Depth Chart vs the Eskimos - 20111120 WDF

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions have added cornerback Travis Williams to the 46-man roster as expected for this game, along with fellow practice-roster cornerback Marquez Hall and linebacker Adam Bighill. Stanley Franks is moved to the 9-game injured list, Joe Henderson to the one-game injured list and Steve Black to the practice roster. This game will be an interesting test for the defence.

Game notes, roster and depth chart here

[WestCoastJoe]

Thanks, BCFAN. Been waitin' for the new depth chart. Here is a snapshot of it.

Still shows HamRies ahead of Newman at left guard. Possibly game day decision regarding Hammer's injury. Newman at practice looks less than fit and overweight to me.

[B.C.FAN]

Thanks, BCFAN. Been waitin' for the new depth chart. Here is a snapshot of it.

Still shows HamRies ahead of Newman at left guard. Possibly game day decision regarding Hammer's injury. Newman at practice looks less than fit and overweight to me.

Bad news for JHR. According to Farhan Lalji, the Lions have placed him on the 9-week injured list with a torn tricep. Adam Baboulis is flying in tonight.

[WestCoastJoe]

Thanks, BCFAN. Been waitin' for the new depth chart. Here is a snapshot of it.

Still shows HamRies ahead of Newman at left guard. Possibly game day decision regarding Hammer's injury. Newman at practice looks less than fit and overweight to me.

Bad news for JHR. According to Farhan Lalji, the Lions have placed him on the 9-week injured list with a torn tricep. Adam Baboulis is flying in tonight.

Too bad about HamR. Was having a good year. Baboulas has been at practice all week. Saw him Tuesday and Wednesday.

[B.C.FAN]

Too bad about HamR. Baboulas has been at practice all week. Saw him Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yes, Baboulas has been activated from the practice roster. The rest of the team flew to Edmonton this morning. This must have been a late diagnosis for JHR, but I see it was in time to get Baboulas on the 46-man roster and depth chart before the 4 p.m. cutoff, 24 hours before game time. WCJ, you'll need to post a new screen shot of that depth chart.

[WestCoastJoe]

Too bad about HamR. Baboulas has been at practice all week. Saw him Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yes, Baboulas has been activated from the practice roster. The rest of the team flew to Edmonton this morning. This must have been a late diagnosis for JHR, but I see it was in time to get Baboulas on the 46-man roster and depth chart before the 4 p.m. cutoff, 24 hours before game time. WCJ, you'll need to post a new screen shot of that depth chart.

Done. Baboulas on the updated Depth Chart.

I wonder how much we will use the 3 - 4 defence. If we do not blitz the linebackers, Ricky Ray will be quite happy, methinks.

I wonder how much we will run the ball.

I hope our receivers hang onto the ball.

[Lionheart]

Man this really sucks... AGAIN?? We lose our best oh line man so far... and how do you spell hamster rees anyways?? Es eh em I Es eh el oh?

[WestCoastJoe]

Updated IR and PR

Add J.R. Ruffin, Khreem Smith, Chris Smith, Nuvraj Bassi

Status of Chris Hodgson? Unknown

Quick impression from practice today ... Could Khreem Smith be starting at rush end? Back to the 4 - 3?

[Lionheart]

Could be.. coaches are trying to figure this out game by game... and endless training camp.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://communities.canada.com/theprovin ... valve.aspx

Safety valve

By L. Ullrich Wed, Jul 20 2011 COMMENTS(3) The Fifth Quarter

What, is he nuts; has he lost his mind again?

It's amazing how quickly you get reaction via email and text after Wally Buono released David Hyland Wednesday and replaced him with Jerome Dennis.

The Dennis signing would not come as any shock to Province readers this morning and to get him on the roster someone had to go who wasn't on an injured list.

But Hyland?

Well, off his work at safety last season there's little doubt he had a future with the Lions. But when the decision was made in the off-season to make safety a non-import spot, Hyland's stock began to shrink.

Surely nobody looking at his work objectively could ignore the fact he missed several tackles playing mostly as a wide-side halfback. So the Lions hope they have a better cover defender in J.R. Ruffin, who most assuredly seems destined to start Friday against Hamilton.

Eventually, they will get a better downhill attacker in Dennis, though he was not handed a starting spot as quickly as Ruffin.

What some of the shuffling seems designed to do, judging by the discussions taking place on the coaching staff, is to investigate whether the Lions can move Korey Banks into a more effective spot in the secondary.

It's why Buono wasn't completely busy throwing cold water on his interest in Tad Kornegay, the Saskatchewan defender who was released by the Riders Wednesday. B.C. is interested in Kornegay but only at Buono's price, which is likely a lot lower than what he can get elsewhere now that he is a free agent.

Banks by no means has played poorly; it's just that he might be more effective someplace else. If Anthony Reddick or Joe Henderson aren't ready, getting Dennis established is a precursor to another move.

And there's more coming too. Practice roster rookie Khreem Smith looks as if he will be activated to provide a much-needed push defensively up front, through fellow rookie James Bryant probably isn't too thrilled seeing as though he has been with the club since rookie camp.

There's also talk of more changes on offence next week. The Lions are 0-3. Think status quo will fly if they're not prepared to change coaches?

Shuffling chairs? On the Titanic?

