Riders 35 Lions 14 Post Game Comments and Stats

[notahomer]

I like Lowell U. and read his football writing/blog whenever I can. Am a little puzzled by his gameball selections yesterday.

He spent a fair bit of time talking about Moore and okay I get that. Give him the offensive gameball.

however, LU then went on to say there shouldn't be defensive/specialteams gameballs based on the result? HUH. Bighill had a usual Bighillish game. Parks had a decent afternoon playing in Bell's spot.

Logan seemed to help with the kickoff return game. Punts were tough but the Riders have NOT allowed a punt over 20 yards (I know because I heard this stat EVERY PUNT THE RIDERS BOOTED )

I get that perhaps gameballs were not warranted based on the result but lets leave it a clean sweep of NONE. The defense gave up under 30 points. One was a pick six (plus convert) and some turnovers had the Riders starting in field goal range.

IMO, if the Lions offense deserved a gameball, it would be from the Riders offensive coordinator for giving them such good starts or the Riders defensive coordinator for making his job so easy.....

[Hambone]

Andrew Harris slept in, missed the flight, and had to pay commercial to get to Regina. Not good timing for Harris to sleep in.

Did anybody else see Harris doing his Tim Thomas imitation? If anybody has seen Thomas in his days as a Bruin they will have seen him heading for the bench and dressing room like he was shot out of a cannon after giving up the winning goal in a shootout. Last night he was the ball carrier on the final play. The tunnel to visitor locker room is behind the Rider bench at Mosaic. After he was tackled he was off like a shot heading to the BC locker room. TSN had a field level camera showing the Riders trotting onto the field for the post game ritual and I noticed a whilte jersey and helmet sprinting behind them. I think Harris was probably in the locker room by the time Benevides and Chamblin did the obligatory coach's handshake.

[TheLionKing]

Maybe he was late for his flight home.

[notahomer]

Maybe he was late for his flight home.

Did they make him fly Coach....?

[Sir Purrcival]

Well, many had misgiving about moves or lack of moves made in the off season and for the most part, those seem to have come to fruition.

We were worried about the OLine - the Oline has been a concern most of the season and continues to be a concern

The receiving corps. - lots of new faces but the return of Adrian Arcenaux was supposed to offset the dealing of Simon. Can't say that I have seen much from him for most of the season. Moore has been our best receiver for the most part

Losing Reilly - lack of any seasoned backup QB'ing. Well that one sure proved true. Mystifying how they have made decisions at QB. Sign Elliot, Cut Elliot, Sign him again, trade for Pierce, don't play Pierce. Does anyone really have a sense of what the Lions brain trust is doing? I sure don't.

Lack of replacement for Mitchell. Le'ts move Defensive End Keron Williams to tackle even though most of us here think that Williams is not really the type of player you would put at the Tackle spot but what do any of us know. We aren't the coaches. Several weeks later and dead last in sacks at the time, that experiment is given a spectacular fail.

An Offensive Coordinator who at best seems stale. Slow to adapt, tendency to slip back to non effective strategies which generally involve the QB either running for his life or getting smeared into the playing surface.

I don't mind losing, well yes I do but the losing isn't so much the issue here as the way we have done it. Obvious flaws have turned into Achillies Heel's. Our most notable moves have been to bring back former Lions. Our starting QB is still out after his "2 week" injury and even if he does come back is likely to be extremely rusty not that he was playing with any great degree of consistency either.

I said weeks ago that the Lions were likely destined for 3rd place and that is exactly where they are heading. Even if they did by some chance make it to the Western Final, they are not in the same class as the Stampeders who have managed what they have using 3 different QB's and without their inspirational Slot in Nick Lewis. They just keep rolling along and will finish first in the league and look well primed and prepared for a trip to the Grey Cup. The season isn't over but nothing will make up for the taint of the confusing morass of moves and non moves made by the coaches and the GM this year. Please oh please let Chaps be gone next season!!!!!

[TheLionKing]

Benevides need to grow a couple and make his own stamp on the football team instead of going with the assistant coaches inherited from Buono.

