Eskimos 37 - Lions 26, Post-Game Stats and Comments

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Blitz
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How is the Olifioye trade looking now?

How are our great free agents signings of Dequin Evans, Buddy Jackson, Tony Burnett, Swayze Waters, Dylan Ainsworth, etc looking now?

How is the big off-season signing of Leo free Michael Brooks to a big two year contract looking now?

At the time, Buono had this to say:
“Mic’hael has the ability to be one of the most dominant interior defensive linemen in the league and this is a significant signing for our defence,” said GM and head coach Wally Buono. “The ability to control the line of scrimmage, pressure the quarterback and stop the run are the qualities upon which championship defences are built and by re-signing Mic’hael this is a big step in that direction.”
Well, Facault is not leading us to the promised land but instead almost getting our quarterback killed, we've badly missed Olifioye, Brooks is nowhere near being a dominant defensive lineman, Awe is better than Burnett, the very expensive Waters is not even here, we're still waiting on Chris Williams, Dylan Ainsworth will not play football anymore, and

Dequin Evans is not nor will he ever be a dominant pass rush defensive end. Heck, these days we're often dropping him off to pass cover underneath. That's not the purpose or role you go out and sign a free agent defensive end for, but then again, Evans is not an imposing rush end nor has he ever been in the CFL.

We didn't need to go out and sign these free agents for 2017. It was also obvious last season that Brooks was not the answer as a penetrating, pass rushing defensive tackle.

This was a very talented Leo team in 2016 and going into 2017. There was no need to go and sign some of these free agents and lose an All-Star tackle.

All we needed to do was find a defensive end who could rush the passer, a defensive tackle who could penetrate, and a kicker who could replace Leone - a situation we should not have been in if Buono had not, once again, attempting to convert a punter into a field goal kicker and stick with it no matter what for almost two seasons, when the obvious was right in front of his eyes.

So we ended up getting into an expensive bidding war with Hamilton to sign Waters and that drives the Olifioye trade.

We had a linebacker who could have replaced Bighill in Bo Lokombo, who we mostly pined for 3 seasons except for special teams instead of giving him some significant reps. Washington and Buono even had Aragki starting over Lokombo in 3-4 formations. Lokombo knew that sticking with our Leos was no guarantee of moving into Bighill's spot. In fact Lokombo would have known that Buono would most likely go with an International in Bighill's spot.

There was also no good reason why Awe didn't get another start. Burnett has not lit the world on fire and Awe played exceptionally well last week for his first start as a rookie. It has to be deflating for Awe.

Heck, our Leos organization is so dum at times, that once again, we threw away a high draft pick away by trying to stick him on the practice roster. Did we really need to protect Jas Dhillon on the 46 man roster?

So, while our offensive line could not protect Lulay against mostly a four man rush and our defensive line could not get consistent pressure on Mike Reilly, the major problem with our Leos team is not personnel - its coaching and game planning.

We knew, going into this game, that the strength of the Eskimos defense was their four man pass rush. We knew that Benevedes likes to play all his defenders in zone behind that pass rush, including the linebackers.

So why the hell were we using so many crossing patterns? Why did we not attempt to move the pocket for Lulay? Why did we not attempt a different style of passing attack against that type of pass rush, with more quick tailback screens, quick draw plays, etc.

We just rolled out 'same old' and we couldn't run against Eskimos and we hardly did anything to strategy wise to negate their pass rush or exploit their zone defence. Lulay was our leading rusher in this game and he had to be. So much for Wally's revamped offensive line.

Lulay was under incredible heat all game - Edmonton's pass rush was ferocious. Steward was benched last season for one missed run block and yet Facault has been so badly beaten at times in the last two games that his defender has had a clear run to the quarterback. Different rules for different folks.

Why did we not have a better game plan against that defensive lne and that style of defence?

On defense, why do we have so many missed assignments that lead to big plays? Why do defenders not know who to cover? Why is our defensive secondary set up so that if one player gets hurt we have to change three and four assignments? Why does our defense struggle against good teams in the West?

