Lionbackers.com

It was autumn weather in Edmonton as our Leos invaded Commonweath Stadium to take on the Evil Empire. The dew was on the pumkins and that means it’s time for dinky dunkin’ and laying a whuppin’ on the Eskimos along the way!!

However, Edmonton had a secret weapon going into this game…their sprinkler system….and they made sure the field was soaking wet. It’s a field that no visiting team is allowed to practice on until Game Day. It was strategic on the Evil Empire’s part, to minimize our team speed and turn it into a slog fest….and it played a huge role. The Evil Empire get's it's name because there is no evil that they won't attempt!! Let’s have a closer look!!

OFFENCE

In the first half our offence had to contend with poor field position and a wet turf. We came out with the plan of trying to run the football and Edmonton loaded up their defense on our line of scrimmage. We struggled with traction as Boden, Simon, and Jackson himself all slipped on the wet turf. Joe Smith struggled with his cutbacks and our line couldn’t get off as we tried to find the right cleats.

The wet field also took away our best weapon on offence…our team speed. We really needed to throw the football more in the first half and didn’t. We only threw 9 passes in the first half, completing four of them. We were still trying to establish our running game.with Edmonton stacking the inside zone run and forcing us outside where they could stretch him out. We only rushed for 25 yards even though Joe Smith had a heavy workload.

We scored our first touchdown off a turnover, with Jarious scrambling and getting outside to get us inside the Edmonton ten yard line. Joe Smith powered it in outside as we ran it in on the next play for a touchdown.

In the second half we wisely came out throwing but Jarious was flushed left and under extreme pressure on second down unwisely threw the football instead of taking the sack and it was intercepted by Samuels. Later in the third quarter, Jackson, pinned down deep in our zone on second and eight, hit Clermont on a crossing pattern. Both defensive backs wiped each other out and Clermont rambled downfield, with a key block from Rodgers, for a 92 yard gain. Ian Smart then turned the corner on a pitch to convert the long gain into our second touchdown of the game.

Edmonton’s defense, allowing less than 17 points in its last five games, continued to put heavy pressure on our offence, as we went entered the fourth quarter of the game down by 3 points. They had all kinds of pressure on Jackson each play while covering our receivers well.

On second and two, in the fourth quarter, we ran Joe Smith and he was stuffed again as the things that usually work for us didn’t. With Edmonton cheating the line of scrimmage on second and short I thought we should have passed more often in this game, based upon the lack of push our offensive line was getting and the style of play Edmonton was playing on defense. We just couldn’t hit in there with our usual speed with our running attack or create the kinds of holes our zone blocking scheme usually is able to achieve.

With 7 minutes left in the game we had an excellent drive going but Edmonton blitzed on second down and Jarious hit Paris underneath but he made one move too many and was stopped short. However, we were able to punt the football inside Edmonton’s twenty yard line and our defense held.

Our offence got the football on the six yard line and Jarious hit Geroy Simon on quick throw into the enc zone to give us a 22-18 lead. It was the first time we had led in the game, very similar to the situation in the Winnipeg game.

After Edmonton took a safety and our offence trying to run out the clock, Jarious hit Clermont on second and fourteen for another huge pass and run play. It was an outstanding pass and throw at another key moment.


DEFENCE

Edmonton came out with a balanced offence, mixing pass and run better than they have all season. They ran the type of plays designed for a wet turf, running a lot of quick underneath stuff in the passing game and running plays that were designed not to rely on cutbacks. The wet field hurt our out side pass rush and Edmonton used the quick passing attack to take advantage it. Wake had a nice sack in the first half and Korey Banks jumped a hook pattern for a nice interception. Hunt made a couple of excellent tackles inside against Ebell, who had a solid first half. However, our defense really needed to sit on Edmonton’s high percentage underneath game more and force Edmonton to take more time to throw and force deeper throws.

