It was an impressive home win for our Leos over the Als. Our Leos needed to continue their winning ways in the West, they needed to play exciting winning football at home, and they needed their offensive line to play a brand of football that would open up holes for the running game and better protect Jonathan Jennings.
Over the past few weeks, many Lionbacker posters questioned Dorazio's wisdom of benching Hunter Steward and continuing to play his favorite Cody Adcock. The story of the week, prior to this game, was Buono's decision to return Steward to the starting lineup as well as Antonio Johnson while cutting Adcock.
The first play of this game was an indicator of how different our offensive line play would be. Instead of the usual inside zone read play, Hunter Steward blocked the defensive tackle hard to the outside and sealed him while Husband seal blocked the tackle to his right. There was a hole you could drive a car through and Johnson ripped through the hole for a big first down.
The second play of the game showed how different our pass blocking would be. Jennings had lots of time in the pocket to loft a deep ball to Manny Arseneaux and he high pointed it and came down with the catch for a touchdown.
The tone of the game was set by our offensive line on those two first plays. It would continue and be the story line of a dominating performance that led to over 261 yds.rushing, 341 yds. passing, and 603 yds. of total offence.
Amazing what a few new offensive wrinkles and a couple of personnel changes can create.
Some post game thoughts on our offence, defense, and special teams.
HUNTER LEADS THE HUNT
I, like many other Lionbacker posters questioned the wisdom of taking 223 pound and very talented offensive lineman Hunter Steward out of our starting offensive lineup. Steward had one hell of a game. Yes, he took a holding penalty in the second half of the game that wiped out a score but we ended up scoring a touchdown on that drive anyway. We ran the football most often between Steward and Husband or Steward and Olifioye. They opened huge holes against a very good Montreal defense. On the right side, Antonio Johnson shut down all that has ailed us over the past three games. Fabian had his best game of the year.
When a football team runs for 262 yards, passes 37 times during a game, has 341 yards in receptions, and only gives up one quarterback sack against a defence known for its successful blitzing, your offensive line has had a tremendous game. On our final offensive drive of the game, our offensive line was so dominating, it was a treat to watch.
KHARI ADJUSTS
I'm often a critic of Khari Jones vanilla approach to our spread offence. But not this game. He made some key changes. He made adjustments to our blocking scheme, with some man blocking. He added a misdirection running play with receiver motion that was very successful.
In the passing game, he attacked the middle of the field and used shorter routes at times. We threw a quick hitch to Burnham early in the game. We hit Gore quickly against the blitz in the flats and we also hit Gore on a quick dig pattern in the first half. We lined up Burnham in the backfield and then threw to him as he slipped out inside, after faking a block. We rolled out Jennings a couple of times. We used more receiver motion and more variety on receiver sets.
JEREMIAH JUKES
Jeremiah Johnson was fresh for this game after sitting out the Eastern road trip. His legs were fast. He was motivated to play. Johnson often had huge holes to run into but when he hit the second level he was flying. He made excellent cuts and ran hard with the football too. He was hard to bring down with his second effort. He had 16 carries for 159 yards and a 9.9 yd. run average.
BURNHAM BURNS
Bryan Burnham had 6 catches for 138 yds. and a 23 yd. reception average. He had a 46 yd. reception. He also had a touchdown pass called back on a penalty. But it was how he ran with the football after a catch and his football sense that impressed most. He turned some short receptions into first downs with some tremendous effort and outstanding running. He not only has outstanding hands but he is exciting to watch after a reception. His extra effort is impressive. His route running this season has improved tremendously.
Arseeneux with his touchdown reception and a great double stiff arm on a Montreal defender, added 68 yds. of pass receptions. Boldewijn caught 5 passes for 48 yds. and Shawn Gore had 4 receptions for 52 yards as all of our receivers contributed to the win. Arseneaux had one drop, Gore ran a route too long in the red zone against the blitz, Boldewijn stopped on a fly pattern that frustrated Jennings and he also also fumbed a reception.
Boldewijn is a tall, big target that is still a project. But receivers like Nick Moore, Shawn Gore, and Bryan Burhham had their struggles before emerging as Leo receivers. Its still too early to write Boldewijn off and Jennings continued to throw to him, showing confidence.
