Lions 26 Stamps 7 Stats and Post Game Comments

[TheLionKing]

http://cfl.ca/statistics/statsGame/id/10707

Lions finished the season 8-1 at home. Too bad they couldn't play .500 on the road, otherwise we would be hosting a home playoff game. Calgary suffered the loss of their 2 defensive tackles plus their leading receiver in the game. Heard on the Team that Harris finished 3 yards short of 1,000 yards rushing.

[B.C.FAN]

One team showed up, much like in the season opener in Calgary. In this case, the Stamps had nothing to play for and they became demoralized when they started losing players to injury. The Lions owned the line of scrimmage as a result.

We'll take it. The confidence boost was just what the Lions needed heading into the playoffs.
Travis Lulay looked sharp and could be ready to start next week. The offensive line played some inspired football, the Lions mixed up the run game with some draws and QB options on the zone read and the receivers had some success against the Stamps' coverage.

Despite the loss of Lulay for half a dozen games, the Lions finished just two wins behind last year's league-leading 13-5 record. They're going into Saskatchewan with more confidence than the Riders. It's a new season now.

[TheLionKing]

The Offensive line which has been much maligned this season is perhaps playing their best all season. The BC quarterbacks had all day to throw the football. Dean Valli said in the post game that they changed their schemes couple of games ago.

[Upper Bowl]

Replay on TSN2 at 1:30 am.

[zark]

There seemed to have been an awful lot of coaching going on this past week . That O line is not what I saw the last couple of weeks. Harris and Logan seem like a great pair.I noticed Buck's TD march was aided by quite a few penalties, whereas Lulays wasn't. I'll take Dunigans word though, that he's not ready.
Is any one miffed that Bene didn't try to get Harris the extra 2 yds he needed for a 1000 yd season? I don't think it's a big deal. I think Harris agrees.
Dispite the injuries suffered by the Stumps, I've always felt the starters should start.
The season is over. Let the play offs begin!

[David]

Is any one miffed that Bene didn't try to get Harris the extra 2 yds he needed for a 1000 yd season? I don't think it's a big deal. I think Harris agrees.

I believe he did try to get Harris the ball.....that's why we kept handing off to him on the last two drives. On 2nd down, DeMarco handed off to Harris who needed 7 yards and he got 5. Are you saying we should have handed off to him again on 3rd down? Not likely to happen. What hurt Andrew's chances really, was in the 4th quarter on goal to go from the 1 and he ran backward for about 8 yards. That's what killed his 1,000 yard opportunity. Still, a great bounce back effort for him these past two games, and he seems a really committed ball player.

The bigger question if he has a "1,000 yard" rushing bonus kick in, will Wally pay it on 998? His answer, I believe, is likely to be ".....bonus targets are not like horseshoes and hand grenades."


DH

[Blitz]

One team showed up, much like in the season opener in Calgary. In this case, the Stamps had nothing to play for and they became demoralized when they started losing players to injury. The Lions owned the line of scrimmage as a result.

We'll take it. The confidence boost was just what the Lions needed heading into the playoffs.
Travis Lulay looked sharp and could be ready to start next week. The offensive line played some inspired football, the Lions mixed up the run game with some draws and QB options on the zone read and the receivers had some success against the Stamps' coverage.

Despite the loss of Lulay for half a dozen games, the Lions finished just two wins behind last year's league-leading 13-5 record. They're going into Saskatchewan with more confidence than the Riders. It's a new season now.

It was another impressive game rushing for our Leos. This time we rushed for 179 yards - impressive rushing numbers for the second game in a row.

Here are some post game thoughts.

~Our Leos went into thsi season anticipating that Angus Reid would be our center and based our blocking scheme for the 2013 season with that thought in mind as well as playing Norman at guard.

~Four games ago our Leos changed our blocking scheme. They have been working on it extra time at practices. The new blocking scheme, combined with the addition of Stefan Logan and utilziing both Logan and Harris at tailback is paying huge dividends. Andrew Harris is thriving in the new concept.

~Buck Pierce got hurt early...this time a chest problem. Its really too bad because he is an inspiring quarterback but staying healthy is a constant problem for Buck. Hard to know if it will be him or Lulay who starts the playoff game. I hope it will be Buck with Lulay in relief if warrented.

