Buono's team-building strategy is collapsing, Lowell Ullrich

[TheLionKing]

Why does it take until the third, fourth, fifth week of the season? Why aren't these holes identified in the off-season??

I think their strong finish after a horrendous 1-7 start coupled with their strong play in the playoffs masqueraded alot of the problems.

[B.C.FAN]

What really concerns be right now is that I believe Wally is starting to get desperate underneath...and desperate people often make stupid decisions.

I look at all the mid-season pickups from last year and this year, and I get worried. We have a long off-season and a full training camp, yet suddenly on the first four weeks of each season we find out we are lacking in talent.

Why does it take until the third, fourth, fifth week of the season? Why aren't these holes identified in the off-season??

The biggest problem this year is in the defensive secondary, where halfback Stanley Franks missed most of training camp and started only one game before being injured again, J.R. LaRose won the safety spot and then broke his arm at the start of the season and Davis Sanchez tried to play with a partially rehabbed elbow that didn't allow him to tackle with his usual efficiency. That's three-fifths of the starting secondary injured or playing hurt. It hurt the team and led directly to several of the team's losses. Add the fact that versatile backup Anthony Reddick was out with an injury, and it's clear that changes that couldn't be foreseen in the offseason had to be made in a hurry during the early season.

I've believed since training camp that Travis Williams can be an effective starter, and he has been given the wide side corner, replacing Sanchez. He lacks experience but he can grow into the position. J.R. Ruffin, Jerome Dennis and Tad Kornegay are good pickups who give the Lions more depth in the secondary than they have had in several seasons. Reddick and LaRose are ready to step back into the lineup.

It's now up to the rebuilt secondary to begin producing results, which means allowing fewer big plays. Through five games, the B.C. secondary has allowed 12 pass plays of 30 yards or more (2.4 per game), the most of any team in the league, after allowing only 24 such plays in 18 games last year (1.3 per game). It may take some time for the DBs to get used to playing as a unit, but they should now have the talent and experience quickly gel as a unit.

[1greatmysticbushape]

boo hoo suck it up nancy"s

[Rammer]

boo hoo suck it up nancy"s

Thanks for the great intellectual addition to our site.

[David]

The biggest problem this year is in the defensive secondary, where halfback Stanley Franks missed most of training camp and started only one game before being injured again, J.R. LaRose won the safety spot and then broke his arm at the start of the season and Davis Sanchez tried to play with a partially rehabbed elbow that didn't allow him to tackle with his usual efficiency. That's three-fifths of the starting secondary injured or playing hurt. It hurt the team and led directly to several of the team's losses. Add the fact that versatile backup Anthony Reddick was out with an injury, and it's clear that changes that couldn't be foreseen in the offseason had to be made in a hurry during the early season.

My problem is not so much with the talent that was pencilled in, it was with our off-season recruiting. Woefully shallow. Where were the rookies to push the vets? Marquez Hall was the only newcomer to crack the roster - and despite all the injuries, he was recently cut (Travis Williams was here late last year). The club must have known about Davis Sanchez's elbow as he even told me when I bumped into him downtown (shortly before training camp) that it was still bothering him.

Same with receiving. We'd known about Manny Arceneaux signing in Minnesota fairly early in the off-season, yet the best we could do to replace him was Dobson Collins (Nick Moore was here late last year)? Kierrie Johnson is the only other import receiver FA signing still on the active of PR.

Not good enough.

DH

[Rammer]

The biggest problem this year is in the defensive secondary, where halfback Stanley Franks missed most of training camp and started only one game before being injured again, J.R. LaRose won the safety spot and then broke his arm at the start of the season and Davis Sanchez tried to play with a partially rehabbed elbow that didn't allow him to tackle with his usual efficiency. That's three-fifths of the starting secondary injured or playing hurt. It hurt the team and led directly to several of the team's losses. Add the fact that versatile backup Anthony Reddick was out with an injury, and it's clear that changes that couldn't be foreseen in the offseason had to be made in a hurry during the early season.

My problem is not so much with the talent that was pencilled in, it was with our off-season recruiting. Woefully shallow. Where were the rookies to push the vets? Marquez Hall was the only newcomer to crack the roster - and despite all the injuries, he was recently cut (Travis Williams was here late last year). The club must have known about Davis Sanchez's elbow as he even told me when I bumped into him downtown (shortly before training camp) that it was still bothering him.

Same with receiving. We'd known about Manny Arceneaux signing in Minnesota fairly early in the off-season, yet the best we could do to replace him was Dobson Collins (Nick Moore was here late last year)? Kierrie Johnson is the only other import receiver FA signing still on the active of PR.

Not good enough.

