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Prowl, Growl and Roar!
1-2 record but that's the least of their problems.
This product is unwatchable. CFL should be about a wide open game and your star players making plays, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Not this crap. Jennings' struggles on top of an ultra-conservative scheme is as ugly as it gets. Down 3 TDs to start the second half and no desire for a quick strike or to stretch the Bombers defence. Unacceptable.
The defence is all on Mark Washington. It was bad before the wholesale changes and remains after with the same coaching philosophy in place.
Frustrating watching innovative and creative coaching on the opposite sidelines and our head coach way past his best before date.
Many of our “star players” seem to be playing on other teams.
What happened to Jennings to lose his confidence from the first game to the second, never mind tonight's fiasco ?
It's not like he looked good in that first game. Montreal is just such a bad team that a mediocre performance by Jennings was good enough for us to win. Jennings even looked mediocre against Winnipeg's 2nd and 3rd stringers in the pre-season. This is no different from how he performed last year pre-injury.
The 2018 BC Lions season is going to be decided by how Travis Lulay's knee holds up.
Sophomore jinx continues at QB and without putting it all on the QB it's not going to get the Ws up.
Chris Burns with LU was suggesting the OL is not the issue and on the DEF side, rips the lack of talent in the DBs. Reading more into it than he says - he sees no change from Mark Washington for the next game. He's ragged on about lack of rotating DTs to keep max pressure up.
I've long concluded that MW was like MB 'just not ready' for the role given by admiring HC Wally Buono as neither had the right demeanour for the task ahead of them. I've watched some practices and never been an MW fan as a coach as he still wants to be one of the guys and he's no brainiac as a tactician.
It's early and Wally will surely be able to find a way to improve here.
Fajardo should get a start if for no reason to give Jennings a look from the sidelines. As Farhan said, it worked when they went to Lulay but all don't want Lulay back too soon.
"Ability without character will lose." - Marv Levy
Currently on holiday but managed to find a Boston Pizza to watch the game. We scarfed our food and high tailed it out of there before we brought it back up again.
That second quarter stunk of futility. Almost worthy of being described as a capitulation. LU calls the team a tire-fire, a mess; he is usually quite measured in his assessments. Such an out and out condemnation from him is rare, especially considering what point we are at in the year.
I am almost thinking dumpster fire....
There has been an ongoing reference to the number of new faces on defence as a possible likely cause to its rather porous condition. But maybe, just maybe, it is populated by too many cast-offs who simply aren’t good enough to make plays that impact proceedings.. I am looking at you secondary.
Hervey has shown himself quick to pull the trigger on changes to player personnel; perhaps it’s time to double down and say adios to some old faces in the coaching staff. It is only 3 games in but could the locker room already be lost by the coaches? I wouldn’t be totally surprised, especially when you consider a lot of the players took a pay cut to facilitate these changes.
Jennings has to sit and sit right now as I don’t think he is making any progress with the new system. Any progress he makes will be from the sidelines watching Lulay play. Insert Lulay when he says he is ready and medically cleared; until then play Fajardo. He might be a sacrificial lamb or a star but the team needs something to rally around.
Although it is early in Jarius Jackson career as an Offensive Coordinator, I am less than thrilled. No real difference in Khari Jones' offence. Why are they ignoring Manny Arceneaux and Bryan Burnham ??
Not only Manny and Burnham, what about Rainey too? They haven't figured out how to use him, other than well-telegraphed sweeps that even a grandmother knitting a sweater with one eye on the game can see coming.
Give him the damn ball in space, put some blockers in front of him and watch him put on the after-burners!
DH
If Khari Jones haven't figured out how to utilize his skills and speed, he'll never will. Another Lyle Green and Chris Williams.
When Wally Buono hired Ed Hervey as our Leos new General Manager, while retaining his position as Vice-President, and then Hervey announced that he’d requested Buono return as Head Coach, the final chapters of the script were being written.
Buono, at season end, would be lifted on his players shoulders and handed the Grey Cup to hoist over his head. With confetti flying overhead, Buono would walk into a late autumn sunset as Ed Willes and others penned articles about how the ‘legendary’ Buono had nailed himself on the cross, at great sacrifice, to become our Head Coach again in 2016, and then postponed his retirement for 2018, just so he could win another Grey Cup for Leo fans, players, and of course David Braley.
It was all part of the ‘Buono-Plan”, scripted by Buono himself. In the final chapter, Buono takes away the ‘fear’ of Lions fans, who are, of course, besides themselves worrying about who could ever fill his shoes. But Leo fans are handed a gift. Mark Washington is named the new Head Coach of the B.C. Lions, and Dan Dorazio is the new Associate Head Coach. Washington and Dorazio, of course, present at the press conference, to announce their hiring, give all the credit to Buono for the outstanding mentoring they have received. They also ‘reassure’ Leo fans, that while they will create their own imprint, they will, of course, continue to coach the team in the Buono tradition. Leo fans are joyous.
Grandiosity and distorted thinking have no limits on imagination. However, right now, the ‘Buono-Plan’ script is not going the way Buono wrote it in his fantasy mind. Instead Lowell Ullrich wrote, after last nights loss to the Bombers that our Leos are either a ‘hot, smoldering mess’ or ‘a raging tire fire’.
Here’s some post -game thoughts on our Leos brutal loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The biggest problem for our Leos is coaching and that is where my post game comments will focus.
