TiCats 19 - Lions 17 Post Game Stats and Comments

[David]

What stuck out for me in the stats is Antolin's 9 carries for 23 yards. The Lions must have a rushing game to open up the passing game. They had no rushing game on Saturday night and were consequently in second and long far too often which allowed the Ticats' defence to easily defend the pass. IMO, the lack of a running game on Saturday night and too many other nights has been the crux of the Lions' offensive woes this season. Is that a personnel or coaching problem or a bit of both?

I voiced this concern earlier, Ravi. I know Hamilton has a stout run D, but it seemed to me that Antolin didn't have any gaps or holes to run through tonight. A Ti-Cat was often in the backfield to blow up the play right at the snap of the ball.

Our post-game announcer (Moj on TSN1040) seemed to put more blame on Antolin (being too nervous/anxious IIRC) but I really don't think Harris or Logan would have fared much better. To answer your question, I put more blame on coaching. We're playing 3 internationals across the line and we can't even get decent yardage! Norman is having his struggles at centre, but c'mon. Run blocking should be easier than pass blocking (picking up blitzes, stunts etc).


DH

[TheLionKing]

Think the Lions need to find a true centre for next season and move Matt Norman to guard. He seems lost at centre.

[Blitz]

Wow....another loss and another game of watching our offence look lost in the wilderness, with little water or food. Each game now looks like a repeat of the previous one - our offence can't open holes for the run game and our vanilla passing attack is anemic. In the meanwhile our defense pitches another touchdown shut out in futility.

I just finished reading the story of the game in the Province and here are some interesting facts:

~We are not going in a good direction. This was our Leos 3rd straight loss and its the first time we've lost 3 in a row since the start of the 2011 season.

~Paul McCallum did not to get on the field for his second straight game, except for converts, a first in his 22-year career.

+Half time adjustments reflect coaching success or incompetence. The Arsenault touchdown throw to Gore was only the third touchdown scored by our Lions offence this season in the third quarter.

~Our offence had only scored four points in the last six games in the third prior to the touchdown.

~Our defence has given our offence 5 games this season in which they have held the oppostion out of our end zone. We've lost 3 of those five games.

~It was the second straight game this season that we failed to pass for over 200 yards (and it certainly was not because we ran the football a lot.

~This was the fifth game this season that we've failed to pass for over 200 yards.


Some post game thoughts:

COACHING

Coach Benevedes said, after the game "Thank goodness the defence kept them out of the end zone. We ran out of time". No, we didn't run out of time. We gave up the football on downs. But Benevedes quote "We ran out of time" has meaning. We are runnng out of time to be a good football team. We are running out of time for Benevedes to become a leader who inspires confidence. We are running out of time for our offence to become even competent.

Time is the most valuable resource in life. It should never be wasted. But we continue to waste time on an offensive scheme that is going nowhere. We are also wasting time with an offensive line coach who can't get it done, even with aratio wasting 3 International offensive lineman -we still can't open a hole for a running back or give our quarterback enough time to throw. We're running out of time to come up with a passing scheme that uses all of our receivers or at least gives a different look to each passing play.

We've also running out of time for our special teams to give our team a lift. Once again our return men were snowed under. We got a couple of decent games in with Brown back there but the reality is that our special team blocking usually sucks. Last night our downfield coverage was undisciplined and it hurt us.

Mark Washington and his assistants continue to give us the ability to win but this must be a demoralized unit. Game in and game out, they come up with inspired efforts only to watch an inept offence struggle.

OFFENCE

Paul McCallum called our offence boring. The Province called it inept and confused. Paul McCallum said we are "missing assignments on offence" That's coaching. We're also not making half time adjustments - our third quarter scoring this season is an embarrassment. That's coaching. We are being beaten too often on simple defensive stunts. That's coaching.

Dialing back to 2013, we are seeing a familiar script. Our offensive line can't pass block effectively and can't open holes for the running game. In 2011 and 2012 Chap was able to work around this dilemna by going with power formations on first down, a lot of motion and misdirection play action, and using a lot of formations for the passing attack. Having a mobile quarterback also made a huge difference. However, by 2013, defenses were bltizing Lulay from the outside to take away his running threat and stunting inside. They also brought a lot more people into the box to shut down our running game.

