Eskimos 39 - Lions 23 -- Post-Game Comments

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WestCoastJoe
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There was lots of hype about football life under Ed Hervey. Bold moves. Claybrooks. Reilly. Carter. Chungh. Discarding Elimimian, Jennings, Lulay, Arceneaux, Lemon, JJ24, Posey.

Times change. Change is necessary, as time moves on. But the team looks very poor right now. Feels kind of like a sugar rush. Hype, then flat as can be. Head in the clouds. Disorienting.

Offence poor. Game plans poor. Play calling poor, although Reilly is not using the run options, going with the pass options. Pass protection poor. Much on Jarious. Also much on Reilly.

Defence poor. Stubler's D is surprisingly weak. No pass rush. Run stopping not good enough.

The team looks weak after Game 2. Dispirited players. Bad sign.

Leadership. The team seems to reflect Mike Reilly more than DeVone Claybrooks. And we know Reilly tends to a pass heavy offence, with him never coming off the field. It seems to be Mike Reilly's team, and the team does not look good. Post-game speech from Reilly. That kind of blistering and tone setting needs to come from Claybrooks. It does not seem to be there at this time from Claybrooks, even with his words to the team.

Defence? WTF happened to the defence? Stubler and Claybrooks have had much success.

Any hopes? Dunno. The team needs to find itself. Fast. Bombers. 0-1. Schmos. 0-2. Stampeders next. 0-3?

In pro sports there are predators and prey. Right now we are prey. Better find your survival instincts. It seems easy for teams to game plan against both our O and D.

Just imo ...
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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David
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WestCoastJoe wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:52 pm
In pro sports there are predators and prey. Right now we are prey. Better find your survival instincts.
Agreed Joe. It seems to this fan that teams are gunning for the West Coast pretty boys this year and their high priced signings. Showing no mercy. Relentless pass rush hoping to get a shot in on the $3M man. A little trash talk here, a cheap shot there. Playing us a little chippy after the whistle.


DH :cool:
Roar, You Lions, Roar
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WestCoastJoe
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David wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 12:16 am
WestCoastJoe wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:52 pm
In pro sports there are predators and prey. Right now we are prey. Better find your survival instincts.
Agreed Joe. It seems to this fan that teams are gunning for the West Coast pretty boys this year and their high priced signings. Showing no mercy. Relentless pass rush hoping to get a shot in on the $3M man. A little trash talk here, a cheap shot there. Playing us a little chippy after the whistle.

DH :cool:
No doubt, David. We are in their gun sights. We seem shocked by it.

Our game plans have not helped. And it seems to this fan that Mike Reilly has to step back a bit. He is not the whole team. Use the run game. Let Jarious and DeVone set the tone for the offence. After all the hype, how do you tell Mike Reilly to back off a bit? After last week, Claybrooks mentioned the run-pass options Reilly faces, and used the words more discipline, I think suggesting Mike needs to go with the run more often. I think that is significant. And you do not want to deflate Reilly's confidence. Our offence is not smash mouth. It is drop-back, throw-deep, street ball, with the pass rushers teeing off.

RPO to this fan does not set up the run or pass well. I would prefer the OL to know what is coming, a run or a pass. But with Reilly at QB, the D knows the pass is coming. The DL has their ears back rushing, on the hunt, meet at the $3M QB.

Many issues. Defence is dysfunctional also.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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DanoT
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I knew it would take a while for the Oline to gel but it looks like it might be a long while, like maybe a decade.

Thr RPO offence should be renamed PO as Pissed Off, Pass Only, Piece Of....

Like last year's playoff game, for a Lions fan it was unwatchable. TBH, I don't know which players to lay the major blame on because I found the game to be so non entertaining that for most of it I had one eye surfing the internet.

Next week the Lions face the Stamps who are at home, coming off a home loss and a bye week (so 2 weeks to get ready for the Lions). Not much chance of the Stamps loosing that game.

On D it is becoming pretty evident that they will not easily if ever, recover from the loss of Lemon, Elimimian, Awe, Lokumbo, Foster, Orange, etc.
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Rammer
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Wow, I thought the Lions had little desire to get after the Esks DL after numerous RP on the guy that the money is on to bring the Lions to the promised land.

