BC vs. Calgary Game Day Thread

[Qman]

when is rod black going to be finally put out to pasture.

[sj-roc]

Hope the Lions weren't counting on this game to sell tickets.

[Qman]

I hate when wally releases guys in March. Why not wait to have these guys just get beat out of a spot in June.

Eric Taylor and Tim Brown are way better than anybody we have in camp.

[SammyGreene]

Time of possession this 2nd half must be downright frightening. One whole series for McGhee?

[cromartie]

Valli p'owned by Quinn Smith on that sack.

DH

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

[TheLionKing]

Very disappointed with Travis Partridge's performance.

[Qman]

should have watched women's soccer.
That was tough to watch.

[CardiacKid]

D-line.....meh
O-line.....meh
Return game......meh

Liked Jennings, Lokombo and Chin amongst the newbs. Nice lick by Tillman. I thought Bigelow was supposed to be a big play guy? Had more touches than most it seemed and didn't do much. I remember that last year the pre-season seemed to have more guys step up and make statements about sticking around.....Antolin, Adekolu, Hoffman-Ellis....

In fairness to the Lions, the Stamps are leaning a lot on their vets tonight in comparison to the Leos.

I am hoping the pre-season this year reverses the trend for the Lions of late; a good and promising pre-season doesn't equal a good regular season. Maybe a crummy pre-season bodes well

[CardiacKid]

Who had that final punt for the Leo's? Leone or Fera? Also liked Tillman's reaction after he laid out Slaughter; namely he didn't start yapping or thumping his chest. He simply looked seriously pissed..... Despite getting beat for the touchdown, I hope he gets another chance to stick around.

[Sir Purrcival]

Watched the game at a local watering hole so I wasn't paying attention every play but I was a bit depressed at a lot of things but most of which were already highlighted as big ?

DLine - not much pressure. I will give a bit of props to the Calgary O. I mean 2 step drop and gone when passing. Held the ball for maybe two seconds. Their run against us was pretty damn good. Biggie and SolE would make a bit of a difference there but their part time players against ours - they win hands down.

Oline - not much to say here either but our QB's looked a bit tentative except the first one and by the time they figured out what they might want to do, they were done. Dead men walking.

QB's - Jenning not too bad at 5-11, the rest, deer in the headlights. If I were Partridge, I would be very concerned. He seemed to be the worst of the lot and he has the most exp. !

All in all, Calgary owned this game in almost every category and the score such as it was flattered us. I sure hope the next game looks better with starters but the sad truth at this point says that our depth is not where we need it to be at QB, Dline and Oline. Again, all very much known issues. It is too early to really prognosticate but the ingredients for a long season may well be in the larder.

[David]

Who had that final punt for the Leo's? Leone or Fera? Also liked Tillman's reaction after he laid out Slaughter; namely he didn't start yapping or thumping his chest. He simply looked seriously pissed..... Despite getting beat for the touchdown, I hope he gets another chance to stick around.

Leone had that punt and I would have to say that if the season were to start tomorrow, he would be our P/K and Fera would go to the PR.

Agree on Tillman. He got burned for a TD on the wheel route (where was the safety help underneath?), but overall, I liked his aggression. In terms of players who made an impression tonight: Jennings, J. Johnson, Tillman, Burnham, Vizzi, Leone, Jeffers-Harris, Bazzie.

Concerns: no pressure up front along the D-line unless we sent an extra man, poor run stopping, O-line play was spotty at best, we didn't set up our blocks on the kick returns (not really a surprise - same coach/same results).

Positives: Jennings did not look like he was playing in his first pro game (showed very good poise but accuracy was a little spotty), discipline (only 7 penalties for 55 yards), only 1 TD given up (although we didn't have to face Drew Tate tonight).


DH

[B.C.FAN]

That was an ugly and uninspired performance. Aside from some flashes from Jennings and Jeffers-Harris on the opening drive, the Lions did nothing on offence, and their kick team did nothing to take advantage of the new rules designed to give them more space in the open field. B.C.'s receivers were well covered, the QBs missed them when they were open, the RBs did little to lift the team and the O-line gave up five sacks. Rich Stubler exploited their weaknesses with ease and confused the inexperienced B.C. QBs with his defensive looks. I don't think Travis Lulay will last a full game behind that collection of misfits. Opposing teams will be blitzing from everywhere. And this is a B.C. O-line that features three Americans.

I know the Stamps are Grey Cup champions and they played more veterans than the Lions but the Stamps lost two all-stars from their offensive line in the offseason and they manhandled B.C.'s defensive line all night. All of their running backs, not just Cornish, seemed to be able to push the pile for an extra five or six yards after first contact. The toughest position groups to assess in training camp are the offensive and defensive lines. You can line up two opposing rows of marshmallows and they'd battle each other to a standstill. Softness is exposed quickly against real opposition.

Another disappointment was that the two H-backs didn't get any touches. A.C. Leonard was targeted once by Partridge but the pass bounced to him. He was wide open and should have been targeted on the play where Partridge threw his ugly interception.

