Upper Bowl wrote:Only six commenters so far?? I guess the most complete game of the season just doesn't bring out the posters like those devastating losses!
Thoughts:
The game was closer than the final score would indicate. It just goes to show how important field position, turnovers and sacks are, and how effective the Leos can be when they're on the right side of those in-game battles.
Still way too many penalties on special teams, but the Lions' containment of Banks was great. It was especially nice to see Arakgi have his best game of the year. He's struggled to regain his form since that early season injury.
If he hadn't missed that one convert it would have been a virtually purrfect game for Leone. His punting and kicking off was excellent.
It's tough to fully contain an offence as good as Hamilton's, so I actually thought Washington called a good game on D. But I doubt I'll convince anyone of that here.
Overall, I thought the Lions tackling and physicality was noticeably better than Hamilton's.
That late running surge must have done wonders for Harris and the offensive line's collective psyche. It would be nice to see more run plays with trap and pull blocking the rest of the way.
Rainey's energy and will to keep plays alive seemed infectious with his teammates. Such a fun player to watch!
B.C. FAN is right......the crowd was upbeat and energetic, even despite the Lions' struggles in the second half. Their commitment and patience was justly rewarded.
Good post , Upperbowl . You don't need to convince everyone , not all buy into negative group think here .
Excellent game by the team as a whole , including both our OFFENSIVE coordinator and our DEFENSIVE coordinator . Yes I did see our defence slipping into passive prevent D in the third quarter , but to his credit Mark Washington managed to get out of that funk and went back to the attacking D of the first half in the fourth .
Cortez did an out standing job too being patient with the run by taking what was available and softening the Ticat D with our potent passing attack under Jennings and our now potent receiving core lead by our standout receiver Emmauel Arceneaux .
Manny now had surpassed his production of his first 10.5 games in 4.5 games since Jennings has started . Many were very critical of Manny earlier and wanted him cut , thankfully cooler heads on the Team prevailed to keep him . How would that look having Manny killing us with the Stamps or Esks ? He would have been scooped immediately . He should be re- upped soon .
Hawkins sure has been a great addition .
OL looked good with our best linemen , Tommy Draheim back . I really liked some of those replays where Draheim came up the middle to take out their big DT a few times , to spring Harris , nice work , very impressive .
Likewise our DL is really coming into it's own with our now very stout middle combo of Minter and Brooks, who were able to stop one third down gamble and coming very close to stopping another very short gamble .
One other interesting thing was to see our short yardage done very differently than it was last week , keeping our starting QB in and going with the fast snap ,picking up first down easily. I guess the lesson was learned last week .jennings himself said that it's no problem for him to stay in on 3 rd and short , because he can get hurt on any play in the game And takes a pounding all the time . He sees that as part of the game .
Now we just have to win the rest of the games , as the ALS won their game in convincing fashion too .Commentator Chris Shultz keeps saying If BC gets into the the play offs , in spite of the short comings they have had ! The Lions are the most dangerous Team currently . He'd hate to have to face BC . He's very high on Jennings and the BC offence now .