Why did the Bombers offence put up so many points against our defence in the first half of last year's Semi-Final and why did Calgary shred our defense in last years West Final? Why did the Bombers offence score so many points against our defence last week and the Eskimos do the same this week?
Because it seems that we don't have a clue, strategy wise, when it comes to playing good teams. Last week, when it was brought up that Khari Jones had yelled at him during last week's game Buono commented "Everybody yells at me". Why is the so called CFL's best coach of all time such a lousy game manager that his personnel need to yell at him? Why is our team so usually unprepared, in one way or the other, against good teams
?

Its because we are stuck in our ways of thinking. Leadership of a football team is not just saying 'you gotta block better, 'you gotta tackle better', 'you gotta get more turnovers', you 'gotta execute better'. Buono doesn't wear a headset because he is not a leader when it comes to strategy. He's ' a so called 'general' but all truly great generals have been outstanding strategists.

An analogy I could provide is that D Day involved great planning and great strategy and the element of surprise. If Buono had been leading D Day, there would have been no surprise. He would have told the Germans what he was going to do first, just said 'we gotta focus on ourselves", no matter where the Germans are on the beach and "we just gotta execute" so get out there and 'fight harder' and execute the ill devised and unsurprising plan and then been pissed when it would not have worked and blamed the troops for not overcoming a bad plan and poor strategy, without the element of surprise in the first place.

We are consistently out game planned and outsmarted. When we win, its usually because we have the talent to overcome the limitations of our schemes, coaching, and in some areas, our personnel decisions. When we lose, its usually because we are facing a team that is closer to us in talent and their coaching staff outcoaches us. When we do pull off a victory against the better teams, it usually takes a high number of phenomenal plays by our players to do so, whether its a Jennings escaping the pocket to beat the Bombers last year or a Burnham out jumping two defenders to make a great catch or a Sol E. making a play that he should not have even been in the position to make.

Last week was another prime example of this week's coaching ineptitude. We didn't cover Andrew Harris out of the backfield, even though we knew he was the Bombers prime target. He had 12 catches against us and could have had 25 receptions in that game. Their special teams exploited us, even though we knew before hand that they focus on that area and take chances.

This week, we decide to rush Reilly with three and four defenders who we know can't get consistent pressure on a quarterback and somehow Buono and Washington think we can cover their receivers while giving Reilly a lot of time. Edmonton was averaging less than 20 points a game. They were up on us fast and early, like most good teams usually are, because they are better prepared and we are unprepared.

Reilly threw for almost 300 yards in the first half alone.

Why do are opposition receivers so wide open deep. Why does our corner think the halfback is covering the deep ball behind him and instead the halfback covers a post pattern and the deep receiver is wide open? Happens time and again.

The Eskimos didn't need a game-winning drive in the dying seconds against our Leos. They won handily and they did while not only overcoming a rash of injuries since their training camp but also dealing with more injuries in this game. Edmonton running back Travon Van and kicker Sean Whyte were injured, forcing the Edmonton offence to play with all three downs in the fourth quarter.
“It’s been ever occurring through the course of the year so far and started early in training camp and that was the worst game I’ve ever seen that many guys go down in key positions,” Eskimos head coach Jason Maas said of players playing out of position. “Your kicker-punter going down, your long-snapper going down at the end of the game, your backup kicker going down. There were so many, I just know at the end of it, I look up at the scoreboard and it’s 37-26 and that’s all that really matters.
I love the talent overall on this Leos team. Our only real weak areas are some areas of the offensive and defensive line. We have some very good talent on our offensive line. Steward is a beast, Husband is a very good center, and Fabian is a decent guard. Vaillencourt was a highly regarded draft choice and the most pro ready coming out of college. We've mostly stuggled at left guard and especially right tackle and we didn't need to be struggling there this season at all, had we made the right decisions before this season started.

Defensively, we went into this season thinking that Dequin Evans and Michael Brooks could get it done as our dominant defensive end and defensive tackle and it should have been obvious that would not be the case.

