Solar Max wrote:JohnHenry wrote:I believe there was 32 seconds left when the field goal was attempted. Which is still enough time to score a TD, recover the on-side kick (if they allowed us to kick), with perhaps 5-10 seconds on the clock...enough time for one sideline pass, then the FG attempt. While there may have been some attempt by Wally to "absorb" some of the criticism for the Lion's loss by admitting his mistake, I frankly doubt he said it to save face about trying to make the point-spread closer as the game was a lost cause?
As bad as the Lions played, they still might of beaten the Ti-Cats or Argos that night. We should tip our hats to the Esks, who played a great game on both sides of the ball. Our defence, which was on the field for over 20 min. in the first half alone, was facing a formidable QB in R. Ray. He was able to evade sacks and get the ball away quickly under pressure better than C. Pickett, Q. Porter or M. Bishop had been able to do in the previous weeks.
The Lions need to establish the running game on the slick grass next week in Edm. Perhaps they should try giving the rock to C. Roberts 20 times and see what he can do? If he can get the Lions 100 yds, that might open up the play-action and intermediate passing attack. While we could use L. Green in short yardage, we need to get Roberts and Logan going as we have a few big prairie games upcoming and will need a reliable running game.
I have full confidence in Buck (if he is healthy) to bounce back and lead us on to victory!
While I completely agree regarding the Esks performance, and Ricky Ray in particular, the Esks D was stellar IMO, the schemes Campbell came up with stymied and confused Buck and the offence for close to 3 quarters. One of the few bright lights late in the game WAS the use of Logan, and to put a back such as Roberts in there with his poor blocking skills and small rushing average would be a step backward, IMO.
Logan can get 100 yards at CW, but using Green out of the backfield in tandem would help a great deal, because Green can catch, carry and most importantly BLOCK. Roberts has shown no great aptitude for that.
For 2008, the Roberts experiment must be considered a failure, IMO.
and I believe that Wally realizes it...by the number ot times Roberts hit the field on Friday night.
Simon nor Clermont had a pass thrown to them in the first half of the game and it took a fourth quarter pass from Jarious to Simon to keep Simon's stretch of 102 games in which he's caught a pass intact. Of course, Geroy, after the game, while emphazizing that our Leos played terrible...he also pointed out that he 'graded out well" Receivers are an interesting breed!
As for Wally' late game calls..the best thing that Wally could ever do at the end of a close football game, with two minutes left to play, is go the bathroom for a leak. It would improve our chances. He's often terrible in these situations and he's made a lot of errors over the years in close situations. This comment of course will be considered sacriligious but it's true. Any time anyone criticizes Wally on Lionbackers we get the same usual statement about what Wally has done for our Leos since he got here. We all know what he's done and he's received tons of accolades for turning our Leos into a successful franchise for an extended time. Us long in the tooth Leo fans have crawled through the desert without water most of the time during our time cheering for our Leos.
The rare Dave Scrien years of 1963-64 and the Don Mathews era (and a Cup in '85 were our only two periods of stable success. We won a Cup with Burratto and Damon Allan but that was during an 8-10 win regular season. Wally is an excellent organizational man, sets up a winning structure and atmosphere, usually hires good people around him, and is good at assessing talent. He is not a great game day coach and he's especially not a great coach in preparing his team in the playoffs. He goes too conservative. Near the conclusion of tight games, he overinterferes, causes confusion at times, and on more than one occasion makes questionable decisions. He did that again on Friday night..although the odds would say it most likely didn't effect the outcome of the game.
It's just something one has to put up with in the bigger picture of his success. He takes responsiblity most of the time, when he does make a mistake, which I like. He said that about the way he handled the Dickenson/Printers quarterback situation, underestimated our offensive line talent in 2005, and will likely say that he overestimated Charles Roberts abilities in time as well. The one thing he has never done is admit that he made the wrong decision in 2004, 2005, and 2007 in going with Dickenson being inserted without adequate playing time before a playoff game..but it was obvious that he'd had enough of trying to go to that well without success when he jettisoned Dickenson at the end of last season.
However, Buono has his work cut out for him this season. He obviously misses Ackles and O'Billovich was a guy who Wally knew could bring him in specific talent (outside of import receiver) when he needed it. The league has improved. He thought Chapdelaine would improve this year's offence and he hasn't. The higher number of completed passes masks a lower gain per pass and provides an illusion for fans. The fact is that our offence is down from first last season to third this season in scoring, even though our defense is better this year and has provided more turnovers. Calgary and Edmonton and Montreal have improved. The Riders are playing with mirrors when you look at their injuries. Other teams are catching up...it's not as if we're getting worse.
It really doesn't have a lot to do with who our starting quarterback is...whether it's Buck or Jarious and their different styles. It has more to do with our ability to give them time to throw (Buck will complete more, Jarious will make big plays). It has to do with our ability to run the football well, when we need the tough yards. It has a lot to do with our red zone offence. It has a lot to do with how Chapdelaine game plans or adjusts, within a game, strategy wise, when defenses play Buck tough in his shorter passing game or how we adjust, when teams overplay Jarious's deep ball. It has to do a lot with how effectively we use Logan. It has a lot to do with players like Coleman making a catch when we need him to.
We likely have a decision to make for next game, with Clermont hurt again. We're going to eventually lose Clermont if we keep running him inside on crosses or drag patterns. We really need to start using him differently in our offence. What we should do is bench Roberts and insert an import receiver like Ryan Grice-Mullen into the lineup for our game aginst the Eskimos on Friday night at Commonweath.
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It was definitely flawed if he was looking to win the game. But I don't dismiss you point; if I understand you correctly, you're thinking that he wasn't? That Wally may have lied about his "blunder" on not realising the Esks could simply scrimmage after the FG, to disguise the fact that he was (a) resigning himself to the loss and (b) simply doing damage control for the next game's point differential by kicking?