Lions 26 - Stampeders 21, Post-Game Stats and Comments

[TheLionKing]

I know he has only started two games, but Andrew Peirson looks like he could be the lions centre of the future. Great undrafted free agent find by your scouts.

Heard on the radio broadcast that Peirson is a relative of Lui Passaglia.

[TheLionKing]

Jubilant dressing room

https://www.bclions.com/2018/10/13/wally-wally-wally/

[The_Pauser]

What a win. I was extremely upset with Ottawa for blowing that game against Edmonton, but the Lions took care of business tonight and now we're set-up to clinch a playoff spot with a win over Edmonton on Friday. Outside of two TD's given to Calgary off turnovers our defense shut them down.

Lulay's numbers are ugly. Jennings-like. But like some others have mentioned the difference is the confidence the team has with Lulay in there vs. Jennings. Lulay looked confident and didn't fold after throwing that interception. We've seen Jennings come unraveled after throwing interceptions and the game very well could have got away from us after blowing a 20-4 lead. If we're going to beat Edmonton, and if we're going to do anything in the playoffs we'll need better production from our QB position but for this night we were good enough to win. That's what happens when you have a great defense and we might ride our defense to the playoffs.

Sutton had a great game. Over 100 yards rushing, which is something JJ24 only did once (his last game). I wouldn't toss JJ24 aside though, as he's a great runner. It would be nice to find a way to get both involved as they both offer something to our offense, and JJ24 is a very good receiver out of the backfield too. Someone mentioned trying to convert Rainey to a receiver...I don't see that working. The big knock on him this year is his route running and he's not lining up in the right spot all the time. As a receiver you can't have that, and at this stage of the season I don't think you can risk that. If he runs the wrong route or doesn't run his route to the full extent, a pass in his direction could very easily go for an interception. Not worth the risk.

Pleased with our offensive line tonight. Calgary only got one sack so I would call that a success. On the defensive side we got to BLM twice (one sack I think could have been called roughing the passer as I felt McLennon's hit was a bit high, but because the officiating was so bad this game they had already used their challenge and we caught a break).

Officiating was bad tonight, both ways. I guess it evened out in the end, but the officials need to be better. Those PI's were obvious and should have been called. We probably should have been called for roughing the passer. There were a couple other plays that I thought could have led to penalties. This is why I say, if you throw the challenge flag and the call is overturned you shouldn't lose your right to challenge. You should only lose your challenge if you're wrong, and if you challenge something after the 3 minute warning and are wrong you get a 15 yard delay of game penalty, or something like that.

Exciting that we're so close to clinching a playoff spot. The team is hot right now and has roared back after a bad start. A home playoff game isn't out of the question, though I wouldn't say it's too likely. Calgary has to do us a favour by beating Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, we need to win out, and also hope Edmonton (with nothing left to play for) plays spoiler and beats Winnipeg in the final week of the season. Doable, though not likely. What's most likely is we finish 4th and crossover to Ottawa.

[SammyGreene]

A huge against the odds win.

BC entered game 1-6 on the road and Stamps 7-0 at home. Lions hadn’t won in Calgary since 2014.

Sutton becomes just the 2nd RB this season to rush for over 100 yards against Stamps defence. William Powell did it back in week #3.
Reminds me of Joe Smith, excellent between tackles and always bounces off initial contact.

In fairness, how many teams have had to abandon the running game against the Stamps to play catch up? So give props to the defence for Lions sticking to their game plan.

Lions are still going to need more out of their pedestrian passing game that has proven it doesn’t matter who the QB is.
I agree with Farhan who said on the post-game show that Burnham needs to be targeted more. Just 5 throws his way last night yet he is clearly their best receiver without Manny and catches nearly everything.

Watch game film from a decade ago when Simon was your go-to-guy and probably saw a minimum 15 targets per game.

