Lionbackers.com

Belize City Lion wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:11 pm

It was the right call but the wrong throw. Absolutely you take 1 shot at the end zone, but you have to be more cautious. BLM is capable of making some of the most precise passes into tight coverage, but in that situation if your receiver is not wide open you simply don't put the ball anywhere near there.

Glad for Ricky Ray. He's always been a good dude. Too bad Trestman didn't take an extra year before returning to the CFL. He'd look great in Orange.

Concur, nothing wrong with the call. Poor decision by Mitchell to throw into double coverage.

KnowItAll wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 27, 2017 4:03 pm

shades of 1988

Or the 1994 WDF. Mark McLoughlin, meet Ray Alexander. The play that should have put the game away turns it around completely.

Happy to see Alex Singleton not hoist the Grey Cup...classless player

Coast Mountain Lion wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:45 pm

KnowItAll wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 27, 2017 4:03 pm

shades of 1988

Or the 1994 WDF. Mark McLoughlin, meet Ray Alexander. The play that should have put the game away turns it around completely.

Well, putting the game away was not the most accurate statement though it would have been harder for the Lions to win. At the time of the field goal attempt, it was 36-31 Calgary. A successfully field goal would have made it a 39-31 and an 8-point lead. The Lions would have had to then score a touchdown and then successfully perform a 2-point conversion to make it 39-39 tie and force overtime.

Unlike in the past, the city of Toronto just held a celebration rally instead of a large parade for the Argonauts.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi honoured the friendly wager donned a Toronto Argonauts jersey and recited a poem praising the winning team.

http://torontosun.com/sports/football/c ... 623a187bfd

leo4life wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 28, 2017 8:39 am

Happy to see Alex Singleton not hoist the Grey Cup...classless player

Maybe a lot more classy than you think. I was sitting on the 25 yard line in the end of the field where the game concluded. The Argos were all going through their whooping and hollering as they congratulated each other. I looked over towards the Calgary bench and saw the Stamps filing off to their locker room at the far end of the field. Then I looked back towards the Argos. While the rest of the club had retreated to the locker room there were still 3 Stampeders amongst the sea of blue. I first saw #95 Ja'Gared Davis then #49 Alex Singleton. I think the 3rd was #20 Dwayne Norman. They were respectfully biding their time for the Argos to do their thing. I saw Davis congratulate a couple of the Argo OL he'd battled with. Then he sought out Ricky Ray and congratulated him. Similarly Singleton stood in the background for a little bit waiting for an opportunity. He might've shaken a few other hands but he was clearly waiting for the chance to pay his respects to Ricky Ray. When the chance opened up he went right to Ricky. They shook hands, embraced and had about a 20 second conversation patting each other on the shoulder pads and helmet as football players do then Singleton finally left for the locker room.

About Alex Singleton, as with anyone, it's best not to make a fellow out to be one-dimensional. We may not cheer for him and his team, but calling him classless seems uncalled for IMO. Perhaps take the time to get to know him a bit via this article, about him and his close family relationships, with his Special Olympics athlete sister, et al. I'm guessing if he played for our Leos we'd love him and his smiley ways. Just saying. cheers!
https://www.cfl.ca/2017/11/16/long-read ... sing-star/

Robbie wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 28, 2017 12:15 pm

Unlike in the past, the city of Toronto just held a celebration rally instead of a large parade for the Argonauts.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi honoured the friendly wager donned a Toronto Argonauts jersey and recited a poem praising the winning team.

http://torontosun.com/sports/football/c ... 623a187bfd

John Tory is clearly not a candidate for poet laureate

I'm shocked that the Stamps seem to hang this loss on Jorden alone. Dickenson should have taken him aside when he held the bar up on his earlier TD - saw nothing that suggested a coach reminded him of ball protection versus celebrating early.

Toronto players talked about protect the ball prior to this game. Stamps dunno.

How could a fumble go back 110 yards without any effort including an early quitter - Marquay McDaniel.

Stamps are a very good football team but just maybe they again thought like last year - this one will be easy.

I personally think Singleton is a great ambassador for the CFL as is Bo Levi Mitchell.

I can't recall seeing Ricky Ray unshaven - but has he been partying since the W....lol

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/stamps-mcd ... re~1272477

Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun has nicely summed up the Stampeders' honest approach to the Kamar Jorden fumble that turned the game around on Sunday.

Calgary Stampeders receivers Kamar Jorden and Marquay McDaniel have yet to speak.