Last season, during mid-season, our run game was being shut down and Lulay or DeMarco were getting very little time to throw. Chap came under some heavy heat for keeping Harris in to pass block about one out of every three pass plays. He did that so that our quarterback might have the opportunity to have the time to throw downfield without heavy pressure.

But Chap at least tried to do SOMETHING last year. He used a variety of run plays from the direct snap to the running back, the shovel pass, the quick pitch toss, the draw play, fly sweep. In the passing attack he used a ton of motion, hitch screens, short and wide bunch formations, four receivers to one side of the field, etc, etc. With a rookie center in Norman, losing Fabian at guard, and with a left guard and left tackle who were in the twilight of their careers, a starting quarterback with a very sore arm or a rookie quarterback who had only 4 pro snaps prevously, Chap didn't have the luxury of 3 International offensive lineman and yet he was able to work around our problems enough to move the football.

Khari Jones is doing NOTHING to change things. Well, ok, we did pull a play off the back shelf, the reverse throw from Arsenault to Gore...which by the way we had only practiced once and Arsenault had missed the throw at practice. But our offence continues to be a five receiver spread offence with a simple zone read run play between the tackles and a very vanilla passing offence with 3 recievers to the wide side and 2 on the short side. We are so easy to defend.

One thing is clear to me. Kevin Glenn does not BELIEVE in this offence anymore. He is attempting to make low percentage throws too often to covered receivers. 15 of 20 pass plays went to the slots or our tailback. Ernest Jackson, a receiver I've always liked, made a great catch and a couple of big plays but he our outside recievers are a designed after thought in this offensive scheme.

Paul McCallum said, after the game "We keep going over it and over it, but we keep making mental mistakes. We’re creating chaos in a chaotic game. We need to be mentally focused.” The reality is that this is a poorly coached offence, with a very restrictive scheme, and the players know its limitations. As noted in the Province "Whether it’s missed blocks, protection breakdowns, penalties, dropped passes, or the inability to get open and execute the proper routes, you name it the Lions are finding ways to make things downright frustrating offensively".

The reality is that this offence is going NOWHERE, unless we make some serious scheme changes to attempt to get around inadequate offensive line play.

DEFENSE

Our defence gave up over 300 yards of passing, well below their usual CFL leading level of pass defense. The reason was in front of every fan's eyes who watched the game. Collarus could have taken out a picnic basket and made himself a sandwich and still had time to throw. There were times that he threw the football, after the requisite 3 seconds, and there wasn't a Lion pass rusher withn 5 yards of him.

No matter how talented and skilled our linebackers and defensive backs are, they cannot consistently cover for that long. And yet, still, we kept Hamilton out of the end zone, only giving up four field goals. Adam Bighill had an excellent game. He has been in the shadow of Eliminian this season. Bighill has also been used more ithis season in a pass coverage role. Last night he made plays, covered very well downfield with deep drops, and made some great reads. Ryan Phillips made some outstanding plays. Josh Johnson broke very well on a pass play, cutting across the defender for a Pick 6.

We even held Hamilton out of the end zone, after a terrible review of a pass interference call that put the football on our one yard line. Almost all reviews of pass interference this year, without clear proof of serious pass interference, have not been overturned but somehow, that didn't happen when it came to our Lions. But our defense dug in and stopped the second and one play, forcing the field goal.

It should have been inspriring for our offence. But instead they went out and fizzled, throwing the opportunity away to just get into field goal range.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Another punt returner is snowed under a swarm of tacklers. On the other side, our Lions are in a chase position as another punt returner finds holes in our downfield coverage.

Schmitt punted the football very well, McCallum continued to rust on convert attemtps, because they happen so infrequently, and McMann, with his plastic sheets on the sidelines, looks more confused than ever.

WRAP

Angus Reid said before this game it was time for Benevedes to become the leader our Lions need, to get our team to believe. Perhaps he thought looking like an intellectual would help create a new personna. But all I could see was still a yapping or cheering but very unpoised Head Coach with no answers.

Time is definitely running out on our Leos this season. Same old, same old will not cut it on offence. Speical teams are also not good enough.

