Riders vs. Lions Aug. 5, 2017

[TheLionKing]

I would say vent that bad air onto the Rider sideline but they already create their own pollutants.......cause they stink!

Hey, that's my section.

[Gridiron Ernie]

As of tonight (Aug 4) "Transactions" indicates David Foucault has been shuffled to the 1-game injured list and Felix Gacusana has been taken back off the practice roster where he had just landed and back onto the 46-man. Whatever the case, here's hoping (along with everybody else) Vaillancourt has a very fine game as OL starter.

[Blitz]

This is a game that our Leos should win. It pits an average Leos offence so far this season against the CFL's worst defense. |t also is a game in which our Leos defense, which has also been average this season so far, against one of the CFL's worst defenses.

Shockingly, this game also pits the CFL's worst punt return team (our Leos, which is a shock with Chris Rainey as our return man) against the second worst punt return team in the CFL (the Riders). So its average vs. ineptitude.

One of the big reasons for our Leos struggles at times on offence so far this year has been our poor pass protection. We've given up the most sacks in the CFL and Lulay has uncharacteristically thrown a lot of interceptions, even though he has played well overall.

The Olifioye trade for Facault was dum but starting Facault at left guard to begin the season was even dummer. Wally could have moved Fabian to left guard for 2017. Fabian started at left guard for us in 2015 and paved the way for Vailencourt, who has always been a right side lineman to start at right guard. But Wally wanted to give Facault every opportunity to be a starter and make his trade look good. It didn't work.

Vaillencourt will have to adjust to being a left side offensive lineman. Its much tougher to switch sides than switch from tackle to guard on the same side, although both have their challenges. Vaillencourt has had to change his stance, his punch hand, and all his footwork. But hopefully he will play well. He deserves this opportunity.

Chris Williams will dress and add to our crew of International receivers. Thankfully it will not be at the expense of Nick Moore, who ranks 19th in CFL receiving, right behind Bryan Burnham, who ranks 9th in CFL receiving. Burnham and Arseneaux have both been targeted 44 times this season so far whereas we've thrown to Moore 31 times Yet we've been most successful throwing to Moore.

Our passing attack, which only ranks 4th in the CFL will be better if we become less Manny/Burnham centric and throw to Moore more often and add Williams to the mix.

We also need to get back to running the football more often. We're only 4th in CFL rushing and we're a much better offence when we have better balance.

It may have been dum to trade Olifioye and dummer to start Facault to begin 2017 but the craziness so far this season has been on defence.

It all began when we decided that Dequin Evans would be our answer at rush end and signed him as a free agent. The craziness has continued unabated since training camp and continues to this day. First we decided to go with Thompson over Parker at corner, when Thompson is not a natural corner. Then we move Purifoy to safety and booted Clarke to the practice roster. Purifoy had never played safety, except for an occasional Cover 2 formation and was an excellent nickel back - all to play Fenner at nickel.

During games, when we had an injury, we then shuffled Fenner to halfback and Purifoy back to nickel back, amongst numerous other changes to the secondary.

Now, with Lee hurt, we could move Purifoy back to nickel, move Fenner into Lee's spot, where Fenner played last year, and have Clarke play safety, where he practiced all of training camp and was designated as our starting safety for 2017, until the last minute change to Purifoy playing there.

Now, we've moved Thompson to safety, Clarke to field corner, and Purifoy to boundary halfback, a position that is tough and where he has never played before. What happens when Lee returns? Where does Purifoy play when Lee returns. I guess we will move Purifoy back to safety or bench him. What happens to Thompson? Do we move him back to corner, where he has struggled and bench Clarke again? It seems as if the Mad Hatter is running things on defense.

I'm happy to see Shirley at defensive end but why insert Turner back to starting tackle. Forde has been great as a starter and Luke has looked solid in rotation. None of this makes sense to me nor does it make sense for us to be starting Burnett, when Awe was excellent in his only start at linebacker.

But then again, having the worst punt return average, with the electric Chris Rainey as our return man, doesn't make sense either.

Even still, we should win this game. But the powers that be are not setting up our Leos to be a team that can beat the Stamps and Eskimos ....and that is what we should be doing.

[CardiacKid]

I would say vent that bad air onto the Rider sideline but they already create their own pollutants.......cause they stink!

Hey, that's my section.

Maybe the happier "accident" would be for that vented air to somehow be rerouted into the visitors dressing room instead along sidelines. You know, kind of like the "accident" that happened last week at Mosiac where the AC "broke" in the Argos dressing room.
Was Rod Pedersen seen in the vicinity with a tool kit? May have to ask him to confirm his whereabouts......

