Leos/Bombers Semi-Final Post Game Thoughts

[CardiacKid]

Dirty hit. By Taylor Loffler. He leaves his feet, aims his shoulder and helmet to make contact with Manny's head. Target hit. Just plain dirty. Some say a player does not know where his helmet is. Baloney. Professionals know such things exactly. Does an MMA guy know where his fists are? Does a golfer know where his clubface is? The helmet is a weapon, if a player chooses to use it as such.

And that is a shame, because Loffler can play. He is a warrior. It is just a dayum shame that such a player would make such a dirty hit.

Just IMO, of course. Glen Suitor defended the dirty hit, as being old school. Well, those old school hits have left many retired players badly damaged, and with extraordinarily high suicide rates.

Disgusting.

And over time, the players who have a habit to lead with the head/helmet will also develop those same problems later in life. They may not get knocked out of games due to immediate concussions but it will come back to bite them as well. Loffler needs to respect not only his opponents but what will happen to him if he doesn't adjust his technique (and perhaps attitude?).

[Ballistic Bob]

Dirty hit. By Taylor Loffler. He leaves his feet, aims his shoulder and helmet to make contact with Manny's head. Target hit. Just plain dirty. Some say a player does not know where his helmet is. Baloney. Professionals know such things exactly. Does an MMA guy know where his fists are? Does a golfer know where his clubface is? The helmet is a weapon, if a player chooses to use it as such.

And that is a shame, because Loffler can play. He is a warrior. It is just a dayum shame that such a player would make such a dirty hit.

Just IMO, of course. Glen Suitor defended the dirty hit, as being old school. Well, those old school hits have left many retired players badly damaged, and with extraordinarily high suicide rates.

Disgusting.

And Manny was in a vulnerable position as they say now. Thnx BB

[Blitz]

"I sometimes think our Leos feel Buono's fear before a big game."

I agree, Blitz.

This CFL fan has coached over 20 years of various boys' and girls' sports. (There can be a price to pay. As noted a few times, for years I could not watch teams that I rooted for. Just too uncomfortable.) At times a coach can fear an opponent, feel too much respect. (It is not fear of competing, it is fear of losing. Losing is felt to be unacceptable for a number of reasons.) It can be felt by your team. When a coach, in preparation, starts to feel that way, best to ride the feelings of invincibility of those players that lead your team. Sometimes your team can win anyway, even if, on paper, you have no chance.

Wally is a warrior. One can see it in his career. And one can sense his total commitment to each game, his concern, and I think, even his fear of losing. He has his wins, and his championships. No one can take those away, as they say. And he has been doing some of his best work this year.

Just IMO ...

I didn't make that statement without consideration. In a much smaller way, I had to learn the hard way that a team can often be a reflection of their coach. Coaching both football and basketball in the 'good ol' days' my learning experience came during coaching a high school basketball season.

I was a very young coach and very exciteable and sometimes nervous, especially in tight games, which high school basketball games often come down to. I was coaching in a final tournament when a very successful opposing coach said to me, following watching one of my games, that he 'had never seen a team reflect its coach as much as mine did. He said "When you are up, they are up and when you are down, they are down. When you're relaxed, they are relaxed and when you are uptight, they are uptight".

I took his words to heart. I thought about the season. We lost 5 of 9 games that season by 2 points or less. I was uptight when the games were close at the end. The next season I vowed to be different. I focused on being poised and confident before big games and especially when games were close In those final few minutes. We won 11 of 12 games that next season by two points or less. I think it had a lot less to do with changing strategy for big games and at the end of games and more to do with my changed demeanor. My players were more poised because I was more poised.

There has to be a reason why Wally's teams have had so many successful regular seasons and have come out awful to start a playoff game. Some of that has had to do with predictability. Winnipeg threw a lot of stuff we hadn't seen before. Buono tends to go into a playoff game with what got him there.

But we've had too many Buono led playoff teams that have come out of the gate like they are on Planet Pluto, reflecting more than just a strategy/game planning issue. The players have seemed 'almost out of it". Wally's demeanor before these big games is always highly nervous. His face is twitching before the game starts. I think his players pick up on it. Wally's fear during the regular season with situations, like third and less than one and punting from the oppositions 35 yard line, fearing a return more than a field goal or going for field goals inside the oppenents 5 yard line reflect his fear. But he is more relaxed during the regular season.

