Lions 20 - Bombers 17, Post-Game Stats and Comments

[WestCoastJoe]

Full credit to Travis.  Grit.  Veteran grace under pressure. 

O'Shea really messed up trying to rub our noses in it at the goal line.  Huge momentum turn.  You have to respect the opponent.  O'Shea did not do that.

Defence the usual sieve. 

Travis played very, very well.

We are far from out of the woods. The Bombers got complacent.

Amazing comeback by Lulay.

2:00 left. Tie game.

Wally used up his challenge a long time ago.

Magic. It ain't Wally. It's Travis.

We are going to steal it.

And then we did steal it.

We hung around, riding Travis. O'Shea gambled. As poorly as we have played, our guys have athletes' pride. Given a chance for redemption, we made two huge stops, and climbed back in the game.

I don't think the win disguises the ills with this team.

It shows the leadership of Travis Lulay, one of my all time favourites.

[maxlion]

BC beat a good team. The difference? Lulay.

[yukonlion]

Harris still shredded our D in the 2nd half, but somehow they held.... shut out in the 2nd half... think how bad we thought our team was in the 1st half... some hope in the den!

[Huge Talent]

Lulay made some pretty mediocre throws, but what a difference in his ability to make a good quick read. That's often enough in the CFL with the big field. Harris owned our linebackers, but bend not break was the mantra. Huge win!

Our Leos are a purrfect 2 - 0 at home so far. This can hopefully build some critical confidence.

[Huge Talent]

Have to throw this in there... I was at home keeping an eye on my little one tonight, disgusted what was happening on TV. I decided to head down for the 2nd half (wife gave me the green light, my season seat was awaiting)... The rest is history. 20 to bagel during my presence. You're welcome, Lionbackers!

[David]

Have to throw this in there... I was at home keeping an eye on my little one tonight, disgusted what was happening on TV. I decided to head down for the 2nd half (wife gave me the green light, my season seat was awaiting)... The rest is history. 20 to bagel during my presence. You're welcome, Lionbackers!

Haha, good luck charm!

Wow, that was not looking good. Most of the season ticket holders around me (including myself!) were pretty much resigned to defeat at half-time, especially after bungling the clock to end the half and not getting any points.

Tell you what, it wasn't a sellout tonight, but the people who came, brought it! There was a ton of energy in the stadium tonight.


DH

[yukonlion]

Good One Huge Talent... The lions have never lost when I ve seen them at BC Place (Lived in Hamilton, Ottawa and now Dawson City).. happy to attend every game if we can fundraise the air fare haha !

[WestCoastJoe]

Some stats ...

Not too shabby for the rusty redhead. Just amazing. 326 passing yards. Lifted the team up from the dead.

Of course O'Shea messed up Big Time. Showing no respect for pro athletes twice near the goal line. He will learn.

Rainey showed his talent.

As noted previously, you show up, hang around, make some plays, get some momentum and you just might win.

And you had better have the Comeback Kid on your team, Travis Lulay. Can he rescue the season? If he stays healthy, ya never know. But what can Lulay do about the defence? Ha ha

Screenshot_2018-07-14-22-41-35.png

[ZLions]

Defense came up big on those 3rd and 1 plays. Good on them for showing grit and determination, even though they were down big. First Solomon, then Odell. And amazing game Lulay, took one half to find some rhythm, but after that he was money..hopefully we can get more fans in the seats with him being our starter. If anything, hopefully this game can give the team some momentum and confidence; and also show the coaching staff what works.

[TheLionKing]

Game Ball

https://www.bclions.com/2018/07/14/all- ... -winnipeg/

[B.C.FAN]

O'Shea really messed up trying to rub our noses in it at the goal line.  Huge momentum turn.  You have to respect the opponent.  O'Shea did not do that.

Sneaky Wally, lulling Mike O'Shea into overconfidence and letting O'Shea's gambling addiction be his downfall. I've never been a fan of Wally's game management, and there were plenty of examples of that tonight, but O'Shea game management in the second half was his team's downfall, snatching defeat from almost certain victory. The Lions blew two third-down gambles through incompetence and stupidity but the Bombers blew two of their own through arrogance and poor game management.

The Lions' third-and-goal stop from the 2-yard line early in the third quarter was the turning point. If the Bombers scored a touchdown, the game was over. Even a field goal would have kept their momentum rolling after the B.C,. turnover on downs and would have allowed them to cruise through the second half. Instead they tried a QB sneak from the 2-yard line against a goal-line defence. The Lions made the stop, as most teams would, and got a big boost of confidence, and the offence moved the ball out of danger. The Lions pitched a shutout for the rest of the second half.

