Lions at Stampeders July 21st, 2024

[TheLionKing]

Lions didn't seem to have any focus. Whats with all the long passes when the wind was a problem?
Lee had a good game; wish I could say the same for many of his teammates.
In the future: more Stanback, please.

Poor coaching IMO. Inability to adjust or just plain stubborn.

[David]

This was going to be a trap game. A game in which we were playing an opponent whom we have had good success against recently, sandwiched in between the emotional home victory over the Riders for first place and a much-needed bye week, so it’s not surprising that it was error-prone football.

I hinted in the Report Card thread that "when VA has a bad game or defences adjust" we're going to need to shine in the other two phases and we just didn't tonight. I am not sure if it was the heat or guys thinking about the bye week ahead but their heads weren't in this game (and can someone explain why we wore BLACK pants on the hottest gameday this year? They were probably melting on the sidelines).

Defence played well for stretches limiting Calgary's potent run game, but we allowed too many soft underneath passes. We deserved to lose not stopping Calgary on 2nd and 18. I blame RP for not putting his guys in the right position or dialing up pressure on this pivitol play.

The good:
Stanback
Lee
Tuehema
Whytie
Run defence

The bad:
VA's continual overthrows and forcing passes into tight coverage 2x for INTs
Makysmic's play-calling (should have marched slow and methodical and we kept trying chunk plays)
Kent Perkins. When he's off, man, he is REALLY off
Bad penalties, especially the holding yards on Specials that continually backed us up
Flintoft's 4th quarter punt that should have been coffin cornered
Hollins - what's happened? He was the league's leading receiver for the first four weeks
No-show Pete (again). Is it a toe injury? More Archibald please!


DH

[TheLionKing]

Flintoff has a tendency for a shank punt every few games. He had another one tonight.

[don corleone]

Strong game for Calgary at home. Good for attendance blah, blak, blah.

Good wake up call as well for the Lions. They should have played Dolegala to see what they really have when VA was shaken up.

Too much wind.

[Merolamas56]

At one point they couldn't pass block at all, then on a drive soon afterward, they were excellent an VA had time to complete passes all of the way down the field

then, later, they seem to settle into a not bad-but not great mode

[Toppy Vann]

Early in the game VA came to the sidelines holding his chest after taking a shot. He paced around for a bit before finally going to the bench and on the Ipad. Not sure if that set the stage for so many poorly thrown balls but it definitely rattled him.
The Lions need their full arsenal of receivers back. Hollins a complete non factor with 1 catch and 4 targets. Now you are down to McInnis and 3 rookies including one that was playing junior football in Victoria last season. Calgary was playing a lot of zone and dropping their linebackers taking away his quick first reads. That's where Hatcher and Cottoy are effective of finding and sitting in those soft spots.

That said a complete injustice Stanback finished with just 9 carries despite a 7 yards average. I guess it's just not in BC's DNA to pound him 20 times even though it was a one possession game from nearly start to finish.

On one drive midway thru the 4th quarter we got the PI call against McInnis that Calgary unsuccessfully challenged. Stanback rips off a 5 yd run on 1st down and then VA misses Eberhardt on a deep ball. We settle for the Whyte FG but why not run Stanback again there?

Next series we get to the Calgary 50 on a McInnis catch and he goes to him again with the throw slightly behind resulting in an INT. We were almost in FG range to take the lead and not even a 1st down handoff to Stanback with just over 3 min to play.

A bye week to re-group then a good test for this offence going into Winnipeg against what will be a desperate Bombers team. Hopefully with Hatcher and Cottoy back. Will be interesting see what the o-line looks like too.

Nice to see Teuhema with a long overdue breakout game to finish with a couple of sacks. Phillips was incensed with the key 18 yd completion to Barnes to essentially seal the win. That shouldn't happen when you are dropping 9 on 2nd and 17.

