RedBlacks @ Lions -- Post Game Stats and Comments

[Alputt]

When Beck threw the end zone interception (Gore was targeted I think?) with a few minutes left the place cleared out...

The fans weren't the only ones to clear out the place, they were joined by the players.

The body language of the team after that end zone interception spoke volumes. The looked like they have lost all confidence, hope and have completely checked out. They look like they can hardly wait for the year to be over.

Agreed.

I read another commenter say Harris just left the building immediately not even bothering to shower or join the team in the locker room? If this is true that speaks volumes... I believe he has been critical of the offensive schemes of late and wonder if thats why he rarely gets the ball the last couple games? Losing Harris would suck big time, I hope he hasn't mentally checked-out of this team, a very bad sign.

Harris has suddenly turned cold, and got very few touches, I find that worrying and I wonder why?

[WestCoastJoe]

I retired a few years ago, but it might as well have been two years before that. I'd simply lost the ability to take in anything new. As effective as I may have been at one time, I had nothing left at the end and was just holding on. Why bring this up? Think Wally Buono. The way he's treated the Canadian draft? The cutting of players who didn't necessarily lose their job, and weren't really past it? The recruiting for the current year? Maybe even the hiring of Jeff Tedford, who, himself, may be at the same stage I was two years before I retired. Don't think much of some of the 'cronies' he brought in for training camp (players he had in college, etc).

Saw that Hardrick guy on the SK line the other day. No real explanation why he was cut here. If the explanation is that we were going for an all-CDN O-line, then that's a pretty stupid way to go about it. First, you make sure you have 5 or 6 Canadians who can play and who will not be hurt, then you cut the Americans. And, aside from MTL, is there another all-CDN line? Three imports on a line that couldn't block out my grandmother. I do not see that O-line getting better to the point where they can dominate.

D-line? Don't recall Eric Taylor getting run over like this D-line gets run over. I do see possible improvement, however. I agree that Khreem should go with Roh replacing him. The D-line has potential, but cannot be on the field all game like they were tonight.

Another TB? There should have been one from the get go to spell off Harris. Those guys they recruited for training camp were not reasonable candidates for a CFL job.

Don't agree with the Courtenay Taylor comments. Burnham and Hawkins are pretty good replacements for Taylor and the TE. I am firmly in the cut Manny Arsenault camp. Or at least, do something about him. Just not convinced he was the best we could do for that position. Shawn Gore? What if we'd drafted that Demsky guy? If he makes a catch, he can do something. Gore? Chance after chance and he doesn't seem to be able to play. Was there not an interception that he could have fought off? I could be wrong there. It was hard to pay attention to that 'effort' tonight.

QB? Well, some difficulties going after Wally on this one, but I'm going to give it a go. I couldn't have been the only one against paying Lulay over $400,000 a year a couple years ago. He was already injury-prone. Move on, Wally.

To me, you need a good QB, good O-line and good D-line to compete in the CFL. We have none of this right now. That's on Wally, because he was in charge as the franchise declined, which it has.

Nice post, peeby.

It happens over and over again. In many careers. Guys stay too long. They don't read the writing on the wall. And, to an extent, their final years diminish the good that happened earlier.

Our situation has an absentee owner, David Braley. That owner has farmed out the team to Wally Buono. Wally has long said he is not an Xs and Os guy (except for defence, it seems, as he likes to break down tape for people). And Wally, with his charisma and record and good work in the community, has developed a halo, or a Teflon coat. The CFL seems to have passed Wally by. In almost every respect. Judgment. Who can play D Line? Who can play quarterback? How do you build from the draft? What kind of systems do you want your coaches to run? Who can coach in this league? Who can be a Head Coach? How do you make your team attractive to free agents? Can a team still win in the CFL with ultra conservative defence? Ultra conservative offence? Can a team rely on a National running back with no alternative to mix things up for the defence? What if Andrew gets nicked? Do we have the ratio flexibility to allow us to start an International RB? From a kind of desperation, did Wally leap to hire the new Head Coach? Maybe Jeff Tedford is not the coach he once was? Maybe Jeff Tedford is not the sensational coach his college record and the publicity on his hiring kind of led us to believe. And from all this, Wally has his fingerprints all over every aspect of the Lions organization. And that would not be a bad thing if his judgment and leadership were still at the top level. But one sees mistakes everywhere in the judgment.