COACHING
1. Offence
The Vancouver Province wrote, after the debacle in Winnipeg that these ‘new-look B.C. Lions sure look a heck of a lot like the old ones’. Buono’s 2017 B.C. Lions lost 10 of its last 13 games and missed the playoffs for the first time in two decades. Changes were obviously needed for a Leos team that had given up the most sacks and quarterback pressures in 2017 while also finishing last in quarterback sacks.
Our Lions came into 2018 with the promise of something new — there were 33 new players and 11 new starters in the lineup for their season opener. Hervey met with Leo vets in the off-season and they all took some money of the table so that we could sign some good free agents.
A new offensive coordinator, a new special teams coordinator, a new receivers coach, and a defensive line coach also provided the sense that things would be different in 2018 from a coaching perspective. But Mark Washington, Dan Dorazio, and Wally Buono himself remained and so far, this season, they continue to be a big part of the problem.
Offensively, our Leos, from a personnel perspective, addressed the issues of 2017 with the signings of two offensive tackles in Joel Figueroa and Jovan Olifioye, addressing the biggest weak spot of our offence in 2018. We added Ricky Collins as a third International receiver, an experienced National receiver in Watson and depth at tailback in
The added line protection should have addressed the biggest problem for our offence in 2017 – giving Jennings time to throw the football. The next goal should have been to build Jonathan Jennings confidence to where it had been in 2015 and 2016. Jennings, our third string quarterback in 2015 had impressed so much in his 6 starts that first season, (a 66% pass completion rate for 2,004 yards and a 99. 9 quarterback efficiency) that he was named the starter over Lulay for the 2016 season.
Jennings had shown remarkable poise in the pocket to go along with an incredible arm. He was a gunslinger who could make all the throws, he was mobile, and he brought a subtle swagger to our offence. In 2016, in his first full season as a starter, starting all 18 games, Jennings became only the 3rd quarterback in Leo history to throw for over 5,000 yards (Flutie and Dickenson also had one season each in which they threw for over 5,000 yards).
That didn’t just happen by throwing deep 50/50 balls all season to Manny and Burnham. It happened because Jennings made every type of throw possible, often with defenders in his face, and he also escaped and ran for 358 yds. Jennings had a 102.1 quarterback efficiency in 2016. He had a quarterback efficiency of over 100 in his first 24 games as a Leo starting quarterback.
In the West Semi-Final, after Winnipeg had scored 24 points against our defense in the first half, Jennings had led us back to victory, playing quarterback like a surgeon, and his magical escape and scamper for the winning touchdown in that game had brought Lion fans out of their seats.
But as our Leos prepared for the 2017 season, the primary focus was on Jennings need for him to reduce interceptions. The offence remained the same predictable offence, the protection was terrible, and the need for him to ‘make plays’ while not turning the football over, was constant. I watched Jonathan Jennings in the huddle and then make his first pass of 2017 and he did not look like the same quarterback. He looked like he was carrying a piano on his back, likely worrying about what could go wrong rather than his previous self, where his positive attitude was one of ‘things will go right’ , we'll make them go right'.
Jennings suffered a shoulder injury and played through that injury throughout 2017, while also being quickly pressured, hit, or sacked quickly on almost every play. His confidence eroded as the season wore on and he was held mostly responsible for a losing season in which every unit of our Leos team, from offence, defense, and special teams played terrible.
So, what have we done in 2018 to restore Jennings confidence? Getting two outstanding offensive tackles was part of the answer and that was done. What we needed to do next was to incorporate into our offence the plays that Jennings was comfortable and good with, in the past, while also making some changes to our offence.
Instead, we installed a brand-new offence – the RPO offence. The last thing Jennings needed for 2018 was a brand-new offence that does not play to his strengths. He is not a read option quarterback nor is he a run/pass option style of quarterback. He’s a gunslinger with a great arm being asked to run a popgun offence that is more designed for a cerebral quarterback who doesn’t have the arm to throw anything but short passes. He has no experience with this type of offence and his relative inexperience also makes it more difficult because instead of going through progessions, he has to make an instantaneous post snap read and get it right.
This type of offence also requires a quarterback to run the read option, includin keeping the football himself. Its designed for quarterbacks who like to run with the football. Jennings was never developed as a running quarterback off the zone read option. The RPO aspect of this offence is designed for the quarterback to make reads differently than they have ever made in the past. Its new terminology and a completely different style of offence than Jennings has ever quarterbacked before. Lulay for that matter too.
It also focuses on a very short passing attack, based upon post-snap reads, with a goal of getting the football into receivers’ hands in space. It’s not designed for receivers with skill sets as Manny Arceneaux or Bryan Burnham, who are not the type of route runners that, once they catch the football after a very short route, can use quickness in space. Instead they are powerful big receivers who have great hands and can fight off defenders rather than receivers who can cut on a dime on a short route and then cut on a dime again to beat a defender. Its not an offence that is designed for our offensive personnel at all, outside of Jeremiah Johnson.
Training camps are very short to introduce a brand new and a very, very different style of offence. If we wanted to introduce RPO packaged plays, we should have introduced them slowly, as the season progressed, and we had a lot of practice time to work on them first.
After Philadelphia won the Super Bowl last season, a lot of NFL teams plan to introduce RPO concepts or add a few more RPO plays this year. It’s the flavor of the day. But no pro team, has gone to the lengths our Leos have gone to this season, in terms of the number of RPO plays being utilized nor have they introduced them so quickly.