So many good additions to this 2014 Leo team. So much opportunity and potential. We're throwing it away and its heart breaking to watch.

[JohnHenry]

Think the Lions need to find a true centre for next season and move Matt Norman to guard. He seems lost at centre.

The centre of our OL has been a weak link for the past two years. Norman was given a free pass because the team was desperate and had nobody else. But if he's ineffective at centre what makes you think he'd make a good guard?

Another sacred cow is K. Smith. He's produced little in the 4 years he's been here. I realize many rave about him, but Isn't a DE supposed to get sacks and pressure the QB from time to time? At least Torrey Williams wasn't as prominent last night.

I thought K. Glenn played another great game. Late in the fray, he dropped that purrfect long bomb right over Jackson's shoulder, hitting him on the hand, but Jackson didn't seem aware of the pass, not even looking up for it. A couple fewer drops from our butter-fingered receivers and the Lions could have come out victorious last night.

[MexicoLionFan]

The Lions only TD pass was from a WR on a trick play. Our principal RB ran for 23 yards on NINE, count them, NINE carries! Our western all star WR had 23 receiving yards? There's your game. The Lions have a MASSIVE OLine and we should be able to ram the ball down the throats of ANY CFL team if we just run block mano e mano! What is happening on offence is disgraceful, BUT to fire Jones solves NOTHING! He might be a problem, but he's NOT THE PROBLEM. Dan Dorazio is...as Blitz has constantly reminded us, our OLinemen get WORSE evey year under the coaching of Dorazio. HE MUST GO, and if he doesn't, then NONE OF THIS CHANGES. Clearly JC suffered as an OC because he did not totally control the Offence and no say over the OLine. Now Jones...whose next? It doesn't matter until DD goes.

As for Defence, they played hard again, but SOFT! No sacks once again from either Bazzie or Smith...they have single blocking on almost every down. HAM rarely even kept a back in to help against them. That's just brutal. You are a yard off the ball and Collaros took a while to release the ball...you MUST have multiple sacks under conditions like that! Take JJohnson's great individual effort away on the INT TD, and our Defence actually didn't do all that much...Hamilton's own INEPTITUDE did much more! And with horrid S Ts again, we just are NOT a very good football team!

BTW, as for Joe's "Game Diary" I wish that more posters here would do that...its fascinating to me as it takes us inside your mind and let's us see the progression of thoughts. Along with Blitz's and BCFAN"s detailed game posts, Joe's Diary is the best thing on this board!!! TLK, Blitz, Cro, Nota, Sammy, Dano I would love if some of you did that as well!

[MexicoLionFan]

Outstanding post Blitz, thank you so much!

McCallum said it all, "we are creating chaos in a chaotic game"...I disagree strongly with Paul that football is a chaotic game, but I understand completely why he said it. This offence is in utter chaos and football is a SIMPLE GAME! Those are two words we don't think about enough...one, its a game and two, its simple...on offence, especially in the CFL, they are GIFTED so many advantages over the defence. The Offence is the only group that should know what play is going to be called, on what snap count, and by which medium (run or pass). The CFL field is 110 yards long and 55 yards wide...we even give offences a natural "timeout" for the last three minutes in each half! The end zones are 20 FREAKING YARDS DEEP! What more do you want? Now, when it looks like the Defence KNOWS what we are running and when and how, there are only two possibilities...one, either we are under surveillance by the Patriot's coaching staff, or two, WE HAVE TENDENCIES that give away what we are doing.

