Leos/Argos Post Game Thoughts

[Blitz]

BC quarterback Jonathan Jennings calmly led a 10-play, 70-yard drive with under three minutes to play to set up a Richie Leone field goal with zeros on the clock to give the Lions a 16-13 win over the Toronto Argonauts.

In what was a defensive battle throughout most of the game, Jennings took over on the Leos last possession, spreading the ball to four different receivers and taking off twice for drive-extending first downs as he out-dueled Ricky Ray.

[Qman]

PASSING
PLAYER CP/AT % YDS TD INT LG
JENNINGS, Jonathon 22/31 71.0% 199 0 1 20
LULAY, Travis 0/1 0.0% 0 0 0 0
ARCENEAUX, Emmanuel 0/1 0.0% 0 0 0 0

RUSHING
PLAYER CAR YDS AVG LG TD
ALLEN, Anthony 13 56 4.3 11 1
JENNINGS, Jonathon 3 20 6.7 13 0
RAINEY, Chris 1 9 9.0 9 0
MURRAY-LAWRENCE, Shaquille 1 7 7.0 7 0

RECEIVING
PLAYER REC YDS AVG LG TD
ARCENEAUX, Emmanuel 8 61 7.6 20 0
BURNHAM, Bryan 4 54 13.5 17 0
IANNUZZI, Marco 3 30 10.0 19 0
RAINEY, Chris 1 20 20.0 20 0
ALLEN, Anthony 3 14 4.7 12 0
TAYLOR, Courtney 1 8 8.0 8 0
LUMBALA, Rolly 1 7 7.0 7 0
GORE, Shawn 1 5 5.0 5 0

FIELD GOALS
PLAYER FGA FG LG S YDS FG MISS
LEONE, Richie 3 3 47 0 99

PUNT RETURNS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG TD
RAINEY, Chris 6 55 9.2 18 0

KICKOFF RETURNS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG TD
MURRAY-LAWRENCE, Shaquille 1 23 23.0 23 0
RAINEY, Chris 1 20 20.0 20 0

PUNTING
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG S NET AVG
LEONE, Richie 6 303 50.5 71 1 228 38.0

KICKOFFS
PLAYER NO YDS AVG LG S
LEONE, Richie 2 154 77.0 95 0

DEFENCE
PLAYER DT ST QS INT FR FF
ELIMIMIAN, Solomon 13 0 1 1 0 0
STEWART, Brandon 5 0 0 0 0 0
BIGHILL, Adam 5 0 0 0 0 0
BAZZIE, Alex 4 0 1 0 0 0
EDEM, Mike 3 0 0 0 0 0
PARKER, Keynan 3 0 0 0 0 0
GAITOR, Anthony 3 0 0 0 0 0
ROH, Craig 2 0 0 0 0 0
PHILLIPS, Ryan 2 0 0 0 0 0
BROOKS, Mic'hael 1 0 0 0 0 0
TURNER, Bryant 1 0 0 0 0 0
ARAKGI, Jason 0 1 0 0 0 0
ADEKOLU, Stephen 0 1 0 0 0 0
ONTKO, Cameron 0 1 0 0 0 0
ALLEN, Anthony 0 0 0 0 1 0
LOKOMBO, Bo 0 1 0 0 0 0

[B.C.FAN]

Jennings was 22 of 31 (71%)for 199 yards and an INT, and his performance was hurt by some dropped balls and penalties, but for the fourth time this year he led the Lions to victory in the dying minutes, keeping Ricky Ray on the bench while driving for a last-play field goal. It wasn't pretty but he showed patience all night and it paid off in the end.

Ricky Ray was 24 of 31 for 213 yards and couldn't penetrate B.C.'s patchwork secondary after a successful opening TD drive.

Solomon Elimimian was back in MVP form with 13 tackles, a sack and INT.

Good adjustments by the coaches during the game and great gut check by the players to pull another victory on the road. I hope the home fans get a good show next week against Montreal.

[SammyGreene]

Major tip of the cap to Mark Washington with 2 inexperienced DBs in his secondary. Gave up 6 points the rest of the night after opening drive. Impressive. Good mixture of dropping extra guys in coverage and blitzing. Huge stop by Ryan Phillips on Argos final possession to force a punt.