For clarity, an RPO play is a play in which the quarterback must make a post-snap decision in an instant to hand the ball off, throw the ball, or keep it himself. Offensive lineman always run block and pass receivers always run routes but must run block in an instant if the quarterback hands the football to the tailback.
For receivers there is no room for improvisation. Receivers must run sudden and precise routes. The passer will be throwing to a spot, so exact route running is imperative. There’s no time for longer routes or double moves. Slant routes and bubble screens are a huge part of an RPO offence. RPO plays don’t require a strong-armed passer. What they rely upon is a quarterback who can make instant decisions based on instant post snap reads.
It’s the style of offence that small college teams that could not recruit top tier quarterbacks or stud receivers adopted to attempt to beat the big guys. Don’t have a big offensive line, a pro-style quarterback with a strong arm, or big, tall stud receivers, get a quarterback who can instantly, in a split second make a good post snap read and get the ball out quickly to a small, quick receiver in space.
Of the few NFL team that used RPO’s in their offence last NFL season here are the leaders by percentage of total offensive plays in 2017.
Our Lions have used an RPO offence most of the time this season. Most of our offensive plays are RPO plays using RPO concepts. Heck, we’re using RPO plays on second and long, when the run option is out of the picture and the defense knows it. When Fajardo was in the game on his first series, after being sacked quickly on first down and then taking a time count violation (on an RPO play huh?) it was second and 25. Instead of attempting a screen pass or a draw play or a one on one isolation pass play, we ran an RPO play and handed the football off to Johnson for a 0 yard.
On Fajardo’s second series he threw an interception at our own 20-yard line. On his third series, on second and 7, he threw a pass completion to Ricky Collins for 0 yards. Fajardo, who is an excellent runner, also tried to run the football himself 4 times – the result – an average of 2.8 yards per carry.
For those who have wanted to blame all our offence on Jennings, we saw Fajardo doing the same type of things – getting sacked, throwing interceptions, throwing short passes on second down that were far too short to achieve first down yardage, and running for minimal gains.
What worked best for Fajardo was the only non-RPO play that was called for him. Fajardo threw a 33 1/3% ball (not even a 50/50 ball) deep to Burnham, who outsmarted and outfought two Bomber defenders for a 46-yard gain.
There is no question that we need to dial down the number of RPO plays we are using on offence. The short passing game is ineffective. Defenses are crowding it and cheating it. We are not getting the football to our play makers in space. The pass routes are too short. There is no concept of designing this offence around our best receivers either. It’s a plug and play offence that doesn’t account for Manny or Burnham’s strengths. In his first two games last year, Burnham had 13 catches for 161 yards. This season, he had just seven for 44 yards coming into Saturday night's game against Winnipeg.
Take away Fajardo’s 42-yard garbage-time bomb to Ricky Collins Jr. and no Lion had more than Shaq Johnson’s 27 receiving yards. Rainey was the only Leo to catch a pass over 11 yards in the first half.
Finally, last season we really needed to add more short passing plays because our quarterback had little time to throw. Our tackle play was horrible, and Fabian played poorly at right guard too. But this season, with Figueroa and Olifioye in there, our pass blocking should be much improved and the overemphasized short passing attack we are using is less necessary. But instead, we have Figueroa and Olifioye cut blocking on pass plays when they are excellent pass blockers. On one play, in the first quarter both missed cut blocks and Jennings was sacked.
Other CFL coaches have slowly intoduced new concepts to the spread offence such as Trestmann bringing a West Coast flare, Jason Maas added flex bone concepts, June Jones has introduced some run and shoot while Calgary has just continued to adapt the spread offence while introducing a lot of new run attack concepts.
But what we have tried to do here in B.C. offensively this season has been too much too fast. The short passing attack has been overemphasized due to the prevalence of RPO plays. It seems as if we just can’t do things sensibly in Leo Land. We’ve gone from a spread passing offence with an emphasis on a vertical slot oriented passing attack to a very quick, very short passing attack using an almost exclusive offence almost overnight.
This is a coaching issue. You design an offence around your talent. If you are determined to use a plug and play offence, and you are forcing round players into square holes, then you must give them time to learn and adapt. This is sink or swim when it isn’t necessary and we’re sinking.
Our 2018 was also supposed to get the football to Rainey in space, as well as get the football into space for our other play makers. Rainey had four carries in this game for a 2.5 yd average. We did not get him into space with the football.
If you have a quarterback who needs to gain confidence this is not the way to do things. Jennings confidence is shot. He is confused and frustrated. He has more of a deer in the headlights look to him than even Lulay had in 2015. In that season, Lulay only threw 12 touchdowns to 10 interceptions and was not confident at all. He was hesitant and jumpy and was not the Travis Lulay of 2011/12 at all.
In fact, Lulays’ game had slipped and he was exhibiting many of the tendencies we have seen in the latter version of Jennings – throwing off his back foot or not stepping into his throws, not seeing the field well and throwing interceptions, getting sacked where he once would have escaped.
The headline at the end of the 2015 season was “Is Travis Lulay Finished” as he lost the quarterback starting position for 2016 to Jonathan Jennings. Lulay also did not look much better in his occasional regular season opportunities during 2016, throwing 2 interceptions to 2 touchdowns and looking anything but a future starting quarterback who could get it done anymore.
