A win against Ottawa will enable our Leos to solely occupy second place in the West again. However, that did not look like it would be the scenario for this game, when last weekend, it appeared that the Bombers were going to upset the Calgary Stampeders. The Bombers mounted a furious comeback after being down 24-0 and 31-7 to the Stamps and had a 1 point lead, with 20 seconds to go in the game.
But 20 seconds was all Mitchell needed to put the Stamps in a position to win. The veteran gunslinger completed two quick passes to Jordan and Durant for gains of 14 and 22 yards respectively, setting up Parades 52-yard winning field goal on the last play of the game.
Our Leos are coming off a loss to the Edmonton Eskimos while the Red Blacks are coming off a 29-12 victory over the Argonauts and have won two of their last 3 games.
Trevor Harris completed 25/35 passes against Toronto, Mossis Madu rushed for 91 yards on 16 carries, Chris Williams went over the 1,000 yard mark in reception yardage, Brad Sinopoli had 116 receiving yards on nine catches, and Jamilll Smith returned a missed field goal for a 116 yd. touchdown in Ottawa's victory.
Ottawa has a lot of offensive weapons and they have four receivers in the CFL's Top 20, including Williams, Elingson, Ernest Jackson, and Sinopoli.
Our Leos offence struggled for three quarters in our last contest against Edmonton and needs to turn things around against Ottawa. Our defence also struggled against the Edmonton running attack and needs to pick up its game as well.
Let's have a closer look at this contest.
OFFENCE
Our B.C. Lions offence, when successful this season, has relied on a balanced attack featuring both the run and the pass. In most of our wins this season, we had been able to run the football successfully and make big plays downfield with our vertical passing attack. We had also been able to pull off four game winning offensive drive.
But if we are going to beat Ottawa and play winning offensive football, offensive scheme changes are needed. The recipe to shutting down our Leos offence is to stop the run on first down and take away our vertical deep and deep intermediate passing game. Calgary did that with a man/cover 2 defense for an entire game against us the last time we played them and Edmonton did that for three quarters of the game with the same defense.
In order to get our running game untracked, we need to add some variety to our running game scheme. Using one running play exclusively, the inside zone read run, with zone blocking, enables defenses to plug the inside, while not over-pursuing from the backside of the play, to eliminate the cut back. We need to attack the edge with either a quick pitch sweep or the stretch play. We need to add a fly sweep, reverse, or read option to stretch the defense. Calgary and Edmonton were able to shut down our run with only four down linemen and a linebacker and didn't need to stack the box.
Last game, we fast tracked new signing Terrell Sinkfield into our outside slot back postion. Basically, we used a plug and play concept, using Sinkfield to run the pass patterns that Nick Moore and Boldewijn were used for - possession type routes. We threw to Sinkfield once on the opening play of the game, he dropped the pass, and we never threw to him again in the game. Sinkfield was signed to add the dimension of speed to our receiving group.
If we want to get the most advantage of Sinkfield's speed, we are going to need to make adaptions. We could line up Sinkfield and Arseneaux together on the boundary side of the field and we could line up Sinkfield at wide side outside receiver and inside slot on occasion. Both concepts offer the ability to create favorable matchups or open things up for other receivers. We could also line up both Sinkfield and Rainey in the backfield at times.
Our passing scheme also needs to add a horizontal passing attack to compliment our vertical passing attack, as well as be better prepared for man/cover 2 style of defenses. High/low crossing patterns, rub routes, tailback isolation plays and flat passes, and wide and tight bunch formations are all part of the equation to take advantage of the wide CFL field against man rather than throwing into double coverage against man/cover 2.
Our Leos may start Jeremiah Johnson again at tailback for this game or go back to Allen. Both can get the job done in their different styles. Rainey is a threat when in the game.
However, Ottawa is the toughest defense in the CFL to run against. Ottawa only gives up an average of 63 yds. of rushing per game.
Jonathan Jennings proved once again, against Edmonton, that he can throw the long ball with the very best.. He can make difficult throws with pressure in his face with great accuracy. But, even leading the CFL in game winning drives, he can't be expected to do the impossible. He can't be continuously be placed into second and twenty or second and 15 or longer situations, due to penalties, negative plays, and sacks, nor should he be expected to make difficult completions into double coverage by throwing purrfect darts.
Considering the increased range of difficulty our passing offence presents to Jennings and his inexperience, he had only thrown 8 interceptions this season going into last weekend. Only Winnipeg (5) and Calgary (6) had thrown fewer interceptions.
We need to give him a running attack and move the pocket for him on occasion rather than always being set up as a stationary target in the pocket and left to his own devises to escape. We also need to give him some high percentage outlets when he experiences quick pressure.
Jennings comes into this game as the quarterback ranked 3rd in the CFL in passing yards and has a 97.0 quarterback efficiency rating. He has all the quarterback tools and can make every pass. We just need to give him more tools to operate with. Manny Arseneaux and Bryan Burnham lead our receiving group and Shawn Gore continues to play well.
Ottawa may be the most difficult team to run against but they are also not easy to pass against either. Ottawa has the second lowest pass completion rate against and they are also 2nd in the CFL at not giving up big plays.
To beat Ottawa, the offence needs to sustain drives and play smart.
DEFENCE
Our B.C. Lions defense has played well, overall this season. We are now second in the CFL in quarterback sacks, average yards against per game, and best in the CFL at preventing second down conversions. However, we are at the low end of the pack in takeaways. We only have 5 interceptions on the season - only Saskatchewan has less with 4 interceptions. In comparison the Bombers have 22 interceptions on the season - 4 1/2 times more interceptions than our defense does.
Last game our run defense suffered as our linebackers were forced to make too many tackles, something that has been a problem all year.
Defensively, our quarterback pressure basically comes from two players on our defensive line - Alex Bazzie, who is tied for the league lead with 10 sacks 26 defensive tackles and Jamal Westerman, who has five sacks. Mic'hael Brooks has 0 sacks for the season and only 12 defensive tackles - an average of one per game. Craig Roh has 4 sacks on the season and only 12 defensive tackles. Our rotational International defensive ends (Allen, Hudson) only have one sack each.
This is a game in which we need to get better pressure up front. Ottawa has given up 36 sacks this season - 2nd worst in the CFL. But Ottawa also has the second best net offence in the CFL.
Our Leos will line up two rookies again on the boundary side of our secondary. Anthony Gaitor, moved to corner for last game, had an interception and played very aggressively while Chandler Fenner also played well in his first start. However, Stewart was beaten deep again and needs to play better.
SPECIAL TEAMS
Field position is important and Richie Leone, at over 50 yards per punt gives us 7 extra yards per punt compared to Ottawa's average.
But in a season in which most field goal kickers are kicking at a 80% or better average (Shawn White has hit 91.4% and Paradedes has hit 88% of his attempts) and most can hit from deep range, Leone has only hit 69% of his attempts, missed another field goal last game, and he is still unreliable. With missed field goal attempts being very dangerous due to run backs. its a weak spot.
Chris Rainey still has the best punt return average in the CFL. Sinkfield would be a good partner for Rainey on kick returns, rather than Shaq Murray Lawrence who is not a threat. A couple of Sinkfield kick returns would allow Rainey more offensive reps.
WRAP
This is a very important game. We need to win and take sole possession of second place in the West again. We play the Bombers back to back after this game.
Go Leos!