[CardiacKid]

Jennings was 22 of 31 (71%)for 199 yards and an INT, and his performance was hurt by some dropped balls and penalties, but for the fourth time this year he led the Lions to victory in the dying minutes, keeping Ricky Ray on the bench while driving for a last-play field goal. It wasn't pretty but he showed patience all night and it paid off in the end.

Ricky Ray was 24 of 31 for 213 yards and couldn't penetrate B.C.'s patchwork secondary after a successful opening TD drive.

Solomon Elimimian was back in MVP form with 13 tackles, a sack and INT.

Good adjustments by the coaches during the game and great gut check by the players to pull another victory on the road. I hope the home fans get a good show next week against Montreal.

Ray had an average of under 10 yards per completion; in fact he didn't even average 9 yards per completion. Nicely done indeed. I was hoping Parker would get the INT in the end zone just to get some redemption.

[Rodu]

I missed the game, but I heard Yell went down. Does it look bad? I think we have one DB on the PS, going to need some warm bodies

[almo89]

Radio guys saying Keynan Parker did a good job filling in outside of being burned on the first drive.

[B.C.FAN]

I missed the game, but I heard Yell went down. Does it look bad? I think we have one DB on the PS, going to need some warm bodies

Yell hurt his ankle in warmups and was ruled out for the game. I haven't heard an update. TSN showed him in a walking boot on the sidelines in the fourth quarter.

[Sir Purrcival]

That was an ugly game to be sure. At least from a scoring perspective.

Kudos to the Lions for winning under some challenging circumstances. Pre-Game injury to Yell, extended time away from home, kind of a short week and so on.
Lots of missed opportunities tonight on both sides. Could easily have been a couple of more turnovers against the Lions but it didn't work out that way mercifully. On the other hand, there were some pass plays that had tons of potential that went for naught because of drops or overthrows. Felt bad for Iainuzzi. Could have had an easy TD on a gimmick play.

What I am liking about the O right now is the spreading out of the love. Nice to see pretty much ever player get some action during the course of a game. Even ol' Rolly is getting some opportunity on a semi regular basis.

Leone looked good on the FG's tonight. Pretty much right down the line tonight. Still not getting the 2 point converts especially when you take a procedure play and make it an 8 yard attempt.

Once again, it is obvious that the best way to win a game is to keep the enemies O off the field. That last drive was surgical in it's simplicity. A good mix of pass and run and nothing too ambitious. Just a solid ball control drive eating up the clock and giving the boatmen absolutely no opportunity to respond.

SolE has been quieter a bit this year, solid but less recognition. Tonight, I could see he was having a terrific game including some timely important tackles (including a great diving tackle on Whitaker), a pick and a sack. Nice to see him back in the limelight.

I wish that JJ would be a little smarter when he is under pressure. Sometimes a throw out of bounds is a good play. I think sometimes he tries too hard to make something out of nothing and tonight he got lucky that a fumble came back to him.

[Blitz]

BC quarterback Jonathan Jennings calmly led a 10-play, 70-yard drive with under three minutes to play to set up a Richie Leone field goal with zeros on the clock to give the Lions a 16-13 win over the Toronto Argonauts.

In what was a defensive battle throughout most of the game, Jennings took over on the Leos last possession, spreading the ball to four different receivers and taking off twice for drive-extending first downs as he out-dueled Ricky Ray.

Here are some post game thoughts.

DEFENCE

Our Leos defense deserves the most credit for this victory. Having to replace Ronnie Yell, who was injured in the warm up and playing with our third boundary side halfback for this season, our defense held the Argos to one second half field goal. Their defensive play was the key to our victory.

Our defense had a tough start to the game, as Ricky Ray, sidelined for the past three games due to a knee injury, drove the Argos down the field on their first possession 73 yards on five plays, hitting Kevin Elliott in the end zone with a 21 yard touchdown strike.