However, our defense mostly played “Crap Ballâ€

Jerome Dennis really looks great, hes exciting to watch on the field.

i think tight games like these are going to happen all the way until the end. imo i think it's safe to say that the offense this year will probably never match the output of last year in terms of wins being convincing. the money is on the special teams and the defensive unit, which have been the only constants throughout the year. this team will ride those two units for the rest of the year.

on a side note, i read an interesting comment on an unnamed forum where one poster stated the lions were 'fluking every game'. well... i think it's safe to say that using the term 'fluke' when a team that 'flukes' that many games is a wrong word to choose here. it speaks of the defense, special teams and the minor role players on this team that have contributed to this 'fluky' lions team.

Good teams win ugly, we must be a very good team.

Lets give credit to edmonton too, they played good with an inexperienced QB.

my heart cant take much more of this. lol

Noodles wrote:i think tight games like these are going to happen all the way until the end. imo i think it's safe to say that the offense this year will probably never match the output of last year in terms of wins being convincing. the money is on the special teams and the defensive unit, which have been the only constants throughout the year. this team will ride those two units for the rest of the year.

on a side note, i read an interesting comment on an unnamed forum where one poster stated the lions were 'fluking every game'. well... i think it's safe to say that using the term 'fluke' when a team that 'flukes' that many games is a wrong word to choose here. it speaks of the defense, special teams and the minor role players on this team that have contributed to this 'fluky' lions team.

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'm thinking that some of those people in that same forum are still living in the 80's...making comments about what happened in 1989!! Thats pathetic

hutch wrote:

Noodles wrote:i think tight games like these are going to happen all the way until the end. imo i think it's safe to say that the offense this year will probably never match the output of last year in terms of wins being convincing. the money is on the special teams and the defensive unit, which have been the only constants throughout the year. this team will ride those two units for the rest of the year.

on a side note, i read an interesting comment on an unnamed forum where one poster stated the lions were 'fluking every game'. well... i think it's safe to say that using the term 'fluke' when a team that 'flukes' that many games is a wrong word to choose here. it speaks of the defense, special teams and the minor role players on this team that have contributed to this 'fluky' lions team.

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'm thinking that some of those people in that same forum are still living in the 80's...making comments about what happened in 1989!! Thats pathetic

LOL I was reading the same thing on that unnamed forum and they too busy thinking that we are dirty and all that. I'm fine with that. They need something to ride on.

It's the Year of Winning Dangerously, I guess, and a Win is a Win.

We are getting killed on time of possession. It adversely effects the D-line in particular as they're out on the field too long.

The D and ST are, for the most part, saving our a$$.

We're having trouble sustaining drives on offense.

Our run output is declining.

JJ is bird dogging.

On 2nd and 2, when the defense is going to rush 10, a stretch handoff is probably not a good idea.

Here's a hint: when Edmonton lines up trips right, they're going to run over 90% of the time. That formation should look familiar as the Lions run out of it 90% of the time every week.

Call me a nervous Nelly if you want, but I don't think this is sustainable.

Having typed that, they're going to come out next week and smoke the Eskimos at home, rolling out a multifaceted attack that piles up 28 in the first half. :lol:

Alright. I feel better. Always nice to get an in-division road win. The ST performance, overall, in the second half was excellent. The secondary sucked it up and played very well. The receivers and JJ came through when they had through (noting that they had to because they couldn't come through earlier).

I'll take a deep breath and look forward to next week.

Our offence got the football on the six yard line and Jarious hit Geroy Simon on quick throw into the enc zone to give us a 22-18 lead. It was the first time we had led in the game, very similar to the situation in the Winnipeg game.

We did lead 7-6 at one other point, didn't we? ( I was thinking myself after Geroy scored that this was our first lead, but then I remembered the earlier lead. )


Is it just my perception, or do we just not start well on these earlier starts?
It seems to take until at least half time to really get moving.....

In Montreal - 10am PST start - Loss.
In Sask - 4pm PST start - 1st half stinker / 2nd half turn around.
In Edm - 12pm PST start - 1st half stinker / 2nd half - just enough to win.

