Calgary 21 - BC 17, Post-game Stats and Comments

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David
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Yes, I agree B.C.FAN. Even with under 21,000, the building was full of energy. While I won't say the noise was disruptive for the Calgary offense, it definitely was enough to pump up the defense and let the Stamps know it was a road game.

I have to say though, Alex Singleton is an a$$ clown. Great ball player but way too into mugging for the cameras (that may or may not be on him). Kept hot dogging it every time a play was made. Late in the 4th on the Morgan tip that got picked (and then overturned), he (mockingly) did the Manny march, but kept doing it for a good 20 seconds and pointing to the crowd. What an idiot. Apparently he and Moore had quite the exchange after the game for this very reason; he's got a big mouth (for the record, Nick Moore is not someone you want to eff with; he holds a black belt in karate).


DH :cool:
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Dusty
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David wrote:
Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:36 am

I have to say though, Alex Singleton is an a$$ clown. Great ball player but way too into mugging for the cameras (that may or may not be on him). Kept hot dogging it every time a play was made. Late in the 4th on the Morgan tip that got picked (and then overturned), he (mockingly) did the Manny march, but kept doing it for a good 20 seconds and pointing to the crowd. What an idiot. Apparently he and Moore had quite the exchange after the game for this very reason; he's got a big mouth (for the record, Nick Moore is not someone you want to eff with; he holds a black belt in karate).
I wasn't impressed with his after-tackle yanking on the ankle/leg which he did on almost every tackle he was involved with. Great way to inflict an injury. No class!
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CardiacKid
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IMO Manny has a bigger impact when he gets to dish out punishment on defenders. So incorporate a play where Singleton is in the trail position against JJ24 going underneath, Manny is is cutting back against the flow and he lays the lumber into an unsuspecting Sh*t Petal....sorry Singleton.

I doubt there will tears shed.
Last edited by CardiacKid on Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
TheLionKing
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Not impressed with Jennings' time management in the final minute of the game. Wasted a lot of time reading the defence and then throws a dinky pass. And what's this going to a shotgun formation on 3rd and short ??
Blitz
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Chris Rainey’s knee touched down just before the Calgary 25-yard line. It was a third down play, with the clock winding down and we needed to cross the 25-yard marker. Video review moved the football ahead but it was still short. Fans had either stood or sat on the edge of their seats for that final drive.

But the last-minute touchdown drive that Leos fans were hoping for was not to be. Calgary took over the football, with a few seconds left, took a couple of knees, and our Leos had lost another game to a Western opponent.

There were many themes going into this game. One of them was that we were playing the Calgary Stampeders, the team we lost the WDF to last season, the team that has mostly owned us since Hufnagel arrived there, the team that Dave Dickenson now coaches, and the team that is our measuring stick.

As Buono and Dickenson touched hands for the post game hand shake, neither looked at each other. I was not surprised. Dave Dickenson is a proud man. He says the right things in public but Dickenson’s entire demeanor is different when he plays our Leos.

He seems wound up, much more easily upset, and fiery on the sidelines when he coaches against our Leos. I’m sure he remembers well the time that Buono publicly criticized his play. Dickenson’s public response back was “I don’t play for Wally Buono. I play for my teammates”. Dickenson became a successful pro quarterback despite his diminutive size because he was tough as hell. He was mentally tough and courageous and not one to take something lying down, not even from Buono, who is accustomed to players taking it lying down.

Dickenson also likely also remembers well that he was pulled for Casey Printers, in the last few minutes of the WDF in 2005, rather than being given the opportunity to mount a potential comeback. He remembers Buono offering Printers a big contract at the end of 2005 to become our starting quarterback and was upset that Buono had not even talked to him. Dickenson was also upset about being pulled at times in the 2006 Grey Cup game, while Buck Pierce was inserted to play some series and felt it had hurt offensive momentum.