DH

Well to be fair, the Lions were looking pretty good at the conclusion of last season talent wise, as they rolled to the improbable 7 - 3 w/l record. Talent looked pretty good other than DL (rush end perhaps) for NI depth and an OL (picked up Archibald to address that). I am guessing that Sanchez being placed on the 0 game IL is more of a salary savings, although the elbow may have hindered his game, as he was generally aggressive through his career, not so much this season though.

Collins looks good until he has to catch the ball and that may work itself out, but the bigger disappointment is the lack of progression by Black and his subsequent release. He looked like a solid shoe in for the departed Arceneaux, but certainly wasn't ready for the opportunity presented.

All in all there weren't many roster spots available or at least thought to be the concern coming into 2011, but the departure of Stabler seems to be one key missing ingredient. As I type this all I can come to the conclusion yet again is that JC and Benevides aren't as good as we see around the league, and part of that may well be Wally's conservative nature and final say with the two coordinators.

[B.C.FAN]

Well to be fair . . .

That's an rare but admirable quality during a five-game losing streak.

[WestCoastJoe]

All in all there weren't many roster spots available or at least thought to be the concern coming into 2011, but the departure of Stabler seems to be one key missing ingredient. As I type this all I can come to the conclusion yet again is that JC and Benevides aren't as good as we see around the league, and part of that may well be Wally's conservative nature and final say with the two coordinators.

As the evidence gathers (It's all on film), it seems apparent to me that time has passed Wally by.

When did we ever see him so desperately picking up other teams' discards?

He is belatedly trying to adapt, trying to catch up to the new Xs and Os coaches in the league. His talent is no longer superior. To say the least, his talent, which looked so good in the preseason, is not playing up to its capabilities. Leaks show up in new places.

Why did we look good in preseason? Vanilla game plans and play calling by all teams. Talent looked more than adequate. Our vanilla schemes did just fine.

But Wally's attempts to modernize are too little, too late. His Xs and Os guys, Benevides and Chapdelaine, are not up to the level of the top guys in the league. Play design. Game planning. Play calling. All inadequate.

Wally leaves motivation to the players themselves. Most top Head Coaches in football have their own way of motivating. Even in his best years Wally's inability to motivate has cost him championships. Slow starts to seasons and games? A combination of inadequate Xs and Os (out coached, out prepared) and inadequate motivation. IMO ...

One of Wally's main attempts to change is the subject of this thread. He has changed his philosphy of how to build a team. In his best years, he did develop almost all of his own talent. In the last few years, he has gone more and more to picking up players that other teams deemed expendable.

IMO Wally is like a lot of athletes who do not retire at the top. They keep the dream going. They keep the big pay cheques coming. And their reputation takes hits at the end of their careers.

I was so pumped up when Bobby Ackles brought Wally over from the debacle of his last couple of years in Calgary with the F Troop. That was a long time ago. Wally is now seeing the same results he saw in those last years in Calgary. A confused team. A team that goes through the motions in practice. A poorly motivated team. A team that has average talent, which looks better on paper, but underperforms. The talent may not even be the problem. Ben Archibald has been the outstanding lineman in this league. But it just leaks out somewhere. To me, that is coaching, not talent.

Fans of course are hoping the team can turn it around. Oh wouldn't that be great? We would be condemned to more years of the same philosophy, under one of his "student" coaches. If we "salvage" this season, as seemed to happen last year, it will be more of the same old, same old, on and on ... The glory days are over with the culture of this team (One championship in eight years, and blown chances in others).

IMO ...

[David]

Well to be fair, the Lions were looking pretty good at the conclusion of last season talent wise, as they rolled to the improbable 7 - 3 w/l record. Talent looked pretty good other than DL (rush end perhaps) for NI depth and an OL (picked up Archibald to address that). I am guessing that Sanchez being placed on the 0 game IL is more of a salary savings, although the elbow may have hindered his game, as he was generally aggressive through his career, not so much this season though.

Collins looks good until he has to catch the ball and that may work itself out, but the bigger disappointment is the lack of progression by Black and his subsequent release. He looked like a solid shoe in for the departed Arceneaux, but certainly wasn't ready for the opportunity presented.

All in all there weren't many roster spots available or at least thought to be the concern coming into 2011....

I would argue that you don't conduct all these free agent camps down south JUST to address need. You look for ballers regardless of position. The fact is, we didn't bring in enough talent to challenge the vets and sophomores at camp. If a team's record had anything to do with recruiting, Montreal wouldn't even bother scouting.

I still maintain that we didn't adequately address our needs at non-import DL and receiver, given Arceneaux's departure (Collins looks all-world at practice but has had trouble transferring that production to games). I don't even think the Lions expected Gore and Foster to be this far along in their development given their lack of playing time last year. This has been a somewhat surprising and fortunate outcome for the team.