They insist they won’t have to.

The man who fumbled away the Grey Cup lead late Sunday and the teammate who openly criticized him afterwards agree the former’s careless play was “stupid football.”

McDaniel didn’t apologize for publicly flogging Jordan for his gaffe, nor has anyone in the locker room suggested the veteran did anything wrong by speaking out.

Honesty, says the coach, is what he wants — what it takes to be as consistent and accountable as the Stampeders are.

“It’s going to be a play I’m known for — I’m willing to accept that,” said Jorden, demonstrating a class and poise beyond his 28 years.

“That’s one of the first things that came into my head when the game ended. But I’m also willing to grow from it.”

Jorden said he began the healing process Monday morning by facing the world’s response head on.

“I had over 100 text messages and 100 notifications on Twitter and Facebook, and I read everything — the good and the bad,” said Jorden, who said he hopes and plans to be back next year with the Stampeders.

“I felt like I’ve got to embrace it. You can’t hide from it. The sooner I can look at it in its eye and learn and grow from it will be the best situation for me in the future.”

He hadn’t looked McDaniel in the eye since the 33-year-old elder statesman of the receivers chose not to keep his criticism in-house, telling the world after the game, “it was just a dumb play. It changed the whole game. The ball is the most important (thing) at that time in the game. Four minutes left? Already up eight? A chance to go up 11? No, I don’t see that as extra effort. It was stupid.”

No need to rehash, said Jorden.

“I don’t really want to add no fuel to that fire,” said Jorden, when asked if a meeting between the two was imminent.

“The one thing I’ll say is that I agree with what he said.”

Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell confirmed ball security was, indeed, stressed throughout the game.

“‘Quay’s not wrong — it was stupid football — it was not smart,” said Mitchell, who took his own heat for the game-ending interception he threw into double-coverage.

“It’s because we had been harping on ball control so much on the sidelines, guys were so frustrated and feelings came out because of that. I’m proud of the way (Jorden) owned up to it, but he doesn’t have to take the blame for it — that’s not why we lost the game. We still had a chance.”

Dickenson preached honesty when asked about the finger pointing.

“I’d really rather if a guy has to say something he says it out loud,” said the head coach.

“I think we’re all frustrated. What he’s basically saying is you try to play smart football and take care of the football. There were a lot of plays you want back in that game, and certainly that’s one of them.”

Veteran fullback Rob Cote says he backed McDaniel for speaking from the heart, as did defensive back Josh Bell.

“Marquay is a veteran — he chose his words wisely,” said Bell.

“He said at that point in time, it was a stupid play not having two hands on the ball at that time — that statement was a true statement. Ninety-nine percent of the football people would say the same thing. KJ even said it was a dumb play and he felt he lost the game for us. He didn’t lose the game for us. We should have been up by 30 points at that point in the game.”

Asked if he thought the issue would linger, he scoffed.

“We family,” said Bell.

“We ain’t got to worry about all that.”

No lingering hostility towards Stampeders' Kamar Jorden over costly Grey Cup fumble

Instead of hiding their feelings, they got everything out in the open and agreed on the magnitude of the mistake. Dickenson had the right approach in praising the players' honesty.

Bo Levi Mitchell, meanwhile, the clinching last-minute interception he threw into double coverage in the end zone was the right call. He just underthrew it.

I’ll stand by that decision for the rest of my life,” said the 27-year-old Stampeders quarterback following emotional exit meetings.

“You guys don’t play the game. It was the smart play. It was the right play. I just missed the throw. If that ball is three yards farther we’re celebrating and talking about ring sizes.”

Instead Mitchell and the Calgary Stampeders spent the day rehashing the team’s nightmarish collapse, which was punctuated by his toss into the hands of Toronto Argonauts defensive back Matt Black in the waning seconds of a 27-24 loss.

The play came on second-down-and-four from the Argos 24-yard line with 20 seconds left and the Stampeders down by three points. He explained the call aimed at taking advantage of a coverage mismatch favouring Stampeders receiver Marken Michel.

“We’ve run that play many times and scored with it,” said Mitchell, who had yet to turn the ball over the entire CFL playoffs before that throw.

“If you look at the film, ‘Quay (Marquay McDaniel) gets pushed down and you can’t throw the inside throw because it’s an even easier pick. Pre-snap, I saw Matt (Black) start to run that way so I knew it was a riskier throw, and as soon as I let it go, I knew I didn’t put enough on it. I just feel bad for the guys I didn’t make the throw.”