I thought some of our zone D was too soft. If we're only rushing 3, we've got to be able to come up with some better coverage downfield.
Nice job by the D to hold the Esks to field goals a few times when it looked like it was 7 points in the making.
Kudos to Lefors for a decent game, although if Banks and Miles hang on to those easy picks, he throws for 5 INTs instead of 3.

If what they were saying about the Esks sprinkling the field, etc... we should refuse to let them practice in BC Place next week. Water down the practice field in Surrey and let them run around on that.

It was an ugly win, but it was still a win.

BTW Blitz, yet another great job at post game recap. I always look forward to reading them.

LOL...I just caught Clermont's post game comments - to paraphrase - " we pissed down our leg, but we still came out with the win..."
I wonder if he'll have the same phrasing in his article in the Sun this week...

This team does not like early starts. For the second time this year in a day game, the Lions looked sluggish for nearly three quarters. Fortunately there are no more day games on the regular-season schedule but playoff start times have not been determined.

The Lions were outcoached in the first half and outmuscled on both sides of the line of scrimmage. The Lions tried to run Joe Smith wide on the stretch run, which required him to make a 90-degree cut to get upfield. That seldom works on the grass at Commonwealth and it didn't work at all today. The quick openers in the middle were productive, and they should have formed the basis of the running attack. There were no misdirection plays and few tosses or bootlegs. The Esks, led by a strong game from A.J. Gass, pursued to the ball and shut B.C.'s lifeless and uncreative offence down. After being held to 45 yards rushing last week in Winnipeg, Joe Smith was held to just 40 yards today. As a team, the Eskimos outrushed the Lions 154 yards to 61. Hopefully those numbers will give B.C.'s defence some motivation heading into the rematch next week.

Edmonton said they would run the ball more today to give LeFors some help and did a great job of it by letting Ebell and Damien Anderson head upfield and key off one block. On a slippery field, that puts the defence at a disadvantage as the Lions often overpursued or were slow to react.

The B.C. defence bent but did not break in the first half, holding the Esks to 7 points on 2 field goals and a missed-FG single. A Korey Banks interception set up B.C.'s only points of the half, a Joe Smith touchdown, to produce a 7-7 tie in the half. For 2 years the Eskimos have been unable to convert on their opportunities in the red zone and those missed opportunities came back to haunt them in the second half.

The second half started much like the first with 10 quick points by the Eskimos to take a 17-7 lead, capped by a 6-yard LeFors scramble for a TD around the right side of the offensive line. The ensuing kickoff was fumbled by Ian Smart, putting the Lions in a deep hole at their own 8-yard line to start the drive. And that's when they turned the game around. For the third time in recent weeks, Jarious Jackson engineered a touchdown drive of 100-plus yards. The key play was a 92-yard pass and run to Jason Clermont as the Eskimos blitzed and two defensive backs collided, a play that must have brough back memories of Milt Stegall's 100-yard touchdown against Edmonton last year.

The second half proved once again that championship teams rise from adversity and respond to challenges. Jarious Jackson threw the ball much better, attacking the outside of the Edmonton defence and hitting some curls and crossing routes in the middle. Clermont, Geroy Simon and Josh Boden all made some key catches to keep drives alive.

The B.C. defence again bent but didn't break, and came up with 3 key interceptions and just missed chances for 2 others.

B.C. did not get a chance to get Buck Pierce or Dave Dickenson into the game as Wally Buono showed confidence in Jarious Jackson, who is now 6-2 as a starter.

It was a bad start and a nailbiting finish, but it was a victory in a place where the Lions haven't won in 3 years. Once again, the B.C. offence was outrushed and outpassed by the opposition. But once again, an ugly win is still a win, and the Lions have won 2 straight ugly road games.

Players of the game:
Offence: Jason Clermont, with 7 catches for 173 yards, including the play that turned the game around.
Defence: LaVar Glover, with a fourth-quarter interception and 2 last-minute knockdowns to seal the victory.
Special teams: Ian Smart had some trouble fielding kicks but had a big 56-yard punt return in the fourth quarter to set up the go-ahead TD by Geroy Simon. Honourable mention: Jerome Dennis, who led the Lions with 2 special teams tackles and had some key blocks for Smart.

