What an exciting game and what an exciting come from behind victory, in which we gave up 28 points in a row and overcame a 15 point fourth quarter deficit to win the contest 45-42.
This was a game in which our Leos both deserved to win and deserved to lose. We deserved to win because so many Leo players made impressive plays or played impressively. We deserved to lose because we prepared poorly on both defense and special teams.
Here are some post game thoughts, with a usual theme, to add to your insightful comments.
THE GOOD
Going into this game, the main story line was whether Travis Lulay could come close to replicating his performance of the previous week. Hamilton's defense was known to be porous and Lulay had come intotouchdown run was a great call at the right time.
The most impressive offensive play of the game belonged to Chris Rainey. Lulay hit him out of the backfield running vertically and Rainey made a first cut that defied the laws of physics before juking three Bombers out of their cleats for a 37 yard gain.
The most impressive Leo player, outside of Lulay in this contest, was Hunter Steward. If I was wrong about Lulay's career comeback I got Hunter Steward right. I've written that Steward should be our starting left tackle in 2015. I believed he was our best offensive lineman last season while playing left guard (and never should have been taken out of the lineup in2016, as he was for a time). Steward is having the kind of season at left tackle that I anticipated he would. He is incredibly athletic and he is big, strong, has great footwork, and long arms - all designed to play left tackle with skill and success.
Steward pancaked defenders in this contest, as he often does. He pass blocked with success and protected Lulay's blind side. His block on the Lulay draw play run got attention because it took place in the open field but there have been many plays this season and last, in which Steward has blocked his first defender and then peeled off and pancaked a second one. He's a special National offensive lineman. that game early in the role of backup. Yes, he had thrown for 436 yards against Hamiltion, the most in his pro career, but thrust into the role of starting quarterback and playing the Bombers defense was considered the real test to determine Lulay's 2017 status.
Lulay threw for over 400 yards against the Bombers defense. It was his second 400 yard passing game in a row. Previously, Lulay had only thrown for over 400 yards in a contest twice in his career. It was an impressive performance.
Lulay set the tone early with a 45 yard tight spiral to Bryan Burnham. Opposing defensive coordinators book on Lulay, following his 2011/2012 seasons was to keep him in the pocket, to get quick pressure on him, to not let him run, play his receivers tight, and to dare him to throw deep.
Lulay was always a very good first read quarterback and an excellent runner and scrambler, But consistently throwing form the pocket and stepping up into his throws from the pocket was not Lulay's forte. The combination of quick pressure (and often poor pass blocking) and tight coverage often led to Lulay bailing out of the pocket early and scrambling, most often to his right.
The 2017 version of Travis Lulay is a very different Travis Lulay so far. When commentators state that this is the 'Travis Lulay of 'old' or the Travis Lulay of 2011, I think they have it wrong. This is a new version of Travis Lulay, combining his strengths of old, with a new poise and presence in the pocket, a calmer demeanor, and a much stronger arm than he even showed in those excellent early seasons as a starter.
Even at his best in 2011/2012 Lulay threw a football that had a wobble on most throws. He never threw the tight spirals with the velocity that he has shown with his passes in the last two contests. He also didn't have the accuracy on long throws that he has demonstrated against both Hamilton and Winnipeg.
Against the Bombers, as he did against Hamilton, Lulay hung in the pocket, really stepped into this throws, and threw some bullets into tight windows. By hanging in the pocket, even with a lot of pressure, he went to his second and third reads with confidence. Always a quarterback who could find his tailback out of the backfield (just ask Andrew Harris), Lulay dumped off when necessary, bought time and escaped when he needed to, and ran the football with athleticism, as he always has."It’s starting to look like this is a different Lulay than the one we last saw starting regularly in Vancouver". (Vancouver Province)
Earlier this season, I proposed that Lulay was too expensive as a backup quarterback and going forward in 2018, our Leos would be better served if Lulay transitioned into becoming a Leos coach next season. I'm happy to be eating humble pie and getting it wrong. Lulay's arm is much stronger than could I could have ever anticipated, after so many shoulder injuries and his pocket presence has grown leaps and bounds. Perhaps watching Jennings coolness in the pocket has helped or perhaps its playing the role of mentor has been a learning tool for Lulay but watching the way he played against the Bombers, making all the throws and the type of throws he rarely attempted before, while hitting all his receivers, both vertically and horizontally, was a treat.
But this win was more than just about Travis Lulay. Many other Leo players made impressive plays or had excellent games. Bryan Burnham had an outstanding game and made three very difficult receptions. Burnham, a class act who stated before the game that his 6 yard, one handed touchdown reception against Hamilton had taken too much attention away from Nick Moore's 200 yard plus receiving in that game, went out and proved that his play deserves attention. He had 6 receptions for 148 yards and a 24. 8 yd. reception average - now that is outstanding play.
Manny had five catches and two touchdowns Iannuzzi had six reiceptions, including some key first downs. Nick Moore made three key catches and Shaq Johnson, whom Lulay has a very high opinion of, once again made key contributions from his wide side, wide receiver spot. Vanndervoot, stepping in after Iannuzzi had to come out of the game due to injury, caught a 25 yard reception with his very small opportunity.