Come playoff time, he is much worse. The 2004 Grey Cup game was a good example. His fear drove him to start an experienced quarterback who was very rusty and have O'Mahoney attempt to punt the football out of bounds on every punt, which really hurt field position. In the 2005 WDF, we came out nervous and we looked completely out of it to start the 2007 WDF. Wally spoke to the team before the 2012 WDF and we were out of that one early too.

Wally fears losing more than he craves winning. I think its a huge reason why we have a long history with him of getting off to bad starts in playoff games in most seasons. His players are way too uptight and that kind of pressure can make their heads go into a different space and not be sharp.

The missed assignments on defence yesterday were an example of that. Wally has been known to yell bizzare stuff during a playoff game so I really believe the nervousness and poor play and missed assignments early, are at least partially derived from him. Then we settle down and start playing like we can. The problem is that getting down early can make it a lot tougher and sometimes its not possible to come back, like we did yesterday.

I also agree that Wally is a fighter. Therefore, I also believe that the fight that we have, also partially comes from Buno. It allows us to fight back when things are down. Buono never gives up and neither do our players.

What our Leos need from Buono is to be more confident and poised and relaxed (while also focused) during the week before, as well as pre-game, before a playoff game.

Then we would have both elements - a better start to a playoff game because our players would be more confident and and less nervous and uptight, and at the same time, they would have Buono's fight, should they face adversity.

An aside, I hope with age, you can root for your Leos a little more comfortably now. Saying that, I stood for the entire fourth quarter!!

[Toppy Vann]

Dirty hit. By Taylor Loffler. He leaves his feet, aims his shoulder and helmet to make contact with Manny's head. Target hit. Just plain dirty. Some say a player does not know where his helmet is. Baloney. Professionals know such things exactly. Does an MMA guy know where his fists are? Does a golfer know where his clubface is? The helmet is a weapon, if a player chooses to use it as such.

And that is a shame, because Loffler can play. He is a warrior. It is just a dayum shame that such a player would make such a dirty hit.

Just IMO, of course. Glen Suitor defended the dirty hit, as being old school. Well, those old school hits have left many retired players badly damaged, and with extraordinarily high suicide rates.

Disgusting.

[WestCoastJoe]

Dirty hit. By Taylor Loffler. He leaves his feet, aims his shoulder and helmet to make contact with Manny's head. Target hit. Just plain dirty. Some say a player does not know where his helmet is. Baloney. Professionals know such things exactly. Does an MMA guy know where his fists are? Does a golfer know where his clubface is? The helmet is a weapon, if a player chooses to use it as such.

And that is a shame, because Loffler can play. He is a warrior. It is just a dayum shame that such a player would make such a dirty hit.

Just IMO, of course. Glen Suitor defended the dirty hit, as being old school. Well, those old school hits have left many retired players badly damaged, and with extraordinarily high suicide rates.

Disgusting.

Welcome back, Toppy.

[WestCoastJoe]

"I sometimes think our Leos feel Buono's fear before a big game."

I agree, Blitz.

This CFL fan has coached over 20 years of various boys' and girls' sports. (There can be a price to pay. As noted a few times, for years I could not watch teams that I rooted for. Just too uncomfortable.)

.

An aside, I hope with age, you can root for your Leos a little more comfortably now. Saying that, I stood for the entire fourth quarter!!

Thank you. Been retired for a while now. Much better. LOL Can actually watch now, with the occasional walk out.

Once Jennings started rolling, the ending seemed inevitable.

[SammyGreene]

Big TV ratings yesterday. I guess so with a lot of Lions fans deciding to watch from home.

– Yesterday’s CFL PLAYOFFS doubleheader scored season-high audiences on TSN, as overnight data from Numeris confirms that the CFL’s Eastern and Western Semi-Finals marked an increase of 14% compared to last year.

The Western Semi-Final featuring Winnipeg @ BC attracted an average audience of 1.1 million viewers on TSN, as BC quarterback Jonathon Jennings scored his second rushing touchdown of the game late in the fourth quarter as the Lions stormed back to defeat the Blue Bombers 32-31.

