Lions 39 - TiCats 36 Post Game Stats and Comments

[BCBenny5]

Mixed emotions as most of us have. I liked the quick turnaround before the second half, very Benevides-esque. Boy Andrew Harris really turned it on in the second half, he really proved me wrong, but also benefited from some excellent very non vanilla run calls(was Jacque there?).

I have to echo how happy I am to see Timmy Brown make some noise he seems to have faded the last while but made us remember how agile he is, not quite Logan-like but it sure made you think.

I hope our defence figures things out for next week, happy for the win, hope we keep rolling.

Benny out, have a great weekend folks!

[notahomer]

One thing about the end of both first halves at home. I'm surprised Coach Benevides doesn't take timeouts late in halves to pressure the other teams punt team. Why let them burn off 20 seconds? IIRC, Cortez took a timeout to stop us from doing the same thing in the first halve too. I just thought that end of the first half was a real knockdown for the Ticats. Any more chances to land in a couple more tough shots while your opponent seems to be wobbling, I say take them.

I always enjoy games where Burris struggles. It's only because I'm going to miss the guy when he retires from the CFL too. He just seems so hot or so cold at times. It will be good to watch the Ticats next game. They'll be 0-2 and not wanting to go any deeper in the hole. I think this recieving core let Burris down on a few throws but a lot of it seemed to be pressure and brainfarts from Burris.

In the stadium, I was kind of surprised to see the fumble stand as called, it wasn't until I saw a replay that it looked like the ball was coming out. That was a replay that I thought Cortez and his Ticats was going to win.

I enjoy high-scoring close games or low-scoring close games. The blowouts are fun to watch, I guess but the atmosphere changes. I was personally not at all surprised the Ticats kicked off late. It took a long late drive but it was just as impressive to me as a score. Eating all that time off the clock and maintaining a drive. It was an exciting way to cap off a game, IMO.

Some of the drawbacks? Obviously the streaker was funny. He seemed almost dissappointed he wasn't getting chased around. He actually hoped on the field out of the stairway between near 219, I think. There are times when it seems the Lions may be trying to hard on the Gameday Stuff. Like this is the third or fourth time the Lions have tried to ressurrect the BBBBB CCCCC chant with Crazy P. Maybe if you let the fans chant rather than screaming into a microphone, it might work? Sure isn't working how its being done. The repeated exaltations to "MAKE SOME NOISE" get a little tiring too. I don't think we are that dumb. Maybe so. Anyway, looking forward to the Esks, in a couple of weeks....

[B.C.FAN]

That was a tremendous game by Andrew Harris, singlehandedly running down the clock to protect a three-point victory and racking up a career-best 147 rushing yards.

Tim Brown also had a career game with 300 total yards. For a change, the Lions won the return game, 296 yards to 217. Lin-J Shell, Rolly Lumbala and Cauchy Muamba made great blocks on Brown's 81-yard TD. The Lions also managed to kick off six times without letting Chevon Walker touch the ball. I couldn't understand why the Ti-Cats didn't switch their returners. Walker is a threat to break one. Samuel Guguere is not. Props to Chuck McMann for having the teams ready to play, even though they gave up a TD.

The offensive game plan was obviously to attack edges of the the Ti-Cat defence, especially their corners. It worked well for the ground game but not so well for the passing game. Lulay missed a number of opportunities to hit Bruce, Simon and Johnson deep, and was not sharp for much of the night, finishing with just 171 passing yards.

I thought the offensive line played a tremendous game, blocking for the running game and not giving up a sack. They had one disastrous series when Kabongo and Archibald took back-to-back holding penalties but those were the ony bad plays by the O-line all night.

Defensively, the charley horse injury to Anton McKenzie was devastating. He is the quarterback of the defence and the game changed when he was out. The Ti-Cats had their first long march with Yurichuk playing for McKenzie in the second quarter. After the 'Cats exploited the position, McKenzie came back in but the 'Cats still finished the drive. In the second half, the Lions tried using Shell instead of an ineffective Yurichuk but Burris was playing with confidence by then and knew he could find receivers open across the middle. McKenzie still had 5 tackles and a fumble recovery in less than two quarters of play. Bighill had a great game with 9 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble but couldn't do it all.

