Lions 41 - Ti-Cats 26, Post-Game Stats and Comments

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SammyGreene
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BC 1988 wrote:
Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:41 pm
^^^Well said, G.E.
I read that article last year, and the focus on that rainy night in crumbling Ivor Wynne was the best way to sum up where everything turned for the worse.

After the game ended 2 nights ago, it dawned on me that we could easily have lost another star QB career (before it even really got going) in JJ10. Instead, we got TL14 returning (albeit to shiny new Tim Hortons Field) and exorcising those demons.

Instead of a disaster, we get a degree of redemption. Bottom line--Dan Dorazio sure as hell better be working overtime on fixing his o-line. We have some real hungry defenses facing us over the next few weeks.
Foucault has been impressive but that was one game he is going to be uncomfortable in the film room. Having watched the game again last night he was also beaten on the other Ti-Cats sack, this time by Ted Lorenz.
On a brighter note, Hunter Steward's transition to tackle has been most impressive. Smart move by him signing just a one year deal with the Lions, although I heard it was more for an opportunity to try the NFL again in 2018. He is turning into a ratio buster and the Lions are going to have to open vault to lock him up long term.
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SammyGreene wrote:
Mon Jul 17, 2017 9:34 am
Was that Foucault's block who put the hellacious hit on Jennings? Somewhat overshadowed with the big win and Lulay's performance but now we hold our breath and hope it's nothing more than a bruise.
Would hardly be surprised if it's sprained or even partially separated. That was a big hit with all the weight on his throwing shoulder.
I'm with you Biltz, Green Road Kill and others who thought Travis' best days were behind him. Even on that opening series it looked too fast for him but sure enough it was almost magical to see him back in 2011/12 form and making every possible throw with quick decisions.

I'm a huge Jennings fan and hope he is back quickly but if Lulay maintains this level of play for at least another week it must change Wally's thinking somewhat moving forward. Don't think we will see the offence stall for long stretches without seeing Lulay for a series or two to perhaps change the momentum. Jennings certainly noticed to.
“I expected nothing less, but for him to come in and throw for over 400 yards is phenomenal. We haven’t had that all season,” he said. “He stepped in. That’s the role of a backup but you don’t always expect him to come in and do that. He came in and played a crazy good game.”
If Jeff Reinebold's game plan was to take away Manny and Burnham and ignore Nick Moore it didn't work. My goodness was he wide open for much of the night.

Agree with BC FAN, Blitz and others too. Go with 4 international receivers when Williams returns and adjust the ratio on the defensive line. Not getting enough from Brooks and Turner right now to justify the all-international tackles. Still say Brooks hasn't been the same player since he was hurt in the week #4 Calgary game of last year after being so dominant.

Not sold on Purifoy at safety. Seems like a far more of impact player closer to the line of scrimmage.

Very much looking forward to a steady diet of Western teams over the next 5 weeks.
We both agree that Purifoy, at this point in time, has not been the impact player at safety than he was at nickel back. Right now I believe Clarke would be the better safety. All one can hope for is that Purifoy becomes more comfortable with the position and begin playing the spot with the same aggressiveness that he played the nickel position.

Yes it was Facault's missed pass block that led to Jennings injury. But any lineman can miss a pass block in a game. Most don't lead to injury. However, Buono benched Steward for a number of games last year for missing a run block. Faucault won't get the same treatement because it would refocus on the trade in a negative light.

It looks as if Travis Lulay will get one or two starts or maybe even more, depending on how long it takes Jennings to heal up his bruised shoulder.

In an earlier post, I wrote that Lulay's arm last Saturday night looked stronger than his 2011/2012 seasons. But I was more impressed with his poise, when staying in the pocket, not bailing too quickly, going to his second and third reads, going to hot reads and check downs when Hamiltion blitzed etc. Lulay looked like a different quarterback in many ways than his earlier versions.

Yes, Hamilton's defence is abysmal so far this season but that doesn't take away what Lulay did. He was playing against pros and its not easy to say the least, to throw for over 400 yards with an 80%+ accuracy rate against any defence.

Lulay, in the past, was a quarterback who was usually at his best in the fourth quarter. It often took a lot of time for him to settle down. He was often too uptight early in games. Its a lot easier for any quarterback to come off the bench. Its a different orientation and a lot less pressure.

