Lions at Riders, Game Journal and Post Game Comments

[MikeAK]

The expansion draft had nothing to do with Reilly going to the Esks. He is 2 years younger than Lulay who was the MOP, MVP, franchise QB, and Reilly was due to become a free agent and ready to be a starting QB.

The Esks had Nicols at QB and were the best team for Reilly to compete for a starting job the following year. The Esks came to BC to play when Lulay was injured and Reilly started and was lights out throwing for 4 TDs. That was all it took for Hervey and the Esks to take no chances and decided to not wait for free agency, but to trade for and sign Reilly after that season ended and before FA started.

At the time I recall thinking that the Lions might be letting the better long term QB of the two go, but really there was nothing that they could do to keep Reilly. So, while the Lions have suffered in the short term due to Lulay's injuries, the timing of the arrival and emergence of Jennings and Lulay's accepting of his new role looks great for the long term.

The trend towards shorter pro careers resulting in less physical pounding and less negative post football health issues dovetails nicely with Lulay's new QB mentor role as he is the de-facto QB coach at game time, leaving K Jones more time to be OC/play caller. Lulay is a sort of Coach-In-Training so if he wants to be a coach when he retires...he will be in demand.

I've been very impressed with the amount of class and character shown by Lulay. It's a tough pill to swallow for any pro athlete but he's handled it beautify. He's going to have a major impact on how well Jennings progresses. I agree, with you about Lulay. He's going to be in the league a long time even after his playing days.

[Blitz]

I've been very impressed with the amount of class and character shown by Lulay. It's a tough pill to swallow for any pro athlete but he's handled it beautify. He's going to have a major impact on how well Jennings progresses. I agree, with you about Lulay. He's going to be in the league a long time even after his playing days. Mike AK

Travis Lulay has been a class act from the day he arrived in B.C. A very positive, character quarterback.

Without taking away any of those positive attributes, going into this season, no other CFL teams were interested in Lulay as as starter. Lulay is also very highly paid to be a backup quarterback and mentor to Jennings. Lulay's best option was to be the back up here in B.C. going forward and he also may have an opportunity to become a coach when his playing days are over.

Injuries to CFL quarterbacks in past seasons have occurred quite frequently. With an experienced quarterback in Lulay, whose shoulder injury looks like it has healed up, our Leos are in good shape, in terms of quarterback depth.

With Jennings having a break out game and Lulay playing so well in relief against Toronto, things look positive right now at the quarterback position for our Leos.

However, what made me happiest against the Riders is that we did not stay married to the spread offence against the Riders blitz. By going to more pro sets and two back sets, we were able to give Jennings enough time to throw downfield. Jennings was still under pressure and had to be poised to do so successfully but without that scheme change, it likley would have been a rough second half as well. Instead we were able to exploit weaknesses and blown defensive coverages to really come back big time in the fourth quarter.

An interesting defensive stat is that Alex Bazzie is tied with John Chick for the league lead in quarterback sacks with 4 sacks. Eliminian has 2 sacks and Adam Bighill, T.J. Lee, Loucheiz Purifoy, Craig Roh, and Paliacio each have one quarterback sack.

[pennw]

Reading through the commentary here and the game day thread lots of interesting stuff posted . Lots to agree with , not all though .
A great win for BC . Great game for Jennings , after some have been calling for him to be pulled . Not just during the game , the week before too after a loss to TO . Sometimes you win sometimes you lose , not good to call for heads just after one loss .
Jennings has not even played a full season yet , way to early to give up on him , as he showed yesterday . Ends up throwing for 429 yards . Last week lots of complaining about the passing game even though we were leading the league in rushing , now lots of complaining about the rushing game after a big passing game . BC ran for close to 100 yds to go with the 429 , and this is with a near rookie QB .
The previous games we had very good run numbers , which takes away from passing attempts , hence lower pass numbers . This week the opposite , big pass numbers , less run attempts . Is the glass half empty or full ? I say more than half full , by a fair margin . We beat Calgary , made the Ticats look bad , now beat the very aggressive Chris Jones defence handily with a near rookie QB . I say that is cause for optimism . So we lost one game to a good Argos team , it happens even to the best . We are still in first place . And BC is way ahead of where so many predicted them to be .
Lots to be happy about . We have a great young QB , receivers are better than many give them credit for ,Burnham proving himself ,Nick Moore , Manny , a great group. Our OL has shown the ability to push the DL around and two very good RBs that are making us not miss Andrew Harris . Both are certainly much better running up the middle than Harris was , when we need to run out the clock . And Dorazio ? He seems to be earning a passing grade too .

