Leos/Eskimos Post Game Thoughts
Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:43 am
In reflecting on our Leos season opener loss at home to the Eskimos, with a little over 19,000 in attendance, both the loss and the way our Leos played this game, is not going to put more bums in the seats for our next home contest.
Our Leos lost a game they deserved to lose. With some time to sleep on the disappointment, these are my post game thoughts. I've read the post game comments on the game thread and have incorporated some of those comments.
THE GOOD
On offence, in this game, our Leos came out wanting to run the football, as they should have. Our Leos led the CFL in rushing last season and when we run the football well, we usually win.
Jeremiah Johnson ran the football 14 times for 92 yards and a 6.6 yard average. Jennings, mostly running out of necessity rather than design, added 5 carries for 32 yards (6.4 yd. average). Overall we rushed for 130 yards in this game, which should have been enough to create a balanced offensive attack, help with pass protection, and open up our passing game. However, that didn't happen.
There were some spectacular throws in this game by Jennings. His throw to the sidelines, while under heavy heat, and dropping the football just over the defenders hands, was a thing of beauty. His deep throw to Nick Moore, in the fourth quarter, while throwing off his back foot and off-balance, running to his left and under pressure, was incredible.
Nick Moore was our go to receiver in this game. He led our Leos in both receptions (5) and reception yardage (98 yds), aided by his 62 yard catch in the fourth quarter. Burnham and Jeremiah Johnson had four receptions, while Iannuzzi, Manny, and Rainey all chipped in with 3 catches each.
Hunter Steward had a very good game at the left tackle spot and we are so fortunate to have a National be able to start at this most challenging offensive line position. Foucault had a solid game at left guard overall.
David Menard made a great play on defense, from his rotational defensive end spot behind Craig Roh, while Roh had our only quarterback sack of the game.
Chris Rainy ran a punt return for over 90 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. The play was called back on a stupid Adrian Clarke push from behind but it was a spectacular return by Rainey, showing his speed and athleticism and instinctual running ability.
Ty Long hit four of five field goal attempts. More on his field goal miss and convert miss later. He also made a good tackle. Long punted 7 times for 338 yards, an impressive 48.3 yd. average, but he missed a couple of placement punts that went for singles instead.
Awe led the way on special teams with two downfield tackles and Chandler Fenner recovered a fumbled punt but there was not a lot of good play behind either.
THE BAD
Going into the 2017 season, there was a lot of hype about the signing of Chris Williams, the second full season of Jennings as a Leo starter (Jennings threw for the third most yards ever for a Leo quarterback last year), the return of Bryan Burnham, and Jeremiah Johnson and Chris Rainey leading our running attack.
But championship offences are usually anchored by strong offensive lines. The offensive game is mostly won in the trenches and with good pass protection. Bo Levi looks like a much better quarterback than he really is because he gets incredible protection.
I was opposed to the Olifioye trade. Olifioye would have looked very good and been a difference maker last night at right tackle. Free agent signings Buddy Jackson are on the roster and costing us money as are all the depth players we have on the so called injury list, on top of all of our practice roster players. We could have found the money to keep Olifioye and should have.
But given that we didn't, once again, we've tinkered with our offensive line in ways we shouldn't have. Kirby Fabian started the 2015 season at left guard. Last season, we moved Fabian back to right guard. Vaillencourt started the first two games at right guard in 2016 before getting injured and Fabian started the rest of the way.
It made more sense to me to move Fabian to left guard for this season and start Vailencourt at right guard. Faucault was supposed to come in and provide depth at tackle. But the whole thing was designed to have Faucault become a starter and make the trade look good. Therefore we moved Vaillencourt to left guard, a side of the line he has never played so Faucault could beat him out.
The offensive lineup we should have right now is Steward at left tackle, Faucault at left guard, Husband at center, Vaillencourt at right guard, and Palmer, when he is healthy again, at right tackle.
Kirby Fabian and Antonio Johnson had horrible games. The reality is that we are undersized and undertalented at right guard and right tackle, as we were last season. Fabian is 300 pounds, Antonio Johnson is listed at a generous 305 pounds, and Palmer is 290 pounds. Wally wanted to go cheap at right tackle and last night's result showed what cheap means.
