Oct. 10 - Edmonton Eskimos at BC Lions Game Day Thread

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From the Omen Department:

After being at a work assignment away from home this week, I returned home last night to see that my Lion flag, along with it's base had been blown out of the wall it was anchored against.

Seems fitting.

Like our DB's? I can't believe the room.

[Toppy Vann]

With time of possession like 32 min to 14 or whatever, you can't expect the D to be spectacular

[hutch]

Thats true Toppy but as I mentioned earlier, BC always gives up lots of yard against Edmonton.

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Where are the guys that rag on the linebackers? Secondary once again makes it look easy!! Who needs to run.

They are at the game.

Wow maybe it is different in HD! :lol:

[Toppy Vann]

10 pts doable

good td for anderson

[Rammer]

Well the Lions got spanked at least on the field, not on the scoreboard. Ricky Ray I never give credit to as the top tear QB in the league, but he has adjusted his game somewhat and is top two, if not the number 1 pivot in the league. The thing that was remarkable was how many times he was getting knocked slightly and still tossing the ball complete to someone somewhere, somehow. Hard to stop him when he is hitting everything that moves in white tonight, on the other side, BP wasn't in a groove at all. If it wasn't over/under thrown or thrown wide, the pass would be dropped or fumbled. Atrocious is the descriptive word tonight on the Lions O.

Lions D, once again couldn't stop the opposition on second down all night, one great play per set of downs when two were needed all too often. The positive was the limited running yardage on any run by McCarty and company, although had the Esks thrown the ball they may have really run up the score.

Lions laid an egg in a big game, not uncommon this season in front of the home crowd, unfortunately. When will the team understand that they aren't as good as their press clippings, and that as much as a monster that Wake is, he needs some supportive help. Ray seemed able to call a quick pass when the Lions DL put pressure on, and when he had the extra time, he was hitting the long ball down the middle of the field all night.

For anyone who is going to complain on the PI call on Marsh, it may have been a bad call (the endzone PI wasn't a bad call either), we got a few calls our way, specifically the Logan fumble that was ruled down by contact after the Wally challenge.

The best thing the Lions did tonight, was win all three challenges, just goes to show how that isn't a stat that wins many games, as it is done by the team that is more desperate. Goodnight, the real test now comes on how we play in Edmonton.

[David]

Line of the night: in the 4th quarter, after the umpteenth play review of the night, the ref finally came back and announced "....the player was down by contact. The ruling on the field stands." Our dry in-house announcer Bob Saye (who calls down and distance - not to be confused with rah-rah Tim Donovan) piped up and said "aww...and we were just getting into Sweet Caroline!" :lol:

* When a nearly 40 year old Neil Diamond song becomes the highlight of the night for the home crowd, you know things didn't go your way. :no:

* Tough to analyze this one. Probably best to blow it up and start over. No energy (there seemed to be something missing from the crowd from the outset - almost like we were playing an Eastern team in the month of July. Weird). The Lions just never got it going and Edmonton, to their credit, was hungrier and more aggressive.

* Tough to pin this on the defense considering they were on the field so much. Still, in how many games this year have we given up points on the opening drive?

* Buck didn't have it tonight and Jarious didn't do anything spectacular but still, we just didn't get that 'spark' from our receivers tonight in the form of the "tough catch". PJack played great but Coleman couldn't bring several in and surprisingly, neither could Geroy.

* I thought we abandoned the run game far too early (Logan had a 38 yarder then pass, pass, pass). We then got behind and became one-dimensional and highly predictable.

DH 8)

[Dan_Payne_fan!!]

what happened in the endzone near sec 17?

[.G.]

LOL

Guys were jumping onto the BC Lions banner covering the endzone tunnels.

Good stuff.

Talking to Willie Loftus was probably the highlight of the night for me.

OH! And can someone explain the logic behind the field goal? Was it for point differential? I figure the win loss differential is more important, but I'm just a fan...

[B.C.FAN]

OH! And can someone explain the logic behind the field goal? Was it for point differential? I figure the win loss differential is more important, but I'm just a fan...

Yes. The Lions have to beat Edmonton by 13 or more next week to win the season series.

[lion24]

What a pathetic display I think the Lions are headed for a crossover as they struggle in Edmonton to win, can't seem to beat Calgary and may win the TO game. It is very frustrating to see big plays against the so called best D in the league and Buck looked the worst I have ever seen and to ask JJ to save a game is asking too much. Real lack of fire or emotion in this game and the score does not really show how the Lions were dominated tonight :x

[SammyGreene]

.G. wrote:

OH! And can someone explain the logic behind the field goal? Was it for point differential? I figure the win loss differential is more important, but I'm just a fan...