But from that point on, our defense tightened up, holding the Argos to two field goals for the rest of the game. We only gave up 3 points in the second half of the game. The only Toronto score of the second half came on a 20 yard Toronto field goal early in the fourth quarter, on a 63 yard, 12 play Toronto drive that we finally shut down. Our defense locked it down for the rest of the game, providing our offence with the opportunity to put together their late heroics.

In the second half, our defense really made it tough on the Argos offence. On an impressive individual blitz, Bo Lokombo hurdled high to get by an Argo blocker and than managed to get his hand on the arm of Ricky Ray as he threw the football. Soloman Eliminian intercepted the pass and was face masked during his interception return. That interception and penalty put the football on the Argos 15 yard line. We went two and out but the defensive play led to a field goal and gave our Leos the first lead of the game. It was a very key defensive play.

But it was not the only key play of the game by our defense. Alex Bazzie had another excellent game. He sacked Ray, put pressure on Ray, and also made some terrific plays against the Toronto running game. Ryan Phillips made a key tackle in the fourth quarter against a well designed pass to Whitaker in the flat, with a blocker in front. Philips beat the blocker and made a tough tackle on Whitaker in the open field, where he is very tough to bring down.

Mike Edem also made an outstanding play in this game, reading an underneath pattern and racing up from his deep safety position to make an open field tackle that prevented a Toronto first down. It was an excellent read.

Credit is also due to Kenyan Parker and Anthony Gaitor. Parker only learned that he would have to start just before game time. Parker was beaten early but then played very well as did Gaitor. Parker's break up of Ray's corner pattern into the end zone was an excellent defensive play.

Our Leos dressed Bryant Turner Jr. for this game. The decision to go with two International defensive ends and two International tackles for the second game in a row paid dividends. We got a good inside rush on Ray many times during the contest, forcing him to dump underneath.

But the defensive player of the game was Sol E. He had a sack, an interception, a key second half pass knockdown, and made key tackles. He was a defensive force all game.

OFFENCE

This was a game that was so frustrating to watch offensively at times I was shaking. Rich Stubler once again had an excellent game plan. He played his defensive backs off our receivers, keyed on our deep intermediate and deep routes, and Khari Jones had no solutions for most of the game. With the nickel and dime stuff open all game, our passing offence was not designed to capitalize. Argo defenders were lined up 12 yards deep and sometimes more... but often we had all of our receivers running 20 yard deep patterns or more.

To make matters even worse, our offensive line struggled in pass blocking. Adcock was horrible once again. He looked like his feet were anchored in cement. But the interior of our offensive line (Fabian, O'Neil, and Husband) also struggled against Toronto's big defensive tackles. Jennings was under duress most of the game, with a pass rush quickly in his face, receivers covered on deep intermediate patterns or deep patterns, and no outlets to throw to. Then he tried to do too much himself.

On our first offensive drive of the night, Jennings moved the offence down the field but a Lemon sack shut down the drive. Arsenault dropped a perfectly thrown deep ball that should have been a touchdown. We were very fortunate on times. Jennings was hit just before he threw the football in the first half but we recovered the fumble. The Argos seemed to have scored another touchdown, with about three minutes left in the first quarter, after Ricky Foley ran a fumbled ball to the end zone, but a Toronto off-side negated the touchdown. Jennings also threw two pass plays during the game that looked like sure Toronto interceptions but the Toronto defenders were unable to come up with the catch.

Our offence did not score in the first quarter. A 49 yard first quarter drive was snuffed out by a Toronto interception, as Jennings tried to throw over the top to Arseneaux but Toronto had him well covered. Lemon beat Adcock again and sacked Jennings and we were forced to punt the football again.

Our offence put together a second quarter scoring drive, marching the football downfield 42 yards in 6 plays and Allen surged into the end zone for the touchdown. The attempted two point convert was only one of many coaching errors in this game. First of all, we took a delay of game call on the convert attempt and then attempted to run the two point convert play after the penalty. Travis Lulay’s pass intended for Arceneaux was knocked down by T.J. Heath

The Argos defence held Jennings to just 91 yards, in the first half. Jennings only completed 8-of-13 passes. But we opened the third quarter with a 27 yard drive and Leone kicked a 47 yard field goal to tie the game at 10-10.

