Alouettes vs. Lions Game Day Thread

[TheLionKing]

After last week's debacle in Hamilton the Lions get back at it with the visiting Montreal Alouettes in a home and home series. Going to be interesting to see how the Lions' "excellent pass rush" will do against the Als all Canadian offensive line. Montreal has not won at BC Place since 2000. I would be surprised if more than 20,000 souls show up for the game.

[Dusty]

A Thursday nite game is a tough sell to begin with; when you add in last weeks debacle, the Thursday walk-up crowd will be a lot less crowded since there is nothing to "celebrate"... at least a Friday game has the advantage of being a work-week "closer".... I hope to be wrong, but I think it will be our poorest attended game of the year....

[sj-roc]

The Blue Bombers were acknowledged as at or near the bottom of the league's offences when we ventured into Wpg with the league's worst defence to face them in Week 6. Our D continues to languish in the basement heading into Week 9 as we host the team whose offence, as this G&M article notes, ranks last in TDs, passing TDs, first downs and pass completions, and 2nd last in points scored. Once again, the stoppable force versus the movable object.

Former Lion Stefan Logan will be back and could be a source of frustration for BC fans if we can't contain him. Dobson Collins, not so much.

Alouettes leave baggage behind as they head west to take on B.C. Lions

Alouettes leave baggage behind as they head west to take on B.C. Lions
BILL BEACON
MONTREAL — The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 8:43PM EDT
Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015 8:51PM EDT

The Montreal Alouettes want to leave the negativity behind when they fly to Vancouver to face the B.C. Lions this week.

That includes their 2-5 record, a three-game losing streak, criticism of offensive co-ordinator Turk Schonert over play calling, the departure of celebrity rush end Michael Sam to deal with mental issues and the benching of popular defensive end John Bowman.

“About negativity, we actually talked about it,” coach Tom Higgins said Tuesday. “You have the opportunity to read or listen to it and allow it to affect you or not affect you.

“All we have to do is get a victory and all of sudden things turn around and everything’s good again.”

Pulling out a victory at B.C. Place, where the Alouettes face the Lions on Thursday night, would be a rare feat indeed.

Montreal has one victory since 2000 in Vancouver, and that was in 2010 when the Lions played at Empire Field because B.C. Place was being renovated. They are 0-13 in that span in the Lions’ regular home, including a 41-5 defeat last season.

The Lions will be testy coming off a 55-22 blowout loss in Hamilton in which linebacker Solomon Elimimian, last season’s CFL outstanding player and outstanding defensive player, injured an Achilles tendon and was put on the six-game injured list.

Frustration has been building among the Alouettes, who could easily be 5-2 if not for some disastrous errors at key times.

“The feeling on the team is that it’s a new week,” said offensive tackle Josh Bourke. “We know we’ve got to start winning ball games is what it boils down to.

“You can sit there and say we’ve been in every game and we’ve only lost by a combined 15 points, but at the end of the day, a loss is a loss. We’re trying to put those behind us and focus on getting a win.”

Only the score was close in their last defeat, a 15-12 setback at home to Edmonton in which their lone touchdown was on a fumble return. The Eskimos’ league-best defence smothered Montreal, sacking rookie quarterback Rakeem Cato eight times.

That the Alouettes had no answer to the Eskimos’ rush or pass coverage had fans and media fingers pointing in many directions, including at Schonert, their first year co-ordinator.

Higgins and the players feel it is a question of bearing down and playing smarter and tougher when they get in scoring range. In one loss, Cato threw two interceptions in the red zone. In another instance, since-cut receiver Dobson Collins was stripped of the ball from behind a yard from the end zone. [The fumble was actually around the 7 or 8, but the receiver gets credit in his receiving total up to wherever the ball is recovered if it continues advancing while loose as in this case so it might look that way on the score sheet — sj-r]

“It just seems we’re shooting ourselves in the foot,” said Bourke. “We need to execute our plays and score points and keep our defence off the field.”

The Alouettes defence has been solid as ever, but their offence is last in the nine-team league in touchdowns (11), passing touchdowns (7), first downs (127) and passes completed (129). They are second to last in points scored (142), ahead of Ottawa (134).

If they need a spark, it may come from kick returner Stefan Logan, who was released by the Lions and signed as a free agent with Montreal this season.

The 34-year-old ranks third in the league with 880 combined yards, and one punt return touchdown.

“It’s always a great feeling going back to the team that released you, so I want to go out and do everything I can to get this win for the Montreal Alouettes,” said Logan. “I’m not a part of B.C. any more, so I’m all excited about it.”

[Toppy Vann]

The mantra in MTL is that last year changes were made to take OFF calls from Ryan Dinwiddie as well as Jeff Garcia came in and now it's time for another change as they're down on the OC now this year and Herb Z among others thinks it's change time. Herb Z was questioning why on the night the Stamps honoured Nik Lewis why did he not get deliberately involved in the game more. I felt that too.