Now the headlines resemble the end of our 2015 season, only this time its Jennings that fans are wondering whether he is finished while Lulay is now considered the revitalized old gunslinger that has strapped his holster on again, loaded up his six-shooter and is the one we want blazing away.
Lulay rebuilt his confidence, while serving as our backup quarterback for two seasons, practicing, mentoring, and really functioning as an assistant coach. Lulay was mentally ready again, after steady decline from 2012 to 2016, to step into the starters role again in 2017. Jennings will need time away from the starters role for that successful opportunity to happen for him again too.
But we had better be careful how we deal with this.
Lowell Ullrich wrote:
If Lulay goes down again, and history suggests the possibility, the Lions will have no choice but to go back to Jennings later this season. Cody Fajardo might still get a start during the interim as the Lions wait to change quarterbacks but is not a long-term option. That was reinforced when Jennings was still given a chance to figure out the scheme of offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson in the fourth quarter of what had become a 28-point deficit. In short, Buono holds the future of two quarterbacks in his hands with the choices he and his medical advisors must make in the days ahead and can’t afford to lose Jennings mentally.
Those wanting to jettison Jennings right out of here also need to consider what that could mean if Lulay gets hurt.
Travis Lulay may be better suited for an RPO offence. He is a very good runner, a very good first read quarterback, and a shorter passing attack suits his quarterback style. His experience allows him to make quicker decisions.
But do we really want Lulay running the football off the zone read or taking hits if his receivers are well covered quickly off RPO plays. Is this the offensive scheme we want Travis Lulay to lead? He is also a spread quarterback who likes to take off and make plays with his legs or throw on the run. He also likes to outlet to his running back while RPO pass plays are misdirection plays that take him away from throwing to his tailback.
Travis has experienced a lot of injuries so if he gets hurt and Jennings confidence is shot, where will we be then, where are we going at quarterback in the future and what type of offence do we want to use long term. Another
They are all important questions.
As far as I am concerned, we’ve taken the wrong approach to get our Leos off to a winning start offensively for 2018. Wrong approach for Jennings, Burnham, and Manny. Wrong approach to best utilize Figueroa and Olifioye, wrong approach for Shaq Johnson and Chris Rainey, and do we really want Watson as the player running reverses, as well as being a primary receiver?
What we should have done offensively was to have moved towards a hybrid offence, keeping the good parts of the spread offence and marrying them with some West Coast or added some RPO plays to enhance our offence. What we really needed was just to add a horizontal passing attack to our vertical passing attack, while also diversifying our run game. Instead, we’ve gone from an overdose of patterns that stretched the field vertically to an overdose of a short horizontal passing game that overemphasizes short pass patterns.
A good offensive passing attack stretches the field both horizontally and vertically while being supported by a diversified running game and a screen game.
Lulay will also not be able to do anything about Dan Dorazio’s inability to get our offensive line to block effectively when we need a yard on second down. He had better avoid those situations if he can.
Notice how happy (as well as successful) Andrew Harris is in Winnipeg. No negative comments, no post game outbursts. The reason is simple. He is not completely frustrated as he was in B.C. with our offensive system and play calling, no matter which offensive coordinator was here.
Last season the Bombers designed their offence around Harris and Nichols quarterback style. Harris led the league in rushing and pass receptions. As a National, he also helps the Bombers ratio. The Bombers offence is designed around the talents of its players. In last nights game, the Bombers took advantage of Streveler’s strengths as well. We would never do anything similar in Wally Land.
After the game, “Jennings said (It was) just lack of execution. We just didn’t execute”
Yes, the point is never moot, “we just gotta execute” remains the same old refrain, as our Leo players drink the Kool Aid. But when the time comes, we’d better give Lulay some better throws to execute other than a quick 2-yard pass play or he won’t be able to get first downs either and the opposition defenders will be sitting on those short routes too, just as they did when Jennings and Fajardo were out there.
As Ullrich wrote: Jennings simply looks lost in the new scheme implemented by Jackson, though by no means can he blamed outright for the inability to generate yardage. Washington had been given an early pass having been asked to implement eight new defensive starters, but as they did in Edmonton the Lions fooled nobody wearing blue uniforms in the first half Saturday as the Bombers ran and passed almost at will.
This offence is out of sync. Even Wally said its out of sync. Its not just Jennings out of sync. Everyone looks out of sync except for Johnson and that includes the offensive line, the receivers and the quarterback. The timing is badly off. It’s a mess. When your offence averages only 2.8 yards per play on second down, you have big problems.
If the NFL Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs were the two top RPO teams last season and they only used RPO plays 18% of the time, it begs the question: Why are we using so many RPO plays. RPO is almost our entire offence so far this season.
And don’t forget that Philadelphia had Carson Wentz, an RPO quarterback in college and Nick Foyles, whom the RPO offence was created for in 2013 by Chip Kelly because he couldn’t’ run the read option like Michael Vick, who got injured, so Chip Kelly converted the read option to the RPO and had Foyles passing off the fake. Foyles already had a lot of experience with an RPO offence and still the Eagles only used RPO plays 18% of the time. Our Lions are using them about 80% or more of the time it seems.
Its time for better offensive balance. Just use one or two RPO plays in a game until we get them perfected and then add some more if they are working. Why can’t we do things sensibly in Leo Land. For years we overdosed on crossing patterns or we overdosed on the inside zone read run play or we overdosed on vertical patterns to our slots and now we are overdosing on a very short horizontal passing game off RPO plays.
