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Injuries have forced several changes to the Lions’ roster for Friday’s Orange Shirt Day game against the Redblacks.

As expected on offence, Keon Hatcher moves from field WR spot to boundary slotback to replace the injured Bryan Burnham. Jacob Scarfone fills in for Hatcher, giving the Lions 8 starting Canadians. Mario Villamizar gets his first start at fullback for the injured David Mackie, while Bruce Anderson is added to the roster as backup running back. Sukh Chungh returns to the starting lineup at right guard after missing two games.

On defence, Sione Teuhema comes off the injured list to start at defensive end for the injured Obum Gwacham. Woody Baron is again listed as a backup to Nathan Cherry at DT. Shaq Johnson is added as an extra DB, mainly to play special teams.

Lions’ roster and depth chart

Delvin Breaux is on the 6 game IR. Anyone know what is his injury?

DanoT wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:48 am Delvin Breaux is on the 6 game IR. Anyone know what is his injury?

Breaux was listed with a rib injury after the game in Montreal. This will be his third week on the 6-game list.

Lions were probably hoping for a big crowd tomorrow with their big Truth and Reconciliation Day promotion but I suspect two Rourkeless stinkers at home will be costing them a number of fans, especially back to back weeks against a weak Eastern team.
Barring a big upset in Winnipeg, the Lions should know by kickoff they will have at least 3rd place locked up in the West. Will take them at least a 3-2 finish to hold off Calgary for 2nd place.
More importantly, Adams needs to play well and prove he can lead this team with tough games against Toronto and Winnipeg up next.
Word is Rourke's rehab is going well as can be expected including walking in a pool this past week and the hope is he will soon be wearing a shoe again with no kind of assistance. Lions are 5 weeks out from their regular season finale and 6 weeks from the Western semi-final.

B.C.FAN wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:03 am Injuries have forced several changes to the Lions’ roster for Friday’s Orange Shirt Day game against the Redblacks.
Shaq Johnson is added as an extra DB, mainly to play special teams.

Hakeem Johnson (18)

SammyGreene wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 4:52 pm Word is Rourke's rehab is going well as can be expected including walking in a pool this past week and the hope is he will soon be wearing a shoe again with no kind of assistance. Lions are 5 weeks out from their regular season finale and 6 weeks from the Western semi-final.

I noticed him walking around on the sidelines without crutches during last week's game. That was a pleasant surprise.

zeppo wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:20 pm

B.C.FAN wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:03 am Injuries have forced several changes to the Lions’ roster for Friday’s Orange Shirt Day game against the Redblacks.
Shaq Johnson is added as an extra DB, mainly to play special teams.

Hakeem Johnson (18)

Haha. Yep. The Johnson brothers will both be dressed, but in different uniforms. Shaq has 20 catches for 297 yards in 13 games with Ottawa this year. Last year he had 30 catches for 295 yards in 14 games as a Lion.

This just in to the newsroom, Vernon Adams is not a pocket passer.

So why are we trying to make him one?

It's as though the coaches are giving him the Nathan playbook that plays to Nathan's strengths instead of adjusting it to play to VA's strengths. This doesn't mean blowing it up. But if he's (for all intents and purposes) our guy now, why isn't Maksymic playing to his strengths? There need to be more hitch screens and quick hitters to build his confidence, rollouts, bootlegs, play-action etc. And he needs to be more aware too; when to step up in the pocket, when to take off, when to throw it downfield, and when to throw it out-of-bounds.

I am sure Ottawa took notice of what Calgary did last week, a heavy dose of man coverage, and Bene will be adjusting things accordingly. One thing's for certain. We can't expect VA to deliver first downs after poor first-down production. That's not realistic. Butler is going to need to have a game like the one he had 2-weeks ago in Calgary with solid first-down production and we can't take 5-6 sacks a game. Of note, Ottawa is 7th against the run, giving up 101.5 yards per game along the ground.


DH

B.C.FAN wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:39 pm

zeppo wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 7:20 pm

B.C.FAN wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 10:03 am Injuries have forced several changes to the Lions’ roster for Friday’s Orange Shirt Day game against the Redblacks.
Shaq Johnson is added as an extra DB, mainly to play special teams.