As for Edwards with Harris at the end, Harris was looking to get the reaction on a guy who wasn't in any state to shake his hand. No need to continue to pursue that, nothing good was going to come of it, take the win with class.

As for the game, no big deal, we will find out more about this team come next game. Glad it is a game they should lose. Certainly with the Stamps viewing game film on the Lions, they have little worry and little to work with.

It can only get better....right!
Entertainment value = an all time low
Reggiemac
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Very embarassing. And in one respect it was a rerun of the bombers game. When te pressure was starting to get close to Harris they changed up teir offense to lotsmof passes out to the flat, end of threat to their QB. Why couldnt we adjust to protect our QB. Carter is a distraction, bench him Konar was a liabiity all game. Still giving up the deep balls on Defense. Our DBs were close on a number of completions but this isnt horseshoes. Pretty pathetic.
Blitz
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The_Pauser wrote:
Fri Jun 21, 2019 11:27 pm
Remember when people blamed Wally for our playcalling on offense? MAYBE just MAYBE it wasn't Wally all along?
Wally deserved his fair share of responsibility for our offence in the past for a number or reasons. He chose his own offensive coordinator and the scheme by doing so and he 1) demanded offensive coordinators simplify their scheme because he believed in execution 2) he loved to run the football up the gut 3) he was overly conservative most of the time.

Ultimately, most of the time, the responsibility for the offence and all parts of the football team lie with the Head Coach. As mentioned, Wally always hired his offensive coordinator and set the direction and paramaters for our offence. Our offensive system was a plug and play Spread Offence that experienced very little change throught almost all of Wally's tenure. The only major change to our offence arrived last year, with the hiring of Ed Hervey and his advocacy for hiring Jarious Jackon.

Wally, in his final season wanted to win so badly, he was willing to make changes he had not done in the past. However, the change to the RPO offence of Jarious Jackson was one I am sure he regrets.

This season, Davon Claybrooks was able to hire his own staff, with the exception of Jarious Jackson, whom he inherited and could not fire. Jarious Jackson is Hervey fave'. We all saw last year, the extent Hervey was willing to go to, in order scapegoat to protect Jarious Jackson and his crummy RPO offensive scheme.

If Jonathan Jennings or Travis Lulay had been quarterbacking last night against Edmonton, their play would have been highly criticized. But last year, I know Lulay had a couple of games when he threw for around 150 yds. with a poor passing percentage and Jennings had a few less than 200 yd. games but I don't think either had a game in which they threw for 140 yards. Both also had some big games when they played lights out.

However, last nights game looked EERILY SIMILAR to last year - difficulty running the football, no time to throw, very closely covered receivers, and a ton of quarterback hits and sacks.

If you wanted to look at it one way, Reilly had DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS syndrome. That was one interpretation of things last season, after a quarterback performance like last night.

The reality is that, when Reilly was passing and his first read was covered, he was under intense pressure.

This season, we are running Jarious Jackson's RPO offence again, which includes about 20% of plays that he did not introduce last year because Wally wanted him to simplify the offence. Jackson' offence is mostly RPO, with some Spread and West Coast. 20% of our offence this season is derived from input from Reilly and his player teamates.

For the most part, our offence, for 2019,is once again, a plug and play offence, rather than an offence designed from our talent.

The very best thing we could do, other than getting rid of Jackson, is to increase Reilly's input into our offence to about 80% or more.

Yes, its early and our offensive line needs to gel and Reilly needs to get used to his receivers. But other CFL quarterbacks this year are also dealing with the same thing and without the same issues (so far)

We can't run the football and our quarterback is in duress. My concern about spending so much money on Suhk Chung and signing Carter, rather than keeping Jeremiah Johnson (or even Tyrell Sutton) and Manny Arseneaux.

But Hervey wanted to sign the often injured White becuase Hervey is pathologically attracted to any player who has ever played in gold and green, especially if that player had been signed by Hervey when he was in Edmonton.

