Argos 30 - Lions 27 -- Game Blog, Post Game Stats, Comments

[DanoT]

Gore is ignored in our offence.

So will any receiver playing the wide side of the field...Lulay simply doesn't possess the arm strength to safely make that throw, which is a major problem because unless he keeps Defences honest, they will cheat to the centre of the field.

Except that in OT against the Argos he did just what you say he cannot do. He threw a sideline pass to Gore with plenty of zip on the ball and it was accurate too. He does seem to lack the accuracy on the downfield passes or is he just not putting enough loft on the ball to have the receiver run under it?

[dat]

My thoughts from last nights game. My wife and I got season tickets this year because we enjoy football and its a night downtown every few weeks. I wasn't expecting the Lions to be first in the West or anything but thought they would be a little improved from last year. Great start, then the second half collapse. One thing that was obvious was that the front four was not getting any pressure on Trevor Harris and it was only a matter of time before the Argo offence got going. He has played much better than expected this year but he is a rookie and the lions D didn't do anything other than drop back and hope. Not getting sacked, not getting pressured, not getting hit just as he released the ball. He had time to have coffee and read the paper every time he dropped back. Washington's attack defence ? Hilarious. Don Matthew's Lions defence in the mid 80's was an attack defence. Even though they had a great front four that got tons of pressure they were still always sending linebackers and DB's in on the blitz. I don't recall seeing one blitz all year. My thought is if your D line isn't providing any pressure you're going to get picked apart anyway. Start sending some people, maybe if you get a few good hits in the opposition QB might hurry some throws later in the game. Add in that there was poor tackling by the DB's and a few dumb penalties that extended drives. On the other side of the ball at least the offence looks like it has the potential to move the ball and the O- Line has been pretty solid. Pros and cons from the stadium. With our season tickets we got some food vouchers that can be used at the concessions. Now the cons - when you go to a game you want to be entertained. Looking at the crowd I was reminded of the mid 90's when interest was dwindling until Bob Ackles returned and started reviving things. I wonder what the Lions Marketing is thinking. Nothing do do at halftime except get a beer. A lame in stadium talk show with Christie Buono on the screen. If I wanted that I could watch the game at home or bring a radio and listen to the guys on Team 1040. At least a marching band or something at half time to make it feel like you're at a game. Then on the cover and inside of the program there was an article about Jason Arakgi entitled " The metal and makeup of a pro ". I assume they meant " mettle ", you'd think they would have someone checking vocabulary. I'm not crazy about the cherleaderish PA announcing either, I think it's Scott Rintoul who I like but would rather hear something more professional sounding like the guy they used to have at old empire Stadium. Just my opinion. I'll end on a positive, we have been in every game and I think the offence is better than last year. DAT

[zeppo]

I am going to respectfully disagree. We clearly need more of a pass rush, but I blame the offense more than the defense tonight. For whatever reason, Travis turned colder than the shady side of an iceberg and the Argos stacked the box and forced him to beat them deep - which has never been his strong suit. Indeed, Travis has a multitude of great attributes, but he might be the worst starter in the league at completing the long ball. Arceneaux and Collie with uncharacteristic drops tonight. Too many 2 and outs in a tempo offense took the starch out of the defense.

Dumb call to gamble at that stage of the game. 3rd and a yard and a half, okay. 2 yards? Not in favour, but can live with it. But they were almost a full 4 yards short! So they throw a slant pass (almost a pro pass from shotgun) in traffic? Uggh!

I agree. I actually thought the defence was a little better last night. The Argos weren't able to run the ball with any consistency, and, with the
exception of a couple of busted zones, the pass coverage was tight. On several occasions, the Argo receivers made terrific catches with defenders
all around them. My biggest criticism of the defence would be the number of major penalties (facemasking especially) that prolonged Argo drives.
The number of major fouls taken by this defence absolutely must be reduced.

