Well, it was another heartbreaking loss for our Leo players. As cfl. ca summarized the game:
The Lions put together a solid effort in all phases of the game, including a special teams touchdown from long snapper Mike Benson and over 250 combined return yards from Chris Rainey. But despite strong defensive play and an 81% completion percentage from quarterback Jonathon Jennings, it was simply not enough to finish off the Eskimos.
But another embarrassing loss at home, while giving up a huge lead towards the end of the game once again this season, and losing in overtime, allowing the Eskimos to score the game's last 22 straight points, was not the outcome die hard Leo fans deserved.
I listened to Wally Buono's press conference after the loss and he basically stayed on script, mixed in with tons of his 'you know's' was that Edmonton 'made plays' at crunch time and our players didn't.
But Buono did say one thing that intrigued me. He said the game would be a 'learning and growth experience for our players'. It has to be, because as long as Buono is our Leos Head Coach, the loss will not be a learning exerience for him.
While there are many coaching aspects to any game, scheme from pre-scouting to game planning to play calling, I've always beleived that coaching really shows itself at crunch time in close games.
When I was a young coach, coaching my first high school basketball season, my team lost 9 of 11 games that season by 1 point. Basically that same team, the following season, won 11 of 12 close games by 1 point. The difference between the results of that first season of coaching and the second season was me. I was anxious and uptight towards the end of games in that first season. My strategies were also wrong.
An opposing coach (and a more experienced one) and a good friend watched my team play and lose another close game at a tournment in that first season and after, said to me that my players were a reflection of me...that they played the game with passion and excitement and intensity, that they were a smart team but at the end of the close game in which we lost, he said they were a reflection of me also.
He said that the confidence they had played with most of the game was not there at the end because I did not appear confident or poised.
I took his words to heart and the following season, even though my stomach still churned in those close game, I worked hard to be calm, poised, confident. I also changed some of my strategies towards the end of a close game and the results were amazingly different.
Thankfully, I didn't blame those first season losses on a lack of player execution.!!
I believe our Leos lose close games, more than any other reason, is because our Head Coach and coaching staff are not calm, poised, and confident towards the end of a close game nor are their strategies sound for these types of situations.
As the Leos/Eskimos game got closer, Wally started yelling at his players more on the sidelines, becoming less composed and more anxious. The players reflected his demeanor. We also did not have the right strategies towards the end of the game, while having the lead nor did we have the right strategies when the game became closer.
Wally controls the message for our Leos team. Rarely, does anyone else speak for our Leos and if a player is interviewed, they stay with the Buono script.
But on Lionbackers, we don't have to buy the cool aid that is being served up. So, if a die hard Leos fan like me was doing the post-game interview, rather than Buono, while still attempting to use the same speaking style, the post-game interview would go something like this:
'Guys, guys, ok, you know, you know....our coaching staff didn't EXECUTE, you know, you know, at the end of the game, you know. Our coaching staff didn't CALL THE RIGHT PLAYS. Our coaching staff needs to coach with more URGENCY at the end of game. Our coaching staff needs to WANT IT MORE. You know, football can be a cruel sport, you know, you know, and even if you are a LEGEND, you know, you know, and you just EXPECT TO WIN, rather than EARNING it, you know, you know, then this is what happens, you know, you know
.
When Jonathan Jennings threw his last pass of the game, as the ball sailed, the throw errant due to the fact that he was in the clutches of a Edmonton defensive lineman and being pulled to the ground, while attempting the third down throw, was a fitting ending to this contest, at least for Wally Buono, but not for our Leo players, who played hard in this game, as well as playing with enthusiam and pride, while being out of playoff contention.
The seeds for this loss were planted in the off-season, when Buono signed Chris Williams and outbid Hamilton for Swazie Waters. Buono traded Olifioye for Faucault and we have lived with the results of those Buono decisions all season. Chris Williams was pined for this game, Faucault rode the pine, and our offensive line was awful for most of the contest.
Our offensive line was awful again, couldn't handle Edmonton's defensive tackles, gave up five sacks of the quick variety, and Jennings was under pressure for even a lot of his short passes or had to escape to make the play.
For those who believed that Jennings can only throw deep, he proved that he can make any type of throw that he is given in the playbook or execute any game plan that he is asked to deliver.
Jonathan Jennings completed 25 of 31 passes, with three throw aways, 2 dropped passes, and the last pass was his only errant one, caused by an Edmonton defender who was dragging him down. Jennings 'executed' the game plan given to him almost flawlessly, especially considering that It was a short passing game plan with a mix of screen passes and a lot of crossing patterns against zone defence. More on that later.
Our defense, for most of the contest, did what it needed to do. It focused on Zylstar, the CFL's leading receiver and did a good job of taking away Reilly's favorite and most dangerous target. It mixed up its defensive fronts, didn't use a three man pass rush very often, mixed in some blitzes, got pressure on Reilly a number of times, causing checkdowns, and played with a lot of pride.
