Ti-Cats 52 - Lions 22 Post Game Stats and Comments

[pennw]

We're probably drafting 1 or 2 overall. Baring drafting a project player again, we should get someone good

I wouldn't bet on it even if we picked first . We passed on about 12 guys we should have picked before we picked our first choice at #5. Our first rounder was only rated a late second or third rounder by every one else . Should we expect a smarter choice next year ?

[maxlion]

I was expecting a bit more innovation and excitement from Tedford and Cortez, but I think that overall the offensive schemes have been decent. Cortez is like Stubler, he can put together a solid game plan that will you the team a chance to succeed as long as the players execute. Problem is we have a below average QB who threw 2 picks last night, and our best player fumbled twice. Lulay just doesn't have the accuracy or arm strength to be a top rated QB anymore. With the current personnel, the best we can hope for is to win some and lose some.

On special teams, we are getting outplayed in every respect except for punting distance and FGs. Leone is fantastic. Everything else is below average.

And on D, we are a shambles. No doubt there are personnel issues, but we have some great playmakers on D too. We should be better.

[WestCoastJoe]

We're probably drafting 1 or 2 overall. Baring drafting a project player again, we should get someone good

I wouldn't bet on it even if we picked first . We passed on about 12 guys we should have picked before we picked our first choice at #5. Our first rounder was only rated a late second or third rounder by every one else . Should we expect a smarter choice next year ?

Our draft was some kind of pie in the sky thinking. Dream land. Dream world. Separate from reality. Seems to be taking hold in the organization.

[maxlion]

We're probably drafting 1 or 2 overall. Baring drafting a project player again, we should get someone good

I wouldn't bet on it even if we picked first . We passed on about 12 guys we should have picked before we picked our first choice at #5. Our first rounder was only rated a late second or third rounder by every one else . Should we expect a smarter choice next year ?

Our draft was some kind of pie in the sky thinking. Dream land. Dream world. Separate from reality. Seems to be taking hold in the organization.

Too early to judge, but not looking good.

[The_Pauser]

This is largely the same back 8 of the defence from last season where you and many others were loudly singing the praises of...suddenly they can't play? I don't believe that at all...its scheme...put Chris Jones in charge of the Lions D with our LB crew and we would be the #1 Defence in the CFL. As for Quinn Tedford, personally, he may be doing a great job observing things but unless something changes from his observations then his ROLE is a massive failure as its NOT DOING ITS JOB. You see, if you don't take the time to see the larger problems with the Lions then you just come off a massive ENABLER of the status quo. The same status quo that is running this franchise into the ground!

And its not "blaming the coaches", there is lots of blame to go around, including the talent which I observed that in key areas isn't good enough. And its not all of the coaches...just look at what Doug Malone has done with a motley crew on the OLine! Jeff Tedford is WAY better than this, but he's to blame for allowing this mess to occur and then maintain itself!

What happened in 2013 after the Lions failed? People blamed the coaches for our poor offensive schemes and we fired Chapdelaine. What happened after 2014? We blamed the coaches and we got a complete overhaul of our coaching staff. Things aren't working out too well so far so we're going to blame the coaches again?

As mentioned, I agree that a lot of blame should go to Mark Washington for our lousy defense, but let's not ignore what a poorly built defensive line has done. Not even Richard Sherman can cover a receiver all day to make up for a defensive line that isn't pressuring the opposing team's QB. Our D-Line was weak last year, and has gotten worse this year. Also don't underestimate the loss of veteran leaders from that defense. Losing Eric Taylor and Dante Marsh was huge. JR LaRose, while his on-field play may have left a lot to be desired, was also another one of those locker room leaders.

Ronnie Yell and TJ Lee have both been victimized this year. Yell is a physical DB, but with the new rules he can't play the game that got him to where he is today.

On offense: this is the third OC in as many years. Perhaps there's going to be some adjusting to do for the players after having that much change, but also some of the blame does need to go to the players for not executing. We keep blaming the coaches and changing the coaches, yet the results stay the same. At what point do the players take the brunt of the blame?

[Lions4ever]

We're probably drafting 1 or 2 overall. Baring drafting a project player again, we should get someone good

LOL. Pasquale would draft a turd first if it was on the board.

[DanoT]

This is largely the same back 8 of the defence from last season where you and many others were loudly singing the praises of...suddenly they can't play? I don't believe that at all...its scheme...put Chris Jones in charge of the Lions D with our LB crew and we would be the #1 Defence in the CFL. As for Quinn Tedford, personally, he may be doing a great job observing things but unless something changes from his observations then his ROLE is a massive failure as its NOT DOING ITS JOB. You see, if you don't take the time to see the larger problems with the Lions then you just come off a massive ENABLER of the status quo. The same status quo that is running this franchise into the ground!

