Lions at Argos July 3, 2023

[B.C.FAN]

I highly doubt that VA will be on a short leash but fully supported by his coaches as VA not's built for that kind of treatment. You'd be better off cutting the guy if you think like that. Dane Evans has a spotty record of brilliance and disasters himself and without much playing time, it'd be unfair to him or the team at this stage.
The Lions have put all their eggs in the VA basket this season and will live or die on his play.

Agreed. VA is the Lions' starting quarterback as long as he's healthy. He's had an excellent track record since he joined the team last year. He made 6 terrible throws into coverage on Monday, and they led to 34 Argo points, but he also led the Lions to 3 TDs and 388 yards passing. Players can't get too high after a win, or too low after a loss. They have to trust the process, the coaching staff and themselves, and renew their focus on making plays and minimizing mistakes. I expect VA to return to form against Montreal.

[David]

* I could almost sense a pick coming when VA threw off his back foot. Almost every time it led to an INT.

* Will be interesting to see what happens when Lucky is ready. Who goes out and who comes in? Speaking of Lucky, the elephant in the room appears to be his inability to stay healthy. Is this being talked about by McEvoy and Campbell? What's being said?

* I wonder the extent to Mizzell's leg injury. Anyone heard? Can LaFrance/Mackie be enough for a game or two? Maybe allow Lucky to draw back into the line-up without anyone coming out?

* Special teams were not great last night. A setback for sure from the progress they'd been making under Benny.

* What was with Kelly's indignation with the Leos' man coverage? Why did he repeatedly take this as a personal affront? Yea, good game but don't get too full of yourself. A lot of passing yards came mid-way through the 4th quarter when the club was likely shellshocked by the INTs. Loss of focus by the D.

* My hypothesis is that the Leos tend to lose focus and do not play their best in the Eastern time zone. Lots of mental mistakes. Not as sharp. I wonder if they would ever experiment with an extra day in that time zone as I believe it would help them get acclimated. Cost-benefit analysis.


DH

[SammyGreene]

* I could almost sense a pick coming when VA threw off his back foot. Almost every time it led to an INT.

* Will be interesting to see what happens when Lucky is ready. Who goes out and who comes in? Speaking of Lucky, the elephant in the room appears to be his inability to stay healthy. Is this being talked about by McEvoy and Campbell? What's being said?

* I wonder the extent to Mizzell's leg injury. Anyone heard? Can LaFrance/Mackie be enough for a game or two? Maybe allow Lucky to draw back into the line-up without anyone coming out?

* Special teams were not great last night. A setback for sure from the progress they'd been making under Benny.

* What was with Kelly's indignation with the Leos' man coverage? Why did he repeatedly take this as a personal affront? Yea, good game but don't get too full of yourself. A lot of passing yards came mid-way through the 4th quarter when the club was likely shellshocked by the INTs. Loss of focus by the D.

* My hypothesis is that the Leos tend to lose focus and do not play their best in the Eastern time zone. Lots of mental mistakes. Not as sharp. I wonder if they would ever experiment with an extra day in that time zone as I believe it would help them get acclimated. Cost-benefit analysis.


DH

Great recap and questions here David. Remember those awful defeats at McGill Stadium during the Wally era? BMO seems be the new horror place for the Leos in recent years.

I’m wondering about what they are going to do when Whitehead returns too. Hatcher is their best all around receiver and show why again last night. But which American wil be dropped? It’s too bad Terry Williams is a receiver as BC could use an American RB that can return kicks for Mizzell insurance.

Could Williams be dropped with Lucky asked to return kicks? Hatcher also returned punts in the West Final when Williams was dinged.

[DanoT]

Whitehead is out with a hamstring injury and with those are the type of injuries you don't want to rush back to the field unless 100% due to how easy it is to re-injure, so extra time off might be beneficial.

[David]

Great recap and questions here David. Remember those awful defeats at McGill Stadium during the Wally era? BMO seems be the new horror place for the Leos in recent years.

And all those games we got hammered in the Hammer, Sammy? Even last year at McGill, we didn't play intense, mistake-free football like we do at home or in other time zones. It seems there is something about the 3-hour time difference, flying in the day before. It warrants a deeper-dive study IMO. Whether Doman would be willing to foot the bill for an extra day on the road is another matter.


DH

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions don’t have to drop an American when Whitehead comes back. They dressed 19 Americans instead of the maximum of 20 against Toronto. They’ve been starting 8 true Canadians all season. They started 4 American receivers throughout training camp and planned to do that in the regular season if Hatcher was healthy. When Lucky returns, McInnis will just go back to a part-time role. He may also take some of Cottoy’s reps.

