What most concerns you about our Leos this season?

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What most concerns you about the Lions this season (after Travis's health)?

Lack of an experienced returner / hanging onto the ball?
0
No votes
The running game / lack of depth?
1
4%
The pass rush / stopping the run?
15
54%
The kicking game / consistency?
0
No votes
Pass protection / opening holes for the running game?
12
43%
 
Total votes: 28
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KnowItAll
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yeah, I probably have no idea what I am talking about, but I find myself lacking confidence in the receiving core.
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Rammer
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On the game tonight, it was mentioned that only two games were won by a team not recording a sack in the 2014 season. DL is the glaring weakness as the Lions start the season, not that it can't be corrected as the season moves along. That the Lions can correct any aspect of their team that s weak is possible, just that a couple spots seemed to have the key player in place going towards TC, but they were dropped.
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Hambone
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I'm a wait and see type. With so many changes in both coaching and playing personnel I find it a waste to declare any part of the team isn't good enough, thus of concern, before the first game. The offence will be an evolving thing. It's not like they start the season with full play book in place. They start with a portion of it and open up more as the season progresses. While it would be great to see future HOF type performances out of some of the newbies on Saturday it doesn't matter to me how they play in Week 1 as much as it matters how they play in Week 4, 5, 6 etc. It always takes some of these guys a few weeks of adjustment and readjustment as they get to understand 3 down football and how opponents run the schemes they have to contend with and how to play as cohesive offensive or defensive units. That doesn't come in what for most of these guys amounts to a bunch of practices and maybe 2 quarters of exhibition play. Outside of maybe SolE and Biggie I guess if I was to be concerned with anything today I'd have to be concerned with everything right down to Kato. So call me in a month. That's when I'll have a better idea how the staff did with offseason recruiting and will know what is of concern and what isn't.
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Lions4ever
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David wrote:
Of put another way, even if Travis's shoulder holds up and he maintains his status as #1 quarterback, what concerns you mosty about the football club?


DH :cool:
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PigSkin_53
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pennw wrote:Of course Travis health is a concern to all . The questioners asked is after the Situation with Travis ,what is your biggest concern . We all know about Travis , and yes it is concern number one.
My question is after the last two seasons why is his health a concern at all?

Why did he not have the surgery he needed so badly, after the 2013 season?

If he had, it might well have been a different story last season?

We were all witness to the disastrous results to that foolish error in judgment, by Travis, his Dr.(s) and the Lion's organization in general!

Why do we not have no contingency plan if he is injured in the early going, during, or late this season as was DD, as was BP before him?

Who is to back him up if he cannot start or continue?

Looks to me like a couple of unproven, raw rookies to me...

That's a hell of a roll of the dice by Wally Buono, wouldn't you say?

WTF is with that???
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DanoT
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PigSkin_53 wrote:
pennw wrote:Of course Travis health is a concern to all . The questioners asked is after the Situation with Travis ,what is your biggest concern . We all know about Travis , and yes it is concern number one.
My question is after the last two seasons why is his health a concern at all?

Why did he not have the surgery he needed so badly, after the 2013 season?

If he had, it might well have been a different story last season?

We were all witness to the disastrous results to that foolish error in judgment, by Travis, his Dr.(s) and the Lion's organization in general!

Why do we not have no contingency plan if he is injured in the early going, during, or late this season as was DD, as was BP before him?

Who is to back him up if he cannot start or continue?

Looks to me like a couple of unproven, raw rookies to me...

That's a hell of a roll of the dice by Wally Buono, wouldn't you say?

WTF is with that???
So I guess you were happy that last season the Lions went out and got an experienced backup in Kevin Glenn and a guy who had been in a backup roll on some NFL teams in John Beck and a young future guy in Partridge. I know I was happy.

It didn't work out so well, so I a happy that they moved on from Glenn and now have two future guys in Jennings and McGee, who both looked better than Partridge in TC. And they still have Beck. QB wise, the Lions are in better shape than most CFL teams.
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PigSkin_53
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DanoT wrote: So I guess you were happy that last season the Lions went out and got an experienced backup in Kevin Glenn and a guy who had been in a backup roll on some NFL teams in John Beck and a young future guy in Partridge. I know I was happy.

It didn't work out so well, so I a happy that they moved on from Glenn and now have two future guys in Jennings and McGee, who both looked better than Partridge in TC. And they still have Beck. QB wise, the Lions are in better shape than most CFL teams.
Sorry Dano, but you can't use the current situation, even with in the loss of four # 1 qbs of our CFL franchises, to build a case why we are in anything but a world of hurt if Travis goes down, and we bet the farm on him, Beck, Jennings, and McGee!
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PigSkin_53 wrote:
pennw wrote:Of course Travis health is a concern to all . The questioners asked is after the Situation with Travis ,what is your biggest concern . We all know about Travis , and yes it is concern number one.
My question is after the last two seasons why is his health a concern at all?

