Lions at Riders, Game Journal and Post Game Comments

[WestCoastJoe]

Q1

We are not ready for the pressure on Jennings. Drop by Manny, tough but catchable.

Our defence looks good.

Rainey great return. Pressure again. Not ready. JJ to Manny. JJ to Gore. JJ has about one second to make the play. JJ TD. 7-3 BC. 4:02 left in the Q.

Good pressue on DD by our D.

JJ to Gore. BB nice move. JJ moving the ball around. Marco.

101 yards for JJ. I agree with Wally to stay with JJ.

7-3 BC.
............

[WestCoastJoe]

Q2

Short. First. Penalty. Pressure.

Riders moving. Bad call. Short passing game. Roughing. Brooks. 2x. 75 yards total. Bagg TD. Gluey hands like Gluey Hughie Campbell. Durant sharp. 10-7.

Durant hurting. Brooks unintentional low hit.

Gore. Manny fumble.

Mitch Gale in. Sack. Good blitz. Penalty. No sack. Huge yards already on penalties. Penalty hold. Yup. Too many penalties. Durant limping. FG 13-7.

Pressue on JJ. Manny. Too much pressure. Another close call. We are not ready for Jones" pressure.

Brooks again. Too bad. He is tough to contain. TD. 20-7. 3:23 left.

Back to reality for us. Middle of the pack.

Gore. Manny. Rainey. Quick hitters. Burnham. 8 men on the line for Jones. Allen. Allen. Moore loose. Ball hits bar. Time count on FG attempt. Amateur hour. 20-10.

Gale. Chiles. Sack. Bazzie. Collins.

23-10.

Ughhh ... We look energetic, but not smart.
.............

Q3

Sloppy football by us.

Moore. Huge play. Trick to Olafioye. Back in the game.

Way too much pressure on JJ.

Purifoy.
................

Q4

JJ great scramble. Holding. 140 penalty yards. BB for 35. IMO our struggles are not on the young QB, Jennings. Penalties and turnovers. Penalty on Wally, but he was right about the hit. Good call, Wally.

JJ fabulous to Moore. This fan, once again, is very, very high on JJ.

Huge return by Lawrence. Quick passes. No pressure. Ughhh. No blitz from Solly and Biggie. FG. 26-26.

Huge block by Lumbala. Gore TD.

Riders miss FG.

[WestCoastJoe]

JJ to Manny. Huge. Allen. 2:41 left. JJ huge scramble. Allen TD. Gotta be game over.

2:06 left. Spike. Lee knockdown.

150 yards penalties. Amazing.

[WestCoastJoe]

Weird, intense game.

Credit to JJ. He has considerable magic.

[maxlion]

Riders playing with a weak hand this year. With tonight's injuries, no way they were going to win, despite some huge mistakes from Lions in the first half. Great show by Lions in second half, but need to keep it in perspective.

[aklawitter]

can we get more TSN Resident Doofus Derek Taylor animated pieces on how JJ stinks?

[WestCoastJoe]

300 yard game from JJ? How about 429, 3 TDs, no Ints. This fan has no doubts about this young man. He works with the O Line, receivers and OC. And they have their weaknesses. Penalties. Drops. Some predictability. Some poor preparation vs the blitz. JJ basically performed magic this afternoon. IMO ...

JJ

Rolly

Allen

Receivers: Manny, Nick, Shawn, Bryan

Rainey

Biggie
...........

A win is a win, but our coaches went back to conservative D for a spell. Ouch. Then back to pressure.

Khari needs better blitz packages.

A win is a win. Our talent looks very good. We have to coach 'em up each and every week.

[Alputt]

Well I for one am a happy fan. Was certainly worried around half time but then Jennings settled down and we involved Allen, and got back on track. Obviously there is alot more to talk about but I will leave more detailed game analysis in this boards capable hands.

I would hate to be a Riders fan now, what is the status of Durant?

Congrats boys!

[Belize City Lion]

JJ 429 yards, 3 TDs, no INT. Yet I believe he was 1 series away from getting the hook in the third quarter.

[PigSkin_53]

I did not see the Argos game at home last week, but I am glad JJ was made to sit in favor Lulay...needed perspective for tonight's game, and he handled the pressure (way too much pressure) like the Pro that he is. Needed buy next week, time hone our skills down tighter, and get a discipline mind set , Leos lost their focus in the second quarter, but regained their composure in the third and four quarters ( the most important ones). Looking forward to the Stamps game two weeks from now, should be a killer good game Joe

[Blitz]

An impressive second half offensive performance by Jonathan Jennings enabled our Leos to come back from a two touchdown deficit to win, going away 40-27.

Jennings threw for 429 yards and three touchdowns. Shawn Gore had 109 yards receiving, Moore finished the game with three catches for 88 yards and Bryan Burnham had five catches for 103 yards as our receivers were able to get in behind the Riders blitzing defense in the second half for big plays.

