Matt Dunigan: “Mind-boggling.” Milt Stegall: “They (Lions) got burned.” Chris Schultz: “Totally burned. It was crystal clear it was a fumble.”
would say of the Harris fumble review.
Last week, against the Bombers our defense came out and looked like it was Little Flower Academy playing the New England Patriots or a Pee Wee football team playing against a college football team. Our Leos were down 24-3 before a Leo fan could put a serious dent in the seat of their couch.
Jonathan Jennings, Bryan Burnham, Manny Arseneaux, and Chris Rainey then decided to put the game in their hands. Cue the comeback! But, with two cracks to gain 2 yards, on the Winnipeg five yard line, our Leos didn't get it done and the Command Center's call on the Harris fumble only added more disappointment to a game in which our our Leos key offensive players had made highlight reel and after highlight reel big plays.
One has to wonder how long can our Leos offence rely on huge, explosive, very difficult plays? How many times can the incredible Jonathan Jennings, with defenders in his face, make highly difficult, purrfect long throws. How many times can Bryan Burnham and Manny Arseneaux leap over double coverage to catch the football with spectacular skill and determination? How many times can Chris Rainey, with his great speed and incredible talent, also put this team on his back.
The Bombers focused on shutting down our big plays last Saturday and could not. Everyone knew they were coming and what they would look like. We defied the odds due to spectacular throws by Jennnigns, spectacular catches by Arseneaux and Burnham, beating double coverage, and spectacular runs by Chris Rainey.
Lets have a closer look at some of them as the game progressed: Rainey (70 yds.), Adekolu ( 36 yd. interference call), Rainey (56 yds.) Burnham (55 yds), Arseneaux (17 yds.), Arseneaux (16 yds.), Burnham 23 yds.), Rainey (46 yds) Burnham (33 yds.) Arseneaux (28 yds.), Rainey (44 yds.) Arseneaux (30 yds. -pass interference) Arseneaux (35 yds.) Burnham (18 yds.), and on our final offensive drive of the game: Burnham (41 yds.) Iannuzzi (22 yds) Arseneaux (16 yds).
The number of explosive plays in the game were mind boggling against a Bombers defense playing Cover 2 and Cover 3 to shut them down. But when it came down to our Leos needing a good play call in the red zone or a good block or two, to pick up second down and 2 yds. to go, or third and one, we couldn't get it done.
Three times we were inside the Bombers 5 yard line and couldn't score a touchdown. Three times we had negative yardage on plays - one pass to Rainey and two runs by Allen that lost yards, including a questionable draw play in the fourth quarter that lost us 5 yards, Sinkfield had a football bounce off his hands for an interception and big return. Three times, against Winnipeg, we couldn't convert second and two. We were stopped on a quarterback sneak on second and one. We couldn't make a block on the second and two call, gaining only one yard before Rainey was stopped on the important third and one, at the end of the game.
While Khari Jones play calling, when we needed a good play call was absent or terrible, it was not Jones who called the Rainey run of 56 yards for a touchdown or the play call to Rainey on third and one, that was stopped by Leggett. The decision to sneak the football or hand off to Rainey is determined by Travis Lulay, while on the field.
We made spectacular play after spectacular play but play calling and blocking for the run were our nemesis."Both of those plays were huddle (quarterback) calls,” said Travis Lulay. “If you look at Rainey’s touchdown, Leggett is engaged and blocked. On the second one (the botched sweep), Leggett flails and spins and happens to make a purrfect play right into Rainey’s legs. In hindsight (Lulay says with a chuckle), we should have run the sweep to the other side. That’s how it goes" Vancouver Sun
We need to win this game on Friday night, if we want to finish in second place. If we lose, we will be placing a second place finish in the hands of other teams, even if we win our remaining games.
Lets have a closer look:
DEFENCE
I started with defense this week because that is where our improvement is most needed. Our defense has been awful at times over the last three games. We can't get pressure on the opposing quarterback and our secondary has looked like Swiss cheese. Our pass defence has been exploited on the wide side, the boundary side, deep down the middle, and in the flats.
Our defense has given up too many long drives as well as big plays. We now rank 4th in terms of time of possession, due in part, to giving up too many first downs over the last three games. With Alex Bazzie getting double teamed or chipped, or having play action run to his side of the field, no one else is stepping up. John Chick and Sean Lemon have now gone ahead of Bazzie in the CFL sack leader contest.
Darius Allen, our rotational International defensive end has one sack. Menard, with only a litle spot duty has 2 sacks. Braynt Turner Jr. , who has not been on the field for weeks has 2 sacks. We are not getting penetration inside, where we most need it, against pocket quarterbacks. Brooks has no sacks on the season.
Our defense gave up 21 second half points to Montreal. We gave up 485 passing yards to Ottawa and 33 points. Our defense gave up 137 yds. of rushing to Edmonton, while enabling Mike Reilly to complete 78% of his pass attempts. Our defense gave up 24 points against Winnipeg before the first commercial time out. We gave up 37 points to the Bombers offence and more importantly, we gave up 10 fourth quarter points, when we needed our defense to take some pressure off our offence.
This is not championship caliber defense. We need much better coordination from Mark Washington and much better play from players as Brooks, Roh, Alllen, Stewart, Fenner, and Edem. Mark Washington needs to stop using Bighilll as a Cover 2 or Cover 3 safety, racing back from his outside linebacker spot to attempt to cover deep. Purifoy needs to be let loose again to utilize more of his talents.
OFFENCE
Jeremiah Johnson will likely get the start at tailback this game. But alternating tailbacks is not answer to a running attack that needs some diversity from Jones and Dorazio. You just can't use one inside zone read running play, with the same zone blocking, game after game, and not have defenses prepare for it. It puts too much pressure on the offensive line to make blocks against defenders who know what is coming.
We also need to adapt our passing attack to utilize Sinkfield's speed, rather than 'plug and playing' him as a possession receiver. We need smarter plays in the red zone from Khari Jones. We need to be prepared for the fact that, sooner or later, a defence will take away our explosive plays from Jennings to Burnham and Arseneaux. We can't expect that from them game after game. Calgary shut down our explosive plays and while we need to keep looking for them, we also need to compliment them with a better mix of underneath stuff. Our underneath plays are poorly designed.
The Bombers defense will be preparing, even more so than last week, to take away our explosive plays. They will be even more focused on Arseneaux and Burnham, who accounted for 358 yds. of our 422 yards. in passing last game. With an improved running game and a diversified passing attack, we have the talent on offence to continue an offence that can put a lot of points on the board.
SPECIAL TEAMS
This could be another close game. We can't afford to have Leone miss 35 yard field goals. Our downfield tackling on kick offs has been terrible all season and needs to get fixed.
Chris Rainey had an outstanding game against the Bombers, with big returns on kickoffs and punt returns. We'll need to block even better on Friday night, if we want the same kind of results as last game.
WRAP
This game is huge for both teams. Hopefully our Leos will emerge as the winners of the biggest game of our season, by far.
Go Leos!!