Dickenson also likley remembers being released by Buono at the end of 2007. Dickenson is a proud man. He was especially intense and tense in this contest, as he was playing our Leos. Dickenson, now in his second season, has defeated Buono 4 of the last 5 times these teams have played.

That neither Dickenson or Buono even looked at each other, post-game handshake, as well as Dickenson’s demeanor when he plays our Leos indicated to me that there is still water under the bridge.

These two teams are considered by many as the two most talented teams in the CFL. They were the two best teams of 2016.A number of football analysts predicted our Leos would win the Grey Cup this season. This game was considered a contest of two heavy weights.

It was a heavy weight battle as both teams slugged it out. I believed our Leos would come out and fight hard but would likely lose. I believed that Calgary had the superior coaching for this contest and they did and that it would be the determining factor.

Another theme going into this game was how our Leos would respond after a brutal loss in Saskatchewan. How would we respond? What would our motivational level be. There was also an intense discussion during this week on Lionbackers as to whether coaches have a responsibility to motivate players or whether motivation is a player responsibility only.

There is no question that our Leos players were motivated. They played with intensity but, at times, not with a lot of confidence. In terms of the question of motivational responsibility that was discussed in depth this week, there is no question that Buono at least behaves as if motivation is his responsibility. In a recent article by Ed Willes, the sports columnist relayed for his reader what he appeared to see as a wonderful story.

It recounted the return of Shaq Murray Lawrence, who had a concussion in training camp and was released the week following. At Murray-Lawrence’s first practice upon his return, Buono asked Murray Lawrence to stand before his teammates and tell them how much he had missed football and how fortunate he felt wearing a Leos uniform again.
On his first day back at practice, head coach Wally Buono asked Murray-Lawrence to address his teammates. “Wally had me stand up and … tell the team what it felt like to not have football,” he said. “Especially when Wally and all the guys know it means so much to me...."
What a motivational strategy! Take a player who was hurt, release him, (he should have been paid and placed on the injury list) and then when you need him again, have him tell his teammates how lucky he is. My guess is that Buono wanted to put a little fear into them as a motivational strategy.

So just imagine you get hurt at work, your boss fires you, then the boss needs you again so he asks you back to work and on your first day back, he asks you to stand in front of all your colleagues and tell them how lucky you are to have your job back. Kinda humiliating eh and both Willes and Buono think this is a wonderful thing. Mind boggling!

If only our coaching staff had been as motivated to come up with a game plan that would defeat the Stamps as much as our players were motivated to battle this game out, we would have won. The opportunity was there.

Our Leos are not a well-coached football team and the many mistakes our Leos made in this game were a powerful example. I also expected the Stamps to pre-scout us well and they did while we would not do the same. With a couple of exceptions, we did the same old, as we always do.

On the opening kickoff, the Stamps Roy Finch returned it 47 yards. Special teams are often a strong reflection of solid coaching. Our special teams play this season, outside of Long’s play, have been more than disappointing. Wally is very involved with no benefit.

Once again, we had a punt blocked and almost two others were close as the Stamps exploited our weaknesses. Foley was late getting onto the field on one play, after his poor block had contributed to the first blocked punt. Why Foley has been inserted as an upback on the punt team is beyond me and is a mistake.

Towards the end of the game, Chris Rainey, pinned down on a punt, as he has been all game, finally showed emotion as he disgustedly threw the football towards the sidelines, after being tackled. It’s been a frustrating year for Rainey as a returner and having Buono coaching the punt return game is a bigger disaster than having him ‘mentor Chap’ as he once said he was doing.

Heck, Lulay had to explain to Buono, during this game, that an incomplete pass was the fault of the receiver and not Jennings. Buono would have no clue. He doesn’t understand the offence, other than it’s the football bible given to him by John Hufnagel in the 90’s and like the good book itself, Buono believes that playbook is timeless.

Defensively, our Leos mostly rushed four, while mixing in some three-man rushes and dropping off a defensive end, along with some blitzes while mostly playing zone. Calgary set up our defense on the first play of the game, when Dickenson had Bo Levi fake to Messam and bootleg outside. Dickenson knew what coverage we would be in and Calgary new receiver Michel was wide open for a touchdown but dropped the football.