The Eastern Semi-Final featuring Edmonton @ Hamilton attracted an average audience of 903,000 viewers on TSN, as Edmonton secured a dramatic 24-21 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sean Whyte’s nine-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining.

[pennw]

Dirty hit. By Taylor Loffler. He leaves his feet, aims his shoulder and helmet to make contact with Manny's head. Target hit. Just plain dirty. Some say a player does not know where his helmet is. Baloney. Professionals know such things exactly. Does an MMA guy know where his fists are? Does a golfer know where his clubface is? The helmet is a weapon, if a player chooses to use it as such.

And that is a shame, because Loffler can play. He is a warrior. It is just a dayum shame that such a player would make such a dirty hit.

Just IMO, of course. Glen Suitor defended the dirty hit, as being old school. Well, those old school hits have left many retired players badly damaged, and with extraordinarily high suicide rates.

Disgusting.

And Manny was in a vulnerable position as they say now. Thnx BB

All of what is stated is true , but it also was way too late and Loffler had very opportunity to pull back seeing that the ball had sailed through the end zone . But he chose to go head hunting , nothing else . He knew what he was doing and had to have seen the ball having gone past and went all out to take Manny out. Glen Suitor can be a real tool at times and he certainly was one here trying to defend this play as being old school . In this day and age of concussion lawsuits and protocol , head hunting is not acceptable . Wally did make a statement that is on The Lions web site , that the league will be looking at it.

[TheLionKing]

Poetic justice that the guy Jennings beat on his winning touchdown was none other than Taylor Loffler.

[TheLionKing]

What's with all that advertising on the field for yesterday's game. Not there during the regular season.

[Blitz]

I struggle with the Loffler play, in terms of being dirty.

It always looks different, depending on what team you are playing for. Lots of emotion seeing Manny knocked unconscious before his helmet hit the ground. Made me sick in the stomach to watch. I had four diagnosed concussions in my playing days so lots of empathy from me - the lights too bright, sounds too loud, know the ill feeling in the stomach, everything looking surreal. Watching the video of Manny in the locker room, with tears in his eyes - his teammates hugging - all such powerful stuff.

But the Bombers and Loffler are not the only ones to make hits like that. Mike Edem made that kind of hit this season and fans applauded it. There have been many others and as long as the blow was delivered a split second later and the defensive player did not lead with his helmet, there was no call.

Most pass plays leave a receiver in a vulnerable position. They take helmets to the back and the ribs. They take helmets to the knees and they don't wear pads there anymore, in order to increase speed. Its easy to see it in slow motion. In normal speed its a bang bang play.

Do I think it should be penalized. Yes. Because we need to protect football players better than we did in the old days. Just look at how many players have killed themselves due to post-concussion syndrome after their playing days. Loffler has played that style all season. So had Mike Edem, although he is not the hitter that Loffler. Breaking up long passes the safety is looking to hit the receiver while he is in the air. Loffler was a split second late.

If every defender could time every play perfectly, we wouldn't have pass interference penalties or receptions where the defender is a split second late and the receiver makes the catch rather than being hit at the purrfect time to jar the football loose.

No question that Manny was in a very vulnerable position. Manny has put himself in vulnerable positions all season against double teams, most often leaping high into the air and coming down with the football.

The way the game is played today at incredible speed, its hard to judge whether it was a dirty hit. No question Loffler intended to hit him. The determination of beng a split second early and breaking up the play and a split second late is not one that I can make.

I just hope for Manny to make a full recovery. I doubt he will play Sunday. When a player has a concussion the most important thing is the time period from the first one to the next one. The longer the better, with the hope of a second one not occurring.

Shawn Gore came back too early from his concussion and then dealt with symptoms again. Its a very serious type of injury, as most have learned these past few years.

I've always had a high opinion of Manny. The Manny Show sometimes detracts from what a team player he is...much more than Geroy Simon. Manny never demands the football. He wants his teammates to be inclusionary and part of victories and he is happy if someone else is catching the football if he is double covered.

