Lions vs. Stamps Sept. 24, 2022

[TheLionKing]

Obviously the Stampeder coaching staff reviewed the film from the last game and made adjustments starting with an onside kick on the opening kickoff. Lions didn't.

[KnowItAll]

Domino effect. When receivers can't get open the OL gets exposed which in turn exposes the QB.

So, the receiving corps that looked so good with Rourke at QB, suddenly forgot how to run patterns with Adams in ?

Just an observation. Did receivers forget how to run patterns? I don't think so. Did Calgary's secondary do a great job in coverage? I think they did. From my seat which isn't restricted to the views TSN's coverage provides you back in Ottawa when Adams did get pressured or sacked I wasn't seeing any receivers glaringly open. Hence my comment.

clearly Adams wasnt seeing anything. How open did he need them to be?

[Toppy Vann]

Obviously the Stampeder coaching staff reviewed the film from the last game and made adjustments starting with an onside kick on the opening kickoff. Lions didn't.

I said to my friend when the Lions hadn't lined up properly that I could see them pulling an onside kick here - and they did.

[B.C.FAN]

The B.C. passing attack is hard to stop when the quarterback throws the ball on time and on target. Adams did neither tonight. Calgary played a lot of man coverage and tried to take away Adams’ first read and disrupt the Lions’ timing. They did exactly the same thing to Michael Reilly at B.C. Place a year ago and it produced almost identical results, holding Reilly to 13 complstions on 25 attempts for 145 yards in a 39-10 Calgary victory. The Lions’ receivers didn’t get a lot of separation tonight but they don’t usually need much separation to catch the ball when it’s on target. Adams was just too inaccurate early in the game, and it got in his head. He started to panic and run around in the pocket. He passed up several opportunities to exploit the Stampeders’ man coverage by scrambling for first downs in the open field.

I found myself pining to see Michael O’Connor run the offence, at least for a few series, in the second or third quarter. He has a better grasp of the offence and is a better passer than Adams. I know O’Connor isn’t fully healthy yet but even Antonio Pipkin, who is not a great passer, looked sharper than Adams, completing 4 of 6 passes for 66 yards and a TD when Adams was finally pulled in the dying minutes. It was too little, too late.

All the 2-and-outs from Adams and the offence took its toll on the B.C. defence, which lost Obum Gwacham and Ben Hladik during the game and moved other players around in the front-7 to try to maintain a rotation. The Lions need to be healthy down the stretch to clinch a home playoff game. They will need to be sharper in all phases of the game.

[KnowItAll]

The B.C. passing attack is hard to stop when the quarterback throws the ball on time and on target. Adams did neither tonight. Calgary played a lot of man coverage and tried to take away Adams’ first read and disrupt the Lions’ timing. They did exactly the same thing to Michael Reilly at B.C. Place a year ago and it produced almost identical results, holding Reilly to 13 complstions on 25 attempts for 145 yards in a 39-10 Calgary victory. The Lions’ receivers didn’t get a lot of separation tonight but they don’t usually need much separation to catch the ball when it’s on target. Adams was just too inaccurate early in the game, and it got in his head. He started to panic and run around in the pocket. He passed up several opportunities to exploit the Stampeders’ man coverage by scrambling for first downs in the open field.

I found myself pining to see Michael O’Connor run the offence, at least for a few series, in the second or third quarter. He has a better grasp of the offence and is a better passer than Adams. I know O’Connor isn’t fully healthy yet but even Antonio Pipkin, who is not a great passer, looked sharper than Adams, completing 4 of 6 passes for 66 yards and a TD when Adams was finally pulled in the dying minutes. It was too little, too late.

All the 2-and-outs from Adams and the offence took its toll on the B.C. defence, which lost Obum Gwacham and Ben Hladik during the game and moved other players around in the front-7 to try to maintain a rotation. The Lions need to be healthy down the stretch to clinch a home playoff game. They will need to be sharper in all phases of the game.

yeah, but you know what they say about garbage time stats

[Toppy Vann]

Garbage time for me didn't describe the difference with Pipkin at the end. He played quicker which was the opposite of VA tonight.

There are a couple of instances, VA wasn't ready to throw and got hit with the ball moving up in the pocket or he'd have good yardage downfield but in other instances the Receivers weren't looking yet.

