Bombers 30 - Lions 17 Post Game Stats and Comments

[Rammer]

Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
T. LULAY 12/23 103 0 0
J. JACKSON 6/19 124 1 1

Receiving Rec YDS TD LG
G. SIMON 4 54 0 24
A. BRUCE 4 34 0 12
K. PETERSON 2 31 0 19
K. JOHNSON 2 18 0 12
S. GORE 2 17 0 12
A. FOSTER 1 54 1 54
A. HARRIS 1 10 0 10
R. LUMBALA 1 7 0 7
T. BROWN 1 2 0 2

Rushing ATT YDS TD LG
A. HARRIS 4 -2 0 4
T. LULAY 3 26 0 20
T. BROWN 3 11 1 6
J. JACKSON 2 22 0 11
K. JOHNSON 1 7 0 7

Fumbles NO LST REC YDS
A. HARRIS 2 2 0 0
A. BRUCE 1 1 0 0
T. BROWN 1 1 0 0
J. JACKSON 1 0 0 0
A. REID 0 0 1 0
A. LAROSE 0 0 1 0

Field Goals FG LG XP PTS
P. MCCALLUM 1/1 20 2/2 5

Punting NO AVG NET LG
P. MCCALLUM 10 41.3 319 53

Punt Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
K. JOHNSON 5 38 7.6 26 0
T. BROWN 2 10 5.0 6 0
A. HARRIS 1 2 2.0 2 0

Kickoffs NO YDS LG SG
P. MCCALLUM 4 185 63 0

Kick Returns NO YDS AVG LG TD
T. BROWN 3 82 27.3 34 0
A. HARRIS 2 36 18.0 21 0

Defence TKL SK INT FF
S. ELIMIMIAN 7 1 0 0
A. MCKENZIE 5 0 0 0
K. MITCHELL 5 0 0 0
K. WILLIAMS 4 0 0 0
A. LAROSE 3 1 0 0
D. MARSH 3 0 0 0
K. SMITH 2 1 0 0
A. REDDICK 2 0 0 1
T. KORNEGAY 2 0 0 0
J. DENNIS 2 0 0 0
A. HUNT 2 0 0 0
B. JOHNSON 2 0 0 0
K. BANKS 1 0 0 0
T. LULAY 1 0 0 0
J. HENDERSON 1 0 0 0
D. VALLI 1 0 0 0
S. GORE 1 0 0 0
R. PHILLIPS 0 0 1 0

One thing impresses me there. Travis Lulay had more tackles than Ryan Phillips.

:LOL: But he did have one more INT than Lulay as well.

[Wakesbetterthanyou]

[quote="SammyGreene"]Now ONE POINT to show for the Lions work in the 3rd quarter of the last FOUR games combined. This time it was part of nine straight 2 and out possessions. A complete embarrassment.[/quote]

I believe it's 1 pt in 5 games now in the third q. At least we have a easier sched with edm w/ no stamps then bye, then 2 games vs equally pitiful braley run Argos.

[WestCoastJoe]

Now ONE POINT to show for the Lions work in the 3rd quarter of the last FOUR games combined. This time it was part of nine straight 2 and out possessions. A complete embarrassment.

Hmmmmm ... I wonder if this could be adjustments by the opposition?

Did anyone hear the Bombers D calling out the Lions plays?
........

I did see Benevides on TV at half time giving his usual motivation speech to the defence. They looked bored as ever. No shouts of Yeahhhhhhh ... No fist pumps. No ... words ... at ... all ... Just Benevides chopping wood, but the tree not falling.

[joe kapp22]

Well, all I can say is I hope JC and Dorazo and Mike b have their resumes found in the office printer tray.[

Why absolve Wally? He chose these guys. He mentored them. He is loyal to them. He relies on them for Xs and Os.

If Wally had any other owner in the world, he would be gone. Long ago. Even if Bob Ackles was here, I think Wally would be gone. Long ago.

Why would you think?

One Grey Cup in nine years. With superior talent.

No input of fresh ideas from outside his own student coaches.

No Xs and Os mastery of his own.

Leaves the motivation to the players themselves.

Shaky personnel decisions.

Shaky game management.

8 and 10 in 2009.

8 and 10 in 2010.

1 and 6 in 2011.

Need more?[/quote]

Yep, none of which addresses the question, why do you think I'd not want to see Buono fired?

[btemp]

One Grey Cup in nine years. With superior talent.

No input of fresh ideas from outside his own student coaches.

No Xs and Os mastery of his own.

Leaves the motivation to the players themselves.

Shaky personnel decisions.

Shaky game management.

8 and 10 in 2009.

8 and 10 in 2010.

1 and 6 in 2011.

Need more?

While I do agree that the problem starts with Buono, we have to stay factual here.

1) A head coach doesn't have to have "Xs and Os mastery", in fact many of the best coaches don't. Let's take a couple quick examples from the NFL: Mike Tomlin of the Steelers leaves the defence, his area of expertise, entirely in LeBeau's hands. Jim Harbaugh, of the Ravens, has only been a special teams coach in the NFL. I could go on. The point is that obviously Buono knows a ton about football, or else he wouldn't have so many wins and wouldn't have had such success in Calgary and in BC. That's not the problem.