We took our best linebacker at training camp in Awe and lined him up behind Sol E. for most of it. We took Purifoy, an outstanding nickel and converted him to safety, without hardly any practice there, inserted Fenner at nickel, just before our season opener and yet, whenever a halfback is injured, we have to move Fenner back to halfback and Purifoy back to nickel back and insert a different player to play safety. Those kind of wholesale changes in a game are not wise.

I love a lot of the players on this Leos team. We have some great players...many of them. I often feel sorry for them because they so often have to play above their heads to get a result that should happen without needing to do so and they get blamed when they lose, when most often its not their fault.

For example, in this game, Lulay threw some interceptions, as he did in his two previous outings. I will not blame him as I did not blame Jennings last season when he did. Lulay was not 'trying to do too much because we were behind'. He was trying to 'make plays' because if our players don't 'make exceptional plays' we lose. And he was trying to make plays under very adverse conditions like a pass rush in his face all game.

Lulay was 22/26 under those condtions. He played very well with the game plan he was given, the pass rush he encountered, and the plays that he was asked to 'execute'.

Our players are not aided by our schemes or game planning. They are handicapped by them.
Its 'roll out the barrell' with our coaching staff. We 'roll out' the same stuff game after game, while the opposition outgame plans us and outstrategizes us and then our players are blamed for not 'executing'. Lulay executed with the hand he was dealt and the game plan he was given and the protection or lack thereof he experienced, and the play calls that were sent in from the bench. Based on those circumstances, he executed very well.
We're stuck in rigid thinking. It works when we play less talented teams whose strategy cannot overcome our superior talent. Our rigid thinking doesn't work when more talented teams outstrategize us, unless we get exceptional performances from a lot of players.

I laughed to myself recently, when Buono talked about Lulay 'being a man' by accepting the backup role and being supportive of Jennings and mentoring him and leaving his ego aside. And yet, when Buono was in a role to do that, when he stepped away from coaching to supposedly be our GM only he did not 'man up' at all. Instead he was an over-controlling, interfering GM, observing from the cherry picker at practices and generally undermining the Head Coaches he had chosen, while publically commenting that it was difficult to replace a legend (himself). He should have taken lessons from Lulay regarding what it truly takes to 'be a man'.

Tough loss. I'm obviously frustrated and disappointed, even though I shouldn't be. Its same old, same old' and continuing to hope for or expect a different result means I should know better.

They say hope is eternal but our coaching staff makes that a very challenging concept.
"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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B.C.FAN
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For what it's worth, Wally agrees with the prevailing wisdom in this thread:
“The difference is we played a better football team and we continually self destructed,” explained Buono.

“They’re better right now on the line of scrimmage than we are. Until we prove that, it’s going to be the same old story.”
I don't know what can be done at this point to improve the Lions' talent on the line of scrimmage. Potential NFL cuts are still a month or two away. Farhan suggested Foucault be replaced at left guard. He has become the weakest link on the line. Moving him from tackle to guard hasn't hidden his weakness. It's just given defensive linemen a more direct path to the QB. Charles Vaillancourt is an easy option but he had his own struggles after his injury last year and in training camp this year. Hunter Steward has done a great job at left tackle, and has been an improvement on Jovan Olafioye at that position. That said, the Lions were much better overall last year with Olafioye at left tackle and Steward at left guard.

The defensive line has lots of depth, as we've seen, but no stars. Maxx Forde led all Lion defensive linemen last night with 4 tackles and a pass knockdown. Forde's 4 tackles, in fact, were more than the total of the Lions' 7 other defensive linemen. The only practice roster linemen we haven't seen are Ken Boatright and Luther Maddy. Boatright showed flashes in camp as a speed rusher but he was deemed to be behind Josh Shirley and Andrew Hudson on the depth chart. Maddy is most comparable to Mic'hael Brooks but is much more raw. I don't think he'd be an upgrade on the Lions' two Canadian defensive linemen, Forde and Junior Luke.
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David
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Great post Blitz! I share your frustrations. Every time our Leos have the attention of this market (and I guarantee the local TV numbers were strong, evidenced by the buzz around the team all week), be it important divisional match-ups in the regular season or "do or die" playoff games, we completely come off the rails. Getting exposed by superior coaching is a big part of it. I'd be interested if Steve Daniels keeps track of "busted coverages." If we haven't led the league in Mark Washington's tenure, we must be damn close.
For example, in this game, Lulay threw some interceptions, as he did in his two previous outings. I will not blame him as I did not blame Jennings last season when he did. Lulay was not 'trying to do too much because we were behind'. He was trying to 'make plays' because if our players don't 'make exceptional plays' we lose. And he was trying to make plays under very adverse conditions like a pass rush in his face all game.

