Leos/Bombers Post-Game Thoughts!!

[Rammer]

SPECIAL TEAMS

Ricky Foley continued his fine play on special teams by recovering a Winnipeg fumble on the opening kickoff.

And two more ST tackles tonight for Ricky as well. He may be frozen out of any playing time on defence, but he's making big plays when he does get on the field for kick coverage. It's funny to hear the announcers talk about how Boden earned a spot on the offense by "paying his dues" on special teams. I guess Ricky still has more "dues" to pay.

You have to pay your dues and have an opening become available in your position. But you have to like what you see in Boden, he is going to be a gooder for the Lions down the road.

[TheLionKing]

Good to see Brent Johnson and Cameron Wake each get a sack. Didn't realize just how quick that Wake is when he sack Kevin Glen.

[MacNews]

Were there 3 or 4 reviews today? Whatever it was..too many. Seemed like Berry only had to think about challenging and it was reviewed..

Great stand by the D, forcing the fumble and stopping Winnipeg in the 1st quarter to save 4 points!



Can it get any better than this?

[TheLionKing]

There were two reviews requested by Doug Berry. The third one is an official review in the last 3 minutes of the game.

[Dan Russell]

Cory Mantyka: He kept Canada out of our backfield all game.

I must have been in a time warp ! :lol:

I also noticed that he wrote that and I thought did Wally sneak him into the game?

[joesports]

However, the play was overruled on the challenge by Winnipeg even there wasn’t conclusive evidence to overrule it. Instead of getting the football at mid-field we end up getting a no yards call instead. A pure homer call by Jake Ireland that would never have been made if the play wasn’t in Winnipeg’s home field aat a crucial time in the game.

A little physics law for Jake:

KE=1/2*m*v

also:

A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

So knowing some basics physics please explain to me how the football stops dead after "going through the legs of Johnson without being touched"? The ball hits him in the leg and stops dead. No further is there a bounce to it. Watch the way it bounces towards Johnson then watch how it bounces after he "doesn't touch it".

I thought the rule was there has to be absolute proof to overturn the call on the field. When reviewing that play, even on replay, you would be hard pressed to say the call was wrong.

Our Leos did a great job! We should be proud of what they have been able to accomplish this year. However the media in this city bothers me when a Canuck loss is more important than our Leos VICTORY Don't get me wrong, I do watch other sports but I would appreciate it if the media wasn't so blatant.

We have the "MO" with us going into the last few games of the season and we should be there in the Grey Cup again.

GO LIONS!!!!

[Blue In BC]

In the first half of tonight’s tilt our Leos looked like they have the requisite character and heart to in win in Playoffs and into the Championship game.

If we play as we did in the first half of this game I will guarantee the victory of a second Grey Cup win, but there can be no flagging like what happened in the second half of this game.

What I saw was the tale of two mindsets as the Lions became complacent and sloppy after the half, while their possible GC opponents woke up and found new life in the second and played a whole and much better game than we did.

Fortunately for us we found that other gear and realized what was on the line in time and showed up big time when it mattered the most.

Three guys that make me proudest are Jarious Jackson who shows that many in both leagues were foolish to have given up on so early in his career.

Bret Anderson the firefighter who was talk out of retirement by Wally to save our bacon tonight.
He is simply the most talented and most versatile Lion ever to play on our franchise, and a major reason if we should be so lucky as to repeat it will be because all Championship teams have one of this kind of intangible in their organizations.

Ryan Phillip’s ability to jump the underside of his and other defensive teammate routs is becoming one of Lion’s football lore, as he once again proved he is one of the team’s all time elite defensive assets.

Kudos to Floyd, Glatt, Knowlton, and Crawford for shutting down the Bomber running game on the goal line stands, because they were as essential as any other offensive weapon used to win this game, thanks to Paris, Geroy, and Lion82

Also to you Blitz for your unswerving dignity, loyalty, and deft touch when it comes to the art of Football analysis.

I think you should remember the versatilty Jim Young brought to the Lions before you suggest Anderson as the best ever.