[TheLionKing]

Despite the win, there is alot of work to do for the Lions.

- As many have already noted, coverage teams need alot of improvement

- defensive line had Burris dead in their tracks on several occasions and let him scramble out of trouble

- running game for the most part was unimaginative

- I thought Lulay was out of sync with his receivers. He would underthrow or overthrow his receivers

- Anybody else annoyed at the beachball being tossed around in the stands ?

[WestCoastJoe]

This was a heavyweight fight. Both teams slugging it out. Very physical. The TiCats have brought their best against the Lions for a few years now.

Andrew Harris just may have won everyone over by now. He is a major talent. His body control is truly exceptional, the way he protects himself despite being the target of 12 would be tacklers. His running instincts are second to none. And he has all the internal attributes as well.

Nice to see Shawn Gore showing so well. And it would be nice to see Akeem Foster contribute as he did last year.

Adam Bighill is right up there in the class of Solomon Elimimian. As BCFAN pointed out: 9 tackles, 1 sack and 1 forced fumble.

Kudos to the O Line. Great protection for Lulay. Great blocking for Harris.

Lulay was solid and professional, not super sharp but professional.

Khreem Smith was very effective, as was Keron Williams. I thought the D Line put good pressure on all night.

If Burris did not have his survival instincts kick in, I think it would have been a big time spanking for the TiCats, who did nevertheless really come to play. They have great, great speed.

As a fan, I have not been happy with our secondary hitting for years. Dante Marsh let Chris Williams walk into the end zone, and hung his head after. He should hang his head. He has tried that bullfighter shoulder tackle for years and it sucks. Wrap the man up. Take him to the ground. One of the problems with Marsh and Phillips is that I believe they are influencing Cauchy Muamba who is showing signs of "bullfighter" tackles. Ole! Nice pass! Just kind of wave at the guy as he runs past. Even on Walker's long TD, Phillips first put himself on the wrong side of a blocker and didn't bother to throw himself at the runner near the end zone. Just kind of wave at him. I would be tempted to sit both Marsh and Phillps down. We have a couple of young hungry guys behind them.

Well done, Jacques Chapdelaine. Great sequence at the end. Courageous calls to run Andrew Harris like that. It looks so right now, but it took courage.

Good defensive game by Stubler's boys, except for the aforementioned bullfighter tackles.

I expect Chuck McMann is doing all he can to coach up his kick coverage team, but I am thinking it is more than Xs and Os and practice. I am wondering if we have the personnel to do it. The hunger. The willingness to sacrifice the bodies. The youth. The energy. This is a problem with the relatively small rosters in the CFL. It can be hard to get the gung ho guys for ST kick coverage, with youth and energy and courage, when you have a veteran successful team, some of whom naturally start to think of protecting their bodies. And there are some truly exceptional return guys in the league.

The Lions are the defending champions. We can expect a lot of hard, tough games, as teams bring their A game to play us.

Way to go, Benny. I am more and more impressed as I see your team play, and as I hear your comments in video clips and in print.

[David]

Players for the game for me:


Offense: Andrew Harris - some electrifying late game runs to seal the deal and a crushing block in the 4th quarter. Speaking of deals, this guy is the "real deal."
Defense: Adam Bighill - 9 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. POW candidate. Hard to believe he was once in a training camp "battle" for a starting LB position
Special Teams: Tim Brown - not the fastest guy on the team by any measure, but heads north very quickly and has great head fakes to find open creases.


Some random thoughts: Great win against a worthy opponent but lots of work to do....great defensive pressure on Burris + I know he's slippery but you HAVE to wrap him up. How many of his 26 completions were made simply by him escaping pressure and finding an open man?.....one of the top defensive plays of the game for me was Byron Parker tipping the long Burris pass away....defense did a great job containing Chevon Walker (37 yards on 11 carries) with the exception of the 95 yard screen pass that made us look rather slow....the worst games for Lulay and Simon since the start of our winning streak. Lulay was guilty of underthrowing Simon, and Simon was guilty of not battling for balls, and unable to get behind rookie Matt Bucknor. Lulay also missed open receivers and strong armed some short passes that required a deft touch (the potentially costly incompletion in the flat to Bruce in the 4th quarter comes to mind)....would like to have seen more of Paris Jackson once Shawn Gore came out with a hamstring injury.

