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After a well deserved bye week the Lions return to action tied with the Bombers each with 16 points. While the players were relaxing, Buono has been busy bringing in 4 NFL cuts including speedster Terrell Sinkfield. Looking forward to seeing him stretch the field with his speed. Lions are the best road team in the CFL with a 5-1 record. Could easily have been undefeated if it wasn't for that colossal collapse against the Stamps. Main concern heading into the game is whether they have lost any momentum generated prior to their bye week.

It will be fun to see what the B.C. offence can do with Sinkfield in the receiving corps against Edmonton's soft secondary. It will also be interesting to see whether the powerful B.C. offensive line can dominate Edmonton's front seven as they did against Montreal's vaunted defence in their last game.

The key to the game, though, will be how well B.C's reshuffled secondary can contain Mike Reilly and his deep-threat receivers. The Lions have moved cornerback Brandon Stewart back to the wide side of the field alongside veteran Ryan Phillips, who has been vulnerable on deep balls this year. On the opposite side, Chandler Fenner will start his first CFL game at boundary halfback while fellow rookie Anthony Gaitor slides out to boundary corner.

Mark Washington has had to shuffle his secondary all year as injuries mount but the players have found a way to get the job done. If the Lions can limit Edmonton's big plays and hold Mike Reilly under 300 yards passing, they should win. It will be a tough challenge.

B.C.FAN wrote:It will be fun to see what the B.C. offence can do with Sinkfield in the receiving corps against Edmonton's soft secondary. It will also be interesting to see whether the powerful B.C. offensive line can dominate Edmonton's front seven as they did against Montreal's vaunted defence in their last game.

The key to the game, though, will be how well B.C's reshuffled secondary can contain Mike Reilly and his deep-threat receivers. The Lions have moved cornerback Brandon Stewart back to the wide side of the field alongside veteran Ryan Phillips, who has been vulnerable on deep balls this year. On the opposite side, Chandler Fenner will start his first CFL game at boundary halfback while fellow rookie Anthony Gaitor slides out to boundary corner.

Mark Washington has had to shuffle his secondary all year as injuries mount but the players have found a way to get the job done. If the Lions can limit Edmonton's big plays and hold Mike Reilly under 300 yards passing, they should win. It will be a tough challenge.

Very happy with MW this year. To an extent he has unleashed the hounds. He is the right guy to bring DBs up to speed. Wally knew he had a good one in MW. MW has the creds to influence Wally, allowing an attack style defence. Masterful job bringing in repacements in the backfield all year. Reilly provides a good challenge.

Benny's D might be vulnerable to JJ and the Air Corps. Plus a vigorous ground game. I kind of doubt Benny will bring the house. But I hope we have a good pass protection scheme, nevertheless.

The key to limiting the passing attack of the Schmoes is to get pressure on Reilly. He is still very effective on the move but if he is running for his life, he is likely to screw up a throw or two. The truth is that the Esks backs may be metaphorically against the wall here. After losing 3 straight, including to the Wheaties, they really need a win, badly. To loose again might well cost them a post season berth and you can bet that they players will be hearing that alot. I expect them to come out flying and if we can't weather the storm, it is likely going to be a long night for us. Ball control, high percentage plays and time of possession are going to be keys.

TheLionKing wrote:After a well deserved bye week the Lions return to action tied with the Bombers each with 16 points. While the players were relaxing, Buono has been busy bringing in 4 NFL cuts including speedster Terrell Sinkfield. Looking forward to seeing him stretch the field with his speed. Lions are the best road team in the CFL with a 5-1 record. Could easily have been undefeated if it wasn't for that colossal collapse against the Stamps. Main concern heading into the game is whether they have lost any momentum generated prior to their bye week.

Bye weeks can be unpredictable events. Sometimes teams are refreshed and hungry and at other times can lose some mojo.

The timing of the bye week has been good though. Just at the right time before the final stretch. Getting back to game speed quickly is the key for this game.

Sinkfield's signing and activation for this game is the story of the week but the biggest change is in our defensive backfield. Fenner starts at halfback and Gaitor moves to corner. I'm also not sure if we have switched both Phillips and Stewart to the boundary side or just put them back together on the wide side...right now it looks like the boundary side. If so, that is three changes and really four, because Stewart was only recently moved to boundary corner, after Yell's injury.