We got decent pressure on Bo Levi for most of the game and had good coverage on most plays. We have a lot of outstanding athletes in our secondary as well as an outstanding linebacker in Sol E. and an imposing nickel in Chandler Fenner. Bo Levi had one of his worst games as a pro and was ‘off’ on many throws after the Stamps bye week. He also had some drops.

Bo Levi Mitchell was 6/19 in the first half for 106 yards and finished the game completing only 48% of his passes for 237 yards. Jonathan Jennings outdueled him with a 68.4% completion average and 240 yds. Calgary was ripe for the picking. But our offence was not able to take advantage. Why not?

There were many reasons. In the first half, Jennings looked tenuous and understandably so after his four interceptions last week, three of which he should not have thrown. Both Jennings and Bo Levi Mitchell threw one interception this game that they could be faulted on. Jennings had a second interception that went through Jeremiah Johnson’s hands and into a defender, eerily similar to the interception that went through Chris Williams hands last week.

But while Jennings was tenuous in the first half, he tried to take the game on his back in the second half. Calgary, in the first half, blanketed our receivers, who often ran wrong patterns (something Buono said at half time after the fact was pointed out to him by Lulay). Our offensive line was once again porous at times. Jennings stopped trying to set up in the pocket in the second half. If his first read was not open he ran outside the pocket, either trying to buy time for his receivers or he used his legs.

Khari Jones added three plays that I’ve been hoping for. He ran a fly sweep with Chris Williams. He put both Rainey and Johnson in the game at the same time, for our first touchdown, using a misdirection play, and he used Rainey on a screen pass. But mostly it was same old and Calgary’s defense was well prepared.

In order to beat the Stamps defense, you must have a balanced offence. We gave Jeremiah Johnson 5 carries for 11 yds. and Chris Rainey 1 carry for 3 yds. Our tailbacks ran for a grand total of 14 yards in this game. That was stupid. Jonathan Jennings was our leading rusher by a wide margin.

Calgary ran the football much more often, with their passing game struggling and that was wise.
Secondly, our offensive line is simply not good enough. Vaillencourt has shored up the left guard spot somewhat but we are so deficient at the tackle position that Buono inserted the injured Hunter Steward into the game in the 4th quarter to pull this one out. Antonio Johnson was awful as was Kevin Palmer.

Going into this season, our two most important needs were to shore up the right tackle position and to find a rush end. We did neither. Instead Buono spent money on dubious free agents, leading him to trade Olifioye, who would have solved our problems at right tackle while Steward shifted back to left tackle. It’s a mistake that grows more and more obvious each game.

Finally, the Stamps have our offence figured out. They had it figured out by the third game of last season and they certainly had it figured out by the WDF.

Buono, following the game, said “I expected more out of the offence and we didn’t get it tonight.”

Why would Buono think that? We were missing both Bryan Burnham and Nick Moore. We had Antonio Johnson playing left tackle most of the game. And worst of all, we never offered up hardly anything on offence, other than a couple of plays, that were any different than what we’ve offered up the last two times we’ve played the Stamps.
“Calgary had a good scheme,” said Jennings, who was without starting receivers Bryan Burnham and Nick Moore. “We just couldn’t get anything going. We got moving a bit in the second half but we had an opportunity to win this one. There were too many critical mistakes.”
One would think, that after our offensive scheme was essentially shut down by Calgary in the last two outings last year, including being humiliated in the WDF last year, we would scheme differently but nope, we didn’t.

Buono’s last sentence of his half time interview was “We gotta execute better”. Now when have we heard that before. Say something enough times and it’s a form of brain washing.
“If we want our horns to toot
We just gotta EXECECUTE”
The opposition - we really don’t give a hoot
Its just our scheme we gotta EXECUTE
I found myself feeling upset going into this game, following reading an article by Ed Willes that put way too much pressure on Jonathan Jennings and promoted the theme so often spouted by Buono – that all the responsibility is on the player or player.