And its not "blaming the coaches", there is lots of blame to go around, including the talent which I observed that in key areas isn't good enough. And its not all of the coaches...just look at what Doug Malone has done with a motley crew on the OLine! Jeff Tedford is WAY better than this, but he's to blame for allowing this mess to occur and then maintain itself!

What happened in 2013 after the Lions failed? People blamed the coaches for our poor offensive schemes and we fired Chapdelaine. What happened after 2014? We blamed the coaches and we got a complete overhaul of our coaching staff. Things aren't working out too well so far so we're going to blame the coaches again?

As mentioned, I agree that a lot of blame should go to Mark Washington for our lousy defense, but let's not ignore what a poorly built defensive line has done. Not even Richard Sherman can cover a receiver all day to make up for a defensive line that isn't pressuring the opposing team's QB. Our D-Line was weak last year, and has gotten worse this year. Also don't underestimate the loss of veteran leaders from that defense. Losing Eric Taylor and Dante Marsh was huge. JR LaRose, while his on-field play may have left a lot to be desired, was also another one of those locker room leaders.

Ronnie Yell and TJ Lee have both been victimized this year. Yell is a physical DB, but with the new rules he can't play the game that got him to where he is today.

On offense: this is the third OC in as many years. Perhaps there's going to be some adjusting to do for the players after having that much change, but also some of the blame does need to go to the players for not executing. We keep blaming the coaches and changing the coaches, yet the results stay the same. At what point do the players take the brunt of the blame?

If the problem is bad players and bad coaches, then most of that would be on the GM, imo.
Benevides, K. Jones, M. Washington, C. McCann, releasing K. Bates are Wally's poor influences and outright decisions.

The jury is still out on Tedford who so far has not had the positive, productive, innovative influence on Cortez that I had hoped for. I have to assume that Westerman and Loh playing out of position, releasing Taylor, Brown, Logan and allowing Washington's soft D to continue are on Tedford.

Thankfully we have seen a big upgrade on Oline coaching...credit Cortez for bringing in Malone from Sask.

[zeppo]

Unless you are involved in these coaching meetings and discussions, and are involved in the game planning and scheming, all you do is sound like a massive complainer.

Ha! I have long found it interesting that the people who *beeotch*, complain, and assign blame on this board are usually the people who don't actually attend games.

[zeppo]

What happened in 2013 after the Lions failed? People blamed the coaches for our poor offensive schemes and we fired Chapdelaine.

Stubler was also fired after the 2013 WSF. Some posters on this board blamed him for the loss, stating that his late game defensive strategy allowed
Darian Durant to run wild and bring the Riders back.
I wonder how the current BC defence would be playing if Stubler was still here.

Also don't underestimate the loss of veteran leaders from that defense. Losing Eric Taylor and Dante Marsh was huge.

I disagree. There is a reason why neither of these guys is currently playing professional football. The only player who, IMO, shouldn't have
been released in the offseason was Tim Brown.

[DanoT]

Unless you are involved in these coaching meetings and discussions, and are involved in the game planning and scheming, all you do is sound like a massive complainer.

Ha! I have long found it interesting that the people who *beeotch*, complain, and assign blame on this board are usually the people who don't actually attend games.

Ha! I find it interesting that someone who has been a Lionbacker for 4 years and only 18 posts, would complain about people who post here, when you rarely ever post.

[Hambone]

Any rumblings on the severity of Draheim's injury?

[Toppy Vann]

Unless you are involved in these coaching meetings and discussions, and are involved in the game planning and scheming, all you do is sound like a massive complainer.

Ha! I have long found it interesting that the people who *beeotch*, complain, and assign blame on this board are usually the people who don't actually attend games.

I would and I will go to games post Oct. 1 when I return to Canada but zeppo you miss something about those here who no longer might make it to games. They too support the team and the CFL the moment their TV packages (as does mine still as i have a home in BC) includes TSN. Radio listeners, callers to TSN 1040 and viewers of TSN are boosting their ratings and the higher the ratings the higher the advertising revenues.


With deference to the poet John Milton 'They also serve who only sit and watch' from home.

Also, with the higher prices zeppo maybe these guys may have other priorities for their cash but thanks for posting as your point has a bit of validity - allbeit a bit marginal and out of date.

This TV deal pretty much says that guys at home watching covers their player costs so it's actually TV viewers that start them off each year in the black.