In the second half, our offence went two and out, from the 15 yard line, following Eliminian's interception. Once again, instead of having receivers running shorter patterns, Jennings was forced to throw into the end zone and we were fortunate that Toronto did not intercept. Instead we kicked a short field goal.

In the fourth quarter, our offence was once again shut down due to a Lemon sack on Jennings.

But with a little less than 3 minutes remaining, with the score tied 13-13 it was time for Jennings and 'Crunch Time' again. Somehow our offensive brain trust seemed to finally see the light. And that light was to throw short. The fact that Toronto came with the blitz probably helped us to change our offensive pass philosophy on that final drive.

Mixing in runs and short passes, with Jennings running twice himself, and with one key deep intermediate route to Arseneaux (which was a brilliant throw by Jennings while under incredible pressure) Jennings calmly led a 10-play, 70-yard drive that led to Leone's 30 yard field goal with no time left on the clock.

Once again, Jennings led our team to a late victory. He completed 22 of 31 passes, tossing five of them on the winning drive which began at our own 26-yard line.


SPECIAL TEAMS

Leone had an excellent game punting, with over a 50 yd. average and an excellent coffin corner punt as well. He hit a 47 yd. field goal and the game winning field goal.

Our down field coverage was very good for most of the game although we got fortunate in the fourth quarter that a Toronto penalty , [what looked to be a huge Toronto run back. With 5 minutes to play Diontae Spencer’s 32-yard punt return would have had the Argos’ offence at our 30-yard line but an illegal block brought the ball back to Toronto’s own 46. The Argos went two-and-out, punted, and cue Jennings and company to march for our winning field goal.

Rainey worked very hard for all his punt yard return yardage as Toronto had good downfield coverage.

WRAP

Our Leos are now 7-3. It was huge to win two road games in a row. In some ways were fortunate. Our offensive game plan and in game adjustments were poor for a Stubler defence until the final winning drive. We should have known that Stubler would take away our deep intermediate and deep passing game. We didn't nickel and dime it until there were less than 3 minutes left on the clock. Our passing offence needs some adjustments to incorporate one or two receivers running a shorter routes on each pass play. Its a serious problem that needs correcting.

We also need to make some obvious personnel changes on the offensive line. We all know what those changes are. They are as clear as day.

Jennings had ice in his veins on that final drive - impressive for a quarterback to do that once again with less than a full season of games of pro experience and our receivers also made clutch, difficult catches on that final drive as well.

Our defense played their hearts out. Even though our defensive players were likely very tired they played very inspired football.

A huge road victory for our Leos.

[TheLionKing]

Jennings has to learn to throw away the football when under duress and avoid those big sacks which are momentum killers.

[jcalhoun]

Hey all,

If I've done my math right, tonight's win was Wally's 400th game win as a player, assistant co-ordinator and head coach (not including pre-season).

Cheers,

James

[Blitz]

Jennings has to learn to throw away the football when under duress and avoid those big sacks which are momentum killers.

I agree TheLionKing but not easy to throw the football out of bounds when surrounded in the pocket and the receivers 25 yards or more downfield. If there was a receiver running a short route in the flat or sideline areas, then he could throw it out of bounds without picking up a grounding call. We don't make things easy for Jennings.

I was surprised to see Jennings completion rate at the end of the game (22/31).

Late surges, especially when it matters most, seems to be a trend for the Leos, proving they’re a group that just doesn’t quit.

“Three out of the last four weeks that our offence, and our young quarterback, has turned the magic on when it counted the most,” said Buono. “This is what we talk about: winning football. It’s about learning that the game is over when there’s zeros left on the clock.” cfl.ca

Jennings has led our Leos on four game winning drives this season. No other quarterback has three.

An interesting stat...this is the first time ever, since our inception that our Leos have had a clean sweep for road games in the East, defeating all four Eastern teams.

[Sir Purrcival]

I remember early in the year there was some commenting that Eastern based teams were kicking western team butts. That sure has changed over the course of a half season. It seems as though all the Eastern teams have struggled of late while every team in the west save the Riders has suddenly started dominating. Seems like it is back to business as usual with the West Division being by far the stronger of the two (at least for now).

