Lions 22 - Alouettes 10 Post-Game Stats and Comments

[Toppy Vann]

Last season based on comments from Jennings that suggested he didn't understand what was happening as he was playing like he did when he took over as starter I was alarmed that he might come back this year and miss the message that more INTs than TD tosses needed to teach him.

As it turns out Jennings had this to say post game - all comments that suggest he's properly focused this year and understands what he needs to do:

“Obviously, I washed the whole season out,” said Jennings. “It was a bad season. It was what it was. I had to make sure I responded. I did everything I could to focus on the response this year and what I was gonna do to be a better player this year.”

“It felt great,” said Jennings. “It was my goal all off-season to come in here and respond. I know who I am as a player. I just had to come out here and do it.”

I think it was Burnham who said in preseason that the Lions didn't utilize Chris Williams skills the right way last year - something that fans felt all along. Granted he was coming off an injury too but it defied common sense to have him in the lineup and then not use him where he can be successful.

I would have preferred Wally be the top guy upstairs - President and VP football operations as he's far more attuned to the local media than the new President and he's more credible on the air. Ed Hervey is not yet the go to media guy as I don't think he's cut it out for it and Wally is.

[WestCoastJoe]

The players believe in their guy.

Congrats from Jovan and Manny.

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[WestCoastJoe]

He is a quiet guy, but he is a ferocious competitor also.

Orange and black. I love those colours. Distinctive. Just right for football.

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[tigerrr22]

What I liked the most about the regular season opener was how the Lions held the lead for the entire fourth quarter. The pass rush looks solid. Jennings appears to have a new offense that can help him utilize his talents. His ability to run for yards after the receivers have gotten down field is vital to keeping the defence off the field. Especially against a three man pass rushing defence. This QB draw threat coupled with quick passing plays can make any defence think twice about blitzing. The offensive scheme seems to be one that can reduce the pressure and burden placed on the offensive line over the long haul. Jennings chances of staying healthy and maintaining a high confidence level are much better if the first game of the season is any indicator of how good this team will be in 2018.

Note to the punter. If the team is punting from the opponents 45 yard line then please keep the ball out of the end zone. Inside the ten with a kick that is placed out of bounds is why you decide to punt the ball instead of trying a 52 yard field goal. The punter needs to ensure Wally's decisions make sense. Lui Passaglia was the king of coffin corner punting!

[Blitz]

In reading Lionbackers comments its obvious that everyone was pleased with the play of our defensive line. The most notable stat was the 5 quarterback sacks on Drew Willie. But we also pressured him throws an additional 7 times.

Two defensive players led our team in defensive tackles. Sol E. led the way with 7 tackles and we anticipate a lot of tackles from this outstanding middle linebacker. But too often, for too many seasons now our linebacking crew has made a lot of tackles, too many tackles while our defensive line has not gotten the job done.

Not in this game. While Davon Coleman did not have a sack he also made 7 defensive tackles in this game. When you are getting that kind of line play from a defensive tackle, it makes everyone else's job easier, from his defensive line mates to our linebacking crew. Coleman is a penetrator, a disrupter, and a difference maker.

Odell Willis had a sack and a defensive knockdown on a pass, when he dropped back to cover off a zone blitz. Willis also had two quarterback pressures. What really impressed me on one play was a bull rush by Willis. He not only drove Montreal's right offensive tackle backwards but also pancaked him.

Two other Leos who had very good games on defense were Otha Foster and Bo Lokombo. Foster had a sack and two defensive pressures. Lokombo had two defensive tackles, a sack, and a quarterback pressure.

[CardiacKid]

While Davon Coleman did not have a sack he also made 7 defensive tackles in this game. When you are getting that kind of line play from a defensive tackle, it makes everyone else's job easier, from his defensive line mates to our linebacking crew. Coleman is a penetrator, a disrupter, and a difference maker.

To put Coleman’s contribution in a larger perspective, his 7 tackles in this 1 game are 1/3 of what Brooks achieved all of last year with his 21 tackles. When Coleman gets his first sack, he will have equaled Brooks’ sack totals from last year.

In many ways I am glad we couldn’t keep Cummings (certainly not glad in regards to the circumstances) but instead had Coleman fall in our laps. Coleman plays like he is desperate to be the one to make the play to determine the game.

[CardiacKid]

I hope Chris Williams has a bounce back year and then some. He is simply too good a player and too exciting a player to let languish on a roster some where.