[leo4life]

Not alot to add to the obvious fustration here.BC should beat Edm then depending on what happens with sask/calgary they will still need another W to end the season.Im not expecting much from them on the road in the post season with no O-Line,D-Line not getting sacks, 0 run game and a pathetic offense.Off season checklist:New tackle,new guards,new OC,new O-Line coach & Benny will have to right the ship next season or he will be replaced as well,team rapidly becoming mediocre.

[MexicoLionFan]

Thank you for posting this...I have been saying this all season long and I mean it...this season is so obvious as to its problems and no one on the Lion's wants to do anything about them...I FEEL LIKE I AM TAKING CRAZY PILLS...

And now from the Academy Award winning Best Film, Network..."I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more..."

[MexicoLionFan]

Well, many had misgiving about moves or lack of moves made in the off season and for the most part, those seem to have come to fruition.

We were worried about the OLine - the Oline has been a concern most of the season and continues to be a concern

The receiving corps. - lots of new faces but the return of Adrian Arcenaux was supposed to offset the dealing of Simon. Can't say that I have seen much from him for most of the season. Moore has been our best receiver for the most part

Losing Reilly - lack of any seasoned backup QB'ing. Well that one sure proved true. Mystifying how they have made decisions at QB. Sign Elliot, Cut Elliot, Sign him again, trade for Pierce, don't play Pierce. Does anyone really have a sense of what the Lions brain trust is doing? I sure don't.

Lack of replacement for Mitchell. Le'ts move Defensive End Keron Williams to tackle even though most of us here think that Williams is not really the type of player you would put at the Tackle spot but what do any of us know. We aren't the coaches. Several weeks later and dead last in sacks at the time, that experiment is given a spectacular fail.

An Offensive Coordinator who at best seems stale. Slow to adapt, tendency to slip back to non effective strategies which generally involve the QB either running for his life or getting smeared into the playing surface.

I don't mind losing, well yes I do but the losing isn't so much the issue here as the way we have done it. Obvious flaws have turned into Achillies Heel's. Our most notable moves have been to bring back former Lions. Our starting QB is still out after his "2 week" injury and even if he does come back is likely to be extremely rusty not that he was playing with any great degree of consistency either.

I said weeks ago that the Lions were likely destined for 3rd place and that is exactly where they are heading. Even if they did by some chance make it to the Western Final, they are not in the same class as the Stampeders who have managed what they have using 3 different QB's and without their inspirational Slot in Nick Lewis. They just keep rolling along and will finish first in the league and look well primed and prepared for a trip to the Grey Cup. The season isn't over but nothing will make up for the taint of the confusing morass of moves and non moves made by the coaches and the GM this year. Please oh please let Chaps be gone next season!!!!!

Great post SP...thanks for saying it...

[MexicoLionFan]

Benevides need to grow a couple and make his own stamp on the football team instead of going with the assistant coaches inherited from Buono.

As usual TLK, bang on...this season has painfully pointed out that Wally hired MB so that he could re-enact Pinnocchio...lots of strings from the Lion's box to the sidelines...

[InUrFace]

Well heres my first entry and comment. Ive been saying this all season. Wally is the Muppet master and pulling the strings with MB ....thats why you see him look like a puppet running up and down the field flapping his arms...sometimes the masters strings get tangled. lol. With that being said. The only way we will see major changes on the off season this year ...is for all Lions fans become Ssk fans for just only one game. If you get blown out ...Im sure Chap will be getting his walking papers ...but if we win against Ssk...you can here Wally say " Well at the end of the day the team came together on both side of the ball ..and Chap game plan was executed by our receivers and we are starting to see more promise with the run game. Chap did a excellent job putting his schemes and strategies together. We just have to continue." This is Wally Yes I get to keep my friends with me still my buddies woooo hoooo!!! This is us as fans This is all other teams on the CFL This is Chap and MB and Wally we did it ... Get the picture yall!!!!!!!! Oh this is LU and last but not least heres the players on the team Can we get more we running out

