Eskimos @ Lions, Game Day Thread, October 21, 2007

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WestCoastJoe
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Eskimos @ Lions

Some keys ...

Defence

Be nice if we are able to pressure Reilly. If not, he could light us up. Will their offence pick apart our soft, conservative zone?

I expect we will contain their running game well enough. Apparently Gable is out.
........

Offence

The Esks D Line is highly regarded. Will we have game prep that helps out our young quarterback? Or will we throw him to the wolves once again? Quick hitters. Check downs to JJ24. Even some hitch passes to Manny or Burnham. The swing passes to Burnham looked much better than the week before, but it was against prevent. More screen passes. Roll outs. Move the pocket around. Too much prep? Better to keep it simple? LOL

Will our receivers get separation, or will it seem like the defence correctly anticipates our routes?

Jennings is not our first QB to eat the ball, rather than throw it away. Dickenson took tons of hits that way too. JJ10 might as well throw it away if the protection breaks down before receivers establish their routes. Is he coached to throw it away? It does not look like it. If no one is open, no check down, you have three choices: 1) eat it, taking the sack, 2) throw it away, or 3) run.

Lulay pressured defences as he is still an excellent runner, one of the best ever, IMO. While agile, with good escapability, I do not think JJ10 has that same ability to run as Lulay.

And of course, establish the run. Stay with it. Wear down the D Line.
........

STs.

We are in no man's land. Peel back to block and we expose ourselves to onside kicks. We seem unable to create gaps for one of the best kick returners we have ever seen, Chris Rainey. No trick or treats, Please. Good cover, Please.
........

Hopes are diminished. But I expect our guys will play hard. We still have talent.

Can we win the line of scrimmage on O and D? "Aye, there is the rub." Pass protection and pass rush. We give up tons of pressures and sacks. And we generate very few of those ourselves.

Just IMO.

As always, it will be interesting. We will see how the Generals marshall their troops. Alignments. Movements. Strategies. Tactics. In other words, game planning and play calling.
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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Depth chart ...

Moore ahead of Williams on depth.

Gaitor off the 46, and off the roster. Same with Burnett. As Jerry Glanville said: "Here is your apple, map and bus ticket out of town."
Screenshot_2017-10-20-14-05-37.png
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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B.C.FAN
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Nick Moore is expected to dress for just the 10th time this year and is listed ahead of Chris Williams on the depth chart.

David Menard starts at defensive end for Craig Roh, who is expected to miss his second straight game with a calf injury.

Can the Lions win the line of scrimmage? Edmonton usually rushes four linemen and drops eight players into coverage, plugging the intermediate zone that Jonathon Jennjngs likes to attack. Jennings has to attack their secondary underneath and over the top. A strong running game would help.

Defensively, can the Lions pressure Mike Reilly? He will take shots downfield. Last week, with Buddy Jackson replacing Anthony Gaitor at field corner, the Lions didn’t allow a completion of over 20 yards in Winnipeg. If they can keep Edmonton’s receivers from making big plays, they stand a good chance to win.
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Toppy Vann
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"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
TheLionKing
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Go Esks !
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Play the backups now. BB
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DanoT
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Maybe now that the Lions are out of the playoffs, Wally will finally refrain from have his team "Play Not to Loose". Maybe we get to see some aggressive D and less safe, predictable, O?

Anyway I would rather see the Lions finish in last place than have to endure another playoff blowout loss and/or early playoff exit.
leo4life
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Bouno era needs to close out
TheLionKing
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DanoT wrote:
Fri Oct 20, 2017 10:11 pm

Anyway I would rather see the Lions finish in last place than have to endure another playoff blowout loss and/or early playoff exit.
:beer: :rockin:
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Bosco
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With the Lions out of the playoffs, terrible weather, poor marketing and fan indifference etc, etc.....I think we might see VERY few people in the seats at BC Place on Saturday, and especially the final game of the season on Nov. 4.
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In anticipation of today's game against the Eskimos I went to the B.C. Lions website for some insights.

Well, first of all I got Wally Wednesday, the weekly fireside chat with Wally, which is an embarrassing attempt to show a warm, fuzzy side of Wally. Wally usually changes his personna for this weekly segment, with a twinkle in his eye and a huge smile on his face, as he answers puffball questions from fans.

This week's questions focused on Halloween and favorte memories of Hawaii. Why football fans would care enough to want to know about Wally's Halloween or his fave Hawaii memory is another question or if the questions are actaully written by Lions fans is also somerhing to ponder.

Anyway, Lions fans could leared that Wally never dressed up on Halloween himself as a kid but just went around collecting candy. I also learned that in the Buono household, when his own children trick or treated, they were only allowed to choose one candy for each year of age and then Wally took the rest and gave them to his staff.

It kinda had the same flavor as Leo players, when they sign a contract with Wally think they are gettng a bag of candy before Wally tries to take as much away as possible with a pay cut. By the way, Wally likes the trip to Hana, if anyone is interested.

In another interview, titled "Its Not About Me, the Product on the Field Has to Be Better, on the site, Buono blames the Winnipeg loss on the Bombers 'making plays' and our Leos players didn't. Buono says in the interview "If it was about me guys, I would be different".

In a pre-game interview, titled "You Don't Deserve to Win, You Have to Earn it, dressed in his sports jacket, Wally says he can't tell the press why our Leos are losing because each week its a different scenario.

He is at his pompous, superior best in this interview, as he lectures the press. "You gotta pen, write this down', he says and says the media 'focuses too much on the obvious' which is ok because that is all they know" and he kinda knows 'what is going on'.

Its sad to know that the media is not even embarrassed that Buono talks to them as if they are idiots.