Hakeem Johnson (18)

Haha. Yep. The Johnson brothers will both be dressed, but in different uniforms. Shaq has 20 catches for 297 yards in 13 games with Ottawa this year. Last year he had 30 catches for 295 yards in 14 games as a Lion.

It's never good for a man to get his Johnsons mixed up.

SammyGreene wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 4:52 pm Lions were probably hoping for a big crowd tomorrow with their big Truth and Reconciliation Day promotion but I suspect two Rourkeless stinkers at home will be costing them a number of fans, especially back to back weeks against a weak Eastern team.
Barring a big upset in Winnipeg, the Lions should know by kickoff they will have at least 3rd place locked up in the West. Will take them at least a 3-2 finish to hold off Calgary for 2nd place.
More importantly, Adams needs to play well and prove he can lead this team with tough games against Toronto and Winnipeg up next.
Word is Rourke's rehab is going well as can be expected including walking in a pool this past week and the hope is he will soon be wearing a shoe again with no kind of assistance. Lions are 5 weeks out from their regular season finale and 6 weeks from the Western semi-final.

Hard to sell a game in 6 days against historically the worst draw. cfl knows this. Why the spacing isn’t every 2 weeks is beyond me.

Qman wrote: Fri Sep 30, 2022 10:01 am

SammyGreene wrote: Thu Sep 29, 2022 4:52 pm Lions were probably hoping for a big crowd tomorrow with their big Truth and Reconciliation Day promotion but I suspect two Rourkeless stinkers at home will be costing them a number of fans, especially back to back weeks against a weak Eastern team.
Barring a big upset in Winnipeg, the Lions should know by kickoff they will have at least 3rd place locked up in the West. Will take them at least a 3-2 finish to hold off Calgary for 2nd place.
More importantly, Adams needs to play well and prove he can lead this team with tough games against Toronto and Winnipeg up next.
Word is Rourke's rehab is going well as can be expected including walking in a pool this past week and the hope is he will soon be wearing a shoe again with no kind of assistance. Lions are 5 weeks out from their regular season finale and 6 weeks from the Western semi-final.

Hard to sell a game in 6 days against historically the worst draw. cfl knows this. Why the spacing isn’t every 2 weeks is beyond me.

One of the worst schedules that I can recall in recent memory.
- 2 byes in first 4 weeks for BC where some teams went 6-7 weeks without one.

-Lions played the Riders 3 times in 5 weeks & the Stamps 3 times in 6 weeks. Riders will play the Bombers tonight for the 3rd time in 5 weeks with the Elks and a bye in between.

- league got burned with too many West/East match-ups out of the gate that were completely dominated by the West. Hard to hide bad teams in a nine team league but this sucked a lot of life/intrigue out some match-ups by week 4.

This is must win for the team to show they can win without Rourke and stay ahead of Calgary for a home playoff game. Lose tonight and that home playoff game looks very unlikely.

Losing Gwacham is a big loss. He has been excellent this year and a big part of the def line success.

Qman wrote: Fri Sep 30, 2022 10:01 amHard to sell a game in 6 days against historically the worst draw. cfl knows this. Why the spacing isn’t every 2 weeks is beyond me.

Yea, you'd think the league would want to offer favourable, fan-friendly scheduling to its three largest markets. I know some of this is venue availability but come on. A heavy summer-laden home schedule, a Thursday nigher in July against Hamilton, Ottawa, six days after another home game??


DH

Schedule is vastly different than what Lions fans are accustomed to but for the most part was driven by the desires of Lion ownership. I think they wanted a slate heavily tilted to early home games to give the team a good chance to get off to a good start for turnstile momentum. In recent years we've experienced the opposite with a front end road heavy schedule forcing the Lions to be very good early on the road to avoid digging themselves a big hole that turns fans off.

Tack on the CFL's insistence on etching the LDCs and rematches in stone, stadiums like BCP & BMO with multiple tenants, CIS teams playing out of CFL stadiums in Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg and Montreal and other events and it's impossible to create a schedule that is purrfect for all teams and fanbases. The final 1/3 might not be great but I think is the price to pay for the first 2/3 being what Doman wished for.

Good start to the game. Sack from the D, and a series of first downs on offence so far. Adams is making good use of his legs.