Redblacks vs. Lions Sept. 11, 2021

[David]

That PA announcer sure loves hearing his own voice. 2nd and looooooooooooooong

That's Brooke Ward, sir.

Just curious, what bothers you about that? It helps fire up the crowd.


DH

[BC 1988]

That PA announcer sure loves hearing his own voice. 2nd and looooooooooooooong

That's Brooke Ward, sir.

Just curious, what bothers you about that? It helps fire up the crowd.


DH

That's funny--I had heard that he got the gig, but last night I didn't even recognize his voice --processed through the sound system loses some of the distinct qualities. He should have worked in "doin' the damage" into his patter.

[Hambone]

Campbell sounds like a coach, just thinking about the current season, but he is a Co-Gm now and needs to start thinking about developing the next "He's our guy at QB" because Reilly is nearing the end of his career.

Always the coaching conundrum and for that matter GM conundrum. Developing the next guy to help you 3 years from now won't help your job security if you don't win now.

[Hambone]

That PA announcer sure loves hearing his own voice. 2nd and looooooooooooooong

That's Brooke Ward, sir.

Just curious, what bothers you about that? It helps fire up the crowd.


DH

That's funny--I had heard that he got the gig, but last night I didn't even recognize his voice --processed through the sound system loses some of the distinct qualities. He should have worked in "doin' the damage" into his patter.

I was kinda the opposite. I totally recognized the voice but until David just posted that I couldn't place the name to it. I kept thinking Jeff Paterson but knew it wasn't him.

[B.C.FAN]

Have enjoyed all you guys' comments on the Leos' entertaining game last night. JC Abbot has chimed in nicely with his take on things as well, over at 3DownN. https://3downnation.com/2021/09/12/luck ... of-ottawa/ I agree with the general consensus, that young Mr. Rourke should be given game-time experience in situations such as last night. Reilly's rationalizing (citing Montreal/Vernon Adams) was weak. Not convincing at all. And neither, as many have mentioned, is the Lions' ground game convincing so far this season. We all know how important that can be on the long run, down the stretch. But hats off to the coaches and players for an entertaining night! I almost feel guilty registering complaints. But, yeah, more Cottoy downfield would seem a no-brainer ongoing.

Thanks for the link, Ernie. I agree with Abbott about the effectiveness of the makeshift receiving corps:

Uniformity can render a passing offence predictable and dull, but Lions have game breakers like Whitehead alongside bruisers like Cottoy. The result is a varied attack that is awfully hard to cover and, frankly, this group may have worked better together than with Durant and Rhymes in the mix. That’s not to say the team shouldn’t want either of those players back as soon as possible, but they won’t be missed nearly as much as they might have been in years past.

I've been hoping since the start of training camp that the coaching staff would realize the Lions are better with Cottoy on the field. No one else has his combination of size and skill. He has been used mainly as a blocker and checkdown receiver in the past two games, much as the Lions used Cory Watson as a bruising inside slot in 2018. Cottoy is taller and heavier than Watson and has excellent hands.

The Lions haven't tapped into Rhymes' potential, partly because Lucky Whitehead has staked a claim to the boundary wideout position, leaving Rhymes to play a lower profile role on the wide side of the field.

There is a way to get Cottoy more reps on offence without changing the ratio or dropping one of the starting receivers, and that's by using him in place of David Mackie on first down and short yardage as a blocking fullback and tight end. Both players are good blockers but Cottoy is a much better receiver. Cottoy doesn't have to be a ballcarrier to play fullback. Mackie has zero carries in his 3-year career, and just 9 receptions. He's not an offensive threat in the way that Cottoy is.