Regardless if the roof is open or closed, I am bringing a fan...no pun intended.

[SammyGreene]

It may have been dum to trade Olifioye and dummer to start Facault to begin 2017 but the craziness so far this season has been on defence.

It all began when we decided that Dequin Evans would be our answer at rush end and signed him as a free agent. The craziness has continued unabated since training camp and continues to this day. First we decided to go with Thompson over Parker at corner, when Thompson is not a natural corner. Then we move Purifoy to safety and booted Clarke to the practice roster. Purifoy had never played safety, except for an occasional Cover 2 formation and was an excellent nickel back - all to play Fenner at nickel.

During games, when we had an injury, we then shuffled Fenner to halfback and Purifoy back to nickel back, amongst numerous other changes to the secondary.

Now, with Lee hurt, we could move Purifoy back to nickel, move Fenner into Lee's spot, where Fenner played last year, and have Clarke play safety, where he practiced all of training camp and was designated as our starting safety for 2017, until the last minute change to Purifoy playing there.

Now, we've moved Thompson to safety, Clarke to field corner, and Purifoy to boundary halfback, a position that is tough and where he has never played before. What happens when Lee returns? Where does Purifoy play when Lee returns. I guess we will move Purifoy back to safety or bench him. What happens to Thompson? Do we move him back to corner, where he has struggled and bench Clarke again? It seems as if the Mad Hatter is running things on defense.

I'm happy to see Shirley at defensive end but why insert Turner back to starting tackle. Forde has been great as a starter and Luke has looked solid in rotation. None of this makes sense to me nor does it make sense for us to be starting Burnett, when Awe was excellent in his only start at linebacker.

But then again, having the worst punt return average, with the electric Chris Rainey as our return man, doesn't make sense either.

Even still, we should win this game. But the powers that be are not setting up our Leos to be a team that can beat the Stamps and Eskimos ....and that is what we should be doing.

Thank you Blitz. Another fantastic post and a voice of reason.

I admire the immense hours CFL coaches pour into their jobs. No easy task. That said, I don't no what the hell Mark Washington is doing and I am rapidly losing faith in him as a defensive coordinator.

First off, it's somewhat sad the Lions can make some of these drastic changes and most of the fans hardly notice. The exception is this wonderful site and perhaps the media diehards such as LU, Farhan and Chris Burns on 3rd Down Radio. Can you imagine the outcry in Seattle if suddenly Kam Chancellor was playing safety one week then corner the next? Or Richard Sherman was moved to safety as the defence was getting shreaded by elite teams?

Washington suddenly has no clue what to do with Purifoy. His ball instincts and closing speed are his greatest strengths and they were on full display in last year's West Semi-Final win when he was the Lions best defensive player on the field. I actually understood using those instincts at safety but not boundary halfback.

As you said Blitz, everything could look fine today against a second tier team in the Riders but no way this defence looks capable of slowing down Mitchell and the Stamps in 2 weeks, the same way Reilly and the Eskimos enjoyed tremendous success.

[David]

I agree Blitz. The changes to the secondary look really clunky and not well thought through. Maybe they wanted a more physical halfback to go against Duron Carter? But the fact that Purifoy hasn't lined up at halfback makes me very nervous. Also, Steven Clarke showed really good closing speed at safety and unloaded a big hit in the Rider preseason game here. So why move him from safety?

At least we'll see Josh "Don't Call Me Shirley! - Okay, Whatever You Say" Shirley at defensive end, which could pay dividends. I suspect he hasn't been given ample opportunity to show his talents this year. I also agree with flipping Fabien and Vaillancourt to their more natural positions. Charles played the right side at Laval.


DH

[CardiacKid]

Bumped into Denis Guevin on the ferry heading over to today's game. He happened to be handing out business cards that used his picture and info from his Mohawk card from the 80s.
It put me in mind of just how much players have gotten bigger since his days in a Lions uni.
He was listed as 6'5 and 275 pounds; certainly a big fella for his day and probably bigger specs than most of his predecessors. But today I expect that he would be considered undersized.
Makes me wonder if the physical size of players will ever plateau.

[WestCoastJoe]

Excellent post, Blitz. Amazing detail, as always.

Mark W is not keeping it simple with his personnel, especially in the secondary.

Some questions for this game:

* Will we get pressure on Kevin Glenn? We had better. I still recall the shock of him hitting Marquay McDaniel on the first play from scrimmage in a playoff loss to Calgary.