If anyone believes we just need to give this offence more time, they are mistaken. I like Jarious Jackson and I like that he wanted to introduce something new. I like some of his RPO plays but right now our offence is out of balance.
our offence is out of balance.
Since I nicknamed our old spread offence Chap Ball, here are some names for our new RPO offence: the Regrettable Pathological Offence, the Readable Painful Option Offence, the Recognizable Passive Offence, the Restrictive Pitiable Offence, the Rickety Paltry Offence, the Ruinous Perplexing Offence, and the Rarified Problematic Offence – take your pick.
I also don’t blame Jarious for this. Wally has offered to ‘mentor’ an experienced offensive coordinator in the past. While he has no idea about how to mentor an offensive coordinator he still, at least, could have guided Jarious to take a slower approach. Wally likely wanted a short passing attack to avoid interceptions and this is what Jarious came up with. Doesn’t matter – its up to Wally to get it fixed. He said he just wanted to focus on coaching in this final season – then coach!!
DEFENCE
Once again, a lack of offence was not our only issue. Coaching on the defensive side of the football was more than deficient. Our defense was s bad last season and the same thing is happening on defense against this year. In this game we surrendered 359 net yards, despite Matt Nichols going a mundane 16-of-27 for 165 yards and a touchdown in his first action of the season.
One reason was that Andrew Harris ran for over 100 yards against us in the first half alone. With the knowledge that Montreal had run very effectively against us when they used Sutton and Edmonton had given us a heavy dose of C.J. Gable, Washington had to know that the Bombers game plan would be to run against us early in this contest.
Yet it happened again, and we were unprepared to stop it. Washington didn’t game plan and scheme adequately to stop the run. Sol E. looks lost.
Harris torched our Leos for 109 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries — 101 of those coming before the half — a week after C.J. Gable gashed us for 165 yards in Edmonton.
The game also showed all kinds of problems with our pass defense, even though we played much better in the second half. I don’t blame Washington for the fact that our corners have not been good enough. In this game, the Bombers began by picking on Orange, just as the Eskimos picked on Young last game.
Our ‘Swiss Cheese pass defense sat last in the CFL coming into this game, allowing 303.5 yards per game, including four touchdowns and 115 yards per game on throws over 20 yards — two more than any other CFL team, despite playing just two games.
Last week in Edmonton it was Marcell Young beings targeted by the Eskimos, and this week it was Anthony Orange who took his lumps. He got beat on a double move for the 20-yard Adams touchdown and gave up too many completions.
Buono put Hervey in a terrible position going into the 2018 season. Our offensive and defensive lines were so bad in 2017 that was where we targeted money, at a cost to our secondary. It was also thought, with all the breakdowns that we had in our secondary last season, some vets might make a positive difference. They haven’t.
But that is not all that ails our defense. Washington continues to do dum things. His blitzes aren’t working and the design behind them is questionable. For example, in this game, we blitzed Otha Foster and had no one in flat coverage. It was a problem I wrote about prior to this game. Foster blitzed, Harris ran to the flat, and Nichols prompty hit him for the first down. Sol E. was covering the hook zone underneath and had a long way to run to get to Harris. The play was highlighted on the TSN telestrator as a defensive issue.
Washington has proven in the past that he can make effective half time adjustments in some games. But his defense is usually unprepared for the opposition. We gave up 28 points by half time in this game. In past playoff games with Washington as our defensie coordinator, his defenses gave up 50 points to Jonathan Crompton and the Montreal Als, after giving up 40 points per gam in the last 3 games of (2014), were completely unprepared for Calgary in the 2015 West Semi-Final, giving up 35 points. In 2016, the Bombers scored 25 points against us by halftime in the West Semi-Final and then Calgary scored 32 points on us by half time in the West Final. Washington struggles to come up with game plans that take away the opposition strengths while also never changing our vulnerabilities.
In this game Adam Bighill had two interceptions including his first CFL touchdown return You dot’ see the Bombers dropping Bighill back into a safety position. They have him playing as a true linebacker.
Harris, Bighill, and Fenner were all ex-Leo players who hurt us in this contest. Anthony Gaitor, deemed not good enough by Washington last season made the Bombers starting backfield this season before getting injured. Purifoy and Yell are enjoying excellent starts. Its interesting to see ex-Leos thriving with other teams and free agents having their struggles here. Last year, Figueroa only gave up one sack in Edmonton last year. He’s; given up two already here this season.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Our special teams have been excellent this season with the hiring of Jeff Reinbold. Long punted for a 54 8 yard average in this game. But our poor play on offence and defense began to impact our special team play as well in this game. Rainey averaged just a little over 6 yards per punt return and we also gave up a long return to Kevin Fogg.
WRAP
When Buono effectively pushed Jeff Tedford out as well as Jeff Tefford wanted out at the end of 2015, Buono made the choice of returning to coaching, rather than hiring a new Head Coach. He had interfered with the coaching so much it made sense to do that until he retired as GM. Buono should have retired at the end of that 2016 season as GM and Coach. But he thought that his team had a great chance to win a Grey Cup last season. Instead the 2017 season turned into a disaster and Buono was mostly responsible for that outcome. He decided to coach once again this season.
He had better get things turned around in a hurry. Lulay can’t save this team by himself, even if he plays very well when he returns. We couldn’t beat Edmonton last season with Lulay at the helm playing his best football ever. There is more to our Leos issues so far this season than just the quarterback position.
