Riders at Lions Nov. 5 postgame comments

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pennw
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Lion Guy wrote:Lions run D was really good. They will need that next week.

The only thing Jones accomplished this year in Regina is turning a last place team into another last place team.
You forgot , he managed to secure the first or second pick in the draft. On a different note , did you get banned from Riderfans ?
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Not that it mattered in the game , but that call by the refs to negate a terrific play by our defence and take away a sack from Roh , due to a whistle in the crowd?? Truly bizarre. And they wonder why officiating keeps getting less and less respect. That was a third down stoppage but they get another shot . For all we know it could have been a rider fan that blew the whistle and it could set a precident in a play off game . Why would a fan not just blow a whistle when they see a play unfolding that they don't like to bail their team out? Truly bush .
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Our Leos convincing 41-18 victory over the Riders was a star-studded event. It was a night for our Lions stars to showcase their talent. And display I they did. Jonathan Jennings handily clipped the 5,000 yard mark in passing, making him only the fourth Lion to ever do so. Jennings passed for over 300 yards in three quarters of play.

Dave Dickenson threw for his over 5,000 yard season as a Leo in 2003. He never replicated it. In fact, Dickenson never threw for over 3500 yds. as a Leo, after 2003. Doug Flutie threw for well over 6,000 yards for our Leos in 1991 and we lost him at the end of that season. Flutie went on to replicated over 5,000 yards in a season three more times with Calgary and two more times with Toronto.

The game also featured the Manny Show, with his best fireworks display ever. Manny caught 10 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns. He caught deep passes, deep intermediate passes and short passes. He ran over people and he ran through people. The Riders defensive backs and Manny talked trash all game. But they couldn't stop him.

Byran Burnham was determined to play his role in our offences version of "Team 100 (Manny wears 84 and Burnham wears 16). Burnham caught 7 passes for 96 yards.

Chris Rainey demonstrated, once again, what an incredible talent he is. He can play taillback or receiver, he can run inside or outside, he can catch, he can juke, he can shake and bake, he can fly, he can cut on a dime, and he can return punts and kicks with speed and agility. Chris Rainey ran the football, mostly inside, 9 times for 89 yards and a 9.9 yd. per run average. He hit the hole with lighting speed, he made cuts that blew defenders our of their cleats, and he drove defenders back with his tenacity.

Paul McCallum, the aged wonder, with only a few practices this week, after not kicking a football for over a year (only kicking a soccer ball on occasion with his daughter on occasion) went 4/4 on his field goal attempts. He kicked a 44 yarder and split the uprights with lots of distance to spare. It was amazing. And for those, who thought our Leos 'brain trust' were wise to dump McCallum at training camp last year, they should join Wally at church this Sunday and repent for their sin of getting it so wrong. :wink:

On defense, our two biggest stars, Sol E. and Adam Bighill led our defense to a convincing victory. Our defense held the Riders to 200 yds passing and completely shut the door on the Riders in the first half, playing their role in a establishing such a lead that the game was never in doubt.

Here are some post-game thoughts:

THE GOOD

When Jonathan Jennings threw the football and I saw Stephen Adekolu more open on a deep ball that any Leo receiver this season, my heart leapt. I wanted Adekolu to make that touchdown reception badly, since I had advocated for him to get game reps for two seasons. But the football sailed over his head. I was shocked. Why? Because Jonathan Jennings almost always throws the purrfect deep ball. He throws it with defenders in his face.

Jennings throws it 50 yards downfield, with our receiver double covered to the spot only the receiver can make a play. He throws the deep ball with such perfection, that a receiver can be blanketed by a defender but Jennings will throw it to the side that only our reciver can make the play or he will throw it so that it just goes over the defenders outstretched hands by a couple of inches while our receiver makes a fingertip catch.