OTOH, the offence was terrible through the final three quarters. All of the poise and confidence that Travis had shown in the two Rider games
completely disappeared, and he looked to me like an only slightly more mobile version of the 2014 edition of Kevin Glenn. He was either trying
to force the ball into the stacked Argo box, or throwing long passes that were nowhere near his receivers. Once the Argos were able to take Harris
out of the offence, Travis and Cortez had no answers. That is a major concern IMO.

The third and four gamble was a killer. I simply cannot imagine what Tedford was thinking in that situation. Leone would have probably been able
to punt the ball inside the ten yard line, forcing the Argos to drive the field (assuming a short run back). Even if he kicked a monster punt for a single,
it would still be a better outcome than handing the Argo offence the ball at mid-field. That had to be one of the worst decisions I can recall a B.C.
head coach make in quite a while, and was a big factor in the Toronto comeback.

[zeppo]

Except that in OT against the Argos he did just what you say he cannot do. He threw a sideline pass to Gore with plenty of zip on the ball and it was accurate too. He does seem to lack the accuracy on the downfield passes or is he just not putting enough loft on the ball to have the receiver run under it?

From my perspective, now that I have seen Travis live for two games, there is nothing wrong with the velocity of his passes, and he has the
arm strength to get the ball out to the wide side of the field. In fact, his biggest problem last night was that he was overthrowing receivers running
deep routes.

[pennw]

Except that in OT against the Argos he did just what you say he cannot do. He threw a sideline pass to Gore with plenty of zip on the ball and it was accurate too. He does seem to lack the accuracy on the downfield passes or is he just not putting enough loft on the ball to have the receiver run under it?

From my perspective, now that I have seen Travis live for two games, there is nothing wrong with the velocity of his passes, and he has the
arm strength to get the ball out to the wide side of the field. In fact, his biggest problem last night was that he was overthrowing receivers running
deep routes.

I agree , he has been overthrowing long passes. Not just this game last week too , most misses were overthrows on deep balls . And that has been right to the end of the game. I haven't seen any evidence of his arm getting tired late in the game . Of course there should have been more balls caught , our receivers have been dropping too many catchable balls .

[sj-roc]

I wonder what the Lions Marketing is thinking. Nothing do do at halftime except get a beer. A lame in stadium talk show with Christie Buono on the screen. If I wanted that I could watch the game at home or bring a radio and listen to the guys on Team 1040. At least a marching band or something at half time to make it feel like you're at a game.

I think the idea there is that the constantly improving quality of the TSN broadcast is helping discourage fans from buying tickets, so if you can give them some of what they're used to getting on TV and otherwise missing at the stadium, such as a pre-game and halftime panel, it would remove this drag on the gate.

I'm not crazy about the cherleaderish PA announcing either, I think it's Scott Rintoul who I like but would rather hear something more professional sounding like the guy they used to have at old empire Stadium. Just my opinion.

Rintoul does the pbp for 1040. AFAIK the live PA is done by another 1040 personality in Matt Baker.

[WestCoastJoe]

From Lowell Ullrich ...

“We needed a spark offensively. I wanted to show confidence in the offence and the defence if it didn’t work out that they would get a stop,” said Tedford. “I don’t regret it. That’s what we needed at the time.”

“We were reminding them on the sidelines to keep grinding. The locker-room was spirited and energetic at halftime,” said Tedford. “I didn’t see a lack of effort.”

I didn't mind the call. We were dying slowly, and would have probably lost anyway. He was trying to shake the team up, both O and D.

And there was tremendous effort on both O and D.

Lulay needs to relax and be sharper.

D needs ... Pressure on the QB. Guys in the box against the run. An attack attitude, although that is apparently not in the works. We will "attack" by putting Adam Bighill 25 yards deep in the soft, zone prevent defence.

If Mark W does not have it in his approach to attack, then we will have to see how this shakes out. It does not look good to this fan.

[cromartie]

CFL base defenses between the 20s come in one of two flavors. Either:

1) Load up the box and force a QB to beat you deep. If we're being honest with each other, here, the reason a lot of these guys are CFL QBs and not NFL QBs is because they don't have the arm strength to be consistently accurate deep or, for that matter, to hit the wide side out pattern with any accuracy. Also, with this defense, you're betting your pass rush can get to the QB before any of the inside receivers can get open in coverage.

