Eskimos and Lions Game Day Thread

[B.C.FAN]

-this one is for my wife; she hated the waggle interruptus the Lions had going all night. Can someone explain for her (and me) just what is going on there? Were the Lion's changing the play as the receivers advanced to scrimmage? Were they trying to get Edmonton to tip their hand?

Yes, the Lions are trying to get the Esks to tip their hand. The players look to the sidelines and the coaches signal what they see. This has become common for offences in NCAA football, where Tedford spent most of his coaching career. Jacques Chapdelaine's offence used a lot of false motion too, but his offence also sent players in motion across the formation, which Tedford's offence doesn't do (not that I've seen, at least).

[DanoT]

It sounds like KR and DT are the biggest short comings. Where are Brown and Taylor when you need them?... just doing well playing for the defending Grey Cup Champs

[TheLionKing]

Fera kicks a 49 yard field goal.

they are going to have to keep both.
i assume they made this decision weeks ago and thats why Ferra was kept and Paul was cut

I had that gut sense at training camp. You're talking two rookies. It only makes sense to keep both to start the season at least. Then you have an inhouse Plan B should one falter. I wouldn't be adverse to them splitting duties for the whole season if need be as it could create a two-headed kicking monster.

Keeping both on the roster would IMO a waste of a roster spot. I think Leone will start the season as the kicker but Fera will be in reserve on the practice roster or injury list with a stubbed toe.

[VictoriaFan]

According to the play announcers on TSN GO, Paul Mccallum was texting them every time a FG was missed.

[Dusty]

Agree that Leone and Fera are keepers.....based on their punting. I would like to have seen a "behind the ball" view of the Fera field goal...... from the stands, it looked like it was curving. Both punters had some miscues when they rushed punts, but when they took time to smoothly kick, the ball really sailed high and long. Not sure they will keep on having the time to smoothly kick, but it is nice to see some long punts and the first wave of wide cover guys getting downfield fast.

[WestCoastJoe]

Some post game comments by Jeff Tedford ...

Re Lulay ... I think he'll come out of this game with a lot of confidence, knowing he can get it done. He was able to run with the football. He got knocked down a few times.

Thought we protected the passer pretty well, early. A couple of busts later, perhaps on the running backs.

We gotta clean up the whole thing. We gotta clean up the penalties. Way too many penalties. Totally unacceptable. That's something we will focus on a lot.

..........

After listening to Tedford, Lulay and Harris post game, I see no reason to doubt this regime. Much learning to go on still. But the fast tempo seems to be a good approach to keep defences off balance and to tire them out.

Lulay looked quick on his feet. Pass protection relatively OK from the O Line.
....

One wonders if Tedford is kind of keeping the wraps on the H Backs. Saving them for the regular season. Spring it on the other teams, pretty much unknown. Doing a little rope a dope. Show 'em nothing until it counts.

[David]

According to the play announcers on TSN GO, Paul Mccallum was texting them every time a FG was missed.

Words of support or derision? I want to believe it was the former (very tacky if it was latter).


DH

[Hambone]

I think I remember Tim Brown fumbling once...ever...

Brown recorded 2 fumbles last year on 72 touches. Fortunately both were recovered by BC. He was good in the previous two years fumbling once in each season on 142 and 179 touches respectively. For some silly reason CFL.ca's 2011 stats pdfs only show the first half dozen games. Brown had 2 fumbles in 59 touches after 6 games in 2011.

[Sir Purrcival]

Does anyone know why Tim Brown wasn't kept on until he was beat out of a position. What was the rush to cut him?

[BC 1988]

this stream on tsngo is pretty good

Yes, I had it run by HDMI cable from my laptop to my 55" TV and was very impressed by the quality.

I watched some of the Riders game earlier and it had obviously better production values, with an actual TV crew. The BC game with the 1040 radio feed was unintentionally funny, because Rintoul-Caravetta (and likely producer Eddie Gregory) didn't realize until at the end that their off-air comments during commercial breaks were live. (Typical Carravetta talking mostly about snacks).

[David]

Likely a sleepless night for Jeff Tedford. Not so much deciding his starters, whom to cut, and put on the PR. No, it was probably more a case of lying awake thinking, “how the hell am I going to fill these holes?” Maybe it’s unfair to judge two preseason games, but stacking our Leos up against its preseason opponents (both favoured to top the West it should be pointed out), it became clear we’re nothing more than “average” at this point. Some bright spots to be sure, but lots of work to do both on the field and scouring CFL rosters for upgrades. My thoughts:

• The Esks have had, at best, an adequate O-line in recent years. Yet they **beotch**-slapped our supposed starting front 4 in the first quarter, with rookie RB Shakir Bell gashing through the line at will (ahem….another great off-season recruit for the Esks).

• Conversely, either the holes weren’t being opened up for Andrew Harris, or he was too slow to find them. Hand-off after hand-off, he was getting stuffed for 2, 3, and 4 yard gains (methinks a bit of both).

• Very good first impression of Shaq Murray-Lawrence. Small but great burst and speed. Needs more coaching (blocking could be a problem) but potential is there.

• Running backs Galvin and Thigpen will be in tough to unseat Antolin, simply because they didn’t get many (any?) touches last night. Antolin merely looked “adequate” yesterday in limited play.