DH

[Blitz]

It was a fascinating game to watch and worrysome right up until our last drive. Hamilton has great speed on their team and Burris showed, in the second half, the problems a quarterback who is mobile and has excellent escapability can cause for a defense.

Here are some post game thoughts.

-Travis Lulay did not have a good game passing the football or reading the defense. He was locked on too often again to Geroy Simon, made some bad reads, forced a number of throws into solid coverage, was late on some throws, and missed some throws as well. For most of the night Lulay also had good time to throw. Late in the game, he missed Arland Bruce wide open on a simple out pattern on second down, when a touchdown would have sealed the game. Lulay's running ability was the bright spot from the quarterback position last night but he did not have a good game outside of an excellent 25 yard pass to Shawn Gore. Lulay's running abilty enabled him to move the football and pick up key first downs and that talent was used to full advantage and he needed it. Lulay only passe for 178 yds on 31 pass attempts, completing only 17 whereas Burris passed for 359 yards on 39 attempts. Our defense and special teams gave our offence good field postion for the first three quarters of the game and we didn't take advantage of it offensively as we should have and we had too many two and outs.

`Jaques Chapdelaine called an outstanding football game. With Lulay struggling, Chap made some great calls which allowed our offence to move the football. He used a lot of motion and misdirection, the running attack had great variety with direct snaps to Harris, reverses to Kierie Johnson, and trap plays, and he set up a lof ot great play action for Lulay. He definitely had the Hamilton defense struggling to be able to know what was comng next.

~On our final key drives of the game we had Norman and Baboulas playing guard as Kobongo sat on the sideline. Norman had one half of starting experience last week and Baboulas has seen little action and both did a great job when you consider their lack of experience.

~Andrew Harris, who has excelled more as a receiver out of the backfield in the past showed great running ability with cut back moves and great determination and effort on a number of runs. It was a breakout game for him in terms of his running ability and its something he wants to prove this year - that he is an excellent runner as well as a dangerous receiver out of the backfield.

`It was great to see Lulay looking more to Shawn Gore. He needed to get Gore involved and he needs to look to Bruce more often. Foster was ignored again and we need to make the wideside receiver more a part of our offence. Also, when Shawn Gore went down and Inannuzzi and Paris Jackson played in his place, Lulay never looked at them once.

~Arland Burce made some great blocks again. The offensive line, overall, blocked well, not only giving Lulay time but also making some excellent blocks at the point of attack. Ben Archibald made a great block on the direct snap to Harris near the end of the game which allowed him to turn the corner.

~Defensively we got great heat on Burris but some of Stublers bltizes backfired, both due to Burris's escapabillity and George Cortez making some great play calls to burn us. The game was often a match of a an excellent defensive mind in Stubler against the strong offensive leadership abilities of Cortez and fascinating to see how each tried to exploit each other.

~I didn't see Muamba having a bad game but the entire secondary was put under a lot of pressure when Burris bought time by escaping the blitz or had time when we only rushed four and therefore gave up a lot of yardage. Hamilton also threw a lot of short passes in the game, choosing a lot of dink and dunk and then allowing Hamitlon's receivers to use their speed. Their game plan was to negate our blitz by that strategy.

~I''ve always liked Ryan Phillips anticipation skills and ability to read the passing game, even though his tackling has never been good but Phillips was having a poor game prior to his injury. Phillips played very good on the corner last year, where he could antipate long throws and also drop back to help in zone coverage but at halfback he has to go up against big slotbacks like Fantuz these days, Phillips missed a couple of key tackles during the game which could have ended drives. Not sure whether we will see Shell go into the halfback spot or whether we will play Bell at halfback and continue to use Shell in the 'monster' position.