To say what you're saying another way:

Calgary:

1. Game plan and execution in all facets of the game was superb.

> The play calls to Clarke Barnes to win the game were called brilliantly for the BC DEF set up as was that 2 and 18 play to him.
> The set up to spy VA was a smart more.
> Not sure if Calgary set out to beat BC physically but after the early game hit by Ciante Evans and the game ending injury on the ST tackle IIRC seemed to bring the physicality to their play.
> Evans not able to come up with fumble by Jalen Philpot yet Jalen who had the ball knocked up and a BC tackler still in tackling him let him turn a disaster and a potential BC win into a brilliant play some 7 yds up the field. I know they don't practice this stuff much but Evans looked like an 11 yr old first year player on that gimme of a TO.

Three caveats to that:
a. Jalen Philpots TD with maybe half an inch of turf in bounds was not something a defender could have prevented.
b. The holding call giving Calgary the SAFETY was weak as Suitor said. That was huge.
c. BC penalties and poor field position giving Jake Maier short fields was huge given the tight game.

2. BC is schematically and philosophically a team that values the run.

Yes, it's not in their DNA.

Given that BC were running only when it was clear to Calgary their DEF was set up to cover the predicted BC pass routes making it as a tight to execute as a Lions practice when they own DEF knows what's coming.


3. "The Lions need their full arsenal of receivers back. Hollins a complete non factor with 1 catch and 4 targets. Now you are down to McInnis and 3 rookies including one that was playing junior football in Victoria last season. Calgary was playing a lot of zone and dropping their linebackers taking away his quick first reads. That's where Hatcher and Cottoy are effective of finding and sitting in those soft spots."

If they were balancing some runs it might have opened up space for BC's passing game.

I found it hard given how the game was shown on TV to see if it was route running and lack of knowledge to gain separation OR Calgary's tight coverage and VA's first and second reads simply always being downfield.

Would have made sense to get Stanback and Mackie some shorter balls BUT Calgary was set up well defensively so BC seemed to be more hopeful that they'd connect downfield.

Overall, VA might have been a bit off this game but I'm not blaming him for the loss.

BC's OC has to make adjustments IF possible and in his view maybe he didn't see what he could do differently.
As a coach in any sport there is the odd game when an opponnent is abnd coaches realize there is nothing they can do either tactically or subbing that is going to change what is happening here today.

[tedbear]

This was going to be a trap game. A game in which we were playing an opponent whom we have had good success against recently, sandwiched in between the emotional home victory over the Riders for first place and a much-needed bye week, so it’s not surprising that it was error-prone football.

I hinted in the Report Card thread that "when VA has a bad game or defences adjust" we're going to need to shine in the other two phases and we just didn't tonight. I am not sure if it was the heat or guys thinking about the bye week ahead but their heads weren't in this game (and can someone explain why we wore BLACK pants on the hottest gameday this year? They were probably melting on the sidelines).

Defence played well for stretches limiting Calgary's potent run game, but we allowed too many soft underneath passes. We deserved to lose not stopping Calgary on 2nd and 18. I blame RP for not putting his guys in the right position or dialing up pressure on this pivitol play.

The good:
Stanback
Lee
Tuehema
Whytie
Run defence

The bad:
VA's continual overthrows and forcing passes into tight coverage 2x for INTs
Makysmic's play-calling (should have marched slow and methodical and we kept trying chunk plays)
Kent Perkins. When he's off, man, he is REALLY off
Bad penalties, especially the holding yards on Specials that continually backed us up
Flintoft's 4th quarter punt that should have been coffin cornered
Hollins - what's happened? He was the league's leading receiver for the first four weeks
No-show Pete (again). Is it a toe injury? More Archibald please!


DH

David you seemed to hit all the points as there were so many reasons why we lost this game. The surprising thing was that we kept it close and had a chance to win at the end.

Missing Cottoy is pivotal and the Lions need to find another player with his skill set to replace him when he is injured, using two players eliminated us from using tempo and when Mackie is in the game we are tipping off that we are likely going to run.