More debacles like the two on Saturday where the TV sets are clicking off lowers ratings and this will hurt the CFL.

This extends the deal another 3 years from 2018 to 2021

http://www.torontosun.com/2015/05/28/cf ... hree-years

Now, thanks to the TV deal, teams are starting off each year in the black and have a much better chance to turn a profit.

The previous deal was estimated to be between $30 and $36 million annually league-wide, so between $3 and $4 million per team, and the public financial statements we have seen from teams like Edmonton and Winnipeg appear to support that (especially if you factor in that some of the revenue has reportedly been kept for the league office).

Essentially, negotiating this extension at this point rather than closer to 2018 provides the CFL with some long-term stability and security. It also could be a useful hedge against declining ratings or a potential advertising bubble. The league will be under less immediate pressure to draw big numbers of viewers now, and if there's some major crash in the value of TV sports rights, the CFL won't be hurt by it until at least 2022. Moreover, this gives TSN yet more incentive (and they already had plenty) to work to promote the CFL and make it a pillar of their own long-term strategy

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-5 ... 45456.html

[B.C.FAN]

Wow. I know blaming the coaching seems to be the cool thing among some people around here, but at what point do you understand that coaches can only do so much with the players they are given?

I learned a long time ago not to get too high after a win or too low after a loss. Sometimes you have a few bad plays and things just seem to snowball downhill until the snowball turns into an avalanche. Players can make coaches look bad and coaches can make players look bad. Coaches will usually put it down to a lack of execution, as Tedford did in Hamilton.

We saw in 2011 that a bit of tinkering with scheme and personnel can turn a supposedly bad team into a Grey Cup champion. Not much is likely to happen with a short practice week before hosting Montreal on Thursday but with a bye week next week before a rematch with the Als, we could see some crucial tinkering.

[cromartie]

We are in deep trouble at QB, defensive secondary, defensive line and receiver.

When you don't coach to your personnel, you hurt both the coaching and the personnel.

As we've deconstructed previously, Cortez isn't scheming to the relative strengths of either his QB or receivers, though he is coaching to the strength of the running game. I think it's safe to conclude this. There's a fundamental disconnect here. The Head Coach is getting the types of players he wants, but his OC isn't using them properly.

Defensively, we appear to be poor schematically and deficient in areas personnel wise that no scheme short of a Don Matthews kitchen sink approach would entirely fix (defensive line).

On Special Teams, our coaching is stale and our execution is, at times, poor. Poor execution on special teams often comes down to a roster deficient on backup talent.

But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

******

The point here is, there are enough problems that pretty much all of us (except for whomever it was that criticized the offensive line, that unit has been the most productive overall to this point in the year, I think), making points are making valid points. Stubler's scheme did cost us a shot at a Grey Cup. Chapdelane was past his expiry date. Wally is doing a poor job of drafting. Some players do have spots that shouldn't. Tedford probably isn't being aggressive enough in cleaning out the deadweight. Players do have to execute their assignments better.

I will disagree with MexicoLionFan on the point of the Lions not deserving to win last week against Edmonton. Not only did they deserve to win last week, if guys execute better on offense, they deserved to win it going away. Only poor execution by Travis and the receiving corps kept that game from being a comfortable win, and I think Edmonton's lackluster performance this week against Montreal bore that out.

[WestCoastJoe]

Offence ... Missing in action. Is this the design of Cortez or Tedford? Running game can be solid. Passing game MIA. No doubt some of that is on Travis Lulay misfiring. Passing game showed signs of productivity earlier this year.

Defence ... Seems like a system designed in a dream world. Vacate the middle. New concept. OCs around the league smack and rub their hands in anticipation.

STs ... Not special.

Personnel work. In a very deep draft year, we draft a project. On some kind of a whim? Dunno ... Plus two guys who might never play a down in the CFL. There seems to be some shaky decision making going on in the personnel department. Valued veterans leaving on harsh terms. Free agents unwilling to take more money to play here. Other valued veterans inadequately replaced. One wonders how far we are under the salary cap. No reward for leading the league in undershooting the salary cap. Going on the cheap to Hamilton a day later than usual? Not good signs if one is looking to see the former flagship of the league.

Now we hear that formerly woebegone Hamilton is the flagship of the league. Times change. Some adapt. Some don't. Some seem the have their heads in the sand. Bob Young seems to live and breathe with his team. David Braley seems like an absentee owner, which is pretty much what he is. He is not taking care of the product. He has farmed it out. It is the domain of Wally Buono.