The Lions offence, whether under Chaps (until he broke up his spread offence) or under Jones TELL THE WORLD what they are going to do play in and play out. Add to that the fact that Dorazio has turned 300 lb. monsters into tepid kittens, and this Offence couldn't beat a CIS team. OLinemen, for the most part, aren't necessarily deep thinkers, but what they are for sure are maulers...LET THEM MAUL! Let them do what they do best. With the D being a yard off the football, there shouldn't be a team in the league that can consistently stop our running game. We have 3 INT OLinemen who are natural run blockers and are monsters...our NAT Linemen are maulers too. Shove the football down their throats...force their LBs and DBs to cheat forward and make their first steps forward, then run a PLAY ACTION pass! Now all of you have played the game, even in a field behind your own house. No one, not even Ronnie Lott or Larry Crawford can defence a flag pattern off of a play action pass. Its impossible, especially if the DB is guessing as to pass or run...he have the ability to lineup Manny and EJ as slot receivers...we could have big play after big play if we just had a consistent running game and we actually remembered that play action is part of football. Jones made a living as a QB, using playaction...this is what I ran all the time when I played, and I practised LONG hours disguising the football. Why don't we do this? Even when Andrew Harris was tearing up the league this season, we didn't run play action. I'll bet we haven't run play action passes more than 10 times in 14 games this season, and it SHOULD BE the FOCAL POINT of our offensive strategy!

Now, a number of you have suggested that the players have quit on the coaches, or tuned them out. That rarely happens in football, it might be happening here, but I doubt it...Washington certainly has his unit in tune with him and they play hard every snap. On offence I don't think they have quit on Jones, they simply DON'T HAVE ANY CONFIDENCE. Think about it...anything in life, from downhill skiing to baking a cake gets done well ONCE YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT IT! Until then, we struggle until such time as we BELIEVE! And NOTHING will change for our offence until such time as Jones and his players start BELIEVING that they can execute and be successful! Unfortunately, its hard to believe that you are good at something until you have done it and had success! And who are the players looking to for help? Who is Jones looking to for assistance? Everything on this football team points back to a HC that doesn't really KNOW football. Now, turn and imagine John Hufnagel or Marc Trestman? Those are two guys that players and coaches can go to for answers. What would MB do if Jones walked into his offence and said "help"! Here's a scenario..."Dog, you got want it, your players gotta want it...you gotta take it one play at a time and keep your focus on every down...chest bump them when they do something right and scream at them when they do something wrong Dog..." Then Jones..."Ah, gee, thanks MB, I just wanted some ideas on a running play?" MB again, "Yo Dog, make 'em believe, make 'em believe dog, make them dogs on your Oline come home to roost!" Jones again..."Ah, thanks MB, I'll just go talk to Kato instead..."

As for Washington and our Defence...again, they play hard and clog up spaces downfield so QBs have a hard time finding open receivers...but we have little or NO consistent pressure on the their QB. And when you give teams and QBs time to think and adjust, they will beat you. We are having success defensively because we confuse CFL QBs but we don't SCARE THEM. Give me FEAR over confusion everyday of the weak on defence...Scared teams don't make adjustments, they just turn the football over!

[B.C.FAN]

What would MB do if Jones walked into his offence and said "help"! Here's a scenario..."Dog, you got want it, your players gotta want it...you gotta take it one play at a time and keep your focus on every down...chest bump them when they do something right and scream at them when they do something wrong Dog..." Then Jones..."Ah, gee, thanks MB, I just wanted some ideas on a running play?" MB again, "Yo Dog, make 'em believe, make 'em believe dog, make them dogs on your Oline come home to roost!" Jones again..."Ah, thanks MB, I'll just go talk to Kato instead..."

That's funny, MLF. I can hear it. Thanks for the morning laugh.

[Blitz]

BTW, as for Joe's "Game Diary" I wish that more posters here would do that...its fascinating to me as it takes us inside your mind and let's us see the progression of thoughts. Along with Blitz's and BCFAN"s detailed game posts, Joe's Diary is the best thing on this board!!! TLK, Blitz, Cro, Nota, Sammy, Dano I would love if some of you did that as well!

I could do a diary of the next game and post it on the Annus Stukus board. It would be too long to post on this board. I enjoy Joe's Diary too...takes one back through the game.

What I really like on Lionbackers is the different perspectives and insights from Lionbacker posters. This post-game thread is an example. I love your posts MLF because they come from a strategic set of binoculars from someone who played the game at a high level. WCJ brings a coaching background and a history of the Leos to his perspective, along with tremendous enthusiasm for this site. B.C. Fan keeps emotion out of his posts and provides detachment with his analysis - which is needed. Cro brings a lot of football knowledge to his posts and a keen eye. Dano brings wisdom while the Lion King brings conciseness and wit amongst other offerings. Rammer is a 'nail on the head' style of poster, David always brings freshness even though he's a long time poster, Sir Percival often enriches with a big picture. Pigskin brings his passion to the equation, John Henry calls them very direct, as he sees them, Toppy Vann his coaching and management experience, notahomer provides key takeaways from each and every game and bosco, unlike me, is efficient in his synthesis. All these differernt posts, from so many knowledgeable posters (and I've missed commenting on many of you) make this site a very high level site.

