Leos On the Road vs. Red Blacks

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Blitz
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Our B.C. Lions, coming off a brutal performance at home against the Calgary Stampeders travel East to play the Ottawa Red Blacks.

Our Leos, with a 5-3 record remains in second place in the West while Ottawa, with a 5-3-1 record leads the East. Our Leos are now only two points ahead of Edmonton and Winnipeg while Hamilton and Toronto are only one point behind Ottawa. Both teams need a win to solidify their respective places in the standings.

Ottawa has lost three of its last four games and was mostly struggling with Henry Burris at quarterback. However, Trevor Harris will be the starting quarterback for Ottawa for this game. Harris was leading the CFL's best offence when he was healthy. He had thrown 9 touchdown passes, with only one interception and had a phenomenal 82% completion average.

Jonathan Jennings is coming off a very disappointing performance against Calgary. Before our last game, he was the CFL's hottest quarterback, throwing for over 300 yards in his previous four outings.

Both teams want to get back to the feeling of winning. Both teams should be highly motivated to win this game due its importance in the standings. Both teams are also coming off embarrassing losse
OFFENCE

Ottawa leads the CFL in passing yards and passing touchdowns. They are also a good running team, having rushed for only 39 yards less than our CFL league leading Leos in this category. Ottawa's Travon Van will likely return to the staring tailback position and he brings a different speed dynamic to the Ottawa offence. Trevor Harris returns to the starting lineup. He has a mind blowing quarterback efficiency average of 139.0 and an 82% completion rate in his 5 games as a starter. His average gain per pass is 11.6 yds. by far the best in the CFL.

Harris will have excellent weapons to throw to. Ottawa has the best receiving group in the CFL at present. Ottawa has three receivers in the CFL's Top 10 - Chris Williams (3rd), Greg Ellingson (6th) and Brad Sanopoli (9th) Ernest Jackson, at slotback, adds another Top 20 receiver to Ottawa's starting lineup.

Our B.C. Lions offence will once again be led by Jonathan Jennings. Jennings has thrown 11 touchdown passes vs. 5 interceptions. He has completed 62.6% of his passes this season so far and has a quarterback efficiency average of 96.6.

Jennings will look to throw to favorite targets Bryan Burnham (8th in CFL receiving) Manny Arsenault (10th) and Shawn Gore. Jeremiah Johnson will likely start again at tailback.

Ottawa is replacing Henry Burris with Trevor Harris, even though Burris threw for 322 yards, two touchdowns and an interception on 21-of-31 passing in his last game. Harris has played so well in his five games of the 2016 season that he just can't be kept on the bench.

If there is one area of weakness for Ottawa its protecting its quarterbacks. Ottawa has given up 25 sacks so far this season. Only Montreal has given up more.

Jonathan Jennings has only been sacked 15 times this season. We're tied for 2nd in the CFL in that category. However, Jennings was sacked three times against Calgary and pressured and harassed all game. The sack total could have been worse if not for Jennings mobility and ability to escape. Most of the time, that pressure came from only three or four Calgary rushers.

Levy Adcock started at right tackle for us for his first CFL start as a Leo and struggled with pass protection. But he was not the only Leo offensive lineman who had a poor game.

Our Leos are going to need better offensive game planning, better quarterback protection, and better play calling if we want to win this game. Calgary shut down our offence and Ottawa will be looking at that game tape.

DEFENCE

There is not a lot of difference between both teams, in terms of points given up this season. Our Leos have surrendered 210 points so far while Ottawa has given up 212 points. We're now 5th in the CFL in that category while Ottawa is 6th.

Our defence is sliding. It was the best defence in the CFL for the first five weeks of the season but has regressed. Our Leos have dropped to 2nd in the CFL in quarterback sacks with 27. Charleton Hughes and John Chick are now the CFL sack leaders, replacing Alex Bazzie. Ottawa's defence has sacked quarterbacks 20 times this season. Zach Evans is Ottawa's leading sacker from his tackle position.

Stephen Clarke was injured in our last game and his play had been outstanding at the boundary halfback position replacing T.J. Lee. Our Leos have Chandler Fenner and Anthony Gaitor on the practice roster. Its a tough position to play for a defensive back.