I started to wonder if Jennings was human. Perhaps he was dropped down from outer space. Perhaps the Football Gods sent him down to save the franchise. Perhaps the Football Gods visited Tedford one night and said the savior is coming out Saginaw Valley - trust us. I have never seen a quarterback in the CFL throw so many difficult long throws with such consistent perfection ever. It shocks. It amazes. It defies credulity. It's been mind blowing passing.

I don't think a lot of fans realize how extraordinary its been. So, when Jennings missed Adekolu on that deep pass, I knew that it truly was Jonathan Jennings, and not a computer chip in Jennings arm, being guided by a satellite in deep space, that was guiding his throws.

An amazing Jennings pass took place in the first half of the game that I don't think many fans realized how difficult and great a play he made. Running to his left and under incredible pressure, Jennings had no ability to plant his throwing foot or turn his body upfield. With only a flick of his wrist, as his feet left the ground, he threw against the grain to Arseneaux, who was tightly double covered. The football arrived like a laser into a purrfect spot for Arseneuax to make the reception. The degree of difficulty of that throw and that catch is off the radar.

Just as impressive in this game was the offensive coordination of Khari Jones. From the time he took over as offensive coordinator until a few games ago, I saw Khari Jones as another Leo offensive coordinator leading a predictable, bland offensive scheme. We basically ran the five receiver spread, used one running play (the inside zone read) and sent our recievers out on deep and deep intermediate routes. Bascially it was an offence that relied on the talents of Jennnings, Manny, Burnhan, along with a running attack that relied on the talents of our offensive line and tailback, while being restricted by the fact that the defense knew exactly how we would run the football. Receivers lined up in the same spots every game and waggled to the line of scrimmage. It was monotonous, dull, and restrictive.

Not anymore! Khari Jones has really revamped our offence. When he ran the fullback screen to Lumbala (and it was so disappointing that the play ended up as a fumble - Jones needs to run the play a little wider) I jumped right out of my seat. Jones has been moving receivers around, using more motion and formations, giving Jennings some misdirection, play action bootlegs, and implementing more crossing patterns. He's begun to use the bunch formation more, (which is excellent against man defense) both tight and wider, and his play calling has really changed too. I couldn't be more pleased.

We need to introduce the zone read option for the playoff game but In short order, this is a different offence, scheme and play calling wise, lately. One might think that it hasn't changed all that much, based on the fact that it was still the Manny/Burnham show but the play calls were there for Jennings to throw to other receivers (more on that later).

It was good to see Lulay get some action and complete a touchdown pass. Luly did not enter the game until we were up by 29 points in the fourth quarter. On his touchdown pass, I winced as Lulay gave up ground as he ran to this right. Usually the play ends up being thrown out of bounds. Lulay must have been taking notes while watching Jennnings play. Instead of continuing to right right, which is Lulay's penchant, he twisted his body upfield instead and hit Burnham in the end zone with a nicely thrown football. Lulay mostly threw short passes but he looked poised. Great to see.

It was also great to see Lumbala make an outstanding run. We could have been using him earlier in the second half to do so, instead of risking Johnson and Rainey. Lumbala peeled off a 31 yard run on one of his two carries with the football.

On defence, the Football Gods have visited Mark Washington too. No more Bighill playing deep safety. No more straight ahead four and three man rushes. Instead its been lots of formations, stunts, zone blitzes, and aggressive play. All season long I've appealed for Washington to give up on Darius Allen and play two International tackles. Westerman got hurt and that initiated the change. If Westerman is back for the playoff, we need to keep Bryant Turner Jr. in the lineup. He had a great game up front. Using Menard as a starting defensive end has also made a huge difference to the play of Craig Roh. He's been fresher, faster, and hungrier.

Adam Bighill is playing like the Adam Bighill we cherish. No longer running back to safety like a crazy man, Bighill's tackling is sharp again, he looks like he is shot out of a cannon on his blitzes, and he is very focused. We were asking him to do too many things while taking away his natural aggressiveness. When I saw Sol E. leave his underneath coverage and in a split second, explode up on a Riders quarterback who was escaping pressure to the outside, it was a joy. Rather than having to patrol the underneath all by himself, while Bighill ran around at safety, Sol E. had the freedom again to play a more aggressive style.