Right now, its a tough situation. However, its not impossible at all. We have a championship calibre defense, even without a decent pass rush. Just think how good it could be if we could actually get some pressure on a quarterback.

On offence, Glenn has been good enough in the past to beat us badly in a WDF and take Calgary to a Grey Cup berth. However, he needs a running attack and something reasonable, in terms of pass protection, to get it done. Arsenault is a Top 5 receiver and Ernest Jackson has enough talent to get it done. Gore has shown in the past that he can be a very good Canadian receiver. We won a Grey Cup with Iannuzzi as a starter. We won a Grey Cup with Valli as a starter. Logan will be back and his 145 yards rushing against Toronto showed enough that he still has enough ability.

The main problems of our offence come down to coaching. Jones does not have a good scheme and is stuck in a vanila spread offence. He is using a small offering of the old Calgary offence. Our receiving talent is not progressing under PaoPao and I did not anticipate it would. Dorazio's record of poor pass protection (our Leos have protected our quarterback the least over the past 10 years, with either smart of very mobile quarterbacks and our injury rate for our quarterbacks is very high) combined with long stretches when we can't open a hole for our tailback) are strong indicators that change is badly needed. For next season, its time to give Kelly Bates the opportunity.

McMann has been around for a long time now and he does not inspire. Our speical teams are quite simply not adequately prepared or coached.

Benevedes is the Head Coach of this team, at least in title. He could direct Jones to innovate more, to get out of the spread so much, to make changes. He obviously hasn't and the buck stops with him.

But for this season at least, its who we have. This is not impossible to turn around for this season but its impossible if we keep trying to do the same thing over and over again. Stupidity is trying to do the same thing over again when it doesn' t work.

The best play of last nights game was a so called 'gimmick' play. There are no 'gimmick' plays in football. That's just a word that was invented by a losing coach who got fooled by an unpredictable play in a game. Its an ego defense word. Any play that works is a good play.

There is no reason to run such a bad offence. Glenn is more than capable of running a fake reverse and semi-boot to throw to a reciever running a corner pattern or hitting the back underneath, sliding to open space after a fake handoff. There is no excuse for such a lack of play action plays. There is no excuse for such an ineffectual running attack (both by design and blocking) or such poor pass protection. Quite frankly, individually, talent wise, none of our offensive lineman are as bad as our Lions coaching staff is able to make them look.

Our defense gave us the lead for most of the game against Hamilton, held the Ticats from scoring a touchdown while being on the field way too long again, plus gave our offence a defensive touchdown. We couldn't run the football with the lead, abandoned the run, and we couldn't pass the football either.

We've lost 3 of 5 games when our defense has held the opposition out of the end zone.

Its quite frankly pathetic and inexcusable.

[WestCoastJoe]

BTW, as for Joe's "Game Diary" I wish that more posters here would do that...its fascinating to me as it takes us inside your mind and let's us see the progression of thoughts. Along with Blitz's and BCFAN"s detailed game posts, Joe's Diary is the best thing on this board!!! TLK, Blitz, Cro, Nota, Sammy, Dano I would love if some of you did that as well!

Thanks, MLF. Just something I started to do with my iPad, in order to have a quick post for game end. Our appetite for reading about our team is rather huge. So many knowledgeable posters on here. As noted previously, the collective wisdom of a group of people with a passion and vast lifetime experiences goes deep. We see that on this site. I know that I always look forward to the comments of MLF and Blitz and so many others. It always helps to understand, and that is what we get.