We need to make some changes to our offensive scheme. Its been too quick, too fast, too much RPO so far. It may turn out to be a good offensive system but the concepts need to be introduced more slowly and it needs to be integrated better.
Washington has changed from a passive vanilla defense to one that zone blitzes more this season. But the blitzes are poorly schemed and the pass defense is poorly schemed when we do zone blitz. Having Odell Willis drop back 5 yards on a zone blitz is like putting him in nowhere land.
It doesn’t seem to matter which players we have playing. We made a lot of changes from last season but still we are not ‘executing’. So, whether its bad scheming or bad executing, it’s the coaches responsibility to get this thing fixed.
When Kenny Rogers sang “ You gotta know when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run’, Wally should have taken note. He has nowhere to run. The script he had written for himself is not going to end well unless he gets his act together as a Head Coach and fast.
As Ullrich wrote|:
The exit of Buono at the end of the season had always seemed as if it was destined to hatch another subplot as to whether his successor next season was already on the Lions coaching staff. But at this rate, there’s no way either Jackson or defensive coordinator Mark Washington could be considered when the time comes when Hervey has to find a replacement for the head coach because not many would be buying what either is selling right now.
If Buono wants the BuonoPlan to be a success it starts with him, right now, or there will definitely be no future career ending Grey Cup victory, with him being raised up on Rolly’s shoulders, confetti swirling, before he walks into the mist after naming his successor. Instead of going out with a bang, it will be with a whimper.
We lost 10 of our last 13 games in 2017 and we’ve lost two of our first three games of this season.
Wally managed to pull one off in 2011 but that was an outlier. Its past time for Wally to get his ‘legendary’ butt in gear and get some wins because right now this franchise is heading for some big troubles if he doesn’t get this season turned around….. and the Ed Willes will be doing some major revising to their Buono tribute at the end of this season too.
In other words, root, toot , its time for Wally as a Head Coach, to 'execute'.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
Amazing detail and analysis. A most enjoyable read for this CFL fan.
Jarious, as a first time OC, did not know how to give Wally an offence that reduced interceptions and sacks, while keeping the passing yardage up. The full package he put in has been indigestible. And it has been easy to defend. And of course Wally did not design it himself, nor did he see the risks with its implementation. In any case, Jarious would be the scapegoat if it faltered.
As always in Wally's regime we did not design systems to fit the personnel. We expected personnel to just change over and carry on.
It is a hot mess right now, and Wally, who did not design the nuts and bolts of the new offence, will have no idea how to fix it. It looks like Jarious will not know either.
I would recommend that Fajardo gets the start next game. One can only imagine how that will go. When Lulay gets back, as a long time fan of his, I wish him well. He can improvise, and he can run. And he has the stature to hold his ground in adapting the system to what works for him.
I have been a fan of Jennings since the get go. All one can hope for now is recuperation time for him. He is shell shocked. He is young, however, and if he was released he would be snapped up in a minute. The right situation in coaching, of which there are quite a few in the CFL, could have him throwing for 300 again in a hurry, methinks.
I think a lot of credit has not been given to two old QB/OC coaches, Tedford and Cortez, for setting Jennings up for success when they were here. In their absence, he has been thrown to the wolves, with the accumulated damage hitting hardest right now.
Defence? Another whole matter.
O Line play? Another whole matter.
STs? At least Wally mostly gave that up to Reinebold. Onside kick, down 22 points with 10 seconds left? That was Wally's call. Send two lines crashing together for the onside kick, in that situation? Irresponsible. No wonder a fight almost broke out.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.
Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.
Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
Football is typically not a game suited to coaching changes mid-season. However, Hamilton has gone 8-6 since June Jones took over in 2017 and more impressively, Masoli has been one of the best QBs in the CFL since the change.
"This is a coaching issue. You design an offence around your talent. If you are determined to use a plug and play offence, and you are forcing round players into square holes, then you must give them time to learn and adapt. This is sink or swim when it isn’t necessary and we’re sinking."
I was gonna start a Dickens novel this afternoon Mr. Blitz, but, heck, opted for another! heh heh... It was a worthwhile read for sure, and the above excerpt was one of my favourite lines, with my emphasis on your most IMO succinct phrase, regards the offence's philosophy/scheme. Indeed, it need not be sink or swim. Here's hoping the powers that be come to see that.
BC is not the only team to revamp it’s defense this year. Ottawa did so by bringing in Noel Thorpe and a bevy of players that match his philosophy.
Ottawa’s D is playing aggressive AND effectively. Bringing a bunch of new players together can be successful as they have typified.
While I am on the sort of subject of the Redblacks, former RB Orange is showing what got him cut from Ottawa. Namely a tendency to become an active target in the opposition’s game plan.
Get Keelan Johnson in the line up; the guy makes plays.
BC is not the only team to revamp it’s defense this year. Ottawa did so by bringing in Noel Thorpe and a bevy of players that match his philosophy.
Ottawa’s D is playing aggressive AND effectively. Bringing a bunch of new players together can be successful as they have typified.
While I am on the sort of subject of the Redblacks, former RB Orange is showing what got him cut from Ottawa. Namely a tendency to become an active target in the opposition’s game plan.
Get Keelan Johnson in the line up; the guy makes plays.