Khari Jones also had a very good game, as an OC. He moved our receivers around more in this contest, including motioning Shaq Johnson inside at times. He used more horizoatal patterns and had a good mix of attacking the Bombers defense at all three layers and exploited the Bombers wide side often by flooding it with four receivers.. His draw play call on Lulay's touchdown run was very well timed.
On defense, Maxx Forde deserves the most accolades. Forde had a sack, a forced fumble and two tackles. Even more noteworthy was his penetration and hustle. Not too shabby for his first pro start.
Chandler Fenner led us in tackles, had a sack, and made some huge hits. His ability, later in the game, to slide into the defensive halfback spot and play made a huge difference.
Micah Awe had a very good first start as a pro with 5 tackles and some big plays. Dyshawn Davis looked good in his rotational reps at linebacker, Purifoy looked much more comfortable and aggressive back in his nickel spot to end the contest. Ronnie Yell not only came up with a huge interception that led to our victory but also made a couple of key tackles to stop drives.
On special teams Dakota Brush made an incredible play for a rookie by reacting so well to Medlock's fake punt and pass play. For all the criticism of O'Shea, Medlock is green lighted to fake a punt if he sees something, as many CFL punters are. Without Brush's keen football sense, the play would have been completed and we would not likely be discussing a comeback victory.
Kudos also to Ty Long who took a helacious hit but recovered enough to hit two key field goals and also boomed a couple of punts in the fourth quarter when we needed them. Davis led us on special teams and his contribution hopefully will not go unnoticed.
THE BAD
Even with the exciting victory, there is a lot of room for our Leos to grow. We've had to come behind too many times in the fourth quarter this year, as we did last season too. It doesn't always happen. We managed to spot Winnipeg a huge lead in the playoffs last season and come from behind and win but we certainly could not do that against Calgary in the WDF.
In this game, we gave up 28 unanswered points before rallying in the fourth quarter and it took a lot of key plays and turnovers to accomplish this win.
There is no excuse for poor preparation and poor game planning on defense, We knew that the Bombers love to do a lot of 'special' things on special teams and basically seemed to ignore the fact. We don't prepare or prescout teams well. The attitude of our coaching staff, trickled down to our players is to concentrate on 'ourselves'. Its not a smart thing to do.
We could easily have lost Long for the season when we gave a Bomber a free route to Long and he never even got to kick the ball. It was not a blocked punt but a devastating hit on a punter before he even got his toe on it. The simple rule on punt blocking is to block inside first and let the up back pick up a free man coming from the outside. The shortest route to a punter is the inside route. Not excusable. The Bombers also ran a sleeper play on a fake field goal that was probably illegal but we were asleep at the switch. Once again, it reflected poor preparation.
Michael Brooks was accredited with a tackle in this game and made a couple of good penetrating plays but for a feature International tackle his play is not good enough and wasn't last season either. Not only did Forde outplay him but Luke probably could have too. Brooks took an unsportsmanlike penalty call that hurt as well.
T. J. Lee was beaten badly twice in this game. He badly overplayed a route and was burned deep for a Bomber touchdown.
THE UGLY
On defence, like our poor preparation on special teams could have and should have cost us this game, as it too often has in the Mark Washington era.. We know that the Bombers love to throw to Harris out of the backfield. Its their bread and butter play. Yet Harris not only caught 12 passes but could easily have caught 20-25 receptions, he was so wide open. There were many times in this game that we had no defender within 20 yards of him, as we dropped our linebackers into intermediate zone coverage rather than spy Harris on pass plays with a linebacker or nickel back. It was inexcusable.
Too often Mark Washington's defenses are not adequately prepared for an opponent. Last year's playoffs were a prime example of that. Yes, we had to juggle our secondary due to injuries and we played well in the fourth but we would not have been in the position of sweating out a Medlock tying field goal at game end with better defensive preparation, as well as better prepared special teams play.
Perhaps even more ugly was our punt blocking. Chris Rainey is the best punt returner in the CFL. Give him a seam and he can do major damage and take it all the way. But finding a seam this year is almost impossible for Rainey and he is now starting to pick up bad habits like dancing and juking too much on returns because he always sees a wall of defenders are rarely a crack to run to. Its gotta get better. Rainey has one of the worst punt return averages in the league due to very inadequate punt blocking. Its a major waste of his incredible talent.
To pull off our first win of the season at home, it required fourth quarter offensive heroics, our defense to shut out the Bombers in the fourth quarter, a superb read by Dakota Brush to negate a Jason Medlock third down pass gamble, a key Ronnie Yell pass down in Bomber territory, a clutch Ty Long field goal, and a failed Jason Medlock 50 yard field goal, with no time on the clock, as the football gods blew some stale air to ensure that the attempt fell just short of the goal posts.
WRAP
This Leos team is so deep in talent that we could lose both National corners in this game, as well as Anthony Gaitor and have other players move into different spots and depth players step in and play admirably. Awe and Davis replaced Burnett and we were better. Forde started in place of Turner and was impressive. Travis Lulay has just played two of the best games of his career following Jennings shoulder injury. This is a very deep, talented, athletic, younger team with a lot of special play makers.
An exciting victory and a crazy, enjoyable, heart pounding game to watch. Congrats to our Leos for their fourth victory in a row and their first at home - hoping there will be many more in this 2017 season,