~On defense we did an excellent job of shutting down Hamilton's running game against a very fast and elusive tailback in Walker. Bighill had another excellent game, Yarichuk also played well in place of MacKenize, and Khareem Smith played very well on the defensive line while Taylor and It was mostly Burris being able to escape and take advantage of the blitz along with some outstanding play calls by Cortez that caused most of the problems for our defense.... as well as our secondary not adjusting to play tighter coverage on the underneath stuff that caused us defensive problems. Hamilton has great speed at the receiver position and we respected that speed and tried not to give up big plays. The second problem was that our secondary did not tackle well at times, in coming up to attempt to shut down those short passes from becoming first downs.

~Anthony Reddick made a key interception at a key time during the game. His play was the momentum shifter, along with Browns touchdown return. We were struggling to put points on the board before those two plays and those two plays turned the game around.

~Our return game was outstanding against Hamilton and Brown obviously had his best game as a returner but the key was that we were able to make some great initial blocks for Brown that enabled him to spring free. Once Borwn got some initial space he was able to use his exellent shifting ability to get into space for his long returns. Coverage teams are still a problem and have been for two seasons now. Hamilton's Willaims froze J.R. LaRose before scampering for his 69 yard touchdown return but our coverage team gave up too many yards throughout the tame. McMann, who was under some pressure this past week got half the equation solved against Hamitlon as our return game had an impressive and it as was our return units and that really came through, It was the key to our victory.

When you sum up the night....it was Browns returns, a key interception by Reddick, and Harris peeling off two huge running plays towards the end of the game that were the big plays that led us to a 39-36 victory. Benevedes and our Leos are 2-0 and we're off to a much better start than our three previous seasons.

[jagger13]

I agree with simon not battling for the ball. Great player, great person, but its amazing he made it to the all time leader and he will not lay out for a ball! Anything remotely over his head and he makes a half hearted hand wave at it. Must drive the QB's nuts over the years. Good thing he makes up for it in so many other ways.

Sask will be looking at the film of some defensive mistakes and thinking they can exploit. Stubler will have them amped for next week and a good game plan for Durrant. Should be a can't miss game to watch.

Too bad about the crowd but the prices are a bit much for the casual fan. The end zones should be cheaper to fill the ends of the stadium up. Get more kids in the place like the old quarterback club.

I think Benny has had a really positive effect on the team. I often watch the lions practise at lunch time and he really runs a structured, well laid out practise.
Wally always seems to be by himself on the opposite side watching...looks like he misses the on field stuff.

[pennw]

In the stadium, I was kind of surprised to see the fumble stand as called, it wasn't until I saw a replay that it looked like the ball was coming out. That was a replay that I thought Cortez and his Ticats was going to win.

Really? I couldn't believe Cortez challenged as he had zero percent chance of that being overturned , unless of course he had some paid off officials behind the scenes working for him . I don't understand why coaches waste challenges when replay shows clearly that the right call was made . Wally made a few pretty dumb challenges last season too. Didn't the Hamilton coaches look at the replay before making the challenge ?

[MexicoLionFan]

Okay, thoughts on the game...a roller coaster ride...

Coaches...MB, I thought did a very good job keeping the team together through a roller coaster ride... an actual calming influence on the sidelines, now that's maturity...But I have to say that both Chaps and Stubler were outcoached by their counterparts...the Hamilton O knew how to take advantage of the great rush and prey upon the soft coverage...the Hamilton D knew how to disrupt early reads for Lulay and make him find secondary looks...I thought McCann's special teams were a lot better, but a punt return for a TD hurt bigtime...it gave Hamilton life...

Offence...Lulay...easily his worst game as a Lion since the Winnipeg dismantling in Week 6 last year...and yet he didn't turn the ball over, ran for first downs when he had to, and stayed calm the whole game...a real pro not at his best...that was an ugly win for Travis...but right now he is struggling finding the open guys downfield...

Harris...will be a star in this league? IS a star in this league? I would think he is...and he just gets better and better...he is hard to bring down and has a nasty burst into and out of holes...plus he is Canadian? WOW!

Simon...not his best game in quite a while...he was lethargic all night I thought, and missed on two he should of had and two that would have been tough...Bruce was very solid...Gore had a big night, but he has to catch the ball he dropped when he hurt his hammy...Foster, why don't they throw to him more??? He is open and has size and power...he is being wasted, IMO...Johnson was solid, but he and Travis have to work on their deep ball...