In the backfield Fenner, Gaitor (before he got hurt), Edem and Phillips played tighter coverage. But it was Kenyan Parker who set the tone for aggressive defensive back play. He played tight coverage, came up hard to make tackles, and had a hell of a game. A number of games back, when Parker had the opportunity to play, due to injury, he played very well. Stewart, once again was a weak link in the defensive backfield. I would replace him with Parker in a second. It would also allow us to play an extra import on defense (on the defensive line).

THE BAD

There are always things that happen each game that need to be looked at. As B.C. Fan has pointed out, one of them is that we are too Manny/Burnham centric. It may sound all fine to say keep going to what is working. But with the lead, Jennings needed to use our other recivers more. The Bombers shut down Manny to 16 yards in our loss at home to them and Burnham only had 46 yards. In this game we only threw once to Adekolu and once to Shaq Johnson, and we didn't throw to Iannazzi at all.

That is on Jennings. He needs to distribute better. He had other receivers open. It was understandable that he threw to them early but with a big lead in the third quarter, he could have targeted other receivers. I understand why he is reluctant to throw to Sinkfield underneath and only wants to throw to Sinkfield deep. Once again Sinkfield dropped a very easy catch on a shorter type throw. It happens at least once in every game. Sinkfield made an outstanding 46 yd reception on a perfectly thrown football by Jennings but he has dropped way too many easy ones for a pro receiver with experience. But Jennings could have gotten other receivers more involved later in the game.

Wally made a decision to start Johnson over Allen. I thought, before this game, he should have started Allen, to keep Johnson fresh for the playoff game(s). I understand that Wally wanted to go with his best tailback to win this game. But when Wally took Shaq Lawrence out of the lineup, for McCallum, he had other choices than to sit Shaq Murray Lawrence. For example, we could have sat out Eric Fraser.

When Johnson got hurt, it meant more Rainey at tailback. It meant putting Johnson back in the game, after he had hurt his ankle, rather than resting Johnson for the rest of the contest. And with a big lead, instead of just using Lumbala as our tailback, we continued to use Rainey and Johnson in the second half (and risked them getting injured)

We also left Jennings in the game until the fourth quarter. We could have started Lulay for the second half and came back with Jennings if the Riders were mounting a comeback and Lulay was not leading our offence well enough. Instead we kept Jennings in for too long, risked injury to him, and didn't get Lulay enough reps, when we could have.

Finally, using an extra offensive lineman, down on the goal line, as a receiver, can fool a defence. But using Tim O'Neil as a receiver is insane. He can't run. The only way that the pass could be completed would have been if Jennings had bulleted the football through his chest. Khari Jones trick plays this season have not worked - from the Arseneaux pass, the Johnson pass, etc. If Khari is going to go to his bag of tricks, he needs to discard the ones he is using, and come up with some better ones. But Khari is so in my good books right now with the fullback screen, the motion, misdirection bootlegs, jet sweeps, crossing plays, moving receivers around, etc. that the play can be more than forgiven (as long as he never uses it again :wink: )

THE UGLY

The Jeremiah Johnson injury was a worry. Playing Rainey so much at tailback, with the win almost a foregone conclusion was a worry as was playing Johnson as much as we did after he hurt himself early. But the play that really could have hurt our playoff chances was the collision between Adekolu in the end zone. It looked as if both were running deep crossing patterns. The football looked like it was intended for Burnham but Adekolu was crossing underneath, with a shot at the football. Anyway, it was fortunate that there was no injury on the play.