What is happening on defense is not surprising. The key to defense is an effective pass rush. Not sigining Lemon or signing a pass rushing free agent to replace him was dum. Expecting an aging Odell Willis and a rookie to get it done was more than foolish.

In the meantime, we let Lokombo walk and then spend even more money on Adan Konor to be a backup when Lokombo could have been starting for us and also contributing to special teams.

Expecting Reilly to be able to lead our offence to the Promised Land, without scheme changes on offence from last season was naive. Lulay and Jennings could not overcome the RPO scheme consistently nor will Reilly be able to.

On defense, going cheap has hurt so far.

Its a long season and a lot of things can happen and change in a CFL season. But right now, there is a lot that needs to get fixed.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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OK14
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Eskimos fan in peace...

Agree with the earlier comments about Reilly needing to take a step back. He's a great community person and a charismatic leader, but he needs a coach who will stand up to him and treat him as an employee, not a buddy. I think the Joe Kapp concerns are warranted.

The Lions have looked like the 2018 Eskimos the last two weeks - all pass, trying for long bombs, and predictable playcalling. Again, Jackson and Claybrooks need to be more assertive in dealing with Reilly.

Hoping things change for you guys and that the old Mike comes back...except when you play us. ;)
Esks fan with a soft spot for B.C.
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SammyGreene
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Great post Blitz.

Spend like a drunken sailor on free agency and you better make damn sure you have found some cheaper entry level players down south that can step in and contribute immediately.
Year #2 for Hervey and what has he or Torey Hunter discovered from their U.S. scouting and free agent camps so far?

Almost shocking their lack of American prospects brought to TC has resulted in starting at least 2 extra nationals in Termansen and Cottoy. One a little used special teamer from a year ago who has been lit up so far and the other right from junior football with 1 catch in 2 games.

An American at safety? No such luck in finding one so Thompson is a last minute signing and is starting about 4 days later.

Wasn't the combo of Steward at guard, Pierson at centre and Lemon at DE better than spending $250,000 on Chungh to play guard, shifting Steward to centre and the invisible rookie Boesen at DE?

We had heard great things about Hervey and his team's recruiting efforts in Edmonton. Be nice if it started soon in BC as well.
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WestCoastJoe
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OK14 wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 7:58 am
Eskimos fan in peace...

Agree with the earlier comments about Reilly needing to take a step back. He's a great community person and a charismatic leader, but he needs a coach who will stand up to him and treat him as an employee, not a buddy. I think the Joe Kapp concerns are warranted.

The Lions have looked like the 2018 Eskimos the last two weeks - all pass, trying for long bombs, and predictable playcalling. Again, Jackson and Claybrooks need to be more assertive in dealing with Reilly.

Hoping things change for you guys and that the old Mike comes back...except when you play us. ;)
Welcome. Thanks for posting.

Points well made.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
VictoriaFan
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We were debating on dropping the 500 bills to travel to a live game from the island, ferry ,hotel, gas ,food , beer, etc, after last night that debate has ended. Never was a Carter fan last night he looked like he was la-de-da ing out there, not going for the catch barely putting any effort into it, at least Castillo seemed to improve a bit. I see why they made a Reilly bobblehead doll everytime he gets hit in the head we get 15 yards
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swervynmerv
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One plus of last night is that hopefully many casual and potential fans were watching the NHL draft and didn’t see the game.

As soon as Reilly threw the pick and the Eskimos waltzed through the D to the end zone, I knew the Lions were done.

It’s sad to say the next game is a must win this early in the season but it is.

The Lions did a great job in the off season marketing the team. New slogan, big splash signing in Reilly, and great social media campaign.

A great start in the summer months while the Canucks are dormant for the most part, would give them a platform to build upon.

If they go 0-3, any potential new fan will be lost. If they go 0-4, 0-5 good grief!

It’s not only that they have lost the first two but to me the way they have lost.

They have gotten beaten in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The offence isn’t the exciting air show that we thought it would be and the defence can’t stop anything.

If the Lions had played well and lost then I would chalk it up to early season adjustments of a bunch of new players learning to play with each other.

Did anyone else notice Burnham sitting on the bench about 2 feet away from Reilly. No talking about the last series and I didn’t like the look on Burnham’s face. Maybe I’m reading too much into or I’m just used to the Travis Lulay style where he would look at the iPad with teammates.

