Game Day Thread, Lions @ Riders, July 14, 2012

[WestCoastJoe]

Paris Jackson. The coaching staff must have listened to Blitz.

Throw it to Paris.

[Heathcliff]

What a gutsy catch by Geroy to enable the Leos to tie this game up. Nice to see the offense come up with a solid drive, and PJ with some big first downs! I've missed seeing 19 out there making plays for the Lions

[Belize City Lion]

That last drive was the something of the championship Lions of 2011. Huge catch by Geroy to get them into FG range! Should be a great second half.

[WestCoastJoe]

WTF is with Olafioye? 2 procedure calls.

Anytime the game is in Regina, it just seems like the referees inhale something and go with the home team.

[SammyGreene]

Great drive and great game so far. Lulay's clock management superb on the final drive. Were you watching Kevin Glenn?

Both offensive lines have played well, especially the Riders. Given B.C. twice gave the ball to the Riders deep in their territory (poor punt and INT), the Lions should feel pretty good where they are sitting right now.

[Rammer]

Adversity. Holding calls against. No holding calls for. Scattershot throws by Lulay. Injury to Johnson. Riders playing all out against last year's Grey Cup champion. Gheezus, I don't envy Mike Benevides. My heart beats like I was back coaching.

Well, if we can pull this one out, that is the mark of a championship team.

Holding goes on just about every down, I have zero problems with that. However, when the hold impacts the play to the degree that at least three of those holds did, and all for one side, I have a problem with it. Heck even the PI was a borderline one, and guess who it is against. That said, Arland got away with a face mask to porlong a FG drive, out of the gate.

Now Lions have to run some different routes, because each throw Lulay has in front of him has to be better than on the numbers.

[TheLionKing]

Would like to see Lulay use his feet to loosen the Riders' defence

[WestCoastJoe]

At the half ...

Lulay 14 of 20, 220 yards, 1 TD, 1 Int.

Geroy 4 for 61, Arland 3 for 29, Paris 3 for 20.

Durant 11 for 17, 116 yards

No running games to speak of, something that is going around in the CFL these days. Good run defence.

Nice to have Anton back playing.

I would say a good result for the half, in a hostile stadium, against a team fired up to play us.

[Heathcliff]

Does anyone else think the secondary was looking awfully soft in that first half? i.e. Marsh going for the ball and missing rather than take the body and make Dressler pay a price for making the catch.

I would really like to see some hard hitting defense in the second half.

[cromartie]

Adversity. Holding calls against. No holding calls for. Scattershot throws by Lulay. Injury to Johnson. Riders playing all out against last year's Grey Cup champion. Gheezus, I don't envy Mike Benevides.

Well, if we can pull this one out, that is the mark of a championship team.

The Good:

Two false start penalties, but otherwise the offensive line performance has been pretty good. Travis was only flushed out once that I recall, and that was in a 5 on 5 situation.

Short Yardage offense.

Two of three kick returns were in plus territory (beyond the 35), with a third beyond the thirty. This is an improvement over week 1.

The Bad:

The secondary. The defensive line is creating pressure, however, they have no sacks not the least of which is because the secondary can't cover long enough to force Durant to hold the ball.

Overall, the defense has forced only one punt though, in fairness, they've been given a short field twice and did well to hold the Riders to a field goal after our extended brain fart sequence.

We are lucky to be tied. The Riders know us better than we know ourselves, apparently, so halftime adjustments should be interesting.

[WestCoastJoe]

Does anyone else think the secondary was looking awfully soft in that first half? i.e. Marsh going for the ball and missing rather than take the body and make Dressler pay a price for making the catch.

I would really like to see some hard hitting defense in the second half.

We have had that malaise for a few years now. Not a hard hitting secondary. Especially Phillips, and even Marsh IMO.

[TheLionKing]

Bell has to step up IMO

[WestCoastJoe]

Penalaties

B.C. 5, for 59 yds

Saskatchewan 2, for 10 yds

I hate it when the refereeing seems to be involved in the game.

[dpoe]

about freakin' time... re: Rider holding call... :-P

[B.C.FAN]

I'm not keen on all the zone coverage from the Lions. Durant has lots of time to find the open receivers.