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I watched the last game twice...and really, outside of two ill-timed passes intercepted, and Anton losing his contain toward the end of the game...we played a solid all-around game...

....there is no problem at middle linebacker, Bighill is doing an excellent job, he gets off blocks very well ...I think some folks assume he can't get off blocks because of his appearance, but if you watch closely, nothing's further from the truth, the kid packs a wallop, and he's fast...don't get fooled by tackles he makes further down field when he comes over to assist in areas that are not his territorial responsibility...the only time I've seen a runner get by him is when he was held (horse-collared) by a Roughrider lineman, and the other night versus the esks at the goal line when the o. lineman actually faced-masked him (if you watch that play, you can see how he gets suddenly wheeled around...the announcer on espn3 incorrectly said that he was late getting there...he was set to make that play just like he had when he totally pancaked Charles in the first quarter)...I've also noticed that when the defence goes with their package that does not include Bighill in, they are at risk on draw plays...I think the guy deserves way more credit than he's received thus far...and I predict he will be an all star this year...

...Geroy probably was nursing his finger a bit, but Travis shouldn't have thrown that ball...a tick later and Marco was wide open in the middle...

Coverage teams actually played well...the biggest chunks of hurtful yardage were due, obviously, to the two interceptions...QB's gotta take the wrap for those this time...which is good news, because Travis won't make the same mistake twice usually, right?

I think Bighill is very good , the defense is playing well the offense is a little off. They are just lacking the killer instinct but as the season goes on I think they will crank it up. Not worried at all.

each loss has been a matter of a couple of plays which speaks to the competitveness of the CFL West Div. In Sask if McCallum makes that kick we are up & a good chance of winning that game same in BC Place if Geroy makes that catch & walks in probly same result. but sometimes the football gods smile & sometimes they dont but in both games we held the statistical advantage in both Defence & Offence

Not that bad. OK, fair enough.

But the season has not turned into the cake walk some fans, and even some players (Hello Arland) might have thought.

And this Calgary team might be a load to handle. How will we feel if we go 2 and 3? Certainly not like world conquerors.

As good as we looked on paper, and in TC, and in preseason, it is a bit of a concern that have not found our stride, and that there are no easy wins in the league (I expect Winnipeg to show better than they have).

When asked about the close losses, Wally answered: "I would rather be 4 - 0. And that's all I am going to say." Something to that effect. I can't find the exact quote just now.

We have a ton of talent, hard working coaches, excellent players, but IMO are fighting the Grey Cup hangover, some complacency, motivated opponents bringing their A games, and some expectations of a cakewalk. Ain't gonna happen ...

thats just Arland being Arland a cocky player wanting to win every game but I do agree about motivated opponents bringing their A game but things are not as dire as some flaming bandwagoners are to suggest as fans in this city are apt to do. not you Joe but a lot of opinions on the street sometimes flop from one side 2 the other in a very extreme manner nothing will be easy but hopefully at the end of the day are true talent will rise to its expected spot.

As a Lions fan I'm naturally disappointed at being 2-2 but realistically did you expect them to go 18-0 ?

Well I guess I am a little bit concerned. We beat Winnipeg. Turns out they are not good. We beat Hamilton. We lose to Regina and Edmonton.

Calgary could be the strongest opponent we have faced. If we lose, and I think one cannot just assume victories all the time, how will we deal with that? If we get to 2 and 3, at that point I would suggest we are facing a challenge, and facing some adversity.

Just trying to be a bit realistic, not to put a damper on anybody's hopes. But we are not looking like a championship calibre team after 4 games.

We could smoke Calgary. Who knows? The season is young. We could shape up just fine. But it looks like it is going to be a hard fought year all the way.

donefron wrote:each loss has been a matter of a couple of plays which speaks to the competitveness of the CFL West Div. In Sask if McCallum makes that kick we are up & a good chance of winning that game same in BC Place if Geroy makes that catch & walks in probly same result. but sometimes the football gods smile & sometimes they dont but in both games we held the statistical advantage in both Defence & Offence

No arguement here. Good chance of us winning. Also that Ticat game was a close one too but we like how that one ended! The Lions have done some things this season that I do like.

1) the short yardage bugaboo that has haunted us for a few seasons, seems to be doing okay......
2) scoring late in a half was something I'm not used to seeing the Lions doing at home.....
3) continuing to use Andrew Harris.....
4) that dominating drive to close out the Ticat game. There was more than enough time for the Ticats to be able to get the ball back and get that tying field goal and/or drive for the win. BUT NO, the Oline, Recievers, QB and Harris WOULD NOT ALLOW the Ticats to get the ball back.

WestCoastJoe wrote:Well I guess I am a little bit concerned. We beat Winnipeg. Turns out they are not good. We beat Hamilton. We lose to Regina and Edmonton.

Calgary could be the strongest opponent we have faced. If we lose, and I think one cannot just assume victories all the time, how will we deal with that? If we get to 2 and 3, at that point I would suggest we are facing a challenge, and facing some adversity.

Just trying to be a bit realistic, not to put a damper on anybody's hopes. But we are not looking like a championship calibre team after 4 games.