Lulay was 22/26 under those condtions. He played very well with the game plan he was given, the pass rush he encountered, and the plays that he was asked to 'execute'.
Another post-game quote that infuriated me was Buono saying Travis "has to get rid of the ball quicker." Implying some or all those sacks were his fault, when he was running for his life! If this game was in less capable hands than our field general Lulay, it would have been a massive blow-out.....with a third of the Eskimo starters injured!


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SammyGreene
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Yes. Terrific rant as usual Blitz.

Lions could honestly end up 12-6 this season and somehow regress from a year ago as Edmonton has surpassed them to join the Stamps.
I expect the Lions to look like world beaters the next two weeks then get exposed again by Calgary at BC Place.

The Lions had one very effective defensive tackle in the last 3 years and his name was Zach Minter. Injured in training camp last year and cut yet quickly picked up by the Stamps and now starting for Riders after signing as a free agent. He made a huge difference when he was inserted into the line-up at the tail end of the 2015 season.

Re-signing Brooks and Turner plus Roh winning back his DE spot shows just how woeful are DL recruiting efforts were this past season. What are the Eskimos looking for that the Lions are not?

As David and even Farhan pointed out that was a buzz kill game. Had a chance for a very good crowd at BC Place next week and Lions lay an egg. Will actually be cheering for Riders this afternoon to close gap on BC and bring more meaning to next Saturday.
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David wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:58 am
I'd be interested if Steve Daniels keeps track of "busted coverages." If we haven't led the league in Mark Washington's tenure, we must be damn close.
That would probably be too subjective to measure. But the Lions have generally been among the league leaders in big plays allowed in recent years, especially passes of over 30 yards, and that's easy to measure. Going into this week's play, the Lions had allowed a league-leading 17 big plays of all kinds, including 11 passes of over 30 yards, tied with Hamilton and second only to Ottawa (12).
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SammyGreene wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:14 am
Yes. Terrific rant as usual Blitz.

Lions could honestly end up 12-6 this season and somehow regress from a year ago as Edmonton has surpassed them to join the Stamps.
I expect the Lions to look like world beaters the next two weeks then get exposed again by Calgary at BC Place.

The Lions had one very effective defensive tackle in the last 3 years and his name was Zach Minter. Injured in training camp last year and cut yet quickly picked up by the Stamps and now starting for Riders after signing as a free agent. He made a huge difference when he was inserted into the line-up at the tail end of the 2015 season.

Re-signing Brooks and Turner plus Roh winning back his DE spot shows just how woeful are DL recruiting efforts were this past season. What are the Eskimos looking for that the Lions are not?

As David and even Farhan pointed out that was a buzz kill game. Had a chance for a very good crowd at BC Place next week and Lions lay an egg. Will actually be cheering for Riders this afternoon to close gap on BC and bring more meaning to next Saturday.
Be careful what you wish for Sam. It is looking like maybe the Lions will need to finish ahead of the Riders and a couple of teams in the east in order to make the playoffs.

