Riders 23 - Lions 20 Post Game Stats and Comments

[AC/DC Rocks]

Listening to the post game show and they said 3,4,5,6 weeks
so it's obviously to early to tell.

[korey&dante4ever]

I'm not critiquing Williams' play, rather pointing out it was the only sack of the afternoon against the Riders. I realize that Durrant was getting rid of the ball quickly, however, the key to the Lions' D succeeding is pressure from the d-line, and they didn't get that today. I thought the pressure from the two interior guys was average at best, with a tendency to be moved laterally along the line. If the Lions can't get overwhelming pressure on the QB, they've got problems on defence, particularly at linebacker. I love Bighill, but he isn't as fast as Sol E, nor as tall. His run stopping has been first rate, but his coverage has been less so. This is a relative weakness on the defence that is masked by overwhelming pressure by the front four. Durrant was playing the short passing game for much of the game, and has done so for the previous two weeks. More pressure would have made his life more difficult, and I'm a firm believer that when QB's get pressure they get rattled, and when they rattled, frustrated, whatever you want to call it, they make mistakes. Durrant didn't make too many mistakes today.

Okay, i see now, good points

[B.C.FAN]

Some apparent good news on the injury front:

Farhan Lalji ‏@FarhanLaljiTSN
@BCLions say @geroysimon finger was dislocated, not broken. He says he's fine and will play on Friday. #CFLonTSN

[WestCoastJoe]

In regard to that maximum length missed FG return for a TD. I've heard it said his foot was on the line at the back of the end zone. Ouch. Couldn't see it on replay.

How to cover a missed FG like that ... It is tough. We have seen this problem for a few years now. Not just the Lions. No wonder Wally would not try some of those kicks. I wonder if fewer O Linemen, more LB types blocking could do it. Could they keep the rushers out long enough? And watching the replay we were not well set on coverage. Lackadaisical on the short side. No help for the coverage. The returner took a good long look before heading out of the end zone.

The O Linemen are useless in such kick coverage. I wonder if we could block for the FG without any of them. Maybe D Linemen like Keron Williams and Khreem Smith could be guards for the kick? You just need to slow the rush down a half second.

What looked like a clip at the goal line. Yurichuk missed an attempt at a diving tackle. Foord overran the play. Only about 4 guys were even in the vicinity of the returner on the play. And away the guy goes.

I've never seen the CFL where kick returns seem so dangerous. And we are not leading the evolution. We are behind the 8-ball on it.

Not sure Tim Brown has the speed to be an elite returner, despite his current success. Not sure we know how to cover kicks at all.

[notahomer]

In regard to that maximum length missed FG return for a TD. I've heard it said his foot was on the line at the back of the end zone. Ouch. Couldn't see it on replay.
...

Well I guess that should have been caught regardless. ANY and ALL scoring plays are reviewed. Judgement stuff (like whether there was a hold or a clip) can't be helped but, given the right angle of replay, that SHOULD have been caught. To be honest, it didn't even cross my mind at the time. If there was a missed call I would have said it was a 'possible' clip but it would be nice to know. Also, with this kind of stuff, I like it when the league just admits a mistake was made. If they find a replay that shows him stepping on the end-line, admit it and say "we'll try to do better next time". I still think the Riders were full value for the win and I look forward to the rematch in our home field. Hopefully, we'll get some homefield advantage too!

[MexicoLionFan]

Okay, lots to comment on, and first thing that has to be said, is that the Saskatchewan position coaches outreached their Lion counterparts, and that goes for Stubler as well...Chaps O wasn't awful, but Travis struggled for a 3rd consecutive week and JC didn't have a lot of alternatives to the same old thing...no screen passes, no QB draws, no WR reverses...these are all things that might have helped sustain drives and given Lulay a bit more confidence...

Stubler and the D weren't bad at all, but Stubler was NOT near aggressive enough...they didn't put ANY pressure on Durant the Riders and the lack of turnovers showed true...Stubler HAS to mix things up more often and he has to come with pressure to unsettle CFL QBs...if you let them sit there all day that translates to confidence and making plays...again, like Chaps, not bad, but outreached nonetheless...

McCann is an OUTRIGHT disgrace...how many weeks can this team continue to go losing the special teams battle??? McCallum had an awful game, but that doesn't take the responsibility away from McCann...our returns off missed FGs netted about 10 yards...there's netted about 300...a change needs to be made before things go too far...the Lions can't have premiere talent at all the starting positions, and then bums as backups...there is too much talent for our special teams to be this bad, and that's coaching...

Offence...Travis has struggled for 3 weeks in a row and MOP players simply don't do this...he is still young in his career and he is going to have to fight through this, as he is missing open WRs and missing consistently on his deep ball, and these things have to change...

Harris was very good, the OLine was okay at best, and HRies is struggling out there...its not Matt Norman, its #67, he his overweight, slow, and still recovering from an injury and he simply isn't good enough right now.

Iannuzzi was great, as was Paris Jackson...Geroy had his moments, but where did Bruce and Foster go??? Little or no contributions in the 2nd half.

Defence...after a great performance in week 1, Eric Taylor is struggling at DT...he is NOT making any plays against mostly single blocking, while Mitchell provides him with lots of opportunities...and the same can be said of Williams and Smith, both of whom struggled for 2 weeks in a row now, IMO...

Adam Bighill has a BIG heart, but he is TOO small to play middle LB in any league...and if teams watch film and attack our middle via the run, we are going to struggle against the run all year...Bighill struggles mightily to avoid or shuck OLinemen, and unless he can learn to do this, he is going to continue to be nowhere in sight on those running plays...and what's the point of making all those tackles if they are always 8 to 12 yards downfield???

