TiCats 48 - Lions 8, Post-Game Stats and Comments 20181111

[WestCoastJoe]

Herdman is an excellent run stopper. √ Of course Jones schemed it up to get him isolated in man coverage on a faster receiver at a key time. Detailed game planning. And no knock on Herdman. Not at all. He should not have been put in that position. I think many of us noticed that play as excellent offensive planning.

Glanville did a number on us too with his defence.

Might post some breakdown pix later, although the motivation is lacking at this time.

Credit to the TiCats. We were in a mismatch of schemes and coaching against a couple of old masters, with modern, up to date thinking.
.....

48-8. Largest playoff loss in Lions' history. The last 3 quarters took forever. I think some of us felt it was over at 14-0 in the1st quarter.

[JohnnyMusso]

It was over at 7 to 0. Knew Lions then were done. First touchdown was too easy.

[MacNews]

We are at the TiCats one-yard line, and the play ends with the TiCats at the Lions one-yard line. The game in a nutshell.

[Mikemike]

Anything that can be put in a nutshell should stay there...

Let's hope next year gets some things straightened out.

[SammyGreene]

That must have been one long flight back to Vancouver with many wondering what is next in their careers.

Huge red flag for me was that game at Mosiac 2 weeks ago. That no show was very alarming given there was plenty to play for and the team seemingly had momentum after that big Edmonton win at home.

In the end 3 of their last 4 road games were absolutely atrocious.

Not sure if any player or coach's stock has dropped more over the last 3 weeks than Lulay or Washington.

We all know the RPO was hardly complimentary to either QB but Travis suddenly looked like he did 3-4 years ago. The game had got too fast and his arm strength had been zapped.
It's like he wasn't the same QB after the 4th quarter INT against Edmonton that nearly let them back in the game.

If he finished the season strongly he might have been option B if they don't land Reilly. Not any more.

Lions defence was rightly being praised for the 2nd half turnaround with Washington being the main beneficiary. Now I don't see any way Hervey can justify him staying in any role. And what other team would want him for a DC?

[cromartie]

151 ydars for Andrew Harris against the Riders. A huge mistake by Buono to let Harris go.

You can't keep a guy who doesn't want to be here.

Broom the entire coaching staff save Melvin and Reinbold.

Throw a bank vault at Reilly. You're nothing without a top tier QB in this league, and two things we can be sure of is that Jennings isn't one, and Travis can't stay healthy. I'd love to keep Travis on as part of the next coaching staff, should he so choose.

Saving graces; we have a front office that seems determined to succeed despite an owner who appears determined to hang on to the bitter end.

In light of how the team has performed since 2013, this isn't a sad ending for Wally, it's an appropriate one. It's the same ending every legendary coach who holds onto the same mode of thinking and the same assistants for too many years endures. This is about in line with how Don Shula went out in 1995, actually.

[cromartie]

I was near certain that Jackson would get out coached by Granville.

The truth behind this sentence is enough to drive me to drink. And I don't drink.

[Blitz]

With an evening to digest our Leos loss yesterday and the end of the Buono era, here are some post-game thoughts.

_______________________________________________________________________


I believe the final story line of this 2018 season had already been written in both the minds of Wally Buono and Ed Willes.

That storyline would include a photo of confetti dropping down from the sky, with Wally Buono hoisted onto Rolly Lumbala and Jovan Olifioye’s shoulders, the 2018 Grey Cup held high above his head.

Ed Willes would then pen the story he was aching to write all season. His story line would be that Wally Buono, the CFL legendary coach who had retired as our Head Coach in 2011, had returned to the sidelines to win another Grey Cup before walking away from the sidelines for the very last time.

Buono would be the ‘loyal martyr’ who returned to the sidelines to save the franchise for David Braley and for Leos fans he would be written up as the ‘savior’ who had sacrificed himself for all B.C. Lions fans to lead our Leos to Grey Cup victory.

Wally would also be given credit for going back to his veteran quarterback Travis Lulay, as his starting quarterback, for installing veteran Sol E at middle linebacker to lead his defensive charges, and for making the move to Terrrell Sutton as his tailback.

All three would be written up as reflecting the characteristics of Buono – courage, determination, and toughness.