Based on what Farhan shared re. Wally’s unwillingness to truly utilize Williams last year, shame on him for not managing his talent properly. It really seemed like the addition of Williams was dangled in front of us like a carrot, a new weapon who will excite us and entertain us.

Then it goes pear-shaped and stayed pear-shaped.

It is a head-scratcher that Williams was not used in a manner befitting his unique talents. Hopefully we will see his name again amongst the league leaders.

[Dusty]

Note to the punter. If the team is punting from the opponents 45 yard line then please keep the ball out of the end zone. Inside the ten with a kick that is placed out of bounds is why you decide to punt the ball instead of trying a 52 yard field goal. The punter needs to ensure Wally's decisions make sense. Lui Passaglia was the king of coffin corner punting!

Despite the 2 unsuccessful attempts to punt into the corner between the goal line and 10 yard line , I think that Long is getting closer to success. The first punt was a line drive that bounced back into the field of play and rolled into the end zone. I thought it was going to go out of bounds around the 5 but it stayed in bounds. The second punt was lifted higher and landed directly into the end zone. On both punts, Long came off the field to having a discussion with Reinbold and also (I think) Don Sweet, the kicking coach.

There seemed no doubt to me that Long is learning directional punting and is getting closer to success.

Contrast that with a veteran like Bede who had 2 punts sail out of bounds between the 20 and 40 yard lines, drawing a 10 yard penalty on both...

[David]

I can live with a guy who's still learning the art of placing his punts inside the 10-yard line...if he can boom high, spiralling 50+ yard punts, make nearly all of his field goals and extra points, and kick-off down to the 10-yard line.

I don't think some people realize how good we have it with Ty Long. And I don't believe he's reached his ceiling yet.


DH

[Rammer]

I can live with a guy who's still learning the art of placing his punts inside the 10-yard line...if he can boom high, spiralling 50+ yard punts, make nearly all of his field goals and extra points, and kick-off down to the 10-yard line.

I don't think some people realize how good we have it with Ty Long. And I don't believe he's reached his ceiling yet.

Agreed, and even the endzone punts should have been FG attempts. You can't play that conservative a game that early, trust in your players Wally.
DH

[Blitz]

I hope Chris Williams has a bounce back year and then some. He is simply too good a player and too exciting a player to let languish on a roster some where.

Based on what Farhan shared re. Wally’s unwillingness to truly utilize Williams last year, shame on him for not managing his talent properly. It really seemed like the addition of Williams was dangled in front of us like a carrot, a new weapon who will excite us and entertain us.

Then it goes pear-shaped and stayed pear-shaped.

It is a head-scratcher that Williams was not used in a manner befitting his unique talents. Hopefully we will see his name again amongst the league leaders.

It is a head scratcher and without Farhan Laji's comments we would never have known that Khari Jones was not allowed to integrate Chris Williams into the offence as he would have liked to.

In looking back at our offence, over the years with Wally, no matter who our offensive coordinator was, it was basically the same offence, with perhaps just a a slightly different emphasis. Chapdelaine, Kruck, Dorazio, Jones, Cortez, and Jones again all ran the same offensive system.

It should have been obvious but somehow, Leos fans have always been conned into thinking that it was the offensive coordinator's fault when adjustments to our offence were not made during times of struggle.

Wally was skillful in ensuring that he was Teflon. If we struggled offensively, then it was the players who failed to 'execute' or the offensive coordinator who needed to be 'mentored' or the offensive coordinator was jettisoned by Wally and Leos fans assumed it was the offensive coordinator's fault for any lack of success.

When Jeff Tedford announced, prior to the 2015 season, that he would be using a tight end offence and then recruited a couple of tight ends to play in a tight end offence and we used them as wide slots, waggling to the offensive line, and never lined them up as tight ends, we should have known that Tedford was not allowed to run the type of offence that he wanted to.

Its been the same old script for Wally for a long, long time. WCJ says it best when he describes Wally as a survivor. Others will always be thrown overboard to ensure that Wally's reputation grows or stays intact.

But Wally, as rigid in this thinking as he is, has also proven that we will temporarily change when his back is to the wall. That happened in 2011, when we got off to another terrible start to the season, after Wally had two losing seasons previous.