What a 180 degree turnaround for Matt Norman...struggled his first week, was much, much better week two...and was downright dominate in the 2nd half...and this kid is going back to College??? That's a shame, he should stay...he's that good...Kabongo is the one guy who struggled on the line, early and often, and it hurt us, especially in the first half...he's got to get better by getting into better shape...Valli coming back should be a HUGE boost for the OLine...

Defence...WOW...exposed or lethargic??? Stubler gut into a rut with his playcalling after McKenzie left the game and it cost us...Hamilton began exposing us underneath ALL NIGHT and Stubler did little to adjust to it...he got into that prevent mode and gave up huge yards, and POINTS to take time off the clock...

DLine...Smith was the best all night...Mitchell helped a ton by taking on 2 guys, but Taylor and Williams did NOTHING to take advantage of this...and if they don't it is going to make it hard on the secondary...this was Keron Williams worst game as a Lion...Bighill was good, but he has to anticipate the runner out of the backfield a lot quicker...Yurichuck struggled during his time as McKenzie's replacement...just nowhere near good enough for a guying beginning his 4th season...

Reddick had a nice pick but not a lot after he hurt himself...Muamba caused a fumble, which was a big play, but shies away from contact and is almost invisible as the safety...Marsh and Banks were ROCK SOLID all night long...Phillips and Parker, WOW, they were burned all night...way too soft and then sloppy tackling, especially from Phillips...I honestly don't think he is our best option starting if he is going to play halfback, he is just TOO soft...

Special Teams...McCallum had an up and down night, but will likely continue to get better as he becomes more familiar with his key personnel...Tim Brown was a HUGE reason the Lions won the game...good North/South running, great balance, and great toughness...nice to see him shine...coverage teams were a lot better but still completely blew the Williams punt return for a TD against us.

All in all, the great teams win ugly...that was an ugly, inconsistent win...and CHAMPIONS take the ball with 2:30 to go in the game and then don't relinquish the ball...for as rough as the offence played, they took charge, and the game, by showing up on that final drive...a thing of beauty...

So, not pretty, but a win...now we wait to see how they play on the road next...

[WestCoastJoe]

Great stuff, MLFan.

I thought our D Line toiled hard all night. Burris can be slippery. And he got hot.

I agree though about the soft coverage. Burris ate that up. Personally I am tired of seeing Dante Marsh do his flying shoulder attempted hit and missing. I wish he would pay the price, wrap the guy up, and take him to the ground. I know it hurts, but that is the price you pay. As I indicated I would be tempted to sit both him and Ryan Phillips down. IMO they are infecting with Cauchy Muamba with soft play.

Soft coverage is what we can expect with Rich Stubler I am thinking. It has worked for him for years. We barely got away with it in this game. His blitzes were oftentimes well picked up. That screen was just nasty.

Not sure what the answer is on kick coverage. We have some pretty good guys on there. Part of it I think is just the amazing guys in the CFL returning kicks, including our own Tim Brown. Big field. Little gaps. Fast returner. Boom. I guess the idea could be to get a trade off in the kicking game and win the other battles.

No doubt defences have a book on Travis now. And early in the year I would say the advantage can be to the defence.

Some one was saying Geroy does not go to the ground to get the ball, and seems to make a pass at it if it is high. I guess that is true sometimes. But on the other hand, he has stayed healthy for all these years by protecting his body. Whaddayagonna do? Sit him down? Yell at him? LOL

It was a mixed bag, but we did win ugly, against a fired up, talented TiCat team.

[DanoT]

I think the lions are under utilizing the fancy replay screen with not enough replays. They need to realize that they are competing with 50" HDTV home theatres, but they have the big $ screen that can allow them to offer better than HDTV coverage of a game. They need to up grade their in house video productions.

I watched Matt Norman with binoculars quite a bit and did see him grab jersey a couple of times that the refs missed, but he never the less seemed more comfortable out there.

I don't understand what the Cats were doing on kick offs when they kept kicking to Brown instead of Foorde.

Cats Aussie punter can sure boom the ball but he better learn to punt at a low angle into the wind on the often windy days they get at Ivor Wynn Stadium or he will get some negative yards.

Lulay was off target on a lot of passes but was mentally into the game and didn't throw picks or make a lot of mistakes.