Both defenses are coming off poor games. Montreal torched Ottaw's defence in its last game while Calgary had its way with our Leos defence. Both need improved performances this week if they want to anticipate a victory.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Both teams have returners who can take it all the way. Chris Rainey and Chris Williams are both dangerous, although Williams has been held in check so far this season.

Chris Milo has hit 75.9% of his field goals this season. Richie Leone is still struggling in that category, having hit only 66.7% of his attempts. His field goal kicking needs to get better. Ottawa's Zack Medeiros has a 46.1 yd. punt average while our Leos Leone leads the CFL in that category with a 50 yd. punt average.

WRAP

Our Leos began this season wanting to be a powerful running team with a huge, aggressive offensive line leading the way. With Olifoye, Steward, Husband, Vaillencourt, and the anticipated return of Adcock it looked as that was going to be the identity of our offence as Jennings gained experience. However, as this season has progressed, we moved away from that identity to a gun slinging spread passing offence.

We need to get back to that season opening identity. We need improved first down success. We need to run the ball better on first down. When we had a lead in the fourth quarter, earlier this season, we were able to run the football down the opposition's throat.
We need to be bigger and more aggressive on the offensive line. We need to protect Jennings better. We need to be less predictable on offence. We need to get more multi-formational again and use play action on first down at times out of double tights. We need to stop expecting Jonathan Jennings to carry this offence on his back.

On defense we also need to get back to our identity as the aggressive defence we started this season with. We need our corners to play up more. We need to get better pressure n the quoarterback. If we play the same style of defense as we did against Calgary, Trevor Harris will pick us apart.

We got off to an excellent start this season. We lost a stinker to Calgary. We need to learn from that loss and get back to playing the style of football that will get us that winning feeling again.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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WestCoastJoe
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Great stuff, Blitz.

It will be a good test for us. Rick Campbell never played pro football, but he was a heck of an athlete, nevertheless. And coaching seems to be in his blood, through his father. They will have done good work planning for us. Hopefully we will have done the same for them.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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David
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Have any of you guys heard how Josh Johnson is doing with his NFL tryout? I wish the guy all the best, but I sure wouldn't mind having him back here to play nickel, allowing us to move Purifoy to the weak side halfback position. Fenner and/or Gaitor may do just fine filling in for the injured Clarke (and Lee), but it's a tough position to play, and the added depth would serve us well with 2 men down with long term injuries.


DH :cool:
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pennw
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Next game will be very telling about what kind of team we have this year IMO. The bounce back after a convincing flop . For the most part BC has played the Stamps very well and could have easily been 2-1 in the season series . But there is no denying how bad BC was in the last , and I suspect the Stamps coaching staff put a very major effort into game planning for last game due to how well the Leo's played them the first two outings . And it seems to me there was complacency on our end for the same reason , thinking how well we did the first two games , so why change anything ? Just give the Stamps more of the same and they would not get so lucky as to sneak out a win like last time . So will the lesson be learned ? We will see in the upcoming games .
And on the OL I agree with the seeming consensus here , why the changes ? I would like to see a return to the season opening line-up , is this messing with the minds of Steward and Vallincourt? Put them back in and bring Antonio Johnson back in for Adcock , he didn't do anything to lose his spot . It looks to me like it's just Dan D wants his recruit playing , kind of like when Draheim got shipped out . We had a good OL at the start of the season , why mess with it unnecessarily ? These new young talented OL nationals , let's keep them happy to be here , get them out of the dog house so maybe they will want to stay here when they become free agents . And we could use their services now anyway , get the run blocking back we had with them earlier and they are only bound to improve as time goes on .
TheLionKing
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Lions better be ready to play right from the opening kickoff. They certainly wasn't ready against Calgary. Hope Mark Washington saw the films and see how the Stamps attacked our flats. You can bet your bottom dollar that Ottawa will try that. Washington better have a solution or it will be a repeat from last week.
Blitz
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pennw wrote:Next game will be very telling about what kind of team we have this year IMO. The bounce back after a convincing flop . For the most part BC has played the Stamps very well and could have easily been 2-1 in the season series . But there is no denying how bad BC was in the last , and I suspect the Stamps coaching staff put a very major effort into game planning for last game due to how well the Leo's played them the first two outings . And it seems to me there was complacency on our end for the same reason , thinking how well we did the first two games , so why change anything ? Just give the Stamps more of the same and they would not get so lucky as to sneak out a win like last time .