We could smoke Calgary. Who knows? The season is young. We could shape up just fine. But it looks like it is going to be a hard fought year all the way.

we didnt look like a championship calibre team in week 4 last year or in the next 4 weeks after that either but championships arent won in week 4 or even week 8 the season is a long one and the return of Gore who was doing fantastic b4 he went down & the continued use of Harris who is just a beast will help our offence. must figure out a way to get Geroy & Arland more involved as they had just 7 passes combined to them where I do believe Ianuzzi & Moore had the majority of the tosses thrown their way with 17 in the Edm game. Also ST is killing us with long fields to try to get thru not too mention they cant stop anyone heading for the endzone which is somewhat troubling as well. Lulay also spending more time in the pocket instead of some of his OH SH1T runs that he has been known for tht keep drives alive, some are saying a foot injury may be hampering him. Bottom line it would be great to win every game in dominant fashion but the last one is the true aim of this season THE GREY CUP! Its become apparent though that it will not be easy but we did it once with this crew hopefully they will figure it out & do it again. we wanted to fire the whole team including Leo P & anyone in orange this time last year hopefully it wont be so stressful this year!

Realistically, all seasons are gonna be hard fought...We could certainly say that we did not look like a championship caliber team last year at this point, turned out pretty okay (not that that is how we want to live our lives this season)...Not looking like a dynasty or anything right yet, but I like that we've been within striking distance in each loss...take away a few bad plays and we could be sitting 4 and 0 right now...Hamilton has a lot of scary weapons that we survived...We should have beaten and Bombers like we did...So, there's definitely positives...the biggest of which is the fact that we have been down the road of the little this and thats costing us wins before and overcome it all...you hear the team reminding themselves of that all the time, and reminding themselves to work hard, punch the clock...they'll iron it out...right now is the true test of a championship caliber squad...I envision them being able to swagger from this point on because they're gonna get all the bugs out of the system, work for the wins like the champions they are, and earn their victories.

lfpeterson64 wrote:Realistically, all seasons are gonna be hard fought...We could certainly say that we did not look like a championship caliber team last year at this point, turned out pretty okay (not that that is how we want to live our lives this season)...Not looking like a dynasty or anything right yet, but I like that we've been within striking distance in each loss...take away a few bad plays and we could be sitting 4 and 0 right now...Hamilton has a lot of scary weapons that we survived...We should have beaten and Bombers like we did...So, there's definitely positives...the biggest of which is the fact that we have been down the road of the little this and thats costing us wins before and overcome it all...you hear the team reminding themselves of that all the time, and reminding themselves to work hard, punch the clock...they'll iron it out...right now is the true test of a championship caliber squad...I envision them being able to swagger from this point on because they're gonna get all the bugs out of the system, work for the wins like the champions they are, and earn their victories.

I hope that it is the case. You are very pessimistic in your views, nothing wrong with that, but in the first four games while the Lions were in the games, you have to account for their ST play has been inferior to the opposition. Combine that with the O not being anywhere near a level that we should expect at this point of the season and they have at least two of the there driving forces to step up. Then throw in the intangibles like taking penalties, forcing turnovers, and my personal favourite execution, the Lions have a lot farther than the "we could be 4 - 0" comment, which is a trait within the Lions organization that comes up all the time, when realistically their record IMO is flattering at this point. But I do like the version that you are suggesting, I can only sit back and wait for that team to materialize.

Coverage teams actually played well.

Coverage? better than it was against Hamilton but at best an average performance, and the return team had it's worst performance in a very long time. I would assert that it was unacceptable, frankly and it, along with a defense that generated only 2 2 and outs left the offense that isn't clicking in the passing game in a bad position for nearly the entire game.

So yeah. A below average special team performance couple with a defense that bent pretty far without breaking and an offense that can't execute deep passes and passes to outside receivers made for what I would characterize as a pretty bad game.

On the plus side, it's all fixable.

cromartie wrote:

Coverage teams actually played well.

Coverage? better than it was against Hamilton but at best an average performance, and the return team had it's worst performance in a very long time. I would assert that it was unacceptable, frankly and it, along with a defense that generated only 2 2 and outs left the offense that isn't clicking in the passing game in a bad position for nearly the entire game.

So yeah. A below average special team performance couple with a defense that bent pretty far without breaking and an offense that can't execute deep passes and passes to outside receivers made for what I would characterize as a pretty bad game.

On the plus side, it's all fixable.

The only drives for which our offence came away with points were the first drives of each half and covered 95 and 91 yards each (TD on each drive). We had three other drives that each covered over half the field — the 57 yard drive late in the first half that culminated in a punt instead of a 45yd FGA, the 70 yard drive that ended on the Burnett INT TD return, and another 70 yard drive at the very end of the game — but we came away from all of these with nothing to show for it on the scoreboard. Our remaining six offensive series covered a mere 97 yards total: an average of just over 16 yards each (all drive distances include all assessed penalty yardage for & against). We punted on all of these except for the one where Burnett notched his other pick.

Actually, my view is optimistic...I'm fully expecting the team to be firing on all cylinders in short order...It's obvious that all of the parts are there and once the guys get a tad more in sync they're going to take the league by storm...they're just tweaking some things here and there right now...but once things are balanced out the Lions will be pretty unstoppable...My point really is that they are better than they are showing right now, and, barring any major injury plagues, we're gonna see some outstanding football from the Lions...I just hate having to wait an entire week to witness the progress...

lfpeterson64 wrote:Actually, my view is optimistic...I'm fully expecting the team to be firing on all cylinders in short order...It's obvious that all of the parts are there and once the guys get a tad more in sync they're going to take the league by storm...they're just tweaking some things here and there right now...but once things are balanced out the Lions will be pretty unstoppable...My point really is that they are better than they are showing right now, and, barring any major injury plagues, we're gonna see some outstanding football from the Lions...I just hate having to wait an entire week to witness the progress...

I hear you, and so want that to be the case, yet not as willing to admit to that at this point.