2) Buono should leave the players motivation to themselves. This isn't the movies, and while a Pacino speech once in a while would be nice, they are neither necessary nor particularly effective. Think of the last time you got fired up over watching a motivational movie or even watched Pacino's Any Given Sunday speech. How long did that rush last? A few minutes? I guarantee you, when you step out onto the field, you get one play and its over. That kind of stuff is for high school kids. The expectation for the pick up comes from leaders on the team. What do you expect from the head coach? Simple: this is what we're doing poorly, we need to stop; this is what we're doing well, let's do more of it. Anyone see Pete Caroll get all "motivational", trust me Buono would do more harm than good by acting like a clown.

3) I also don't agree that Buono's game management has been particularly horrible. He absolutely had that one blown call with the field goal a few games back, but otherwise this is only an issue because of other problems.

So what are the problems I agree with? His record the past three years. His poor personnel decisions. His lack of fresh ideas. His consistent blame on the players.

[Sir Purrcival]

Really there is nothing to say that hasn't been already said but there are two reasons a team sucks. The players aren't good enough or the coaching isn't good enough. When you boil it down, who is really responsible for both? Yep, the coaches and gm. Taking us to the promised land was a good thing but the sheer amount of disappointment before and after that one ray has been more than enough to convince me that some radical changes are in order.

[SammyGreene]

Now ONE POINT to show for the Lions work in the 3rd quarter of the last FOUR games combined. This time it was part of nine straight 2 and out possessions. A complete embarrassment.

I believe it's 1 pt in 5 games now in the third q. At least we have a easier sched with edm w/ no stamps then bye, then 2 games vs equally pitiful braley run Argos.

Thanks for the correction. Simply an amazing stat. That's almost hard to do when you think all it would take is one long pass or running play for a TD or even to get into FG range to end such drought.

As WC Joe points out, it says a lot about the Lions halftime adjustments or lack there of.

[joe kapp22]

Well, to be clear with WCJ:

The reason why I would not want to see Buono fired is the "interim" Coach, would be Benevides, however if Buono fires him, and Jacque, then the slate is clean.

Also would mean Wally misjudged those two, and imo, that is one of the things that MUST happen, the first person to hold themselves accountable has "Coach/GM" on his desk.

I do not see any progress being made until that happens, two yrs of the coach blaming the players that the GM brought in for the lack of results?

Or production?

Or development?

Or, well you fill in the blank.

[joe kapp22]

Really there is nothing to say that hasn't been already said but there are two reasons a team sucks. The players aren't good enough or the coaching isn't good enough. When you boil it down, who is really responsible for both? Yep, the coaches and gm. Taking us to the promised land was a good thing but the sheer amount of disappointment before and after that one ray has been more than enough to convince me that some radical changes are in order.

You can win with lesser talent, you can win with lesser coaching, when you have both at the same time?

[WestCoastJoe]

While I do agree that the problem starts with Buono, we have to stay factual here.

1) A head coach doesn't have to have "Xs and Os mastery", in fact many of the best coaches don't. Let's take a couple quick examples from the NFL: Mike Tomlin of the Steelers leaves the defence, his area of expertise, entirely in LeBeau's hands. Jim Harbaugh, of the Ravens, has only been a special teams coach in the NFL. I could go on. The point is that obviously Buono knows a ton about football, or else he wouldn't have so many wins and wouldn't have had such success in Calgary and in BC. That's not the problem.

Factual?

Mike Tomlin has an area of Xs and Os mastery. Defence.

Jim Harbaugh as a coach I have no opinion on. He was a quarterback at one time. I expect he has a good mastery of the Xs and Os of offence.

And I agree that a Head Coach does not necessarily need Xs and Os mastery. But it sure helps. Vince Lombardi coached O Line a lot. He also coached his quarterbacks. He was an Offensive Coordinator for the New York Giants before he got his Head Coaching opportunity in Green Bay. Tom Landry was Defensive Coordinator before he got his chance in Dallas where he brought Xs and Os innovation to NFL defences.

But I do agree that a Head Coach does not necessarily need Xs and Ox mastery. Marc Trestman, however, has it. John Hufnagel, however, has it. Paul LaPolice is looking like he has it. If a Head Coach does not have it, his OC and DC better have it. Our guys are still unproven IMO as would be Coordinators at the CFL level.

2) Buono should leave the players motivation to themselves. This isn't the movies, and while a Pacino speech once in a while would be nice, they are neither necessary nor particularly effective. Think of the last time you got fired up over watching a motivational movie or even watched Pacino's Any Given Sunday speech. How long did that rush last? A few minutes? I guarantee you, when you step out onto the field, you get one play and its over. That kind of stuff is for high school kids. The expectation for the pick up comes from leaders on the team. What do you expect from the head coach? Simple: this is what we're doing poorly, we need to stop; this is what we're doing well, let's do more of it. Anyone see Pete Caroll get all "motivational", trust me Buono would do more harm than good by acting like a clown.