[Blitz]

One position of our Leos team that we have not spent a lot of time talking about this season is free safety. It had been an area of concern since the time of Barrin Miles.

Mike Edem, who we signed as a free agent in the off-season, has given us solid play at that position. Its been a relief. Edem is also backup up at the position by Fraser, who provides decent depth.

The career of Mike Edem, prior to arriving in B.C. for 2016, is a strange one. Edem was a first round (selected third overall) by the Montreal Als in 2013. Edem immediately earned the starting position at safety in Montreal, replacing veteran Kyries Hebert who moved to the linebacker corps. Following his first season, he was nominated as the Als Most Outstanding Canadian and Most Outstanding Rookie and was named an Eastern All-Star.

But Edem was only given one start for the Als in 2014 and then was hardly dressed by the Als before he was traded to the Hamilton Tiger Cats for a sixth and 7th round conditional draft choice in October of 2015.

Its a strange story of a high first round draft choice, who has an outstanding rookie season and then hardly used in Montreal. Why Edem fell out of favor in Montreal is confusing but he certainly has been a positive edition so far for our 2016 Leos.

The free agent that I am most looking forward to seeing play this season is Levy Adcock. Adcock has been on the 6 game injury list and his spot taken by Antonio Johnson, who has played ok but picked up more than a share of procedure penalties. Levy Adcock will bring experience and should also bring very good pass blocking to the right tackle position. He is a load at 325 pounds who will make our offensive line even bigger and stronger.

[joewillie63]

I guess I wouldn't make a good coach in the CFL. If I was running that game I would have pulled Jennings after the half. That's why Wally is so successful. Good call Wally , carry on.

[B.C.FAN]

I guess I wouldn't are a good coach in the CFL. If I was running that game I would have pulled Jennings after the half. That's why Wally is so successful. Good call Wally , carry on.

I think Wally and his staff have clearly outcoached the opposing coaches in most, if not all games this year. The players seem to believe in him and themselves. As a fan, I feel confident that the Lions can overcome adversity and beat anyone if they don't beat themselves with turnovers and penalties.

[cromartie]

No doubt. But every team goes through that. We basically gave Mike Reilly away for peanuts and look how that turned out for us. What goes around... as they say

NO NO NO. This myth, like the 'Printers would have won the 2004 Grey Cup' myth is one that needs to go away.

Reilly was a free agent after 2012. You kept him around after 2011 to make a run at another Grey Cup as a backup. You did not have the cap space to keep both Lulay and Reilly . So, rather than lose him for nothing, the Lions traded his rights to Edmonton for a 2nd round pick in 2014 and a swap of 2nds in 2013 . For neg rights.

Stop saying he was given away for peanuts. Most backup QB trades in the CFL don't work out for the receiving team AT ALL. This was the right move to make at the time, and Wally did well to get something for nothing. And the Eskimos made the deal to avoid competing with Winnipeg to get Reilly in free agency. NO ONE LOST IN THIS DEAL.

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.

Conventional wisdom dictates that, with a young QB, you bring less pressure and drop more guys into the secondary to make his reads more difficult. This worked very well against Hamilton, but no so much against the Riders.

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 safety help.

Wait. You mean the most effective way to counter pressure is to provide more protection and utilize Fullbacks and Tight Ends? And here I thought all these years you could out spread an eight man rush. /sarcasm

[MikeAK]

I guess I wouldn't are a good coach in the CFL. If I was running that game I would have pulled Jennings after the half. That's why Wally is so successful. Good call Wally , carry on.

I think Wally and his staff have clearly outcoached the opposing coaches in most, if not all games this year. The players seem to believe in him and themselves. As a fan, I feel confident that the Lions can overcome adversity and beat anyone if they don't beat themselves with turnovers and penalties.

Wally definitely has a presence that commands respect among his players. There is a level of accountability this year that I didn't see last season. There won't be any heretics on the roster this season. he is the General. And yes, he and his staff have been very good. I have an enjoyment watching the Lions that I've missed the last few seasons. This feels like 2011 all over again.