Aside from poor line play the Lions have been horrible at giving up the big play on D and ST. Riders 2 most talented players are Roosevelt and Carter. Big play guys , both.
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David
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Wish I knew what Steven Clarke did to get banished this far down the depth chart. :sigh:


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Have to concur with Blitz's comments. Not impressed and never have been impressed by the tandem of Mark Washington and Khari Jones. Tired of seeing the opposition beating the Lions with big plays. Players come and go and we continue giving up the big plays. The only constant is Mark Washington.
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David wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 12:14 pm
Wish I knew what Steven Clarke did to get banished this far down the depth chart. :sigh:


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I won't comment on the game-prep and X's and O's deficiencies exhibited by our Lions, as Blitz has discussed this many times, but it looks to me as though we lack the necessary talent on both lines. I don't think it is just poor game preparation that is causing some of our O-linemen to be beaten as badly as they have been--with poor Lulay (and Jennings) being rushed to the point of having to run for their lives, or our ground game to be far less impactful than it should be. Nor, for that matter, is it mainly poor game planning that has kept our D-line from mounting any consistent and disruptive pressure on opposing quarterbacks. We should be able to mount much better QB pressure with a 4-man rush than we have. We entered the season thinking we had a very solid O-line and at least a serviceable D-line. So far, I think the evidence fails to support this view. Of course, both lines could get better as the season progresses, but frankly I don't see us being good enough up front to challenge either Edmonton or Calgary.

With NFL training camps opening this weekend, there should be some players being cut from rosters soon, and I hope that Wally can pick up some international linemen who can help us here. As the cliché goes, the game is won or lost in the trenches....
Last edited by South Pender on Sat Jul 29, 2017 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Disappointing loss, but to put it in perspective, we faced an undefeated team in their stadium playing our back up QB. A win would have been nice, but we went in as underdogs and didn't pull it off.

In my opinion, the d line is of more concern than the o line. The o line faced the best pass rush in the league. When the lions game-planned to beat the rush, the offense was effective. I also agree with Wally that in some instances Lulay was holding onto the ball for too long. Overall, our o line has been solid, especially Foucault/Steward/Husband.

The dline has been disappointing, especially given the hype going into training camp. So much for the great recruiting in this area. Roh, Turner, Evans, Forde, Menard...all pretty mediocre at best. Brooks is the best of the bunch, but not dominating in any way.

I am in favour of video review, but there has to be more consistency in the PI interpretation. Reviews should help clarify the rule interpretation, not make it even more confusing. The league is dropping the ball on this, and drawing too much negative attention to itself.

Every year, the defense shows signs of greatness, mixed with periods of total collapse. Every team goes through the ssme to some degree. Is it better or worse here? Not sure, but hard to have confidence in Washington's schemes.

With regards to detailed game prep and planning, my understanding is that Wally mostly relies on his coordinators. Wally brings other attributes to the table as a coach, attributes that have made him very successful as a coach over a very long time. He is great at developing players and motivating people around him. We do miss out on the advantages of having a detail and scheme guy like Dickenson or Maas at the helm though.
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I was way too disappointed and frustrated with the final result and how it all unfolded to check out the forum before now. Not much to add but just a few things that stuck in my craw....

Maas treated the game as pivotal and really emphasized its importance; Wally downplayed it. Was he thinking that if the team lost it wouldn't sting as much?

It can't be surprising that Edmonton is going to rely on a 4-man rush with all those studs they have on the DLine. Anyone who says they don't have the best DLine in the league is delusional. As such, I was expecting a lot more in the Leo's game plan to take some sting out of their rush and help the OLine.

But only 5 rushing attempts for JJ24 is bull crap. I don't care who your running back is; only 5 rush attempts by your starter stinks.

Give Vaillancourt the start over Foucault. At least he has a supposed nasty streak.