The story would continue. Yes, the Wally Farewell Tour had not been a success, Wally Buono Night had not gone well, the start of the season had been a bit of a disaster but Buono, patient and wise, had stuck to the knitting and by doing so, had brought us victory.

Buono ‘disciples’ were armed and ready to disparage the Buono critics, whom they viewed as just a bunch of heretics that were too blind to see that the ‘greatness’ of Wally Buono still resided in Leo Land.

Buono was wiser than ever, coaching better than ever (he even said so himself) and they were excited to spread the ‘word’ once again of the great leadership of Buono, who once again, had led this ‘flock’ to the promised land of Grey Cup victory.

Before this playoff game against Hamilton, Buono was also writing his own lines in preparation for the successful ending to this season that he anticipated.

Buono said he saw ‘greatness’ in this Leos 2018 team and that the key to the second half turnaround had been due taking Ed Hervey’s free agent aquistiions that were ‘set in their ways’ and ‘molding’ them into a successful team in the second half of this 2018 season.

But the dream turned into a nightmare on a cold November afternoon in Hamilton. The Football Gods decided that Buono did not deserve that outcome. But they didn’t even need to get too involved. They gave Buono a mulligan with a Palmer fumble recovery in the end zone on Hamilton’s first drive of the game and then sat back and watched Buono, Washington, and Jackson self-destruct this talented 2018 Leos team.

June Jones and Jerry Glanville were also none too happy to stick a lot of daggers into a team that was bleeding from the opening whistle.

The warning signs had been there all season and they had been ignored.
Buono ignored that our offence struggled for most of the season with our new RPO styled spread offence.

Why we installed this new offence in the first place has to be seriously questioned. Steve McAdoo’s RPO scheme had struggled in Edmonton and Mike Reilly could not make it work. It struggled in Saskatchewan and continued to this season.

But somehow, Buono made the decision to allow Jarious Jackson to bring this mediocre scheme with him to B.C., rather than just bring some new ideas and some modifications to an existing offensive scheme. Our existing offensive scheme had needed some changes and some new ideas but this wholesale change, to an entirely different way of playing the game on offence that did not suit our players at all, was very unwise.

But what really hurt our Leos this season was that when that scheme was obviously not working and was not going to work, Buono stuck with it, rather than directing Jackson to change it.

Stuckness has always been a huge Wally tendency but the bigger issue was that Buono and Jackson blamed the players for the offensive lack of success.

Jonathan Jennings was thrown under the bus again and again. In addition, our penchant for ‘up the gut’ run plays, and their lack of success was blamed on our tailbacks. When Jeremiah Johnson ran into a wall of defenders on second and short, Wally turned to Brandon Rutley, then to Chris Rainey and then to Trevon Vann and then back to Johnson and Rainey before making the switch to Terrrel Sutton, who became the ‘answer’ to all of our running game ills.

I will never forget Sutton getting stuffed on second and short and Wally shaking his head on the sidelines and cursing. The notion that defenses stuffed our inside ‘up the gut run’ on second and short, overloading the box with more defenders than blockers, never seemed to enter Buono’s head.

In many ways those unsuccessful second and short runs that plagued us season after season were a reflection of the major Achilles heel of Buono. He always believe his schemes and play calls were outstanding and it was always the players fault for not ‘executing’.

It was that arrogance, as well as that inability or unwillingness for Buono to look at the coaching aspect of what ailed us, to throw up a mirror to himself and his coaching ‘charges’, that resulted in the lack of success our Leos mostly dealt with over the past two seasons.

We missed the playoffs last year and finished 4th in the West this season, with another miserable and embarrassing playoff loss.

THE WASHINGTON AND JARIOUS SHOW

Wally Buono once said that one of the reasons for his success was hiring smart people and being around smart people. When Buono stuck with this recipe good things happened for him. John Hufnagel gave him an innovative offensive scheme in Calgary that was ahead of its time for a long time. George Cortez, mentored by Hufnagel, continued the blue print with some modifications and brought more success.

Steve Burratto gave Buono an innovative offence in his first two seasons in B.C. Dave Ritchie and Rich Stubler provided Buono with some outstanding defenses. Jaques Chapdelaine, a well-seasoned coach over time and allowed to make some modifications part way through 2011, helped Buono win a Grey Cup championship.

