Lions 33 - Stampeders 31 Post Game Stats and Comments

[Toppy Vann]

Hey all,

Ya know what I loved? Wally's reaction after the field goal. Arms in the air, a big yell, and a sprint out onto the field. I have not seen Wally that stoked for a regular season win since the Lions beat Edmonton in OT in 2004.

Cheers,

James

Yah me too. You missing the word not so I added it up.

That was fantastic and what redemption for Paul M after missing and bending down to pick the T up only to find Taylor blowing by him. Might be good he didn't tackle him though as he might not have been ok to hit 50 yards.

ST needs work ~~~Lulay on fire but sagged late in the game with the longer predictable passes where he struggled as the Lions got back to the same old a bit too much instead of just first downs. Eliminate that on O and they'll win most games unless STs keep letting opponents back in.

[TheLionKing]

Ok, yes its a win... BUT it was pure luck - inspite of the coaching.

14 seconds left. They blow snapping the ball and do a run play???? And even after the ref's gave them some time due to some procedural issues. So they blow the play in and they wait around to snap the ball and then the player runs it and is trying to break tackles as the clock is running to 6,5,4 seconds!! Where is the sharp football skills? If he had kept running (he was around the 50) the game would have ended!!

I agree. They almost succeeded in running out the clock.

[TheLionKing]

Larry Taylor shredded the so called Lions coverage team. They better correct the problem and fast.

[Solar Max]

Larry Taylor shredded the so called Lions coverage team. They better correct the problem and fast.

ST are the only squad that hasn't yet pulled their socks up, so to speak. Game after game, poor downfield coverage and worse tackling.

On the good side, Ryan Phillips tackled tonight.

First Place. How the mighty have fallen #SSkRoughriders #CalStampeders

[xon100]

Missed the cable cam. That camera got some great shots. bring it back, please. Also, show more replays. I've whined about this for a few seasons now (before BC Place closed and all the games at Empire). The first game back at BC Place was great, IMO, showed almost everything. I'm one of those nuts who wants to see the replay of the little run and the incomplete pass and the big hit. I'd get to see them if I was watching on TV, I'm betting. Show them in the stadium, please.

I am with you, we have that giant screen, show some replays!!!

Great win though exciting to watch.

[B.C.FAN]

That was a tremendous back-and-forth game between two excellent, well-coached teams. Both teams made big plays and both tams made mistakes. Paul McCallum was money with a game for the ages, capped by a 53-yarder. Someone mentioned on the postgame show that he showed Lui's flair for the dramatic by missing one before hitting the game winner on the final play.

Other than McCallum, though, the Lions were badly outplayed on special teams. The Tim Brown fumble gave the Stamps a touchdown and two big Larry Taylor returns set up the Stamps' first touchdown and scored the final one. That's three of four Calgary touchdowns caused by special-teams mistakes. The other TD was scored an 81-yard pass and run play on a blown coverage, a rarity for the revamped B.C. secondary but the second long passing TD given up in as many weeks.

I don't know what adjustments Calgary made at halftime but the second half was a defensive battle, after the B.C. offence did pretty much whatever it wanted in the first half. I was hoping to see more variety from the B.C. running attack. They showed a lot of misdirection in the first half while handing off to Harris to the strong side, behind a tight end. I thought we would see Lulay run the bootleg or hand off to Johnson on a misdirection sweep to the weak side because that seemed to be open but the Lions didn't use it.

The running game was a big difference in this game. Calgary didn't have much success passing but they moved the ball well on the ground. This was the first time since Week 3 that an opponent outrushed the Lions (114 yards to 88) and the first time this year the Lions won a game when being outrushed. They're 7-3 when they outrush their opponents and 1-3 when their opponents outrush them.

Kudos to Anton McKenzie and James Yurichuk for stepping up after Sol E. went down. McKenzie led all players with 7 tackles. Yurichuk added 2 tackles, 1 ST tackle and a big fumble recovery.

Tim Brown stepped up after his fumble, leading the Lions with 54 yards rushing on 6 carries, an average of 9 yards a carry. Also big props to Andrew Harris for tremendous second and third effort. The knock on Harris last year was that he was too small to be a feature back. He has bulked up this season and showed tremendous heart on his touchdown run and on several passes in the flat.

This is the type of game that the Lions and Stamps played in Week 2, with Calgary winning 34-32 after the Lions failed to capitalize on several opportunities to win it. The Lions found a way to win this one, clinch the season series and move into first place. It's going to be a great finish. It's time for the Lions to send out their playoff-ticket notices. They've made believers out of a lot of fans.

[TheLionKing]

It's not the first time that Brown has ran the football out of the end zone instead of conceding the single and fumbled. You would have thought he learned the first time.

[lbooper]

Need help how many fans at game and where you find more defense stats and what 4 players never played on Saturday?
thanks

[Anglophone]

There was over 30000, something like ~30600 fans.