* Will our re-worked secondary look cohesive?

* Will we be able to spring Chris Rainey? This is a head shaker. IMO he is the best return man in the game, and we have not been able to create gaps for him.

* Will we be able to protect Travis Lulay?

* Will we be able to create holes for Jeremiah Johnson?
...............

This CFL fan gets the impression that the Riders may be coming to life. They might give us a game.

[CardiacKid]

Moved this post over from the Edmonton game thread....seemed more applicable. Just sharing my worries about a talented secondary being "unsettled"...

Davis Sanchez was singing the praises of our Secondary at the start of the season but that was before this policy of on-field Tim Horton's Coffee Cup Shuffle was instituted.

I think someone needs to remind the Leo's brain trust of the existence of the principle of Occam's Razor, the problem-solving principle that states that among competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. Namely, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable.

Or put in another way, play Purifoy at nickel and Fenner at halfback.

Seems a hell of a lot simpler and less prone to breakdown and miscommunication seeing as these 2 very good players are experienced at playing those respective positions.

Just sayin'.......

[Gridiron Ernie]

Enjoying everybody's posts (as per usual)-- from the insightful dissections to the up-to-date general intel to the clever humour -- nothing better for pre-game tension than some good ol' laughing out loud...
And to further pique our appetite, given the advent of Chris Williams later (within the hour as I write!), here's that link that the Lions website rolled out a couple months back, regards the two Chrises who I like to imagine will spell CRISES for the opposition ongoing. Wow!
https://www.bclions.com/2017/06/09/best ... e-fastest/

[CardiacKid]

Maybe deserving of a separate thread but BC Place really needs to get their sh*t together with this bag inspection. They are all over the map and it is pissing us OFF!
We come from the island and as such usually have a very small overnight bag. Now it is too frigging big! After how many goddamn years of coming to games it was okay but no longer?
If we can't bring a bag with a mere handful of stuff (toothbrush and undies) for overnight, we will screw being ST holders.
We are frigging pissed!

[Blitz]

Really enjoyed reading your posts Sammy and David.

You are so right on Sammy and you make a great point that if the Seahawks attempted to do the same with their secondary as we're doing with ours the outcry would be heard loud and far.

First off, it's somewhat sad the Lions can make some of these drastic changes and most of the fans hardly notice. The exception is this wonderful site and perhaps the media diehards such as LU, Farhan and Chris Burns on 3rd Down Radio. Can you imagine the outcry in Seattle if suddenly Kam Chancellor was playing safety one week then corner the next? Or Richard Sherman was moved to safety as the defence was getting shreaded by elite teams?

Washington suddenly has no clue what to do with Purifoy. His ball instincts and closing speed are his greatest strengths and they were on full display in last year's West Semi-Final win when he was the Lions best defensive player on the field. I actually understood using those instincts at safety but not boundary halfback.

Like you David I just can't understand flipping Purifoy to halfback now. He started training camp as our nickel back, where he played so well last season, was then moved to safety at the end of training camp, and now he is a boundary halfback. We're taking an outstanding nickel back and moving him around willy-nilly and he will not end this season at boundary half so why do it?

My best friend, whose name was Tom, died tragically in a motorcycle accident two years ago. I remember fondly many of his favorite sayings. One of them was "Everyone is crazy out there except you and me" and then he would say "And I'm starting to wonder about you!" and laugh his head off.

I did say to Tom once, "If you ever really think I'm crazy please tell me. The reason was this:

People who are crazy don't know they are crazy. They think they are behaving normally. When Wally has punted on the opposition 32 yard line in the past, no one said he was crazy. Most just said he was conservative.

What Washington and Buono are doing on defense is crazy but they don't think it is. They justify it to themselves and the media as 'putting their best athletes on the field". That may be a normal concept but what is happening and what has happened since training camp is crazy. Making wholesale changes to a secondary within a game, to replace one player, is not sensible or common sense at all. It almost smacks of desperation but we are not desperate. Our coaching staff is at least misguided if not crazy but when you are in the goldfish bowl, you can't see clearly.

Worst of all, is that with the exceptions of some Lionbackers and Farhan and LU, no one questions the legend of Wally and 'he knows best". Thankfully there are a few who can take a critical or at least a questioning view of what is happening.

[TheLionKing]

Good looking drive to open the game

[TheLionKing]

Big sack by Roh

[almo89]

Lulays passes got some zip to it.