Who tipped off the officiating crew about pick plays by Calgary receivers? Was it 3 or 4 calls for offensive pass interference calls last night? It was week 15 and there's no way they haven't been doing that all season. Maybe the new guys haven't been trained well enough yet to disguise it better?

Sets up absolutely crazy final 3 weeks of the season with so many different scenarios.
First and foremost, beat Edmonton to clinch playoff spot. That would all but eliminate Eskimos as well with just one game left.

Catching Riders hardly out of the question with a game in hand and head-to-head at Mosiac two weeks weeks from now.

Calgary will play a huge part on how it unfolds with games against Riders (H) Bombers (A) and Lions (A) remaining. Big question is how much does Mitchell play final 2 weeks if Stamps beat Riders and clinch next Saturday?

[David]

Was that 3rd down gamble in the 4th quarter Dickey's parting gift to Wally?? Man, what a dumb decision. They'd been struggling to score TDs all evening.

This game showed me that as good as Parker is, we need that reliable returner in Rainey after Collins' botched catch (and we nearly lost another.....at least Rainey is not going to put the ball on the ground). Rainey is also a home run threat who can tilt the field. Has he been playing well this season? For the most part, not really. But he broke one last game that was called on a hold away from the play. I would insert him for a running back (Johnson?) if I had to choose.


DH

[DanoT]

I would like to thank the thief that stole Jackson's playbook laptop. JK. But Lions did seem to have a decent game plan on O: Hand the ball off to Sutton between the tackles and when Stamps stack the box, Lulay runs off tackle for some key 1st downs. The successful run game also helped slow down the Stamps pass rush.

Dressing JJ24 seemed to be a waste, so for next game either get him on the field along with Sutton or dress Rainy as David has suggested.

O line and D line played great and were probably the main reason for victory.

On the final D series the Lions initially did a 3 man rush with 2 linemen delaying (guarding against a screen pass or draw play?) and then rushing the QB, seemed to be effective.

[Belize City Lion]

The win feels good, but not great. Had Calgary managed to come back we would be talking about how Lulay was not productive enough. Now, I am not knocking Lulay. He is our best QB, no doubt. But, 193 yards with 0 TDs and 1 INT is not much different that what we got from Jennings most games.

The big difference seemed to be the way Lulay handled things late in the first half after Calgary got 14 points thanks to Lions turnovers. If Lulay did not settle his offence and put together a drive just long enough to use up most of the last 1:20 of the half, I believe Calgary would have led at half-time and ultimately won the game. However while praising Lulay for his leadership in that situation I will still criticize our OC for poor clock management by calling for a short pass (that went incomplete to Posey) when a rushing play could have allowed the Lions to run out the clock. Instead, BLM got one more shot before the half and ended up 1 play (or 1 penalty) away from giving his FG kicker a chance to give the Stamps the lead.

Hopefully the takeaway for Jarious Jackson will be that he finally realizes you have to commit to the run if you want to win. My fear is that come Friday, playing indoors, he will be back to his pass happy play calling.

I would sit Collins in favour of Rainey. Not just because of the muffed punt return, but because I still believe Rainey gives us a better chance of breaking big returns. We've seen how just his presence gets in the head of coaches and can affect decision making. Plus, I expect Edmonton will bring a lot of pressure on defence and Rainey could be the outlet Lulay needs to escape that pressure.

The next game against Edmonton is an absolute must win. Win and the Lions are in the playoffs. Lose and they have to beat both Saskatchewan and Calgary plus hope Edmonton loses their final game of the season. For a team that has found ways to make things harder than they need to be all season long, I hope they realize what a gift they will have laying before them on Friday night.

[BC 1988]

It's fortunate that BC faces CGY at the point when they are recovering from many injuries, and have long since ended the "meaningful games" part of their regular season. CGY has to worry about momentum heading into the playoffs though. They are very beatable right now, but a lot depends on how healthy they are by Nov 18th.