But Buono was never comfortable with any assistant coach who he could not turn into a “Little Wally’.

He jettisoned Steve Burratto part way though the 2004 season and was cruel in the way he did it. He jettisoned Steve Kruck after a very successful 2007 season, a season in which our offence scored the most points in the CFL with Jarious Jackson, our third string quarterback starting our last 11 games. Instead, Buono turned the offensive reins over to disciple Dan Dorazio.

Buono annointed Mike Benevedes as his replacement for 2012, having ‘mentored’ him but when Wally got rid of both Stubler and Chapdelaine at the end of 2013, Benevedes lost the team in 2014, going with rookie coordinators in Mark Washington and Khari Jones instead of bringing in some experience in at least one of those positions.

Buono, upon returning to the sidelines chose to stick with Mark Washington, promoted Khari Jones again, and hired back Dan Dorazio. It has often been written that Buono’s problem was that he was too ‘loyal’ to his assistants.

Buono has never been loyal to anyone but himself. He showed no loyalty when he dumped Burratto, Kruck, Chapdelaine, Stubler, or Benevedes. Buono wanted young, inexperienced coaches that he could mold into the ‘Buono Way’ and who would sing his praises.

After all, Buono had given them their opportunity that no one else did.

THE BUONO WAY

Wally Buono enjoyed excellent success, with one caveat, in his seasons in Calgary and his early seasons in B.C.

Those were different times. In Calgary, Buono, with only one season as a defensive coordinator there, became Calgary’s Head Coach. One season later, he was also the GM in Calgary. That inexperience, combined with much success for many seasons, would eventually become Buono’s downfall.

Buono, as a new Head Coach took over a talented 10-6 Calgary team from Larry Kuharick. Not many first year coaches inherit that type of situation.

Buono, in Calgary had the best football personnel man in football in Roy Shivers and he had a budget, with no SMS, that was the envy of other CFL franchises.

With Hufnagel giving Buono an innovative offensive blue print that took almost a decade before most CFL defenses to adjust to, with Shivers bringing in a boat load of talent, and with Calgary having the money to steal away Doug Flutie away from our Leos, Buono had a lot of advantages in Calgary that were the envy of other CFL Head Coaches.

Buono had the talent in Calgary to create the best dynasty of all time, better than the Eskimos five-year dynasty under Hugh Campbell. But Buono only won 1 Grey Cup with Flutie, the CFL’s greatest quarterback of all time at the reins and only 1 Grey Cup with his successor Jeff Garcia.

Buono, whose strength was his demandingness, his toughness, and either his ability to separate emotion or lack of emotion in terms of personnel decision making, also had weaknesses.

Those weaknesses included his lack of coaching experience before assuming the Head Coaching reins, his poor game management skills, and his penchant for simplicity and execution of that simplicity. That lead to predictability, especially on defence in Calgary, where Buono insisted on vanilla zone defensive schemes.

Buono arrived in B.C. and also inherited a great situation once again. He had Bobby Ackles providing wise leadership, as Normie Kwong had also provided Buono in his early time in Calgary. He had Bob O’Billovich, another outstanding football personnel man brining in a ton of talent. He also began his career here in B.C with Dave Dickenson as his quarterback.

Those first five seasons here in B.C. almost duplicated Buono’s success in Calgary.

And when Dickenson got hurt early in 2004, he had an offensive coordinator in Steve Burrato, an offensive coordiantor who had led the CFL’s greatest offence ever in Baltimore, working well with a young quarterback in Casey Printers.

He was able to win a Grey Cup in 2006 off the back of his Dave Ritchie led aggressive and innovative defense. He was able to put together an excellent 2007 season, with Ritchie once again coaching our defense and John Hufnagel working with Steve Kruck to create a new style of offence that even allowed Jarious Jackson to succeed.

But Buono could never stop interfering and playing with the trains when he didn’t need to, creating messes which could have and should have been avoided.

He replaced Burratto with Chapdelaine 2/3 through the 2004 season. He drove Dave Ritchie and Barrin Miles almost crazy interfering with the defense from 2005-2007.

