of the year:
Sublime (and consistent) play of Solly
Comeback 25-24 victory over Calgary on 8/1
The improved play of Ernest Jackson (along with his increased role)
The thoroughly dominant 41-3 win over Ottawa on the heels of a 3-game losing streak and an injury depleted roster
The attendance that night - 31,217. Sure, some were from Guarantee Win promo, but after a 3-game losing streak against an Eastern (expansion) opponent with the Canucks playing across the street? Impressive.
So were the debuts of Hunter Steward, Ronnie Yell, David Menard, Josh Johnson
Lowlights of the years:
The longest game in the history of football, that ugly Eastern Semi no-show 50-17 pasting in Montreal
Kevin Glenn's widely sporadic performances and Mike Benevides' rather unfortunate pronouncement that giving up a 1st rounder for him was "the steal of the century"
Our lousy home record
Losing Travis for the season after only one game
2nd half collapse against the Riders on 8/24 that magnified the stupidity of telling another team that we will win the game. Guaranteed.
The hastily planned and rather awkward "Geroy Simon" night on 7/26 (that only drew 25,321)
Khalif Mitchell, who mysteriously morphed from Superman last time he was here into Clark Kent. I still can't figure it out
Jamall Johnson. Just never really stood out.
Ill-timed, selfish penalties
Injury bug. Although many players stepped up and performed admirably, it was ultimately too many players out for too long
DH
Roar, You Lions, Roar
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MexicoLionFan
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- Posts: 2051
- Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2011 5:10 pm
David, excellent Highlights and Lowlights for the season...for me, the talent is here...certainly we need someone to play QB and Safety and we must get younger, bigger, quicker and stronger on the DLine, but we have a relatively young roster with a ton of talent. With the news of Dorazio being gone, JT will bring in someone who can really coach the OLine...for me, this was the biggest move in the offseason...our OLine could easily turn from a position of weakness into a position of strength by midseason...IMO the talent on the OLine is very impressive. Olafoye is one of, if not THE BEST OL in the league. Hardrick could become an absolute stud at Guard. Hunter Steward might be the find of the decade for the Lions. He will not suffer a "let down" in play as his strengths are shockingly good techniques! Fabien had a year of healing for his knee and should return to All Star form from his rookie season! Norman is a good OLineman, is it at Center? Who knows...how much did Dorazio hurt his ability? We will see what happens...but I see this group becoming as good as any in the league, which could turn Andrew Harris into a monster RB! And our HOST of Big, Talented receivers will make our new QB's job a lot easier!David wrote:I agree ToppyVan. I didn't like Guarantee Win night when it was launched and still don't like it - even though ultimately, it put more bums in the seats.
Highlights of the year:
Sublime (and consistent) play of Solly
Comeback 25-24 victory over Calgary on 8/1
The improved play of Ernest Jackson (along with his increased role)
The thoroughly dominant 41-3 win over Ottawa on the heels of a 3-game losing streak and an injury depleted roster
The attendance that night - 31,217. Sure, some were from Guarantee Win promo, but after a 3-game losing streak against an Eastern (expansion) opponent with the Canucks playing across the street? Impressive.
So were the debuts of Hunter Steward, Ronnie Yell, David Menard, Josh Johnson
Lowlights of the years:
The longest game in the history of football, that ugly Eastern Semi no-show 50-17 pasting in Montreal
Kevin Glenn's widely sporadic performances and Mike Benevides' rather unfortunate pronouncement that giving up a 1st rounder for him was "the steal of the century"
Our lousy home record
Losing Travis for the season after only one game
2nd half collapse against the Riders on 8/24 that magnified the stupidity of telling another team that we will win the game. Guaranteed.
The hastily planned and rather awkward "Geroy Simon" night on 7/26 (that only drew 25,321)
Khalif Mitchell, who mysteriously morphed from Superman last time he was here into Clark Kent. I still can't figure it out
Jamall Johnson. Just never really stood out.
Ill-timed, selfish penalties
Injury bug. Although many players stepped up and performed admirably, it was ultimately too many players out for too long
DH
Wally and Co. should be able to find two big, strong interior Defensive Linemen to shore up our defence and rotate with Westerman...we need someone to push both Bazzie and Smith for their jobs at DE...but ultimately the talent is here to become a very good football team in 2015...as much as anything the biggest keys to next year will be over the next few weeks with JT filling out the rest of his coaching staff!