So will the lesson be learned ? We will see in the upcoming games .
And on the OL I agree with the seeming consensus here , why the changes ? I would like to see a return to the season opening line-up , is this messing with the minds of Steward and Vallincourt? Put them back in and bring Antonio Johnson back in for Adcock , he didn't do anything to lose his spot . It looks to me like it's just Dan D wants his recruit playing , kind of like when Draheim got shipped out . We had a good OL at the start of the season , why mess with it unnecessarily ? These new young talented OL nationals , let's keep them happy to be here , get them out of the dog house so maybe they will want to stay here when they become free agents . And we could use their services now anyway , get the run blocking back we had with them earlier and they are only bound to improve as time goes on .
I would like to see our offensive line be the starting lineup for our season opener too but if we play Adcock again, at least I would like ot see Vaillencourt and Steward at guard. We were dominant rushing the football in the fourth quarter earlier in the season, with the offensive line that you recommend penw.

We had better make defensive adjustments for this game. Ottawa's offensive philosophy is to stretch the defense horitzontally as well as vertically. That means they will attack the flat area. You can also bet they will attack the new boundary half back position, no matter who we decide to play there. Harris, at quarterback, represents a much bigger challenge than Burris.
Before going down in Week 5, Harris was in a class of his own and had the Red Blacks offence humming. Heck, he still sits sixth in passing yards and fifth in passing touchdowns despite only playing three full games this season. Burris 6-5 touchdown to interception ratio doesn’t come close to the 9-1 rate for Harris.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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SammyGreene
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We know one line-up change has to be made for Stephen Clarke. It will be interesting to see how many more changes they intend to make given it's such a short turnaround. They practised yesterday and leave for Ottawa after practice Tuesday and stay out east until after the Toronto game next Wednesday.

Farhan Lalji seemed pretty convinced we will see Brooks back in the line up this week. I can only hope but again a tight time frame given he wasn't ready for a 1st place showdown a few days ago. Sure hope to see the changes in the offensive line mentioned above.

Lions getting no luck with returning starting QBs. Collaros 2 weeks ago, Harris this week and likely Ricky Ray for the reeling Argos the following week as well. For whatever reason, the Lions have played far better on the road this season and easily could be 4-0 without the Calgary collapse. Hope that trend continues but it's up to Washington and Jones to make adjustments to their game plans and get away from their tendencies. Throw out the final drive against Hamilton and the Lions offence has struggled mightily for the past six quarters.
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David
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According to LU, it looks like Anthony Allen is going to get the start Thursday as the feature tailback:

"Anthony Allen was at practice Sunday taking first-team reps at tailback instead of Jeremiah Johnson, with Wally Buono all but admitting afterwards he’s about to make a change for Thursday’s game against and Trevor Harris the Ottawa Redblacks and the first of two roadies against East Division opponents."

Not a bad strategy to get the fresh guy in there.


DH :cool:
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Blitz
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SammyGreene wrote:We know one line-up change has to be made for Stephen Clarke. It will be interesting to see how many more changes they intend to make given it's such a short turnaround. They practised yesterday and leave for Ottawa after practice Tuesday and stay out east until after the Toronto game next Wednesday.

Farhan Lalji seemed pretty convinced we will see Brooks back in the line up this week. I can only hope but again a tight time frame given he wasn't ready for a 1st place showdown a few days ago. Sure hope to see the changes in the offensive line mentioned above.

Lions getting no luck with returning starting QBs. Collaros 2 weeks ago, Harris this week and likely Ricky Ray for the reeling Argos the following week as well. For whatever reason, the Lions have played far better on the road this season and easily could be 4-0 without the Calgary collapse. Hope that trend continues but it's up to Washington and Jones to make adjustments to their game plans and get away from their tendencies. Throw out the final drive against Hamilton and the Lions offence has struggled mightily for the past six quarters.
In our first two games, we dominated the fourth quarter. Since then we've experienced Toronto's second half comeback for a win, Calgary's fourth quarter comeback for an overtime victory, and Hamilton's comeback that almost resulted in a loss.