Can you imagine if that happened ...doesn't matter after that game if you lose or not, Wally will keep the coaching staff as is.
As a long time fan ...I will be routing on for a loss and a blow out. We need change. Wally and his country club needs to be dismantled and their memberships to go out of date. MB as a HC I more think this guy is a assistant coach if anything. He did the stupidest moves over the off season....having no competition in camp...now look what happens. HC's dont make decisions like that. What HC has? None. Theres always a better player out there than the one that has their position. Just have to seek them out. EA bad signing, right now I rather see KW in the line up. Harris ...not competing for his job in camp..made him cocky and now look...no oline ...joke. no real QB back up ..Joke....no nose tackle...joke. Wally likes to take credit when he doesnt do sh*t ..saying he got Wilson..and Logan. well lies. they called you Wally felt like you needed help. Be grateful. Wally has lost his edge. If I dont see changes next season.....I will be a LIons fan still just a Detroit Lions fan. CFL well maybe go to that new team... RedBlacks. Lets call in to MB on his show and tare him up.

[DanoT]

Well, many had misgiving about moves or lack of moves made in the off season and for the most part, those seem to have come to fruition.

We were worried about the OLine - the Oline has been a concern most of the season and continues to be a concern

The receiving corps. - lots of new faces but the return of Adrian Arcenaux was supposed to offset the dealing of Simon. Can't say that I have seen much from him for most of the season. Moore has been our best receiver for the most part

Losing Reilly - lack of any seasoned backup QB'ing. Well that one sure proved true. Mystifying how they have made decisions at QB. Sign Elliot, Cut Elliot, Sign him again, trade for Pierce, don't play Pierce. Does anyone really have a sense of what the Lions brain trust is doing? I sure don't.

Lack of replacement for Mitchell. Le'ts move Defensive End Keron Williams to tackle even though most of us here think that Williams is not really the type of player you would put at the Tackle spot but what do any of us know. We aren't the coaches. Several weeks later and dead last in sacks at the time, that experiment is given a spectacular fail.

An Offensive Coordinator who at best seems stale. Slow to adapt, tendency to slip back to non effective strategies which generally involve the QB either running for his life or getting smeared into the playing surface.

I don't mind losing, well yes I do but the losing isn't so much the issue here as the way we have done it. Obvious flaws have turned into Achillies Heel's. Our most notable moves have been to bring back former Lions. Our starting QB is still out after his "2 week" injury and even if he does come back is likely to be extremely rusty not that he was playing with any great degree of consistency either.

I said weeks ago that the Lions were likely destined for 3rd place and that is exactly where they are heading. Even if they did by some chance make it to the Western Final, they are not in the same class as the Stampeders who have managed what they have using 3 different QB's and without their inspirational Slot in Nick Lewis. They just keep rolling along and will finish first in the league and look well primed and prepared for a trip to the Grey Cup. The season isn't over but nothing will make up for the taint of the confusing morass of moves and non moves made by the coaches and the GM this year. Please oh please let Chaps be gone next season!!!!!

Great post SP...thanks for saying it...

While this is a nice post, there are a few factual things that need correcting. Emmanuel Arceneaux arrived after the Simon trade and as such had nothing to do with the decision to make the trade and he replaced WR E. Jackson on the 42 man roster. Arceneaux started out great initially with some great big plays but has not played nearly as well since returning from injury. His replacement, E. Jackson did ok but not enough to keep a healthy Arceneaux off the 42 man roster. Moore has become the Lions' most productive receiver after taking over the slotback spot vacated by the absence of Simon and has had a way better season than Simon has had as a Rider and for less money. SO THIS WAS A GOOD MOVE.

Buck was brought in as an experienced 3rd string QB (an upgrade over Elliott) before Lulay was injured, so when Lulay got hurt Buck moved up the depth chart and it then made purrfect sense to bring Elliot back as a 3rd string QB who knew the offence. So while it seems an odd move to release and then bring back Elliott, IT WAS A GOOD MOVE.

While the move to tackle for Keron Williams has not gone too well compared to how successful he was at DE last season, he did play tackle when he was an Alouette and playing DE when Mitchell was at D tackle last year no doubt helped him out a lot.

