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TheLionKing
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Brandon Stewart signed on as an Alouette.
Blitz
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They can have him.....he's not going to make them better.

The Als have signed way too many older players and that includes Durrant. The Als needed to bring in some vets to change team culture and chemistry but I think they've overdone it.

If they can make the playoffs, it could bode well for them but right now, they seem to have experience but lack talent.

I was definitely not a Brandon Stewart fan from early last season. Brandon Stewart was 3rd on our Leos defence in tackles with 74 of them. He led our defensive backs in tackles. That was almost twice as many tackles as Ryan Phillips (38) Mike Edem (37), Anthony Gaitor (35) and Chandler Fenner (34)

When you're field side corner is making that many tackles, when most offences throw the least passes to that area of the field, is telling. The most distorted stat is the number of tackles a defensive back makes.

Usually that means the defensive back is being picked on and opposing offences picked on Steward relentlessly in 2016.
"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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B.C.FAN
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Blitz wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2017 5:38 am
They can have him.....he's not going to make them better.
Agreed. Despite being picked on relentlessly last year, Stewart had no interceptions, forced fumbles or fumble recoveries. He couldn't cover, and gave up far too many big plays.
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DanoT
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The Als, with a rookie GM and a pretty much rookie HC, having a vet QB like Durant was necessary, imo. They just paid him too much.

I agree that Brandon Stewart was a weak link in the Lions D last season but he might be able to make a contribution to a weak Als D backfield.
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DanoT wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:02 am
The Als, with a rookie GM and a pretty much rookie HC, having a vet QB like Durant was necessary, imo. They just paid him too much.

I agree that Brandon Stewart was a weak link in the Lions D last season but he might be able to make a contribution to a weak Als D backfield.

Als have 4 DBs out injured (reason #1 why stewart has a job)

Little surprised by are lack of getting open last week again a backup secondary, we are really hurt by gore retirement because he was a cdn that played similar level to a US receiver. Our cdn receivers don't scare anyone! heck, you could cover both with one guy
TheLionKing
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What does it say about our coaching staff if Stewart was being relentlessly picked on still had him in the lineup ?
The Lion King

It says that once they make a decision, too often they have difficulty changing their mind.....its a rigid thinking problem that too often has bitten us.

If they change, it means they weren't right in the first place.

Rigidity also is a factor in our scheme. For example, we're a plug and play offence and have been for a very long time. Another example is that other teams often make adaptions for the playoffs whereas we come out with the same game plan and play calls that we always do, with very few or no adaptions.

The focus is always on 'execution'. Players cite the refraims "We gotta execute or "we executed well this game" or "we gotta execute better" Sometimes that is true but at other times we've just been outcoached.

We also too often hear...:we just gotta focus on ourselves and not the opposition" or "we've just gotta play our game".

In coaching, confidence in what one believes in can be a good thing but so is self-analysis, self-awareness, questioning what one is doing, and also realizing that what worked well in the past doesn't always work well in the future.

Right now our passing attack is having some struggles. But the focus is too much on personell. Yes, we miss Shawn Gore. Iannuzzi is not Shawn Gore (I don't believe Iannuzzi should be starting at outside slot but that is just my opinion)

But I believe the biggest problem right now with our passing offence is that opposing defences are focused on taking away what we like to do - throw the deep intermediate and deep routes to Manny and Burnham. Burnham is 8th in CFL receiving and Manny is 17th.

Burnham has a 12. 1 yd. average per reception so far this season. Last year he led the CFL in pass receiving average with a 17.6 yd. average while finishing 4th in CFL receiving.

Its been even tougher for Manny so far in 2017. Manny finished 3rd in CFL receiving last year and he had a 14.9 yd. average.

One might think that we have decided to throw shorter routes to both but with much more success. Not so. Even though we targeted Manny and Burnham on deep and deep intermediate routes a lot, we were still more successful throwing to them last year than so far this season.

Last season we most often targeted Manny deep into double coverage and we were still successful doing so 68% of the time. This season we've only been successful 61% of the time throwing to Manny.

Its been even tougher for us to get the football successfully to Burnham. We've only been able to complete 62% of throws to Burnham so far this year, while in 2016, while even making tougher throws to him, we were successful in doing so 76% of the time.

Shaq Johnson, playing wide side outside receiver position that Iannuzzi played last season is doing something Iannuzzi rarely did - get open deep. Shaq Johnson has a 23 yard per reception average.

Iannuzzi (10.4 yd. yd. average per reception) has less reception yardage than Shaq Johnson, even though Iannuzzi lines up every play as our outside slotback. I've read often on this site that the reason we didn't throw to Iannuzzi often was due to the position he played. There is more to it than that.

I would love to see us play Adekolu at outside slot in place of Iannuzzi, until Chris Williams enters our lineup but unless he changes his name to Mario Adekolu, it will never happen.

But I believe the bigger problem than personnel is our pass game strategy. We need to make adaptions. Use Shaq Johnson on more crossing routes. Line up Iannuzzi outside and Shaq Johnson in the outside slot position in our five receiver set. Get Manny and Burnham out of the slot spots once in a while and create matchup problems. Get them away from double coverage by lining them up at the short side wideout once in a while.

Use could use more motion other than the waggle. We need to use different routes than the ones we are presently using against man coverage, as well as better combinations too. I could add more suggestions but won't bother.

