Leos/Bombers Post-Game Thoughts

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Blitz
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Bombers hold on to defeat our Leos 37-35 in a wild one. The game also ends in controversy with what certainly appeared to be a missed fumble call on Andrew Harris.

A tough one to lose. Leone missed an easy field goal in the first half. Wally chose to take a field goal, rather than gamble on third and one at the end of the first half. An early interception by Adam Bighill was negated by an illegal contact call on a challenge. Lots of points lost.

But we had the chance to win the game but Rainey was stopped on a third and one, after Allen was stopped short on second and short.

We managed to take the snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

So many exciting and impressive plays in this game. Jennings is incredible. Burnham and Arseneaux are warriors.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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Big Time
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Absolute garbage officiating from the opening drive to the end of the game. That last call literally gave the win to Winnipeg. There is no point in having a "Command Centre" if they can't make this call. My ten year old could see the ball was out. I wasn't even nervous when they were reviewing it because it was so obviously a fumble.

I've been watching this league for over 25 years. If there has been one constant, its that this league has had horrible officiating for the entirety of that time. Every commissioner comes in and says this is going to be an area of priority to fix. Every year it gets worse. More than anything, it's the officiating that has turned me off of this league. Some people find it exciting that anything can happen on any given play. However when officials just seem to make random calls throughout every single game, I have trouble giving this league any credibility.

This took what was one of the most exciting games of the year and utterly tarnished it. This crappy call may end up costing the Lions a home playoff game. No apologies or empty excuses from the league is going to change that.

What the league just doesn't seem to understand is that if the league has no credibility, it won't be taken seriously. I have not been so outraged by a call in many years. I don't even care how the league justifies or explains this call. Whoever is in working in the ironically named "Command Centre" needs to be fired. This league is an absolute joke.
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Belize City Lion
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This could turn out to be a good loss. We were not going to catch Calgary for first, so the goal is second place. We still have a game in hand plus the Lions have been a great bounce back team. We win by 3 next week and it's almost a certainty we host the WDSF against Winnipeg. I would rather face the Bombers in the playoffs knowing they were able beat us once. This loss may be the purrfect thing to keep the Lions focused down the stretch and into the playoffs.
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Disappointing ending, both on the short yardage and what appeared to be a botched call by the officials, but the main cause of the loss was not coming out to play and falling behind 24-3. Very exciting game with some heroic efforts, but the horrible start killed us.
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Don't we have a play where we fake the hand off to Rainey then pass it to someone on the opposite flats?
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DanoT
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We can't blame the refs for the missed call on Harris' fumble but we sure can blame the Command Centre for deciding to award the game to the Bombers by refusing to overrule the call. :bang:
Rodu
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Don't ev er leave the game in the hands of the officials
Blue In BC
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Yep it looked like a fumble to me as well. OTOH there were a bunch or penalties not called or plays needing reviews to overturn. Those are things they should have gotten correct the 1st time.
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How can illegal contact not be am automatic first down. Wally was fuming but we scored anyways. Thnx BB
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David
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Orridge's Command Centre must mean "I command you to get the call wrong." :bang:

Honestly, I've seen more botched calls on review this year than you can shake a stick at. Jake Ireland was useless when he a ref. He's even worse now.


DH :cool:
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sj-roc
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My immediate impression on live viewing of the late Harris "fumble" was that the fumble itself was irrelevant because there was a quick whistle on the play. In whistling the play dead where there is a live ball carrier, the officials need not wait until he is tackled to the ground — if they feel in their judgement that the defence has already stopped his forward progress, then they can blow the play dead without waiting for such tackle. So this was my first impression on the call — and in such situation any question of whether the ball came loose before the carrier landed on the turf would be irrelevant because the play had already ended. In fact, I was mildly surprised that they even bothered reviewing this aspect of the play.