But as we approached crunch time, with the Eskimos defensive backs playing tighter, we didn't or couldn't adapt our offence to take advantage. On defense, our coaching staff took away what our defense was doing so well and we tried to play conservatively. When we did mix in a blitz, it was so telegraphed that the Eskimos picked it up with ease and took advantage.
With 11 seconds left in the game, facing a third and two, Buono punted. It was a short third and two on our own 52 yard line. Had we gambled and used up most of the clock and been successful with a 10 yard pass completion, Long could have attempted a long field goal. Of course, had we been unsuccessful, Waters could have attempted the same.
There was no right or wrong call. Playing the game for overtime made good sense. But it also would have made better sense to either have thrown a very quick pass for the first down, setting up one more quick play before a field goal attempt or attempt a pass of the 10-12 yard variety and if unsuccessful. Waters kicking so badly the odds of him hitting a 59 yard attempt were very low.
But the situation called for the third down attempt. The Eskimos had momentum with their offence. Our defense had lost its momentum. Our Leos were also out of the playoffs. In that situation, to me, it made more sense to take the shot. But of course, we all should have known that Wally wouldn't. That decison would have put the spotlight on him and potential blame. Better to be conservative and if the game was lost in overtime, the blame would be put on his players rather than making a call with some risk attached.
But the bigger picture of this game and this season is the distorted thinking that pervades our Leos organization at the top. David Braley thinks Wally, overall, has done a good job this season. Wally Buono just said this week, he would be 'different' if there was a reason to be but the problem is the 'product on the field'.
When you have one of the most talented teams in the CFL, a view shared by CFL analysts, Leo team veterans, and many fans, this season has been inexcusable. Even Suitor said, during this game, that the Leos coaching staff needs to be asking themselves some questions.
When you are losing and your coaching staff keeps continuing to make the same errors in judgment, in terms of strategy, and especially at the end of games, when your team has lost so many close ones, is a failure to learn from experience.
Most people learn from experience. We are an adaptive species. Its why humans became the top of the food chain. We moved from being hunter/gatherers living in caves and building fires to keeping our houses warm with central heating, having pizza delivered, and building the space station and the Hubble telescope because we adapted and learned from experience (at least in some areas). We live longer and have easier lives than our early ancestors because we were humble enough to continue to learn.
But with Buono at the helm of our Leos, the notion of learning from experience has been thrown out the window. When someone does not learn from failure or experience, and the ability to learn is there and even obvious, there is an underlying rightousness and a sense of superiority or smugness, combined with an inability to do anything but blame others for failures and experiences that are not positive.
Here are some post game thoughts.
OFFENCE
Our Leos only completed one pass in the first quarter. We hardly had the football on offence, as Jennings was under severe duress from the Edmonton defensive line and were pinned deep under our own goal posts a lot, while Edmonton's offence had a lot of time of possession.
But our second offensive drive of the game, with a second and two, our Leos handed off to Jeremiah Johnson, on an inside zone read run. He was stopped for a loss, as the Eskimos cancelled the gaps and shot two linebackers into the interior of our offensive line.
|Of course, anyone who follows our Leos would know what the play call would be and how the defense would line up to defend the inside zone read. To make matters even worse, we knew that the Edmonton defensive tackles would be hard to knock off the defensive line of scrimmage.
This type of run play, on second and two, happened time and again last year. It happend in the playoff game with Winnipeg and with Calgary. Stupid is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. As we punted, I had the feeling of wanting to run down to the sideline, putting Wally's head in a head lock, and rubbing his head vigorously, until his brain started working.
Edmonton, a short time later, also had a second and two. They picked up the first down easily. Our linebackers did not shoot the gaps, when the defensive play call should have demanded it. Its those types of play calls that differentiate our coaching staff from most others.
Even though Buono said this week "Its not me, its the product on the field", Khari Jones did attempt to adapt the game plan for Edmonton (somewhat). We did go to more of a short passing game and more of a screen game. But when we do attempt to do some things differently, we just don't know how to coach it well.
For example, we tried to attack the edge with our run game, on occasion, as the game went on. But the misdirction handoff to Johnson was so slow in developing and so easy to read and so poorly designed, by both formation and blocking, that it was shut down for losses.
When Edmonton knew it had to take more chances on defense, with our Leos having a big lead they began to play our short passing game much tighter. Had we rolled Jennings out, or at least moved the pocket for Jennings, we could have had the opportunity to take advantage of that Edmonton style of defensive play and burned them. But we kept Jennings in the pocket and he had to throw quickly.
One of the problems we experienced this season (and last season to a certain extent too) was that defenses began to attempt to take away our deep passing game with press man coverage with Cover 2 zone (two safeties) over the top. What we needed to do was to incorporate a short passing game into the equation but mostly didn't.