Cato looked indecisive at times and slow in his reads last games compared to when he started but he is still a rookie.

Als could be had but the latest games for BC sure haven't shown that they come prepared to play at the level of intensity or deal with the level of complexity in schemes that CFL DEF are using these days.

Logan in a local story is about showing (not BC Lions) but the Als they made a good decision on picking him up.

[longtimefan]

I don't post very often but my question is how long will it take for heads to roll as far as the coaching staff goes? Hamiltons' defence is nothing new as far as I can see and our offence is really "offensive". If Mr Braley wishes to sell the Lions in the next few years, heads have to roll starting with Wally. If I still lived in Vancouver, you couldn't give me a free ticket to watch a game. Why do other teams with the exception of Saskatchewan and the Bombers have decent coaching? Oh yes....they have to have Wally's name tattooed somewhere on their body in order to get the job...I wish Bobby Ackles was still with us...this would never have happened.

[The_Pauser]

I don't post very often but my question is how long will it take for heads to roll as far as the coaching staff goes? Hamiltons' defence is nothing new as far as I can see and our offence is really "offensive". If Mr Braley wishes to sell the Lions in the next few years, heads have to roll starting with Wally. If I still lived in Vancouver, you couldn't give me a free ticket to watch a game. Why do other teams with the exception of Saskatchewan and the Bombers have decent coaching? Oh yes....they have to have Wally's name tattooed somewhere on their body in order to get the job...I wish Bobby Ackles was still with us...this would never have happened.

Tedford isn't the problem.

And on offense, I'm convinced the problem is Lulay. Our running game has been solid, but our passing game has been off. Quite off. Lulay can't hit the deep pass and that's allowing teams to stack the box and cheat on the blitz.

Defense is another story, and Mark Washington's defense has been nothing short of a trainwreck. Firing Rich Stubler was one of the worst moves this team has made in the past decade.

[dat]

As noted with the Sekeres and Wally video review of the pass rush Wally maintains that the front four is doing what they are asked in the defensive design. He maintains they are doing a good job. If this is true then the defensive design is poor as they are last in pretty well every defensive category. Personally I think it is the schemes and the players that are responsible. My question is what is or was the rationale of moving Keron Williams from defensive end a few years ago to defensive tackle where he didn't have as much production ? Why is smaller Roh playing DT and larger Westerman playing DE , positions they didn't play in college ? And why did their leader in sacks last year ( Bazzie) have his playing time reduced in this rotation ? I expect there answer is something like they are trying to give them experience at different positions and make them more well rounded. Why not switch Westerman and Roh back to there natural positions and start the younger Bazzie and Roh at the ends and rotate the older Khreem Smith in every few series. It definitely couldn't work any worse than what they've been doing. However I don't really expect them to do anything that makes sense. Hopefully we don't see Bighill playing safety next game.

dat

[B.C.FAN]

Injuries have forced a number of changes to the Lions' lineup. Rookie Josh Aladenoye draws into the lineup for the injured Tommie Draheim at LT. Alex Hoffman-Ellis, who has played regularly as a backup, draws into the starting lineup at linebacker, where he and Adam Bighill will try to replace the injured Solomon Elimimian. LB Casey Chin replaces RB Pascal Lochard on special teams. According to LU, DT Zach Minter will take to the field for the first time this year if DE Khreem Smith can't play.

Last week the big key to the game for the Lions was to match Hamilton's intensity. They failed. How they bounce back will set a tone for the rest of the season, especially with a bye coming up next week before a rematch with the Als in Montreal. Getting into a rhythm on offence and avoiding turnovers will be a key to the game. The second key will be to contain Montreal's receivers. S.J. Green, Fred Stamps, Nik Lewis and Samuel Giguere can all hurt a team, especially one that has given up the most big plays in the league. Montreal QB Rakeem Cato has struggled lately but B.C.'s young secondary and revamped linebacking corps could make him look good unless they step up their game.

[peeby]

Re: Thursday night being a tough sell. Not so in the bad old days. You leave your tie in your desk and go straight from work to meet some buds at the bar. Several pints later, you spill onto a bus out to old Empire, then spill a few more pints, some actually down your throat, before watching the game, or rather, listening to crowd noises whilst you line up to pee. Because it's a work night, you take off right after the game. Maybe. Either way, you're back at your desk the next morning with your head down pretending to work and hoping people don't notice you smell like sick. If I could count on that kind of entertainment, I wouldn't have let my season ticket lapse this last year.