[Hambone]

One little thing that had me wondering "what if" came when Nik Gustav was dinged up on Saturday night and had to be attended to. Gustav has contributed with 3 ST tackles and seems to have found himself a contributing role on coverage units. I did just check their roster and see Jake Ford has been moved back from the Suspended List to the PR so that partially answered my question. That at least gives them an option in the event of injury to Gustav. However it would be a shame if they had to sit Flintoft, who is doing an excellent job on both punts and kickoffs, to fill the required global spot. Flintoft is sporting a 48.9 punting ave #2 behind only Jon Ryan's 49.0. That includes a 50.25 ave in 2 games at BC Place. He's also been solid on KOs ranked #6 with 63.4 ave. Ford on the other hand has an 11th ranked 42.9 ave in 2 games both played on the prairies thus not benefitting from the controlled climate of BCP. Losing Gustav to injury would hurt BC's battle for field position. On the flip side though if they were forced into that it would allow them to dress an additional American positional player; most likely Dyshawn Davis or a DB.

[DanoT]

Using an American player at kicker and another American at punter is really impacting the roster. I guess we are stuck with that set up for this season but the Lions really need to look at getting a Global or Nat punter or FG kicker going forward.

[Sir Purrcival]

I just don't get the difficulty that teams have finding kickers. I mean, you don't have to be particularly big or super athletic. You need to have the ability to kick the ball. Look at Ottawa's kicker for example, Ward is a little guy but one of the best kickers around. I am challenged that with all of the football teams in this country overall, it is such a challenge to find 9 FG kickers and 9 punters assuming you have to have both. Most kickers are not what you would call studs. They are athlete's to be sure but the usual skill sets that you require for football don't often apply to kickers. They don't have to be particularly fast, great tacklers, especially strong or durable either. So what is it with the "got to scour the world" for kickers mentality? We can't find 20 guys who can kick a football out of 40 million Canadians? I mean the number of soccer goal tenders alone you could probably find a few who would be able to kick with consistency.

[Reg18]

On the whitehead return TD he got two greatblocks one around the 20 yard line whe our lion could have destroyed a red blackbut instead just made a good b!ock. The ref might have called a croughing penalty had he decijded to destroy the fed black and up around midfield I think it wasn Lokombo who took out two fedblacks with a great block. Tgey were in a good position to stkp the play andbe nailed one of thgem into thesedcind guy. Avbgreat b!lock

[Reg18]

Its time for Campbell to get Bourke some reps. Web know its likely that Reilly could be injured with his style of play and then we will expect Rourke to save our season with little game time experience. Reilly seems to have a lot of influence. . Maybe too much. Why not announce up front that
Rourke will start and play the first quarter and pull him if it falters cause Reilly has made it clear that he will not accept being pulled from a game even when we are miles ahead against an inept team. Hoiw come he gets that choice?

[Reg18]

I wonder if the new qb signing hascsomething to do with putting pressure on Reilly.? Maybe for next year. Itmivht drop Rourke diwn tonumber 3 on the depth chart. More deve!opment time.

[Reg18]

There seemscto be some smoke around the new qb signing i wonder whats going on?

[zeppo]

On the whitehead return TD he got two greatblocks one around the 20 yard line whe our lion could have destroyed a red blackbut instead just made a good b!ock. The ref might have called a croughing penalty had he decijded to destroy the fed black and up around midfield I think it wasn Lokombo who took out two fedblacks with a great block. Tgey were in a good position to stkp the play andbe nailed one of thgem into thesedcind guy. Avbgreat b!lock

It helped that the two guys that Lokombo took out were Richie Leone and Lewis Ward.

J.R. Tavai also deserves a lot of credit for passing up the opportunity to clip the Ottawa player that
was picked up by Jordan Williams who was in a better position to make the block.

[BC 1988]

Lions radio pxp Bob "the Moj" Marjanovich on with Halford & Brough this morning confirmed it was revealed after the game that the pregame freezing treatment on Reilly's elbow did not kick in as quickly as usual on Saturday. Rourke was warming up to be the starter. There was a 5 minute delay in kickoff for TSN due to part 2 of the tripleheader running late (CGY vs EDM). That probably helped Reilly to be ready to go after all.
Interview starts at 04:00, with the Lions discussion begining at 05:50
https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/halford-an ... redblacks/

[TheLionKing]

Even more reason why Reilly should have been yanked after the Lions built up a commanding lead.