Perhaps Adelolu was at fault.. But he could also be an easy scapegoat. Deep and short crossing patterns involve both crossing recievers to cross quite close to each other in an attempt to rub off the defneisve backs. Wally certainly thought Adekolu was at fault. But to explode on Adekolu on the sidelines, as Buono did, was unacceptable. It was a public display of great disrespect. Saying something directive or firmly to Adekolu at that point may have been the right call, if it really was Adekolu's fault. But the way it was done by Buono on the sidelines, in front of a huge crowd, is not leadership or coaching. Its a lack of self-discipline. Its a lack of emotional control. Its gross misuse of power and therefore its abusive.

Buono has made enough mistakes this season to fill a few pages on this site. McCallum was saving Buono's bacon by coming out of retirement and we had lost games due to Wally's error in deciding that Leone could become a field goal kicker. Wally risked player injury in this game numerous times due to his decision making. We've lost games due to poor challenges by Buono. We've lost games because he is too often afraid to gamble on third and less than a yard. We've lost games because he didn't guide Jennings in how to play in the last few minutes of a game and give him the play calls to ensure victory. Adekolu has been pined for two seasons without game reps and then been thrown into important contests. If he made a mistake it was due to inexperience.

Buono has tons of experience and makes huge mistakes at times. No one yells at him but last night I wish Buono could experience Braley coming down on the sidelines and yelling at him, in front of huge home town crowd. He would learn what it feels like.

WRAP

We have a home playoff berth. We get to play the Bombers in our home stadium. It means our big play offence will not have to play in the cold. That benefits out offensive style of play and doesn't advantage Winnipeg's offensive style at all. It was an important win and it capped off a successful season.

Its been one of the most exciting Leo seasons ever to watc football and impressive individual play from Jennings, Manny, Burnham, Rainey, Johnson, Sol E. and Bighill. Khari Jones has made great changes and Washington is not playing 'hide under your mother's skirt' football anymore and has gone to an aggressive style.

All bode well for next weekend. It will be a tough game. The Bombers will be doing everything to take Manny, Burnham, and our deep throws away. They will play dink and dunk against our defence. We will need to be very prepared.

What has been the difference this season from last season. Many will credit Buono. There are some personell changes this season from last but really quite few. Buono added accountability. We gave up 38 points less on defence. But the biggest difference has been on offence, where we have scored 108 more points than last year. Jennings turned Arseneaux and Burnham into elite receiving threats.

The two biggest difference makers have been Jonathan Jennings and Chris Rainey. Rainey joined us part way through last year. Jennings started the last 6 games of 2015. Without Jennings, I highly doubt we would have finished 12-6. We'd probably be the cross-over team. Without Rainey as a return man and rotational tailback, I doubt we would have finished second and perhaps not even third.

For a day or two, its time to savor a 12 win regular season, a second place finish, and the satisfaction we host a playoff game next weekend.
"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)
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Lulay could have started the second half, but pre-game Wally said "our starters are going to play 60 minutes unless we get into a situation where you typically take guys out". I think Wally wanted to send a message to the guys not to let up in the second half no matter how much they were leading. We lost a few games we should have won by letting the opponent come back late, so I think that was a good reminder to play the full 60. About the only thing I disagree with Wally's strategy is he seemed to have decided to wait until the 4th quarter to get Jennings out of the game. It was about two series earlier that it seemed obvious Saskatchewan was not even interested in trying to make a comeback.

When Lulay did take over it was obvious he was game ready. His reps were limited because he simply did not need any more playing time, so no need to expose him to injury either. Nice to see Price finally get on the field. I had almost forgotten we had a 3rd QB. It's been a while since the Lions have not needed to rely on their 3rd stringer at some point in the season.