How Lulay will handle a starter's role or play in his next game is still up in the air. We anticipate that he should do fine. His confidence has to be sky high and he will take his momentum into his next game on Friday night. He will understand that he has been given a second life as a quarterback, in terms of starting some games and this is a tremendous opportunity.

But while the focus is on Lulay's comeback performance last game, there has been scant mention of our Leos sticking with him through thick and thin. Lulay missed a ton of games due to injury from the second half of 2012. Lulay signed a two year contract extension worth $450,000 going into the 2013 season. He got hurt part way through the 2013 season and only returned to start he playoff game against Regina, a game in which he only threw for 211 yds.

Lulay was hurt for most of 2014 and we traded our first round draft choice for Kevin Glenn, as Lulay was not ready. Lulay got his first start in Week 11 that season but only threw for 167 yds and left the game with a minute to go, with his shoulder causing extreme discomfort.

Lulay started the 2015 season for us, struggled as our starting quarterback and then suffered an MCL injury that would eventually paved the way for Jonathan Jennings.

When one looks at Lulay's injury history (especially his long term shoulder injury and throwing problems due to it), as well as his play in the 2013 and 2015 seasons, most teams would have thrown in the towel on Lulay.

Going into the 2016 season, no other CFL team was interested in Lulay as a starter nor would any team other than our Leos have been willing to pay Lulay the amount of money our Leos were willing to pay him to be a backup quarterback.

As Ed Willes said , in his article this week:
The Lions have always known they’ll get that preparation from Lulay because, at 33, he remains the consummate pro. But they didn’t know if he was still an elite quarterback, someone who could deliver the goods on the field in addition to mentoring Jennings.
The game against Hamilton turned out to be a great feel good story for both parties - it was a great story for Lulay, who had battled injuries and less than stellar play when he did play and had stayed strong mentally while in the backup role. Lulay had an incredible game, when one figures the rust that he was also playing with. But it was also a game in which our Leos organization was rewarded for sticking with Lulay, when there was no indication that his shoulder would ever fully heal.

When Jennings returns he will be our starting quarterback again. Buono learned, even though it almost took him forever to do it) that quarterback controversies don't help a team as we learned through the Dickenson/Printers saga, the Pierce-Jackson years, as well as the Printers/Lulay time period as well.

But no question Sammy, Buono will likely be quicker to make a change in the future, should Lulay continue his fine play and Jennings ever struggles. Two very good things that Lulay did against Hamilton was go to Nick Moore, when the Tiger Cats focused on Burnham and Manny and secondly he dumped off more underneath. At the same time, its easy to forget, after only one game, that Jennings has had some incredible games and his ability to threaten defenses with deadly accurate and often difficult throws is not an easy thing to find.

Lulay is the ex-girlfriend who has showed up looking hot at the party of while Jennings has become the regular girlfriend who has been a little boring of late. The roles were reversed in 2015. Perspective is always important.

I also agree with you about Brooks. He is not the player that looked so promising early in a Leos uniform. We seem to be waiting for him to show us that promise again. He might never do that. Brooks had one sack last season, rarely gets good penetration on the pass rush, and he is anything but a dominant interior tackle so far this season nor was he for most of last year either.
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Gridiron Ernie
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The Lions have touched base with QB Jake Heaps, according to Farhan Lalji today.

(from 3DownNation) "For CFL purposes, Heaps was originally on the Eskimos negotiation list, but the Riders added him in the CFL’s double secret neg draft last December. The 26-year-old signed with Saskatchewan in advance of attending mini-camp with the Roughriders in Florida in late April. Then Seattle inked Heaps to a deal only to release him just over a month later. He's been a free agent ever since."
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Sun Jul 16, 2017 10:01 pm
Figaro wrote:
Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:32 pm
Was there a mistake in placing the ball after a Ticat put? We advanced the ball to our 14 yard line and Hamilton was called for having an interior lineman leaving the line of scrimmage before the ball was kicked. The referee announced that it was a ten yard penalty against Hamilton and that it would be added to the return. We should have started on the 24 and yet we started on the 14? There was only the one penalty and it was not declined.
Good post, Figaro.

