Gettting Ready For the Playoffs

[Blitz]

As we prepare for our game against Calgary on Sunday and the Semi-Final Playoff against Calgary in Calgary, Jeff Tedford plans to use all three quarterbacks this Sunday. Jennings will start but Lulay and McGhee will see action.

Tedford plans to use his starters but not play them the whole game. He stated this week that he did not want to have his starters lose their sharpness by sitting out this game and go into the playoff with a two week layoff but he also does not want to play them the whole game.

The big decision this week is whether we give Fera a game at kicker. Leone leads the league in punting with an impressive 50 yard average. But Leone has missed 11 converts this season and his field goal kicking has also been a struggle at times. A field goal kicker is very important and especially important at playoff time. McCallum, as a Leo, kicked 6 field goals in one game. McCallum, I don't believe ever missed a playoff field goal as a Leo but correct me if I am wrong.

Dispite his inexperience, I have to admt that I am excitied about Jennings leading our team into the playoffs. In 6 games as a starter Jennings has passed for 2004 yards and 15 touchdowns. Jennings has a 66% completion average. In 13 games as a starter, this season, Lulay passed for 1,772 yds and 12 touchdowns and a 62.2% completion average. Jennings threw for more yardage than Lulay, while playing less than half the time of Lulay at quarterback this season and also has a better completion rate.

If Jennings had kept his present pace over an 18 games schedule, he would have thrown for over 6,000 yds and 45 touchdowns. In Printers MOP season he threw for 5,088 yds. and 35 touchdowns, with a 65.8% completion average and in Lulay's 2011 MOP season, Lulay threw for 4, 815 yds, 32 touchdowns, with a 58.8% completion average.

Jennings has been more than impressive and he has also made the types of throws that neither Printers or Lulay could make.

Calgary is going to start Tate at quarterback so it will be interesting to see how long we leave Jennings in this game. Another interesting aspect of Sundays' game is how long we play Harris, with Harris leading Messam by 50 yards for the rushing title. Harris also needs 3 yards to reach the 1,000 yard mark.

[WestCoastJoe]

Calgary Stampeders
•Drew Tate will start at quarterback in Week 20 as Bo Levi Mitchell rests before the playoffs.


•Juwan Simpson has returned to practice but his status for this week is unknown.


•Defensive tackle Micah Johnson isn't planning on leaving football anytime soon but has started to put together his life post-football.


•Is there room in the backfield for both Jerome Messam and Jon Cornish? "I think so," said Messam. "I think the coaches would have to do a good job of scheming for the both of us."


•With a touchdown and 102 receiving yards last week, Joe West is stepping up at the right time.


•The longevity of Randy Chevrier is something to appreciate as the long-snapper just played his 200th career game.

http://www.cfl.ca/article/checking-down ... for-stamps
...............

Time for some old time football? It would be both interesting and scary if Calgary totally emphasized the running game. With Cornish and Messam.

We have tended to have just 6 in the box pre snap. Could make for a nightmare on defence if the Stampeders are determined to run against us.

Sounds like Cornish is expected back for the playoffs.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/11/02/ca ... y-co-exist

Calgary Stampeders may soon see if Jerome Messam & Jon Cornish can peacefully co-exist

By Scott Fisher, Calgary Sun

First posted: Monday, November 02, 2015 04:06 PM MST | Updated: Monday, November 02, 2015 05:02 PM MST

Jerome Messam was brought in to keep the Calgary Stampeders ground game from being grounded.

With star running back Jon Cornish on the shelf as he goes through concussion protocol, Stamps GM/head coach John Hufnagel traded for Messam at the CFL trade deadline.

And if the first game is any indication, the big guy is fitting in just fine.

But what if Cornish gets healthy and makes it back onto the field during the playoffs?

Is there room for two guys who are used to being the featured back?

"I think so," Messam said. "I think the coaches would have to do a good job of scheming for the both of us.

"I'm sure he's going to get healthy pretty soon and he'll be here to make this playoff push with us.

"And I'm sure you'll see a lot of the two of us in the backfield."

Hufnagel doesn't waste much time thinking about hypotheticals. But he admits he could have an envious problem of trying to use two premier backs.

"I'm not concerned about that," Hufnagel said. "When Jon gets back, we'll make a decision on how we want to handle the roster management.

"There's a good possibility (sharing the load) could happen, though."

At 6-foot-3, 245-lb., Messam is a battering ram. Cornish isn't much smaller at 6-foot, 219-lb.

"It would be good for both of us," Messam said. "Because we would compete and bring out the best in one another.

"We're both physical runners who like to run downhill. And we both have good speed. We're actually pretty similar in a lot of ways.

"I just weigh a little bit more."

Yeah, more than some linebackers.

Messam, who ran for 121 yards on 15 carries against his former Saskatchewan Roughriders teammates Saturday, said he's looking forward to expanding his knowledge of the Stamps playbook.

"Well, I'll find out on Day 1 (on Tuesday)," Messam said. "But I'm pretty sure they're going to open it up more for me as I get more comfortable.