That aside, I see no reason why the Lions would not beat the Als tomorrow. They are both poor to mediocre teams, but it's the Als who are travelling. I am with the poster who put some 'blame' on Lulay. I wish there was some way, seeing we're rebuilding, that we could get Jennings on the field. I am also with the poster complaining about the defensive line. I have heard that the Lions are trying to develop real athletes along their D-line, guys who can also play all the positions. This is to give them some kind of flexibility. The flexibility to lose with different combos, one presumes.

I don't think there's a ton you can do mid-season to really change a football team, but I'm starting to think the Lions should be looking at NFL cuts who can play DB and are over six foot tall. I think our smurfs in the defensive backfield are just too small to cover the behemoths at WR on a lot of the other teams.

NFL cuts for the D-line? Why bother? I think they have some material to work with, but haven't put it together yet. Brooks has had some good games. Move Westerman inside with him, and Roh and Menard on the outside. I hope the Westerman experiment isn't just to make it easy for rotating. Menard for Westerman? Anyway, to me, the defensive woes are to do with no strength in the middle of the D-line and boys covering men in the D-backfield.

The O-line? Jeez, those guys get injured. Not just on our team, but all of 'em. Wonder if it's the same in the NFL?

[Blitz]

Our Leos could start Zack Minter in this game, with Smith nicked up. Its a game time decision. If the change does happen, it would mean that Roh would lileky be moved outside and rotate with Bazzie at defensive end. However, with so much illogical stuff happening with how we are using our defensive line personell it would not surprise me that we would use a 300 pound plus nose tackle as a defensive end.

Josh Aladenoye will start at left tackle for the injured Draheim. We were lucky he was still around after Tedford punted Aladenoye off the practice roster. As the Province pointed out this week "the real genius under the circumstances might be Lions personnel director Neil McEvoy, who didn’t exactly race to arrange for a flight for Aladenoye to his home in Dallas once Draiheim aggravated his ankle in practice".

Hoffman-Ellis starts at linebacker (he would be a starter on most CFL squads) and Lokombo getting more reps. We'll have

It will be interesting to see Stefan Logan. He is second in punt and kick return average in the CFL and has taken two returns to the house (one was called back)

In the meanwhile, we will likely continue to use the uninspiring Antolin on punt returns. We should be using Murray Lawrence and Iannuzzi on punt returns and using the import elsewhere in the lineup.

[WestCoastJoe]

What to hope for.

What to expect.

What you get.
.......................

Fagedabout the hope for -- attacking defence.

Expect -- no pressure on the QB

Get -- More of the same, one would think.
...............

Can Lulay come out sharp? Stay sharp?

Pressure defence from our Defensive Coordinator? LOL

Sekeres had the session with the Defensive Coordinator, Wally. (OK, Wally is not the DC. How about Defensive Overseer?) Wally showed him how the D Line was performing valiantly, without the aid of blitzing or overloads or fakes. True that. 4 man rush. 8 men back in zone pass coverage. Because the D Line performs valiantly, in Wally's view the pass rush is excellent. Not in the view of some fans, nor the statisticians, nor the OCs around the league.
..............

Ya never know ... We could be surprised. Will Charlie Brown be able to kick the football? Oooopps ... Nope.

[David]

Sekeres had the session with the Defensive Coordinator, Wally. (OK, Wally is not the DC. How about Defensive Overseer?) Wally showed him how the D Line was performing valiantly, without the aid of blitzing or overloads or fakes. True that. 4 man rush. 8 men back in zone pass coverage. Because the D Line performs valiantly, in Wally's view the pass rush is excellent. Not in the view of some fans, nor the statisticians, nor the OCs around the league.

In a professional league, the GM should not be breaking down film on the D's performance for a media guy (if anyone, it should be the HC or the D-coordinator) and the GM's daughter should not be filming said session and uploading to Periscope. IMHO.


DH

[Lions4ever]

In a professional league, the GM should not be breaking down film on the D's performance for a media guy (if anyone, it should be the HC or the D-coordinator) and the GM's daughter should not be filming said session and uploading to Periscope. IMHO.


DH

Sounds like the BC Lions have apparently (d)evolved into the Buono family Mom'N'Pop store.

[squishy35]

I am looking forward to this game to assess the Linebacking adjustments and see if the offence can manage some consistency on more than the opening and closing drive. Really, this team has been all over the map in their play and have not shown any real consistent trends or patterns on both sides of the ball (exemption to Harris).

[TheLionKing]

Our Leos could start Zack Minter in this game, with Smith nicked up. Its a game time decision. If the change does happen, it would mean that Roh would lileky be moved outside and rotate with Bazzie at defensive end. However, with so much illogical stuff happening with how we are using our defensive line personell it would not surprise me that we would use a 300 pound plus nose tackle as a defensive end.

Looking forward to seeing Minter at defensive tackle after hearing so much about him in training camp. Also looking forward to seeing Roh lining up at his usual position.