However I believe our coaching refused to adapt to the game which was sad to see as I have like our coaching staff but today was not their day.

purrfect example is on offence. We are an explosive offence but due to the wind we struggled mightily to hit any deep balls. It was a close game and our run game was working. Mix it in with a short passing game and we would have been okay. But we kept going back and forcing the long ball and that is what killed us on the offensive side of the ball. Chalk that up to coaching arrogance. Refused to believe that their game plan would not work in the wind.

On defence same thing we play a bend but don't break style keeping everyone back so we limit explosive plays. It is extremely frustrating to watch as Hambone pointed out earlier we played right into their hands. They did what we all knew they were going to do and we were to arrogant to play up and stop the screens and slants. It was a slow death and we couldn't get off the field. So bad we only had one offensive possession in the 3rd quarter.

I also believe that Teuhema and Banks are the only ones pulling their wait on the first unit D line. Covington and Robertson may have helped us improve on the run but as far as applying pressure they are non existent.

Does anyone know if there is a stat for how many plays a player plays in a game? I think it would behoove us to replace Covington and Robertson with Moore and Archibald but would like to see how many plays each player has played so I could have a better understanding of who has been more impactful

[Hambone]

If they have a need for another receiver priority absolutely has to be for one with a Canadian passport. As it is Hatcher's return is likely to push a receiver back to the PR. Also they still have Ravenel on the PR unable to get into the lineup.

They're going to have quite a time trying to figure out how to add Hatcher, Cherry and Bemiy back into the mix without muddying the waters with the likes of Weineke and Leonard.

Not sure why the team would be adverse to improving when they have an opportunity to do so.

Consensus opinion seems to be the additions Montreal made mid season last year were contributing factors to their success. I see they added Nate Behar this week despite having a strong receiving corp with Philpot and Julien-Grant already leading the way. More good depth imo.

We'll see what they get out Eberhardt today.

I really don't see how Wieneke or Leonard improve anything. Weineke is just a plodding inside receiver who was often a healthy scratch in Saskatchewan last year. In BC he'd have to play wide side wide receiver which he's just not suited for. Personally I'd take Ellingson over him. That neither have found a gig speaks volumes to where their value is perceived, especially when considering Winnipeg is down 3 American receivers in Schoen, Lawler and Wheatfall who was looking promising.

I question Leonard's value as a receiver other that in a gadget role. It worked twice for Edmonton last year, not unlike Peirson a few games back, because the opposition wasn't expecting it. Tedford brought him in nearly a decade ago to compete with Cam Morroh in an attempt to reinstall the true TE in the offense. After Tristan Jackson ended Morroh's career the TE job was AC's. Unfortunately, due to Leonard's frying pan hands, they soon abandoned the TE experiment.

Bottom line though with Hatcher poised to return a hypothetical addition of Wieneke and Leonard means 3 Americans must sit.....and with Flintoft and Williams holding down 2 of the DA spots that means a starter or two and/or cutting into the rotational depth on defense.

Behar is the type of guy I was thinking of but I wonder if he was only interested in opportunities back east. He was originally drafted by Edmonton but at his first opportunity at free agency he scurried back to Ottawa where he played his college ball. He's been available on the open market since early February when Ottawa let him go prior to being paid an offseaon bonus. Quite frankly his numbers last year coupled with injury problems last 2 years (11 games missed) made it a risk to pay that bonus.

[Hambone]

Flintoff has a tendency for a shank punt every few games. He had another one tonight.

I guessed that means Grace outshanked him 2-1 by my unofficial count.

[Hambone]

It must be really hard to just pick up a football on a fumble.

Fumble recovery trouble usually begins when guys try to pick the ball up instead of dropping on it and wrapping it up. Screw trying to score, secure the damned turnover and with it possession.

[Hambone]

VA seems to be struggling to connect with his receivers, especially Hollins. In the last 2 games they have connected on only 6 of 18 targets. There were the two TD drops vs the Riders but seems to me there's also been a lot of uncatchable balls. I recall at least 2 vs SSK that were one-hopped into Hollins' feet. Pretty sure one last night was in the overthrow highlight package. Other than those 2 TD drops how many of the remaining 10 targets that didn't connect were within his catch radius?