The Lions offence, whether under Chaps (until he broke up his spread offence) or under Jones TELL THE WORLD what they are going to do play in and play out. Add to that the fact that Dorazio has turned 300 lb. monsters into tepid kittens, and this Offence couldn't beat a CIS team. OLinemen, for the most part, aren't necessarily deep thinkers, but what they are for sure are maulers...LET THEM MAUL! Let them do what they do best. With the D being a yard off the football, there shouldn't be a team in the league that can consistently stop our running game. We have 3 INT OLinemen who are natural run blockers and are monsters...our NAT Linemen are maulers too. Shove the football down their throats...force their LBs and DBs to cheat forward and make their first steps forward, then run a PLAY ACTION pass! Now all of you have played the game, even in a field behind your own house. No one, not even Ronnie Lott or Larry Crawford can defence a flag pattern off of a play action pass. Its impossible, especially if the DB is guessing as to pass or run...he have the ability to lineup Manny and EJ as slot receivers...we could have big play after big play if we just had a consistent running game and we actually remembered that play action is part of football. Jones made a living as a QB, using playaction...this is what I ran all the time when I played, and I practised LONG hours disguising the football. Why don't we do this? Even when Andrew Harris was tearing up the league this season, we didn't run play action. I'll bet we haven't run play action passes more than 10 times in 14 games this season, and it SHOULD BE the FOCAL POINT of our offensive strategy!

MLF, of so many of your outstanding posts, this is one of your best.

Given the right mind set, our O Line can be maulers. That is what they were in college. How do they lose it? Too much garbage in the head. Too much focus on itty bitty techniques. Too much focus on complicated assignments. Too much hesitation. Too much confusion. Poor results. Loss of confidence.

Confidence can always be destroyed, especially by overcoaching. It is hard to build. Austin builds it, with his QBs, with his entire team. Hufnagel builds it. Chris Jones builds it. Milanovich builds it. That might be Job 1 for a Head Coach -- building confidence. Lombardi did it. Jimmy Johnson did it. Madden did it. Bill Walsh did it. Pete Carroll does it.

Can our O Line get or regain some confidence at this time? It is always possible. Hamilton did it. They have transformed their O Line.

Now, a number of you have suggested that the players have quit on the coaches, or tuned them out. That rarely happens in football, it might be happening here, but I doubt it...Washington certainly has his unit in tune with him and they play hard every snap. On offence I don't think they have quit on Jones, they simply DON'T HAVE ANY CONFIDENCE. Think about it...anything in life, from downhill skiing to baking a cake gets done well ONCE YOU BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT IT! Until then, we struggle until such time as we BELIEVE! And NOTHING will change for our offence until such time as Jones and his players start BELIEVING that they can execute and be successful! Unfortunately, its hard to believe that you are good at something until you have done it and had success! And who are the players looking to for help? Who is Jones looking to for assistance? Everything on this football team points back to a HC that doesn't really KNOW football. Now, turn and imagine John Hufnagel or Marc Trestman? Those are two guys that players and coaches can go to for answers. What would MB do if Jones walked into his offence and said "help"! Here's a scenario..."Dog, you got want it, your players gotta want it...you gotta take it one play at a time and keep your focus on every down...chest bump them when they do something right and scream at them when they do something wrong Dog..." Then Jones..."Ah, gee, thanks MB, I just wanted some ideas on a running play?" MB again, "Yo Dog, make 'em believe, make 'em believe dog, make them dogs on your Oline come home to roost!" Jones again..."Ah, thanks MB, I'll just go talk to Kato instead..."

I agree with your premise. Our guys played hard. They have not given up on themselves nor on their HC. For one thing, they cannot give up. New coach means huge turnover in personnel. But they have doubts. As pros, they don't like the rah rah stuff, the cliches, nor the wasted emotion. Mostly they want answers. They want direction. They want belief. They want results. When the results are poor, confidence goes down the drain.

After 14 games, in our third year of this regime, we are what we are. We play hard. As noted many, many times, our biggest hurdle is this ... The level of coaching facing us. Just look at Kent Austin's journey as a football player and coach. It is about as good as it can get. Look at his well focused intensity. Intensity with sharp purpose. Takes a few notes. Checks his sheets. Misses nothing. His players give him exactly what he wants, because they know exactly what he wants. And he identifies strengths in his team, and weaknesses/tendencies in his opponents.

They had us fooled on the punt onside. Phillips took it early or the TiCat was there.