[TheLionKing]

Sad to say but meaningful changes will only come if the Lions get totally humiliated by the Stamps at home and by the Riders in the semi finals.

[Sir Purrcival]

Good points DanoT but

I never said that the Simon trade was connected in anyway to the Arceneaux return. I know Arceneaux got injured but the fact remains he has been modest in his contributions so far which is about as fair as one can put it. As one that could be considered to be the "go to" receiver replacement for Simon, he just hasn't materialized. It is a good thing that Moore has done as well as he has. Something that was by no means assured at the beginning of the season. Meanwhile, we had two Canadian receivers in Foster and Jackson sitting on the sidelines. Maybe we should have tried using them and then bringing in some import help for our Oline. Foster of course is now gone and in his place an aging QB who is a mid-season attempt to rectify an earlier mistake.

The decision to bring back Buck Pierce may have been made before Lulay got injured but we started the season with little in the way of seasoned back up experience. A decision they obviously came to regret. The only QB other than Lulay with playing time under his belt was Elliot and they slotted him in at 3rd string preferring to make DeMarco the #2. That meant they were going on the hopes that Travis was going to get through the whole season unscathed. A very tenuous hope especially given the suspect nature of our OLine going in. Of the 8 starting QB's this year, I think a grand total of 2 have managed to be available for all the games. Since they brought back Buck, they haven't used his "experience" for anything much to this point so it remains to be seen just how "good" a move it really is. Considering his durability problems, needing him for anything more than spot duty is asking too much. Not really a quality b/u if you can't see running with him for more than just occasional duty given how most teams have had to do just that at some point this season. It seems pretty clear that they don't think much of Elliot as a QB so why they weren't looking sooner for someone "seasoned" is a bit of a head scratcher. I would have invited Brink and maybe Santo's to camp at least as well for a try out and some more "experience" to kick the tires on. We're lucky we even have Elliot. He could just as easily have told the Lions to take a hike after they cut him and then called him back.

As for Keron Williams, as the saying goes, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. Moving Williams inside after his performance on the end was taking away one of your best performers in a position and putting him somewhere else where he had never equalled the heights of his most recent performances. They decided to work with what they had rather than try to see if they could pick up a new body at the tackle positions and at the same time removed a player from the position where he had a great season. Call me whatever but it seems far more intelligent to try and find a new Dtackle and plug him in the spot vacated by Mitchell rather than move Williams from a position where he was performing well. Between team cuts and so on, it seemed we preferred to rely on poor old Taylor with his iffy knees and a re-positoned Williams than to try and add someone younger and healthier albeit a work in progress. It appeared to be a solution for the present and not the future. Not a very good one as it turned out.

Unfortunately, the results speak for themselves. I know that it is never as simple as finding and plugging in replacements but there is little here that wasn't already here during some point of the Wally era. They haven't exactly done much but to try and recapture greatness by looking to the past. So far it hasn't seemed to work very well and many of these problems we knew about coming in or shortly after the season started. However, they seem to be doing little that looks like it may provide some relief in the future. I get it that sometimes things don't work but if there has been one complaint about the Wally Buono era, it has been about a lack of adaptability. It seems as though things must be on the verge of blowing up before certain personalities are grudgingly forced to try something different. It makes them seem a step behind teams like the Stamps and the Argo's who I think are the elite teams in the league right now.

[DanoT]

Sad to say but meaningful changes will only come if the Lions get totally humiliated by the Stamps at home and by the Riders in the semi finals.

Sir Purrcival wrote:
" I get it that sometimes things don't work but if there has been one complaint about the Wally Buono era, it has been about a lack of adaptability. It seems as though things must be on the verge of blowing up before certain personalities are grudgingly forced to try something different. It makes them seem a step behind teams like the Stamps and the Argo's who I think are the elite teams in the league right now."

The above quotes are the absolute truth and the most frustrating thing about being a fan of the B.C. Lions. We must experience absolute failure before the team leadership comes out of denial and is willing to admit that changes are needed.