Willes wrote this before the game:
Now there are questions about Jennings’ ability to lead. Those questions will persist until Jennings provides some answers — and that makes this Friday’s home game against Calgary crucial for the player and the club.
Willes concluded his article, which posed as sports journalism but looked more like he was hoping for a Sunday invite for an Italian dinner at Buono’s house with:
Jennings is a quality quarterback and a high-character kid who’s built up a store of goodwill in this town. He just happened to spend a lot of that goodwill in Saskatchewan.
What about Buono’s ill preparation for the Riders game, which was followed by this game in which there was a lot of offensive ineptitude and not just by our quarterback? Where was the so called good will that Buono has built upon his return as Head Coach lost in Regina? So unfair!!

I would not be surprised to see Lulay get the next start. Wally didn’t unpin himself from the cross and the cherry picker to be 5-4 at this stage of the season and losing to the Eskimos, Riders, and Stamps so far, this season.

Buono’s teams were 8-10 for two seasons in a row and lost its first 5 games of 2011 and were 1-6 before he made some personnel changes (e.g.: Andrew Harris, Arland Bruce) that led to our magical 2011 ride and Buono’s retirement. But the issues that had led many fans and even some of the sports media to begin to want him to step aside as Head Coach were not eliminated by that 2011 season and are still evident.

Those issues included a predictable, stale offensive scheme, a conservative defensive philosophy, and too many mistakes that reflect deficient coaching. For example, in this game, our defensive backs displayed excellent pass coverage skills overall. However, once again, we got beaten by big plays that had an appearance of coverage confusion rather than coverage ability.

For example, Anthony Parker got behind coverage for a 51-yard gain. Stephen Clarke let him go by him, assuming that Gaitor would cover the deep outside. But the slot receiver to that side also ran a deep pattern and both Gaitor and Thompson covered him. Clarke tried to recover but by that time Parker was too far behind him.

Opposing offences consistently beat us deep and most often it’s a defensive scheme problem. Same goes for opposing offences who use their tailback as a receiver in the flat, as the Bombers do with Andrew Harris. They know we drop Sol E. off to cover inside and therefore, if they run the outside receiver off our cornerback, there is no one to cover the flat area and Sol E. has a long way to go to get there.

I watched Lulay on the sidelines with his tablet at the conclusion of every series, with Jennings on one side and Khari Jones on the other and it was Lulay who was analyzing the Calgary defense and pointing things out to both. It was Lulay explaining to Buono that our recievers patterns were the result of many pass play incompletions.

He seemed to know more about what was going on than his own offensive coordinator and Head Coach, whose lack of the use of a head set only adds to the issue because he doesn’t even know which play is being called beforehand.

Lulay played very well in his four-game stint and may be the best option right now at quarterback. But we also lost to the Eskimos with Lulay at quarterback and changing the starting quarterback will not solve the ills that ail us.

A change of quarterback will not shore up our right tackle position or get more heat on the opposing quarterback or pass block better or add some creativity to our offensive scheme. It won't help us run the football better against good defenses.

We had the opportunity to be able to have no offensive line weaknesses in the off-season but other than the signing of Chris Williams, our free agent signings have not really helped us, did not get us the rush end we needed, and hurt our offensive line.

Calgary lost their best offensive lineman last season, tackle Derrick Dennis, and have moved Spencer Wilson to left tackle. They have an excellent offensive line made up of five Nationals and they have a National tailback. They have all kinds of ratio options.

On defense, they drafted Alex Singleton with the 6th choice of the 2016 draft and he is their starting middle linebacker and has been since part way through last season. Imagine him playing Bighills's spot. In fact, while he is a bit of a hot dog, right now I believe he is the best linebacker in the league even better than Sol E.

