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Ugly game. Both teams sloppy. Details coming.

hate the 3 man rush.

Mathews ever do that?

JJ10 may have gotten over the nightmare of last game. He has some moxie. He was under huge pressure once again. He had to improvise, roll out, run the ball. He brought us close to victory. I cannot fault him.

We did not stop Messam. He did not kill us though. Sollie did a nice job. And I credit Sollie with class, showing empathy for Messam when he got injured. Very classy. This fan does not like to see hits around the knee. It was not a terrible hit, but it was low. Easy to understand not wanting to hit Messam any higher. LOL

Horrible first half for both teams.

We got some intensity back. Not exactly confidence however.

Manny had a good game for us. Missing Burnham and Moore. He has certainly lost some speed though, wearing a brace.

Rainey almost broke one.

Sollie had 10 tackles.

We had no sacks on Mitchell. Kind of sad.

Calgary had 2 sacks on Jennings, and huge pressure, hits and hurries.

Calgary was very sloppy. 15 penalties for 150 yards. They were there for a loss tonight.

Our STs were not good once again. Huge return given up to open the game.

Calgary dropped a sure TD pass on their first play from scrimmage. It could have been a runaway. But we had a chance to hang around, even took the lead for a bit.

We had one punt blocked and almost another.

The good news, we had some intensity back. JJ10 over the worst of the shock of last game.

The bad news, Calgay played their worst game in a long time, tons of penalties, BLM awful, Messam hurt, and they beat us in our stadium.

Back later ....

Is this an example of irony?

Jones appears on the big video screen during the 2nd half to give the "Chalk Talk" segment where he describes having a running attack that allows the OLine to push off but also complements the big play guys..... Essentially a balanced attack.

Anyone try to draw his attention to the video screen? He might have needed reminding.

In a game where the opposition quarterback's completion ratio is 48% and his efficiency rating is 60.8, well, it seems to me you'd expect to have won the contest. But, we lost the turnover battle 4--1. Elite teams can and will win ugly sometimes when necessary. That's Calgary. Not us. Hard truth to swallow, but, considering the Lions as a whole (players/coaches/etc) so far this season --- we're average.

Despite the loss, the guys played hard and with intensity. You have to give them that. The defence especially dug deep to keep the Stamps out of the end zone in the 1st half.
If the intensity wasn't there tonight, i would have been worried about this team's prospects this year.

CardiacKid wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:06 pm

Despite the loss, the guys played hard and with intensity. You have to give them that. The defence especially dug deep to keep the Stamps out of the end zone in the 1st half.
If the intensity wasn't there tonight, i would have been worried about this team's prospects this year.

Yup -- there was intensity, I'll give them that. But not always intelligent intensity. I'm thinking of certain penalties (a couple horse collars, etc). And, neither was there consistent skill and finesse displayed. I'm thinking of missed opportunities for turnovers (Purifoy and the would-be quick six comes to mind). Or, for that matter, running a pass pattern that was short of the necessary yardage to end (and lose) the game with a whimper. Indeed, they have potential -- great potential. But I really don't know about their prospects at this point, beyond hopefully having the chance to test their metal come post-season in a crossover to the East. To me -- IMO that's about where they're at. I'm hoping they prove me wrong.

CardiacKid wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:06 pm

Despite the loss, the guys played hard and with intensity. You have to give them that. The defence especially dug deep to keep the Stamps out of the end zone in the 1st half.
If the intensity wasn't there tonight, i would have been worried about this team's prospects this year.

Hmm, I would say more intensity than the Riders game, but no comparison to the Bombers vs the Esks last night. Sadly a Stamps team that played as poorly as they did tonight was still good enough to beat the Lions.

Simply a good team winning ugly and an average team finding a way not to win. Even sadder IMO is that the Stamps were able to do this on the road, a big slap in the face to Lion fans.

Still can't believe that Roh sack was penalized. I've watched the TSN recap video over and over and honestly can't see the horse collar; he does pull on the jersey, but not from under the jersey collar. One of the defining moments of the game, I think. Also Ty Long's missed convert that came back to bite us later.

Unfortunate penalties and "what if's" aside, we didn't play well - neither team did. There were mistakes everywhere. Offensive line seemed to protect Jennings better than last week, but he's still under too much pressure. He seemed to really lack confidence especially in the first half and barely threw anything passed 10 yards. Offensive play-calling was questionable when we needed the yards. 0 first downs and 5 yards passing in the first quarter was telling. Defence missed opportunities and didn't get enough consistent pressure on Mitchell (no sacks other than the would-have-been Roh one!). Ahh well, they did keep the game much closer than it could have been and they kept us in the game.