O'Shea's second major blunder came with a 17-10 lead in the fourth quarter. Instead of kicking a field goal for a two-score lead, the Bombers sent Streveler down the line and into the arms of Odell Willis and teammates in the backfield. The Lions have seen that move before from Streveler and weren't fooled.

The B.C. stops gave the whole defence a lift and seemed to shake Matt Nichols' confidence. Nichols' play deteriorated as the game went on. He nearly coughed up the ball on a sack by Coleman and then threw his third interception of the game into traffic in the middle of the field on the next play to set up the Lions' game-winning winning field goal.

The Lions won the turnover battle 5-3, thanks largely to ill-advised gambles by O'Shea and poor decision-making by Nichols.

Of course, none of this would have mattered if not for the return of Travis Lulay, who seemed to give everyone a boost of confidence. His timing was rusty, he overthrew his receivers on a lot of deep balls, and he didn't once run the ball on the option, but he still attacked all areas of the field and put the Lions in position to win it. Completing 28 of 41 passes (68.3%) for 326 yards, including two passes of over 30 yards plus a 29-yarder and a game-tying touchdown in the dying minutes is pretty good for a guy playing his first game in 10 months, especially after Jonathon Jennings failed to throw for 200 yards in his three starts and didn't have a completion of over 20 yards last week against the same defence.

This type of comeback victory can be the turning point in the Lions' season, and that of the Bombers, who are now the only West Division team with a losing record. It looks good on them.

[maxlion]

The screw up at the end of the first half still sits badly, but the team showed a glimpse of what it can be. Resilient, talented, confident. Lulay showed great leadership, and made the plays.

The defense gave us what we have come to expect: moments of excellence, long periods of poor play. They were excellent at the right moments tonight. Not sure if we can count on that consistently.

Every team has warts. Winnipeg's were revealed tonight.

[TheLionKing]

A win is a win and we'll take it. There are still a lot of warts that needs to be addressed. The team in the first half looked like the team in the past - poor tackling, giving up long plays, getting caught on special teams (AGAIN !) and some questionable coaching decisions.

[WestCoastJoe]

I like O'Shea. I agree with June Jones that the Bombers are very, very well coached. But he really blew it trying to embarrass pro athletes, whose pride has taken some beatings. That is just too dangerous. Of course the Lions would give their all to stop the 3rd down attempts to shame them. It would have crushed us, true. Instead it gave us life. He gambled. He had too much pride and too much killer instinct.

And then there was Lulay. Not a saviour, he says. Pretty dayum close. Same as 2011. Same as last year. Just freaking amazing. So intense, but icily controlled. He has gotten better and better, beyond his MOP/MVP year of 2011.

We escaped. The Bombers had many, many chances to put us away. But like a gladiator, who is terribly wounded, the opponent got careless, and we struck a mortal blow, while near death ourselves. Two chip shot FGs and we were done. Streveler looked human and fallible. He panicked on the second one. Nichols panicked at the end. O'Shea has some repair work to do, but not like us. Nothing like the work we have to do.

O'Shea is pretty young as a coach, but his team plays like gangbusters for him. We were out coached left, right and centre, until he got carried away. He won't do that again, I am sure. Do not give a pro athlete a chance. If you are ahead in poker, do not go double or nothing. He did, and he lost.

Defence? A sieve against the run.

Mostly it was a showcase for Travis Lulay, showing what he is made of. Courage. Character. First start in almost a year. Huge pressure. He faced it. Enjoy him while we can. He is a rare one.

[B.C.FAN]

O'Shea will have a tough time living this down. If this game seemed familiar, it followed the Bombers' recent pattern in B.C. Place.

It was a game that reeked of past mistakes dating all the way back to the 2016 West Divison Semi-Final. The Bombers coughed up a 28-12 stranglehold in that contest, leading for the first 58 minutes of the game before losing 32-31.

Winnipeg let B.C. comeback from a 42-27 deficit in last year’s game in Vancouver and on Saturday allowed the Lions to rattle off twenty consecutive second-half points to clinch a 20-17 victory.

The pattern can even be traced back further, before O'Shea's time.

The B.C. defence, which couldn't stop the Bombers in the first half, was dominant at the end.


Lots more good stuff from John Hodge of 3downnation:
Bombers choke in third consecutive trip to B.C. (& 10 other thoughts)