Leos at home to Bombers
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:26 am
Our Leos are back at home on Friday night, when we take on the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
How can one forget the thrilling finish to last season's Semi-Final, as our Leos defense fell apart early and then Jonathan Jennings led us out of that dark hole and then made "THE PLAY", escaping like Houdini and then racing to the end zone and victory.
Nor can one forget the regular season contests between these two clubs in 2016.
On Friday night, Travis Lulay will be at the controls of our offence, following his impressive performance against Hamilton. Jonathan Jennings will not only not be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat, as he did in last year's Semi-Final. He may not even be our back up quarterback. His MRI showed no serious injury. He has a bruised shoulder and he has improved range of motion but our Leos are taking a cautious approach. We may even bring in another quarterback while Alex Ross could assume the backup role.
Our Leos lost their home opener but since have won 3 games in a row on the road. Its time for our Leos to show that they are not only road warriors but know how to play tough and wise on their own turf.
Lets have a closer look at this game.
OFFENCE
Our Leos play their best with a balanced attack. Travis Lulay is at his best with play action. What do those two things mean? We gotta run the football some more.
Last week Jeremiah Johnson had a 7.7 yd. run average on 9 carries. We need to 'up' his work load some. Johnson is now 2nd in CFL rushing in the CFL and has the best rush yd. average (6.0 yds.) of any CFL tailback with over 20 carries
Nick Moore, coming off a tremendous performance in Hamilton leads our Leos receivers in receiving yards and is 4th in the CFL in receiving. Moore has an amazing 18.9 yd. average per catch this season.
Moore proved in Hamilton that our passing game does not have to be the Manny/Burnham show and he is more than capable of taking the pressure off those two players or hurting a defense if we utilize him.
Our offence is 2nd in the CFL in points scored, 2nd in rushing and 3rd in passing. We have a lot of offensive weapons.
But we've given up the most sacks in the CFL so far. My worries about the Olifioye trade and our quarterback getting injured this season have come to fruition. Antonio Johnson has struggled at times. Facault let his defender through and the result was our first string quarterback was injured. Travis has had a long list of injuries. Quarterback protection has to improve.
For the Bombers, Andrew Harris Is 4th in CFL rushing and Weston Dressler is 6th in CFL receiving and already has 16 receptions out of the backfield this season. Both our the Bombers 'go to' guys on offence.
The Bombers are not an explosive offence. But our Leos defense has to play smart football against the Bombers because they know how to play against our defense.
The Bombers also have given us just over half as many sacks as our Leos offence has. We have to give Dressler the attention he deserves and watch Harris coming out of the backfield.
DEFENSE
Our Leos defensive unit needs to up its game if we want to become a championship team. While we lead the CFL in pass knockdowns, we've done that while only having the 4th best pass rush in the CFL. We've given too many quarterbacks too much time to throw the football. When we've done that, we've given up big plays.
When we get pressure, the talent and speed of our secondary shines. But our zones open up when we have to cover for too long. What has really hurt us defensively so far is a lack of an inside pass rush. Craig Roh is 3rd in the CFL in quarterback sacks. Dequin Evans and Josh Shirley (with less reps) have one each as does Bryant Turner.
Brooks does not have a sack and has 7 defensive tackles. Turner has 4 defensive tackles. Brooks is averaging less than 2 defensive tackles per game and Turner is averaging one tackle per game. They have one sack between them (Turner) and they have not been getting consistent penetration, which is critical these days against pocket passing quarterbacks.
I'm hoping to see Luke and Forde get more reps at tackle against the Bombers. Neither have a tackle so far this season or a sack but their playing time has been quite limited.
Sol E. and Alex Singleton, by far the two best linebackers in the CFL have 34 tackles each to lead the league in that category.
The Bombers are a dangerous defense. The lead the CFL in interceptions and T.J. Heath is the CFL's interception leader. Jamaal Westerman is a tough defensive lineman to block.
The Bombers defense can be exploited. They love to run press man coverage with zone over the top. They play a high risk, high reward style but it can also be a high risk, get burned style. The key is game planning, play calling, and quarterback protection.
The Bombers, by playing a lot of press man coverage with zone over the top, have to cover the tailback with a linebacker. If we use Johnson and Rainey wisely out of the pocket, we can isolate either on a linebacker and take advantage. But that doesn't mean quick swing passes against press man. It means getting our tailback downfield.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Ty Long has the best punt average in the CFL. Not too shabby when one considers he was not a punter in college. He also leads the CFL in kickoff average. Long has hit 10/11 field goal attempts for a 90.1% success rate.
Shockingly, our Leos 7th in the CFl in punt return average, while having the best return man in the CFL in Chris Rainey and a backup returner in Iannuzzi who knows how to get good positive yardage on returns.
WRAP
Go Leos. We need a win at home for 2017. Friday night is the time to win our first home game of the season against the Bombers.