The play calling is typical BC OC - not a lot of variation and VA didn't much try to get outside. Not much commitment to any running attack either which makes it hard for the OL.

[DanoT]

Horrible second down conversion failures, horrible tackling by a tired D.

I am not the least bit upset about the Lions poor play as I expected them to lose. I did not figure the Lions had much chance of beating the Stamps in all 3 regular season games and if they did then they would need to go out in the playoffs and beat then again as the two teams are almost certain to meet in the western semi final. Now the Lions have some good game film to study and improve on and get revenge in the playoffs.

Adams showed himself to be not much of a pocket passer (accuracy is suspect), slow to make reads and decisions. He needs to roll out more and run more.

[SammyGreene]

Remaining schedule:
BC- Ottawa, @Toronto, Winnipeg, @Winnipeg, @Edmonton
Calgary- Toronto. Hamilton, @Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan

BC likely needs to go 3-2 at worst to hold off the Stamps for 2nd place. Will be lucky to go 1-4 if last night's performance continues. 4-0 is very doable for the Stamps especially if the Riders are eliminated by the time they see them.

Adams feels like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. He is locking down on his primary receiver far too much, not progressing through his reads or releasing the ball quick enough. With his stature he doesn't exactly look comfortable continuously throwing from the pocket either. Maksymic is going to have to move away from the Rourke playbook more and more.
As BC FAN suggested, O'Connor's strengths maybe better suited for it but Farhan tweeted last night he will likely not play for the rest of the season. Give he is dressing as the No. 3 QB that is very strange to say the least.
Burnham (hand) could be sidelined for a while. The man is tough as nails and you could tell he was in a lot of pain. The only upside is it would allow the Lions to go down to 4 American receivers and add more depth to the d-line as more effective rotation is needed. Gwacham being out for an extended period would be another tough blow.
Stephen Richardson is apparently arriving in town this week and soon could be practising.

Hard to lay blame on the defence that was essentially on the field all night but Phillips needs to show some different looks with his coverages. Way too much zone for my liking and Maier was having a field day as his near flawless stats (27-33 297 yds) showed.
The Stamps had to sit 1 American starter due to the Judge suspension and the Lions made life easy for the Calgary receivers that only needed to find holes in the zone and there were plenty of them.

[Dusty]

Obviously the Stampeder coaching staff reviewed the film from the last game and made adjustments starting with an onside kick on the opening kickoff. Lions didn't.

I said to my friend when the Lions hadn't lined up properly that I could see them pulling an onside kick here - and they did.

Not only did Calgary demonstrate much more interest in winning the game than the Lions via that opening onside kick, but they could have doubled or tripled the number of onside kicks over the course of the game because that side of the field was glaringly open all night. No adjustment at all by us.

[Dusty]

After some pondering, I'm kinda glad I was at the game last night.... bear with me a bit on this, but there I was sitting in somewhat stunned silence as the game progressed. Yes, it was bad, but being there without the "benefit' of play by play announcers and/or the TSN replays and analysis I was left with a 'sense' that the game sucked, and because I did not log into here or even other sources during the game, it was only a 'sense'. Even the statistics that are part of the TV broadcast were not available.... yeah, there were a lot of punts, but that goes by without knowing the number or percentages of 2 and outs that are provided from broadcasts. Yes, the defence seemed on the field a lot but not having the time of possession available leaves you with only a 'sense' that the defence had a longer time on the field than the offence.

It was only when I was leaving and listening to the radio that the true picture/horror of the game came through as they reeled off the stats....

So in a way, inside the stadium, enveloped by the warm cocoon of ignorance, watching the game was (IMHO) better than watching the broadcast. You may say that this is non'sense', but I'm sticking to it.....

[OV:54-40]

The B.C. passing attack is hard to stop when the quarterback throws the ball on time and on target. Adams did neither tonight. Calgary played a lot of man coverage and tried to take away Adams’ first read and disrupt the Lions’ timing. They did exactly the same thing to Michael Reilly at B.C. Place a year ago and it produced almost identical results, holding Reilly to 13 complstions on 25 attempts for 145 yards in a 39-10 Calgary victory. The Lions’ receivers didn’t get a lot of separation tonight but they don’t usually need much separation to catch the ball when it’s on target. Adams was just too inaccurate early in the game, and it got in his head. He started to panic and run around in the pocket. He passed up several opportunities to exploit the Stampeders’ man coverage by scrambling for first downs in the open field.

