Its a time of year that is both nostalgic and significant.
Autumn is football weather. Its the time of the football season that battles in the trenches become even more violent and the games ever more important.
Its been a football season to remember so far. Four game winning offensive drives. Last minute defensive stands. A heart breaking overtime loss. A team that has played like warriors on the road. An exciting young quarterback. Big plays. Intense games.
With 8 games left on the schedule, our Leos play five of those games at home. The furthest they will have to travel is to Winnipeg. We're back at B.C. Place after winning two road games in the East. We've beaten all four Eastern teams so far this season on their home turf.
With only a 2-2 record at home this season, and coming off an embarrassing loss to the Stamps the last time our Leos played at B.C.Place, this is a game in which our Leos need to establish that they can be as tough or even a tougher team to play than on the road.
Our matchup is against the Montreal Alouttes. Lets have a closer look:
DEFENCE
I'm starting with our defense this week because it was their outstanding play that was the key to our victory over the Argos, holding Ricky Ray and the offence of the Boat Men to 13 points.
Once again this season, our Lions have suffered an injury to a defensive back on the boundary side of our defence. We've had to replace T.J. Lee and Stephen Clarke at boundary halfback. Anthony Gaitor has quietly come in and done a good job at that tough spot to play.
Now, we have lost the very under rated Ronnie Yell, an excellent cover man who is also an excellent tackler, who hurt himself in the warm up prior to the Toronto game. Brandon Steward moved to boundary corner and Kenyan Parker started at field corner and played well.
Kenyan Parker will battle Chandler Fenner at practice this week to see who will start at wideside corner on Friday night. Fenner is tall and fast. Brandon Steward will start again at boundary corner. Our pass secondary will be anchored by veteran Ryan Phillips and safety Mike Edem. Rookie defensive back Anthony Thompson draws in on special packages when we go two safety deep.
Alex Bazzie has perhaps been our most valuable defensive player this season. Leading the CFL in sacks, Bazzie has already exceeded his sack totals of last season. But pressure on the quarterback has also come from two key defensive players. Solaman Eliminian has 5 sacks on the season, the most of any linebacker in the CFL and Westerman has four sacks.
Mich'eal Brooks has been quiet for the past two games, has no sacks so far this year and 7 defensive tackles in 7 games while Jabar Westerman has quietly enjoyed an excellent first half of the season with four sacks, 11 defensive tackles and solid play inside. Now that we are dressing two International defensive tackles, Bryant Turner Jr. is making his impact. He has 2 quarterback sacks and 9 defensive tackles.
Bo Lokombo, a situational linebacker, made an incredible play on a pass rush against the Argos, hurdling a blocker and hitting Ray's arm as he threw the football. leading to a key interception by Sol E. Lokombo is complimented by rookie nickel back Louchez Purifoy, who has 2 quarterback sacks, 1 interception (52 yds return) 3 forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery, and a 47 yd. touchdown so far this season.
Our defense will be facing an Alouttes team that does not have a good road record this season and are presently in last place in the East. This type of matchup can often result in an upset. Kevin Glenn is a wily quarterback who can get hot. He is just behind Jonathan Jennings in CFL passing yardage, has a better pass percentage average (70.7%) than Jennings (64.6%) and a similar quarterback efficiency rating. Glenn has thrown for 13 touchdowns this season while Jennings has throw 12 touchdown passes. Glenn's penchant for throwing interceptions is the only blemish in what has been a very good season for Glenn, in terms of throwing the football.
Duron Carter and Nik Lewis are Montreal's two most dangerous recievers. Carter has 46 catches on the season (15. 6 yd. average), 9 receptions of over 30 yds. and five touchdowns. He is their big play threat. Nik Lewis is Montreal's clutch receiver. He has a very impressive 67 receptions so far.
OFFENCE
While our Leos offence. led by Jonathan Jennings, has come through with four game winnwing drives and created a lot of excitement with big plays, it needs to become more consistent.
We will be playing a Montreal defence that has a 3-4 defensive philosophy and likes to bring the blitz. Montreal's defense so far this season has 25 quarterback sacks, created 13 forced fumbles, and has 7 interceptions. They like to play a higher risk, higher reward style of defence than do our Leos.
