Riders 37 - Lions 18 Post Game Stats & Comments

[Lionheart]

Jack Chaps was aweful tonight.

I saw nothing what so ever that remotely looked lika a plan for the riders.

The defense also didn't do the same things.. and I'm not taking about success, but the same attack. They just held back.. not a great evening for me or the boys.

[Belize City Lion]

The stadium was 1982, the half-time show was 1964, but the Lions were 2009 all over again. Couldn't get protection from the O line, never put any pressure on Durant, nothing new from The Chap except the same old same old that hasn't worked for 3 years. To be honest I was shocked to see the post game stats showing that Geroy had 6 catches. I thought they only went to him about 3 times. Of course two of those passes resulted in touchdowns, so you can understand why The Chap would keep the ball away from #81. Our most innovative moment came when Lulay successfully went to his right on 3rd and 1 instead of the typical unsuccessful attempt right up the gut (that Saskatchewan seemed to be expecting).

[The_Pauser]

I wouldn't blame Printers or Lulay at all for the offensive problems tonight, and thought that both QB's actually looked pretty good. At least, as good as one could really expect given the horrendous blocking they had in front of them. Our O-Line is a serious, serious problem, and has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. They were letting everyone through, and just couldn't buy either QB any sort of time.

Our defense got shredded the entire night too, and missing Keron Williams really did seem to hurt. Durant and Co. were just able to do whatever they wanted at will it seemed, especially in the second half when the wheels really came off.

This game really reminded me too much of what we saw last season, and was polar opposite of what we saw last week.

[geroy_simon_081]

Our O-Line is absolute garbage.
Until that is corrected, nothing good can happen.

[TheLionKing]

Some random thoughts:

- Lions were their own worst enemy; 16 penalties including one on 3rd down. Inexcusable

- Inability to make adjustments. The Riders were stacking the line of scrimmage and they were coming from all directions. No screens, draws, reverses to counter the pass rush. Chapdelaine's answer to the blitz ? Throw short passes and hope the receivers can get you the first down. Absolutely no imagination on play calling.

- Funniest moment of the entire game was when the guy in a wheelchair went on the field being chased by two security guards. I've seen naked streakers but never a guy in a wheelchair.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.bclions.com/article/lions-fa ... ome-opener

The Rider defence collected four sacks and had the Lion quarterbacks running for their lives most of the night.

"That's what Saskatchewan does, they bring pressure and they like to get after the quarterback," said Travis Lulay, who replaced Printers in the second half.

"They like to vary what they do. They were giving us multiple looks."

Lulay finished the completing nine of 15 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown pass.

They attack. All teams would say they want to get after the QB. But you must IMO have an attitude of attack, and use schemes creatively and with good timing and deception. When our O and D seem predictable, as game commentators point out, it is because our Lions are predictable. Lacking subtlety and deception and timing.

The Riders use those multiple looks, and they time them well, and they disguise what they do. One simple example is having the outside LB take a step back, then blitz. Subtle but effective. Not obvious. And it is no doubt based on a read, with an option. Creative and adaptive.

By the way, I thought Lulay and Printers did not look all that bad, especially considering how they were running for their lives.

[Tighthead]

I think Jordan looks okay. Give him some time to get his legs.

Hard to believe this team had no need for Jiminez.

Now we see why Wally was looking for the very average Rob Murphy to come back.

JHR is underwhelming. Sorenson can't beat out some marginal players - perhaps we have an issue with developing the talent we draft? Did anyone ever project Jones as a starter?

Printers does not look comfortable to me - not saying he looks bad, but at times he looks to be playing against instinct.

Considering the way the team ran the ball last week, and the fact that the Riders pass rush is complex and effective, I have no clue why we would not come out looking to pound the ball. It also helps the o line settle in.

Very few elite players on the team now, and one elite player is struggling (19)

I'm sure Wilson is glad we ran a meaningless short pass on the last play of the first half.

God bless Brent Johnson, but he has hit the wall hard.

The two new dbs may be comers.

We are awfully vulnerable to the run when we go with 3 down linemen and 2 true LBs.

[Centrum22]

Funniest moment of the entire game was when the guy in a wheelchair went on the field being chased by two security guards.

Put him on the O-line; it could only help.

[ThreeTimesOneMinusOne]

I liked Franks tonight and nobody can complain about 2 Geroy TD's. That is all. Just the same things that happened last year. Everybody else on here is better at elaborating on stuff than me (one of the reasons I haven't posted in a while), but you don't have to be perceptive about the small things to know how bad they looked.

[B.C.FAN]

Some notes from an inspirational setting at Empire but an uninspired game by the Lions:

The key to the game for the Lions was to prevent Darian Durant from completing the deep ball and they couldn't do it. According to stats read out on the Team1410 postgame show, the Riders had 9 plays of 19 yards or more. They converted 9 of 14 on second-and-long opportunities, while the Lions completed only three second-and-long plays all game. The Lions played a mix of man and zone against Durant on second and long, and often rushed 5, 6 or 7 defenders, but it didn't make much difference. Durant is the best QB in the league, and probably throws the most accurant intermediate and deep ball. He just reads the defence, rolls away from pressure and hits the open man. To the Lions' credit, they made adjustments and limited Durant's effectiveness as a passer in the second half. He had only 63 yards passing after the half, and only one long completion, but the Riders did their damage on defence and special teams.