[David]

VA seems to be struggling to connect with his receivers, especially Hollins. In the last 2 games they have connected on only 6 of 18 targets. There were the two TD drops vs the Riders but seems to me there's also been a lot of uncatchable balls. I recall at least 2 vs SSK that were one-hopped into Hollins' feet. Pretty sure one last night was in the overthrow highlight package. Other than those 2 TD drops how many of the remaining 10 targets that didn't connect were within his catch radius?

One yesterday, that he caught rather awkwardly and did not survive contact. The confident Hollins from a few games back would likely have held onto that one.


DH

[Toppy Vann]

Hambone:

(Nate) Behar is the type of guy I was thinking of but I wonder if he was only interested in opportunities back east. He was originally drafted by Edmonton but at his first opportunity at free agency he scurried back to Ottawa where he played his college ball. He's been available on the open market since early February when Ottawa let him go prior to being paid an offseaon bonus. Quite frankly his numbers last year coupled with injury problems last 2 years (11 games missed) made it a risk to pay that bonus.

After you wrote that the Alouettes were taking note and signed Nate Behar, however they won't need him unless Cody Fajardo is back at QB.
I can't see Caleb Evans tossing passes even with a week's practices like Fajardo has been this season.

If you want a parallel to what Als face without Fajardo, we got it with VA off target in the windy stadium and BC not able or willing to dig down into their playbook to help out wanting to disprove it seems that more of the same will actually deliver a better result.

Montreal Alouettes sign Canadian receiver Nate Behar
By 3Down Staff -July 20, 2024

Behar has been on the market since February when he was released by the Ottawa Redblacks despite substantial guaranteed money in his contract. The move comes as fellow Canadian receiver Kaion Julien-Grant battles a shoulder injury and could miss several weeks.

https://3downnation.com/2024/07/20/alou ... ate-behar/

Alouettes disagree with my take on Caleb Evans but he was ill-prepared last game and it's not all him as it's the system of few reps for QBs other than the Starter and the short yardage guy.

Alouettes have confidence in Caleb Evans to step in as QB
The team won twice last season with Evans replacing an injured Cody Fajardo, and they believe they can do it again.

Author of the article:Herb Zurkowsky • Montreal Gazette

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/foot ... p-in-as-qb
Published Jul 23, 2024 •

[Toppy Vann]

JC Abbott pretty much sums up the Lions vs Calgary with many of the points raised here.

B.C. Lions’ sportscar flagged down, blown off road in loss to Calgary (& 12 other thoughts)
By JC Abbott -July 22, 2024

https://3downnation.com/2024/07/22/b-c- ... -thoughts/

Abbott's take on the holding call in the end zone and the SAFETY in a section he calls "Death by Flagging:

.

The problem is that the replay showed Packer didn’t hold Coatney at all, rather that a hard chip from right guard Sukh Chungh only gave the appearance that the defender was torqued to the ground.

And what I was thinking after replay showed how weak a call that was for a Safety. I thought it was reviewable and now I'm not sure.

While head coach Rick Campbell was helpless to prevent it as holding is not a challengeable penalty, this felt like a moment when the command centre should have stepped in. After all, this was technically a scoring play, which are always automatically reviewed.

[DanoT]

Alouettes disagree with my take on Caleb Evans but he was ill-prepared last game and it's not all him as it's the system of few reps for QBs other than the Starter and the short yardage guy.

Alouettes have confidence in Caleb Evans to step in as QB
The team won twice last season with Evans replacing an injured Cody Fajardo, and they believe they can do it again.

Author of the article:Herb Zurkowsky • Montreal Gazette

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/foot ... p-in-as-qb
Published Jul 23, 2024 •

When they honored Wally at the Stamps game it was mentioned more than once, Wally's remarkable record of finding and developing QBs. Giving backup QBs reps with the first team during practice was a sound Wally policy. Also, other than working on a new play, a veteran starting QB is probably better off getting extra rest vs extra reps between games.

I don't go to Lions practices but it wouldn't surprise me if the backup Lions QBs work strictly with mostly other backups and rarely run the 1st string O.