Not to downplay the skill Anderson has. He's is a remarkable individual and any team would be happy to have him or a clone of his abilities.

But Jim Young was a starter on offense and on defense in his career. Those guys don't grow on trees.

[Blue In BC]

You're on!

I thought it was football that was played at the Grey Cup, I don't want any part of a "rubber" match Seriously, I would be very pleased if it was to be a Bomber/Lions GreyCup

I hope that you don't mind an Argos/Lions Grey Cup because that is more likely what you will get instead.

Oh yeah. I forgot about the center of the universe. Aren't you guys busy chasing becoming an NFL team instead of playing in the CFL?

[Gerry]

I'd say that any Argo fans reading and posting on Lionbackers are pretty hard-core CFL guys. They aren't chasing and wishing for the NFL in Toronto.

[Don Miller]

Well daid Jerry. Hogtown are not going to be getting an NFL team anytime soon. You just have to see the narrow minded comments on the CFL by many of those who live in the Toronto area who consistantly slag the CFL. THey have this idea if it is not made in the US it's crap. There are some dog teams in the NFL, I am a true football fan. Many of our players ovdr the years have gone on to be good players in the NO FUN LEAGUE. A lot of NFL players come up here and can't make it. The large tv media market in TV is important to the CFL too bad a large majority of those who live in the area don't or won't support the CFL or more importantly the Argo's.

[notahomer]

...The football touched Johnson and changed direction. However, the play was overruled on the challenge by Winnipeg even there wasn’t conclusive evidence to overrule it. Instead of getting the football at mid-field we end up getting a no yards call instead. A pure homer call by Jake Ireland that would never have been made if the play wasn’t in Winnipeg’s home field aat a crucial time in the game....

That call had me baffled too. I'm willing to admit its possible that Johnson didn't touch it but as the call on the field was a fumble, there just didn't seem to be the conclusive evidence to overturn.

I wasn't surprised the weather had an impact. I was laughing a bit at the broadcast crew. They had written off McCallum as doing any kicking after he didn't kick the extra point. I thought is was common knowledge he was sticking to punting this week?

[Krazy4football]

However, the play was overruled on the challenge by Winnipeg even there wasn’t conclusive evidence to overrule it. Instead of getting the football at mid-field we end up getting a no yards call instead. A pure homer call by Jake Ireland that would never have been made if the play wasn’t in Winnipeg’s home field aat a crucial time in the game.

A little physics law for Jake:

KE=1/2*m*v

also:

A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

So knowing some basics physics please explain to me how the football stops dead after "going through the legs of Johnson without being touched"? The ball hits him in the leg and stops dead. No further is there a bounce to it. Watch the way it bounces towards Johnson then watch how it bounces after he "doesn't touch it".

The ball kept rolling after going through his legs, it didn't stop dead. However, the replay is supposed to provide "conclusive evidence" to overturn the call on the field, and that replay was anything but conclusive. Ireland is out to lunch and out to pasture after this year I hope.

[Blitz]

"Conclusive" to Jake Ireland, one of the old boys referees' is whatever he feels like. That's the way guys like Ireland used to referee all the time until there was great pressure to improve our refereeing and grade them. You don't see Ireland as the head ref in Grey Cup games anymore...the league want's better!!

Some other thoughts on the Leos/Bombers game:

The Campaiign Against Rob Murphy

Seems like a team has sent in clips of Rob Murphy to the league showing illegal blocks. Any team could pick an offensive lineman on any opposition team and find illegal blocks. Murphy got nailed in this game for a leg whip, a holding call, and a proceure call.

Murphy's leg whip call was borderline but illegal. The Winnipeg player was already fallin down when Murphy curled his leg into him, making contact behind the players legs. Chris Shultz went on and on about the play, like he was reading a prepared script. It was not a vicious leg whip. It was not an attempt to injure.