~Travis Lulay looked good in his brief stint. At first I thought Lulay would only hand the football off or dink and dunk at best. But when he aired a football out to Moore (who made a great play to switch from his inside to outside shoulder at full speed) showed that Lulay had the arm to throw the football.

~We went into a big playoff game in 2004, 2005 with a rusty quarterback and inserted a rusty Dickenson into the 2007 playoff game, all with less than stellar results. Buck has not had a lot of game reps either. I think we will start Lulay against the Riders but I prefer Lulay coming in off the bench. He is a slow starter in games and he could watch the action and then step in. Its a scenario I prefer so it won't happen.

~It was good to see both Buck and Lulay fake the zone read play to Harris and take off with the football. It makes the zone read such a more effective play when they are willing to do that.

~Interesting to watch Tom DeMarco play again. He has such a rocket arm. He has a quick release. He throws terrible on the run. His potential looks so good but he looks like he is stil struggling with seeing the field at times and the game is still fast for him.

~While it was only one game Dave Dickenson did not look like an offensive geru with Cornish not in there after the first quarter. Calgary struggled offensively from start to finish.

~Calgary wanted to win this game as much as we did and they had more incentive to do so. Regualar season team and individual records were more on the line for Calgary than our B.C. Lions who only wanted momentum and to focus on our run game and we got both. Winning our last two games of the season is a confidence booster going into Regina as is the great improvement in our runnng attack. What a difference it makes.

~Our defense played very well. They made some really big hits and got good pressure on Calgary's quarterbacks.

~Bell left early in the game and I hope he will be able to play in Regina. It allows us to play our secondary where we want them to play.

~While Stefan Logan didn't break a punt return he was always dangerous and picked up good yardage when it didn't seem like there was much there. Logan is a very deceptive tailback.

~Our Leos lined up Harris in the slot on the goal line and ran a sweep two times. On the first one Harris scored a touchdown and at half time the play was lauded but in the second half, the same play, only to the left this time was shut down due to penetration and Harris took a loss. I like the play but not at the goalline. Its risk/reward ratio is too high. I would rather see the zone read or the quick toss to Harris or Logan in that situation.

It was a big win for our Leos. We won a game based on defense and our running attack. Both are keys to winning in the playoffs.

Its going to be an exciting week leading up to the big game next weekend. Go Leos

Game Stats

CGY Passing

Name Comp Att Yards TD Int

TATE, D 7 14 65 0 0
GLENN, K 5 8 45 0 0
MITCHELL, B 2 5 12 0 0

BC Passing

Name Comp Att Yards TD Int
DEMARCO, T 5 12 96 0 0
LULAY, T 3 4 54 0 0
PIERCE, B 4 9 41 0 1

CGY Rushing

Name No Yards Lg TD

WALTER, M 5 39 16 0
TATE, D 2 15 11 0
CORNISH, J 4 14 6 0
GLENN, K 1 13 13 0
MCDANIEL, M 1 10 10 0
MITCHELL, B 1 6 6 0

BC Rushing

Name No Yards Lg TD

HARRIS, A 16 102 20 1
LOGAN, S 12 64 21 0
DEMARCO, T 3 12 9 0
LULAY, T 1 1 1 1

CGY Receiving

Name No Yards Lg TD

FULLER, J 5 66 21 0
COTE, R 2 18 16 0
PARKER, A 3 17 9 0
MCDANIEL, M 1 6 6 0
ARTHUR, J 1 5 5 0
PRICE, M 1 5 5 0
WALTER, M 1 5 5 0

BC Receiving

Name No Yards Lg TD

MOORE, N 4 66 36 0
ARCENEAUX, E 1 45 45 0
GORE, S 3 31 15 0
TAYLOR, C 1 21 21 0
IANNUZZI, M 1 11 11 0
LOGAN, S 1 10 10 0
HARRIS, A 1 7 7

[CardiacKid]

The way Harris' season went, I think just finishing the regular season on a high note is triumph enough. And if that trend continues, not getting 1,000 yards will not matter. At least I hope that is the case with Harris' attitude to last night. He had plenty of touches and I think the coaching staff gave him the chance to get the 1,000.

[notahomer]

Fun game to watch. Loved the heavy dose of run. Running on second and long and CONVERTING. The long passs was working and with those two pistons humming the mid/short balls started flying too!

