Leos/Riders Rematch - Keys to the Game

[Blitz]

Our 1-1 B.C. Lions take on the 0-3 Saskatchewan Riders for the second consecutive game in this early season. Our Leos won a thrilling come from behind 35-32 overtime victory in our home opener.

However, while the Riders have yet to win a game this season, this is not a team to take lightly. The Riders have lost two of their first three games in overtime. They have led going into the fourth quarter in all three games they have played. Their offence is off to a great start, even after losing Darian Durrant. They had well over 500 yards of offence in their overtime loss to Toronto. Against our B.C. Lions last Friday night the Riders rang up 171 yards on the ground and 271 yards in the air - our defense gave up 442 yards of offence.

The Riders had an 11-point lead with 2:15 to go. All they had to do was execute a third and a foot quarterback sneak and the game was over. Two incredible Leo key plays and one Rider coaching decision were instrumental in our Leos winning the game. Bighill timed his hit perfectly and shut down the third down sneak. It took both a combination of skill and good luck to do that. Leone hit a record setting 56 yard field goal. He had only successfully place kicked 7 field goals in college. Chamblin also chose not to gamble on third and one, deep in our territory in overtime and settled for a field goal giving us the opportunity to drive for the winning touchdown.

The victory also required Travis Lulay to play his best football game in the past three seasons, including his MOP season. The Riders, if they have mentally recovered from the overtime loss to our Leos, should be tougher at home.

Here are my keys to the game. Looking forward to reading yours.

1. TRAVIS LULAY NEEDS TO CONTINUE TO BE DECISIVE

Travis Lulay was very decisive with the football last Friday against the Riders. He distributed the football very well, involving all of his receivers and Harris out of the backfield. There was no hesitation. He made good reads and went through his progressions quickly and confidently. Our offensive line also did a good job of protecting him.

Lowell Ullrich wrote this week

Lulay had one of his best games statistically in more than three seasons, throwing with a decisiveness not often seen since being named the league’s 2011 most outstanding player. Lulay proved he had been paying attention during the winter. But much more than avoiding injury disaster is being drilled into the Lions during practice sessions that stress far more fundamentals than during some years in the past.

Tedford's work with Lulay on fundamentals and not trying to do too much and to run the offence paid off against the Riders. Lulay will need another good performance in order for us to come away with a victory.

2. ATTENTION TO DETAIL

Attention to detail can have big payoffs. Some examples last week included Lulay ensuring he protected his shoulder when he fumbled the football early in the game against the Riders. Another example was our protection of the football.

“There’s a lot of details in the game that had results,” Tedford said. “I’m always on receivers to put the ball in their outside arm (closest to the sideline). Shawn Gore switches it and straight-arms a guy and gets another 10 yards (to set up the game-winning overtime touchdown) because the ball is in his outside arm. Little details like that are small things that turn into big things.
“Are there plenty of areas to improve? No question. But a lot of the details that we worked on paid off.”

One area of this theme that needs work is a penchant for taking unnecessary penalties. Discipline creates results.

3. SHUT DOWN THE RUN

The Riders ran for 171 yards against our defense. That scenario is ideal for Kevin Glenn, who functions best with a good running attack, as he did in Calgary. It sets up second and short and Glenn is an accurate and effective passer in these situations. He tends to take chances on second and long at times, especially when under pressure. But when the defense does not know if he is going to run or pass on second down attempts and he can release the football quickly, Glenn can dissect a defence. Some early, well executed run blitzes on first down, bringing a linebacker and shutting down gaps would be an effective strategy.

WRAP

If we can get the Riders down early, it will take their crowd out of the game and after three consecutive losses, the Riders could start to fall apart. Early momentum, however, could galvanize them in their desire for revenge after last week's overtime loss. The Riders defense has had its struggles so far this season. Putting a knife in that defense early and often is the best recipe for another Leos victory.

Go Leos Go.