Yup, Noel Thorpe is likely the most vital part of that effective outcome re the Redblack's defense, and tellingly Mr. Orange is not part if it. But them, neither are the likes of Gary Peters and Marcell Young. What do I know, but I was one dejected Leo fan when after the dust had settled (from off-season and pre-season) and what we had left standing in the secondary was those two. They were never more than mediocre with their previous teams as I recall. Stellar play is not something I associate with them. Surely there is someone who can stand out. If it's Keelan Johnson (as you suggest CardiacKid), let it happen.
Jarious, as a first time OC, did not know how to give Wally an offence that reduced interceptions and sacks, while keeping the passing yardage up. The full package he put in has been indigestible. And it has been easy to defend.
As always in Wally's regime we did not design systems to fit the personnel. We expected personnel to just change over and carry on.
It is a hot mess right now, and Wally, who did not design the nuts and bolts of it, will have no idea how to fix it. It looks like Jarious will not know either. I recommend that Fajardo gets the start next game. One can only imagine how that will go. When Lulay gets back, as a long time fan of his, I wish him well.
Defence? Another whole matter.
O Line play? Another whole matter.
Thanks WCJ. You provide impressive analysis after each and every Leo home game...and like you and most successful coaches, even when theyfavor a system they also adapt that system to their players. When Foles was quarterbacking Philadelphia in the Super Bowl, they used RPO plays because Chip Kelly had created the RPO system for him in 2013, because Foles couldn't keep the football off the read option.
But even with RPO plays being intrduced this season for a few more NFL teams, you need a certain type of quarterback to run RPO's. You won't find Bilichick making Brady an RPO quarterback. RPO plays would work for a Russel Wilson for example much better than for a Peyton Manning (when he was playing ). I just dont' see Payton running off a fake zone read handoff.
Its easy to be a critic. Here is an RPO play that would be more of a threat. Go no huddle/up tempo. Take Ricky Collins out of the game and insert Rainey.
On the left side, out wide, line up Manny ahead of Burnham in a stack. On the right side, out wide, line up Watson ahead of Shaq Johnson in a stack. This play can be run to both sides. Line up Rainey in the slot, back 5 yards from the line of scrimmage.
Now we have an RPO that can be run to either side. For the first RPO play, we will line up Rainey in the slot right and he will be in motion behind the line of scrimmage. The RPO is as follows: 1) hand off to Johnson 2) run the reverse to Rainey 3) fake the reverse to Rainey and then hit Rainey in the flat off the fake. 4) fake the reverse to Rainey and hit Burnham on a bubble screen with Manny blocking 5) fake the reverse to Rainey and hit Shaq Johnson on the bubble screen with Watson blocking. 6) hit Burnham on a slant pattern after the fake to Rainey - the linebacker will have come up to defend the fake reverse - if not open continue to a crossing route. 7) fake the bubble screen to Burnham and hit Manny deep. 8) throw the slant to Shaq Johnson on the right side and if not open, have him continue inside into a crossing route (Watson runs a skinny corner for vertical layering (and for a throw out of bounds if necessary). Screw the 2 yard out pattern. 9) why not audible a very quick misdirection screen pass off Rainey's motion and Johnson;s misdirection handoff?
The receivers can line up to either side, depending on a call by by the quarterback depending on matchups. Rainey can be lined up to either side (play call left or right) Then, to change things up, with the same alignment, wth an audible, come out of the RPO offence.
Instead, go play action pre-snap. Fake the quick toss to Johnson. Have the offensive line pass block on the back side and pull a guard to make the fake look realistic and to also provide a protector for the quarterback. Manny runs a deep seam pattern and if the ball doesn't arrive on the seam, he breaks it to the post. Burnham runs his seam route right behind Manny's and breaks his to the corner. Instead of going in motion, a quick snap enables Rainey to become the third receiver in a three receiver combo pattern.
The defense is anticipating his motion which doesn't arrive. Instead he has an option route, depending on coverage. The linebacker or nickel should bite on the fake toss to Johnson who will continue to the flat as an outlet.
Rainey is then given an option route. The key is to get him into space and he has to read the coverage and space. The halfback and corner have to take Burnham and Manny. If they man up, we have a good matchup for the one who has no safety help. If they zone, and the corner stays up, then Rainey has all kinds of room to option inside and there is no way that he can be covered by a linebacker, if he breaks outside or is in the seam. Johnson will also have leverage on the outside linebacker to his side, after the fake. In effect, this play takes the linebacker out of the play with a fake toss, and either floods a zone with three receivers, with the post pattern freezing the safety.
There is no way a zone can cover all four routes plus the outside linebacker is frozen by the play fake and he cant' get out there to cover the tailback. If he continues on right towards the quarterback, the quarterback hits Johnson in the flat.
Of course, we don't want to use Rainey and Johnson in the backfield together often. So its would be easy to use Shaq Johnson in Rainey's spot for these two designed plays and line up Ricky Collins in the lower stack behind Watson.
Of course there are hundreds of plays that can be utilized. The keys to my example are 1) you can switch from RPO to a spread stack play and run it from the same formation to create confusion. If the defense thinks it will be an RPO play, it will crowd up and then you can beat it deep. You also need to use your best players within an RPO.
In other words, why are we using Watson to run the reverse instead of Rainey or Shaq? Why are we using bubble screens to Ricky Collins when Burnham and Shaq are our two best bubble screen receivers and we should be using Manny as a lead blocker for Burnham on that type of play. Why always have Burnham and Manny on opposite sides..why not line them up together on one side at times?