IMO, had the game had more needed, wouldn't have Hufnagel challenged Lulays long pass. I think Moore had it but whomever the reciever was its didn't look like he survived contact? Anybody watching on TV see it differently? I watched the replay in the stadium and thought "he's gotta challenge that" but he didn't. IIRC, after the three minute warning in the SECOND HALF, reviews are initiated by Central Command, but if not I guess thats why. Or maybe it was a clean catch?

Sure wish I was one of the lucky 50 or so that got an autographed football just before kickoff.

The start of the game was different too. The past few seasons (IIRC it started at Empire or the last season before going there) the Lions have ran these long videos of players making catches, shots of the city, motivating music etc.... I hate them because they are good to watch once but EVERY GAME? I think its weird for the players too. They watch their opponents run out and then have to stand around, shuffle their feet waiting, while their opponents keep stretching/getting ready out on the field. IMO, if it doesn't add, it subtracts. It must add something to some fans experiences....

Anyway, due to the autographed footballs and other items, the Lions came out of the tunnel first last night. Did their usual player intros etc... I'd like to see them keep this format where the Lions get introduced first......

[Blitz]

Interesting stat...Andrew Harris was averaging 4.9 yards per carry this season going into our last 2 games.

In the past two games Harris has run for 177 yds and has averaged 8.4 yards per carry.... last night he averaged over 10 yards per carry. We've only used the two tailback concept of Logan for 3 games and the results, along with the new blocking scheme are impressive.

Logan has rushed for 185 yards over the past two games and he also has an 8.4 yds per gain average in those two games.

You can bet Regina will be focused on stopping our running game next week right from the opening whistle.

[Hambone]

The Offensive line which has been much maligned this season is perhaps playing their best all season. The BC quarterbacks had all day to throw the football. Dean Valli said in the post game that they changed their schemes couple of games ago.

I think we have to take that dominance with a certain grain of salt. Once they lost the 2 DTs it looked like the Stamps had to spend the rest of the game with only 3 DL and little rotation. Junior Turner at 264# seemed to be task with playing nose tackle in that 3 man front. D'Aguilar seemed to rotate in a bit but struggled to get up after more than a couple of plays. I don't think he was exactly top of health. So it was very much and undersized and outmanned group Calgary had left to field for the second half.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

A couple of notes to follow up on Blitz's post.

Huf might have wanted to win the game but not too badly. After the first couple of Stamps injuries he seemed to throw in the towel - witness him getting Cornish to help Johnson to the dressing room. If he was serious about the game, there are other people who could have done that job. Taking Cornish out of it was a signal that as far as he was concerned the game was over.

That said, the Leos should have won by more than they did. Though to a large extent they were largely playing out the string too.

Buck and Travis - maybe the best thing would be to start Buck then have them spell each other for a few series at a time. If they're both at 75% they each need a bit of rest but they also both need the work to keep the rust off. And we need at least one of them to have a chance at winning.

[sj-roc]

That said, the Leos should have won by more than they did. Though to a large extent they were largely playing out the string too.

Not converting that 1st&GL@1 was troublesome. I had Mike Labinjo flashbacks.

[B.C.FAN]

IMO, had the game had more needed, wouldn't have Hufnagel challenged Lulays long pass. I think Moore had it but whomever the reciever was its didn't look like he survived contact? Anybody watching on TV see it differently? I watched the replay in the stadium and thought "he's gotta challenge that" but he didn't.

Hufnagel wanted to challenge Moore's catch. He took out his challenge flag, stood beside an official on the sideline and looked up at the big screen, hoping for another replay. When one wasn't shown, he put the flag away. I think a coach upstairs watching the TV replay told him that it was a good catch. It looked like Moore took about three steps with the ball before losing possession after he was tackled.

[TheLionKing]

The Offensive line which has been much maligned this season is perhaps playing their best all season. The BC quarterbacks had all day to throw the football. Dean Valli said in the post game that they changed their schemes couple of games ago.

I think we have to take that dominance with a certain grain of salt. Once they lost the 2 DTs it looked like the Stamps had to spend the rest of the game with only 3 DL and little rotation. Junior Turner at 264# seemed to be task with playing nose tackle in that 3 man front. D'Aguilar seemed to rotate in a bit but struggled to get up after more than a couple of plays. I don't think he was exactly top of health. So it was very much and undersized and outmanned group Calgary had left to field for the second half.

I totally concur. Difficult to really assess the Lions as both teams played as if it was an exhibition game.