Antonio Johnson took two bad penalties that hurt and Fabian was beaten badly on pass rushes. Jennings was sacked 5 times and under duress most of the game.
There are only two ways to shut down our very talented offence. One is to take away the deep ball. The second way is to pressure Jennings. For most of the game, Edmonton did both. We had 3 points at the half. No matter how good a quarterback is, its very difficult to perform consistently at a high level under severe duress due to poor pass protection.
Jennings did well to complete 65% of his passes for 260 yards, considering the heat he experienced, the times he avoided being sacked, the times he had to run for his life, and the difficulty of the throws he had to make. With Edmonton focused on taking away our long ball and getting so much pressure on Jennings, combined with the poor design of our short passing game, it was a tough night for our offence.
Jennings also fumbled as he attempted to escape heat by running up the middle and was stripped of the football. Odell Willis ate Antonio Johnson for 2 sacks. If not for Jennings escapability, the five sacks Jennings had to give up could easily have been ten sacks.
Defensively, we were also very bad at times in this game. We gave up 104 yards on the ground to John White on 17 carries. White had a 6.1 yd. average. But even worse, we gave up many big plays in the air on defense. Most believed our revamped secondary, going into training camp, was going to result in better pass defence this season.
Initially that secondary was going to comprised of Yell and Parker at corner, Lee and Gaitor at halfback, and Clarke at safety, with McDonald giving Clarke push. Purifoy spent most of training camp and the exhibition season at his familiar nickel spot and looked great there.
But Wally wanted to reward Chandler Fenner, playing backup nickel and who Buono believed was one of his best two defensive backs at training camp. So, he gave Fenner the starting nickel spot and moved Purifoy to free safety. But the change was only made this past week.
Buono also moved Thompson to field corner, a new position for him, partly through training camp. As others, as B.C. Fan have commented, it would have made more sense to begin this season with Clarke at safety, Purifoy at nickel. It also would have made more sense to start Parker at corner, where he played so well last year when given the opportunity.
if we wanted to make the changes we made for last night's game, we could have eased them in with more practice time and some rotational game reps. A season home opener is not the place for experimentation and little practice playing together. Wally may think he can walk on water and do whatever, and it will turn out well, but that is not reality.
THE UGLY
Adrian Clarke's penalty, that negated Rainey's punt return touchdown was inexcusable. When you are a special team specialist, you don't push a defender down in the back with your hands, in front of an official.
We gave up 152 yards on penalties in this game.
We passed for 104 yards in the first half and went into the second half with only 3 points on the board.
Prior to the home opener, Wally's manta has been to play fast, to play physical, and to play smart. We didn't play fast or physical and we were certainly were not smart. We were outcoached and outplayed.
Giving up 420 yards of yardage on defense was ugly and we were fortunate not to give up more than 30 points. The broken coverage and confusion on pass defense, especially allowing Zylstar to get in behind us with time running out on the clock was also inexcusable. Zylstra (7 catches for 152 yards) and Williams (4 catches for 110 yds) ate our defense alive.
But not to be undone by the bad play of the right side of our offensive line and the bad play of our secondary, our special teams also got into the act.
Long's 48.3 yd. punt average resulted in a 29.9 yd. net average. That meant we gave up an average of more than 18 yards per punt return for the game.
Long missed a pressure convert attempt that could have been a difference maker had our defense not fallen apart on the last Edmonton drive of the game.
Our kickoff coverage was even worse, allowing Ladarius Perkins to return one for 64 yards and Chris Edwards to return another for 43 yards.
WRAP
Not an impressive way to start a season. We made it exciting in the end but we were not only outplayed in all three areas of the game but we also looked bad at times on offence, defense, and special teams.
Hype for the 2017 season has turned to reality. There is no need for alarm, This is a very talented, young, fast, deep Leo team. Calgery lost its first game of last season and never lost again in the regular season. Hopefully this was a game that was a wakeup call for Wally, who made too many positional changes late in training camp and also just before this game.
Khari Jones and Mark Washington/Dan Dorazio also need to return to the drawing board and make adjustments, both personell wise and strategy wise. On offence we need better pass protection and a better designed short game. On defense we need a better pass rush, we need to relook at our secondary personell, and with the defensive backs we have, we need to change up more and get out of so much zone defense.