Its also happened this season, after Wally didn't make the playoffs last year. The hiring of Ed Hervey as GM (who has brought in a lot of veteran talent to give Wally the best chance to win this season) and allowing Jarious Jackson and Mark Washington to attempt new ways of scheming their respective units.

The big question is will Wally stick with it. Wally stuck with the changes we made in 2011 because we kept on winning all the way to the Grey Cup.

I think Wally will allow Jarious Jackson to continue to run the offence in the way he wants to and for Mark Washington to play more aggressive defense, with zone blitzes, as long as the offence and defense plays well. But if either faces adversity I anticipate us moving back to the traditional spread offence and a more conservative defensive philosophy.

If or when that happens, Otha Foster or Bo Lokombo won't be blitzing - they will be running backwards at the snap of the football to play twin safety, coving deep, as Bighill did.

In this 'win for the Gibber' (Wally) season, which originated from Ed Hervey, most of the players on this Leos team, will be playing for their team mates and themselves. There are 33 new faces on this Leos team who are not entranced with the Wally 'legend'.

I think we are very lucky to have Long as our kicker and punter. His field goal kicking is assuring and his high booming punts are a tremendous advantge when our speical team gets downfield quickly and tackles well.

Long may become a better directional in time. But when you have such a good field goal kicker who has proven he can kick field goals with a lot of distance, why not let him keep doing what he is very good at, until proven otherwise, rather than have him attempting directional punts (that he is not so good at).

As was noted, Long hit all his field goal attempts outside of the 50 yard line last season.

[DanoT]

Maybe Wally's taking risks is mostly about the people around him and what they will be allowed to do.

Wally's hiring of GM Ed Hervey was a pleasant surprise and lead to way more off season activity than ever before for the Lions, so it was a big departure from the normal, safe, Wally Way.

Allowing OC and DC more freedom and creativity, which is what Wally seems to be doing this year, is also not the safe, play the percentages Wally Way.

Hiring Jeff Reinbold as ST coach, nothing safe or predictable about him except expect the unexpected.

[Figaro]

Ty Long is awesome as our kicker. What I noticed in this first game is the additional height he is getting on his punts from last year. On more than one occasion the announcers on TSN were marveling at the height even thinking he would hit the video screen. This increased hang time has allowed our ST's a chance to get further downfield and in position to direct the returner and make tackles. You can see Jeff Reinebold's coaching here. Last year our ST play sucked - no blocking for Rainey and missing tackles on opposing returners. Improvement noted and valued. I anticipate even greater more entertaining plays on ST . Although it is only one game, what we saw gives us a real promise of more great plays on St's to come.

[Blitz]

Maybe Wally's taking risks is mostly about the people around him and what they will be allowed to do.

Wally's hiring of GM Ed Hervey was a pleasant surprise and lead to way more off season activity than ever before for the Lions, so it was a big departure from the normal, safe, Wally Way.

Allowing OC and DC more freedom and creativity, which is what Wally seems to be doing this year, is also not the safe, play the percentages Wally Way.

Hiring Jeff Reinbold as ST coach, nothing safe or predictable about him except expect the unexpected.

You're right Dano T - Wally did not specify what taking more risk meant and we also have to be cognizant that we are also discussing a person who has been very, very, very risk averse.

One can only wonder what this 2018 Leos team would look like if Wally had remained GM. Certainly the trades Ed Hervey has made and the free agents he has signed is very different than how Wally operated as GM in the past.

A good example was going into the 2017 season. Coming off a 2016 season in which we were 11-7 and had the second best record in the CFL, Wally knew what we needed. On the offensive line, in 2016, Wally had switched Olifioye to left tackle, moved Steward to left guard, signed Levy Adcock to right tackle, and drafted James Vaillencourt to challenge Kirby Fabian at right guard. Levy Adcock was injured and then a bust and Antonio Johnson had played most of the season at right tackle.

All Wally needed to do, on offence was either sign or trade for an International offensive tackle. He could either traded for or signed a free agent left tackle and move Olifioye back to right tackle or sign a right tackle and leave Olifioye at left tackle.

Instead he signed Chris Williams, ended up trading Olifioye and we spend most of the season struggling at both offensive tackle positions. We ended the 2017 season giving up the most sacks and the most pressures.

Wally also attempted to begin the season with Foucault as starting left guard and when that turned into a disaster, he moved Steward back to left guard and moved Johnson, who was not even starting at the time at right tackle, to left tackle.