We need to make modifications to our passing attack strategy. We have an excellent quarterback, three very good recievers in Manny, Burnham and Moore, and as a rookie, Johnson is getting open. We're finally using Jeremiah Johnson more in the passing attack and its only taken 18 games with him in our lineup to figure that out - duh.

Time for Khari to get his head out of his.......and start scheming better.

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CardiacKid
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But I believe the biggest problem right now with our passing offence is that opposing defences are focused on taking away what we like to do - throw the deep intermediate and deep routes to Manny and Burnham. Burnham is 8th in CFL receiving and Manny is 17th.

Blitz
If Jones has done his homework on what Chris Williams did in Ottawa to be massively successful AND incorporates that into his play calling, I have to believe that will cause conundrums for opposing defensive coordinators.
While in Ottawa, Williams success came not so much from using his blistering speed to simply blow past defenders and latch onto deep throws but more from catching the ball on short and intermediate routes and then using his speed to accumulate YAC yards.
If Jones has recognized that and makes use of Williams in that particular manner, then I have to believe opposing defences will respect that potential threat and stop focusing on preventing Manny and BB from getting those deep intermediate and deep catches. If Jones simply adds Williams to the mix of Manny and Burnham going deep and doesn't utilize him underneath, then i think he is mis-using Williams and not helping out our deep threats.
Too bad we still have to wait awhile for Williams.
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SammyGreene
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CardiacKid wrote:
Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:40 am
If Jones simply adds Williams to the mix of Manny and Burnham going deep and doesn't utilize him underneath, then i think he is mis-using Williams and not helping out our deep threats.
Too bad we still have to wait awhile for Williams.
Some good insight on 3rd Down Radio last night regarding injury updates.

Was hoping we might see Williams before his time is up on the 6-game but that's not going to happen. Wally said Williams is anxious to be doing more but they also must follow the 6-game eligibility status carefully and there are certain things and can and can't do on the practice field.
He won't be able to participate in full practices until week #5 and the plan is for him to make his season debut against the Riders here on Aug. 5.

Sounds like the Lions would like to him to punt returns as well. Wally said opposing teams are doing a good job punting away from Rainey and limiting his touches and another legitimate threat would benefit him.

Sadly Tsawwassen's Dylan Ainsworth's days as a Lion and CFL player sound like they may be over.
He has never fully recovered from last year' neck injury in training camp with the Riders. Wanted to sign with his hometown team to be closer to his family with his father battling cancer. LU said they really wanted to dress him last week but it never materialized. He wasn't at practice yesterday and LU expects an announcement soon from the club on his status.
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CardiacKid
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SammyGreene wrote:
Wed Jul 12, 2017 12:48 pm
CardiacKid wrote:
Wed Jul 12, 2017 10:40 am
If Jones simply adds Williams to the mix of Manny and Burnham going deep and doesn't utilize him underneath, then i think he is mis-using Williams and not helping out our deep threats.
Too bad we still have to wait awhile for Williams.
Some good insight on 3rd Down Radio last night regarding injury updates.

Was hoping we might see Williams before his time is up on the 6-game but that's not going to happen. Wally said Williams is anxious to be doing more but they also must follow the 6-game eligibility status carefully and there are certain things and can and can't do on the practice field.
Sadly Tsawwassen's Dylan Ainsworth's days as a Lion and CFL player sound like they may be over.
That sucks about Ainsworth but can't risk anything with a neck injury. Hope things turn out okay for him and his family.

So with Williams and the 6-game eligibility status, it raises a roster question for me that was instigated by a roster move by the Roughriders (why is it we can always count on the Riders and their rosters to raise flags?!?! :dizzy: :mac: :clown: )
Henoc Muamba was placed on the Rider's 6-game injury list but I believe he only missed one game due to injury. He was put back on the active roster and starting at middle linebacker for their 2nd home game. By his own admission he was surprised to be off the injury list and playing again.
I am not suggesting that Williams be rushed back but I thought a player, once he was on the 6-game, had to stay on the 6-game?
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DanoT
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If a player is on the 6 game injured list for 6 games then his salary does not count against the SMS. However a player can be pulled off the 6 game list at any time, but then his salary counts toward the SMS.

With Chris Williams likely getting a high salary, no doubt that the plan has always been to have him start the season on the full 6 game list.
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The_Pauser
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Lions also cut Swayze Waters today.
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TheLionKing
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Waters' injury didn't help his cause. Buono probably saved a bit of money going with a younger guy in Ty Long. Wonder if Waters will wind up in Hamilton.
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B.C.FAN
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The move was probably inevitable but the timing came as a surprise. I thought Wally would wait for midseason when Waters' contract became guaranteed to the year. Steve Ewen had just filed a story from practice on the friendly competition between the two kickers when the shoe dropped. He quickly refiled. Here's the updated version:

Rookie’s big leg prompts B.C. Lions to boot veteran kicker
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SammyGreene
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Very surprised by Watters release as I thought Long's body of work would have to be bigger. Must be telling of how badly he was out kicking him in these mid-week competitions.

LU has more as well.
http://www.tsn.ca/lions-cut-kicker-punt ... s-1.803459
maxlion
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Haven't been overly impressed with Long. Has a strong leg, no question, and played better last game than in the first two. Surely comes a lot cheaper than Waters. I suspect there will be more adventures in the kicking department this year.
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