Motivation does not necessarily come from fiery pre game or half time speeches. Bill Walsh rarely raised his voice. But he communcated so well he was motivational. Even students of his football class at Stanford found him motivational as he discussed the Xs and Os of football. He was definitely a Head Coach who had mastery of the Xs and Os.

At his best, Don Matthews motivated his teams. Communication. Goal setting. Focus. Not movie speeches like Pat O'Brien playing legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne.

So what are the problems I agree with? His record the past three years. His poor personnel decisions. His lack of fresh ideas. His consistent blame on the players.

Agreed.

While I do agree that the problem starts with Buono, we have to stay factual here.

I agree that the problem starts with Buono. Factual? There are lots of facts thown about by bloggers, but blogging is mostly about opinion. Like your opinions, and like my opinions. IMO ...

[notahomer]

Sol E. and McCallum are given days off the next practice. The rest of the team run them into the ground. And yes, I mean Simon too. Everybody has their off days but this was one of his, IMO. And he wasn't our worst reciever, IMO. This game was painful to watch. The general agreement (sorry Empire fans) in my section was at least we have the new/improved BC Place to look forward to. One more afternoon smash up against another basement dweller the Toronto Argos. WOW! The team that played the Riders last week certainly didn't show up tonight.

Will Robertson still be riding the pine? Is Petersen an upgrade from Paris? What is it going to take to get the CIS to give JChapdelaine the headcoaching job in that league that everbody except 7 CFL defensive coordinators (who knows Benevides might make it 8) want him to have.

[WestCoastJoe]

Anybody hear the post game comments of Wally? Anything of interest from Farhan Lalji or the commentators?

"at the end of the day"

"execution"

"It is not the coaching."

"We'll look at the tape and go from there."

"It's frustrating."

"We will continue to look for the right players."

These are my guesses.
...........

What we won't hear ...

"Help."

"How do we fix this thing?"

"Maybe it is the coaching."

"We were out-coached once again."

"Maybe I should wear a headset so ...

I can hear the play calling." or

I can hear the views of the spotters." or

I can hear their views before I throw the flag."

[B.C.FAN]

It was disappointing to see the team make so many mistakes. The first Dean Valli holding penalty (of the three he took) nullified a brilliant 69-yard TD run by Andrew Harris in the second quarter. On the next series, Kamau Peterson dropped a first-down pass at the Bomber 8-yard line. That was the turning point. Instead of the Lions cashing in and taking a 21-10 lead, they settled for a field goal and a 10-10 tie. After that, the Bombers scored 20 straight points in the second and third quarters to take control of the game.

The Lions went into the game as the least penalized team in the league and took 10 penalties, including 4 holding calls and a too-many-men penalty (on Arland Bruce, according to Farhan Lalji) on second and inches after a 3-minute TV timeout. The 13 players were on the field the whole time with JJ, who usually makes sure the right personnel are out there, but not this time when it counted most.

There were some bright spots, including holding the Bombers to 32 yards rushing on 24 carries. It was the third straight week the Lions have outrushed the opposition. The teams put up an identical 259 yards of offence. But the Lions fumbled, took penalties and missed tackles at too many key times, and allowed the Bombers to convert on too many second-and-long situations. The B.C. pass protection was excellent. The Lions didn't give up a sack until the fourth quarter when Jarious Jackson came in and started throwing deep balls to try to overcome a three-touchdown deficit.

Football is a game of momentum and 9 times out of 10, the outcome is decided on turnovers. The Lions gave away momentum in the second quarter and lost the turnover battle 7-3, including an unprecedented (for this year, at least) 4 fumbles lost. Perhaps all the personnel shuffles in the backfield and receiving corps in recent weeks took its toll. They need to be more consistent in their execution, to gel as a unit and be sharper next week.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Blue ... story.html

Here is one comment from Wally.

"You can't play for them," said Lions head coach Wally Buono. "You can't catch for them, you can't block for them. I didn't think Winnipeg did anything we didn't expect. Occasionally, they bring a little pressure, and we've got to do a better job handling it. When you can't execute the offence against a team like that, that's what you get."

"You can't play for them." ... Sounds like Rocky Bridges. We coached them good. But they sure did play bad.

"You can't catch for them, you can't block for them." ... Sitting down Jamal Robertson did not work so well. Too many green players? Too many new players (Bruce, Johnson, Harris at RB)?

"I didn't think Winnipeg did anything we didn't expect. Occasionally, they bring a little pressure, and we've got to do a better job handling it." ... The coaches knew what Winnipeg would do. We coached our guys right. They just didn't ...

"When you can't execute the offence against a team like that, that's what you get." ... execute. There.

Out coached again? Nah. Execution. Need better players. Et cetera ...

[TheLionKing]

Now ONE POINT to show for the Lions work in the 3rd quarter of the last FOUR games combined. This time it was part of nine straight 2 and out possessions. A complete embarrassment.

Proving once again Chapdelaine is totally incapable of making meaningful adjustments at half time.