Last season, our Leos kickoff coverage was terrible and not much has changed, when looking at our season opener.
|I should be an interesting practice week before Toronto.
Our Leos lost a game they deserved to lose. With some time to sleep on the disappointment, these are my post game thoughts. I've read the post game comments on the game thread and have incorporated some of those comments.
THE GOOD
On offence, in this game, our Leos came out wanting to run the football, as they should have. Our Leos led the CFL in rushing last season and when we run the football well, we usually win.
Jeremiah Johnson ran the football 14 times for 92 yards and a 6.6 yard average. Jennings, mostly running out of necessity rather than design, added 5 carries for 32 yards (6.4 yd. average). Overall we rushed for 130 yards in this game, which should have been enough to create a balanced offensive attack, help with pass protection, and open up our passing game. However, that didn't happen.
There were some spectacular throws in this game by Jennings. His throw to the sidelines, while under heavy heat, and dropping the football just over the defenders hands, was a thing of beauty. His deep throw to Nick Moore, in the fourth quarter, while throwing off his back foot and off-balance, running to his left and under pressure, was incredible.
Nick Moore was our go to receiver in this game. He led our Leos in both receptions (5) and reception yardage (98 yds), aided by his 62 yard catch in the fourth quarter. Burnham and Jeremiah Johnson had four receptions, while Iannuzzi, Manny, and Rainey all chipped in with 3 catches each.
Hunter Steward had a very good game at the left tackle spot and we are so fortunate to have a National be able to start at this most challenging offensive line position. Foucault had a solid game at left guard overall.
David Menard made a great play on defense, from his rotational defensive end spot behind Craig Roh, while Roh had our only quarterback sack of the game.
Chris Rainy ran a punt return for over 90 yards and a touchdown in the first quarter. The play was called back on a stupid Adrian Clarke push from behind but it was a spectacular return by Rainey, showing his speed and athleticism and instinctual running ability.
Ty Long hit four of five field goal attempts. More on his field goal miss and convert miss later. He also made a good tackle. Long punted 7 times for 338 yards, an impressive 48.3 yd. average, but he missed a couple of placement punts that went for singles instead.
Awe led the way on special teams with two downfield tackles and Chandler Fenner recovered a fumbled punt but there was not a lot of good play behind either.
THE BAD
Going into the 2017 season, there was a lot of hype about the signing of Chris Williams, the second full season of Jennings as a Leo starter (Jennings threw for the third most yards ever for a Leo quarterback last year), the return of Bryan Burnham, and Jeremiah Johnson and Chris Rainey leading our running attack.
But championship offences are usually anchored by strong offensive lines. The offensive game is mostly won in the trenches and with good pass protection. Bo Levi looks like a much better quarterback than he really is because he gets incredible protection.
I was opposed to the Olifioye trade. Olifioye would have looked very good and been a difference maker last night at right tackle. Free agent signings Buddy Jackson are on the roster and costing us money as are all the depth players we have on the so called injury list, on top of all of our practice roster players. We could have found the money to keep Olifioye and should have.
But given that we didn't, once again, we've tinkered with our offensive line in ways we shouldn't have. Kirby Fabian started the 2015 season at left guard. Last season, we moved Fabian back to right guard. Vaillencourt started the first two games at right guard in 2016 before getting injured and Fabian started the rest of the way.
It made more sense to me to move Fabian to left guard for this season and start Vailencourt at right guard. Faucault was supposed to come in and provide depth at tackle. But the whole thing was designed to have Faucault become a starter and make the trade look good. Therefore we moved Vaillencourt to left guard, a side of the line he has never played so Faucault could beat him out.
The offensive lineup we should have right now is Steward at left tackle, Faucault at left guard, Husband at center, Vaillencourt at right guard, and Palmer, when he is healthy again, at right tackle.
Kirby Fabian and Antonio Johnson had horrible games. The reality is that we are undersized and undertalented at right guard and right tackle, as we were last season. Fabian is 300 pounds, Antonio Johnson is listed at a generous 305 pounds, and Palmer is 290 pounds. Wally wanted to go cheap at right tackle and last night's result showed what cheap means.
Antonio Johnson took two bad penalties that hurt and Fabian was beaten badly on pass rushes. Jennings was sacked 5 times and under duress most of the game.