Wally blew the call. He said in the post-game show that he knew the Lions needed two scores, but forgot the Esks could scrimmage after the field goal, not allowing the on-side kick. Wally admitted he made a mistake. Under CFL rules, I believe the Esks could of also elected to kickoff TO the Lions after a Lions TD, rather than receive the kick and allow an on-side kick attempt from the Lions.

At least Wally had the courage to admit it. But just another mistake in an evening full of them.

A guy sitting three rows below us got up and left at the start of the 4th quarter holding his nose. That pretty much summed up the game. Just a dreadful performance. Only a replay call and the Sanchez penalty prevented it from being over at halftime.

Wally admitted the game plan evolved around the Eskimos playing man coverage and instead they went to zone all night. That explained why Buck seemed so confused and threw a lot into coverage. Still they had time to adjust and basically didn't and that was against a banged up secondary that was without Sanchez for the entire 2nd half.

Defence was on the field too long but the Eskimos opening march immediately put the Lions on their heels. We saw their pass coverage exploited just like it was earlier in the season and it's no coincidence it was the first time they have faced one of the league's elite QBs since August.

The Lions will come out of this long weekend sitting 3rd (Riders will lose to Stamps). Can't see them winning at Commonwealth next week as they will take the usual one or two quarters to adjust to the slick surface as Ray goes to town on the secondary again.
Stranger things have happened, however, the Lions should be doing some soul searching after that stinker.

[Wakesbetterthanyou]

.G. wrote:

OH! And can someone explain the logic behind the field goal? Was it for point differential? I figure the win loss differential is more important, but I'm just a fan...

Wally blew the call. He said in the post-game show that he knew the Lions needed two scores, but forgot the Esks could scrimmage after the field goal, not allowing the on-side kick. Wally admitted he made a mistake. Under CFL rules, I believe the Esks could of also elected to kickoff TO the Lions after a Lions TD, rather than receive the kick and allow an on-side kick attempt from the Lions.

At least Wally had the courage to admit it. But just another mistake in an evening full of them.

A guy sitting three rows below us got up and left at the start of the 4th quarter holding his nose. That pretty much summed up the game. Just a dreadful performance. Only a replay call and the Sanchez penalty prevented it from being over at halftime.

Wally admitted the game plan evolved around the Eskimos playing man coverage and instead they went to zone all night. That explained why Buck seemed so confused and threw a lot into coverage. Still they had time to adjust and basically didn't and that was against a banged up secondary that was without Sanchez for the entire 2nd half.

Defence was on the field too long but the Eskimos opening march immediately put the Lions on their heels. We saw their pass coverage exploited just like it was earlier in the season and it's no coincidence it was the first time they have faced one of the league's elite QBs since August.

The Lions will come out of this long weekend sitting 3rd (Riders will lose to Stamps). Can't see them winning at Commonwealth next week as they will take the usual one or two quarters to adjust to the slick surface as Ray goes to town on the secondary again.
Stranger things have happened, however, the Lions should be doing some soul searching after that stinker.

As a former QB, how was buck unable to make the adjustment between zone and man?? That shouldnt have taken more than 1 quarter, let alone 2 and a half. I'll say it again as i have said throughout the winning streak. Buck NEEDS to widen the defense out with some deep balls. All night long they played the short routes well and gave him nowhere to go. IF he cant blast it past 20 yards then he'll never be a starter again in this league. Teams know he is going to go underneath all the time and will guard against that. You cant dump the ball to logan all the time and expect him to be open, the defense will spy the rb all night if you try that and it'll amount to WAY too many 2 and outs like last night. IMO this loss came a week to late. the lions needed to lose last week, they were pathetic then but won which does nothing (apart from the points) for the lions, they needed a loss IMO, they were not going to go 9-0 to finish the season, but it would have served them well to be humbled by an east opponent to get them focused on the remaining games. Can someone please inform the secondary that a 4 yard cushion on ALL recievers is not the way to play defense??? Korey Banks must have played well as Ray never threw to his side all night. Oh, and i counted 5 plays where Cam had an edm lineman with their arm around his throat last night, none of which resulted in holding penalties. THE GUY NEEDS HELP! HE CANNOT STOP THE OTHER TEAM ALONE! Glatt stepped up in this game, floyd, j johnson, t williams/hunt and the secondary did not show up. 2 guys cant keep the defense going all night.

[Toppy Vann]

Wakes, Ricky Ray dumps as many passes to his backs in one game as Buck has all season.

Those Ray dump offs have led to huge yardage for the Esks and a lot of first downs.

As far as Buck goes, no QB is purrfect in all games and some games might even be called poor. I can't think of a single top CFL QB which Buck himself is on the way to becoming who has not had bad years let alone bad games. He is a legit starter in this league and despite tonight will be just fine next week.

He didn't get much play calling support either or line play.