Nice move by the Lions to present the game balls on the field after the game. Not sure if the fans knew this was going to happen because it looked like the stadium was almost empty. Of course, this is Vancouver where people head for the exits as soon as the 50-50 is announced no matter what the score is.
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pennw wrote:Not that it mattered in the game , but that call by the refs to negate a terrific play by our defence and take away a sack from Roh , due to a whistle in the crowd?? Truly bizarre. And they wonder why officiating keeps getting less and less respect. That was a third down stoppage but they get another shot . For all we know it could have been a rider fan that blew the whistle and it could set a precident in a play off game . Why would a fan not just blow a whistle when they see a play unfolding that they don't like to bail their team out? Truly bush .
I caught a guy doing that at a game (it was a playoff game). A real piece of work. I made him very uncomfortable by staring at him. If that hadn't worked, the next step would have been to suggest that whistles don't taste very good. Fortunately, he left. Too much attention.
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Blitz wrote:Wally made a decision to start Johnson over Allen. I thought, before this game, he should have started Allen, to keep Johnson fresh for the playoff game(s).
I am in complete agreement on this, Blitz. This is not the armchair quarterback in me either. I said at the time that this was a bad idea and I stand by it. The fact Johnson got hurt in a blow out game just illustrates that it was the wrong choice.

We have been rotating Johnson and Allen all season and it has served us well. There was a high probability we were going to win this game when the Riders announced that Durant was staying home so there was very little risk in inserting Allen. Johnson could have come back for the Semi (and hopefully two more games thereafter) with extra emotion and a spring in his step. More baffling is that we put him back in the game after injuring the ankle thus risking further damage. While Jeremiah surprised us all by coming back in and running well, this could very well have been adrenaline taking over....not uncommon in sports. I am anxious to see whether there is swelling/damage to the ankle today. Crossing my fingers he'll be 100% for Sunday. :cr:


DH :cool:
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David wrote:
Blitz wrote:Wally made a decision to start Johnson over Allen. I thought, before this game, he should have started Allen, to keep Johnson fresh for the playoff game(s).
I am in complete agreement on this, Blitz. This is not the armchair quarterback in me either. I said at the time that this was a bad idea and I stand by it. The fact Johnson got hurt in a blow out game just illustrates that it was the wrong choice.

We have been rotating Johnson and Allen all season and it has served us well. There was a high probability we were going to win this game when the Riders announced that Durant was staying home so there was very little risk in inserting Allen. Johnson could have come back for the Semi (and hopefully two more games thereafter) with extra emotion and a spring in his step. More baffling is that we put him back in the game after injuring the ankle thus risking further damage. While Jeremiah surprised us all by coming back in and running well, this could very well have been adrenaline taking over....not uncommon in sports. I am anxious to see whether there is swelling/damage to the ankle today. Crossing my fingers he'll be 100% for Sunday. :cr:


DH :cool:
In Buono's defense, the injury was early enough in the game that the outcome wasn't assured. We did see him used sparingly the rest of the game. I'm more concerned about the next game now. He may have been able to play through it yesterday but I can't help but wonder how it is today. What decision gets made if he is say 85 - 90% next weekend?
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Admittedly my first game in a couple of years, but what a time. Great atmosphere, things of the in-game production that made me cringe in the past were gone, and most importantly, the Lions put the Bombers on blast by going all out in a game that was over after the 1st quarter.

I know there has been some criticism of only opening the lower bowl but when it's full, it's LOUD.

Got my playoff tickets this morning. Can't wait for Sunday.
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David wrote:
Blitz wrote:Wally made a decision to start Johnson over Allen. I thought, before this game, he should have started Allen, to keep Johnson fresh for the playoff game(s).
I am in complete agreement on this, Blitz. This is not the armchair quarterback in me either. I said at the time that this was a bad idea and I stand by it. The fact Johnson got hurt in a blow out game just illustrates that it was the wrong choice.