Our defense also played better in the second half, blitzing more often against Rider backup Mitchell Gale. The Riders offence was hurt going into this game by having to start backup center Andrew Jones. They lost all-star guard Labatte and Joshua St. John was forced to come into the game for his first action of his pro career. Receiver Chambers, and most importantly quarterback Darian Durrant for most of the contest. They also had to sit tailback Steele. It was too much for the Riders offence to overcome.

Our Leos scored the first touchdown of the game as Anthony Allen initially stopped, tossed the ball to Jennings who scrambled into the end zone. But the Riders came back with both Durrant and Gale leading their offence on touchdown drives, as the Riders took a 23-10 lead into the dressing room at half time.

But our Leos were finally able to figure out the Riders blitz in the second half and Jennings threw touchdown passes to Jovan Olafioye, Nick Moore, and Shawn Gore. Allen finished our Leos second half comeback with a 7 yard touchdown run to seal the contest.

A few post-game thoughts.

DEFENSE

Mark Washington was slow to bring increased pressure on rookie quarterback Mitchell Gale. In the second quarter he mostly dropped a lot of defenders into coverage. He blitzed more in the second half and it paid dividends as we held the Riders to 4 second half points.

OFFENCE

Chris Jones said he was going to be more aggressive defensively in this game and he was. He had our offence baffled in the second quarter and early third quarter. Often in a Cover 0 with 8 defenders on the line of scrimmage, we were slow to go with more tight end sets and two back sets. We also didn't exploit the center of the field with no safey help.

But in the second half Lumbala's blocking was the key to our offensive success, along with more tight end sets. He made key blocks as Jennings got the ball downfield. Chris Jones stayed in his very aggressive blitz package too long as we began to take advantage, especially with injuries mounting in his defensive backfield.

PENALTIES AND TURNOVERS

We lost the turnover battle 2-0 and we racked up a lot of penalties for a Buono coached team. We even took a delay of game penalty on our first offensive play of the game. Even Wally got an unsportsmanlike penalty. In some ways we were fortunate to win based on penalties and turnover differential.

CONFIDENCE BUILDER FOR JENNINGS

Jonathan Jennings had his best passing game of his career so far. At one point in the game Lulay had his helmet on and was getting loose jogging up and down the sideline. But Jennings adjusted and made big throws under pressure in the second half.

Our Leos are 3-1 and showed the ability to come back from a substantial half time deficit. Rider injuries were certainly a factor in this game but our Leos still had to dig down to come back and walk away with a big victory in a key swing game on the road.

[almo89]

In our 3 wins, the Leos have shown an impressive ability to run the ball down the throats of the opposing defense at the end of games.

[B.C.FAN]

Tremendous halftime adjustments by the coaching staff on both sides of the ball. The Lions outscored the Riders 30-4 in the second half.

The Lions had a great game plan for Darian Durant but three costly penalties by Mic'hael Brooks in the first half set up 17 Rider points, helped by two B.C. turnovers. Mitchell Gale came in for Durant and completed seven straight passes to end the half after an early incompletion. The Lions changed their defensive game plan in the second half, used Solomon Elimimian effectively as a blitzer on second down and held the Riders without a first down on five possessions in the third quarter. Gale was just 10 of 22 in the second half, with most of his completions coming late after the Lions had taken the lead for good.

Offensively, Jonathon Jennings stood in and threw the ball against the Chris Jones blitz all day, and his receivers made some big catches and picked up yards after the catch. The key adjustment was using more double tight sets in the second half to neutralize the blitz and give Jennings and the receivers more time to pick apart the Saskatchewan secondary, which isn't talented enough to play man coverage all night. Shawn Gore and Bryan Burnham were the workhorses with 11 combined catches. Both went over 100 yards. Manny Arceneaux, despite an early drop and a fumble, also had over 80 yards, as did Nick Moore, who might have had more if a Jennings pass to him in the second quarter hadn't hit the goalpost.

The Lions made a lot of mistakes in the first half, with 11 penalties and two turnovers, but they proved in the second half that they're hard to beat when they don't beat themselves.

[TheLionKing]

Not often you lose the turnover battle and 145 yards in penalties and still come away with a win.

[WestCoastJoe]

Re our receivers ...

Moore is no burner. But he is slippery and slick.

Burnham might not be a burner, but he is inspIrational in his own way. As we see, he can be very effective.

Manny can be all star level. Not really a burner either.

Gore, as we see, can be very, very effective.

Each guy is capable of 100 yards on any night.

We probably don't need a burner.

Rainey might be that guy anyway, in brief appearances.
......

This fan credits Wally for allowing MW to plan and call a more aggressive defence. Don't go away from it.

Khari needs better anti-blitz packages.

Penalties are out of control.

Nice run blocking. Credit to Dan and his hogs.
........

We have to protect Jennings. As quick as he is reading the play, releasing the ball, thinking, as elusive as he is, he still needs better help vs pressure. Plus we want the Kid healthy.

He throws a beautiful ball. Tight spirals. Accurate. And he might get even better, 23 years old. Oh my ...