Eskimos 33 - Lions 17 Post Game Stats and Comments

[No Ordinary Joe]

Wally and JC have both got to go. The game has passed Wally by and he's unable to make the proper adjustments that are necessary to win. That and his constant throwing of his players under the bus has got to be tiresome as a player if there's no accountability from the top down. JC continues to employ the most unimaginative offence in the league. Predictable, stale, unbalanced.

Lulay was awful today. Underthrowing guys, overthrowing guys, throwing behind guys. Bad accuracy especially in crucial situations. Horrible throw on the INT.

Dobson Collins again unimpressive. Get Paris back in there.

Geroy and Foster were solid again. Even at 35, Geroy is still our best offensive weapon.

More missed tackles on D, unacceptable.

We entered this season as one of the more talented teams in the league, supposedly on the verge of building on our good second half last season in a year that we're hosting the Grey Cup and yet we don't even look close to competing for a chance to play in it. Three straight years of this is enough.

[CFLFanfromVancouver]

unimpressed with this team, changes have to come...that's all.

[TheLionKing]

Don't know about the rest of you but I'm tired of hearing how talented this group of Lions are. They may well be at some point in the future but not now.

[DanoT]

Don't know about the rest of you but I'm tired of hearing how talented this group of Lions are. They may well be at some point in the future but not now.

Not ever with stale game plans and 2 and out play calling.

[David]

Had some positives but Lulay and the receivers need to be more consistent, and we have to re-tool
the secondary and employ a more balanced attack until our receiver/qb system can pick up the
slack. Getting real tired of watching us get blown out in the first half and making an exciting
but feeble comeback in the second, we don't have the firepower to pull that off.

Good on you Lions(the ones that showed up) for the rest of you time to take a look in the mirror.

I think I can name them: Geroy, Harris, Robertson, Elimimian (for the most part), Foster, McCallum.

As for the secondary, Blitz made this point the other day and I completely agree: they made FAR too many changes for this game. Expecting Hyland to make a seamless transition to halfback and starting a very green Williams at corner was expecting a lot against a future Hall Of Fame QB. No need to make that many changes.

Receivers? Geroy is, well, Geroy. Thank Christ Gore and Foster have shown they belong as, ironically, we were all worried about our non-import receiving depth going into training camp. I am now far more concerned about our imports. Collins, Moore, and Black don't scare anyone.

DH

[Kamloops Lion]

It was Caravatta in the post-game show who proclaimed Chapdelaine a "great coach."
Those are the exact words Caravatta used to describe Chapdelaine: "a great coach."
He added that, if Chapdelaine was jettisoned, he would be snapped up by another team immediately.
He said Chapdelaine's record proves his coaching prowess.
However, Chapdelaine's coaching record with BC and Edmonton has been less than stellar.
Yes, he had success in the CIS with Laval and Bishops (and Greg Marshall was a veritable Knute Rockne at McMaster, yet he looked like the second coming of Lonnie Glieberman with the Ti-Cats).
And, Chapdelaine was with a good Calgary team in the early 200s as a receivers coach, I believe.
But, Chapdelaine has been an undebatable bust since.
How a coach can leave BC, go to Edmonton, get fired for incompetence as OC up there, and be welcomed back with open arms in BC, with a promotion to OC, is beyond me.
Caravatta also kept harping on the fact Buono is the winningest coach in CFL history. That phrase alone tells me nothing about Buono the coach today. It's sort of like bragging about being a 10-time world champion in boxing, which is a pleasant way of saying you lose the title nine times.
A caller made the salient point that Buono has no fear of being jobless as David Braley has said on the record, repeatedly, that Buono will be coach for as long as Buono wants to be coach.
Rather than point out the absurdity of Braley's position, Caravatta defended it by pointing out that Buono is, you guessed it, the winningest coast in CFL history!
Neither Caravatta nor Rick Ball bothered to mention Buono is a rather pedestrian 16-23 in the past two seasons and into this year.
What really irks me is the fact neither Caravatta or Ball (or anyone else associated with a Team 1040/1410 broadcast) will dare toss Buono anything other than a softball while doing a post-game interview; yet they will get a bit braver when he is not there to answer.
The questions Ball and Caravatta asked were asinine and shallow and weak:
1) What did you tell the team after the game?
2) How do you get the running game going?
3) How do you FEEL?
What's wrong with asking him point-blank: ""Wally, after three tough losses and two consecutive poor starts, is it time ton re-evaluate some coaching positions? Are you, Wally, considering the possibility the team has tuned out the current regime and might need new mentorship, with you, Wally, upstairs as GM?"
That's the bloody question on the mind of virtually every poster to this and other message boards and of virtually every caller to the post-game show, yet we get sycophantic prattle from a crew that cannot separate sports reporting/broadcasting from the advertising/sponsorship side of the equation.
Someone needs to tell Ball and Caravatta we can all see the damn elephant in the Team broadcast booth.

[Don Miller]

I would love to see Matt Dunigan named OC. I think he could really bring Travis Lulaly along. Lets make a call to Dave Ritchie for DC..we need changes not just personnel...

[B.C.FAN]

As for the secondary, Blitz made this point the other day and I completely agree: they made FAR too many changes for this game. Expecting Hyland to make a seamless transition to halfback and starting a very green Williams at corner was expecting a lot against a future Hall Of Fame QB. No need to make that many changes.

