WestCoastJoe wrote:Blitz wrote:"I sometimes think our Leos feel Buono's fear before a big game."
I agree, Blitz.
This CFL fan has coached over 20 years of various boys' and girls' sports. (There can be a price to pay. As noted a few times, for years I could not watch teams that I rooted for. Just too uncomfortable.) At times a coach can fear an opponent, feel too much respect. (It is not fear of competing, it is fear of losing. Losing is felt to be unacceptable for a number of reasons.) It can be felt by your team. When a coach, in preparation, starts to feel that way, best to ride the feelings of invincibility of those players that lead your team. Sometimes your team can win anyway, even if, on paper, you have no chance.
Wally is a warrior. One can see it in his career. And one can sense his total commitment to each game, his concern, and I think, even his fear of losing. He has his wins, and his championships. No one can take those away, as they say. And he has been doing some of his best work this year.
Just IMO ...
I didn't make that statement without consideration. In a much smaller way, I had to learn the hard way that a team can often be a reflection of their coach. Coaching both football and basketball in the 'good ol' days' my learning experience came during coaching a high school basketball season.
I was a very young coach and very exciteable and sometimes nervous, especially in tight games, which high school basketball games often come down to. I was coaching in a final tournament when a very successful opposing coach said to me, following watching one of my games, that he 'had never seen a team reflect its coach as much as mine did. He said "When you are up, they are up and when you are down, they are down. When you're relaxed, they are relaxed and when you are uptight, they are uptight".
I took his words to heart. I thought about the season. We lost 5 of 9 games that season by 2 points or less. I was uptight when the games were close at the end. The next season I vowed to be different. I focused on being poised and confident before big games and especially when games were close In those final few minutes. We won 11 of 12 games that next season by two points or less. I think it had a lot less to do with changing strategy for big games and at the end of games and more to do with my changed demeanor. My players were more poised because I was more poised.
There has to be a reason why Wally's teams have had so many successful regular seasons and have come out awful to start a playoff game. Some of that has had to do with predictability. Winnipeg threw a lot of stuff we hadn't seen before. Buono tends to go into a playoff game with what got him there.
But we've had too many Buono led playoff teams that have come out of the gate like they are on Planet Pluto, reflecting more than just a strategy/game planning issue. The players have seemed 'almost out of it". Wally's demeanor before these big games is always highly nervous. His face is twitching before the game starts. I think his players pick up on it. Wally's fear during the regular season with situations, like third and less than one and punting from the oppositions 35 yard line, fearing a return more than a field goal or going for field goals inside the oppenents 5 yard line reflect his fear. But he is more relaxed during the regular season.
Come playoff time, he is much worse. The 2004 Grey Cup game was a good example. His fear drove him to start an experienced quarterback who was very rusty and have O'Mahoney attempt to punt the football out of bounds on every punt, which really hurt field position. In the 2005 WDF, we came out nervous and we looked completely out of it to start the 2007 WDF. Wally spoke to the team before the 2012 WDF and we were out of that one early too.
Wally fears losing more than he craves winning. I think its a huge reason why we have a long history with him of getting off to bad starts in playoff games in most seasons. His players are way too uptight and that kind of pressure can make their heads go into a different space and not be sharp.
The missed assignments on defence yesterday were an example of that. Wally has been known to yell bizzare stuff during a playoff game so I really believe the nervousness and poor play and missed assignments early, are at least partially derived from him. Then we settle down and start playing like we can. The problem is that getting down early can make it a lot tougher and sometimes its not possible to come back, like we did yesterday.
I also agree that Wally is a fighter. Therefore, I also believe that the fight that we have, also partially comes from Buno. It allows us to fight back when things are down. Buono never gives up and neither do our players.
What our Leos need from Buono is to be more confident and poised and relaxed (while also focused) during the week before, as well as pre-game, before a playoff game.
Then we would have both elements - a better start to a playoff game because our players would be more confident and and less nervous and uptight, and at the same time, they would have Buono's fight, should they face adversity.
An aside, I hope with age, you can root for your Leos a little more comfortably now. Saying that, I stood for the entire fourth quarter!!
. The Lions started very confidently and dominated most of the first half and at least six times the Lions got within 10 yards of the Stampeders end zone. But all six times the Lions couldn't get a single touchdown and had to settle for six field goals. Eventually the Stampeders managed to counter with a couple of touchdowns in their 22-18 win. Had the Lions changed the six field goals into touchdowns or even half of them with three touchdowns, the Lions would have easily won. 
