Calgary 26 - BC 9, Post-Game Stats and Comments

[WestCoastJoe]

Calgary @ BC

At the half

BLM 14/20, 257, 1 TD
90 yards rushing

TL 10/16 111 yards, 2 Ints
Sutton 4/13 rushing

No pressure on Bo
Can't stop the run

25-0 Calgary

Our offence totally ineffective.
Our defence ineffective.

Outcoached.
........ 

[WestCoastJoe]

Micah  Johnson ate us up.

Jennings playing well as the game moves into the 4th quarter. 12/13.  114 yards. JJ to Posey.  Beauty. 

No running game.

This fan is happy to see Jennings play well.

Running game not good.

Defence not good.

It seems evident that Calgary out coached us.

Congrats to Wally for his long, successful career. But this one showed, once again, that his time is long past. He needs outstanding coordinators to provide the Xs and Os, and the coordinators he has chosen are far from outstanding. And of course they provide the philosophy he wants on O, D and STs. Conservative and simplified to the bone.

[Sir Purrcival]

Another BC Lions year. They made the playoff this year but it will be a short lived appearance.

[Huge Talent]

Well that wasn't good

[Robbie]

#1. Did you manage to get one of the 5,000 Wally Buono bobblehead?

#2. Who should be the starting Lions QB in the East Division semi-final?

[Sir Purrcival]

To be honest, I think we would be better off with Jennings. A lot of Travis passes looked like wobble monsters.

[yukonlion]

Trouble, cant stop the run and no pressure on Bo tonight, and O looked bad

[Huge Talent]

I'm not generally a conspiracy theorist, but I wouldn't worry too much, Leos fans. Wally and Dave D are buds. Lots of money on the line for the visitors, nothing for us. If there was ever a time to throw one, tonight coulda been it. Crazy?

[David]

To be honest, I think we would be better off with Jennings. A lot of Travis passes looked like wobble monsters.

His arm looks dead to me. No zip on his passes. Lots of ducks. Even on the long completions, the receivers have to wait for. I am more than a little concerned.

It's very noticeable when JJ comes into the game. The ball is thrown on a thread.


DH

[MacNews]

What a sad regular season finale for Buono. He deserved better.

Is this not an embarrassing outing for Jackson and Washington in their roles as Coordinator. They were out-coached. Wally's undying loyalty to his assistant coaches ultimately led to a 9-9 record despite our pretty good personnel.

If we can snag Trestman I predict a much better 2019 season.

[BC 1988]

To be honest, I think we would be better off with Jennings. A lot of Travis passes looked like wobble monsters.

His arm looks dead to me. No zip on his passes. Lots of ducks. Even on the long completions, the receivers have to wait for. I am more than a little concerned.

It's very noticeable when JJ comes into the game. The ball is thrown on a thread.


DH

I think Travis is playing hurt, to the extent it's making him ineffective. Remember when he got banged up two weeks ago in the 2nd quarter vs EDM? Medical/training staff looked quite concerned.

Unfortunately, he's been pushed into this situation by Hervey's mind games, which are probably aimed at running Jennings out of town. Otherwise, a healthy JJ10 would be starting.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

We were sitting right by the tunnel and watched both teams exit when it was over. It's always great to see opposing players walking out together as chums, but Travis walked alone and he looked frustrated, in pain, or likely both. However, interviewed on the radio afterward he sounded like he was sucking it up and accepting the loss with no excuses.

Burnham, OTOH, seemed to easily accept the "Calgary had more to play for than us" excuse.

[B.C.FAN]

That was an embarrassment and a sad way to end Wally Buono's regular season coaching career, being outcoached by one of his former players.

It didn't have to happen. The building was full of energy at the start of the game and the offence started with a bang as Travis Lulay hit Cory Watson for 35-yard gain on the opening play to put the Stamps on their heels. The Lions couldn't extend the drive but they lined up for a 50-yard field goal that would have opened the scoring. That's when things started to go downhill. They were short a player on the kicking team but instead of taking a timeout and lining up correctly Wally opted to take a time count penalty and send out the punt team. That was as close as the Lions came to scoring in the first half. They again got into scoring position at the Calgary 36 yard line on their second drive but an ill-advised Travis Lulay pass was intercepted by Ciante Evans for the first of three turnovers by the Lions.