DH

[West Coast Blue Fan]

Collins looks all-world at practice

Ummm, no.

[bigmoopie]

There's nothing like a couple of wins to change the outlook on things. The players will have a little bounce in their step and a little swagger in their stride. The coaches may have the odd smile on their faces. The media and fans will have something else to dwell upon. That being said, there has been a shortage of import talent being brought in the last couple of years, perhaps Roy Shivers is a little past his prime. The Lions have had a little tough luck with injuries, NI drafts and losing personnel to the NFL the last couple of years but these should be cyclic things. One thing I find disturbing are the number of players picked up from BC that are playing very well for other teams...Messam being the latest, perhaps the coaches are having difficulties picking out the "gamers" or unwilling to adapt their schemes to fit the talent.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://communities.canada.com/theprovin ... trade.aspx

Strange new ways after Bruce trade

By L. Ullrich Wed, Aug 3 2011

Just finished our piece for the paper on the Arland Bruce trade. Now it's time to go searching for Wally Buono.

If you've been watching the Lions the last few weeks, first of all our condolences, but secondly you can't help but ask where they have hidden the coach/GM of the resident CFL entry.

The other Wally was the guy who couldn't make a trade, or if he did had to make sure he fleeced his GM opponent or otherwise wouldn't pull the trigger. The other Wally would never take the discards of another team and try to make them fit on his own.

Wally is trying to plug some holes in the dam with other teams' discards.

But so badly have things deteriorated that it's pretty clear this Wally has had to abandon some long-held principles in an attempt to repair the mess he created.

Well, at 0 and 5, it does qualify as a mess. And Wally does seem to have abandoned his long held principle of developing his own players.

And though we don't profess to have a clue whether any of this will work or not, you got to give the man props for trying. He has his detractors because he chooses to remain in his current dual capacity (OK, it's a small army) but the only thing worse about an 0-5 start where the GM said he wouldn't fire the coach would be an 0-5 start where neither of them did anything.

Wally has his detractors, and he has his supporters. There were two supportive posters hanging on the fence at Tuesday's practice. Some of the cynics thought Jamie Cartmell's artwork looked good.

Any team that adds Kamau Peterson, J.R. Ruffin, Tad Kornegay and now Bruce since training camp has to be better. It may speak volumes about the state of their player personnel assessment process. Their draft record hasn't been hot lately. And it'll likely be several decades before any CFL team tries to start a season with four receivers who never previously had caught a pass.

Yes. Seemingly good additions.

Personnel assessment process in question? Yes.

Draft record not so hot? Yes.

Questionable move starting four receivers without any passes ever caught when the bullets fly for real? Yes.

At least Bruce has caught quite a few passes, though you wonder what Bob O'Billovich knows about Bruce that he would give him up for two draft picks. When we find the other Wally, we'll ask him.

Well, Arland Bruce could help. We don't know yet. But he should have confidence. Short term measure. Better than waiting for NFL cuts. We got lucky with Newman and McGrath being available last year. It is possible we got lucky with some of our mid-season pick ups this year. But it sure does seem like desperation.

[notahomer]

I thought Ullrich had an excellent piece in todays Province outlining the Gary Buono's of the past few seasons. I personally have been very happy with the Lions coverage. I don't always get a chance to read Beamish's pieces but can usually find a copy of the province the thumb through at work. I give both Beamish and Ullrich on their work. It may not be stuff the team and/or the fans wearing orange tinted glasses want to read but I think both reporters usually bring up good points.

[Rammer]

I thought Ullrich had an excellent piece in todays Province outlining the Gary Buono's of the past few seasons. I personally have been very happy with the Lions coverage. I don't always get a chance to read Beamish's pieces but can usually find a copy of the province the thumb through at work. I give both Beamish and Ullrich on their work. It may not be stuff the team and/or the fans wearing orange tinted glasses want to read but I think both reporters usually bring up good points.

Just so youdo know, both Beamish and Ulrich are available to read on line, just look them up on google or through their respective papers on line.

[joe kapp22]

boo hoo suck it up nancy"s

More or less, however win this week puts us into much better position, the games prior to Labor Day are going to be rather tough.

I think what Coach Buono's issue is revolves around:

-young players staying
-the young players who do play are not playing at a consistently high level.

For example, Hamilton is starting 3 rookie Wr's, they are playing well, our 3 rookie Wr's, only Foster is playing consistently well, Collins is gone, Moore has vanished, and Gore is wildly inconsistent, but even if Gore turns it on the rest of the way we could then lose him to the NFL.

I think somehow, the first third of the season was more or less preseason, Buono saw what they young guys had, and adjusted by bringing in 3 new members to the Secondary, and Peterson and Bruce.