[Blitz]

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. Blitz

Conventional wisdom dictates that, with a young QB, you bring less pressure and drop more guys into the secondary to make his reads more difficult. This worked very well against Hamilton, but no so much against the Riders. cromartie

Are you sure that's conventional wisdom cromartie? Its certainly one way of playing a young quarterback. But pressuring a young quarterback has always been a popular strategy. Young quarterbacks tend to get happy feet/jumpy when they face pressure. They tend to start looking at the blitz rather than their reads. They also tend to throw away from where the the blitz is coming from rather than throw into the teeth of it. Lots of good reasons to blitz an inexperienced quarterback.

[pennw]

On Wally getting a penalty , at the time it was happening , I was asking , 'what are you doing Wally?' And shaking my head . Then saw the replay and in hindsight seen that it was absolutely the right thing for him to do and , it made a huge difference in the game . Even though it was only a 5 yard gain , it brought to light how bad the reffing was in a homer sense that seems to happen so often in Riderville . Suddenly the refs were under the spot light with the video review . Why did Wally have to walk so far out to get their attention ?? Were they trying to get the to the next play before they were willing to see the yellow flag Wally hD thrown or what ? A ref was staring directly at Jennings having his legs taken out and IGNORED it after all the penalties BC had taken for roughing the passer , yet they would not give BC the decency of the same correct call?? I think Wally was sending the refs a message with that one and they rightly should have been embarrassed about that non call. There is no way they never saw it , he was right behind Jennings with a clear view as shown by video review and they got a national audience to see it . Wally Drew attention to it , good for him as the embarrassment seemed to get the refs to clean their act after that . So Wally took one for the team and won , good for him.

[chwk_lionsfan]

You have to give Wally a lot of credit for sticking up for his team even though he got a penalty for it. That's the kind of coach players can rally behind.

[Rammer]

The expansion draft had nothing to do with Reilly going to the Esks. He is 2 years younger than Lulay who was the MOP, MVP, franchise QB, and Reilly was due to become a free agent and ready to be a starting QB.

The Esks had Nicols at QB and were the best team for Reilly to compete for a starting job the following year. The Esks came to BC to play when Lulay was injured and Reilly started and was lights out throwing for 4 TDs. That was all it took for Hervey and the Esks to take no chances and decided to not wait for free agency, but to trade for and sign Reilly after that season ended and before FA started.

At the time I recall thinking that the Lions might be letting the better long term QB of the two go, but really there was nothing that they could do to keep Reilly. So, while the Lions have suffered in the short term due to Lulay's injuries, the timing of the arrival and emergence of Jennings and Lulay's accepting of his new role looks great for the long term.

The trend towards shorter pro careers resulting in less physical pounding and less negative post football health issues dovetails nicely with Lulay's new QB mentor role as he is the de-facto QB coach at game time, leaving K Jones more time to be OC/play caller. Lulay is a sort of Coach-In-Training so if he wants to be a coach when he retires...he will be in demand.

I believe that you captured both the scenario at the time of Reilly's trade ( although I would add that the Lions received anything g in return at the time was unexpected as FA'cy was around the corner),.and where things have landed since. I would add that Winnipeg's desire for Reilly helped secure the Lions draft pick from Edmonton. I may add that many on this site were of mind that Reilly was the QB to keep, despite Lulay's 2011 success.

[DanoT]

You have to give Wally a lot of credit for sticking up for his team even though he got a penalty for it. That's the kind of coach players can rally behind.

I don't know how to do a link but at the Lions website there is a video of the Lions locker room post game ball awards and Wally gets some ribbing about taking a penalty. Since it was an after the whistle penalty I think Wally has to fine himself.

[Rammer]

From what I have seen Wally is being much harder on his OC and DC, with positive on field results.

On the game itself, anytime a team can physically dominate a CJ coached team, you have to credit the coaching staff. I have waiting for that team for a number of seasons, nice see it this year. Being able to kill the clock by running the ball when the opposition knows you are running is a sign of an elite team. We aren't quite at that level, but having the OL at that point this early in the rebuild season, is a solid building block.

[CardiacKid]

You have to give Wally a lot of credit for sticking up for his team even though he got a penalty for it. That's the kind of coach players can rally behind.

Yeah, big props to Wally. More often than not when a player gets an objectionable conduct penalty, I am pulling my hair out. But IMO he needed to do something to keep the energy going the Lions gained and not loose it. Plus I have to believe that makes a statement to the players.

And I think he is going to pay the fine if I heard right on the All Access game ball video.