Even though he played well in his recent starts, Parker does not start at corner.

Darius Allen is activated for this game as well. As a rotational International defensive end, in his 7 games he only has one sack. Wally has also recently stated he wants more pressure on the opposite side to compliment Bazzie's play. Both Roh and Allen need to step up their play.

This game features the best two double threat quarterbacks in the CFL. Reilley leads the CFL in passing yards while Jonathan Jennings is 3rd in CFL passing. Mike Reilly leads the CFL in quarterback rushing while Jennings is second in that category, with 246 yards. Jennings has a better run average than Reilly.

We tend to think of Jennings more as a gunslinger out of the pocket and a quarterback who prefers to throw when he escapes but he also is putting up rushing numbers close to those of Lulay and Printers in the past. Printers best seasons running the football were in 2004, when he rushed for 469 yds. and in 2008 in Hamilton, where he ran for 396 yds. Lulay rushed for 396 yds. in 2010, 391 yds. in his 2011 MOP season, and 477 yds. in 2012.

Jennings projects to close to 400 yds. rushing for an 18 game schedule this season. Not too shabby for a player who is not thought of as a running quarterback.

I believe Jonathan Jennings may have the best arm of any quarterback who has ever played in a Leo uniform. He can make every throw and therefore throws the football better than Joe Kapp, Matt Dunnigan, Roy Dewalt, Dave Dickenson, Casey Printers, Buck Pierce, and Travis Lulay. Dickenson was very accurate on short and intermediate passes, Dewalt threw a great long ball, and Printers threw on the run with great accuracy. But Jennings may be the best pure passer of all of them.

It will be interesting to see how well we run the football tonite. Jeremiah Johnson is well rested for his second start in a row. Steward and Johnson start their second game in a row on the offensive line. It will be very difficult to repeat our running game performance that we had against Montreal but hopefully we will be able to run the football well against Edmonton.

We will be facing an Edmonton team that needs to win. They are tied with Toronto and need to win to keep in the cross-over race. Edmonton has lost a lot of close games this season and they have been in every one, except one, and lost at home to Calgary in overtime, in a game in which they led most of the way. They are a difficult opponent for any team and with a little better defense, their record could be 9-3 rather than 5-7.

With the Bombers on a long winning streak (hard to believe they are 8-4 now, having won 7 in a row) we really need this win.

Go Leos!

Many purists will say they appreciate a well-played defensive game as much as a high-scoring contest, but most casual fans--myself included--prefer to see big passing plays, exciting special teams play, and lots of TDs.

This game has the potential to see some big plays on offense and ST. 2 great QBs, possibly the best two sets of receivers in the CFL, excellent running backs, great returners, and two defenses that have some holes mean we could see some big plays and lots of points tonight.

I don't expect to see too much from Sinkfield in his first game, but will be watching out for him. I still feel that Rainey is the better big play threat, but having two speedsters out there could make for some exciting football.

Under other circumstances, I'd say that we have an advantage with our stronger D, but with the injuries to the secondary, our D is more of a question mark. Edmonton is under a lot of pressure to turn things around, especially playing at home, so we can expect them to come out with some enthusiasm. We'll have to stay disciplined and focussed to weather the storm.

Definitely a great western autumn matchup, what the CFL is all about. Looking forward to this game.

maxlion wrote:Many purists will say they appreciate a well-played defensive game as much as a high-scoring contest, but most casual fans--myself included--prefer to see big passing plays, exciting special teams play, and lots of TDs.

This game has the potential to see some big plays on offense and ST. 2 great QBs, possibly the best two sets of receivers in the CFL, excellent running backs, great returners, and two defenses that have some holes mean we could see some big plays and lots of points tonight.

I don't expect to see too much from Sinkfield in his first game, but will be watching out for him. I still feel that Rainey is the better big play threat, but having two speedsters out there could make for some exciting football.

Under other circumstances, I'd say that we have an advantage with our stronger D, but with the injuries to the secondary, our D is more of a question mark. Edmonton is under a lot of pressure to turn things around, especially playing at home, so we can expect them to come out with some enthusiasm. We'll have to stay disciplined and focussed to weather the storm.