"It's just about being comfortable with everything in the playbook. There were a few plays that we didn't go over that we called in the game and I didn't really know what to do.

"Bo had to get me in the right spot and tell me what I had. I just need to know everything."

Hufnagel said the coaching staff didn't rip pages out of the book to accommodate the newcomer.

"It wasn't that slimmed down," Hufnagel said of Messam's package. "He had to learn the gameplan. Your gameplan is not the whole playbook but he did an excellent job of preparing himself. I was happy to see during the game that he was very good with his assignments."

Messam made quite a splash in his debut. It was, by far, his best production in his first game with a new team in his career.

"I think that was the best yardage I've had in a debut," Messam understated.

"I felt like I've got to come here and earn the respect of these guys, especially guys who have never played against me. I think I made some ground on that (on Saturday)."

[Rammer]

This game should be all about intimidation, just a pure straight up physical encounter that I think that the Lions will do well at. In recent weeks the DL and at times the OL are winning more than their fair share of battles. No gimmicks unless you want to install a certain look for the playoff date.

As for ST's, that is another matter. The Lions needs to work out all the kinks that have continuously hurt them over the course of the season, not likely to see that happen this year. Without the addition of Rainey, the ST's were pitiful, but inserting Rainey has helped offset the poor coverage on most nights. Still it is the blocks, misses, and penalties that can be cleaned up and need to be when you are playing an experienced team like the Stamps. They are not likely to beat themselves, and the Lions can't leave points on the field by making mistakes.

Tedford had all season to make the Lions his team. I saw some progress as the season wound down, but not as much as I had hoped for. With Jennings at the helm, the Lions have the ability for a quick strike, something that was lacking for a few seasons. Arceneaux is plaing at a level that is expected of him, a far cry from when the view was to get rid of him. Thankfully Manny decided to take control and use his physical abilities to dominate smaller defenders.

To beat Calgary, the Lions have to stay healthy, as they are not as deep as the Stamps in the final regular season encounter. Then in the playoff match, they have to minimize the errors, or they will pay the price by the multi dimensional Stampeders.

[DanoT]

This game should be all about intimidation, just a pure straight up physical encounter that I think that the Lions will do well at. In recent weeks the DL and at times the OL are winning more than their fair share of battles. No gimmicks unless you want to install a certain look for the playoff date.

As for ST's, that is another matter. The Lions needs to work out all the kinks that have continuously hurt them over the course of the season, not likely to see that happen this year. Without the addition of Rainey, the ST's were pitiful, but inserting Rainey has helped offset the poor coverage on most nights. Still it is the blocks, misses, and penalties that can be cleaned up and need to be when you are playing an experienced team like the Stamps. They are not likely to beat themselves, and the Lions can't leave points on the field by making mistakes.

Tedford had all season to make the Lions his team. I saw some progress as the season wound down, but not as much as I had hoped for. With Jennings at the helm, the Lions have the ability for a quick strike, something that was lacking for a few seasons. Arceneaux is plaing at a level that is expected of him, a far cry from when the view was to get rid of him. Thankfully Manny decided to take control and use his physical abilities to dominate smaller defenders.

To beat Calgary, the Lions have to stay healthy, as they are not as deep as the Stamps in the final regular season encounter. Then in the playoff match, they have to minimize the errors, or they will pay the price by the multi dimensional Stampeders.

Great post Rammer. One of the things about the Lions is that they are a young team with some talented players that can compete with Stamps, Esks and others, but they do not have the experienced roster depth of other top CFL teams.

The Lions had a lot less injuries than most years and most other teams except at QB where they have seemingly lucked out with the rapid emergence of Jennings. And at their deepest depth, loosing Elimimian and replacing him with Bighill and having Hoffman-Ellis and Lokumbo step up their game, as well as loosing Steward to injury and finding Draheim as a replacement has worked out really well for the team.

[SammyGreene]

I would give Jennings 1 or 2 series at the most and have no trouble with him not playing at all Saturday. Don't let a cagey defensive coordinator like Stubler get into his head by giving him looks he won't see a week later or the perception what he might be up against in the playoff game. Let Lulay get rid of some rust. Who knows, we might need him.

As far as the kicking game, not sure why Tedford doesn't go for two points on every TD and just take Leone right out of the equation. His placekicking is driving me nuts but don't see how you can bench the league's best punter in a playoff game.

[maxlion]

I think we have to play to win. Put Cgy in a position where they have to make adjustments to try to beat us. We need a killer attitude and need to keep developing cohesion among our starters.

Playing backups in key roles could lead to more injuries as it puts the remaining starters in potentially outmanned situations. Why not be aggressive--if someone's going to get injured, let it be the opposition.

[BakeTEAM1040]

Personally, I will be disappointed if they don't make a statement on Saturday. Here is an example of what I am talking about: 2012 the Lions had 1st place locked up, then went into Calgary on I believe the 2nd last week of the regular season, and got smacked. Technically it was a "mean nothing" game and not much was made of it in the lead up to the West Final. But the way the Stamps came into BC Place and set the tone early with some big plays, I could not help but think the beat down at McMahon gave the Stampeders confidence they could beat us in the playoffs.