We have been rotating Johnson and Allen all season and it has served us well. There was a high probability we were going to win this game when the Riders announced that Durant was staying home so there was very little risk in inserting Allen. Johnson could have come back for the Semi (and hopefully two more games thereafter) with extra emotion and a spring in his step. More baffling is that we put him back in the game after injuring the ankle thus risking further damage. While Jeremiah surprised us all by coming back in and running well, this could very well have been adrenaline taking over....not uncommon in sports. I am anxious to see whether there is swelling/damage to the ankle today. Crossing my fingers he'll be 100% for Sunday. :cr:
DH :cool:
We both thought Allen should play but I conceded that Wally didn't want to take any chances of losing. But when Johnson got hurt, why not go five receiver set and use Lumbala as a blocker and runner, rather than keep on risking Johnson, after hurting his ankle. I said the same thing as you did ....maybe the adrenalin is pumping now but what is Johnson's ankle going to be like on Sunday morning.

Wally' fear was still there in the third quarter, when we had a 29 point lead and he is still using Johnson and Rainey. Perhaps the most bonehead thing Buono did was actually before the game, when he took Murray-Lawrrence off the game roster. I'm no Shaq Murray Lawrence fan, but for this game, he shoud have had Murray Lawrence on the game roster, so if we got a lead, he could rest Johnson.

We could have sat Erik Fraser or Clarke, Ontco, Kangolongo. We had 3 National defensive backs who were not starters - one could have sat out.

From leaving Jennings in too long to starting and then playing Johnson with an ankle injury to playing Rainey so much in the third quarter, it wasn't smart at all and Wally is lucky no one got hurt (except we don't know Johnson's status yet).
I think Wally wanted to send a message to the guys not to let up in the second half no matter how much they were leading.
Wally was just paranoid about potentially losing a home playoff game. It was obvious that the game was won in the third quarter. Most CFL games you cant' say that. But the Riders hearts weren't in it, when the second half started. Wally has been around long enough to know when a team has the potential to come back. The game was over in the third quarter. Time to not risk injuries to key personnel.

But Wally has never thought of anything but the now. He played Dickenson injured, he played Printers with a rotator cuff so bad Printers couldn't even practice, except to throw underhanded, he played Pierce badly injured and Jackson with a badly injured finger and Printers when he was back here again, with a knee so injured it needed total knee reconstruction.

To Wally, players are just 'objects' and I can accept that from him but sometimes you want to keep a good 'object' in pristine shape for the future and not unwisely risk damaging it. Its a risk and reward scenario and Wally wanted the reward of the win so badly that he took unnecessary risk.

Wally wanted to ensure that Braley got his home playoff game to bad and was so fearful of not getting it, even when a win was obviously in hand, that he risked his personnel too much. Fear sometimes replaces wisdom.

Our Leos finished 7-11 last season. This season we finished 12-6. We won 5 more games. When you look at Jennings last season, we won 3 of our 6 games with him as a rookie. If he had only played as well as last season, we would have won 9 -10 games. We won a couple of extra games mostly due to Jennings development as a quarterback and his ability to make great throws to two outstanding receivers - Manny and Burnham.

Its the extra 108 points on offence that has been the key to our success this season - and that is more about Jennings and his receivers than Wally or our offensive scheme up to two games ago. Add Rainey to the equation and that is the difference between last year and this year.

As for the decision to go with two International backs vs. Harris (from a production standpoint) if you take quarterback runs out of the equation, we rushed for 1,692 yds. this season, Calary rushed for 1,684 yds, the Red Blacks for 1, 575 yds. and the Bombers rushed for 1, 405 yds. But a key component of our running attack was Rainey, who had a full season as a rotational tailback, had over 400 yds of our total. (8.6 yd average - more after last night's game.

The real key to leading the CFL in rushing was Jennings and Rainey making a very significant contribution to our running attack. Last season we didn't have Jennings for most of the season as our starter or Rainey adding to the diversity and the threat of our running attack - huge difference,

Wally added presence and accountability. But to me, he has not been the major difference maker. Without Jennings (which means Manny and Burnhan being able to make the contributions they made) and Rainey we would have been lucky to be 9-9 this season. Arseneaux came alive last year, when Jennings became our quarterback and had his best season as a Leo this season. Bryan Burnham moved up from 41st in receiving (423 yds) to 4th in CFL receiving (1, 392 yds). That was mostly due to having a different quarterback.