They had us fooled on the pass from Banks. And the pass to Grant. These were not accidents.

They had a game plan that produced way over three hundred yards passing. They put extreme pressure on our D. They had a game plan that laid a body on Solo on virtually every play. They had a game plan that put extreme pressure on beleaguered Kevin Glenn. They had great ST returns, defensive coverage and trickery.

They built their O Line, its skills and confidence in a hurry. They have a very tough defence. They moved the ball almost will. They should have had a bunch more points. They fully deserved to win.

We dodged a few bullets that night. At the start we took a quick 10 point lead. Thereafter we were generally outplayed in my view. The football Gods would have been cruel to deny the TiCats IMO.

No complaints with our effort. But once again we were badly outcoached.

[DanoT]

From Blitz: "Quite frankly, individually, talent wise, none of our offensive lineman are as bad as our Lions coaching staff is able to make them look. "

Blitz, you said a mouthful.

[Belize City Lion]

I pin this loss on Bene. The defence is playing well, you've got a punter who can boot the stitches off the ball, and you insist on giving up back to back safeties that turn a 5 point lead into a situation where a field goal beats you?? Punt the ball, put one of the leagues best defences on the field and let them hold the Ticats to a FG that would still leave the Lions in the lead. Worst case, they score a TD and you are no worse off than the Lions ultimately ended up being, but with a lot more time left on the clock. MB gives away 4 points and then when the Ticats do manage to kick a FG they win. Brutal coaching decisions from a HC that is proving to be more and more that he was never ready this job.

[sj-roc]

I pin this loss on Bene. The defence is playing well, you've got a punter who can boot the stitches off the ball, and you insist on giving up back to back safeties that turn a 5 point lead into a situation where a field goal beats you?? Punt the ball, put one of the leagues best defences on the field and let them hold the Ticats to a FG that would still leave the Lions in the lead. Worst case, they score a TD and you are no worse off than the Lions ultimately ended up being, but with a lot more time left on the clock. MB gives away 4 points and then when the Ticats do manage to kick a FG they win. Brutal coaching decisions from a HC that is proving to be more and more that he was never ready this job.

The funny thing, no team so far this year has had its offence begin drives inside its own 10yd line LESS often than the Lions (this is mostly on account of our defence and P/K return teams), except for the Argos (just barely).

Yet, we're the team that surrenders safeties MOST often in this scenario (see stats below), even on an absolute level. Percentage-wise, it's not even close. This comes down to (a) lack of offensive strength to get yourself out of trouble and (b) coaching (they're the ones who make the decision whether to concede and have to communicate it to the players). Although I haven't been able (haven't attempted) to suss out which of the factors is more significant, these are definitely regarded from a fan's POV as the two most widely troubling facets of our team.

Here's the breakdown on safeties conceded when starting inside one's own 10:

Edm: 0/14 (0%)
Cgy: 0/13 (0%)
Tor: 0/6 (0%)
Ott: 1/10 (10%)
Wpg: 2/12 (17%)
Ssk: 2/9 (22%)
Ham: 4/16 (25%)
Mtl: 3/7 (43%)
BC: 5/7 (71%)

Edm & Cgy have each been in this situation about TWICE as often as us. And they HAVE YET to concede a safety.

So what's with us and the Santa Claus act?

Oh, and if you're curious about what happened those two times we didn't concede...

Once was against Wpg here on Sep 13 on our first drive of Q4. We went 2 & out and punted. Wpg then went 2 & out themselves (but were still able to kick a 49yd FG, which is another edge teams have on us).

The other was in Q2 of the early-season debacle in Mtl on July 4. We managed a pair of first down catches from Gore and Taylor but then Logan fumbled it back to Mtl who took over on our 43. They managed one first down before settling for a 34yd FG.

[tedbear]

I pin this loss on Bene. The defence is playing well, you've got a punter who can boot the stitches off the ball, and you insist on giving up back to back safeties that turn a 5 point lead into a situation where a field goal beats you?? Punt the ball, put one of the leagues best defences on the field and let them hold the Ticats to a FG that would still leave the Lions in the lead. Worst case, they score a TD and you are no worse off than the Lions ultimately ended up being, but with a lot more time left on the clock. MB gives away 4 points and then when the Ticats do manage to kick a FG they win. Brutal coaching decisions from a HC that is proving to be more and more that he was never ready this job.