He replaced Kruck with Dorazio after Kruck’s very successful 2007 season and he replaced Stubler and Chapdelaine with Washington and Khari Jones. Buono undermined Benevedes and Tedford. He stuck with Washington, promoted Khari Jones, and brought back Dorazio. He then hired Jackson rather than bring in a seasoned offensive coordinator.

But it was at the quarterback position that Buono did the most damage.

Printers agent did not start the quarterback controversy between Printers and Dickenson. Buono did that by panicking before the 2004 Grey Cup game and choosing to go with his rusty vet over the MOP.

He followed that by stating that Dickenson and Printers would compete for the starting quarterback position in 2005, then refused to name his quarterback starter for most of the 2005 season until game day, had another competition in the bye week before the playoffs for the starting quarterback position, benched Dickenson and inserted Printers late in the fourth quarter of the 2005 West Final, and then offered Printers a 450,000 per year contract for the starting quarterback position at the end of 2005, infuriating Dickenson.

With Printers turning the contract down, Wally couldn’t even leave the 2006 Grey Cup game alone, inserting Buck Pierce into the game and disrupting flow.

Buono created a new quarterback controversy between Pierce and Jackson and kept on going, bringing Printers back part way through 2009, knowing that it would reignite the old divisions and created a new debate between Printers and Lulay, even though Printers should not have even been playing on a knee that would require full knee reconstruction.

Buono decided upon his return to the sidelines that Jennings would be his starting quarterback of the future and Jennings had an excellent first season as a starter, throwing for over 5,000 yds.

But by 2017, Buono was back at it, creating another quarterback controversy between Jennings and Lulay, that continued into this season.

The good thing is that Lulay and Jennings stuck together this time, no matter whether Jackson, Buono, or Hervey was throwing Jennings under the bus or whether Wally was yelling at Lulay on the sidelines.

They had each other’s backs and it was a good thing because Buono had neither of their backs.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Wally Buono would have been wise to retire as Head Coach at the end of 2007 and concentrate on his GM duties. Ackles had passed, Ritchie retired, Chapdelaine had left, frustrated that Benevedes was Wally’s golden boy, and O’Billovich had left for Hamilton.

There were calls for Buono to retire as Head Coach at the end of 2009 and 2010, as we went 8-10 in both those seasons and got off to terrible starts.

We got off to a terrible start in 2011 too but with a couple of personnel changes (Harris, Bruce) and some scheme changes (motion offence) and a defensive rotation that gave us an incredible defensive line to compliment Banks, Marsh, and Phillips, we won the Grey Cup.

That Grey Cup victory was exciting and special for Leo fans, who only had been able to enjoy one Grey Cup victory since Buono’s arrival in 2003. Buono retired as Head Coach and his timing was definitely wise.

But unfortunately, Buono seemed to place himself in a position where he seemed to view himself as a demi-god.

Forgotten were his struggles of two losing seasons in 2009 and 2010. Forgotten were the playoff losses in which Buono inserted a rusty Dickenson into playoff games in 2004, 2005, and 2007 and the predictability of scheme and play calls that contributed so much to those losses that should have been wins.

Now Buono had never done wrong and could do no wrong.

Not only did too many others think that way but Buono had begun to think that way about himself.

He was now a self-referred legend, who now behaved as if everything that was uttered out of his mouth was wisdom for the ages. The media treated him with kid gloves and acted as disciples in promoting the ‘football religion of Buono’. He was often the only one quoted after games and his word was THE WORD.

As we began to lose a lot in 2017, Buono began to scapegoat players even more than he had in the past. He was always available to the media and that was interpreted as ‘selling the game’ but it also involved Buono selling himself and laying the blame elsewhere.

Not that he had to work hard at it. The media, always loving a coach who goes out of his way to be available, were none too happy, to spread the gospel of Buono.

They were exceptions such as Lowell Ullrich, but most appeared more than willing to throw Leo players under a bus for Buono while never questioning what was right in front of their eyes.

When Buono called them for a ‘walk around the field’ to do Buono’s dirty work of publicly embarrassing a player, that was the only version we got to read.