Buddy Jackson led the team in tackles with 7, perhaps not a good sign when a DB leads your team in that category. This business with having to shuffle 4 guys when 1 goes down in the defensive backfield seems a tremendous downside to the current lineup. Will we see Purifoy back at nickel and Fenner return to the DBs? Might be for the best.
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South Pender wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 1:28 pm
With NFL training camps opening this weekend, there should be some players being cut from rosters soon, and I hope that Wally can pick up some international linemen who can help us here. As the cliché goes, the game is won or lost in the trenches....
Buono has shown a reluctance to insert someone new into the lineup. If the player show any potential , he is signed for next year or placed on the practice roster unless his name is Cam Wake.
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Great posts, Guys.
SammyGreene wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:03 am
Esks colour man Dave Canpbell tells us all we need to know here.
Eskimos with 3 sacks and 11 QBP's, pressured Lulay at a rate of 57%. Lions with 1 sack and 4 QBP's, Reilly pressured only 15% of the time.
Farhan was saying post game he thinks it maybe time to pull the plug on Focault before another QB gets injured and go back to two Americans on line and shift Steward back to guard.

Where have I seen this movie before?

Lions own the east (and the Riders). On par with Bombers resulting in wild close games and seemingly light years behind the two Alberta teams at least at the line of scrimmage.
You nailed it , Sammy.

And Dave Campbell nailed it.

Quarterback pressures. We throw our guys to the wolves. 57% against Lulay. 15% against Reilly. :dizzy: Job 1 --> protect our QB. Job 2 --> get after their QB.

(Jennings injured on his first play from scrimmage as a TiCat hit him like a missile in a straight sprint to the QB.)

Our D Line? Our Internationals are not good enough. No solution in mind, as these are the guys Mark and Wally wanted.

O Line? I've been very restrained in my comments, quite deliberately, aside from praising Steward and Husband. But we have been down this road so many times. If we lose Steward to the NFL next year, that would be catastrophic. Olafioye would look pretty good at right tackle for us. This fan liked Vaillancourt. This fan shakes his head at how we draft highly rated Zver, and let Jones poach him off our PR.

We kind of got snuffed by the Schmos. The pressure from their D Line determined the game. We are lucky Travis survived. Reilly killed us, as we gave him all day to throw to spots and to perceived weaknesses (from the film, from our ''archived'' game plans) in our defensive scheme.

It was an acid test for us, and we were found wanting. This fan has great respect for our players, the ones who put their bodies and pride on the line. They played hard, with complete courage.

Solutions? We will see some personnel tweaks. We could see as the season approached that our players were pumped. It will take great character to hold that. And our guys will do just that.
......

Great post as usual, Blitz. We see these things the same way. We fans have a lot of passion and sometimes a lot of pain. Patience too, although it has its limits.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Sat Jul 29, 2017 9:41 am
For what it's worth, Wally agrees with the prevailing wisdom in this thread:
“The difference is we played a better football team and we continually self destructed,” explained Buono.

“They’re better right now on the line of scrimmage than we are. Until we prove that, it’s going to be the same old story.”
I don't know what can be done at this point to improve the Lions' talent on the line of scrimmage. Potential NFL cuts are still a month or two away. Farhan suggested Foucault be replaced at left guard. He has become the weakest link on the line. Moving him from tackle to guard hasn't hidden his weakness. It's just given defensive linemen a more direct path to the QB. Charles Vaillancourt is an easy option but he had his own struggles after his injury last year and in training camp this year. Hunter Steward has done a great job at left tackle, and has been an improvement on Jovan Olafioye at that position. That said, the Lions were much better overall last year with Olafioye at left tackle and Steward at left guard.

The defensive line has lots of depth, as we've seen, but no stars. Maxx Forde led all Lion defensive linemen last night with 4 tackles and a pass knockdown. Forde's 4 tackles, in fact, were more than the total of the Lions' 7 other defensive linemen. The only practice roster linemen we haven't seen are Ken Boatright and Luther Maddy. Boatright showed flashes in camp as a speed rusher but he was deemed to be behind Josh Shirley and Andrew Hudson on the depth chart. Maddy is most comparable to Mic'hael Brooks but is much more raw. I don't think he'd be an upgrade on the Lions' two Canadian defensive linemen, Forde and Junior Luke.
In terms of our offensive line, we could have gone into 2017 with two different options, had we not traded Olifioye (and we didn't need to had we gone a different route in free agency, siging only Williams).