The call should have been either a quick whistle that made the fumble irrelevant, which I might have lived with, and no CC review would have been necessary in the first place or, if play had still been deemed live without stoppage of forward progress, then upon review the fumble should have counted and possession awarded to BC for the recovery.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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sj-roc wrote:My immediate impression on live viewing of the late Harris "fumble" was that the fumble itself was irrelevant because there was a quick whistle on the play. In whistling the play dead where there is a live ball carrier, the officials need not wait until he is tackled to the ground — if they feel in their judgement that the defence has already stopped his forward progress, then they can blow the play dead without waiting for such tackle. So this was my first impression on the call — and in such situation any question of whether the ball came loose before the carrier landed on the turf would be irrelevant because the play had already ended. In fact, I was mildly surprised that they even bothered reviewing this aspect of the play.

The call should have been either a quick whistle that made the fumble irrelevant, which I might have lived with, and no CC review would have been necessary in the first place or, if play had still been deemed live without stoppage of forward progress, then upon review the fumble should have counted and possession awarded to BC for the recovery.
My first impression was also that the official had blown the play dead. But when I looked at the replay after the game (the TSN panel discussion), I heard the whistle when the ball was on the ground. The official was still running into the play and from the way he suddenly stopped, it seems to me that he did not see the ball on the turf as he was blowing the whistle...

It's hard to win games when you only compete for 3/4 of the game...
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It is a tough loss to swallow for our Leos and and anespecially tough loss to swallow, considering that our Leos had the football inside the Winnipeg 10 yard line and couldn't convert a third and one and then had a Harris fumble be ruled that he was down...when he was not.

Jonathan Jennings threw for 422 yards in this game and still we lost. A terrible first half from our defense put us in a hole but we dug ourselves out of it and the game was ours to win.

We left points off the board in this game. Leone missed an early and very makeable field goal, Wally decided not to gamble on third and one, near the end of the first half, deep inside Winnipeg territory and we couldn't gain two rushing yards in two attempts at the end of the game.

Still, we should have had another opportunity. Harris fumbled at the end of the game. The CFL wanted the Bombers to win this game.

Here are some post game thoughts

OFFENCE

Jonathan Jennings, with our team down 24-3 cued our comeback. He completed 28 passes out of 38 attempts for a 73.7% average and 422 passing yards. Bryan Burnham had an impressive 208 receiving yards and made many impressive catches. Manny Arseneaux had 150 reception yards. Marco Iannuzzi had 36 receiving yards.

Terrel Sinkfield only had 2 catches for 14 yards. After a first half pass bounced off Sinkfield's hands, Jennings did not throw to him again until the last play of the game. Adekolu had one catch for 10 yards but he also drew a 32 yard pass interference call.

With 91 rushing yards our offence generated 511 yards of offence but still it was not enough to win the game. Our red zone offence also hurt us In this game.

In the first quarter, following a Chris Rainey kickoff return of 70 yards, our Leos offence took over the football on our first drive of the game and moved it to the Winnipeg 5 yard line. But on first down, Jennings was sacked first down as our Leos tried the same misdirection motion and swing to the flat to Arseneu but the play was well scouted by Winnipeg. It was a bad call by Khari Jones, who should have known better. Jennings missed a deep throw to Rainey in the end zone and we only got a field goal.

On our second drive of the game, in the second quarter, we took the football to our 46 yard line and then Jennings was intercepted by Leggett. On our third offensive drive, a pass interference call on a long throw to Adekolu led to a 35 yard field goal attempt by Leone, who missed it.

The Bombers offence was shredding our defense and we were down by 21 points when our offence came alive. Jennings drove us from our 28 yard line to the Bombers 54 yard line and Rainey took a third down handoff and took it 54 yards to the end zone. The next offensive drive saw Jennings make an impressive throw to Bryan Burnham for 55 yards and Allen scored our second touchdown of the game with a 3 yard plunge.