The turning point was when Paul McCallum tried to run for a first down on third and 11 and was chased down by Hugh Charles. It was a 13-10 game at that point, and the Lions had been coming on in the play. The Riders capitalized on the turnover with a touchdown to make it 20-10, and their defence turned up the pressure afterwards. (All three turnovers in the game were turned into touchdowns; two by the Riders and one by the Lions.)

Injuries affected both teams but the Lions' play suffered the most. With Soloman Elimimian at middle linebacker for the injured Anton McKenzie in the second half, the Riders piled up most of their 188 rushing yards and were able to control the game after McCallum's turnover and dominate the time of possession without an effective second-half passing game. On offence, with Andrew Harris replacing the injured O'Neil Wilson in the second half and with Paris Jackson hobbling, Travis Lulay focused mainly on two receivers. Twelve of his 14 second-half passes were intended for either Geroy Simon or Derick Armstrong. They both had good games, and Simon rewarded fans who stayed to the end with a beautiful 97-yard TD, but a team can't move the ball consistently without more options.

The Lions used a lot of hot reads and stop patterns to counter the Saskatchewan pressure, and they used double tight ends effectively in the second half to establish a running game but penalties killed their drives. You can't have an effective running game or short passing game if you're facing second and long.

Jamall Lee is not a blocking back. His poor blocking was responsible for at least one Rider sack and one pressure that resulted in an incompletion, and he didn't seem interested in doing anything more than giving defenders a quick shove, leaving them free to pursue the play. He was often responsible for picking up pressure off the edge. He couldn't do it.

Defensively, the Lions had a lot of trouble with the Riders' hitch screens. This is high school stuff. Professional linebackers should be able to flow to the ball and help with the tackle. Elimimian couldn't do that.

The Lions lost the special-teams battles all night. Robert Jordan didn't do much as a returner, but his blockers didn't do much for him.

The bottom line is that the better team won, but the Lions made it a lot easier than it should have been.

[Lionut]

The Lions were running with the smallest splits on the offensive line that I have seen in pro football in a long time. Their splits were maybe a foot and a half, whereas you see most pro teams these days running with three foot splits. If you watch the U.S. college teams who run the spread offense, their splits are even wider.

We run with those tight splits in youth football, where running inside is rare and you often don't trust your blocking. The problem is that it doesn't give your QB any throwing lanes, and it gives "edge" rushers a very short route to your QB. It was very strange to see, and I still can't figure out what they were trying to accomplish with it.

Bottom line - until that offensive line play improves dramatically, not much else really matters. Fixing that has to be priority one.

[joe kapp22]

Well, after a bit of thought:

-Young team, I suspect a large portion of the team has less than 10 starts in the CFL

-Riders are clearly the best team in the CFL right now..for now.

-I'm not certain whether or not the Oline lacks talent, or experience, either way I'd expect some changes.

-Was shocked they did nothing to counter basic overload blitzes, not even use a Wr to chip on that side of the formation

-They miss Lyle Green as Jamal Lee hasn't shown to be a very good blocker as of yet.

-Manny Arceneaux is not having a good early portion of the season

-While they did give up plays of 19 yds or more, after the first Qtr the "D" did a good job at denying them long passing plays, until they just wore down in the 4th Qtr.

-To me, Gibbs/Williams/Johnson is our best DE rotation as Pittman is something of a fish so far.

Bright spots:

D:

-Reddick, Gibbs, Henderson

O:

Simon, Armstrong

Problem areas:

-Team Speed did not really show on Defense, Hughes and Cates were able to run away from Defenders consistently

-Oline the one area were scheme was deficient, on Defense there were times a Rider Wr was completely open, for the Oline there were to many instances were they were not in position to block a defender, or the scheme was designed to allow the defender to come in unblocked and it was pathetic to watch.

Dummy penalty of the Game:

LaRose lining up in the neutral zone

Smartest play Simon making a Rider Db look foolish on his long TD reception.

Next up, Montreal,

[Rodu]

new O line, same old problem; they suck

That's the one thing Wally has consistently not had in his time in BC, a solid O line for more than a season or two

[Blitz]

The focus, after a poor offensive performance will focus on the quarterback position as it always does and on the offensive line, if the quarterback(s) were under too much pressure.

Casey Printers has looked both sharp and out of sync so far this season. Lulay yesterday showed his potential on a couple of plays but also struggled. The offensive line, with its cast of members having such little CFL game experience, will have its struggles but also played well at times.

The big problem is the problem we've had offensively since 2004. The problem is an offence that can be easily bltized and does not have the anti-blitz strategies to hurt blitzing teams. We've overcome it, at times, in the past with superior talent. We've overcome it in the past because Dickenson would take the brutal hit to make the throw or Printers would escape to make a huge play or a Jarious Jackson would heave one deep downfield. However, it has always required great plays by individuals, to overcome the opposition blitz, and that's impossible to do, all the time.

So, instead, we had a Dickenson swarmed, a Printers running for his life, a Buck Pierce taking a bashing, and a Jarious Jackson who couldn't deliver the big play often enough. The quarterbacks took the heat, the offensive line was consistently criticized for giving up the most sacks in the league, and the same old continues.

However, until our offensive structure and play calling learns how to combat the blitz. we'll continue to see it and continue to struggle. Every CFL defensive coordinator knows our offence and they know that blitzing it often is the key to making it difficult for us. We've got the same recipe for years and years and still we keep doing the same old things that don't work and continue not to use screens and other anti-blitz strategies.

Sad, frustrating, etc. and no quarterback or offensive line can overcome it by themselves.