1. Steward - left tackle, Fabian - left guard Husband - center - Vaillencourt - right guard - Olifioye - right tackle

2. Olifioye- left tackle - Steward - left guard Husband - center- Fabian (Vaillencourt) right guard, Palmer right tackle

In terms of Option 1, we could have drafted differently and taken an offensive lineman as a backup to Steward out of the likes of Geoff Gray, Evan Johnson, Mason Woods, Dariusz Bladek, Braden Schram, Jean Simon Roy, and Quardr Spooner.

We could also have signed Josh Bourke.

If we had wanted to focus on the defensive line, in free agency we had an opportunity to go after Justin Cafpicciotti - 23 sacks in his last two seasons and he would have been a ratio buster or we could have attempted to sign Ted Laurent as an inside force.

We could have signed Corderro Law, when he became available party way through last season or Willie Jefferson, who was also available part way through last season. We also had an opportunity to sign Jamal Westerman in 2015.

Any of those options would have put us in a much better position than we are now than signing Dequin Evans, who had a total of 3 sacks during his playing time in Calgary and Montreal.

Victor Butler was available to be signed by our Leos for 2017 and even last season. Instead he was signed by Toronto last February. The former 4th round NFL draft choice didn't play football last season. He is presently leading the CFL in sacks while playing for Toronto.

In terms of defensive tackle, had we not been able to sign Laurent, we could have signed Westerman again and gone with a National rotation of Westerman, Forde, and Luke inside rather than signing Brooks. Westerman played better than Brooks last season and he is a National.

However, while our offensive and defensive lines need to improve I am not going to lay the blame down on these two units and Lulay not throwing the football quickly enough. Lulay was 22/26 in the game while under incredible heat and pressure.

The only difference in our offensive line this season from 2016 is Steward has been playing left tackle and Facault is playing left guard. (Palmer is considered an upgrade on A. Johnson who started the first four games for us this season and most of our games last year at right tackle).

As B.C. Fan notes, Steward is playing left tackle better than Olifioye did last season. So the only real difference from last year to this year, in terms of our offensive line is Facault at left guard. It was Wally's choice to play Facault at left guard, mostly I think to make his trade look good. Facault should be backing up Steward right now and Fabian should be playing left guard and Vaillencourt should be starting at right guard.

On the defensive line, we lost Bazzie and Westerman from last season. Brooks, Turner,, Roh, Menard, and Forde are back. Buono felt we would have be a dominant force with Brooks and Tuner inside and Roh was his man to play boundary defensive end.

So replacing Bazzie was the only real change Buono contemplated for our defensive line, other than the draft, where he signed Junior Luke, was at rush end and Buono placed his cards on Dequin Evans.

But there is so much more to our losses to Edmonton this season and the play of our defense so far. Our game planning has often been awful on defence. We've missed a lot of assignments on defense and given up a ton of big plays and that is not just on the defensive line. Our blitzes have mostly been picked up early. When a defensive backfield player gets injured, we have to make too many personnel shifts.

Our personnel decisions are coaching decisions. Our defensive game planning is in the hands of our coaches.

Its our coaches who decided that Facault should be starting at left guard and Dequin Evans was the answer at defensive end. Perhaps instead of blaming them, Wally should be blaming himself for trading for Facault in the first place and then starting him or signing Evans as a free agent as the answer to Alex Bazzie. Perhaps they are just not good enough.

We have a history of being poorly prepared for big games. Last season the talent level between our Leos was very close, as evidenced by the first two regular season games played. But the Stamps whupped us in the next two games, including the WDF. The talent stayed the same but Calgary's coaching proved superior as the season progressed.

Wally can blame our offensive and defensive line play but he is the one who signed players or not, made a huge trade, and who is deciding who our starters are. He is the GM as well as HC. He makes the final decisions as to which players to sign, to draft, and which players he wants to start. Lulay played very well considering the circumstances, played very well the previous two game, and the blame for our line play, on both sides of the football, falls on Wally and his coaching staff because they are the ones who have made all the decisions in terms of personnel and starting positions for 2017.

Wally can finger point all he wants and the way he almost always does. He needs to be accountable.
"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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