For the second straight game, Lulay did not look sharp. His passes fluttered and he sometimes threw into double or triple coverage. Wally wisely inserted Jonathon Jennings after halftime, and he played slightly better but by then the score was 25-0 and the game was essentially lost.

Most importantly, the Stampeders won because Dave Dickenson schooled Mark Washington in the first half. The B.C. defence played a lot of soft zone coverage and pressured Bo Levi Mitchell only once when Bo Lokombo came on a blitz. Mitchell still completed the pass. Most of the time, Lokombo was lined up 15 yards deep in cover-2, and then dropped deeper at the snap, making the coverage easy to read. The Stamps flooded zones and attacked intermediate areas in front of the Lions' safeties. When the Lions showed man defence, the Stamps used motion across the formation and then attacked the back side on the ground and in the air after B.C. players had vacated the area. It was easy for Mitchell to read the defence and take what the Lions were giving. The Lions generated no pressure with a four-man rush and only occasionally sent a linebacker on the pass rush.

The Stamps' first two possessions started at their own 5-yard line and ended with field goals due to long drives against B.C.'s soft and predictable defence. If the Lions had scored field goals when they were in position on their first two drives, the score would have been 6-6 and there still would have been energy in the building, but fans and players quickly became resigned to defeat after Mitchell hit Chris Matthews with a 44-yard bomb against tight man coverage by Anthony Orange at the B.C. 1 yard line to set up their first touchdown of the game. After an exchange of punts, Mitchell exploited the soft B.C. defence again on an 11-play touchdown drive to make the score 19-0. Rene Paredes completed the first-half scoring with two field goals, one of which was set up by an interception off a Lulay pass that was deflected at the line of scrimmage.

As they have all year, the Lions tightened their defence and played more man coverage in the second half, holding the Stamps to a single point, and holding Mitchell to 3 of 8 passing for 21 yards after he had gone 17 of 24 for 257 yards in the first half, but it was too late. Jennings was able to generate only a single touchdown drive.

The B.C. run defence was hampered all night by some ineffective play at middle linebacker by a hobbling Micah Awe, who told Farhan Lalji he is not 100 per cent but was trying to shake off the rust and hopes to be better next week in Hamilton. The Lions also were hurt when Claudell Louis left the game with a sprained ankle and was replaced by Junior Luke. The Lions' run defence had improved sharply when Jordan Herdman was moved to middle linebacker and Louis was inserted at nose tackle in place of Luke 10 games ago. In this game, the Stamps rushed for 145 yards on 22 carries, as Awe had just three defensive tackles and Luke had one.

Farhan suggested on the postgame radio show that the Lions didn't want to show any wrinkles schematically in this game because they wanted to save them for the playoffs. I think he was being overly charitable. The Lions gave the game away and then gave up. It was a disappointing ending to a regular season where the Lions built up expectations and then let their fans down. I hope they can turn it around next week in the playoffs.

[TheLionKing]

The warts that was there in the first half reappeared. Stupid undisciplined penalties, poor tackling, surrendering first downs on 2nd and long. Play like this next week and the Lions will have their lunch handed to them by the Ti-Cats.

[WestCoastJoe]

Excellent review, BCFAN.

Some stats

The ''razzle-dazzle'' play culminating with a 7 yard completion by Peters was almost comedy relief. Yeah, we can do trick plays. We kept the Super I, also known as the Conga Line or the Centipede, on the shelf for this game.

I thought Jennings played well. Sharp, accurate and poised. Would Hervey want him back? Would Jennings want to be back here, or would he prefer a trade or release?

Based on this game, not a good audition for coaches for 2019.

Yes, it does seem like Wally will sail off into the sunset. Even Braley cannot bring him back. It would make a mockery of all the recognition given on the farewell tour. At least the team got to 9-9 and made the playoffs in his final year.

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