Why did he not have the surgery he needed so badly, after the 2013 season?

If he had, it might well have been a different story last season?

We were all witness to the disastrous results to that foolish error in judgment, by Travis, his Dr.(s) and the Lion's organization in general!

Why do we not have no contingency plan if he is injured in the early going, during, or late this season as was DD, as was BP before him?

Who is to back him up if he cannot start or continue?

Looks to me like a couple of unproven, raw rookies to me...

That's a hell of a roll of the dice by Wally Buono, wouldn't you say?

WTF is with that???
As I said we are all aware of The Lulay situation . However the thread topic is " what is your greatest concern AFTER the Lulay situation .
As for the QB situation , we have no choice but to move on . Lulay either delivers or not and there are no QB's available to us other then new recruits or we could have kept Glenn , who showed last season he was no answer for us. So we have no choice but to wait and see. Some of the Starters on other teams , like Collaros and Drew Willy are only recent recruits themselves . That's just the way it is , a turnover of personell as the vets move on , now it may just happen to be our turn to go through it, who knows , maybe one of our rookies turns out to be The next star , after all , all our star players were rookies once .
Not so much a roll of the dice as playing the hand you are given .
Having said that ,what other option do you propose? What should Bouno/Tedford have done differently ?
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pennw
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PigSkin_53 wrote:
DanoT wrote: So I guess you were happy that last season the Lions went out and got an experienced backup in Kevin Glenn and a guy who had been in a backup roll on some NFL teams in John Beck and a young future guy in Partridge. I know I was happy.

It didn't work out so well, so I a happy that they moved on from Glenn and now have two future guys in Jennings and McGee, who both looked better than Partridge in TC. And they still have Beck. QB wise, the Lions are in better shape than most CFL teams.
Sorry Dano, but you can't use the current situation, even with in the loss of four # 1 qbs of our CFL franchises, to build a case why we are in anything but a world of hurt if Travis goes down, and we bet the farm on him, Beck, Jennings, and McGee!
We'll pigskin, a 4th string rookie QB playing for the ALS defeated the top ranked Stamps who had their #1 QB playing the whole game. So it can be done , I even remember a rookie QB rescuing our season back in 04 when our # 1 went down . I see no need to panic just yet . Like Dano I'm just glad we've moved on from Glenn . And I'm looking forward to seeing Jennings play in a meaningful game . Looks like this could be very much a transitional year across the league with so many starters already out .
Saskatchewan with Glenn does not appear to be in as good shape for the future IMO , as Glenn hampers their development of their next guy . Next year they will be where we are now .
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Hambone
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PigSkin_53 wrote:
pennw wrote:Of course Travis health is a concern to all . The questioners asked is after the Situation with Travis ,what is your biggest concern . We all know about Travis , and yes it is concern number one.
My question is after the last two seasons why is his health a concern at all?

Why did he not have the surgery he needed so badly, after the 2013 season?

If he had, it might well have been a different story last season?

We were all witness to the disastrous results to that foolish error in judgment, by Travis, his Dr.(s) and the Lion's organization in general!

Why do we not have no contingency plan if he is injured in the early going, during, or late this season as was DD, as was BP before him?

Who is to back him up if he cannot start or continue?

Looks to me like a couple of unproven, raw rookies to me...

That's a hell of a roll of the dice by Wally Buono, wouldn't you say?

WTF is with that???
I'm not understanding this. Lulay had labrum surgery after the 2013 season. Are you saying Lulay made a foolish error in judgement going with the quack surgery recommendation of Dr. Bob McCormack?
http://physicians.fraserhealth.ca/news/ ... ch-program

This QB puzzle hasn't been easy to deal with. The goalposts have been moving constantly, quickly and unpredictably. BC was in great shape with a typical Buono succession plan in place when Lulay first missed some action late in the 2012 season. At that time they had Reilly and DeMarco backing Lulay up. A little more than 12 months later the depth was gone. It's been a revolving door of attempts to backfill that missing depth since then.

Re: contingencies. This year I think Lulay is the contingency plan. Last year Glenn was there primarily to keep the team's head above water and buy time while Lulay continued to recover. That plan of course was derailed when Lulay re-injured the shoulder when 325# of Cory Brandon fell on it. Where Glenn was brought in to buy time for Lulay's recovery last year Lulay is now buying time for a young guy to develop to takeover. Who knows. Maybe we'll have the good fortune of Lulay staying healthy all season and beyond which will only serve to allow Jennings, McGhee and/or someone else to develop in a normal timeline instead of being rushed in before they're ready. I think the organization has made a conscious decision to move forward with grooming his replacement from within and not to hinder that by plugging up the depth chart with some other recycled CFL journeyman who has already been tossed aside by other organizations. As a rule Buono prefers grooming QBs that way and hates to bring in other castoffs. Having lost his organizational depth over 2013 and no longer under the pressure of trying to get the team into a home Grey Cup he's ready to get back to the business of developing the next one. He's also ready to accept that it might be a bumpy road depending on how long Lulay can remain healthy. I've accepted that too because I believe that's the correct approach.
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Toppy Vann
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I think the hiring of Jeff Tedford was a brilliant move on the part of the Lions and I've been reluctant to post anything that might be perceived as negative on the guy.