2) Drop back eight or nine guys into zone, rushing only the front four and inviting you to either run with the ball or throw short passes.

Most DCs will choose the former. Mark Washington, like Rich Stubler before him, went with the latter.

The first type of defense requires a wide side corner that can cover one on one, a halfback who is a ballhawk and a safety who can take the deep half. We don't have that, as Marsh aged out of the position and Phillips is injured.

The second type of defense requires a front four that is superior at winning line of scrimmage battles. At this point, we don't have those either.

You could make the argument that we give the Don Matthews Montreal era defense (put six guys on the line of scrimmage and blitz every down) a try, but if you don't have the secondary....well, heck. It makes what MW is running look like the least worst option.

It's a transition year. I do think we have a crossover or 3rd in the west level roster in there somewhere, especially if the offensive line continues to play well, but Travis has to get his timing back with the receivers, and the offense is going to have to carry the team there, ultimately.

[WestCoastJoe]

From Mike Beamish ...

The Toronto quarterback did so, hooking up with Kevin Elliott on a 54-yard touchdown pass, as the receiver dragged Lions cornerback Cord Parks into the end zone to cut B.C.’s lead to two touchdowns (21-7) just before the first half ended. The drive was kept alive by an untimely unnecessary roughness penalty against B.C. defensive end Alex Bazzie, who was kicking himself later.

“It’s really bothering me,” Bazzie said. “I feel like that’s where their momentum came from. It gave them some type of confidence boost going into the half. That late hit is on me. It’s hard, when you rush the quarterback and then have to lay off him.”

Ummm ... Yeah. That is where their momentum came from. Bazzie swung the momentum on that one undisciplined play. IMO ...

[cromartie]

From Mike Beamish ...

The Toronto quarterback did so, hooking up with Kevin Elliott on a 54-yard touchdown pass, as the receiver dragged Lions cornerback Cord Parks into the end zone to cut B.C.’s lead to two touchdowns (21-7) just before the first half ended. The drive was kept alive by an untimely unnecessary roughness penalty against B.C. defensive end Alex Bazzie, who was kicking himself later.

“It’s really bothering me,” Bazzie said. “I feel like that’s where their momentum came from. It gave them some type of confidence boost going into the half. That late hit is on me. It’s hard, when you rush the quarterback and then have to lay off him.”

Ummm ... Yeah. That is where their momentum came from. Bazzie swung the momentum on that one undisciplined play. IMO ...

Games never, ever swing on one play. Someone on offense makes a play on the next drive and we aren't talking about this.

To those of you who think we aren't a playoff caliber team, do remember that we're in a division with Winnipeg and Regina.

[WestCoastJoe]

From Mike Beamish ...

The Toronto quarterback did so, hooking up with Kevin Elliott on a 54-yard touchdown pass, as the receiver dragged Lions cornerback Cord Parks into the end zone to cut B.C.’s lead to two touchdowns (21-7) just before the first half ended. The drive was kept alive by an untimely unnecessary roughness penalty against B.C. defensive end Alex Bazzie, who was kicking himself later.

“It’s really bothering me,” Bazzie said. “I feel like that’s where their momentum came from. It gave them some type of confidence boost going into the half. That late hit is on me. It’s hard, when you rush the quarterback and then have to lay off him.”

Ummm ... Yeah. That is where their momentum came from. Bazzie swung the momentum on that one undisciplined play. IMO ...

Games never, ever swing on one play. Someone on offense makes a play on the next drive and we aren't talking about this.

To those of you who think we aren't a playoff caliber team, do remember that we're in a division with Winnipeg and Regina.

I agree with Bazzie.

“I feel like that’s where their momentum came from." -- Alex Bazzie

It seems to me that momentum swung on that one play. The Argos scored 21 consecutive points. It certainly felt like a momentum switch to this fan, as noted in the live blog. I would say momentum swings on one play fairly often. As a coach or player, one can feel momentum switch dramatically.