Hufnagel gets things right a heck of a lot more often than Buono and in Dickenson he has a better coach than Buono.

Right now, as I look across the league, its mostly newer Head Coaches that are getting it done. Yes Trestmann is back in the CFL in Toronto but its Jason Maas, Dave Dickenson, Jacques Chapdelaine, Mike O’Shea, and Rich Campbell who won a Grey Cup in his second season who are emerging while coaches like Kent Austin, Wally Buono, and Chris Jones who are not getting the most out of their talent because, in their differing styles, they tend to be rigid, authoritarian, one man show types.

Here are my thoughts on the good, bad, and ugly of this game.

THE GOOD

On offence Manny is still being affected by his knee brace and does not have his old speed or the ability to break tackles or run over people like old. But he had 10 receptions for 89 yards and is playing with heart.
Chris Rainey, who we don’t utilize in the best of ways (heck Calgary runs Messam on sweeps but we never use Rainey’s speed outside in the running attack) had 5 receptions for 47 yards.

Chris Rainey, shut down most of the season in the punt return game, also made a key return late in the game to set up our final drive. One of the few times he had even a crack of daylight, he made the most out of it with an outstanding run. Its such a shame that we have almost no clue as to how to use his tremendous talent. Willie Fleming, if watching a game, would have to be shaking his head.

Jonathan Jennings, in the second half, tried to take a completely ineffective scheme and game plan, poor pass blocking, and route running mistakes and made plays with his legs, to either buy time or run the football. Jennings was our leading rusher in the contest.

Shaq Johnson had a key 28 yard reception that led to our first touchdown. He found the open area in the Calgary zone and Jennings threw a purrfect pass over coverage to get him the football. Jennings threw more confidently after this play. Shaq seems to be underutilized, based upon his speed.

On defense Craig Roh continues to lead us in sacks and his takedown of Bo Levi being called a horse collar was unfortunate. The penalty would lead to a Calgary field goal.

Maxx Forde only had one tackle but had good penetration many times and we play better with him as our starting tackle

Ty |Long had a 48.9 yard average in this game and his punting continues to both improve and impress. He was successful on his only field goal attempt.

Louchez Purifoy had an outstanding game. He had an interception, he had pass knockdowns, his coverage was good, he was aggressive, and he made a devastating hit on Messam. Purifoy is a very tough player.
Sol E, once again led us in tackles and played his usual inspired game.

THE BAD

Once again poor game management by Wally was evident. Wally turned down a third and one when the odds of making a third and one are so much in the offences favor. He also was responsible, along with Khari Jones for not getting a play in fast enough in the final minute and wasted so much unnecessary time. Its been a theme for so long.

Jeremiah Johnson had a football go off both hands for an interception. The ball was a bit behind him but its still a catch he should have made.

Both Louchez Purifoy and Anthony Thompson had shots for interceptions and dropped them. Purifoy could have taken his all the way.

Calgary uncharacteristically took a lot of penalties but still we couldn’t take full advantage, along with an uncharacteristic Bo Levi mediocre game.

Ty Long missed a convert attempt that, had he hit it, we would have been kicking for a game tying field goal on our final drive.

The UGLY

There were some ugly plays in this game.

The entire first 27 minutes of the game were ugly offensively.

Our Leos gave up a 47-yard kickoff return to begin the game. Not a way to start a game on your home turf.
Ricky Foley, now being used as an upback blocker for some obscure reason, missed a block that led to a Calary blocked punt and was late coming into his position a second time.

Our offensive passing attack went 6-of-11 for 56 puny yards over the first 27 minutes as our offence was completely unprepared for Calgary’s defense.

Even though we benefited in this game with a roughing-the-kicker call on Ty Long, a video review which overturned an apparent Stamps’ interception an interception from Purifoy, and a roughing-the-passer call on Jennings we couldn’t sustain any momentum.

We didn’t’ score in the fourth quarter, when the game was there to be won. When we needed offensive adjustments, they were non-existent.