Why use Burnham on quick outs when he is a great target for slants, just as Manny is also a vertical receiver. Why not stack Burnham in front of Shaq for a change up and have him lead block on the bubble screen. Why not design some deep throws off pass blocking rather than the shortened time due to RPOrun blocking run in ordre to throw some deeper patterns on first down, at times to Shaq Johnson, Manny, Burnham, and Rainey, who can all go deep.
Last game, we never completed a pass over 11 yards, except the one 1/3/2/3 desperation throw into double coverage to Burnham. Every offence has to threaten deep or defenses will come up and overplay the short game, just as defenses will overplay the vertical game if an offence is too focused on deep balls, openingj up the shorter passing game.
Offensive football, from back to the days of Sid Gilman believed that a passing attack had to attack a defense in all five areas horizontally (break the fiield down horizontally into five zones outside, slot, middle, slot, outside) and break a defense down vertically into four zones (short, intermediate, deep intermediate, and deep) based on those horizontall areas …..and all of those areas have to be attacked within a game and all offences need plays designed to have all those areas attacked.
This is not rocket science. Many Lionbackers understand these concepts well so I don't get why our Leos are not developing an offence that uses these concepts.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
What happened to Jennings to lose his confidence from the first game to the second, never mind tonight's fiasco ?
It's not like he looked good in that first game. Montreal is just such a bad team that a mediocre performance by Jennings was good enough for us to win. Jennings even looked mediocre against Winnipeg's 2nd and 3rd stringers in the pre-season. This is no different from how he performed last year pre-injury.
The 2018 BC Lions season is going to be decided by how Travis Lulay's knee holds up.
No, Jennings looks much worse in this new RPO offence than he looked last season and he had some struggles last season - a combination of the way things went last season - pressure to 'make plays' while not throwing interceptions, a shoulder injury, bad line blocking, predictable pass play calling, defenses overplaying the vertical passing attack, trying to integrate Chris Williams into the offence badly etc. As the losses mounted up, due also to bad defense and bad special teams, the pressure continued to increase. Lulay played well for four games and that added to the scenario.
Jennings came into training camp last season 'tight. Despite being only the third quarterback to throw for over 5000 yds, in a season, the only focus was on Jennings to not throw interceptions in 2017. He did, as did Lulay, who actually had a worse interception rate than Jenings in 2017 It was the focus of the off-season and training camp for 2017 and 2018 as well.
Jennings was no longer the young gun. He was under the gun and still is. All quarterbacks have gone through it. For example Ricky Ray, in Edmonton in 2010, started 16 games. He only threw for 3,565 yards with 11 touchdown passes and 16 interceptions (82.3 quarterback efficiency). That was a worse season than Jennings had last year and he played that season with much more experience than Jennings had.
The key is how to we bring him out of it. Lulay sat down for the most part of a couple of seasons. Jennings needs to be given a break from the starters role and work himself back again to the confident young man who started for us in 2016. That might take some time, as well as other things.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
Jarious, as a first time OC, did not know how to give Wally an offence that reduced interceptions and sacks, while keeping the passing yardage up. The full package he put in has been indigestible. And it has been easy to defend.
As always in Wally's regime we did not design systems to fit the personnel. We expected personnel to just change over and carry on.
It is a hot mess right now, and Wally, who did not design the nuts and bolts of it, will have no idea how to fix it. It looks like Jarious will not know either. I recommend that Fajardo gets the start next game. One can only imagine how that will go. When Lulay gets back, as a long time fan of his, I wish him well.
Defence? Another whole matter.
O Line play? Another whole matter.
Thanks WCJ. You provide impressive analysis after each and every Leo home game...and like you and most successful coaches, even when theyfavor a system they also adapt that system to their players. When Foles was quarterbacking Philadelphia in the Super Bowl, they used RPO plays because Chip Kelly had created the RPO system for him in 2013, because Foles couldn't keep the football off the read option.
..............
Offensive football, from back to the days of Sid Gilman believed that a passing attack had to attack a defense in all five areas horizontally (break the fiield down horizontally into five zones outside, slot, middle, slot, outside) and break a defense down vertically into four zones (short, intermediate, deep intermediate, and deep) based on those horizontall areas …..and all of those areas have to be attacked within a game and all offences need plays designed to have all those areas attacked.
................
Thanks, Blitz.
Of course, I used to follow the NFL in great detail from the 1960s until about 2000. I ran an early betting pool before it became insanely popular. I have great appreciation for a number of the coaches, in both the NFL and CFL. Lombardi. Landry. Grant. Noll. Shula. Davis. Madden. Walsh of course. Coryell. Parcells. Belichick. Matthews got me back into following the CFL.
I mention this because the one guy I did not pay attention to was Sid Gillman, whom you cite above. LOL I knew about him of course. But even though San Diego had Lance Alworth I preferred the NFL. Gillman's coaching tree is amazing. Many of my favourites are in there.
I read where he was the first coach to use film. He was the first coach to use a strength coach. He loved the vertical passing game. Very, very creative.
Not really caring for the old AFL, I missed out on this guy, aside from sports highlights, at least until he joined the Dallas Cowboys. Lance Alworth. Amazing. A high stepper. He ran and jumped like a deer. Caught everything, usually while flying through the air. Outran people. League MVP. Hall of Famer. I've been watching the YouTube over and over. It amazes me.
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John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.
Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.
Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
). I just dont' see Payton running off a fake zone read handoff.