Then, with less than a minute and a half remaining in the first half, once again Jennings engineered a drive from our own 36 yard line. Jennings hit Burnham, Arseneauz, Adekolu, and Iannuzzi, setting us up for second and 3, on the Bombers 8 yard line. Allen only got 2 yards on second down, setting up 3rd and one from the Bombers 6 yard line. But Buono elected to go for the field goal, rather than gamble on third and one. It was one of the key plays of the game.

Our offence went into the second half, down 24-20 but they had brought us back from the brink of disaster, as our defense had a terrible first half of play.

In the second half, Jennings completed two long passes in a row - one to Burnham for 33 yds. and a second to Arseneaux for 28 yards but on a second and 2, Allen was stopped for a one yard loss and Leone kicked a field goal. On our next offensive drive, set up by a 44 yard punt return by Rainey, Jennings engineered a drive to the Winnipeg drive that was almost negated by a wrong penalty for offensive pass interference on Iannuzzi (and lost the challenge) but we still managed to score a touchdown on the drive, as Lulay punched it in from one yard out.

The fourth quarter was frustrating. On our first drive of the fourth quarter, aided by an incredible 30 yd. pass interference call by Winnipeg on Arseneax, and after a 7 yd. first down run by Allen, we passed on second and three and the pass was incomplete. Leone kicked a field goal. On our next drive, after a Jennings/Arseneaux pass and catch play, Jennings was sacked for a 9 yard loss and then for some unknown reason, we ran a draw play to Allen on second down and 19, for 5 yd. loss. At that time of the game, with Jennings strong arm, the play call made no sense. An our 3rd drive of the quarer, we were forced to punt again on a second down incompletion to Iannuzzi.

But our offence would get one last chance. It was "Jennings Time", with the game on the line. Our offence got the football on our 28 yard line, with 2:02 remaining on the clock. Jennings hit Burnham (41 yds.) and then the refs called a chintzy hands to the face call on Steward. Jennings, looking at 1st and 20, stepped back and hit Iannuzzi for 22 yds. Two passes to Arseneaux later and we were looking at 2nd and 2 on the Bombers 5 yard line. Allen got one yard on second down, setting up the 3rd and 3.

Why we handed off to Rainey is beyond me. The play call was the quarterback sneak with Lulay in the game. There was 58 seconds left on the clock. Complete the quarterback sneak to the 4 yd. line and then run one or two plays, score the touchdown and win the game, with no time for a Winnipeg comeback.

Instead Jones called the quick sweep to Rainey, a play in which Rainey will either likely be tackled for a loss or score a touchdown. It was the wrong call at that time of the game. Leggett reversed off Allen's block. Rainey did not anticipate it. Two attempts to make two yards and we only got one yard, as Rainey was tackled for a one yard loss.

We didn't run block well in this game at all. Allen had 11 carries for a 2.5 yd. average. We only ran the inside read play and one draw play at the wrong time. Lulay was stopped short on second and one, earlier in the game.

We needed to throw more to Sinkfield and Adekolu. But with over 422 yds. passing and 500 yards of offence, this was a game that we should have won.

DEFENCE

Our defense was not prepared properly by Mark Washington to play Winnipeg. The Bombers use a lot of short passes to their receivers, they like to spint out at times, they throw a lot to their tailback, they use a lot of play action, misdirection, and screen passes.

Our pass rush was awful for most of the game and our run defence was not up to the standard we needed to play. The Bombers rushed for 105 yds. with Harris rushing for 66 yds. and a 5.5 yd. average. Harris had a run for 23 yards and Flanders peeled off a run for 20 yards. Harris also had 5 receptions for 50 yards.

The Bombers only had 339 yards of total offence against our defence and only 233 passing yards. But our defense allowed the Bombers 24 first half points and at crunch time in the 4th quarter, our defence gave up 10 points.