Gridiron Ernie wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:30 pm

CardiacKid wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 18, 2017 11:06 pm

Despite the loss, the guys played hard and with intensity. You have to give them that. The defence especially dug deep to keep the Stamps out of the end zone in the 1st half.
If the intensity wasn't there tonight, i would have been worried about this team's prospects this year.

Yup -- there was intensity, I'll give them that. But not always intelligent intensity. I'm thinking of certain penalties (a couple horse collars, etc). And, neither was there consistent skill and finesse displayed. I'm thinking of missed opportunities for turnovers (Purifoy and the would-be quick six comes to mind). Or, for that matter, running a pass pattern that was short of the necessary yardage to end (and lose) the game with a whimper. Indeed, they have potential -- great potential. But I really don't know about their prospects at this point, beyond hopefully having the chance to test their metal come post-season in a crossover to the East. To me -- IMO that's about where they're at. I'm hoping they prove me wrong.

After what happened in Regina, I was happy to see any form of intensity. Even unintelligent intensity. Gotta start somewhere......

Lions were horrible out of the starting gate. No first down in the 1st quarter and only 5 yards on offence. Calgary could have buried the Lions except they were a little rusty coming off the bye week.

A Calgary receiver was tackled by a Lion pulling on his hair. Happened right in front of the Calgary bench. Actually the Lion ripped one of the dreadlocks off. Apparently it is perfectly legal to tackle by pulling on the hair.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/ ... -1.1227743

My gut tells me that if Travis was in there tonight, we take the W. Protection looked to be decent most of the night but JJ is way too indecisive out there. Missing Burnham and Moore is huge and I don't think his receivers got much separation most of the time but just doesn't seem like the old JJ (even before he got hurt). Decision making becoming an issue for me, but I do like how he's using his legs more.

Hated Khari Jones's game plan tonight. With all the receivers hurt or hurting we needed MORE from the ground game, not less. Late in the 4th quarter needed 1 yard and threw on 2nd and 3rd down (luckily made it on 3rd down...).

We're still a dominant pass rusher and shut down offensive tackle away from competing with the top tier teams. Until that's fixed we're headed for :500-ish, 9-9 or 10-8 depending on injuries.


DH

The Stampeders were sloppy and beatable tonight and Mitchell completed less than 50% of his passes, but the Lions failed to take advantage. It was a missed opportunity to make a statement to the league and stay with the elite teams in the West. At the start of the game thread, I posted my three keys to the game:

1. Avoid turnovers (the Lions coughed up the ball 7 times last week. Calgary has a CFL-best turnover ratio of +9)

The Lions lost the turnover battle 4-1. Calgary scored 6 points off turnovers. The Lions scored none.

2. Win the line of scrimmage

It was a pretty even battle for the most part but Calgary outrushed B.C. 78 yards to 56. Defensively, Calgary was credited 2 sacks and 9 QB pressures. The Lions had no sacks, just 1 pressure (by Forde) and just 3 tackles by the defensive line.

3. Big plays (the Lions have given up a CFL-high 18 passes of over 30 yards and 27 big plays overall while making 23 big plays themselves, ranking third behind Ottawa and Calgary)

Calgary had 2 passes of 40 and 51 yards. The 51 yarder set up the winning touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter. The Lions completed no passes of 30 yards or more.

If the Lions had executed better in any of those areas they might have won the game. The defence played hard but turnovers and big plays killed them. Steven Clarke was a liability. Calgary followed the same formula they used to beat the Lions last year: They attacked the wide side of the field deep. The Lions knew that was their critical weakness last year and they changed personnel in the offseason and again in the early part of this season. Clarke, Anthony Gaitor and Anthony Thompson are playing the positions occupied last year by Brandon Stewart, Ryan Phillips and Mike Edem. The results are the same.

Jonathon Jennings played much better after a slow start but the offence was too one-dimensional with Bryan Burnham and Nick Moore out of the lineup. Jennings was locked on Manny Arceneaux all night. Arceneaux led the Lions with 10 catches for 89 yards but the longest was just 18 yards. Chris Williams had 7 catches for 44 yards but his longest was just 10 yards. The Lions got little from the other starting receivers. Shaq Johnson and Marco Iannuzzi had just 3 catches between them and Maurice Morgan had none. Morgan was a waste of a roster space. Jennings did not look at him until late in the game and then went 0 for 3, with a drop that was initially ruled an interception.

I loved the energy and noise from the crowd tonight. The fans were in it and willing the team to victory. It was a fun game. The fans deserved a better result. The players put in a good effort but it was not enough to win.