But no question, Bryan Burnham is emerging this season as a top CFL receiver who plays the game with a very high level of motivation and skill..
LIGHTNING STORM BEFORE THE RAIN
His nickname is the 'Rain Man' but Chris Rainey is more lightening in a bottle. He may be the fastest player thatI have ever watched play in the CFL. He blows by defenders. He cuts like Willie Fleming. He brings rain and storms to an opposing defense.
Rainey has been lobbying for more offensive reps. Wally said he was only going to give him limited reps as Rainey was too important as a returner. But Rainey saw more action in this game as a tailback than he has all season. That may have been due, in part, because Johnson had more carries and longer runs than our tailback has all season.
Rainey had 5 carries for 61 yds (12.2 yd. average) and 2 catches of 30 yards in pass receptions. He contributed close to 100 yards of offence. But it was two plays that showed his incredible talent. On a crossing pattern, his speed was so phenomenal that the defender covering him was 7 yds. behind the play. Rainey almost scored on the play.
On another play, Rainey made a cut on Chip Cox that blew Cox almost out of his football pants. It was so sharp of a cut at full speed it was shocking to watch. Rainey made an 18 yard run, cutting between Steward and Olifioye and then racing by a defender like he was standing still. For a small man, Rainey also runs very hard.
He is also an excellent decoy. When we sent him on a swing pass right and came back with the quarterback draw, all Montreal linebackers were focused on Rainey.
JENNINGS A JOY
Jonathan Jennings threw for 341 yards with a 72.7% completion rate that would have been over 80% without a couple of receiver drops. Jennings had more time to throw in this game and was only sacked once. The better pass protection made a big difference to his game. But he also threw more quickly at times against the blitz, threw over the middle more, and had an excellent game. Jennings has such a tremendous arm. He can literally throw a 30 yard accurate spiral with a flick of his wrist. He is a special young quarterback who deserved the better protection he got in this game and the running attack that took some pressure off.
DEFENCE A JECKYL AND HYDE SHOW
Defensively, we were excellent in the first half of the game, holding Montreal to two field goals. However, our defence gave up 21 second half points and played poorly.
Playing with our third boundary halfback this season with Gaitor, we also started Kenyan Parker at field corner for the second game in a row. Brandon Stewart played his second game in a row at boundary corner in place of Ronnie Yell. Those changes to a defensive backfield that plays a ton of zone can have an impact.
But it was Mike Edem who had the poorest game in our defensive secondary. He was slow to come across on some plays and misjudged others. Stewart doesn't have the coverage skills or speed that Yell has at boundary corner.
We gave up too many big plays, as our defense has all season. Even with our 3 sacks (Bazzie, Menard, Westerman) we should have gotten better pressure on Cato than we did. We closed on him well when he decided to run but we did not get enough pressure in his face.
Cunningham and Nik Lewis were too wide open on a number of pass plays for Montreal. Cunningham had over 100 yards of receiving. There were times that our tackling was not good enough, leading to a Montreal first down that should have been stopped.
Brooks had four tackles in the game and played better but he has not been the force he was before his injury.
Kato completed 21/29 passes (72.4% average) for 252 yards. With a big lead at half time our defense relaxed too much in the second half.
SPECIAL TEAMS NOT SPECIAL
Anthony Fera out punted Richie Leone in this game. Fera punted for a 48.2 yd. average while Leone only averaged 42 yds. per punt in an off game. Fera kicked four field goals out of four, while Leone missed a convert.
Chris Rainey was the only special team specialist that had a good game for us. Rainey had 3 punt returns for 62 yards, including an impressive 35 yard return. Iannuzzi averaged 11 yards on two punt returns, including a 16 yd. return.
But our kickoff coverage team continues to struggle and gives up too many long returns. We were also asleep on a potential on side kick and had to call a time out. On our kick return team, Shaq Murray Lawrence continues to run the football without a sense of threat.
WRAP
With over 600 yards of offence, with a balanced running and passing attack set up due to dominating offensive line play, this game was a treat to watch.
Lots to work on still but a win to savor!
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