Our passing attack struggled, Jennings was injured twice, took too many hits, and ended up losing his confidence. Williams was still recovering from his knee injury and when he did enter the lineup, Jones, (we have now learned) was not allowed to integrate him into the offence the way he felt was best.

Sustained pressure, lack of time to throw, pressures, hits, sacks breaks down quarterbacks. We have seen quarterbacks, time and again in pro football, play successfully with reasonable protection and struggle without it. They may play well for a few games, as Lulay did last season, but sustaining a high level of play or remaining uninjured, without adequate protection, for a length of time is almost impossible.

On defense, going into 2017, Buono knew that two key players were going to try the NFL. Alex Bazzie had been our leading sacker in 2016 and we needed an edge pass rusher. Buono also knew that he needed to replace Bighill, who was able to get his NFL shot as a condition of agreeding to Wally's demand that he take a wage cut the season before.
Wally was also aware that we needed to upgrade our interior defensive line play.

So, what did he do? He signed Dequin Evans as our rush end, while also choosing not to sign Jabar Westerman, a National and the only defensive tackle who got decent penetration in 2016 and had 5 sacks. Worse, he signed free agent Tony Burnett to fill Bighill's shoes.

In the off-season, prior to the 2017 season, a decision had been made to go with an International safety and a National field corner. But just days week before our first game of the season, with no practice time during training camp, Purifoy was moved to safety, with Washington stating that Purifoy was "a special athlete with NFL talent, size and speed", and the defensive secondary shuffle began and continued unabated.

Thompson struggled at corner and was then moved to halfback and then back to safety. Gainer was moved from halfback to corner and eventually benched while Purifoy was moved to halfback, although he did play one game at corner.

No wonder our Leos finished last in the West in points scored and had the most points scored against in 2017. We couldn't protect our quarterback, we couldn't get pressure on opposition quarterbacks, and our defensive secondary spent most of the season confused.

For a GM with Wally's experience, he should have known better and done better. But somehow the disastrous 2017 season has mostly been laid on the feet or arm or head of Jonathan Jennings, as well as Khari Jones, who was sent packing. Somehow, Sol E. and Mark Washington avoided the same scrutiny or the same fate.

And as usual, when things went wrong, Wally avoided most of the heat for a team that ended the 2016 season with such promise and ended the 2017 season as a 'bag over the head' exercise, as we lost 6 of our last 7 games.

Jonathan Jennings stats had rivaled Bo Levi Mitchell's stats in 2016, with less time to throw the football. We had led the league in rushing and finished tied for 3rd in protecting our quarterback. On defense, in 2016, we had tied for being the best in the CFL in sacks, with 52 on the season.

Chris Rainey had led the CFL in punt return average in 2016. In 2017, he looked like a shell of his former self, with no space to run to. On offence, the results were similar. In 2016, Rainey was being compared to one time great Willie Fleming. In 2017, the comparison was never mentioned.

There are no excuses this season. We have excellent offensive line talent and depth. We have talent and depth at tailback and fullback. We have a good receiving crew and we also have depth there.

On defense, we have a very good defensive line and lots of depth at the National positions. Otha Foster brings talent and aggression to the nickel back position and we have experience in the secondary. Long gives us excellent punting and field goal kicking and Rainey is still a very, very dangerous return man.

Just as we dropped from being the second best CFL team in 2016 to the 8th best CFL team and missed the playoffs in 2017, a team can also return to success in a hurry in the CFL. Toronto more than proved that last season.

The CFL power rankings still have us in 8th place, after our first game of the season. Its where we deserve to be, until we prove otherwise and one win does not do that. But we are now considered a 'dark horse' in the West.

Our next game is against Edmonton and its on the road. That game will give us a much better indication of how far we have come this season (or not) and what our potential is for this season.

[David]

But Wally, as rigid in this thinking as he is, has also proven that we will temporarily change when his back is to the wall. That happened in 2011, when we got off to another terrible start to the season, after Wally had two losing seasons previous.

More examples of conservatism, Chris Rainey had to beg and plead to be integrated into the offence and was viewed as a borderline malcontent (I was worried he was going to be cut). Wally only wanted to use him as a returner, thinking he'd get burned out if used as a running back (where he played on the Pittsburgh Steelers!) or slot.

Of course, when we eventually did give him the ball out of the backfield in 2016, he had an 8.6 yard rushing average, proved to be a very effective extra receiver, and can handle the extra workload.


DH