I like Adam a lot, but the Lions are asking a TON of this young man to take over this position as an undersized 2nd year player...

The secondary was SOFT again, and that is the Stubler way...but it leads to a lot of gaps off of WRs and a lot of sloppy tackling...with this much talent, Stubler can trust that secondary in allowing him to dial up more pressure to aid a DLine, that right now, isn't getting it done in passing situations...

At the end of the day, I guess I complained a lot, but Saskatchewan, right now, IS A BETTER FOOTBALL TEAM THAN WE ARE and that included coaching...and not that there is a lot of difference, but if Lulay continues to be an average QB, we are going to come back to the pack...

Time for McCann to go...

[DanoT]

Paul Mcallum's worst game as a Lion. If he had made just one of those missed FGs then Lions probably win. The rest of the team played well at times but they look to be a ways away from mid season form.
Lulay needs to roll out more and make the pitch out option to Harris a DE and LB nightmare.

[WestCoastJoe]

Great stuff, MLFan.

And all the bloggers.

A pleasure to read.

[MexicoLionFan]

Paul Mcallum's worst game as a Lion. If he had made just one of those missed FGs then Lions probably win. The rest of the team played well at times but they look to be a ways away from mid season form.
Lulay needs to roll out more and make the pitch out option to Harris a DE and LB nightmare.

Dano, that's a great point...McCallum can't be short from 45...its not that far of a kick...and the 40 yarded breaks our back...plus MB decision to punt instead of giving up a safety hurt as well...and then McCallum decides to fake, to punt, to fake, to punt, to fake, to SHANK...

But at the end of the day, McCann's special teams are paid to cover kicks and they simply didn't do it, AND SASKATCHEWAN DID...

[TheLionKing]

Special teams coverage has been an ongoing problem for a number of years,

[notahomer]

One other thing that seems to be a fading memory, IMO, is the Lions struggles on short yardage. I don't want to blame Jarious, its never one guys fault. Watching the Argo game it just seemed to be remind of the days the Lions struggled on short yardage. Reilly and the Lions seem to do just fine on short yardage.....

[Blitz]

Paul Mcallum's worst game as a Lion. If he had made just one of those missed FGs then Lions probably win. The rest of the team played well at times but they look to be a ways away from mid season form.
Lulay needs to roll out more and make the pitch out option to Harris a DE and LB nightmare.

Dano, that's a great point...McCallum can't be short from 45...its not that far of a kick...and the 40 yarded breaks our back...plus MB decision to punt instead of giving up a safety hurt as well...and then McCallum decides to fake, to punt, to fake, to punt, to fake, to SHANK...

But at the end of the day, McCann's special teams are paid to cover kicks and they simply didn't do it, AND SASKATCHEWAN DID...

McMann should be under a lot of heat....his special teams are not up to par and a good outing last week disguises that our special teams have not been good for far too many seasons.

I also agree with the comment that Brown does not have the speed to be an elite returner. On field goals you can take the offensive linemen, the holder, and the kicker out of the equation. That really only gives you about five guys to initially cover the kick. We need to have tacklers out there on the field goal coverage team....and that should not be a player like Stu Ford but instead a defensive player,

[PigSkin_53]

A loss at this juncture won't kill us at this point of the season and might make us better.....

Agreed, this was a character building exercise for our new young coach

He stood right up there in the pocket, and did not flinch in the face of the heavy rush, gambling on first a long field goal and then another utterly makable Mc McCallum boot, as conservative Wally would never have risked

We were not ourselves in this unusual afternoon tilt, and we seemed to lack imagination in our offensive game plan, as i felt it was a bit one dimensional for the most part. Where we might have utilized Foster's great speed, and leaping catch abilities we completely ignored him, and put all our eggs in Ianuzzi's basket

Harris and Brown were not particularly impressive as they often looked confused by the blocking schemes ahead of them

I would rather have lost this game at this point now, than have started off the way we have in the last two seasons 1-7 or 0-7, or gone 11-0 like we did in 2007

We are on the right track, we just need to be more acutely focused from here on forward, and do the things we know we can do, the things that other teams just cannot stop us from being the team we are capable of being

Don't look back!

[pennw]

Hey all,

This is why they lost this game:

Rushing: A. HARRIS 8 carries, 37 yards

And this:

Sacks: Keron Williams, 1

Cheers,

James

We had over 100 yds total rushing along with 345 yds passing , IMO you can't blame the loss on lack of offense , either rushing or passing. There was enough offense if all other things were taken care of . I agree that if Macallum makes at least the second FG we would have won. A few missed long passes made difference too , but then those do happen almost every game .
Also agreewith some others that the reffing was brutally one sided. From that early offside call that Durant talked them into calling on BC rather than their originally intended procedure call on their right tackle , I knew this was going to be a bad game. Replay clearly showed their right tackle pull out of his stance first , yet they listened to Durant and called offside on Reddick instead , then after that Sask o-line was allowed to blatantly hold the rest of the game. Why did they listen to Durant ? Like he's going to be objective ?
But still we had the chance(and should have ) to win with those missed FG's . Maybe Macallum is getting long in the tooth. Very bad handling that end zone punt too why not just concede the safety there? Very indecisive on whether or not it was going to be a safety , a fake or or a punt . Instead a lame duck 28 yd punt so close to our own end .
Kind of agree with your assessment on lack of pressure on Durant , but he was getting his passes away very quick , credit Durant for that . And their receivers were making all their key catches .