• I didn’t expect great things from Travis as he hasn’t played at “game speed” in 9 months, and even then it was just 1 game. But he showed more than enough to allay fears that his shoulder joint was too far gone – there were even a couple of overthrows! He was making the right reads out there and not afraid to use his feet. All good signs.

• Going out on a limb here to predict Esks rookie QB James Franklin is going to be the next great CFL quarterback. Some that have watched him this pre-season might think that’s not going out on much of a limb. Very impressive poise, vision, and arm (ahem….another great off-season recruit for the Esks).

• WR Kenny Stafford was a great pick-up for the Esks (from Montreal) for Fred Stamps. Ed Hervey really knows what he’s doing.

• Wow! The lack of discipline (Bazzie ejected for spitting at a player), lack of fire, sloppy play, poor line play, low scoring.…is this 2015 or 2014??

• Only 1 turnover in the preseason (apart from turnover on downs). A gift INT to Keynan Parker. This is a problem.

• When the roster is settled, you will see a spot for Courtney Taylor, but the lack of game-breaking speed among our receiving corps could be an issue this year. I also think Jeffers-Harris did enough to stay with the club. A nice story of a discarded player who stuck around Winnipeg looking for another chance.

• I also think former Michigan defensive lineman Craig Roh did enough to beat out Zach Minter. I also like the fact that the versatile Roh can be moved outside as well.

• I don’t want to beat this to death, but it also bears repeating. Why did we release Tim Brown and Eric Taylor again??

• LOL, I am like a castaway on a deserted island, marking an “X” on the calendar ‘til LT Hunter Steward is ready to return. Yes, he's "that" important.

• There are those that are down on Iannuzzi. I am not one. Regardless, he made a wonderful catch and run last night, showing world-class speed in the process.

• We have upgraded this year at the important centre position (Jason Foster).

• Here’s where we do need upgrades: returner (glaring....we need a "Yonus Davis" type to tilt the field. Without, we're starting drives from inside the 30 and that's putting too much pressure on your QB to put up points), both guard positions (not terrible but you want someone to grab that position by the gonads and I haven’t seen that. Don’t rule out T-Dre Player starting the season over Dean Valli), and defensive tackle (same).

• We also need 1 kid to step up and grab the K/P role. Unfortunately, it’s an even split right now (Leone the better punter and Fera the more reliable kicker) and we can ill-afford to waste 2 imports that way. I am rooting for both of these kids though. They’re both really great guys.

• If we suffer no major long term key injuries this year, we start to gel with better coaching, and upgrade in some areas, we could make some noise in the West. If the stars don’t align however, this could be a 4th or 5th place team.


DH

[Hambone]

It sounds like KR and DT are the biggest short comings. Where are Brown and Taylor when you need them?... just doing well playing for the defending Grey Cup Champs

So they are guaranteed to make the team? I'm being a bit facetious there as I expect at least Taylor will and probably Brown. If they do I expect them to have productive years and I'm quite OK if they do. Calgary is trying to repeat which means they are win-now mode. They are adding Taylor and Brown strictly for short-term gain. Assuming both make the club I'd not be surprised if it turns into a one and done situation for them there. BC is trying to rebuild on the fly. They can't be thinking about squeezing another year out of older vets as in what did they do in the past, but rather where would they fit in 2015 and beyond.

I like Taylor a lot and have admired him as being one of those guys who just goes out there and quietly delivers good consistent play. But I have to admit he's at the end of his prime if not past it. I think the signs of decline are there in the numbers and in a backhanded way in the play. Taylor registered 4 sacks in 2012 and 5 more in 2013. Last year he had 1 and that was in the season opener. He didn't register another sack for the rest of the season. Defensively BC finished 7th against the run at 5.8 yards/rush which was 0.1 better than league doormats Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. I've marvelled at how deceptively quick Taylor is as a big man and how many plays he makes in pursuit. Then I start wondering if it's a good thing when Taylor was most noticeable in my eyes when he was making a tackle in pursuit on a ball carrier who has already into the second tier of the defence. And of course one has to consider that a portion of SolE's big numbers may have been a product of the interior of the DL not being as good as the Lions would like.


Breaking news: Having said all that reports out of Calgary are that we can get Taylor as he and Lin-J Shell did not make the Stamps and have been released.

[DanoT]

I think I kinda understand the releasing of Tim Brown, although I strongly disagree with it: The KR is a Designated Import (DI) and they wanted the KR to also be a rotational DB/dimeback or a 6th receiver but not a back up RB because that is going to be Antolin.

For now I think that they should go with Iannuzzi as a KR.

As far as releasing last season's best D lineman in Eric Taylor and thus needing not 1 but 2 rookies to play on the D line for 2015, it boggles the mind!!

I think the Lions should release 1 extra guy for today's roster cut down so they can hopefully scoop up a DT released today by another team.

[Lions4ever]

this stream on tsngo is pretty good

Yes, I had it run by HDMI cable from my laptop to my 55" TV and was very impressed by the quality.

Please dial down the fancy tech talk. You'll confuse KnowItAll. He's still up on his roof turning his antenna trying to pull in a less fuzzy picture.

[TheLionKing]

this stream on tsngo is pretty good

Yes, I had it run by HDMI cable from my laptop to my 55" TV and was very impressed by the quality.

Please dial down the fancy tech talk. You'll confuse KnowItAll. He's still up on his roof turning his antenna trying to pull in a less fuzzy picture.

Maybe he's adjusting the rabbit ears.