And that is just in my opinion.

To this point I have expressed no opinion on the relative strength of teams, nor on playoff possibilities. It is nice to see Calgary lose to Ottawa.

[sj-roc]

From Mike Beamish ...

The Toronto quarterback did so, hooking up with Kevin Elliott on a 54-yard touchdown pass, as the receiver dragged Lions cornerback Cord Parks into the end zone to cut B.C.’s lead to two touchdowns (21-7) just before the first half ended. The drive was kept alive by an untimely unnecessary roughness penalty against B.C. defensive end Alex Bazzie, who was kicking himself later.

“It’s really bothering me,” Bazzie said. “I feel like that’s where their momentum came from. It gave them some type of confidence boost going into the half. That late hit is on me. It’s hard, when you rush the quarterback and then have to lay off him.”

Ummm ... Yeah. That is where their momentum came from. Bazzie swung the momentum on that one undisciplined play. IMO ...

Games never, ever swing on one play. Someone on offense makes a play on the next drive and we aren't talking about this.

To those of you who think we aren't a playoff caliber team, do remember that we're in a division with Winnipeg and Regina.

Agreed, Bazzie's penalty was merely the first in a series of egregious miscues. We had numerous subsequent opportunities to get that train back on the track and failed to do so. It says a lot about how badly we played after our 3rd TD that nobody wearing orange glasses is all that worked up over the obvious face mask that TJ Lee took in the second half that the officials completely missed. If you were allowed to challenge that I'm sure Tedford would have done so and gotten the call.

Wpg just lost QB Drew Willy who exited mid-Q3 and didn't return with a knee injury of their blowout 32-3 loss in Edm today. You hate to see players getting injured but we head into Wpg on Thursday so it ought to benefit us if the Bombers are forced to start Brian Brohm who wasn't effective entering today's game when the score was only 4-3 Edm and the outcome still very much in doubt.

[TheLionKing]

What has Bazzie done in four games except taking penalties ?

[TheLionKing]

Once the Argos were able to take Harris
out of the offence, Travis and Cortez had no answers. That is a major concern IMO.

Cortez better have an answer. You can bet Winnipeg will be doing the same thing on defence til the Lions can prove they have an answer.

[Toppy Vann]

“We needed a spark offensively. I wanted to show confidence in the offence and the defence if it didn’t work out that they would get a stop,” said Tedford. “I don’t regret it. That’s what we needed at the time.”

“We were reminding them on the sidelines to keep grinding. The locker-room was spirited and energetic at halftime,” said Tedford. “I didn’t see a lack of effort."

I wouldn't expect to actually admit he let his ENTIRE team down by showing confidence in his OFFENSE which at that point in the game was offensive to fans that offensive in getting sustained drives done.

A HC makes decisions for the entire team and in the real minds of the players (that which will not be spoken openly other than to a trusted team mate) this will be questioned as it put his also struggling DEF in a worse situation than needed.

Make the right decision that trusts all the players and you kick knowing that this team will do its job in all phases - not just offense. Tedford's a good coach who made a bad decision.

I agree with Cromartie on this - a game is not won or lost on one play IF the team is playing at a high level and all are doing their jobs. But when I see players riding bikes after TDs - unless there is a need - I don't see a team that is really together. Maybe there was a need but you want to see a team focused on the game not posing in game.

There is something weird. Even at the start of this year Kevin Glenn says it was always Travis' team. It was unusual how he says it... almost like he wasn't really welcome there, yet in Calgary when he had to play there was nothing but positives from Hufnagel, Dickinson and team leaders like Nik Lewis all saying the same things abt their QB. Matt Walters replacing Cornish - same stuff. Even now with the makeshift O-LIne it's all positives even though they lost to OTT. We need more character players in this team. It all can't be on Lulay and his arm.

But more of the same (toss it downfield to no avail) won't get a different result. That play calling got stale.