Buono identifies the problem this season as "we expected to win but haven't earned it...our players have not paid the price to win".

Its the maze that is Wally's World, with his primary agenda of ensuring that when things are not going well, the focus is never on his responsibility.

Each week I ask myself a new question about execution and making plays and responsibility.

This week I asked myself, 'Why did Wally fire Benevedes, when its not the coach who is responsible but the players and their inability to execute or make plays? Why did Buono push Tedford out the door, when it was also the responsibility of the players to execute and make plays and pay the price etc, etc.

Why did Buono decide to coach again, when the coach has no impact at all - the onus is on the players to execute and make plays.

I also asked myself another question. If Buono says its "not about me, its about the product on the field, then who is responsible for the product on the field right now and who was responsible for the product on the field when Benevedes and Tedford were here?

Its easy to get sucked into the view that Wally wants to inculcate. He is a master at deflection, blame, manipulation, cryptic language in between his "guys, guys, you know, you know, ok, ok, guys you know" speaking style.

I would rather go with what the writers on cfl.ca are saying about our B.C. Lions.
Morale in BC Lions camp, despite what is being said externally, must be low.

With all their talent and playmakers on both sides of the football, Wally Buono’s Leos have failed to live up to expectations during a sputtering second half that has sent them spiraling out of the post-season picture.


My pre-game thoughts for our game against the Eskimos tonite are:
'Buono's Weekly Themes Won't Make a Difference'.

Each week, Buono has had a different focus, om top of his 'We Gotta Execute". Those have included "We Gotta Make Plays", "We Gotta Focus on Ourselves" "We Gotta Play Angry", "We Gotta Play with Urgency" and We Gotta Earn It". You could wrap all of these togehter and it won't make a bean of difference.

My theme for this game is "We Gotta Have a Better Game Plan" rather than the same old one we trot out each and every game. But I'm not expecting one because as Wally says...."if it was about him he would be different. But when you consider yourself the greatest and can do no wrong, why change anything?

OFFENCE

The Bombers like to only rush four defenders most of the time. Benevedes is a Buono clone and likes to play zone defence, with the corners playing soft. But Benevedes has a very good pass rush, which is the only way that style of defence can be successful.

To score points on the Eskimos, the key is to pass block their very good defensive line well. Their defensive line runs a lot of stunts and twists. Almondo Seewell gets very good penetration and he is a pocket disrupter. He has to be double teamed if he lines up against Fabian.

Odell Willis, their sack leader, has to be chipped if he lines up against Palmer, either with a back or by a receiver.

To beat the Eskimos defense, the key is time to throw. Zone defenses break down if they have to defend for too long. Receivers can find the seams in the zone.

To get that time, other than doubling in certain situations on defensive linemen, we also need to run the football successfully so the Edmonton defensive line can't tee off. But because Edmonton is difficult to run inside on, we need to attack the edge with the running attack.

We need to use more power formations than spread formations, which provide for extra pass blocking. Quick pass plays are a must at times and throwing deep intermediate or deep routes can only happen when there is time to throw those routes - they can't be plays that are rushed with the quarterback under pressure.

We also need to ensure that there is a safety valve on every pass play. We just can't have all of our receivers running 20 yard routes or more, while Jennings has defenders in his face.

Jennings, who is third in CFL rushing as a quarterback, also needs to take off on occasion. That freezes linebackers and helps open things up underneath.

Defensively, we need to mix things up on Reilly and not just play straight up zone. Combination man/zone coverages with false reads would pay dividends. We need to pay special attention to Zykstra, who leads the CFL in receiving and is also 2nd in the CFL in yards behind Andrew Harris in yards after catch.

We also can't just drop Sol E and Awe in deep underneath zone coverage because Reilly is 2nd in quarterback rushing in the CFL and he will use his legs to get key first downs.

Our Leos are not playing for a playoff spot any more. Last night, Chris Jones Riders beat Calgary to clinch a playoff position, with Duron Carter playing corner for the first time ever, even in high school. Jones was ridiculed for the move, as he has often been since arriving in Regina (but not from me because I have always viewed him as a good football coach).

Well, in less than two seasons under Jones, he has taken a team that was horrible and has his team in the playoffs and beating the Stamps while our Leos are continuing to struggle under the 'legendary' Buono, dispite our talent on this Leos squad.

Next season begins tonite agaisnt the Eskimos. Go Leos!!

p.s. I would love Wally Wednesdays to become Winning Wednesdays for a change and instead of listening to Wally talk about Halloween trick or treats, I would consider it more of a 'treat' if the interview followed a rare Leos victory this season.

Its also too bad that Wally doesn't dress up for Halloween. He would make a great Chesire Cat. :thdn:
"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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DanoT
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Now that the Lions are out of the playoffs I guess it is now official that Wally has stayed past his best before date.
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The_Pauser
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DanoT wrote:
Sat Oct 21, 2017 12:08 pm
Now that the Lions are out of the playoffs I guess it is now official that Wally has stayed past his best before date.
I really think his loyalty to certain people like Dan Dorazio is what's killing us. Our offensive line has been absolutely horrendous. It was great the year we had Dan Malone, but went back to being horrendous under Dorazio.

This year was sunk due to our inept offensive line, lousy defensive line, and poor quarterbacking from Jennings.
Roar you Lions roar!
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WestCoastJoe
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There is risk of a blowout. I hope not. Guys get hurt when they give up, and go through the motions.

Solly will play hard. I expect our guys will play hard.

Tough to play 3 more games without playoff hopes. Some guys know their time here is done.

Sad time for the franchise.
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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Eskimos 37 BC 14 Final
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