[SammyGreene]

Thanks BC FAN. Given all your time at TC I was hoping you would provide the answer. Although I did like the luxury of having an extra American LB for special teams when they dressed Parker.

[cromartie]

So having seen it in person (yikes) I noticed a couple of things.

First, let me mention the good. I really, really, really enjoy watching Cottoy play. He's a lot of fun whether he's out wide, run blocking, serving as a tight end or just generally being moved around the field. And watching how he was used this week was really the only happiness I got out of this game. I enjoy him as a player and I enjoy a game plan that generally makes use of his size and versatility.

That's about all I got that's good, so let's get to the rest.

The game plan here was to use a sixth blocker (usually Cottoy) to help against Toronto's very good front four. And that can work however, you need Whitehead in the lineup to pull that off, and the Lions didn't have that. Or you need to roll your QB out and overload the wide side of the field to pull that off, and with just a couple of exceptions (neither of which happened before halftime), the Lions didn't do that Or you need to rely on someone to leak out of the backfield to serve as a dependable outlet receiver that the QB can get to in a pinch. But the Lions didn't do that much either.

What they tried to do instead is run the offense Rick Cambpell likes to run, and the one out of which VA likes to operate, which is an intermediate to deep passing game over the middle of the field from within the pocket. That works against teams with either a bad secondary, a bad pass rush, or both but Toronto is not one of those teams. If you don't have Whitehead to force opposing secondaries to back off, they don't respect your boundary receivers, and that frees them to double up intermediate routes across the center of the field. Consider that four of the six interceptions happened when Rhymes was the target. Rhymes in the center of the field isn't always VA's first read, but it is the defacto outlet read in that scheme and the Argos doubled it for most of the evening. That was two of the four INTs.

Take that primary outlet read away, and take away Whitehead, and this offense doesn't work against good defenses. It isn't a simple matter of rushing three and dropping nine; Toronto rushed four most of the night. It's a matter of doubling the outlet and the Lions failing to adjust to that until late in the game.

The last INT was just VA not seeing the defender jumping in front of the receiver he was locked in on while scrambling late in the game. That one is what it is and it happens to every QB.

One was a deflection, the receiver had an opportunity there and didn't haul it in.

One occurred when Rhymes ran an in cut but VA thought he was running an out.

The third was Rhymes ran a stop and go while VA threw the go ball.

You can't have a night that honors Damon Allen without a few Time Count Violations now, can you?

Defensively, four of those TDs happened after turnovers on short fields. One thing worth nothing though is that we did less zone blitzing and more straight blitzing, and once the Argos identified where the blitzes were coming from, they threw to the vacated areas. Again, that was a second half adjustment on their part and the defensive coaching staff needs to be mindful of that moving forward. I think all of the Argos scoring drives started in plus territory and that's a testament to how well the defense managed to play despite the hole they found themselves in.

The Argos are clearly better on Special Teams than we are, (indicative of roster depth and talent) and I'm not terribly impressed with Flintock. Mizzell doesn't do much for me either; he's a fine runner but doesn't really offer up much in terms of vision.

In general, I expect more discipline from this team than I saw on Monday. They were absolutely outcoached and out-executed on Special Teams and offense and this game is a clear signal that the offensive coaching staff needs to tweak its approach when Lucky isn't in the lineup.

But it isn't the end of the world.

[David]

You can't have a night that honors Damon Allen without a few Time Count Violations now, can you?

So true!

Thank you for your insights, Cro. Great analysis. I would have thought Hollins's speed would make up for the loss of Lucky by taking the top off the defense. If he's not 'as fast,' he's pretty darn close. Argos spied Rhymes really well. I see that he only caught 3 balls on 10 targets.

I would like to see Cottoy used more often too; he can release like a tight end and be open as an outlet for VA. But you're right. VA (Maksymic?) favors the intermediate, deep passing plays over the middle that aren't always going to work against good defenses. VA's strength as a QB is generally when he rolls out, something he did far too little of against Mace's defense.

Not big on Flintoft either. Too erratic for an American punter. If you're going to burn an import roster spot on a punter, he'd better be damn good. He is fine, but nothing exceptional (currently #9 in punting average). I like Mizzell (I now see how he earned the nickname 'Smoke'), but still waiting to see him break a big one.


DH

[B.C.FAN]

Thanks BC FAN. Given all your time at TC I was hoping you would provide the answer. Although I did like the luxury of having an extra American LB for special teams when they dressed Parker.

No problem. When Whitehead returns, McInnis could replace Petermann as a backup receiver. That would allow the Lions to activate another national who would be useful on special teams, perhaps Bemiy, Hinsperger or St. Pierre.