[B.C.FAN]

I'm thrilled with the way Lulay is playing, and distributing the ball to all his receivers. The offensive line seems to be rounding into form as well. Opponents can't shut down the B.C. offence by keying on one or two players although they can cause problems by shutting down Andrew Harris. I don't think the Rider front-seven is capable of stopping Harris and I don't think their secondary has the cover skills to shut down the B.C. receivers. It should be a high-scoring game, as have all of the Rider games. I'm not worried about the production of the Lions' offence.

The main key to the game is for the B.C. defence is to slow down the Rider running game. That's a tall order for the much-maligned front-four. The Saskatchewan offence is averaging a league-best 164 yards rushing per game. The B.C. defence gives up a league-worst 156 yards rushing per game. That's a huge mismatch. If Jacques Chapdelaine doesn't outsmart himself, he'll have Kevin Glenn continue to hand off to Jerome Messam and Anthony Allen until the Lions stop them.

A secondary key is for the B.C. defence to minimize big passing plays. The Lions have given up five pass plays of over 30 yards in just two games. Only Winnipeg has given up more big passing plays and the Bombers, like most teams, have played one more game than the Lions. Weston Dressler scored two TDs last week on blown zone coverages by Yell and Lee on the short side. On the first TD, they both went short and Dressler went deep. On the second TD they both went deep and Dressler went short. The Lions lack experience in the secondary but they need to learn from their mistakes and play better as a unit.

[WestCoastJoe]

Great stuff, Blitz and BCFAN.

Lowell Ullrich mentioned in his video that the Lions focused on defence this week in practice. Rightly so.

Can our undersized interior of the D Line withstand the push of the Rider O Line hogs on running plays?

Can our guys get through those hogs to pressure Glenn?

Can we cover, or even slow down Weston Dressler?

Can we reasonably expect to slow down or stop Anthony Allen and Jerome Messam?

Can we expect more of the same conservative defence? A "stop the big play," "give up the short plays," defence that actually gave up a number of big plays vs the Riders last week.
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If Lulay continues his MOP level of play, we can hope to be competitive. But we need still more from the running game. Not more from Harris, but more from the blocking, schemes and play calling.
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The Riders have very good talent. Their offence is running at a high octane level. One would expect their defence to be pretty good, but it has not seemed like that so far this year.
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No gimme for us. The Riders will be desperate. The house will be hot, loud and hostile.

Go, Lions.

[David]

Let's hope our Leos take last game for what it was worth: a hard-fought, all-pull-together character win....yes! But nonetheless, a game for which they were very fortunate to come out on top.

Recognize the deficiencies and get them ironed out. Even when they were keying on Messam late he was still able to rip off 9+ yards.

Not for a second would I have thought a Tedford coached team to be as or more undisciplined that Benevides'. Some of this I attribute to new players, new rules. But I'm still surprised.

Courtney Taylor returns to the ranger slot position. Burnham made some nice catches (also dropped a couple of contested balls in traffic), but I like Taylor's veteran presence, hands, and route running.


DH

[TheLionKing]

In back to back games, the losers have the advantage. Hope the Lions buck that trend.

Keys:

- Stop the run. Perhaps Chapdelaine will do what he did in BC ie. stop doing what's been working.

- Pressure Kevin Glenn or at least get in his passing lane. He's short and can't see over the heads and arms of rushing linemen

- Capiltalize in the red zone. Don't wait til the 4th quarter

- Establish the running game. Ball control, keep their offence off the field

- Discipline, Discipline, Discipline

[TheLionKing]

Jeff Tedford on discipline

http://bclions.com/video/index/id/112787

[dupsdell1]

If the Lions can come out with a good win and look good doing it , i would not be surprised if they get on a role.

[Blitz]

Rider fans right now are very worried and Chamblin needs this victory to get them off his back in Regina. He is under a lot of heat for the changes he made this off-season, especially to his coaching staff. Right now his offence is looking very good under Chap and Dorazio, even with the loss of Durrant. But defensively the Riders decision to dump Ritchie Hall and Barrin Miles is being seriously questioned. Chamblin is presently being viewed as the architect of the defense, with Quick really being the assistant, even though Quick is the DC.