But after game 1 with a completely uninspired offensive package once the RB's got on to the Lions routes and with no running attack at all and their DEF were able to sit back in coverage and wait, it concerns me that this HC is trying to do too much himself. George Cortez has far more CFL experience and if JT's calling the plays then in the 4 th when they really needed something just a little bit different they had Lulay forcing throws into coverage when the crossing route wasn't there. Lulay then deemed rusty but rusty would have been him being INT'd.

The red zone play calling was brutal.

One flag for me was how JT personally worked with Lulay teaching him how to fall. That is not to me a good sign.

JT was focused on the right challenges but they basically were no brainers with decent video to back him up.

The personnel decisions can't all be hung on the new HC of course and I'm a patient person but more of the same old play on the OFF won't get them a better result.

DEF - yes it seems they need to tighten up.

Penalties - too many by this team overall. That is not a good sign of the discipline you need in football to win.
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DanoT
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And where was the highly anticipated H-back play? Still keeping it under wraps it seems as the Lions run blocking was horrible and I didn't notice if the H-back lined up as a TE at all.
I think they threw one pass to Morrah.
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Toppy Vann wrote:I think the hiring of Jeff Tedford was a brilliant move on the part of the Lions and I've been reluctant to post anything that might be perceived as negative on the guy.

But after game 1 with a completely uninspired offensive package once the RB's got on to the Lions routes and with no running attack at all and their DEF were able to sit back in coverage and wait, it concerns me that this HC is trying to do too much himself. George Cortez has far more CFL experience and if JT's calling the plays then in the 4 th when they really needed something just a little bit different they had Lulay forcing throws into coverage when the crossing route wasn't there. Lulay then deemed rusty but rusty would have been him being INT'd.
George Cortez calls the plays. Lulay and the assistants hear them on their headsets. Quinn Teford signals them in to the other offensive players. I think Tedford's role is more collaborative in helping Cortez shape the offence but he lets his assistants do their jobs on the sidelines.

It's early yet but the Lions had 303 yards offence in their first game with Cortez as OC and Lulay at QB. Saskatchewan is averaging 538 yards after two games with Jacques Chapdelaine as OC and Darian Durant and Kevin Glenn as QBs. I've heard that some people in Saskatchewan were happy to get Chapdelaine to replace Cortez.

BTW, the Lions and Riders are both winless heading into Friday's game at B.C. Place.
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A third of the way through our schedule, it might be worth revisiting this discussion that's been dormant since the aftermath of our first game.

Seems from the poll that concerns were almost exclusively focussed on two of the five nominated areas: the pass rush/run D and pass protection/setting up our run, with the former having a slight edge and proving at this point to be one of the main concerns — well, D overall, really. We're performing well on the latter category with Lulay getting time to make the throws (but not always completing them often enough as debated in another thread on this topic) and Harris leading the league in yards rushing which also obviates one of the other potential concerns.

I think we're fine with Leone. He's atop the avg punting yardage list (both base and net, even though he has more avg-busting punt singles than anyone else), with only one MFG and one missed 1PC. He's middle of the pack on KO distance, landing them just inside the 10 on average but the four guys ahead of him (two of whom unlike Leone are not all-purpose kickers) have all had an average-boosting, wind-aided KO or two roll deep into or even straight through goal.

On the return game we might have been better off hanging onto at least one of Logan and Brown, as has been intoned on here a few times; they currently sit 1-2 in total P/K/MFG return yardage, although Shaq M-L who sits 6th has shown some flash on kickoffs, leading that sub-category in yardage. Their averages are almost identical:

Shaq M-L: 19ret-431yds-22.7avg-66long
Brown: 15-343-22.9-34
Logan: 14-321-22.9-43

On a closing note it seemed we took it for granted that Lulay's health was the biggest question mark to the point of not even bothering to rank it. He's at a point where I'm not holding my breath anymore on staying healthy, but now it's his effectiveness that's become more of an issue.
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Mic'heal (as he now likes to be known, pronounced Mik-hail) Brooks has been a pleasant surprise on the DL. His position doesn't get a lot of attention from fans but coaches and GMs notice him. He has even been mentioned as a possible rookie of the year candidate. His 25 defensive tackles lead all defensive linemen in the league and rank him third on the team behind league-leaders Adam Bighill and Solomon Elimimian. Still, the team needs another gap-plugging tackle beside him. The Lions rank last in stopping the run and are giving opposing QBs too much tme to throw.
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