We need to be prepared for Noel Thorpe's defensive style of play, where Montreal will sometimes put 8 or even 9 players up at the line of scrimmage.
In Week Six of this CFL season, we had only given up one more sack than Calgary. Calgary had given up 8 quarterback sacks and our Leos had only given up 9 sacks in the first six weeks of the season. During the next five weeks of games, Calgary only gave up 2 sacks while we've given up 14 sacks.
Since the insertion of O'Neil at left guard for Hunter Steward and Levy Adcock for Antonio Johnson, our pass protection has suffered. Not only has Jennings been sacked much more but he has also had to escape, throw under pressure, and run more often. Its an area that needs addressing.
The offensive line personnel situation may get addressed this week. Buono has not been happy with Adcock's play and signed him as a free agent, based on Dorazio's recommendation. Buono said this weekend that Adcock's play is 'not rust'. Johnson will almost certainly draw in at right tackle for Friday night's contest. There is also a good chance that we will see Steward return to his starting left guard position.
Our Leos have used Anthony Allen and Jeremiah Johnson each for five games at tailback this season. Allen started our last two games. Allen is 5th in CFL rushing with 326 yds., a very good 5.1 yd. run average (Messam averages 5.3 yds. per carry). Jeremiah Johnson is 7th in CFL rushing with 309 yds. and a 5.2 yd. run average.
The only significant difference between the two, in terms of production is that Allen has been used more in the passing game, with 14 receptions vs. 6 receptions for Johnson.
Manny Arseneaux is our leading receiver with 55 receptions but he has also been targeted 90 times. Bryan Burnham is second in receiving, with 41 receptions (58 targets) and Shawn Gore, who has 44 receptions on 60 targets.Those stats indicate that we should be looking for Gore and Burnham more often and Arseneaux a little less often. Gore only had one catch ( a huge shoe string reception) for 5 yds. against Toronto and needs to be used more in the passing game mix again.
A question mark hangs over Boldewijn, who didn't play in Toronto, fighting a stomach virus that he dealt with in training camp. Boldewijn said he was ready to go on Tuesday in Toronto but surprisingly was pulled for Courtney Taylor, who was flown in and had one catch. Iaonnuzzi had 3 catches for 30 yds. against Toronto, including a big catch on the final drive.
Chris Rainey has been used a little more often in our offence recently. He had one rush for 9 yds. against Toronto and one catch for 20 yds. Against Ottawa, he had 4 rushes for 21 yds. and one catch for 10 yds.
We'll need to have some shorter passes and anti-blitz strategies ready for the Al's aggressive defence and we'll also need to pass protect Jennings better than we recently have.
SPECIAL TEAMS
1. Field Goal Kicking and Punting
Richie Leone hit three field goals in Toronto and looked more confident than he has all season. His punting still leads the CFL, with a 50.6 yd. average. He has hit 20/29 field goals (69%) this season.
Former Leo Anthony Fera is Montreal's field goal kicker. He has made 4 of his 5 field goal attemtps for Montreal, including a 52 yarder. He has range. Even though Fera is not being used by Montreal as a punter, Fera is capable of punting well. He had a 47. 6 yd. punt average as a Leo.
2. Punt and Kick Returns
Stephan Logan leads the CFL in punt return yardage this season. He can still be dangerous, with a 71 yard return this season.
Chris Rainey leads all punt returner in touchdowns with 2 touchdowns. He also has the second best punt return average in the CFL. Rainey is due for another long punt return.
WRAP
Our Leos have a great opportunity to establish a winning record at home this season with a win and excite their home fans again. With a victory we will move our record to 8-3 for the season.
Our Leos will need a very good offensive game plan against Montreal's attacking, blitzing defence. On defense we will need to get inside pressure on Glenn and control his two main passing weapons of Duron Carter and Nik Lewis.
On special teams, its time to give Rainey some open field to allow him to show his magic.
Go Leos!
), I would be inclined to go with the heavier, more punishing back in Anthony Allen to wear down the Montreal D.