[KnowItAll]

I am thinking that beating cal twice in a row is a lot to expect. I would rather they lose the first game, or at least go with backups and vanilla game plan, than lose the second game.

[DanoT]

I am thinking that beating cal twice in a row is a lot to expect. I would rather they lose the first game, or at least go with backups and vanilla game plan, than lose the second game.

Calgary probably feels the same way. It is a pre-playoff game, similar to a final pre-season game.

[Blitz]

I believe, in order to win a playoff game against Calgary, we win have to get our running attack going. Harris was shut down by Toronto and our running attack is too easy to defend. If we can't run against Calgary, we will give Stubler a real advantage in defending our passing attack.

For most of this season we mainly ran the inside zone read out of the spread. A few games back we introduced more pro sets with single and tight ends and with some receivers closer to the offensive line to assist with blocking. We also introduced a few more running plays.

Of those new running plays, there are two running plays that we have mainly utilized. The first one is the fake fly sweep, delayed handoff to Harris. The problem with this play is that we never run the fly sweep, which we always fake, and then we hand off to Harris inside on a delay. We completely tip the play off. Every defense is now ignoring the fake fly sweep. Worse still, the defense completely knows that if we sent the receiver in motion behind the line of scrimmage, we are handing off to Harris on a delay.

We need to run the fly sweep and we need to fake to Harris and run the play action off it. We never have. Its time to in the playoff game.

The second running play is an inside handoff to Harris, out of the pistol. Harris lines up to the off-side of the direction that the play is run. We pull the onside guard and Harris attempts to attack the peremeter. However, because the play is so slow developing or because Harris is lined up on the off-side, the defensive tackle shoots the gap that the guard has vacated and tackles Harris for a 3 yard loss. Now its 2nd and 13 and we continue to run the play and the success rate is abysmal.Worse, still, we expect Norman to be able to attempt to block the defensive tackle shooting the gap and he has no chance of doing so - the play is badly designed.

If we lined up Harris on the on-side of the play and gave him a quick pitch toss, he could run behind the pulling guard and be past the tackle shooting the gap. Or we could line up Harris on the off-side but have him move a half-second before the snap so he could be past the defensive tackle shooting the gap.

If an idiot like me can see this, an old fox like Stubler will eat this stuff up.

Our running attack needs to get changed in terms of play design. With an effective running attack to enhance Jennings passing, our offence could give the old fox Stubler some challenges in the play off game.

[B.C.FAN]

Personally, I will be disappointed if they don't make a statement on Saturday. Here is an example of what I am talking about: 2012 the Lions had 1st place locked up, then went into Calgary on I believe the 2nd last week of the regular season, and got smacked. Technically it was a "mean nothing" game and not much was made of it in the lead up to the West Final. But the way the Stamps came into BC Place and set the tone early with some big plays, I could not help but think the beat down at McMahon gave the Stampeders confidence they could beat us in the playoffs.

I agree. The Lions need to practise winning to boost the confidence of the young team heading in to the winner-take-all rematch. In that sense, this week's game is much more meaningful to the Lions. The Lions need to open up the offence and throw the ball downfield as they have been doing since Jennings took over at QB. If they give the Stamps reason to fear their passing attack, it could help B.C. establish a running attack in the playoffs. Similarly, I'd be happy to see the Lions inject more misdirection in the running attack this week. It can give the Stampeder defence something new to think about and slow down their pursuit of Harris in the playoff game.

[cromartie]

I feel the same way about this playoff streak as I do about the Red Wings' playoff streak.

I'm happy it will continue. Now let's get to the part of the necessary changes, please.

I mean, I hate to be that guy, but I guess, for this season, I'm going to. What happens this week is irrelevant. It doesn't matter who you start or who plays for how long. Get your starters out alive, don't show too much of the depressingly unimaginative, limited and uninspiring playbook that the league more or less knows already and get ready to go out swinging in two weeks.

[maxlion]

The circumstances of a two game series where one game is meaningless and the second is a win or go home sets up an interesting chess match to be sure.

It's also interesting from a matchups perspective, especially with the coaches.

Tedford vs Hufnagel. 2 former Buono apprentices who took very different paths to their current position.

Cortez vs Stubler. Two highly experienced and successful veteran assistants. I'm sure we all remember their last playoff meeting two years ago in which Cortez/Durant made adjustments which Stubler couldn't answer, leading directly to Stubler's firing. Both have won cups since then.

Washington vs Dickenson. Former teammates who were both regarded as promising up and comers. DD has lived up to the expectations, Washington not so much. But BC's D is playing with a lot of confidence and anything can happen in the playoffs.

Of course, I'm hoping for a good showing for BC as a longtime fan, and if it helps validate my defense of the coaches all year on this board, so much the better! I wonder how many ways there are to serve crow?

[TheLionKing]

It is imperative that the Lions establish the running game. The next 3 games (hopefully) will be played in the prairies where wind, cold and snow could be factors.