We basically used the same offensive scheme this year, as last year, until a couple of games ago. Wally doesn't even coach the offence. The difference has been our offence this season and now, our offence, with the scheme adjustments that Jones has recently made, we really have a great chance to beat both Winnipeg and Calgary. But every playoff is a tough game that can go either way.
"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)
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From what I understood , there was no back-up RB behind Johnson other than Rainey , as the back-up had been Shaq Murry Lawrence and he had been taken off the roster to make room for Mcallum . To me it would seem wise to have another back RB since that is such a tough position and maybe another special teamer should have come off , say maybe a linebacker type instead . This is the problem of having 2 kickers on board and many teams do it though .
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I don't necessarily think playing Johnson as the starter was the wrong or bad decision. But after that injury? That I am not happy with, particularly when you take into consideration his season ending injury with the RedBlacks was a dislocated foot. I don't remember which foot it was but I totally remember witnessing it and totally flinching. It wasn't something you wanted to watch twice.
Upon seeing him reach for his ankle last night I immediately thought "oh Christ, not again!". They should have erred on the side of caution IMO.
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David wrote:
Blitz wrote:Wally made a decision to start Johnson over Allen. I thought, before this game, he should have started Allen, to keep Johnson fresh for the playoff game(s).
I am in complete agreement on this, Blitz. This is not the armchair quarterback in me either. I said at the time that this was a bad idea and I stand by it. The fact Johnson got hurt in a blow out game just illustrates that it was the wrong choice.

We have been rotating Johnson and Allen all season and it has served us well. There was a high probability we were going to win this game when the Riders announced that Durant was staying home so there was very little risk in inserting Allen. Johnson could have come back for the Semi (and hopefully two more games thereafter) with extra emotion and a spring in his step. More baffling is that we put him back in the game after injuring the ankle thus risking further damage. While Jeremiah surprised us all by coming back in and running well, this could very well have been adrenaline taking over....not uncommon in sports. I am anxious to see whether there is swelling/damage to the ankle today. Crossing my fingers he'll be 100% for Sunday. :cr:


DH :cool:
Going with Johnson was consistent with Wally's coaching philosophy of when he said something to the effect of at this time of year you have to go with one guy. Yes, I agree that sitting Johnson would have kept him fresh and safe from injury. But the rotating running back system got us to week 18 with two guys who are both in great shape physically (not withstanding the ankle injury to Johnson last night). My only concern is that by Grey Cup (if we make it that far) Johnson will be starting his 6th (?) game in a row after being used to getting time off every second or third week for the past 4 months.

Wally treated this game as a must win. No one got the night off, and if Johnson is 1A then he was going to play him. What if Allen had played last night and ripped off a 100+ game? Would we have had a running back controversy going into the WDSF? Somehow Wally, Johnson and Allen made a very unconventional system work extremely well. Johnson and Allen combined rushed for the most yards this season. Their yards per carry average difference was about half a yard.
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Going with Johnson was consistent with Wally's coaching philosophy of when he said something to the effect of at this time of year you have to go with one guy. Yes, I agree that sitting Johnson would have kept him fresh and safe from injury. But the rotating running back system got us to week 18 with two guys who are both in great shape physically (not withstanding the ankle injury to Johnson last night). My only concern is that by Grey Cup (if we make it that far) Johnson will be starting his 6th (?) game in a row after being used to getting time off every second or third week for the past 4 months.