When our Leos offence could not convert a second and short, time and again, they were more than willing to throw our next tailback under the bus or write that we needed a tailback like Sutton to get it done, rather than question what we were doing, in terms of play calling.

They were more than willing to facilitate a good young man in Jonathan Jennings thrown to the wolves or an exciting, dynamic player as Chris Rainey become the scapegoat for an unimaginative punt return game that Buono insisted upon.

They never questioned our offensive scheme and Ed Willes, a big Lulay advocate, even tossed him to the wolves before our playoff game with Hamilton, by stating our Leos team had not had adequate quarterbacking this season, while giving Jarious Jackson a free pass once again.

The media not only gave Mark Washington a free pass for years of mediocre defence and brutal playoff performances. They were more than quick to begin advocating for Mark Washington as our next Head Coach after two good defensive performances in the second half of this season.

The Kool Aid was turned on for Mark Washington in an instant, despite his previous lack of success.

THE GAME DID NOT PASS BUONO BY

In my opinion, Wally Buono was never a good football coach, in the strictest use of the word. He never learned much about offensive strategy and therefore was never able to ‘groom’ an offensive coordinator.

He needed a John Hufnagel to start the ball rolling to mentor a Cortez who mentored a Chapdelaine or he needed to have an experienced one, as a Steve Burratto. When Buono hired rookies such as Khari Jones or Jarious Jackson, he made a mistake.

Nor was Buono able to mentor rookie defensive coordinators either.

Buono’s penchant for passive zone defense was not the way to develop rookie defensive coordinators such as Mike Benevedes or Mark Washington. Buono was wise to hire Dave Ritchie and was lucky to have Stubler on Benevedes staff for 2012 and 2013.

When Buono returned to the sidelines in 2016, he should have hired an experienced defensive coordinator who had experienced success elsewhere.

Benevedes hired Stubler as his defensive line coach in 2010 because he knew he needed to be mentored and hired Stubler as his defensive coordinator when he became Head Coach. He kept Chapdelaine also and he needed to.

When Buono got rid of both, he hung Benevedes out to dry, because Benevedes, like Buono himself, had no clue as to how to mentor rookie coordinators.

When Wally Buono returned to the sidelines, in 2016, I agreed with the move. There was absolutely no sense in having Buono up in the cherry picker at practices undermining his Head Coaches and being a control freak.

There was just no way that we could have a Head Coach be given the opportunity to coach our Leos the way he wanted to, without Buono interfering and undermining.

Heck, players even paid their fines to Buono, even though he was not the Head Coach anymore.

Buono’s success in Calgary and his early seasons in B.C. were helped very much by the very positive circumstances that he walked into.

Buono’s lack of success too ofen in the playoffs in Calgary and in his early seasons in B.C. when he had the most talent to win many more Grey Cups was mostly due to his wanting to focus on simplification and execution.

But he won a ton of regular season games, as well as some Grey Cups and deserves his due.

Buono ran a very disciplined ship, had high expectations, demanded a strong work ethic, and created a culture that was focused. His players were committed to excellence and winning.

It wasn’t that the game passed Buono by. Outside of Hufnagel’s blue print, Buono had never been an innovative coach or anything close to a brilliant or even a good strategist.

His individual players concentrated on themselves to continuously improve their skills and talents and Buono instilled that mindset.

Over his last six seasons as a Head Coach Buono had three losing seasons and a fourth season, this year, in 2018, with a 9-9 record and a humiliating loss to Hamilton in the East Semi-Final, because arrogance was added to the mix.

I went into this playoff game with hope.

That makes no rational sense, as all season as in the two seasons previously, the red flags were waving over and over again, that Buono would not make the strategic changes we needed to make. But when something is in your heart, the mind never gives up hope.

My heart was with this Leos team.

Even when Jarious Jackson, this week, said that there was nothing wrong with his scheme and our last two poor offensive performances were based upon the opposition having a lot to play for, whereas we didn’t, I clung to the hope that it was just a deception and we would come out with something a bit different than our usual hopeless RPO offence. But we didn’t.

I hoped that Mark Washington would be prepared for Hamilton’s June Jones to attempt to create mismatches if we stayed in man and would have our defense ready.