Vendetta against Wally? No. Wonderful man. But time moves on. And pro sports tend to be for those with youth, energy and adaptability.

[Toppy Vann]

#84 Sep 7 Tweet. I was checking in the game when Rod Black mentioned Manny's twitter war and this stood out from Monday Sep 7:

"You can't ask your Team to be Tough in a Moment that is Important when you haven't Demanded it in Moments that don't seem Important."

That pretty much sums up the attitude of the Lions offense it seems - especially the receivers with the exception of Collie and the new guy Hawkins who both look like they play EVERY down. Their HC hasn't produced anything close to toughness so .....

Jovon Johnson asked at 31 sec of his post game interview about the Manny challenge and Jovon says "It woke up the sleeping giant" in their D:

http://www.tsn.ca/radio/ottawa-1200/pos ... n-1.360030

____

What farhan re-tweeted:

RT @44laval44: @FarhanLaljiTSN @GM_Brillo stop putting Manny on the jumbotron asking us to make noise. When he makes an effort we will make…

[KnowItAll]

I believe that Braley has the team on the market, and either is getting no offer, or not getting any offers from anyone he wants to trust the team to. I believe he cares about finding the right owner for the team more than getting all the money he can. Of course, he is also not going to just give the team away, nor should he.

Thats crap.

lions had their most successful year last year financially ever ... largely due to the Grey cup and massive increase in grey cup prices with resulted in the largest live gate in Cdn history even though it didn't totally sell out. Conservatively they made $8m on the grey cup probably even more give the ticket price increase and previous grey cups made $10m and $9m per event at lower prices. And the lions themselves easily made $1-2m with the new TSN TV deal drastically lowering their break-even.


Trouble is for some reason the business side did nothing in offseason and looks like football side did the same.

I don't see how anything you said counters anything I said??

[zeppo]

Well,the word for this fiasco is well, besides fiasco would be disaster.


The offense does not bear description. It was so bad, one wonders if this is a team that has totally quit on the coaching.

IMO, the series of plays that were run on the Ottawa one yard line in the second quarter summed up the appalling ineptitude
of the B.C. offence this season. On first down Jennings handed the ball to Harris who hit a brick wall. Gee, how many times
has that happened this year? You'd think that an offensive line with three Americans on it could move the defence back a yard.
Second down, Jennings, who Cortez obviously does not want running the quarterback sneak anymore, tried to float a pass over
the Ottawa secondary despite the fact that he had not thrown the ball all season. The result was predictable. Finally, on third
down, Cortez sends in McGee, the third stringer who had not played a down all year, to run the quarterback sneak. The fact
that he barely made it over the goal line in no way redeemed the disgraceful lack of ability along the offensive line, or the
bizarre play calling that smacked of desperation.

[zeppo]

9 *frig* yards on the ground

Time for an import TB. Someone more hungrier then Andrew.

The Lions' inability to run the football is not, in any way, Harris's fault.

[Alputt]

The float pass when Jennings is the "leap over" short yardage QB had me fuming in my seat...

[CardiacKid]

Like they are saying on 1040, it may be time to cut a veteran to send a message. There maybe some very uncomfortable players and coaches on this team right now. If not, there should be.

What's the point in sending a message if no one is listening?

I think the time has come and gone when that may have made a difference, back when perhaps the disconnect was marginal, back when a message like that would mean the same thing to the survivors.

Right now I don't think anything worth its weight in spit is being spoken by those who should be leading from the sidelines.

[TheLionKing]

The float pass when Jennings is the "leap over" short yardage QB had me fuming in my seat...