WRAP
Our Leos, at this moment, are fighting for a playoff spot and are not setting the CFL on fire and that is no understatement. We have a lot of issues.

Wally, right now is not the savior some fans expected him to be or he expected to be. Perhaps the best thing that could happen right now is the hiring of a knowledgeable football consultant who could sit in a cherry picker overseeing Buono at practice. Now that would be something to observe.

We gotta get better and that is not just having our players EXECUTE better or blaming our quarterbacks (both Lulay and Jennings have been blamed by Wally for not getting the football out fast enough rather than him getting Dorazio to get his offensive line to improve the pass blocking or Khari Jones to dial up some different plays.

We can't continue with:
The opposition? We don't give a hoot
We just gotta EXECUTE
If we want to our horns to toot
We just gotta EXECUTE
If we want to start winning again....it has to begin with one person and he is not a player.
"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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Bosco
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TheLionKing wrote:
Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:16 am
Not impressed with Jennings' time management in the final minute of the game. Wasted a lot of time reading the defence and then throws a dinky pass. And what's this going to a shotgun formation on 3rd and short ??
Also....if you need 4 yards on 3rd down, you better make sure you run at least a 5 yard pass pattern. :bang:

The game was there for the taking, in spite of the Lions recording only 5 yards of net offense in the 1st quarter. Bo Levi Mitchell played perhaps his worst game in the last three years, yet the Lions couldn't take advantage. *(sigh*).

* No running game (Johnson with 11 yards rushing)
* No sustained pressure on Mitchell
* Large holes in the passing game without Burnham & Moore.
* On the plus side - gutsy effort by Manny (10 catches). :beauty:
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cromartie
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TheLionKing wrote:
Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:01 am
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
The hair is considered part of the uniform, both in the CFL and the NFL.
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cromartie
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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.
Well that speaks to either scheme or pass rush then, doesn't it?
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CardiacKid
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cromartie wrote:
Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:34 am
TheLionKing wrote:
Sat Aug 19, 2017 1:01 am
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
The hair is considered part of the uniform, both in the CFL and the NFL.
Did the Leo at least keep the dread?
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Good read, Blitz. I tend not to be as hard on Wally as you but there's always lots of criticism to go around after a loss.

I'd like to clarify the timing of the release and re-signing of Shaq Murray-Lawrence. He had a good opening week of training camp and looked like the player many people had expected when he suffered concussion symptoms and sat out beginning June 3. He missed the first preseason game but was added to the roster for the second game on June 16, although he didn't get any touches. He was added to the 46-man roster for the regular-season opener on June 24 but was a game-day scratch.

He was then released on June 29 before being signed to the practice roster on July 31 and added to the 46-man roster on Aug. 4. He had 8 carries for 55 yards and a touchdown against Saskatchewan the following day.

His concussion obviously limited his opportunity to participate in the preseason but he was considered healthy enough to be added to the roster for a few weeks before being released. I was touched by his gratefulness at being re-signed and by Wally's decision to have him address his teammates on what it meant to get a second chance to play the game he loves. Wally has a reputation for making tough personnel decisions but he also receives a lot of respect from past players for his honesty and his concern for their well-being.
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This is a game where I think you can put some blame on the coaching, as I did not like our game plan at all. It also highlighted the two biggest problem areas on our team: offensive line and defensive line.

Firstly, I did not like our game plan on offense. Something wrong when Jennings completes 11 more passes than Mitchell but only has 3 more passing yards. We threw deep once all game, and IIRC that came in the 4th quarter on a second and long. The rest of the game we were throwing short/intermediate passes. I'm not sure how much of this is on Khari and the game plan, or how much is on Jennings for not feeling confident enough to throw down field, but something is wrong and what we did yesterday did not work. When we had Lulay in at QB in previous games we were stretching the field and mixing up our passes and it worked very well.

I also did not like our lack of a running game. Chock it up to problems on the O-line too, but JJ got the ball 5 times. Not including Jennings run plays, we ran the ball 7 times this game. So much for that balanced offensive attack.

