Lions at Stampeders July 21st, 2024

[Hambone]

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.

I can't take credit. Behar signed with Montreal 2 days before I made the comment. That's what led me to mentioning his name. I'd quite frankly forgotten about him.

[Toppy Vann]

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.

I haven't stayed for entire Lions practices this year and fans can no longer enter the fenced area of the Lions facility and they don't seem to use the Tom Binnie turf field like in the old days so it's not always to see what's going on.

But what it appears to be Rick Campbell's philosophy is to mimic game situations not just down and distance and field position but exact game conditions where the starting QB and offense get the play and the play off quickly.

When the play is run by VA the backups behind him mirror image the QB and fake the plays getting mental imprinting.
It's likely that I haven't been to those parts of the practices where back ups get reps but how meaningful these are, I'm not sure.

Now when Lions had Reilly, Rourke and Michael O'Connor when Rourke was hurt I did see O'Connor get meaninful reps.

In the Wally era the backups ran opponents plays, something I haven't seen (but may still occur).

Also in that era of Jaque Chapdelaine, the QBs were getting injured - Dave D, Casey and that gave Buck Pierce time as in 2005 Jarius lost his season in a pre-season game.

[Hambone]

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.

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.

I haven't stayed for entire Lions practices this year and fans can no longer enter the fenced area of the Lions facility and they don't seem to use the Tom Binnie turf field like in the old days so it's not always to see what's going on.

But what it appears to be Rick Campbell's philosophy is to mimic game situations not just down and distance and field position but exact game conditions where the starting QB and offense get the play and the play off quickly.

When the play is run by VA the backups behind him mirror image the QB and fake the plays getting mental imprinting.
It's likely that I haven't been to those parts of the practices where back ups get reps but how meaningful these are, I'm not sure.

Now when Lions had Reilly, Rourke and Michael O'Connor when Rourke was hurt I did see O'Connor get meaninful reps.

In the Wally era the backups ran opponents plays, something I haven't seen (but may still occur).

Also in that era of Jaque Chapdelaine, the QBs were getting injured - Dave D, Casey and that gave Buck Pierce time as in 2005 Jarius lost his season in a pre-season game.

The one difference that must be considered between Wally's era and today is the difference in what is allowed in practice in terms of amount of hours and contact. The amount of practice time allowed in a given session or week has been greatly reduced mostly to cut down on injury risk. Without accessing older CBAs I'd wager Buono had a lot more practice hours at his disposal 20 years ago than Campbell has now. The onus now is to maximize every practice minute with the objective of being prepared for the next game. The luxury Wally had to give backups more hands-on reps may not exist today, certainly not in the same volume.

[Hambone]

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.

Looks like Montreal signed Behar because they knew they needed him for their next game. Julien-Grant has been placed on the 6G list while Behar had been activated for Montreal's first game since signing him.

[B.C.FAN]

Paul LaPolice uses coaches’ video to do a nice breakdown of how the Stampeder defence mixed up its coverages and pressures to shut down the Lions’ offence.

[SammyGreene]

Paul LaPolice uses coaches’ video to do a nice breakdown of how the Stampeder defence mixed up its coverages and pressures to shut down the Lions’ offence.

Thanks BC FAN. That was a fantastic watch. Stamps really did their homework. Judge was terrific. Not only in spying Adams but picking up Mackie on that 4th quarter red zone play that was well designed and had TD written all over it.

With those different camera angles I didn't see our receivers getting much seperation even when the Stamps were in press coverage with two free safeties

[Toppy Vann]

That was a brilliant assessment by Paul Lapolice who is outstanding in breaking down plays.

Brent Monson their DC had a great plan but the execution was flawless.
That is never the norm - someone slips, misses a cover, takes an untimely penalty, etc BUT I didn't see it in this game.

BC's defense on those same plays at Lion practices is never that flawless (granted it's a practice).

It would be interesting to hear how Lapo would have tried to respond to it during a game as those looks from Calgary were in some cases new.

He is spot on that keeping VA in the pocket is tactically a good thing.