I thought some of our zone D was too soft. If we're only rushing 3, we've got to be able to come up with some better coverage downfield.

I noticed more four and five man rushes, and fewer three man rushes this week though I'll defer to LFITQ on that one as that seems to be something he zeroes in on.

cromartie wrote:

I thought some of our zone D was too soft. If we're only rushing 3, we've got to be able to come up with some better coverage downfield.

I noticed more four and five man rushes, and fewer three man rushes this week though I'll defer to LFITQ on that one as that seems to be something he zeroes in on.

I should've been clearer. I wasn't implying that we were rushing mainly 3 today.
I was rjust eferring to specific times when we rushed only 3 and still got beaten for first down yardage downfield.
I just feel that to drop that many guys into coverage and still get torched, it's a point of concern.

I didn't have an issue with the four and five man rush packages.

B.C Fan wrote:

This team does not like early starts. For the second time this year in a day game, the Lions looked sluggish for nearly three quarters. Fortunately there are no more day games on the regular-season schedule but playoff start times have not been determined.

The Lions were outcoached in the first half and outmuscled on both sides of the line of scrimmage. The Lions tried to run Joe Smith wide on the stretch run, which required him to make a 90-degree cut to get upfield. That seldom works on the grass at Commonwealth and it didn't work at all today. The quick openers in the middle were productive, and they should have formed the basis of the running attack. There were no misdirection plays and few tosses or bootlegs. The Esks, led by a strong game from A.J. Gass, pursued to the ball and shut B.C.'s lifeless and uncreative offence down. After being held to 45 yards rushing last week in Winnipeg, Joe Smith was held to just 40 yards today. As a team, the Eskimos outrushed the Lions 154 yards to 61. Hopefully those numbers will give B.C.'s defence some motivation heading into the rematch next week.

Edmonton said they would run the ball more today to give LeFors some help and did a great job of it by letting Ebell and Damien Anderson head upfield and key off one block. On a slippery field, that puts the defence at a disadvantage as the Lions often overpursued or were slow to react.

Great analysis B.C. Fan...loved your whole post!!

Before despair sets in, even after a big and rare victory in Commonwealth, lets have a look at the positives.!! Jackson was 15/28 for 245 yards. I recognize a lot of that yardage came off some big catch and run plays but it really doesn't matter how you get them as long as you do! It was more passing yardage than the Grey Cup victory last season and I didn't read much complaining about how ugly we played offensively last November. Winning doesn't have to be pretty and we're not a pretty team anymore! However, we score more points than any other CFL team and that's a much better stat than last season.

We were outcoached in the first half....as B.C. Fan clearly stated... but some of that had to do with Edmonton knowing how the field would be prepared...by being slippery wet. They could game plan to run straight ahead as Ebell and Anderson keyed off an isolation block. The Eskimos also got LeFors outside, when he wasn't throwing quick underneath stuff and that was unforgivable that we allowed him to run to his left side. We should have had Wake on that side most of the game or blitzed a linebacker or back from that side.

The key was that Edmonton stopped our running attack. They stacked the inside. Then we tried to run the stretch play and that was unsuccessful as B.C. Fan notes, because of the conditions and we should have trid it so often. We needed quick hitters. We love to run the inside zone... but it requires zone blocking. Edmonton penetrated inside and with the conditions we couldn't get thier defensive line moving horizontally and then run the cut back.

With Edmonton stacking the inside run and it being difficult to run the cutback we should have gone to the pitch series outside more often. Our passing attack was also designed to go inside to Geroy a lot. They had all kinds of people inside, against both the run and the pass and we needed to attack the deep outside.

Smith only got 40 yards rushing the entire game and we were shut down on second and two twice and we didn't even get an inch of forward progress. We'd have been better off to sneak or run a quick hitter to the fullback..something we really need to get into our offence.