I wondered about the penalty on Hamilton for being illegally downfield on a punt. I thought the penalty would advance the ball 10 yards from the end of the play, but I looked it up. It seems the Lions had the option of enforcing the penalty from the previous line of scrimmage (the B.C. 52) and forcing the Ticats to punt again, or from the point where Iannuzzi gained possession, which was determined to be the 5-yard line. The penalty placed the ball at the 15, which is only 2 yards upfield from where Iannuzzi was tackled at the 13. Here's the wording in the rule book:
Article 8 – Illegally Downfield On Kick
On a play from scrimmage in which Team A punts the ball a player of the kicking
team who is one of the interior block of five ineligible Line Players may not
advance beyond the Scrimmage Zone (one yard in advance of the Line of
Scrimmage) until the ball is kicked.
PENALTY: L10 PLS or PPG
Thanks for clearing this up BC Fan - makes sense now.
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pennw
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SammyGreene wrote:
Tue Jul 18, 2017 6:52 am
BC 1988 wrote:
Mon Jul 17, 2017 8:41 pm
^^^Well said, G.E.
I read that article last year, and the focus on that rainy night in crumbling Ivor Wynne was the best way to sum up where everything turned for the worse.

After the game ended 2 nights ago, it dawned on me that we could easily have lost another star QB career (before it even really got going) in JJ10. Instead, we got TL14 returning (albeit to shiny new Tim Hortons Field) and exorcising those demons.

Instead of a disaster, we get a degree of redemption. Bottom line--Dan Dorazio sure as hell better be working overtime on fixing his o-line. We have some real hungry defenses facing us over the next few weeks.
Foucault has been impressive but that was one game he is going to be uncomfortable in the film room. Having watched the game again last night he was also beaten on the other Ti-Cats sack, this time by Ted Lorenz.
On a brighter note, Hunter Steward's transition to tackle has been most impressive. Smart move by him signing just a one year deal with the Lions, although I heard it was more for an opportunity to try the NFL again in 2018. He is turning into a ratio buster and the Lions are going to have to open vault to lock him up long term.
While Foucault did get beat a few times for sacks , he also single handily blew Ted Laurent out of the way ,the key block ,for a very big run by JJ24 on the play prior to the last TD BC scored . The play is on the highlight video at BCLions.com at approximately 5:08 . The video is here: https://www.bclions.com/2017/07/15/reca ... milton-26/
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WestCoastJoe
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Re the O Line once again ...

Hunter Steward on the left tackle island, and controlling his man. Awesome technique.

The TiCats created space for their tackle, Davon Coleman, to go one on one with our left guard, David Foucault. He ends up on an island also, and has somewhat more trouble than Steward controlling his man. No one says these guys have easy jobs. That is a lot of space the TiCat defender has to attack Foucault. (Our game plan should have given Foucault help, from time to time, as I expect it did. I have not reviewed any film aside from this.) The D Line are usually somewhat smaller, very strong, and more mobile than the OL guys. The D Linemen have many individual moves and group stunts. We don't usually get to watch them in detail, as our eyes are drawn to the QB, to the receivers, to the running back, and, to some extent, to the defence. O Line play can be very interesting to watch as a focus.

Cody Husband has been a revelation at centre. :thup:

IMO, our O Line is off to a pretty good start this year. Way to go, Dan D. It certainly helps that we have focused on drafting top level OL talent in recent years, with success.

Of course one of the routes a team can take to build the OL, is to focus on INT players with NFL experience. They are ahead of the game of NAT players coming out of college. That is short term thinking. And of course most coaches aim to win right away. Most of them do not have security. Wally has had security, so one expects his roster to reflect that, as it does at this time.

IMO we do not need to plan or hope to start 5 NATs in the OL, in the future. 4 is good. The ratio is not that difficult to accommodate these days. IMO the level of NAT talent is that good. If we end up with 7 or so absolute top level NATs, then of course we can plan to start 5 NATS, totally freeing up the ratio planning.

I hope we keep Charles Vaillancourt in good confidence and motivation. I would hate to lose him. This fan is not happy that we could not keep or hide Zver, losing him to Poacher Jones from Regina. This fan could be wrong, but IMO Zver looks like a good one.