Why I hoped for that, when I should have known better, is a good question to ask myself. I guess I just think that what should be obvious to Lionbacker posters should be more than obvious to a professional football coach.

But I’ve learned. Football can teach a lot of lessons. The lesson of all of this is that ego and arrogance and rigidity can lead to a lot of suffering for oneself and others.

The lesson in all of this is that blame and scapegoatging, rather than looking at oneself in the mirror is the way to never improve or become better.

I feel no sympathy for Buono. He embarrassed and humiliated some good people along the way, including Burratto and Stubler.

He treated some of his veteran players very poorly and not just by releasing them close to their due date.

He did not respect their contributions by his treatment of them and the list is long, from the Dave Dickenson’s to the Dante Marsh’s to the Paul McCallum’s. The treatment that Jennings received this season was completely unacceptable and unwarranted.

But I do wish Buono a good retirement.

He played a very important role in those early successful seasons from 2003-2007 and while we only won one Grey Cup during that time, it was an exciting team to watch. He also brought us a Grey Cup victory in 2011. He also helped to provide stability to a franchise that too often had lacked it.

But on a cold Hamilton field, reality reared it’s face and a big price was paid for the ‘Wally Way’. There would be no magical repeat of 2011. A talented team that had the ability to go all the way to be playing in a Grey Cup was badly outcoached and the players were not prepared for what would hit them. We were humiliated.

Travis Lulay fumbled once and threw an interception and did not have a good day. He had been hurried back unnecessarily from an injury once too many times, the pressure and hits had mounted once again, and he was not given the necessary tools, in terms of an offensive scheme, to achieve success.

To have expected more from Lulay would have been unfair, nor did he lose the game for us. The game was won by Hamilton during the week before the game began, as it was lost for us in the same way.

Our players were excited about this game. But our coaching staff did not have them prepared for victory.

On defense, once again, Mark Washington had been badly outsmarted.
Two very veteran coaches, June Jones and Jerry Glanville led a less talented team, including an offence that had lost its three best receivers, to a convincing victory over our B.C. Lions.

I will always be left with the feeling that we could have and should have won more playoff games and more Grey Cups in the Buono era. It was often a very, very frustrating experience.

Its time for a new era of Lions football to begin.

[Toppy Vann]

Great insights and analyses as usual Blitz as well as a history reminder that too often gets lost to the immediate.

Was this game lost before kickoff?

There is something that continues to gnaw at me.

This nagging question is this:

Is there something lacking in the quality of the character of this current team collectively?

Talent aside, the winning teams have a strong core group of players that help coaches instill the culture of performance and winning.

In sports some new coaches will get an immediate rough assessment of the quantify of the number of players who meet their criteria for character and commitment to the team philosophy, culture, discipline and performance.

The core is the group that helps instill and spread the HC's culture, commitment, thinking, culture and the right attitudes and standards to the rest of the team. The team becomes self regulating where players don't condone lesser than full commitment and performance from themselves individually and the team collectively.

The Lions have some great leaders in the vets like Lulay, Sol E but are the numbers deficient?

Some comments by Lulay suggest that not all the players are on board fully.

If you want a quick read or two of culture Netflix is great as they run it like a sports team:

Reed Hastings CEO:

“We decided to use the metaphor that the company was like a sports team, not a family. Just as great sports teams are constantly scouting for new players and culling others from their lineups, our team leaders would need to continually look for talent and reconfigure team makeup. We set the mandate that their decisions about whom to bring in and who might have to go must be made purely on the basis of the performance their teams needed to produce in order for the company to succeed

But this means more than just the skill you bring, it also means you commit to the culture and standards and that you'll stand up to others professionally when the culture is being let down.

A quick read of their 128 slides here:

https://igormroz.com/documents/netflix_culture.pdf

A Forbes article with quotes also by Patty McCord, an author of the document who herself was an eventual but not unhappy casualty:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanied ... 7cd493a78d

[WestCoastJoe]

Thanks for the detailed review, Blitz.

Here are some of Wally's post-game comments to the media.

https://www.cfl.ca/2018/11/11/lions-lef ... ided-loss/

This fan was very happy when Bobby Ackles brought Wally to B.C. Very quickly we became the flagship franchise of the league. 2 Grey Cups in 16 years. Many, many memories.