This season, Jennings has had much less time to throw the football. He is usually pressured and hit on most passing plays, if he is not sacked. But it has taken most of this season to figure out that we needed to give him shorter pass plays. But when we finally get it, as in this game, we give him the wrong type of plays to execute.
For example, crossing patterns work best against man defense. Against zone defense, if a crossing pattern is part of the play call, the receiver has to sit his crossing route down in a hole in the zone. But what do we do in this game. We give Manny one yard crossing routes when we need to complete an 8 yard pass for a first down. Its the wrong type of route for Edmonton's defense.
Another example of bad play design (and I could give so many examples) was the second down play in overtime, after we had thrown a one yard pass to Manny. Jennings was under pressure and threw underneath to Rainey. Why didn't the play go for hardly any yardage. Because 5 yards deeper, we had Nick Moore, in the same spot, drawing his man towards Rainey. Moore's defender slipped off and both Edmonton defenders tackled Rainey. It was a classic example of what ails our Leos team. Instead of ensuring that Rainey would be able to catch the football in space, setting up a one on one with a defender, we have another receiver in the area close by.
Its dum and the dum things our coaches do is the biggest problem on this Leos team. Its not execution or personnel or a lack of urgency or not making plays...its bad play calls at key times, its poor clock management at crucial times, and its our coaches lack of ability to make in game adaptions, when we need them most, whether that is running the football, when we have been running it well in many games with a big lead or changing our defensive style, when its been working well, when we have a lead.
Which brings us to our defense.
DEFENCE
Our Leos defense started off this game poorly but then played tremendously well, as our Leos scored 22 straight points to come back and take a commanding lead.
Washington did some good things in this game. He gave special attention to Zylstra. He mixed up his pass rush strategies. He used a number of zone blitzes. He had T.J. Lee playing up to the line of scrimmage on a number of plays and Lee made some plays against the run and hurried Reilly.
But like what happens so often, our Leos coaching gets rigid in its thinking. An example of this type of rigid thinking was in our last game, when we ran some direct snaps to Jeremiah Johnson, who peeled off some first down runs to the outside. But Winnipeg adapted to stop the play and we kept running the play anyway.
The Edmonton offence adapted as the game continued. Whenever it saw Lee at the line of scrimmage, they had the tailback block him and Reilly made a quick throw to the side of the field that Lee was on. If Edmonton saw that Lee was back in his regular halfback position, the Edmonton offence anticipated a linebacker blitz. Awe and Sol E, when they blitzed, while our defense was in this type of formation, were accounted for and their blitz was easily picked up.
Finally, as has happened so often this season, with the game on the line, there is Wally yelling at his defense to "Get back" in full panic mode. Thompson was so deep at safety, that there was a huge gap in the middle of the field, behind the linebackers and in front of him. We had him playing so deep, he was useless, unless the Edmonton offence threw a 50 yard deep pass down the middle of the field.
The defensive players must feel frustrated because they are being asked to execute something that will not work.
Buddy Jackson, who was playing corner more aggressively in his first game as a starter, replacing Gaitor, started to play more passively as the game wore on. Edmonton exploited the wide side of our defense with three receiver combination patterns and our zone style had no answers.
SPECIAL TEAMS
When Chris Rainey handed the football to Marco Iannuzzi on a reverse punt return I had two thoughts. The first was that was a smart play and exciting to watch Iannuzzi run it up the sidelines for a huge gain. The second thought was "Why now, when we are out of the playoffs?". We sure could have used this type of special teams play call earlier this season.
Chris Rainey ran the football on returns like his life depended on it. He showed his tremdous speed, instincts, and cutting ability.
But it also showed how our coaching staff has no idea how to utilize a player with his speed on offence, just as we had no clue how to use Chris Williams. Our Leos offence suffered when we put Williams into the lineup and that was not all on Williams.
Chris Rainey had -4 yards rushing in this game on 4 carries. Three of those four carries were for losses.
Rainey had 5 pass receptions in this game for a 5.4 yard average per catch. One of those receptions was for 20 yards. On his other four pass receptions, Rainey picked up 7 yards...less than 2 yards per catch. Is the problem Chris Rainey and a lack of execution. Well of Rainey's total of 27 yards of receptions, 26 of those yards were YAC yardage. We just have no clue of getting the football to him in space. Its just bad play design.
WRAP
Well, guys, you know, you know, ok, you know, you know, guys......
I know my points are moot
Our coaches just didn't execute
Our coaches just won't change their ways
Insisting our players just 'gotta make plays'
As far as my football viewing eyes can see
Our coaches didn't coach with enough urgency
The problem is that our coaches just expect to win
But 'not earning it' is not their only sin
If we want to win those real close games
Our coaching staff can't continue to be insane
Yabba Dabba Dooo.....that;s all folks!!