They'll have to make another change or two before they get it right. This has been the biggest weakness of the Lions for two seasons. Last year it was a green Stanley Franks that the opposition would gameplan for and rack up easy completions against. At least Franks had makeup speed and could chase down receivers who had beaten him. David Hyland can't. Most, if not all of the big plays given up by the defence today were against Hyland. He may make a good safety or short-side halfback or dimeack but not a wide-side halfback.

I said in training camp that Travis Williams could be a starter and I didn't see anything in limited time today to change my mind. He and Hall both played boundary corner in training camp while Dante Marsh was injured but they should have the skill to play on the wide side.

With four new receivers and two or three new starters in the secondary, we knew there woud be growing pains with this team. There is more growing to do.

[kenny]

What really irks me is the fact neither Caravatta or Ball (or anyone else associated with a Team 1040/1410 broadcast) will dare toss Buono anything other than a softball while doing a post-game interview.

After the Montreal game no mention of the field goal in the 4th quarter. Talk about an elephant in the room. After Wally's interview was over even Moj brought it up as to why Rick and Julio never asked about the decision to got for a field goal when were done by 7 with less then 3 left. Maybe some a little critical every now and then wouldn't hurt.

[TheLionKing]

Good summary Kamloops Lion. I was wondering what Caravatta had been drinking when he said that. As to Buono's winning record, football is a business. What have you done lately ? As to the post game interviews, it's a joke. Both Caravatta and Ball don't have the guts to ask the hard questions that fans wanted answered.

[kenny]

Neither Caravatta nor Rick Ball bothered to mention Buono is a rather pedestrian 16-23 in the past two seasons and into this year.

Let not forget a few of those wins last year were against an , a Calgary team that had playoff spot locked up and nothing left to play for and a meaningless last game of the season against Hamilton. That 16-23 could just as easily be 14-25.

[David]

Guys, that was Chris Burns, not Giulio Caravatta. Let's be clear. While I was infuriated after the Montreal game that Rick and Giulio let Wally off the hook in the post-game interview, Moj and Burns (the in-studio post game hosts on TEAM1410) were the most outspoken and critical I've heard them against this coaching staff. Burns couldn't criticize Chapdelaine without saying something positive, so he said if Chaps was let go, he thought he would have a job tomorrow (which I don't agree with) as he's a bright guy (which I do agree with) and there is a lot of recycling of coaches in this league.

And if you thought Moj and Burns were open to coaching changes, TSN's Farhan Lalji just teed off on the Lions' staff! It's worth trying to find the podcast and to give this a listen....this guy knows his football. I only hope Messrs Skulsky and Braley give his 10 minute rant a listen to. Farhan got a lot off his chest - everything from the stale 90s Calgary offense we're still running, to how we don't have the right personnel for a 30 defense, to the shoddy tackling in the secondary.

DH

[Rammer]

I think that I am on record perhaps even more than once on JC not being competent as an OC, however Wally missed the window to make that change in the off season. Unless you can tell me a solid replacement at this juncture, you can forget about that even being a consideration.

As for Wally being the winningest Coach in CFL history, well before him Mathew's was that Coach and somehow the best before date hit him as well. What a Coach is counted on for is the now, I haven't seen a game this season that I can say the Lions Coaching staff made the right calls, the right gameplan, or even the right personnel decisions.

0 and 3 isn't the end of the world in the CFL, especially with a few teams getting a slow start, but what kills is the same mistakes happening, the boring play calls, and the onfield preparation of the team. All that is being discussed now is rinse, lather and a repeat from the beginning of last season, nobody is discussing how the Lions finished which is what it should be a continuation of.

That all said, Edmonton is the real deal now. Can't even suggest to me that they have 75% of the player personnel that the Lions do, but with a solid DC in Stubler they seem to place the pressure on the opposition to allow them to get a lead. Once there, the ability of Ray and the run game put them the solid 3 games ahead of the Lions currently.

[Area51]

I've been saying for over two years that Cash For Life Buono needs to go before BC is going to have any chance at being a championship calibre team. The leadership council of this board can ridicule and censor my posts, but there's no way to deny the hard evidence. The performance on the field speaks volumes.

Giving up the HC job and remaining as the GM will serve no purpose - - Buono will have the new HC and coordinators filled with his yes men and it will be more of the same. This has become an embarassing and shameful situation for any Lions fan.

Buono lets incompetent coaches (Jock, Benevides) hang around simply because they're yes men who pose no threat to him, while far more useful coaches get run off (Kruck, Ritchie, Buratto). Same deal with players, but to an even greater extent - - how many instances has a far superior player been let go (JJ, Foley, Knowlton, Jiminez, J Smith, Dennis) in favour of one who's a Buono worshipper, or in good with the leadership council?

This is the kind of behaviour that you'd expect from a paranoid tyrant. Don't expect the media to be of any use in putting forth pressure for a change - - Buono makes sure his media relations controler has everything censored to deflect any kind of questioning that might expose the crumbling dictatorship.

[MacNews]

TSN's Farhan Lalji just teed off on the Lions' staff! It's worth trying to find the podcast and to give this a listen....this guy knows his football.

It was refreshing to hear, and he brought up what everyone has said, and I remember Rammer saying it last year.

Before a Calgary game last year, the Stampeder players said they knew our offensive plays. And guess what? During the game they'd call out our plays and match us. It's 2011 now, and the situation is the exact same.