However, Shultz made it appear that way. Rob Murphy is going to continue to be under a microscope that no other offensive lineman in the league is under. It's unfair and it's been a campaign that other teams should be ashamed of...because the real reason they are doing it is to hurt our team and not because they have any real concerns about Murphy's blocking techniques.

The Running Game

Secondly, I found myself wondering why we didn't run out of the two back set more often. Smith rushed for 45 yards on 18 carries...less than a 2 1/2 yard per carry average. I've been huge supporters of Kruck/Dorazio from Day 1, so I believe they had reasons for going ace back set so often. They had video of the Bombers defense and spotters and knew the conditions.

I also understand why they didn't want to run the option, or the counter toss with Smart as tailback so we didn't see him. However, before this game I wrote that we would have a tough time running inside with the ace back set...that we needed the fullback isolation block on Simpson. Some insdie counters would also have worked. However, we also needed to get outside and the pitch to ether Smith or Smart at tailback would have been advantageous against Simpson.

Winnipeg plugged the inside and Simpson was playing run all the way. I liked the fact that we went play action out of the two back set on first down, with Winnipeg expecting the run. We were wise to go the air with the Bombers playing rour run as their priority. However, our struggle to run the football last night is something our coaching staff should closely look at in terms of strategy for the next time we play them.

We can't allow them to plug the inside, with penetration, and keep trying to run the inside zone and the stretch play exclusively. If you want to run the football against the ombers successfully, you have to getr an isolation block on Simpson, you have to counter, you ned an occasional quick trap or dive play to the fullback tp provide a quick hitter, and you have to sweep against them.

Receiving

Geroy Simon was our leading receiver again and it's good to see him playing this well. He could still end up leading the league this season. Teams are having even more difficulty passing the football this season. We still had a few receiver drops in this game and it's still an area that we have to improve on. Iwatchedf a number of Glenn's passes fluttering out there in the wind and he's used to the conditions. Jarious Jackson threw purrfect spirals. I swear he could throw a purrfect spiral in a hurricane!

Ryan Phillips

I love watching Ryan Phillips play wideside halfback. His antiicpation is impressive. I couldn't believe we used him at nickel last season and wrote repeatedly that he was being wasted there. Sure relieved Ritchie saw the light this season because Phillips has made a huge difference to our defense playing halfbck Phillips, along with Jamal Johnson are my two favorite defensive players because I love the way they play the game.

McCallum Guts One Out

The ofocus has ben on Bret Anderson's first two field goals ever. Huge kudo's should also go to McCallum for playing in this game. He was badly huring in the warm up. It would have been a tough game for Anderson to punt in. McCallum really gutted one out for the team. By the fourth quarter he was done and needed to come off. However, most punters wouldn't have played. McCallum showed his toughness for his teammates and his effort should be admired.

Williams and Wake spells "W"s

Tyrone Williams leads the league in defensive tackles for defensive lineman. He's really been a monster in his last few games. I was a little tough on him earlier in the season, believing that he wasn't playing to his standard. B.C. Fan supported him big time and the big guy is really coming through for us. However, he's not the only one. Cameron Wake is not far behind him and the number of tackles that Wake has for a rooke defensive end is mind blowing to go along with his league tying sacks. Wake is not only a candidate for rookie of the year but also the defensive player of the year!!

[Solar Max]

"Conclusive" to Jake Ireland, one of the old boys referees' is whatever he feels like. That's the way guys like Ireland used to referee all the time until there was great pressure to improve our refereeing and grade them. You don't see Ireland as the head ref in Grey Cup games anymore...the league want's better!!

Actually, Blitz, he Reffed the 2006 Grey Cup Classic.

Referee, # 62 Jake Ireland, his 13th Grey Cup.
Umpire #39 Bob Reddekopp.
Head Linesman, #50 Brent Buchko
Line Judge #72 Al Bradbury
Side Judge # 27 Jeff Harbin
Back Judge #70 Don Ellis
Field Judge #54 Al McColman

Alternates #32 Glen Johnson, #56 Steve Dolyniuk.

That doesn't make Jake a good ref, it just means he heads the old boys club with George Black.