Time will tell
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David
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Here is a sobering stat.

In our last 5 regular season and playoff game, we have been outscored 181-79. That is an average defeat of nearly 3 touchdowns per game (or a score of 36-16). Hard to build a brand this way.

The biggest surprise of the Ed Hervey/Torey Hunter era thus far has been our stunning lack of quality recruits from US colleges, even if to push for jobs.

2018 and thus far in 2019 we only have the following to show:

Ricky Lloyd- well down the QB depth chart
Mat Boesen - starting DE but has been severely overmatched in 2 games
Claudell Louis - a quality starter but was actually in the Ti-Cats 2017 training camp, so he was not our US college recruit
Carson Ketter - back-up and STer
Meffi Kolomatangi - back-up and STer
Ebenezer Ogundeko - played 1 game in 2018, currently on the PR


DH :cool:
Roar, You Lions, Roar
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WestCoastJoe
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About RPO, which is a very significant part of our offence.

I have not looked at the game tape. Ughhh No interest in doing so at this time.

However ...

I believe we heard the players don't know what they are doing. In the RPO of course the players do not know. It depends on the QB's read --> run or pass. So the OL is not sure. Philosophically this fan does not like it. For the run game, it seems better to me that the OL knows exactly what is coming. Blocking assignments. Run paths. Otherwise there is a tendency to just be schlepping around out there.

I gather Reilly chose the pass over the run repeatedly. Maybe more of those runs should be without a pass option. If the QB gets to pass over 85% of the time, by his reads or audibles, the run game will be non-existent.

It is hard to analyze our run game because it does not really exist. It seems to just be the odd, random option.

Pass protection becomes a mess if there is no run game.

And of course our ''meal ticket,'' Reilly, is going to get dinged, taking hits and sacks beyond the norm.

Run and pass balance was acknowledged and discussed after Game 1. In Game 2, the run game was still missing in action. (Oh for the glorious days of Joe Smith running the rock. Not pining for the return of Wally and Dan. Their time had passed. Joe Smith? Yeah I miss him.) When the run game is going, one can see the level of motivation and excitement of the O Line.

Offence is just one area of dysfunction. There is the defence also. My gawd.

It seems like the organization has been in dreamland. The bullets are flying and the team is in shock. Over-reaction? I don't think so. What we saw on the field was abysmal. Can it get turned around? I will use the phrase survival instincts again. We need to find ours.

Personnel issues? Yup. Playbook issues? Yup. Leadership issues? Yup.

1 Some make things happen.

2 Some watch things happen.

3 Some wonder what happened.

I think our team is at number 3.

Just imo. Our season has had a horrendous start. Can we right the ship? We will see.
John Madden's Team Policies: Be on time. Pay attention. Play like hell on game day.

Jimmy Johnson's Game Keys: Protect the ball. Make plays.

Walter Payton's Advice to Kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.
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SammyGreene
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David wrote:
Sat Jun 22, 2019 10:42 am
Here is a sobering stat.

In our last 5 regular season and playoff game, we have been outscored 181-79. That is an average defeat of nearly 3 touchdowns per game (or a score of 36-16). Hard to build a brand this way.

The biggest surprise of the Ed Hervey/Torey Hunter era thus far has been our stunning lack of quality recruits from US colleges, even if to push for jobs.

2018 and thus far in 2019 we only have the following to show:

Ricky Lloyd- well down the QB depth chart
Mat Boesen - starting DE but has been severely overmatched in 2 games
Claudell Louis - a quality starter but was actually in the Ti-Cats 2017 training camp, so he was not our US college recruit
Carson Ketter - back-up and STer
Meffi Kolomatangi - back-up and STer
Ebenezer Ogundeko - played 1 game in 2018, currently on the PR


DH :cool:
Unreal. Yet in Edmonton they had no trouble finding big-time impact receivers like Duke Williams and Brandon Zylstra, along with a boatload of quality d-lineman.
We can't even find quality American RB prospects which use to be considered "a dime a dozen" and are relying on recycling instead like White.
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