Stamps QB Mitchell speaks about Grey Cup game-ending interception

Losing back-to-back Grey Cup games in gut-wrenching fashion can destroy a team's character, but I love the way the Stampeder players and coaching staff have openly faced their mistakes. They might emerge even stronger as a result.

Bo said: " Pre-snap, I saw Matt (Black) start to run that way so I knew it was a riskier throw, and as soon as I let it go, I knew I didn’t put enough on it. I just feel bad for the guys I didn’t make the throw.”

If Bo knew it was risky at all, even just a little, then he should not have thrown if at all or thrown it way past the receiver and kick a FG next play. Bo made a mental mistake and didn't have the proper situational awareness. A worse mistake than Jordan's fumble, imo.

Argos seem to be getting a lot of things right, including social media. This is a powerful piece from their Grey Cup rally.

DH



[media]<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We did exactly what we intended to do, Toronto. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ArgosFootba ... ootball</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreyCup?src ... GreyCup</a> <a href="https://t.co/Jj0tcUkexR">pic.twitter.co ... </p>&mdash; Toronto Argonauts (@TorontoArgos) <a href=" 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
[/media]

There were enough plays blown by the Stamps in the Grey Cup game to not pin all the blame on Jordan. His incredible 37 yard reception on the final Stamps drive also gave them the opportunity to either tie or win the game. I place more blame on Bo Levi than Jordan, who led the Stamps in receiving.

Bo Levi threw a deep ball to Marken, when he was the only receiver running a deep pattern on the play. That meant the safety was free to come over. Bo Levi not only didn't look the safety off but he made a throw that he should have known was going to result in potential double coverage. He chose to be the hero and ended up being one of the goats.

But of course, Bo Levi is standing by his decision to make the throw, as one would expect him to.

I am not impressed with McDaniel's comments after the game. McDaniel had 8 receptions in the game for 46 yards. He averaged just over 5 yards per reception. Perhaps if he had a better Grey Cup game and had broken a tackle or two, the Stamps would have been in a more favorable position towards game end.

You don't call out a teammate like he did. This is not a guy I would want to be in the trenches with. McDaniel was sore about Jordan's fumble and the ball security issues that the team had emphasized all week and during the contest. But I also see some of McDaniel's comments also being about ego. Jordan was the go to guy in this game and not him. McDaniel views himself as the star of the Stamps receiving corps and he is now a fading star.

Dickenson can say he appreciates honesty and has not condemmed McDaniel's comments and he should have. But Dickenson did say that the Stamps lost the game on more plays than just the Jordan fumble and the Bo Levi throw and I agree with him.

In fact, the play that I thought was the most important play in the game that cost the Stamps the game was Dickenson calling the pass play to Jordan on the 8 yard line in the first place. Run the football twice in that situation, take the field goal if you don't make it and you have a two score game lead with less than 5 minutes left.

Dickenson should have played the percentages but he was just as greedy as Bo Levi in this game.

That is a good post, Blitz.

From a team point of view, what McDaniel said was locker room poison. Honest? Yes, but selfish. Tending to damage a team.

I credit Jorden for the way he stood up, did not hide, thought and answered questions for a long time.

I also think Dickenson should have taken the team road, not blaming any individual.

The Stampeders have loads of talent and a superb GM in Hufnagel. But this loss hurts. And the reactions within the room are not good. Looking to blame is a road to failure. There is a chance that the team may not be as good next year. More negative thinking might show up. More doubts. More stabbing of each other. If they say bad stuff publicly, one can imagine that worse stuff gets said privately.

As with any grievance it feels good in the moment to let it out. But for the long term it does damage to organizations and to relationships. It tends to create an every man for himself atmosphere. Football teams need cooperation and good morale. Players need to support each other. Players need a sense of trust.

Just IMO ...

And by the way, it looks good on the Stampeders. Keep on blaming. Pointing at teammates after messed up plays would be good too. LOL

On the plus side, the most arrogant fans in the CFL now have absolutely nothing to be arrogant about anymore, no matter how many games they win in the regular season.

Still, I expect Horsie (or what ever name he uses) to still be his arrogant, ignorant, attention seeking self on 3DownNation Comments, but he will now get slammed twice as hard by other commenters.

And Childress, a CFLhorsemen moderator, won't be starting any more sly troll polls (like he did at Esksfans) on any other team's fan forums.