I found myself pining to see Michael O’Connor run the offence, at least for a few series, in the second or third quarter. He has a better grasp of the offence and is a better passer than Adams. I know O’Connor isn’t fully healthy yet but even Antonio Pipkin, who is not a great passer, looked sharper than Adams, completing 4 of 6 passes for 66 yards and a TD when Adams was finally pulled in the dying minutes. It was too little, too late.

All the 2-and-outs from Adams and the offence took its toll on the B.C. defence, which lost Obum Gwacham and Ben Hladik during the game and moved other players around in the front-7 to try to maintain a rotation. The Lions need to be healthy down the stretch to clinch a home playoff game. They will need to be sharper in all phases of the game.

IF O'Connnor is too injured to play, then why is he dressed ?; and why has their been next to zero discussion on the on-going health or game day status of the #2 QB from TC on in? IMO, it's kinda obvious/likely that Campbell has little respect for O'Connor as a guy who could play real reps at QB for him and likely brought him in to be able to preserve his 7 only thinking when he knew a Canadian QB (Rourke) would be one of them. O'Connor could temporarily replace or finish a game for Rourke if need be. But with that out the window - Pipkin & Adams are much preferred.

[Toppy Vann]

On O'Connor the week Adams arrived I saw him do nothing at practice but throw the ball with QBs. But he was throwing only with his upper body. Just maybe he's still hurt.

Not sure with the play calling, the rush and staying in the pocket that he'd fare better than VA.

Pipkin might have done better as they probably thought he'd be running.

I'm sure the play Burnham got his wrist break on was where he was trying to grab an errant pass and he disappeared off the field as it was off target. It was clear he was hurt after that.

This OC is not a great play caller when things need to be shaken up a bit.

Also when they know what is coming it's tough on the OL to keep them out.

[B.C.FAN]

I think Burnham was hurt catching a typical Burnhamesque 29-yard jump ball from Pipkin on the Lions’ late touchdown drive. Burnham caught the ball in the air and was slammed to the ground by Branden Dozier, landing directly on his wrist. He was flexing it constantly afterwards. Two plays
later, Pipkin hit him in the hands on a sideline route at the Calgary 14 and he uncharacteristically dropped it, again flexing his wrist afterwards. I thought he should have come out of the game but Rick Campbell said afterwards that Burnham never likes to leave the field, even when he’s hurt. It’s been a tough year for him. I hope the latest injury doesn’t keep him out for long.

[TheLionKing]

I think Burnham was hurt catching a typical Burnhamesque 29-yard jump ball from Pipkin on the Lions’ late touchdown drive. Burnham caught the ball in the air and was slammed to the ground by Branden Dozier, landing directly on his wrist. He was flexing it constantly afterwards. Two plays
later, Pipkin hit him in the hands on a sideline route at the Calgary 14 and he uncharacteristically dropped it, again flexing his wrist afterwards. I thought he should have come out of the game but Rick Campbell said afterwards that Burnham never likes to leave the field, even when he’s hurt. It’s been a tough year for him. I hope the latest injury doesn’t keep him out for long.

Another Mike Reilly attitude. Think of the team instead of yourself.

[KnowItAll]

I think Burnham was hurt catching a typical Burnhamesque 29-yard jump ball from Pipkin on the Lions’ late touchdown drive. Burnham caught the ball in the air and was slammed to the ground by Branden Dozier, landing directly on his wrist. He was flexing it constantly afterwards. Two plays
later, Pipkin hit him in the hands on a sideline route at the Calgary 14 and he uncharacteristically dropped it, again flexing his wrist afterwards. I thought he should have come out of the game but Rick Campbell said afterwards that Burnham never likes to leave the field, even when he’s hurt. It’s been a tough year for him. I hope the latest injury doesn’t keep him out for long.

Another Mike Reilly attitude. Think of the team instead of yourself.

pretty sure that at least most of the time, when players insist on playing, it is because they think it will be better for the team