What do you EXPECT to see (not HOPE) from the Lions against the Eskimos tomorrow in Commonwealth?
For me I'm going into this game with the lowest of low expectations. And that is saying something seeing as how I wasn't upset at the loss to Hamilton as I was expecting it. I didn't get upset or angry, I merely laughed it all off. It was quite good for my cholesterol and my heart!
Here we have a Lions team that has routinely been out coached and out played in several games going back to last year. Out-coaching was the one thing that Wally really could do something about. He made some changes in the off-season with player personnel to effectively force changes in the coaching style and gave some lip service to the fan base saying he was going to change things coaching-wise. 4 games later (including pre-season) we haven't seen a single item of those coaching changes. Instead it seems more like the old vanguard in BC is getting further and further behind in the evolution of coaching. Ever hear of dinosaurs?
So after two losses Buono's big decision to turn the ship around is to release the LT that he has had around watching and grooming for the past 2 years and put in a fairly new rookie onto that position. Oh yeah and let's not forget his decision to let our #1 draft pick walk out and sign with Hamilton and instead placing that great pass catcher from last year -Rufus Skillern back onto the field to join his brother-in-dropped-passes RGM. Hell, if he wanted someone out there to drop passes at least he could have given the job to a Canadian!!
The only positive we get out of this is Whyte gets his "kick" at the can finally. It wasn't enough that Whyte out kicked McCallum in TC (by all accounts) and in the pre-season, but Wally still stuck it out with McCallum through all of his missed kicks. I guess Carl Kidd didn't have anything left in the tank, but McCallum still has the ability to kick the team out of a jam?? Finally, through accident we get to let the kid have a chance. Sadly it's not by any great decision by Wally.
And therein lies the rationale for my negative prognostication for this week. Wally hasn't shown anything of his former coaching self of late. He's made too many mistakes and the things that have turned out well have happened more by accident than by any great design or coaching "plan".
The Eskies are at home. A tough place to play at the best of times. They are now coming off a spanking that was laid to them. They feel they are a better team than that. The Eskimo locker room, one look around it, and they will remember that the Eskimo Club means more than just the players that are on the team right now. They are going to come out hungry and looking to tear something apart.
Meanwhile the Lions will probably come out looking around rather than looking to win.
I EXPECT the Lions will once again be out-coached, out-played and in the end out-lasted.
But in the end I will cheer them on, and HOPE that I am flossing crow feathers out of my teeth come bed time on Thursday night.
GO Lions!
And in other groundbreaking news the field will be in awful shape, i know shocking, even worse after some cowboy concert that took place at Commonwealth recently 