[Blitz]

While us Leo fans have to be very pleased with this win, it required our defense to play outstanding football in the second half of the game and come up with some big individual plays. Lokombo's hurdle to get by a pass blocker and get a piece of Ricky Ray's hand, leading to Sol E's interception, was a phenomenal individual play.

We were fortunate, with 5 minutes left in the game, that Diontae Spencer’s 32-yard punt return to our 30-yard line was wiped out by an illegal block that brought the ball back to Toronto’s own 46, or our final drive would have been for a game tying, rather than game winning field goal.

B.C. Fan, wrote before the game, that he ancicipated we would run the football 20 times. Allen had 13 tough carries, Jennings ran 3 times, Rainey once, and Shaq Murray Lawrence ran once, making it 18 running plays for the game. The play I really liked on the final drive, was putting Rainey into the game at tailback, swinging him to the right, and then Jennings took off on a quarterback draw. He is a very smart,shifty runner.

A second play I really liked was the throw back to Arseneaux and throw downfield to Iannuzzi. We never run so called 'gadget plays' and it really surprised Toronto (and me). It was too bad that we missed the throw but it also seemed that Iannuzzi stopped running for a split second. It should have been a touchdown.

While, on the final drive, we threw some short passes, aided by the fact that Toronto started blitzing, which seemed to force us to go 'hot', the fact was that most of the game, we didn't throw underneath, when that was what was open all game.

It seems that our offensive passing scheme still has not adjusted to how defenses are going to play us. They know we run a lot of deep intermediate patterns and also like to throw deep. Calgary played us that way. Toronto has played us that way twice. Yet, once again, for most of this game, we didn't have pass patterns to take advantage. Sir Percival echoes these sentiments as have others that we need some shorter routes and to incorporate some faster developing offensive pass plays. Jennings took a lot of hits last night to make plays, as he so often does and he also had to make some very tough throws with defenders in his face and surrounding him. He also fumbled twice while hit - one fumble was recovered and the second resulted in a Foley touchdown recovery that was wiped out by a penalty.

While we celebrate this win, there has to be some changes made to our offensive line. The first one has to be Adcock. He was beaten badly, numerous times. He didn't even tough Lemon on one play, who just went by him like he was anchored in cement. Antonio Johnson has to be brought back into the lineup.

With Boldewijn ill and unable to play in this game, we flew in Courtney Taylor, who had one catch for 8 yards. But I wondered why we didn't just go with Adekolu at slot instead, or shift Iannuzzi into Boldewijn's slot position and play Adekolu out wide. Adekolu has been with us since training camp. I really would have liked to see him get an opportunity after working so hard at training camp and all season at practices. Its not as if he couldn't have gotten the job done as well as Taylor or better.

I worried that we would have our struggles with Toronto's two big defensive tackles and we did. Robertson and Hall got penetration all game. It's time to start thinking about how we can get Steward and Vaillencourt back into this lineup. Winning can obscure changes that need to be made.

A coach who did see the need for lineup change is Mark Washington. Washington decided to go with 3 International defensive ends for most of this season and only one International tackle (Brooks). But when Brooks got hurt during a game, it really put us in a bind. For the past two games, Washington has dressed Bryant Turner Jr. and only gone with Bazzie and Roh as International defensive ends. That has meant more reps for Menard but Bryant Turner Jr. can also play defensive end on the boundary side, if needed.

Bazzie gets pressure from the outside. But against pocket passing spread offences, with the quarterback throwing from the pocket on most plays, getting an inside pass rush is very important. Keeping interior defensive lineman fresh to pass rush invaluable. Washington has also brought the inside linebacker blitz with Sol E. schemed well this season and he picked up his fifth sack of the season. Kudos to Washington for making the personnel adjustments he has.

As a Leo fan, one has to be pleased that our defense can go into a game without dressing an extra International defensive back. Parker can come into a game in case of injury. Thompson can do the same and he also plays as an extra safety when we go three man line. Its great to have two National defensive backs that can play these roles well and we also have Fraser for depth at safety.