BTW, it is interesting to see the Alouettes, under Jacques Chapdelaine, doing so well protecting the QB. Olafioye obviously helps. But the team is doing lots of things well. Rooting for Jacques. :thup:
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I was watching Olafioye in the last Als game for a while . Most of the time he had help from the RB or guard , on his own he was getting beat by the DE and had to resort to holding (he got called for it). Most of the running plays the Als executed the RB consistently went to the opposite side , not while I was watching did I see the RB pick JO's side once . Was not at all impressed by JO in that game .
On one of the sacks Foucault gave up , I would put the blame on Lulay , because he ran way up , when he did not have to almost beside the the DT whom Foucault was effectively blocking up to that point. On that play the DE had run way back being blocked by Johnson , behind Lulay . I got the impression Lulay thought the DE was coming up behind him (Johnson had him under control still ) and ran forward where Foucault's man able to scrape sideways and get him , while Foucault could not see where Lulay was (almost beside him Foucault and in harms way )
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IMO a lot of the credit to the sack numbers for the Als have to go to Durant getting rid of the ball fast when he's under pressure . In our game vs the Als , our DLine had their hands on him and he just threw the ball away 10 feet in front of him. There was a receiver in that direction , so he got away with , but he basically spiked the ball as he was going down . I thought he should have been called for intentional grounding on that play because that is what he did to avoid the sack.

Zach Collaros was also getting the ball off very quickly , which made it very hard for our DL to get close to him . Many were gone in 1 second. Some here are criticizing Brooks play but while, I was reveiwing the game on PVR (only went over the first half so far ) have to disagree with those assessments . Brooks got one pressure , one tackle for a loss in the first half while occupying 2 OL for most of the first half . Most plays Collaros had the ball gone far to quick for anyone to get near him. Most of the reveiwing I focus on the OL and DL , because they are difficult to watch carefully when initially watching the live game . Sometimes the impression one gets watching the game the first time is quite different from what you see when you can take your time, watch plays over and over stoping the video as much as you like to see where everyone is .
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Two players that have not got much recognition in this game , are Marco Ianuzzi , who I think played a very good game , making some key catches in traffic . On the one he made the catch and took on the tackler head on bouncing the guy right off him initially and not going down , loved that play .
The other was the hit Micah Awe laid on special teams going full speed, sending the ball carrier cartwheeling in the air and jarring the ball loose. Ticats were lucky on that play to be close to the side lines , so that the ball went out of bounds before BC could recover it . Much further in , that would have been a BC ball . Awe seemed to kick in to a higher gear , to speed up from what looked like going flat out already to lay out that hit .
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BC 1988
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Now LU says the JJ10 injury is a "grade 2 shoulder separation". After hearing Wally being evasive about the healing time, I'm not surprised (we go from "bruise" to "strain" to "separation").
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/audio/ullrich-n ... m-1.809435
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BC 1988 wrote:
Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:48 am
Now LU says the JJ10 injury is a "grade 2 shoulder separation". After hearing Wally being evasive about the healing time, I'm not surprised (we go from "bruise" to "strain" to "separation").
http://www.tsn.ca/radio/audio/ullrich-n ... m-1.809435
Yeah, a little worse than we had all thought and hoped. Seems the consensus is 4 to 6 weeks. Explains the talk of bringing in another QB.
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B.C.FAN
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It seems there is a lot of conflicting information about Jennings' injury and his prognosis.
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Thu Jul 20, 2017 11:00 am
It seems there is a lot of conflicting information about Jennings' injury and his prognosis.
That's more encouraging. Does he have enough strength and range of motion to throw yet?
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Gridiron Ernie
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LU's most recent article (3DownNation) reverts back to "strain" as the club's official term for Jennings' shoulder injury, and quotes Jennings as indicating he'll be back in a couple weeks. Wishful thinking perhaps. Also, LU reiterates the club's intention to bring in QB Jake Heaps (most recently with the Seahawks for a short off-season stint).
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BC 1988
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^^Ditto for LU on 1040 this morning just now. He's skeptical because JJ10 is more likely than anyone to be overly optimistic.
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