There are only two ways to shut down our very talented offence. One is to take away the deep ball. The second way is to pressure Jennings. For most of the game, Edmonton did both. We had 3 points at the half. No matter how good a quarterback is, its very difficult to perform consistently at a high level under severe duress due to poor pass protection.
Jennings did well to complete 65% of his passes for 260 yards, considering the heat he experienced, the times he avoided being sacked, the times he had to run for his life, and the difficulty of the throws he had to make. With Edmonton focused on taking away our long ball and getting so much pressure on Jennings, combined with the poor design of our short passing game, it was a tough night for our offence.
Jennings also fumbled as he attempted to escape heat by running up the middle and was stripped of the football. Odell Willis ate Antonio Johnson for 2 sacks. If not for Jennings escapability, the five sacks Jennings had to give up could easily have been ten sacks.
Defensively, we were also very bad at times in this game. We gave up 104 yards on the ground to John White on 17 carries. White had a 6.1 yd. average. But even worse, we gave up many big plays in the air on defense. Most believed our revamped secondary, going into training camp, was going to result in better pass defence this season.
Initially that secondary was going to comprised of Yell and Parker at corner, Lee and Gaitor at halfback, and Clarke at safety, with McDonald giving Clarke push. Purifoy spent most of training camp and the exhibition season at his familiar nickel spot and looked great there.
But Wally wanted to reward Chandler Fenner, playing backup nickel and who Buono believed was one of his best two defensive backs at training camp. So, he gave Fenner the starting nickel spot and moved Purifoy to free safety. But the change was only made this past week.
Buono also moved Thompson to field corner, a new position for him, partly through training camp. As others, as B.C. Fan have commented, it would have made more sense to begin this season with Clarke at safety, Purifoy at nickel. It also would have made more sense to start Parker at corner, where he played so well last year when given the opportunity.
if we wanted to make the changes we made for last night's game, we could have eased them in with more practice time and some rotational game reps. A season home opener is not the place for experimentation and little practice playing together. Wally may think he can walk on water and do whatever, and it will turn out well, but that is not reality.
THE UGLY
Adrian Clarke's penalty, that negated Rainey's punt return touchdown was inexcusable. When you are a special team specialist, you don't push a defender down in the back with your hands, in front of an official.
We gave up 152 yards on penalties in this game.
We passed for 104 yards in the first half and went into the second half with only 3 points on the board.
Prior to the home opener, Wally's manta has been to play fast, to play physical, and to play smart. We didn't play fast or physical and we were certainly were not smart. We were outcoached and outplayed.
Giving up 420 yards of yardage on defense was ugly and we were fortunate not to give up more than 30 points. The broken coverage and confusion on pass defense, especially allowing Zylstar to get in behind us with time running out on the clock was also inexcusable. Zylstra (7 catches for 152 yards) and Williams (4 catches for 110 yds) ate our defense alive.
But not to be undone by the bad play of the right side of our offensive line and the bad play of our secondary, our special teams also got into the act.
Long's 48.3 yd. punt average resulted in a 29.9 yd. net average. That meant we gave up an average of more than 18 yards per punt return for the game.
Long missed a pressure convert attempt that could have been a difference maker had our defense not fallen apart on the last Edmonton drive of the game.
Our kickoff coverage was even worse, allowing Ladarius Perkins to return one for 64 yards and Chris Edwards to return another for 43 yards.
WRAP
Not an impressive way to start a season. We made it exciting in the end but we were not only outplayed in all three areas of the game but we also looked bad at times on offence, defense, and special teams.
Hype for the 2017 season has turned to reality. There is no need for alarm, This is a very talented, young, fast, deep Leo team. Calgery lost its first game of last season and never lost again in the regular season. Hopefully this was a game that was a wakeup call for Wally, who made too many positional changes late in training camp and also just before this game.
Khari Jones and Mark Washington/Dan Dorazio also need to return to the drawing board and make adjustments, both personell wise and strategy wise. On offence we need better pass protection and a better designed short game. On defense we need a better pass rush, we need to relook at our secondary personell, and with the defensive backs we have, we need to change up more and get out of so much zone defense.
Last season, our Leos kickoff coverage was terrible and not much has changed, when looking at our season opener.
|I should be an interesting practice week before Toronto.