I was impressed with the kicking of Richie Leone, who seemed to separate himself from his competitor, averaging 52 yards on four punts, while Anthony Fera's longest of three punts was 43 yards.

I didn't see anything tonight or in the six practices I've seen this year that supports Tedford's high opinion of Brendan Bigelow. I wanted to see more of Rickey Galvin, who impressed me in camp as a Tim Brown clone. He had the best stats of any B.C. running back with 4 carries for 23 yards (5.8 yard average) and one kick return for 14 yards. He didn't get a chance to return punts.

A bright spot was that the game was over in about two hours and 45 minutes, 10 minutes faster than the average game time of the past two years. I was happy not to have to endure any more of that one.

[David]

BTW, the most depressing part of the evening was when Suits said that if the season were to start today, Lulay would likely not be ready to play. This drew a "C'mon Suitor, don't exaggerate!" response from me at the television.

But then I heard it again and on the post-game show, this time learning that Suits interviewed Travis today and that was an actual quote. Yikes.

It begs the question: if Lulay wasn't ready to play today, how is he going to be miraculously healed in 3 weeks for the season opener? Also, I 'get' the coddling that's going on (the pitch count, the no throwing a wet football etc.) but if he was better, would they not have used him for a series or 3 tonight to knock a year's worth of rust off him?). Next Friday's quarterbacking pecking order for # of reps is going to be very telling.

Learning all this and seeing the performance tonight, I now think the QB depth chart on July 4 will be as follows:

Lulay (starter but on a short leash)
Jennings (no hesitation whatsoever putting him in)
Beck (an insurance policy for 2015 season only)

McGhee (on the practice roster but in longer term plans)


DH

[WestCoastJoe]

Boring game for sure.

Positives ...

Against the GC Champs, with their starters playing significant time, we were 6-6 for quite a while.

Jennings looked calm and cool.

Coverage guys were pretty good.

Kicking game should be an upgrade.

IMO we looked like a well coached team, with massive roster change, rookie QB starting, #1 and #2 and #3 QBs from last year unavailable. New systems.

Negatives ...

O Line needs lots of work to unlearn years of indoctrination with the Mad Scientist.

D Line looks smallish and rather easily pushed around.

Our D did not look threatening to an O Line that is missing two key guys.
...........

Preseason #1 ... no big deal. Saw some evidence of culture change. Saw some evidence of organization and professional coaching.

Hufnagel has been building the Stampeders since 2008, 7 years.

Tedford has been here working with the players for a month or two, with some unofficial stuff before training started. Not quite the time to panic, or even to judge the team by the somewhat ragged show Friday night.

That was no Gong Show last night. Lions fans have seen some of those over the years. I liked Eagle Keys as a coach. But after one shambles of a game he said: "We stumbled, bumbled and fell down." That kind of performance was a Gong Show. Not last night.
............

Final thought. If Benny was still in charge we would have been blown out like a last place team. Kind of like Montreal blew us out in the playoff game last year. The Montreal debacle was a Gong Show. Another year from Benny and we would have been the doormat of the league.

Just IMO ...

[SammyGreene]

BTW, the most depressing part of the evening was when Suits said that if the season were to start today, Lulay would likely not be ready to play. This drew a "C'mon Suitor, don't exaggerate!" response from me at the television.

But then I heard it again and on the post-game show, this time learning that Suits interviewed Travis today and that was an actual quote. Yikes.

It begs the question: if Lulay wasn't ready to play today, how is he going to be miraculously healed in 3 weeks for the season opener? Also, I 'get' the coddling that's going on (the pitch count, the no throwing a wet football etc.) but if he was better, would they not have used him for a series or 3 tonight to knock a year's worth of rust off him?). Next Friday's quarterbacking pecking order for # of reps is going to be very telling.

Learning all this and seeing the performance tonight, I now think the QB depth chart on July 4 will be as follows:

Lulay (starter but on a short leash)
Jennings (no hesitation whatsoever putting him in)
Beck (an insurance policy for 2015 season only)

McGhee (on the practice roster but in longer term plans)


DH

I heard Farhan earlier in the week echo your thoughts David. If Lulay isn't ready now 9 months since the injury then what difference is an additional 3 weeks going to make? I thought the first step would be him going up against 2nd or 3rd stringers to initiate the process of getting him up to game speed and building his confidence. The second half of last night's game seemed like the logical starting point. Edmonton will come here next week after the initial cut downs and with a smaller travelling roster.


I try not to read too much into the positives that come out of training camp or how poorly a team can look in a pre-season game. The one concern I had earlier on was when it was reported soon after camp started that Valli was a "lock" at one of the guard spots. Not exactly a great reflection of your talent level when an awfully inconsistent veteran is given that status. And last night's performance by the o-line supported my concerns. Lions need to remind me again why an o-lineman wasn't taken with their first pick in last month's draft especially with Fabien looking like a turnstile on that one blindside sack and subsequent fumble.