Lionbackers.com

Huge win for our Leos combined with a Bombers loss means that we can finish second in the West and host a playoff game. All we have to do is beat the Riders again at home next week.

I was impressed overall with the game plans of both Khari Jones and Mark Washington. Don't know if Washington was hit with a lighting bolt or visited by the Football Gods but he dialed up an aggressive game plan, used a lot of blitzes, and let Bighill be a linebacker. David Menard makes a difference on our defensive line and makes Roh play better.

Too many dropped passes, Leone was Leone, but it we dominated the game.


Looking forward to Lionbackers ppst game thoughts!

Nice summary as always Blitz...I guess what concerns me most would have to be Jennings recklessness, when trying to forced the ball deep.

I realize he is still so young, and most of the time he can make up for his mistakes by shaking them off, and getting back into the game most of time, but a critical Int like the one he threw against Calgary late in that game, in our second meeting this season, and has me worried about just such a replete performance in one of the two big games ahead of us in the playoffs.

The other factor is the inconsistent kicking of Leone, especially on otherwise gimme convert type field goals. He has wicked power in that leg as he proved last week, coming close on the 60 + yards field goal attempt, but he seems to have a problem with cuing the kick, the tighter the field goal angle, that tends to close up, when kicking from the hash marks.

I saw part of Q1 and all of Q4.

Nice to see the pressure on Durant early.

Nice to see a vigorous running game.

Roh gets some sacks. Where has that been?

Dropped passes. ??? WTF. Nerves? It can be contagious. Sinkield brought the disease. Not doing justice to the brilliance of Jennings.

Manny

JJ24

JJ

Biggie

Solly

O Line.

Defensive pressure

Lots of mistakes. The Riders showed up, but lacked interest.

Farewell to old Mosaic.

I suspect Chris Jones will be pilloried by some in Riderville for not playing the game like a must win and giving Mosiac a fitting send off. The manner in which he swapped Durant and Waters back and forth was puzzling; why not let each QB play successive series? There is such a thing as getting in a rhythm.
But regardless of what his logic was, I don't think he made many fans amongst the Rider faithful tonight.

WestCoastJoe wrote:I saw part of Q1 and all of Q4.

Nice to see the pressure on Durant early.

Nice to see a vigorous running game.

Roh gets some sacks. Where has that been?

Dropped passes. ??? WTF. Nerves? It can be contagious. Sinkield brought the disease. Not doing justice to the brilliance of Jennings.

Manny

JJ24

JJ

Biggie

Solly

O Line.

Defensive pressure

Lots of mistakes. The Riders showed up, but lacked interest.

Farewell to old Mosaic.

Kicking FG and Extra Points

Encircling Call a WTF moment and then they tried to make it up by nullifying the illegal contact call

Both calls should be questioned as the ball was out clearly before the whistle and the illegal contact was before that as well.

But against all belief on my part, the Lions control their destiny again. I was sure they had cooked their chance for a home playoff date. Way to go Ottawa

strong game by the lions, and jennings, 5 drops that would have made the game a blow out i think... quite a few IP's on O, maybe due to crowd noise??? clean that up! but 2 full game from the lions in a row.... i wonder if on D they looked at last weeks mtl/sask game and attacked them the same way....

Andre Proulx was Andre Proulx . Encircling the quarterback ? Where is that in the rule book ?

TheLionKing wrote:Andre Proulx was Andre Proulx . Encircling the quarterback ? Where is that in the rule book ?

Whether it is called "encircling" or "wrapping up" the QB, the concept of ending the play before the QB gets mugged is valid, imo. Earlier in the season in a similar situation ( can't remember which team vs the Lions) the opposition QB got bent like a pretzel and the Lions got a penalty, so I was happy with the result of the play as it was called... a sack and no penalty.

CardiacKid wrote:I suspect Chris Jones will be pilloried by some in Riderville for not playing the game like a must win and giving Mosiac a fitting send off. The manner in which he swapped Durant and Waters back and forth was puzzling; why not let each QB play successive series? There is such a thing as getting in a rhythm.
But regardless of what his logic was, I don't think he made many fans amongst the Rider faithful tonight.

do you really think that classless assclown cares what the fans think?

I was expecting a hard-fought emotional affair, so was a bit disappointed with the exhibition game level of play and intensity. More disappointing I am sure for the Rider fans who showed up and wanted to see zthe stadium have a proud farewell. Not Jones' priority I guess, just wanted to audition some guys for next year.

Easy win for the Lions. Despite many mistakes, dominated in all areas (except kicking of course).

Lions will need to prepare for the next game like a playoff game. Get home field advantage and stay focussed and intense.

I saw the first half and first TD of the second half so I saw most of the scoring at least. I'll have to catch up later. Great game for the defence, and a dominant physical performance on all sides. Kudos to Mark Washington and Team 100.

I counted six dropped passes in the first half, which was extremely uncharacteristic of this team. I hope they got that out of their system in this game.

The placekicking situation has to improve. I don't know if anyone else is out there, but I don't think Wally wants to place the Lions' playoff hopes on the foot of a slumping Leone.

Mark Washington called a great game. Perhaps he now has enough confidence in Fenner and Gaitor (despite a few penalties) to no longer feel the need to drop Bighill into pass coverage. OTOH if he drops Bighill into coverage and then blitzes a DB it might fool a QB and it would still be a pressure D and not a passive deep zone.

Nice to see the Lions finally starting Menard on the D line and getting both Brooks and Turner on the field at the same time.

Antonio Johnson is still struggling/taking penalties at times although the Riders Jefferson is quite the handful. The solution is to take Ianuzzi out and replace him with Lumbala. Ianuzzi has proven to be an effective KR and he should continue to do that and back up at WR.

I thought at the start of the season that Leone would improve as the season went on but that has not really been the case. However the TSN crew reported that Leone had been afflicted with food poisoning this week and that could have contributed to his poorer than usual, not so great FG kicking.

Jennings continues to be Ricky Ray Like in some of his longer throws.

Khari Jones called an excellent game and even used play action once the run game was established plus a good variety of short, medium, long, pass patterns.

The Manny Show:
Even though Bowman and Walker have slightly better numbers, the sheer physical play of Manny, before, during, and after a catch has got to make Manny the most feared receiver in the CFL. It is not even close.

I'm wondering if you can attribute the dropped balls to lack of focus in the second half. The Riders weren't throwing much at the Lions and I think a lot of them thought they had the game already won.

I've always stuck up for Leone as he's clearly the best punter in the league, but tonight was very disappointing. At least 8 points were dropped due to 2 missed field goals and 2 converts. That could clearly be the difference between a win and a loss in the playoffs. This is a huge concern at this point in the season.

An unemployed National FG kicker with university experience, or even junior football experience, would be better than Leone.

Inexcusable management. At what point does one acknowledge that Leone is not a FG kicker, nor ever likely to be one? Not his fault.

B.C.FAN wrote:
The placekicking situation has to improve. I don't know if anyone else is out there, but I don't think Wally wants to place the Lions' playoff hopes on the foot of a slumping Leone.

It's too late in the season to be making changes. We're stuck with Leone the rest of this season and hope his kicking doesn't cost us in the playoffs.