IMO Chaps called a pretty good, unpredictable game, stuck with the run even though it wasn't really working well early. (I think Harris got most of his yardage on two big runs) But when the run game was needed to finish the game it was there! If Chaps keeps this up and Lions keep mostly winning, when Ottawa starts looking around for a HC...who do you think they are gonna call? A bilingual coach will sell tickets in Gateneau.(sp?)

[TheLionKing]

IMO Chaps called a pretty good, unpredictable game, stuck with the run even though it wasn't really working well early. (I think Harris got most of his yardage on two big runs) But when the run game was needed to finish the game it was there! If Chaps keeps this up and Lions keep mostly winning, when Ottawa starts looking around for a HC...who do you think they are gonna call? A bilingual coach will sell tickets in Gateneau.(sp?)

Chap ball version 3. In past years he wouldn't even try to establish the running game

[Blitz]

IMO Chaps called a pretty good, unpredictable game, stuck with the run even though it wasn't really working well early. (I think Harris got most of his yardage on two big runs) But when the run game was needed to finish the game it was there! If Chaps keeps this up and Lions keep mostly winning, when Ottawa starts looking around for a HC...who do you think they are gonna call? A bilingual coach will sell tickets in Gateneau.(sp?)

Chap ball version 3. In past years he wouldn't even try to establish the running game

JaquesBall just keeps getting better and better!! I thought Chap outcoached Creehan and his scheme and playcalling were excellent during the game. Prior to our winning streak last season did you ever see our offence run a direct snap to a running back or our quarterback run a fake dive, fake reverse, and bootleg or see the the number of formations we now use, the different packages we use, and the amount of motion that you see on most plays. Nope! ChapBall was mainly the spread offence. Jaques Ball is multidensional and unpredictable. Lulay needs to play better and he willl.

Defensively, Stubler got caught on some blitz calls but that is going to happen when you play a pressure style of defense. We did play too soft on our coverage however but the most frustatting part was that our pass defenders did not come up and tackle well at times. However, Cortez has an excelletn football mind and Burris is still very mobile and his experience against a pressure defense showed in the second half. Our defense played very well in the first half I thought. For those fans who thought our team was so good that we would just roll over opponents are getting a reality check. There isn't that much difference in talent among CFL teams and bringing an A game is necessary against every opponent.

[MexicoLionFan]

IMO Chaps called a pretty good, unpredictable game, stuck with the run even though it wasn't really working well early. (I think Harris got most of his yardage on two big runs) But when the run game was needed to finish the game it was there! If Chaps keeps this up and Lions keep mostly winning, when Ottawa starts looking around for a HC...who do you think they are gonna call? A bilingual coach will sell tickets in Gateneau.(sp?)

Chap ball version 3. In past years he wouldn't even try to establish the running game

JaquesBall just keeps getting better and better!! I thought Chap outcoached Creehan and his scheme and playcalling were excellent during the game. Prior to our winning streak last season did you ever see our offence run a direct snap to a running back or our quarterback run a fake dive, fake reverse, and bootleg or see the the number of formations we now use, the different packages we use, and the amount of motion that you see on most plays. Nope! ChapBall was mainly the spread offence. Jaques Ball is multidensional and unpredictable. Lulay needs to play better and he willl.

Defensively, Stubler got caught on some blitz calls but that is going to happen when you play a pressure style of defense. We did play too soft on our coverage however but the most frustatting part was that our pass defenders did not come up and tackle well at times. However, Cortez has an excelletn football mind and Burris is still very mobile and his experience against a pressure defense showed in the second half. Our defense played very well in the first half I thought. For those fans who thought our team was so good that we would just roll over opponents are getting a reality check. There isn't that much difference in talent among CFL teams and bringing an A game is necessary against every opponent.

It was a good reality check for the Leos...in their house, with lots of challenges against them, Hamilton just kept coming and coming...no matter how good the Lions are on paper, they have to bring "IT" every game if they expect to win...the CFL has become far too tough to just mail one in and expect to cash in on 2 points...

Next week's test in Sask will be another tough one...and we need Taylor and Williams to rebound from lacklustre efforts on the DLine...