"Condemnation Without Investigation is the height of ignorance."
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
I completely agree, MexicoLionFan. I believe the core talent is there with this team, but we obviously need to amp up the talent quotient among our starters in some key areas, and improve overall depth if we're going to compete with teams like Calgary and Hamilton, which withstood numerous key injuries last year.
We need to get a big strong nose tackle to replace Khalif (and perhaps another to challenge Eric Taylor, whom I really like but he just turned 33). Could late season signing Marcus Dixon be that guy? Is it Rob Lohr, whom a BC Lions O-lineman told me is "a beast in practice"? I would expect increased roles for the newly re-resigned Jabar Westerman and David Menard in 2015.
I would assume Kenyan Parker and Matt McGarva are going to challenge JR LaRose at safety, but I want to see us draft a natural safety or top-notch CIS DB this year, and would not be averse to seeing a David Hyland-like import play this position. It's been LaRose's job almost by default principally due to not having sufficient non-import talent/depth at other skill positions (I don't thnk he's terrible BTW, but he plays better in some games than others).
I agree that the talent is there along the O-line. I would assume we'll only see 2 imports to start 2015, Olafioye is a lock at RT and I would think it would be Hunter Steward at LT. I can see Hardrick, Ramsey and Fabien competing for the left guard position, and a battle at the RG spot among Valli and Player, although I wouldn't mind seeing Fabien moved over to compete there. Matt Norman and Cameron Thorn will contest at centre. NOTE - interested to know why Steward is listed as "guard" on the depth chart. Perhaps the club loved the play of Andre Ramsey and consider him a lock at LT, with Hardrick thrown into the LG mix with Steward?
The biggest puzzle right now is at quarterback. I will be interested to see how Travis throws at the Spring Passing camp. He will have had 7 months from which to recover from his latest shoulder set-back. Clearly he won't be throwing bombs, but if he's still just lobbing the football or throwing with some velocity and wincing, there are going to be some huge questions asked going into camp. I could see Dan Lefevour fitting in well in a Jeff Tedford offense, but will Hamilton make a big pitch to re-sign him (I would expect so)? Would he be willing to come to a place where there's no guarantees of starting (unlike say, Ottawa)?
DH
We need to get a big strong nose tackle to replace Khalif (and perhaps another to challenge Eric Taylor, whom I really like but he just turned 33). Could late season signing Marcus Dixon be that guy? Is it Rob Lohr, whom a BC Lions O-lineman told me is "a beast in practice"? I would expect increased roles for the newly re-resigned Jabar Westerman and David Menard in 2015.
I would assume Kenyan Parker and Matt McGarva are going to challenge JR LaRose at safety, but I want to see us draft a natural safety or top-notch CIS DB this year, and would not be averse to seeing a David Hyland-like import play this position. It's been LaRose's job almost by default principally due to not having sufficient non-import talent/depth at other skill positions (I don't thnk he's terrible BTW, but he plays better in some games than others).
I agree that the talent is there along the O-line. I would assume we'll only see 2 imports to start 2015, Olafioye is a lock at RT and I would think it would be Hunter Steward at LT. I can see Hardrick, Ramsey and Fabien competing for the left guard position, and a battle at the RG spot among Valli and Player, although I wouldn't mind seeing Fabien moved over to compete there. Matt Norman and Cameron Thorn will contest at centre. NOTE - interested to know why Steward is listed as "guard" on the depth chart. Perhaps the club loved the play of Andre Ramsey and consider him a lock at LT, with Hardrick thrown into the LG mix with Steward?
The biggest puzzle right now is at quarterback. I will be interested to see how Travis throws at the Spring Passing camp. He will have had 7 months from which to recover from his latest shoulder set-back. Clearly he won't be throwing bombs, but if he's still just lobbing the football or throwing with some velocity and wincing, there are going to be some huge questions asked going into camp. I could see Dan Lefevour fitting in well in a Jeff Tedford offense, but will Hamilton make a big pitch to re-sign him (I would expect so)? Would he be willing to come to a place where there's no guarantees of starting (unlike say, Ottawa)?
DH
Roar, You Lions, Roar