The Riders won a Grey Cup in 2013 and one season later, after a disappointing season, they went for wholesale change in offensive and defensive philosophy. Sometimes that works out and sometimes the result can be dismal. We'll know more at the end of this season.

The Riders only needed to look West to B.C. to see how fortunes can change in a hurry.

Our Leos won the Grey Cup in 2011. In 2012, following that exciting Grey Cup winning season our Leos had their best regular season statistically in Leo history, as well as winning the most games ever in a regular season.

Our offence, with Chap at the controls finished 1st in 9 categories - Most first downs, most first downs rushing, Most yards net rushing, Highest Average Yds. Per Game Rushing Highest Average Gain per rush, Fewest quarterback sacks, Highest percentage of passes completed, Most yards net offence, Highest Average Yds of Offence Per Game.

To compare, our Grey Cup winning offence in 2006, with Dickenson at the controls, only led in 6 CFL categories.

On defense, we were even better in 2012. Stubler's defense eclipsed the Head Hunters defense of 1964 in terms of dominance. Our 2012 defense set a number of CFL records and finished first in a total of 11 defensive categories - Fewest First Downs Rushing
Fewest First Downs Passing, Fewest Yds Net Offence, Fewest Average Yds Offence Per Game, Fewest Yds Net Rushing, Fewest Yds Average Yds. Rushing Per Game, Fewest Times Rushed Against, Lowest Average Yds. Per Pass, Fewest Yds Net Passing, Fewest Yds Average Passing Per Game, Fewest Plays from Scrimmage.

This was the most dominant regular season defence in Leo history. In fact, the 2012 regular season B.C. Lions were the best Leo team in history. One season later, Buono and Benevedes pulled the pin on both Chapdelaine and Stubler, replacing them with Khari Jones and Mark Washington.

The 2014 season was a most frustrating season. A losing record at home, a boring, ineffective offence, and a disastrous season end, with our defense getting blown out and Leo fans were not renewing season tickets. Benevedes was deep sixed, even with a contract extension and we were fortunate to be able to hire a seasoned pro head coach in Tedford, to have Cortez available, and to be able to scoop Malone out of Riderville as well.

Cory Chamblin has also rolled the dice. He has a long contract in Riderville but that doesn't guarantee his continued ride at the helm. Whether Cortez and Hall were convenient scapegoats to deflect heat or whether it truly was Chamblin's belief a change in direction and philosophy was necessary, he won't be able to deflect the pressure this season, as Benevedes found out last year.

The pressure is mounting on Chamblin in Riderville. A loss to our Leos will tighten that pressure even further. In the coaching jungle of the CFL the strong survive and the weak get fired.

It will be interesting to see how that heat is effecting Chamblin in this next game. I'm sure hoping that our Leos will win again. A win in Riderville will put more fans in the seats for our next game in B.C. and increase optimism for the Tedford era while a loss for Regina will have Rider fans asking even more questions.

[DanoT]

It doesn't happen too often that a team wins both games in a back to back series and when it does happen it is usually accomplished by a veteran top tier team, something that the Lions are not.

More disciplined is an absolute must.

The offence can get the job done, but imo the two best linebackers in the league are not enough to overcome the deficiencies of a D line that can't stop the run or pressure the QB.

The inexperienced DBs have a lot of potential so I looking for some game to game improvement.

I'm hoping for a good entertaining game but I don't expect a Lions win.

[Toppy Vann]

Football is the WORST game to have back to back - any other sport not as tough to win a second game.

Riders can't keep losing like they have so it will possibly come down to which DEF breaks and mistakes if both offenses get untracked.

Attention to detail:

Something so often missing in average pro teams it seems in football. Tolerating the ball in the wrong arm - not held tightly, etc. It drives me insane to see players running for a wide open TD with the ball waving or holding it up in the air. I liked the DEF player who got his INT and wrapped the ball and headed full out for the goal line whether needed or not.

If you watch the little things, the big things that lead to pts against don't happen.