[sj-roc]

Stamps made some great adjustments in the second half to limit Lulay to 57 yards. But man oh man, do the Lions need to work on their ST contain team, game after game it is allowing the opposition to remain within reach. Eliminate the extra yardage and the Lions are in total control.

Exactly what I was thinking

Un, WADR, it's prob about time to ditch that paper bag avy, dontcha think?

[joe kapp22]

Need help how many fans at game and where you find more defense stats and what 4 players never played on Saturday?
thanks

Joe Henderson, Ruffin, Taylor, Robertson.

[274always]

went to bed after the first half. know what that makes me? the world's stupidest man past-present-future.

Congrats to Paul McCallum and the BC Lions. Will Grey Cup 99 compare?

[Blitz]

Wow, what an exciting game and an exciting finish...a lot of big plays in this football game We're now tied for first place in the West with Calgary and beaten Calgary two of of our three games, if it comes down to a tie breaker at the end of the regular season.

What a turnaround from our 1-6 start. I look back at a number of keys to that turnaround...the benching of Lulay, the comments by our Leos President regarding Wally's future, Chap on th eedge of the cliff and suddenly everything changed.

Chap called another excellent game as our multi-formational offence, with its runnning game diversity, its use of tight end formations, its use of motion and misdirection is becoming a tough offence to stop.

Special teams were almost our downfall in this game, outside of McCallum's great play. The huge return by Larry Taylor when we had a 14-0 lead and were dominating the contest allowed Calgary back in the game. Brown's ill advised field goal return attempt and fumble really hurt. .Larry Taylor's 122 yard return off our missed field goalattempt almost was a dagger to the heart.

Wally made some interesting game calls in this game. He gambled on every third down and short, even in our own end of the field. Jarious ran off-tackle on his sneaks, avoiding the usual of running into Angus Reid's butt being blown back into our backfield. Andrew Harris did not have very good stats rushing the football but he made a couple of plays out there which were impressivem, including his touchdown run and his pass play, when he broke two tackles on the sidelines. Brown ran hard after his field goal return fumble.

Lulay played well, especially in the first half, when he looked very poised. He still has the strong tendancy to bail to his right when he experiences pressure and defenses are on to that tendancy. Lulay's accuracy on both crossong patterns and long throws has improved signicantlly over recent weeks and is due in part to the time he's had to throw the football..a combination of better pass blocking but mostly due to better scheming and play calling.

Keron Wiluans sack and fumble recovery on Burris to start the game and Yarichuk's fumble recovery on a botched Calgary zone read play were huge for us.

There were a couple of key plays on the final drive of the game. The first was Iannuzzi getting a good punt return and a no yards penalty call and the second was Arland Bruce making a great adjustment to make a catch after Calgary dropped off nine players into pass coverage..it was a very smart play that gave us the opportunity to attempt the last play field goal.

What Buano and Chap or Lulay were doing with 14 seconds left was beyond me, as we almost ran out the clock. We should have been at the lone of scrimmage on that play and snapped the football as the referee signalled time in. The play call was confusing too as we should have either gone with two quick pass plays in that situation and really deserved to lose the game based upon that boneheadedness.

However, it looked like McCallum, who had tied and then broken the consecutive field goal record earlier on 47 and 46 yard kicks through the goalposts was going to experience a disappointing night when he missed the 45 yarder and had the play returned for a touchdown. It made sense to attempt the field goal, the way McCallum was kicking but Wally has often punted in this situation in the past and with Taylor out there for Calgary running wild all game and our downfield coverage so terrible I was almost expecting Wally to punt in that situation.

However, McCallum kicked an amzaing 53 yarder through the middle of the posts to add an exclamation mark to his game and season to date as well as win the game for us.

A wild game, exciting CFL action at its best with a great outcome for our Leos.

[WestCoastJoe]

So Wally wanted to punt on the last play of the game ... OMG. I guess he is hoping Paul will really catch one for about 70 yards from scrimmage. Ain't gonna happen. Most likely the punt will be about 45 from scrimmage, taking it to near the goal line. They run it out. We lose. No tie.

Thanks to Paul for convincing Wally to go for the FG.

And the last running play? If the Stampeders are a bit slower in stopping Andrew Harris, then Wally has egg all over his face. The team was not prepared for that situation.
............

Quibbles. Yup. But they would not be quibbles if the worst had happened. Either the clock running out as Harris fights for yardage. Or McCallum punts to the goal line for the attempted tie, and the Stampeders thwart that idea.

The score was 30 to 25, when McCallum muffed the one FG attempt. If he makes that, the score would have been 33 - 25 for the Lions. Instead, with the TD return, it goes all the other way, to 31 - 30. Ouch.

Fix the ST coverage, please.
............

In any case, the football Gods were kind to Wally, and kind to us. Paul McCallum was Money from the 53. It was a very exciting CFL game. More and more, it seems to me, this kind of barn burning game just rarely happens in the NFL. They happen all the time in the CFL.

[notahomer]

I miss the cable cam..... There would have been some great shots on that piece of equipement last night....