We need to get back to being an aggressive, big offensive line, to be able to run the football more effectively on first down, to get back to more play action, and to not put our offence completely on Jennings back to consistently make big plays and difficult throws downfield, or our receivers to make great catches. We're asking for too much from our players and we're not getting enough from our coaching strategies.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
Rodu
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It won't matter who is at RB if the blocking doesn't improve.

We've played 6 straight bad quarters. Need to have a good start and maintain it or we're sliding in the standings
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B.C.FAN
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Fans hoping for changes on the offensive line will be disappointed. The only change on offence this week is that Anthony Allen starts at RB in place of Jeremiah Johnson, as previously announced.

On defence, rookie Anthony Gaitor starts at boundary halfback as expected for Steven Clarke, who is expected to be lost for the season. Mic'hael Brooks makes his long-awaited return at nose tackle ahead of Bryant Turner Jr. and Andrew Hudson returns to the practice roster.

Depth chart and roster vs. Ottawa here.
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SammyGreene
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B.C.FAN wrote:Fans hoping for changes on the offensive line will be disappointed. The only change on offence this week is that Anthony Allen starts at RB in place of Jeremiah Johnson, as previously announced.

On defence, rookie Anthony Gaitor starts at boundary halfback as expected for Steven Clarke, who is expected to be lost for the season. Mic'hael Brooks makes his long-awaited return at nose tackle ahead of Bryant Turner Jr. and Andrew Hudson returns to the practice roster.

Depth chart and roster vs. Ottawa here.
There's Guilio on the Lions own website being interviewed by Matt Baker saying the Calgary game was lost at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Brooks return, plus keeping Turner on the roster, this week should help the d-line immensely but just ridiculous the offensive line remains intact.

I'm quite sure Hunter Steward is in the final year of his 3-year contract. Wally better be careful here. First move him out of his natural position then bench him for 3 straight games now for Tim O'Neill. Watch him sign elsewhere next season and flourish as a ratio breaker at tackle.
And lets also park that rookie they were gushing about until he had a concussion in week two.
Blitz
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SammyGreene wrote:
B.C.FAN wrote:Fans hoping for changes on the offensive line will be disappointed. The only change on offence this week is that Anthony Allen starts at RB in place of Jeremiah Johnson, as previously announced.

On defence, rookie Anthony Gaitor starts at boundary halfback as expected for Steven Clarke, who is expected to be lost for the season. Mic'hael Brooks makes his long-awaited return at nose tackle ahead of Bryant Turner Jr. and Andrew Hudson returns to the practice roster.

Depth chart and roster vs. Ottawa here.
There's Guilio on the Lions own website being interviewed by Matt Baker saying the Calgary game was lost at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Brooks return, plus keeping Turner on the roster, this week should help the d-line immensely but just ridiculous the offensive line remains intact.

I'm quite sure Hunter Steward is in the final year of his 3-year contract. Wally better be careful here. First move him out of his natural position then bench him for 3 straight games now for Tim O'Neill. Watch him sign elsewhere next season and flourish as a ratio breaker at tackle.
And lets also park that rookie they were gushing about until he had a concussion in week two.[/quote

Gotta hope that Gaitor can play as well as Lee and Clarke. I actually thought Clarke was even better than Lee at boundary halfback.

I really wonder what our Leos are thinking, starting 36 year old O'Neil at guard over Steward. Steward is a natural left tackle who played amazing for the seven games he started there but if we want to shift him to guard, he's gotta learn the position and that is not happening by not starting. Steward could go elsewhere next year and he will be wanted by other teams.

I can understand not staring Vailllencourt but he earned the position out of training camp, he is 28 pounds heavier than Fabian, and very aggressive.

So much for a bigger, meaner, more aggressive offensive line when we play an old guy at 305 pounds at guard instead of 323 pound Steward and Fabian, 300 pounds, over who is certainly not bigger, or meaner than 330 pound Vaillencourt. The Mad Professor is making his tad crazy decisions, as he is prone to do.

I am happy that we are starting Anthony Allen. He brings fresh legs and played very well in his first two starts and he had no holes to run into in his third start. Johnson started back to an old tendency of dancing or running laterally last game at times rather than slashing...and slashing is when he is most effective.

]
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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