Wally treated this game as a must win. No one got the night off, and if Johnson is 1A then he was going to play him. What if Allen had played last night and ripped off a 100+ game? Would we have had a running back controversy going into the WDSF? Somehow Wally, Johnson and Allen made a very unconventional system work extremely well. Johnson and Allen combined rushed for the most yards this season. Their yards per carry average difference was about half a yard. Belize City Lion
Going into the game with 1A is very different than staying with 1A , when he has turned his ankle. Plus we should have had Shaq Murray Lawrence on the roster to be able to rest Johnson with a good lead. Plus we could have used Lumbala rather than put Johnson back in with his hurt ankle.

When you look at the replay of the game on television, there is a clip of a wince by Allen on the sidelines in his street clothes, when Johnson hurts his ankle. Allen did not want to see him hurt.

Even if Allen had ripped up a 100 yard game, there would have been no controversy. They have substituted for each other all season, even after a good game. The key has been to keep them fresh and make sure we had a tailback starting in the playoff who was reasonably fresh.

The score is 33-4, with 58 seconds left in the third quarter and we are still rushing with Johnson. Jennings is still the quarterback out there, throwing to Rainey, with 18 seconds left in the third quarter. With 6 minutes and 26 seconds left in the game, we are still rushing Rainey inside (he peels off a 15 yarder).

The game is over. Why risk these players at this point in the game?

They don't need the reps at this point. Rainey has run more times in a game than he has all season and we're still running him inside, our key return man and a guy who is a difference maker on offence, with around 6 minutes left in the game?

No way to justify it, In my opinion. Dum.
"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)
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Belize City Lion
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Blitz wrote:
Going with Johnson was consistent with Wally's coaching philosophy of when he said something to the effect of at this time of year you have to go with one guy. Yes, I agree that sitting Johnson would have kept him fresh and safe from injury. But the rotating running back system got us to week 18 with two guys who are both in great shape physically (not withstanding the ankle injury to Johnson last night). My only concern is that by Grey Cup (if we make it that far) Johnson will be starting his 6th (?) game in a row after being used to getting time off every second or third week for the past 4 months.

Wally treated this game as a must win. No one got the night off, and if Johnson is 1A then he was going to play him. What if Allen had played last night and ripped off a 100+ game? Would we have had a running back controversy going into the WDSF? Somehow Wally, Johnson and Allen made a very unconventional system work extremely well. Johnson and Allen combined rushed for the most yards this season. Their yards per carry average difference was about half a yard. Belize City Lion
Going into the game with 1A is very different than staying with 1A , when he has turned his ankle. Plus we should have had Shaq Murray Lawrence on the roster to be able to rest Johnson with a good lead. Plus we could have used Lumbala rather than put Johnson back in with his hurt ankle.

When you look at the replay of the game on television, there is a clip of a wince by Allen on the sidelines in his street clothes, when Johnson hurts his ankle. Allen did not want to see him hurt.

Even if Allen had ripped up a 100 yard game, there would have been no controversy. They have substituted for each other all season, even after a good game. The key has been to keep them fresh and make sure we had a tailback starting in the playoff who was reasonably fresh.

The score is 33-4, with 58 seconds left in the third quarter and we are still rushing with Johnson. Jennings is still the quarterback out there, throwing to Rainey, with 18 seconds left in the third quarter. With 6 minutes and 26 seconds left in the game, we are still rushing Rainey inside (he peels off a 15 yarder).

The game is over. Why risk these players at this point in the game?

They don't need the reps at this point. Rainey has run more times in a game than he has all season and we're still running him inside, our key return man and a guy who is a difference maker on offence, with around 6 minutes left in the game?

No way to justify it, In my opinion. Dum.
I agree that Wally was at least two series too slow on getting his star players out of the game. Shaq Murray Lawrence was left of the roster to make room for McCallum. If we had a Canadian kicker doing double duty we could have had both Johnson and Allen in the game last night (or SML).
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Notwithstanding the fact that Jennings can throw the football perfectly into tight coverage, he need to stay away from it against Winnipeg. Bombers have a few ball hawks back there. If Jennings continue throwing it into double coverage it will come back to bite the Lions.
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