B.C. Lions at Winnipeg July 30 - Game Day Thread

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions will have Ryan Philips back in the lineup at his familiar wide-side halfback spot on Thursday after missing three games with a hamstring injury but injuries have forced more changes in the young secondary. Rookie Steven Clarke, who had been replacing Phillips, moves one spot over to field corner. Cord Parks, who moved from field corner to boundary corner last week when Ronnie Yell got hurt, stays at boundary corner. Yell is still on the 46-man roster.

It looks like Keola Antolin may get into his first game as returner in place of the ineffective Alex Tillman. Antolin has been added to the 46-man roster, and Tillman is off.

Special teams leader Jason Arakgi returns from injury. Rookie DE Ese Mrabure-Ajufo is off. There are no other changes in the defensive line depth chart, so it looks like Zach Minter won't get into the lineup although he remains on the 46-man roster.

John Beck moves up to No. 2 on the QB depth chart for the first time this season, ahead of rookie Jonathon Jennings.

The Lions depth chart is here.

Drew Willy is listed as starting QB for the Bombers but slotback Nick Moore is injured.

The Bombers depth chart is here.

[WestCoastJoe]

The Lions will have Ryan Philips back in the lineup at his familiar wide-side halfback spot on Thursday after missing three games with a hamstring injury but injuries have forced more changes in the young secondary. Rookie Steven Clarke, who had been replacing Phillips, moves one spot over to field corner. Cord Parks, who moved from field corner to boundary corner last week when Ronnie Yell got hurt, stays at boundary corner. Yell is still on the 46-man roster.

I like the quality and depth of our DBs. Safety? Not so sure. Chris R and Eric Fraser would seem to be capable.

Special teams leader Jason Arakgi returns from injury. Rookie DE Ese Mrabure-Ajufo is off. There are no other changes in the defensive line depth chart, so it looks like Zach Minter won't get into the lineup although he remains on the 46-man roster.

Rookie project Ese M-A sits out, off the 46, on to the one game "injured" list, with Burnham and Husband.

John Beck moves up to No. 2 on the QB depth chart for the first time this season, ahead of rookie Jonathon Jennings.

Beck is still somewhat unproven, it seems to me. But I thought he showed well in limited reps last year.

Drew Willy is listed as starting QB for the Bombers but slotback Nick Moore is injured.

Slick Nick out? Better for us.

[WestCoastJoe]

Depth chart ...

[TheLionKing]

Drew Willy will start for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday night.

Willy received clearance from the team's the medical staff on Wednesday morning to play against the B.C. Lions.

Willy was injured in the third quarter of Winnipeg's 32-3 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday night. The injury occurred when Edmonton's Eddie Steele hit the quarterback down low on a combined tackle with Marcus Howard. Willy was helped off the field with an apparent injury to his right knee and was replaced by backup QB Brian Brohm.

Willy went 7-for-17 for 81 yards in the game before exiting. Brohm completed 9 of his 19 attempts for 71 yards with two interceptions as the Bombers were outscored 28-0 in the second half.

Willy has thrown for 994 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions across five games with the Bomber this season. He has been unable to finish two games due to injury.

The Bombers are 2-3.

http://www.tsn.ca/bombers-willy-to-star ... s-1.337857

[Qman]

Fyi

Roar Report ‏@RoarReport
BCvsWPG is a battle of the worst defence vs worst offence. #Bombers avg only 310yds/game (last) with 18 2&outs in last 2 games #cfl #bclions

Plus Nic Moore -- their go to receiver on second down --- is out

[sj-roc]

Fyi

Roar Report ‏@RoarReport
BCvsWPG is a battle of the worst defence vs worst offence. #Bombers avg only 310yds/game (last) with 18 2&outs in last 2 games #cfl #bclions

Plus Nic Moore -- their go to receiver on second down --- is out

The stoppable force versus the movable object.

[VictoriaFan]

I like that Antolin kid, all long as he doesn't get droppsy he may have some good returns

[Larry Key]

Great to see Keola back in as he is affective as a returner and can spell off Andrew Harris. The front four need to bring it tomorrow. Should be an interesting game to watch.

[B.C.FAN]

Game day, baby. The weather forecast looks pretty good, mostly sunny with a 20% chance of showers and game-time temperature of 22 to 24 C. It looks breezy, though, with game-time winds of 26 km/h, gusting to 39 km/h. I'm not sure what the wind is like in Investors Group Field, since it is more protected on all sides than the old Winnipeg Stadium.

[Rammer]

Game day, baby. The weather forecast looks pretty good, mostly sunny with a 20% chance of showers and game-time temperature of 22 to 24 C. It looks breezy, though, with game-time winds of 26 km/h, gusting to 39 km/h. I'm not sure what the wind is like in Investors Group Field, since it is more protected on all sides than the old Winnipeg Stadium.

IIRC the high punts are affected by the wind, and Leone can use this to his advantage. He will also have to drive the ball while the Lions are going into the wind, something that I haven't seen him really do so far.

This game may be the difference maker in one of these two teams making the playoffs over the other. Time for the Lions to play a clean 60 minutes of football and finish strong.

[Qman]

Game day, baby. The weather forecast looks pretty good, mostly sunny with a 20% chance of showers and game-time temperature of 22 to 24 C. It looks breezy, though, with game-time winds of 26 km/h, gusting to 39 km/h. I'm not sure what the wind is like in Investors Group Field, since it is more protected on all sides than the old Winnipeg Stadium.

IIRC the high punts are affected by the wind, and Leone can use this to his advantage. He will also have to drive the ball while the Lions are going into the wind, something that I haven't seen him really do so far.

This game may be the difference maker in one of these two teams making the playoffs over the other. Time for the Lions to play a clean 60 minutes of football and finish strong.

not as much as last week, IGF is sunk down so the wind isn't as big a factor any more. New Mosiac in regina is being built this way too. only wind tunnel left will be the new timbit field, rotated orientation and shape of the stadium. now the wind from the lake blows straight thru the open ends

[TheLionKing]

Still early in the season but a key game for the Lions. They're playing an opponent which in all likelihood the Lions have to beat out to make the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

[dupsdell1]

The lions better win , and I think they will , will make the Edmonton game a 2nd or first place showdown , was just listening to 1040 Taylor thinks having the roof closed last Friday with the rain kept maybe around 2000 people away

I agree everyone wants to sit in bc place with the roof open , the way the weather is looking for next week beautiful sunny Thursday so far.

[sj-roc]

The lions better win , and I think they will , will make the Edmonton game a 2nd or first place showdown , was just listening to 1040 Taylor thinks having the roof closed last Friday with the rain kept maybe around 2000 people away

I agree everyone wants to sit in bc place with the roof open , the way the weather is looking for next week beautiful sunny Thursday so far.

It's been discussed on here the last few days, and mentioned on 1040, how there's basically no such thing as game day walk up anymore. Overwhelming majority of people make up their minds several days in advance whether they'll attend or make other plans, and buy tickets online at that time. So I don't think the weather had any appreciable effect one way of the other on the Argo gate. There's no way 2000 people would have bought tickets to that game in the last 24hrs if only it had been sunny out. To be honest I really don't notice much difference whether the roof is open or not, other than sunshine landing on the northeast corner of the field and the stands. That's not such a large fraction of the seats.

The roof was open two weeks before for the home opener and the extra people in attendance included a lot of Rider fans who would have been there come hell or high water, but didn't have their team in the game next time out so the gate dropped accordingly.

[TheLionKing]

Penalty to start off the game