If I recall, it was almost picked off. Not a surprise that Harris was stuffed on 1st down. The book is out on Cortez: run with Harris on 1st down, pass on 2nd and long. Rolly Lumbala only gets to carry the ball on a blue moon. Too predictable.

[korey&dante4ever]

I thought Tedford was going to be a game changer of a hire. Innovation on offence. I was looking for innovation. There is none of that. So very disappointing. Mind boggling from my perspective.

This man was going to be an offensive coordinator in the NFL last year. Let that one sink in. I thought we hit the jackpot. What a shame.

[dat]

My painful observations from the Lions - Redblacks game as I sat about ten rows up from the field at BC Place. In all my years of watching the Lions I have difficulty recalling a more abysmal offensive performance. An incredible 8 minutes time of possession in the first half. Barely a first down. The few points they scored were gift wrapped by kick returns, one to the Ottawa one yard line. And even then it took three plays to get it into the end zone. We have a 240 pound back in Lumbala who they could hand it to but we continually see Jennings or Harris getting stuffed. Not that the O Line was opening any holes. Dean Valli getting beat and taking his inevitable holding and procedure penalties. On one series the Lions were second and one and they throw a twenty yard pass that went incomplete. I can't even comprehend what the offensive "philosophy" is. I can't even blame the defence in this one because they were on the field the entire game. The special teams for once made a few plays. As inconsistent as Travis has been this year he looks miles ahead of Beck. Arceneaux and Harris were invisible. They all looked disorganized and uninspired. This is clearly the worst team since Wally came to B.C. Mr. Braley your eastern team looks Ok. Your western is another story.

dat

[zeppo]

The float pass when Jennings is the "leap over" short yardage QB had me fuming in my seat...

I have been past "fuming" for a long time now, and have begun to see the humorous side of the Lions' offensive follies.

[CardiacKid]

I am not an Xs and Os guy by a long shot. But my thought on Beck getting the start was "well here is a guy with the arm strength to suit Cortez's spread offence". If Cortez is not willing to alter his schemes to suit the positives of his QB, then I guess having a QB better suited to his schemes is the next best thing.

Was I loopy to think so? Was I a complete assh*le to even contemplate something positive like that?

How long did the Lions have to prep for this game? Short of having a bye week, they had about as much time as you could hope for. And yet it looked like they (I should be more accurate...) it looked like the offense did SFA to get ready for this game.

And that was too bad because the Special Teams raised their play with the awesome work of Chris Rainey and some nice work in his own right by Shaquille Murray-Lawrence. The defence played hard and showed the same signs of continued improvement that have been on display in games of late. But to be on the field for 45+ minutes of a 60 minute game???? Anyone who wants to crap on the D based on this game needs to think twice about where to assess blame.

This is a very short week to prep anything that might shake things up. But wait! What the hell am I thinking? This is George Cortez we are talking about! The same guy who refuses to change his schemes or alter his system for anyone. The same guy whose mugshot you find next to that definition of insanity where you try the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Get my Account Manager on the line! I want a refund on my seasons tickets! No wait, better yet, keep my money, get rid the offense and show the Super Dogs all game long. And if Braley is not willing to pay the Super Dogs, then show 15 minutes of fans playing the Optik Ball Challenge...it would be more entertaining than the 15 minutes of offense on display today.

[Sir Purrcival]

Get my Account Manager on the line! I want a refund on my seasons tickets! No wait, better yet, keep my money, get rid the offense and show the Super Dogs all game long. And if Braley is not willing to pay the Super Dogs, then show 15 minutes of fans playing the Optik Ball Challenge...it would be more entertaining than the 15 minutes of offense on display today.

Brilliant Summation on the entertainment value of this team.

[TheLionKing]

This is clearly the worst team since Wally came to B.C. Mr. Braley your eastern team looks Ok. Your western is another story.

dat

Braley no longer owns the Argos. He sold it. He's saddled with the sad sack Lions. He's back to where he started when he bought the Lions: attendance falling faster than the Canadian dollar and fan disinterest.