[Sir Purrcival]

This game is going to go one of two ways for the Riders. They are either gonna be absolutely freaking fantastic or they are going to absolutely tank. They are under a lot of pressure right now to get a W and we have all seen in the past that when a team is under those kinds of expectations, they either rise to the occasion or fall flat on their face.

For the Lions part, if they want the latter to happen, they are going to have to control the game early. Take momentum away from the Riders and absolutely capitalize on whatever offensive chances they get. 3 FG on four red zone opportunities is not going to suffice. On defense, they are going to have to force 2 and outs and not take any stupid drive extending penalties as has been their want. They need to do a better job of choking up those running lanes and making 2nd down a long one for Glenn. The more he is throwing, the more likely he is to encounter his proverbial curse of throwing a pick or two. Just seems to be his way.

Control the ball, control the game and take away the crowd and the Rider's emotion. If they can do that, they can win. If they don't, then 1-2 how ya doin?

[Rammer]

This game is going to go one of two ways for the Riders. They are either gonna be absolutely freaking fantastic or they are going to absolutely tank. They are under a lot of pressure right now to get a W and we have all seen in the past that when a team is under those kinds of expectations, they either rise to the occasion or fall flat on their face.

For the Lions part, if they want the latter to happen, they are going to have to control the game early. Take momentum away from the Riders and absolutely capitalize on whatever offensive chances they get. 3 FG on four red zone opportunities is not going to suffice. On defense, they are going to have to force 2 and outs and not take any stupid drive extending penalties as has been their want. They need to do a better job of choking up those running lanes and making 2nd down a long one for Glenn. The more he is throwing, the more likely he is to encounter his proverbial curse of throwing a pick or two. Just seems to be his way.

Control the ball, control the game and take away the crowd and the Rider's emotion. If they can do that, they can win. If they don't, then 1-2 how ya doin?

Win Friday night and not only are the Lions 4 points up on the Riders, they also have the season series making it a larger 4 point lead.

JC will have to adapt once again and run that football, Lions have to be expecting this as the Riders main adjustment. If the Lions establish a lead, then they may well force the Riders to throw the football, take the Rider fans out of the game as Sir P points out. As much as the Riders may fold tent, the fans may be a key factor to eliminate from this game as well.

Can the Lions win the back to back? well the positive side is that the Lions didn't play all that well in their victory. Lions will be forced to make adjustments, something that a winning team doesn't have to do very much of generally. The negative aspect is this should be a team desperate to get the win, they will come with a ton of effort, something that the Lions will have to match for the first quarter just to keep the crowd from becoming a factor as the game moves forward. Rider fans will bring it, they know that 0 - 4 in the West makes things very hard for a home playoff date, so they will show the team that they won't let them down if they can show up.

[CardiacKid]

Along with Courtenay Taylor, Zach Minter has been activated for tomorrow's game but is listed behind Brooks on the depth chart. Roh is once again lined up on the interior of the line. So we are still looking at an under-sized interior despite the inclusion of Minter. Unless the Lions can jump out to a big lead early, I think the Rider's will again reel off big yards on the ground. I would still like to see how an M&M interior (Minter and McFarland) performs as they will bring an additional 60+ pounds of potential bull rush in comparison to Brooks and Roh.

The tackling on display last week was an improvement over the season opener; let's hope that trend continues in the discipline department. Waaaaay too many stupid penalties last week resulted in 17 Rider points. Also from the standpoint of improving the fan's enjoyment of the game, the penalties have to be mitigated.

[Toppy Vann]

Judging from the locker room scene the Lions players might not be as aware of the need to fix issues as they looked like they want the Div. title and were off to the GC game.

[BC 1988]

Judging from the locker room scene the Lions players might not be as aware of the need to fix issues as they looked like they want the Div. title and were off to the GC game.

Right, I think a lot of the exuberance was they wanted to show Travis how much they appreciated all the work he put in to get himself back there.

The important thing is Tedford is under no illusions about what issues need fixing, and will be working to do something about them. (I'm a lot more confident of this than with the last coach).