Yes I agree with you on this one. Where Benny really failed was when he later stated their was confusion and he did not want to concede the second safety. As soon as they first made the decision to concede the first safety I was thinking that if they go two and out on the next series they could be in the same situation. I was trying to figure out what they would do if that would occur again? It seems Benny never even gave this a thought as he was to busy pacing the field clapping. Note to Benny: Clapping doesn't do it try figuring out all the scenarios that may pop up in the game and be prepared for them.

That decision should have been made as soon as he conceded the first one knowing that the way his offence was moving the ball there was more than a likely chance he could be in that position again. There is no way there should have been any confusion. That is all on Benny and he wasn't ready for it. This one instance says it all about the way our head coach is prepared. The punt team should have been informed on what Benny wanted them to do before they took the field. There are two kinds of coaching. Coaches that react to what has just happened and Coaches that are pro-active and are ready for anything before it happens. Benny is proving what kind of coach he is.

[WestCoastJoe]

That decision should have been made as soon as he conceded the first one knowing that the way his offence was moving the ball there was more than a likely chance he could be in that position again. There is no way there should have been any confusion. That is all on Benny and he wasn't ready for it. This one instance says it all about the way our head coach is prepared. The punt team should have been informed on what Benny wanted them to do before they took the field. There are two kinds of coaching. Coaches that react to what has just happened and Coaches that are pro-active and are ready for anything before it happens. Benny is proving what kind of coach he is.

Three kinds of decision makers / coaches.

Those that are prepared for whatever happens.

Those that make it happen.

Those that ask: "What just happened?"

Paraphrasing ... I just looked it up to check ...

There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.

Tommy Lasorda

[Blitz]

That decision should have been made as soon as he conceded the first one knowing that the way his offence was moving the ball there was more than a likely chance he could be in that position again. There is no way there should have been any confusion. That is all on Benny and he wasn't ready for it. This one instance says it all about the way our head coach is prepared. The punt team should have been informed on what Benny wanted them to do before they took the field. There are two kinds of coaching. Coaches that react to what has just happened and Coaches that are pro-active and are ready for anything before it happens. Benny is proving what kind of coach he is.

Three kinds of decision makers / coaches.

Those that are prepared for whatever happens.

Those that make it happen.

Those that ask: "What just happened?"

Paraphrasing ... I just looked it up to check ...

There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.

Tommy Lasorda

Here is what happened.....according to the Province WCJ and confirms what you wrote...we were not prepared and there was confusion

The points that ended up being the margin of difference in the latest loss by the B.C. Lions were ones their coach did not want to concede.

In the end, it was a snapshot into everything that can and has gone wrong on special teams.

Coach Mike Benevides was virtually forced to give up one safety Saturday with his offence sputtering in the fourth quarter and facing a 26-km/h breeze. He did not want to give up a second, however, but that message was never relayed in a proper fashion to punter Ricky Schmitt.

Schmitt’s second kneel-down proved to be the difference in a 19-17 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, though the way the offence was misfiring the Lions weren’t going to get past midfield anyway.

“The first one was clear; we were supposed to take a knee. The second one was a debate,” Benevides said. “We could have punted it and it wasn’t communicated to Schmitty, but it was irrelevant at that point.”

Benevides opted to keep his defence on the field a couple of times when the Ticats were in punt formation, thinking Hamilton was up to something.

Confusion was apparent, and the lack of mental focus on the unit coached by special teams co-ordinator Chuck McMann was cited after the game by kicker Paul McCallum.

McCallum hit an early field goal but was otherwise largely rooted to the bench for the second straight game.

Schmitt fared reasonably well dealing with the wind, but the Lions cover units did not, giving up three returns in excess of 26 yards and 199 in all. That enabled Hamilton to flip adverse field position too often.

In the absence of injured regulars Stefan Logan, Tim Brown and Andrew Harris, return duties for the Lions were handled by Marco Iannuzzi and rookie Bradley Randle, who had joined the team only four days earlier.

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