How can one forget the thrilling finish to last season's Semi-Final, as our Leos defense fell apart early and then Jonathan Jennings led us out of that dark hole and then made "THE PLAY", escaping like Houdini and then racing to the end zone and victory.
Nor can one forget the regular season contests between these two clubs in 2016.
On Friday night, Travis Lulay will be at the controls of our offence, following his impressive performance against Hamilton. Jonathan Jennings will not only not be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat, as he did in last year's Semi-Final. He may not even be our back up quarterback. His MRI showed no serious injury. He has a bruised shoulder and he has improved range of motion but our Leos are taking a cautious approach. We may even bring in another quarterback while Alex Ross could assume the backup role.
Our Leos lost their home opener but since have won 3 games in a row on the road. Its time for our Leos to show that they are not only road warriors but know how to play tough and wise on their own turf.
Lets have a closer look at this game.
OFFENCE
Our Leos play their best with a balanced attack. Travis Lulay is at his best with play action. What do those two things mean? We gotta run the football some more.
Last week Jeremiah Johnson had a 7.7 yd. run average on 9 carries. We need to 'up' his work load some. Johnson is now 2nd in CFL rushing in the CFL and has the best rush yd. average (6.0 yds.) of any CFL tailback with over 20 carries
Nick Moore, coming off a tremendous performance in Hamilton leads our Leos receivers in receiving yards and is 4th in the CFL in receiving. Moore has an amazing 18.9 yd. average per catch this season.
Moore proved in Hamilton that our passing game does not have to be the Manny/Burnham show and he is more than capable of taking the pressure off those two players or hurting a defense if we utilize him.
Our offence is 2nd in the CFL in points scored, 2nd in rushing and 3rd in passing. We have a lot of offensive weapons.
But we've given up the most sacks in the CFL so far. My worries about the Olifioye trade and our quarterback getting injured this season have come to fruition. Antonio Johnson has struggled at times. Facault let his defender through and the result was our first string quarterback was injured. Travis has had a long list of injuries. Quarterback protection has to improve.
For the Bombers, Andrew Harris Is 4th in CFL rushing and Weston Dressler is 6th in CFL receiving and already has 16 receptions out of the backfield this season. Both our the Bombers 'go to' guys on offence.
The Bombers are not an explosive offence. But our Leos defense has to play smart football against the Bombers because they know how to play against our defense.
The Bombers also have given us just over half as many sacks as our Leos offence has. We have to give Dressler the attention he deserves and watch Harris coming out of the backfield.
DEFENSE
Our Leos defensive unit needs to up its game if we want to become a championship team. While we lead the CFL in pass knockdowns, we've done that while only having the 4th best pass rush in the CFL. We've given too many quarterbacks too much time to throw the football. When we've done that, we've given up big plays.
When we get pressure, the talent and speed of our secondary shines. But our zones open up when we have to cover for too long. What has really hurt us defensively so far is a lack of an inside pass rush. Craig Roh is 3rd in the CFL in quarterback sacks. Dequin Evans and Josh Shirley (with less reps) have one each as does Bryant Turner.
Brooks does not have a sack and has 7 defensive tackles. Turner has 4 defensive tackles. Brooks is averaging less than 2 defensive tackles per game and Turner is averaging one tackle per game. They have one sack between them (Turner) and they have not been getting consistent penetration, which is critical these days against pocket passing quarterbacks.
I'm hoping to see Luke and Forde get more reps at tackle against the Bombers. Neither have a tackle so far this season or a sack but their playing time has been quite limited.
Sol E. and Alex Singleton, by far the two best linebackers in the CFL have 34 tackles each to lead the league in that category.
The Bombers are a dangerous defense. The lead the CFL in interceptions and T.J. Heath is the CFL's interception leader. Jamaal Westerman is a tough defensive lineman to block.
The Bombers defense can be exploited. They love to run press man coverage with zone over the top. They play a high risk, high reward style but it can also be a high risk, get burned style. The key is game planning, play calling, and quarterback protection.
The Bombers, by playing a lot of press man coverage with zone over the top, have to cover the tailback with a linebacker. If we use Johnson and Rainey wisely out of the pocket, we can isolate either on a linebacker and take advantage. But that doesn't mean quick swing passes against press man. It means getting our tailback downfield.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Ty Long has the best punt average in the CFL. Not too shabby when one considers he was not a punter in college. He also leads the CFL in kickoff average. Long has hit 10/11 field goal attempts for a 90.1% success rate.
Shockingly, our Leos 7th in the CFl in punt return average, while having the best return man in the CFL in Chris Rainey and a backup returner in Iannuzzi who knows how to get good positive yardage on returns.
WRAP
Go Leos. We need a win at home for 2017. Friday night is the time to win our first home game of the season against the Bombers.