His way brought success over decades. One can understand that a person will stay with what brought them success. As football coach Darrell Royal said: "You dance with the one that brung ya."

Wally never hid from the media. He always faced that head on. I think one can sense some sadness on the way it ended. Why the heck not? Even just mixed memories on a very long career. And I think one can see his resilience, his perspective on bigger issues than football. As Lombardi once said: "Faith, family and football."

Best wishes on your retirement, Wally. You have earned it.

2018-11-12_1101.png

[Blitz]

Great insights and analyses as usual Blitz as well as a history reminder that too often gets lost to the immediate.

Was this game lost before kickoff?

There is something that continues to gnaw at me.

This nagging question is this:

Is there something lacking the quality of the character of this current team collectively?

Talent aside, the winning teams have a strong core group of players that help coaches instill the culture of performance and winning.

In sports some new coaches will get an immediate rough assessment of the quantify of the number of players who meet their criteria for character and commitment to the team philosophy, culture, discipline and performance.

The core is the group that helps instill and spread the HC's culture, commitment, thinking, culture and the right attitudes and standards to the rest of the team. The team becomes self regulating where players don't condone lesser than full commitment and performance from themselves individually and the team collectively.

The Lions have some great leaders in the vets like Lulay, Sol E but are the numbers deficient?

Some comments by Lulay suggest that not all the players are on board fully.

If you want a quick read or two of culture Netflix is great as they run it like a sports team:

Reed Hastings CEO:

“We decided to use the metaphor that the company was like a sports team, not a family. Just as great sports teams are constantly scouting for new players and culling others from their lineups, our team leaders would need to continually look for talent and reconfigure team makeup. We set the mandate that their decisions about whom to bring in and who might have to go must be made purely on the basis of the performance their teams needed to produce in order for the company to succeed

But this means more than just the skill you bring, it also means you commit to the culture and standards and that you'll stand up to others professionally when the culture is being let down.

A quick read of their 128 slides here:

https://igormroz.com/documents/netflix_culture.pdf

A Forbes article with quotes also by Patty McCord, an author of the document who herself was an eventual but not unhappy casualty:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanied ... 7cd493a78d

In terms of your question Toppy, my answer is that I am not sure.

On the one hand, this team showed excellent team spirit this season. The post-game dressing room player awards were one example.

I believe Ed Hervey wanted to change the culture of this Leos team. He did that more with our defense, bringing in players like Odell Willis, Davon Coleman Otha Foster, Shawn Lemon to name just a few. That is where Hevey made most of his changes, along with bringing in Figuroa and Olifioye for the offensive line and Collins and Watson as receiver.

As the season progressed, Hervey added players such as Sutton, Parker, and Posey (due to Manny's injury).

So for the most part, the defense was comprised of mainly 'Hervey Boys' while for most of the season the offence was comprised of "Wally Boys'. I'm not sure if that is a fair way of looking at it but its one way of looking at it.

I believe that most of the players on offence were Wally loyalists. If I could name the players most loyal to Wally they would be Rolly Lumbala, Jovan Olifioye, and Travis Lulay. On defense, it would be Sol E. but he didn't play for most of the season.

Jovan always has appreciated that Wally took a chance on him, with his medical condition and Wally stuck with Lulay, through all his injuries and gave him two opporunities, both last season and this season to be our starter again.

I believe Hervey really wanted to change the culture of the team and will continue to do so. I think Hervey likes a certain type of player that differs from Wally. Hervey likes them really hard nosed, very physical, with an eddge whereas I believe Wally tends to go for a certain type of character player.

I can see the defense beng frustrated with our offence this season. Except for a few games as the Jennings comeback agaisnt Hamiltion and the Lulay third quarter explosion agaisnt Edmonton, the offence really didn't hold up its end of the bargain.

A second factor could be that Wally also had his 'favorites' and his 'scapegoats' and that could created some divisiveness. While I would not substantiate it, there was a notion at one time that Wally's player leaders might not be completey trustworthy. Don't forget it was the Players Council that went to Wally about Printers behavior in the dressing room.

Those types of things can make players uneasy about the sacredness of the locker room and the concept of what goes on in there should stay in there, in terms of player comments and confidentiality.