[cromartie]

I would like to see Cottoy used more often too; he can release like a tight end and be open as an outlet for VA. But you're right. VA (Maksymic?) favors the intermediate, deep passing plays over the middle that aren't always going to work against good defenses. VA's strength as a QB is generally when he rolls out, something he did far too little of against Mace's defense.

Not big on Flintoft either. Too erratic for an American punter. If you're going to burn an import roster spot on a punter, he'd better be damn good. He is fine, but nothing exceptional (currently #9 in punting average). I like Mizzell (I now see how he earned the nickname 'Smoke'), but still waiting to see him break a big one.


DH

The entire offensive game plan revolves around how Cottoy is used. The next game you watch in person, just watch him pre-snap. It's really, really cool. Even if he never touches the ball he's an important part of this offense.

I don't agree that VA is particularly strong when he rolls out. I think what he wants to do is make decisions in a clean pocket between the hashes ala Burris. He's not like, to use one exmaple for us old timers, Jarious Jackson who needed the amount of field over which he had to make decisions to be reduced in order to make effective decisions. VA is a pocket passer. His skill set works well in the offense Campbell wants to run; that's the reason we gave up a pick for him. But that offense is beatable when it really matters and that is VA's limitation as a QB. That's not personal and it doesn't mean I don't like him, every QB has limitations and things they don't do well. When he rolls out, his decision making is limited such that he becomes prone to what you saw in INT #5 where he looks past a defender onto his target. His decisionmaking is actually slower when he's rolling than when he's in a clean pocket. He has to think on the run; passing is more natural within the pocket. Not every QB processes that way, so he's unique in that regard.

But the offense, as it's currently designed needs a Whitehead to be the proverbial lid lifter. Maybe two in order to work. It doesn't work as designed with possession guys. If you can't force single coverage between the hashes at intermediate depths it looks like Monday night.

Mizzell has some ups, and he can run straight ahead but his peripheral vision as a runner is very limited. So I'm meh on him, honestly.

[Hambone]

Lions success back east is hit and miss. I went back there in 2017 and watched them win back to back vs Toronto then Montreal. Had I looped back to Hamilton instead of carrying on to Quebec City I would have scored the trifecta as they beat the Ticats to go a purrfect 3-0 on their 3 game road trip.

[Hambone]

On Monday Adams reminded me of Danny McManus in his Lions tenure. D-Mac could look like the best QB in the CFL and the worst all in the same game. He'd make a bunch of great plays then come up with an inexcusable brain fart.

[David]

Lions success back east is hit and miss. I went back there in 2017 and watched them win back to back vs Toronto then Montreal. Had I looped back to Hamilton instead of carrying on to Quebec City I would have scored the trifecta as they beat the Ticats to go a purrfect 3-0 on their 3 game road trip.

In my experience, it's more miss. Not saying that the Toronto game wouldn't have happened if they flew in on Saturday as opposed to Sunday. But I've noticed far more concentration lapses in the Eastern time zone, and silly mistakes (time counts, bad penalties, INTs) than other places. If I am Doman I am doing a deeper dive into this.

Remember all of those defeats in Hamilton when Braley owned the club? We used to call it the Braley backyard barbecue curse.


DH

[cromartie]

On Monday Adams reminded me of Danny McManus in his Lions tenure. D-Mac could look like the best QB in the CFL and the worst all in the same game. He'd make a bunch of great plays then come up with an inexcusable brain fart.

Danny Mac was an entirely different type of QB. He had the single fastest release of any QB I ever saw short of Marino, but he was only throwing it one place, to the receiver running an intermediate ( 5-10 yard) drag route between the hashes. Because his release was fast that worked....between the 20s. But one of the problems was that that offense doesn't work on a short field, which is why teams he led had to kick so many field goals. JC82 would have been an ideal receiver for him.

To me, VA is an entirely different type of QB. He's a lot like Burris in his later years. He looks to throw, from the pocket, but to a deeper area of the field than Danny Mac did he's more of a post route guy (10-19 yards) . His release isn't as fast, his plays take longer to develop but when you have a Whitehead it works.

Eastern trips are always a problem. Montreal, for one, used to try and pull off the 1pm start when BC's body clocks were still set to 11 a.m. For years, remember that the Toronto/Hamilton swing was back to back and Braley always hosted a BBQ, which never helped.

There's no real secret here, other than to suggest that a lack of adequate self and opponent scouting may be the cause of the challenge out east. Some years are better than others because some years we scout better than others. It's one are where the Quality Control staff matters a lot.