In the second half we adapted better offensively and we scored 24 points against an Edmonton defense that is getting better and better, having only given up less than 17 points in it's last five games before this game today. We got Clermont open for big plays because Edmonton was overplaying the middle, by having extra guys in there to stop the run, and they kept their safety inside. It's why things opened up when we started passing to the outside and gave Jarious just a little more time by doing a better job against the Edmonton blitz in the second half.

There is always a tendancy, if we lose or our offence does not play really well to have a look at the quarterback position. That's like looking at a game through a straw. Jarious didn't have a great game but he only threw 9 times in the first half. Our receivers were slipping everywhere. Jackson himself couldnt' get any traction. He was under a lot of pressure on almost every play. Our offensive line did not play well at all!!

We really needed to boot Jackson out more, away from that ferocious inside rush and blitz. When Jackson got outside on a scamble he hurt Edmonton's defense but we needed to get him outside more often. We also kept trying to run against Edmonton too often with the inside zone and stretch in the first half, when it was obvious that the field conditions were going to make it tough for a lot of the plays we like to use on our running game. On a couple of those second and two's Edmonton had nine men in the box. We could have gone over the top and burned them!!

It was a bad start and a nailbiting finish, but it was a victory in a place where the Lions haven't won in 3 years. Once again, the B.C. offence was outrushed and outpassed by the opposition. But once again, an ugly win is still a win, and the Lions have won 2 straight ugly road games.

We haven't won in Commonweallth in 3 years until today and that includes using Dickenson, Printers, and Pierce before Jarious. It would have been nice to have gotten both some reps and we may need to insert one or both early in a future game...like the second quarter, if we really want them to get those reps. The other choice is to lock up first place and then rest Jackson for a chunk of a game and get Pierce and Dickenson in that way.

The one thing I do like is Wally is completely focused on winning. He said that he had worried too much about our quarterback's feelings in 2004 and 2005. You can read into that easily. He worried about Dickenson's feelings as our big contract starter in 2004 and started him in the Grey Cup..even though he hadn't started a game since Game 3. In 2005 he worried about both his quarterbacks feelings and instead made things worse, rather than better and helped to create confusion with the rest of his players.

He's going with Jarious and like it or lump it...that's the way it's going to be! He's played the most games, the squad is the most used to him, and unless he really, really struggles or get's hurt he's sticking with him. The stats mean nothing. We're winning with him and he's brought us back at the end of games twice as a reliever and as a starter against Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, as well as today, although he got more big time help at the end of the game today. Getting reps for Pierce and Dickenson is desirable but it's not as much of a priority as locking up first place. Wally has established the pecking order and that helps the team, in terms of stability. Those that have favorite quarterbacks, or are not Jackson fans, or get bored seeing the same quarterback will need to try to understand that it's for the best! Wally has learned from his past experience, in terms of the quarterback situation here in B.C.!!

Watching what Edmonton did today with the field I don't blame Wally for wanting to play at home in the playoffs. While our road record is great this season and better than our home record the fact is that our cutback running attack and our team speed is advantaged in the Dome!! Edmonton wanted to keep the score low today to give them the best chance to pull one out and they almost did.

This game was considered a mismatch except for knowledgeble Lionbackers who knew better. It's easy to forget that David beat Goliath and these kinds of games are tough to win, especially in Edmonton, who was fighting for a playoff spot and winning this game would have been huge for them, beating last year's Grey Cup champs, the best team in the league and moving into a tie for a playoff spot. They put it all on the line!

Our defense is third against the rush this season and fourth against the pass....even though some consider us the best defense in the league. Toronto is actually the best defense in the league except for one thing...our defense may bend but they are very opportunistic and dangerous and once again they proved that when we needed them to be!!

You guys are tough.....we win on the road in a place we have not won a game in three years, albeit a very close one, and still not satisfied. Great teams find a way to win...we found a way to win #11....it will not be the same game next week at home...there can always be better play somewhere on the field...pick a game...pick a team. We have the luxury of still being in first place, with a homefield playoff game guaranteed and a magic number of two to confirm the WF. To me, I am very happy and proud of our team who continues to take every adversity in stride and find a way to win...and that my friends IS THE BOTTOM LINE!