Definitely a great western autumn matchup, what the CFL is all about. Looking forward to this game.

Its a rainy, wet day in B.C. Cloudy in Edmonton.

Lots of great receiving crews in the CFL these days. Ottowa has 4 recievers in the Top 25 (Williams, Elingson, Jackson, Sinipoli) as does Hamilton (Tasker, Owens, Tolliver, Fantuz). Calgary has 3 receivers in the Top 25 (McDaniel, Parker, Grant) as do our Leos (Burnham, Arseneaux, and Gore).

What agree with you that Rainey is a big play threat but he is a rotational offensive player whereas Sinkfield will be a regular down offensive player. When both are in the game, it could be interesting.

I'm more of a CFL fan but I do watch some NFL and my favorite teams are Seattle and New England. Bill Bellichek is not Mr. Warm and Fuzzy but he is a football genius.

New England was a power running team in Billichek's first years in New England. Then they went to the spread passing offence and were ahead of everyone. Then, with other NFL teams adopting the spread offence, New England went to a two tight end offence when they had bot Gronkowski and Hernandez. Then they created the Hurry Up offence with one word play calls. The following season, with Gronk injured and Hernandez gone, they went back to a power running attack.

Last year, they went to a hybrid Tight End system, spreading Gronkowski out, as well as using him tight, in the slot, and as an H Back.
This season the Patriots are using a heavy run scheme again, including using the "I" formation. New England, a former spread pocket passing team began taking approximately 40% of the snaps directly behind center.

Unlike our Leos, who have been married to the plug and play spread offence forever it seems, Belichick's ability to adapt is his defining trait as a head coach. That includes changing the plan during a game, during a season, and during ooffseason.

Belichick doesn't stay married to a specific offensive philosophy for too long. They adjust their offense to their personnel more than any pro team.

The best example was New England's last night's game against Houston. Having to start their third string rookie quarterback,Jacoby Brissett, with Brady suspended and Jimmy Garoppolo hurt, and with Gronkowski still hurting, they faced a very tough Houston defense and dissected them. Most NFL team struggle badly even with their second string quarterback.

You wouldn't even recognize the New England offence from the week before. They ran slot back reverses and quarterback reverses and option plays. They lined up three backs in the backfield at times. They ran a lot of Power "I" with fullback leads. With only a week of preparation they made a ton of changes.

Changing an offence to suit the strengths of your personnel is what great coaches do. We now have Sinkfield and Rainey at times as well. That is speed and and shiftiness.

The question is, will we do the same things as in the past, or will we adapt our offence to take advantage? No sense using Sinkfield for a lot of possession type routes as we did with Boldewijn. Lets hope we use our new weapon, in combination with our other weapons, as wisely and effectively as possible.

When Khari Jones was a QB he loved to throw the deep pass. So the Lions have a bunch of guys that have go deep speed including Rainy who as a RB/KR might not be a great precision route runner, but he could still scare defenses even as a deep threat decoy.

OTOH the Esks will likely be game planning to stop the run so some play action and short passes to the areas that the run stop focused LBs have vacated might be the way to go.

DanoT wrote:When Khari Jones was a QB he loved to throw the deep pass. So the Lions have a bunch of guys that have go deep speed including Rainy who as a RB/KR might not be a great precision route runner, but he could still scare defenses even as a deep threat decoy.

OTOH the Esks will likely be game planning to stop the run so some play action and short passes to the areas that the run stop focused LBs have vacated might be the way to go.

Couldn't agree more. Play action should be effective if/when we use it.

I'm so pumped I'm ready to do some Benny Bumps!!!!!

Sinkfield drops first pass thrown to him

On holidays and watching the game in Charlottetown. The 11pm kickoff is is bit surreal. Glad to have Sinkfield wishing him the best.

Crappy 2 and out.

TheLionKing wrote:Sinkfield drops first pass thrown to him

Glad it wasn't Boldewijn....

Facemasking penalty against Bazzie

Good run by Jennings for a first down

51 yard field goal attempt by Leone goes wide