He is a leader on this offence and heart and soul guy. In the past, he just needed a quarterback to get him the football more often when he was open. This was Manny's first playoff game with our Leos since his return. I'm sure he will be very, very disappointed if he can't play on Sunday. If he can't you can bet he will be on the sidelines inspiring next Sunday.

[B.C.FAN]

What's with all that advertising on the field for yesterday's game. Not there during the regular season.

I saw a pic last week of workers painting the Lions logo at centre field, and thought it was a great idea, but I didn't notice anything in the stadium or on the PVR version of the game I watched last night. Perhaps I've been conditioned to tune out advertising at sporting venues.

[Blitz]

What's with all that advertising on the field for yesterday's game. Not there during the regular season.

I saw a pic last week of workers painting the Lions logo at centre field, and thought it was a great idea, but I didn't notice anything in the stadium or on the PVR version of the game I watched last night. Perhaps I've been conditioned to tune out advertising at sporting venues.

I've been waiting for your next post B.C. Fan. We won the game and lost the turnover battle. Not a wise thing to do and went against the odds, but we won. It only took a miraculous effort and some incredible plays to do so.

Going to write my preview Getting Ready for the Stamps tomorrow. Will look forward to your thoughts -and yes, we had better not lose the turnover battle to the Stamps. If we do, it will be even tougher to come back against them.

Like you, I liked our pass distribution against the Bombers and we both have been Adekolu supporters from way back. Good to see him come up with five receptions, including a clutch one on our final drive.

Great that you can zone out those ads.

[Blitz]

A little known stat.

When Jennings made his Immaculate Run to give us the lead and then the Bombers couldn't finish against our defence, our Leos had engineered the second greatest comeback in CFL playoff history.

A key to this victory, over our two previous contests with the Bombers - our offence was 4/5 inside the red zone.

Now if we can only start making some wiser convert calls. (more, more more)

[Robbie]

Come playoff time, he is much worse. The 2004 Grey Cup game was a good example. His fear drove him to start an experienced quarterback who was very rusty

Yes it's been debated to death over the fact that Buono chose to start Dickenson instead of the season MOP. But to say that Dickenson was rusty would be an overstatement. After all in the Lions first drive from kickoff Dickenson completed several short passes ending with a touchdown pass to game MVC Jason Clermont for a quick 7-0 lead and the Lions had most of the possession for the 1st and part of the 2nd quarter.

When and where to put Printers is debatable. Given how injury prone Dickenson always was as a Lion I guess unfortunately he happened to play in a game in which he was not injured and help Buono make a QB change.

In the 2005 WDF, we came out nervous

But at least the Lions kept their composer and worked valiantly to tie the game at 21-21 and this time, Buono DID make the change and put Printers into the game. But did that help? No as Printers soon threw a costly interception.

-----
In light of the fact that the Lions will be heading to McMahon Stadium, let's review the Lions previous playoff record there. While the Lions have more than a handful of losses at McMahon Stadium at 0-6 while they were playing in the West Division Semi-Final, the Lions actually has a winning record of 3-1 as far as the West Division Final is concerned:

1964 - game 1 of the 3 game series with the Lions winning 24-10 and eventually won the series in 3 games on their way to the Grey Cup.
1994 - everyone remembers the final drive so I won't go into much detail at this time.
2000 - I've stated several times that I consider this one of the finest Lions playoff road wins in which the Lions dominated in all of offence, defence, and special teams with a deserving 37-23 win on the way to the Grey Cup win. Unfortunately this win is way too underappreciated and often overshadowed by 1994. One week later at McMahon the Lions won their 4th Grey Cup with a decent performance despite the close score.

And the single loss was in the 2008 WDF in a game that the Lions could have easily won but slipped through their fingers in what I consider to be one of the most frustrating and disappointing games . The Lions started very confidently and dominated most of the first half and at least six times the Lions got within 10 yards of the Stampeders end zone. But all six times the Lions couldn't get a single touchdown and had to settle for six field goals. Eventually the Stampeders managed to counter with a couple of touchdowns in their 22-18 win. Had the Lions changed the six field goals into touchdowns or even half of them with three touchdowns, the Lions would have easily won.
[video][/video]
The Lions better not repeat that again and better capitalize their opportunities into majors.