[Riderfan67]

Awesome win for your Lions ! I was cheering hard for you guys, my game didn’t fare as good , but that’s how it goes sometimes. Boy I hope you beat the evil empire next week and my Riders beat the Stamps

[Riderfan67]

It's fortunate that BC faces CGY at the point when they are recovering from many injuries, and have long since ended the "meaningful games" part of their regular season. CGY has to worry about momentum heading into the playoffs though. They are very beatable right now, but a lot depends on how healthy they are by Nov 18th.

That’s if they are even playing in that game

[Riderfan67]

Man that was a awesome trade you made to get Sutton ! He played awesome yesterday for you

[Toppy Vann]

It was a tough game for both teams on offence but the Lions were better but I'd still not be planning the trip east in the crossover.

11 points Calgary got were dropped punt and dropped INT (drops with DBS do happen but the punt drop is rookie high school) so this makes the win better.

The normally sure handed Orange dropping that sure INT was 3 more points.

What won't be happening next week as readily is Sutton having his way with opposing defences as they've seen him now in Lion plays and BC will have to be more creative and include both Sutton and JJ 24.

Rainey should be used like Banks - but too late to do that now. No decent coach would run Banks up the middle nor should they ask Rainey to do that.

[Toppy Vann]

Was that 3rd down gamble in the 4th quarter Dickey's parting gift to Wally?? Man, what a dumb decision. They'd been struggling to score TDs all evening.

This game showed me that as good as Parker is, we need that reliable returner in Rainey after Collins' botched catch (and we nearly lost another.....at least Rainey is not going to put the ball on the ground). Rainey is also a home run threat who can tilt the field. Has he been playing well this season? For the most part, not really. But he broke one last game that was called on a hold away from the play. I would insert him for a running back (Johnson?) if I had to choose.


DH

In a way, you could easily think that as even the football Gods seemed to find things for Wally last night including one spot that I thought for sure would have been overturned by the off field officials. One offensive PI was clear but the other not so much.

Refereeing overall is pretty good in the CFL and I've not had occasion to think much on it but two games this week were odd.

Officiating was odd at times in that it reminded me of the Friday Ham - Tor game where TSN again with all those cameras wasn't able to tell their broadcast crew what was being called. TSN game callers typically are told by the truck crew who see a camera somewhere away from the play what the likely call will be. Friday and the Lions-Stamps game, it was a lot of silence and no speculation.

The two PIs - vs both teams should have been called and so should have the inadvertent high tackle on Bo Levi Mitchell with the ref right there.

But overall I'd not say reffing influenced the outcome versus a bad dropped punt and a surehanded Orange drop of an easy INT - leading to 11 Stamp points.

But I'd agree that the high tackle on Mitchell as he ducked could theoretically have made a difference but given how bad they were on offence maybe not.

Even Trestman told the ref, that he had never said a word to him in 7 years but that night the ref was lucky he was not mic'd up. Actually Trestman was lucky or he'd be penalized and fined lol.

As TSN noted Eric Rogers had just come back from being home in SoCal for the birth of his second child. He looked like it at times.

[BC 1988]

It's fortunate that BC faces CGY at the point when they are recovering from many injuries, and have long since ended the "meaningful games" part of their regular season. CGY has to worry about momentum heading into the playoffs though. They are very beatable right now, but a lot depends on how healthy they are by Nov 18th.

That’s if they are even playing in that game

Apologies--you know, I thought CGY had clinched first place, but you're right the Riders could still catch them. CGY has a game in hand but the 3 game season series will be decided this Saturday.

So BC's win has suddenly made CGY's path to a 3rd straight GC choke a little less certain.

[The_Pauser]

The path to hosting a playoff game isn't as convoluted as some may think: The Lions basically need to win out, and need Winnipeg to lose one game to either Calgary or Edmonton. Simple as that. Is it doable? Perhaps. What's tough is having to rely on another team to help us, but we put ourselves in that position by losing a few close games early on. But I wouldn't write off that possibility just yet.