On defense I notice we continue to sit back way too much, leaving receivers open and then trying to make the tackle once they've caught the ball. In contract, I notice Calgary preferred to play more press coverage leaving very little space between their DB's and our receivers. I think we're way too conservative and seem willing to give up the short/intermediary catches in trying to avoid giving up the big play (which we end up doing anyway due to breakdowns). Our secondary is a bit of a mess still. This game easily could have been a huge blowout if Mitchell were on his game, right from the second play of the game which should have been a Calgary TD if not for a drop.

I did notice that Mitchell was grabbing his shoulder on the sidelines, and talking to one of the trainers. There might be a slight issue there for him, which makes sense with how average he looked last night. His receivers also had some drops which didn't help them, or else it could have been ugly.

Our D-line gets almost no pressure on the QB. Another game with 0 sacks. We're simply not good enough. Our O-Line gives up way too much pressure. Somehow only gave up 2 sacks, and doesn't get enough push for our running backs. Somehow Dorazio who wasn't good enough for a lousy Saskatchewan team, got re-hired here. Buono being loyal to one of his buddies is probably my biggest criticism of him.


Overall I think we're seeing what we are. We aren't one of the elite teams in the league, but there could be a silver lining to this. With the way Winnipeg is playing I don't see us catching them, and barring catastrophic injuries to one or both Alberta teams I believe we'll end up finishing in 4th. I looked at the schedule and could see us finishing anywhere from 9-9 to 11-7, which likely means a crossover to the East. May not be such a bad thing? At least we'll make it to the Grey Cup before getting slaughtered.
Roar you Lions roar!
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In my view, it is much more difficult to make it to the cup through the crossover than by finishing 3rd. Mainly because when you finish 4th, you are not very good. It is always better to play well enough to finish 3rd and try to win a couple of upsets than finish 4th and face the travel.

This game even more than the Sask game showed the deficiencies of this team. If we had played Sask, we would have been slaughtered again. We only hung in to the end because the opposition was weak, notwithstanding that it was Calgary.

The way Morgan was ignored for most of the game was foolish. We could have played Vandervoort in his spot and used the extra international elsewhere. If Morgan isn't good enough, don't play him.

JJ24 needs to be a bigger part of the offense, either rushing the ball or catching it out of the backfield, especially when we are already missing two key receivers and Arseneaux is hobbled.

Can't fault Jennings on the two interceptions, but he did make a number of other gaffes in the game. Not a great game, but better than the previous week.

Defense had its moments, but hard to tell how responsible they were for Mitchell's poor outing. I suspect that another team would have picked us apart. Clarke was burned on the two long plays. That wasn't coaching, it was just poor actions by the player. No amount of coaching can replace instincts.

When will Rainey break a long return?

A few dumb mistakes removed, and wd might have won, but it would only have masked an overall weak performance by what increasingly appears to be a mediocre team.
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David
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A little birdie told me that practice on Wednesday consisted of approx 80% special teams work - hardly any offense on a short week - with Wally running the special teams show. :popcorn:

Chris Williams was given some punt return reps but was not part of the main unit, and was not featured with Rainey.


DH :cool:
Roar, You Lions, Roar
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WestCoastJoe
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Some details on a disappointing game ....

Finch returns the opening kickoff for huge yardage.

First play from scrimmage. Our left end, Shirley I think, crashes inside, the right tackle of the Stampeders is ready for it. Shirley is trapped inside, as Mitchell rolls right into open space, looking downfield. In a well-prepared play, the receiver is wide open, heading for a touchdown, but drops the ball. It was that kind of night for the Stampeders, and for us.

We dodged a number of bullets, even took the lead at one point, and had a chance for victory at the end.


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John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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WestCoastJoe
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Some Rainey magic. He breaks a Stampeder ankle, beats two more men, and scores a TD. We are not taking advantage of his incredible skills.


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John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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