Alex Bazzie is playing with tired legs. If he can't get pressure, there is usually no sacks, as there is no one to force the quarterback up into Westerman's arms or chase him towards Roh. We didn't sack Nichols once and the blitz couldn't get pressure on him. Brooks played a little beter this game, with two tackles and a pass knockdown but his pass knock down occurred when he was in the middle of a 3 man pass rush and he was blocked so badly, he looked like a middle linebacker on the play.

No one in our secondary played well, except for Phillips. Edem was beaten for a touchdown and neither Gaitor, Stewart, Fenner or even Purifoy played well.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Chris Rainey not only electrified on offence, with his huge touchdown runs but also had big gains on kick and punt returns. He also had a long return called back on a borderline Lumbala penalty. Rainey was cramped up mid-way through the 4th quarter but returned to the game on offence.

Leone hit 4/5 field goal attempts but missed a 35 yarder. Leone punted for a 45.3 average but only had a net punt average of 22. 3 average, as our punt coverage was deficient. Our kick off cover team was its usual awful self at times.

WRAP

Our next home game, against Winnipeg is very huge now. If the Bombers win, they will be tied with us for 2nd place and they will have won the two game series.

Darius Allen did nothing on defense again and its time to give Menard more reps.

We have a week to get our defense playing much better and our running game improved again. Our offensive line blocking has been very inconsistent this season. Sometimes I wonder about Dorazio's pass blocking scheme. Easy assignments were missed in this game again, with someone coming free that should have been blocked.

Jennings was only sacked twice but could have been sacked many more times.

It was an exciting game. Jennings, Burnham, and Arseneaux were phemonenal. I wonder if we shouldn't put Boldewijn back in the lineup for next game. He has better hands than Sinkfield.

I wonder if we will make any lineup changes to our pass defense. Its going to be an interesting week.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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swervynmerv
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Rodu wrote:Don't ev er leave the game in the hands of the officials
Most accurate post of the night. If the Lions make the 3rd and 1 it's a moot point.

The Lions did themselves no favors with a terrible start and had a chance to win in the end. We have 3 of our last 4 at home and control our own destiny somewhat for 2nd place as we also have a game in hand on the Bombers.

Definitely have the offence to do damage but we need to improve our D, in particular the pressure we get from our front 4 has to be better.
Blitz
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DanoT wrote:We can't blame the refs for the missed call on Harris' fumble but we sure can blame the Command Centre for deciding to award the game to the Bombers by refusing to overrule the call. :bang:
We should not have been in that position. Leone's missed 35 yard field goal (3 points), losing 3 yards on offence and having to settle for a field goal inside the Winnipeg 5 yard line in the first half (potential 4 points) Wally not going for 3rd and one at the end of the first half (potential 4 points) and not being able to convert on 2nd and 2 and third and one at the end of the game (lost potential 7 points).

The game was there for us to win, even with the atrocious first half performance by our defense, who also didn't come through in the 4th quarter.

Still, it was a fumble, that everyone can see on television, so how the Command Center could get it wrong, is shocking (or they chose to get it wrong and set up next week's game).

CFL officiating was notoriously bad for decades. I really think its improved, in terms of the quality of the calls. However, there are just far too many borderline calls. That increases the error rate.

Holding, hands to the face, etc. can't be borderline and then called. The NFL officials doesn't make those kind of calls. Iannuzzi's offensive pass interference, Steward's hands to the face (his arm was knocked up by the Bomber pass rusher) and the Lubala hold on the punt return, were very borderline at best.

If the penalty is not clear cut, it shouldn't be called.

The CFL also needs to change its challenge rules. A coach should be able to challenge pass interference or defensive holding on a receiver who has been targeted. But too often a defense makes an interception and the opposition coach challenges that a receiver far removed from the play has touched. Its bogus and spoils the game.

Another situation is when a team needs a first down and has gone two and out, they will challenge that a receiver, who is far removed from the play, has been touched by a defender. Take those type of calls out of the coaches ability to challenge.

We need to get back to some common sense.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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