Nah. But shuffling so much is not a good sign.

Especially if they switch back to a more traditional 4 - 3 alignment on defence, IMO it would just show more unpreparedness on the part of Mike Benevides. It seems to me we did not blitz enough to make the 3 - 4 a viable defence. It provided almost no pass rush pressure. Especially as offences cleverly designed game plans to occupy Korey Banks in man to man coverage to take away his big play ability.

There's also talk of more changes on offence next week. The Lions are 0-3. Think status quo will fly if they're not prepared to change coaches?

This week changes in the defence. Next week, changes in the offence. Whoo Hooooo

[B.C.FAN]

If Ruffin proves too slow to play the wide side (I thought he was in his Calgary days), moving Korey Banks back into the secondary would make a lot of sense. He's one of the league's best cover guys. Either Reddick or Dennis could move into the nickelback spot with little dropoff. Having Phillips and Banks at halfback would instantly make the B.C. secondary one of the best in the league instead of being one of the worst.

[jrower]

Shuffling chairs? On the Titanic?

Nah. But shuffling so much is not a good sign.

Especially if they switch back to a more traditional 4 - 3 alignment on defence, IMO it would just show more unpreparedness on the part of Mike Benevides. It seems to me we did not blitz enough to make the 3 - 4 a viable defence. It provided almost no pass rush pressure. Especially as offences cleverly designed game plans to occupy Korey Banks in man to man coverage to take away his big play ability.


This week changes in the defence. Next week, changes in the offence. Whoo Hooooo

Not sure what you're talking about with the pass rush. Look at the teams the Lions were playing. Calvillo is a QB that is almost impossible to get pressure on. He has such a great eye for how the play is unfolding. He can also get rid of the ball very quickly with great accuracy. We got pressure on him that for most QBs would cause at least some errors. He is just a great QB. Yeah, not many sacks, or forced incompletes, but that is difficult to do against that man. Against Calgary we got a couple of sacks and 3 interceptions. There were also a number of incompletes. We had pressure on him. Edmonton has Ricky Ray. That man is much like AC. He can read a play and get the ball where it needs to go quickly. He also has a strong O-line in front of him. He is a tough man to put pressure on. We played two of the strongest teams in the league. Two teams that are currently sitting pretty with purrfect records. They are good teams. We were able to put pressure on them fairly well. Yeah, if you go by stats, our pass rush sucks because we only have a handful of sacks. But if you watch the games you will see pressure on the QB fairly consistently by at least one player. At least that's the way I see it. You need to remember to take the other team into account when judging play. It may not be failure by one team as much as it is strength or success by the other team. If the Lions were leading the league in sacks would you say it was because they are good or because the other teams just have bad O-lines? Just like with most things in life, it is almost always a combination of the two. ie. nature and nurture. Almost never just one or the other. And with the Lions' pass rush I think it is more an issue of tough QBs to pressure and strong O-lines. (followed by a tired defence in the second halves due to them being on the field a lot, due to a struggling offence)

[WestCoastJoe]

By L. Ullrich Wed, Jul 20 2011 COMMENTS(3) The Fifth Quarter

What some of the shuffling seems designed to do, judging by the discussions taking place on the coaching staff, is to investigate whether the Lions can move Korey Banks into a more effective spot in the secondary.

Yeah. Korey Banks is a big playmaker. And offences have been taking him out of the play by forcing him into man to man coverage. Good, detailed, effective game planning by the opposition.

Banks by no means has played poorly; it's just that he might be more effective someplace else. If Anthony Reddick or Joe Henderson aren't ready, getting Dennis established is a precursor to another move.

More changes on defence. Hmmmmm

And there's more coming too. Practice roster rookie Khreem Smith looks as if he will be activated to provide a much-needed push defensively up front, through fellow rookie James Bryant probably isn't too thrilled seeing as though he has been with the club since rookie camp.

Pass rush?

"Practice roster rookie Khreem Smith looks as if he will be activated to provide a much-needed push defensively up front"

I agree. The 3 - 4 has been providing little or no pass rush pressure. Even if we go with a 4 - 3 IMO we will need blitzing help for the D Line in order to pressure the quarterback. IMO Benevides has not shown an ability to get his team blitzing effectively. So it does make some sense if we go back more to a 4 - 3, away from the 3 - 4, even though Benevides has said the 3 - 4 is the defence he has truly wanted to play. Can Khreem Smith be that rush end guy?

"fellow rookie James Bryant probably isn't too thrilled seeing as though he has been with the club since rookie camp"

Is Bryant in the dog house? Not deemed to be good enough? Being punished for going all out and injuring Hameister-Ries in practice?

There's also talk of more changes on offence next week. The Lions are 0-3. Think status quo will fly if they're not prepared to change coaches?

Yeayyy. This week we shake up the defence. Next week we can look forward to a shakeup of the offence.

Think status quo will fly if they're not prepared to change coaches?

Well, the status quo will fly with some fans.

Training Camp 2.0

[B.C.FAN]

No surprises in this week's depth chart. Only one new starter: J.R. Ruffin starts at halfback in place of Hyland. Oher additions to the 46-man roster are DL Khreem Smith and DB Jerome Dennis. Marquez Hall moves to the practice roster and Joash Gesse to the injured list.

Depth chart