Another factor that has really concerned me was our players seeming to fold at times. I didn't see quit when we were down a lot of points in the second half against Hamilton at home.

They our Leos did get blown out against the Riders last year, out and never recovered for the rest of the 2017 season.

That also happened in Hamilton twice, once in the regular season and yesterdays playoff but I really did not see quit at all. I saw it as a loss of belief.

Players will spout the party line for the media. Its always the culture of football for players to do that. But if the players don't believe in what they are doing as being what is going to make them succesful, there will be an unconscious give up.

How could any offensive player still believe in our offence after 18 games of trying to make it work and still struggling with it. They said all the right things but they had to be frustrated underneath.

The defense, unconsciously, probably knew if they got behind, the odds of coming back were not good or at least they would have felt that for a road game.

Players have to BELIEVE in their schemes. I don't think they had enough faith in their coaching staff, in terms of scheme and play calling and game planning or in game adjustments.

Most of us didn't so why should they have.

In the end, I think that, more than any other factor, played into yesterday's loss. They got behind on the road, didn't have enough belief in their systems to believe they they could come back, and the wheels fell off.

That's my take on it Toppy.

[Hambone]

And I think one can see his resilience, his perspective on bigger issues than football. As Lombardi once said: "Faith, family and football."

And Wally lived and breathed Lombardi's sentiments as has his family. His wife Sandy echoed that in recent weeks. His daughter Christie did as well. This time last year Christie was the keynote speaker at an event at her alma mater Trinity Western with her address being titled "Faith, Family and Football".

https://stories.twu.ca/a-bc-lions-tradi ... a0d6adb3b1
https://cpaefblog.bccpa.ca/recap-speake ... niversity/

[Lion Guy]

It was over at 7 to 0. Knew Lions then were done. First touchdown was too easy.

It was over when Lulay fumbled.

[Blitz]

This nagging question is this:

Is there something lacking the quality of the character of this current team collectively?

Toppy Van

I've been thinking a lot more about your question Toppy and this response is more of a tangent.

I think I posted something like this in the past.

There is a big difference between leadership and the formal authority of one's position. In other words, would the people you lead want to follow you, if you did not have your formal position or view you as someone with excellent leadership abilities?

I've always viewed leadership as a down up concept. In other words folks choose to view someone as a leader or they don't. Even in cases where the repurcussions are very serious, people will choose, in some cases to reject formal authority by numerous means, from lack of effort to sabotage to rebellion. The movie Mutiny on the Bounty is a good example of the latter.

There are five positions of power one can lead from.

1. Positive Power - recognizing, appreciating, promoting, and rewarding in one way or the other.

2. Negative Power - giving consequences, embarrassing, reprimanding, demoting, or punishing in one way or the other. This is often fear based power and can be effective in the short term but it can also create resentment.

3. Formal Authority. Power is derived from one's position eg: You will do it because I am the boss and say so.

4. Knowledge Power. People want to follow a leader who has more knowledge that they do or whose knowledge inspires confidence.

5. Personality Power. People follow leaders they like and respect, whose personality traits and character are admirable or likeable.

The best leaders use positive reinforcement most often rather than negative reinforcement and rarely use their formal authority for power.

Instead their knowledge or personality or both are their bases of power.

The best leaders don't operate from a fear based leadership style. They don't need to.

The best leaders also develop another level of leadership. If that level is missing or not trusted, then its difficult to successfully lead the organization. Its up to the leader to create this second layer of leadership.

If it is missing or not wide enough or deep enough, then the environment of the organization created by the leader is a big factor.

In other words, if our Leos did not have the essential player leadership that you are thinking about Toppy, then I view that as a failure of Wally.

How did Wally lead our Leos? Did he mostly function as a leader from a power base of formal authority and fear of consequences, including public embarrassment or was he a positive leader whose knowledge and personality inspired?

Its an interesting question.

[VictoriaFan]

The Lions media corps keep releasing facebook videos pregame like we know we are the underdogs but, blah blah.... and they keep coming even today, it seems the behind the scenes people are just as unorganized as the on the field people, I guess the confusion is rampant right to the core, I don't even trust the mascot to do his job properly at this point.