Leos surprises this year

[David]

* Who knew we would have arguably the best secondary in the league, and with Marcus Sayles moved to strong-side linebacker? Special shout-out to Garry Peters for his coverage skills on the boundary corner (with the always consistent TJ Lee) and rookies KiAnte Hardin and Jalon Edwards-Cooper on the field side. Didn't see that coming.

* I recognized that we were getting raw speed when we signed Lucky Whitehead on Feb. 9, but I didn't know he was such a dynamic receiver and precise route runner. Best FA signing of the CFL off-season.

* Linebacker Bo Lokombo seems to get better with age. His INT totals (3) are league-leading and he's been all over the field this season.

* Now I know why we traded up for Jordan Williams in the draft. He is a ratio breaker. A rookie who is 2nd in the league in tackles. Lots of promise here.

* The trio of Redblack FA signings. Surprised by how disappointing they've been. JR Tavai has mostly "meh" at DE while big wideout Dominique Rhymes had hardly touched the ball before getting injured. Anthony Cioffi has been a healthy scratch the last 3 games having lost his strong side linebacker job to Sayles and is currently the back-up safety.

(honourable mention to a deep-pocketed, committed local owner that I don't think anyone saw coming).


DH

[B.C.FAN]

I think you nailed it, David.

I might add a category for biggest disappointment, the Lions' defensive line. I didn't have high hopes for this no-name group but I thought free agents would give the Lions decent pressure off the edge and that inexperienced interior linemen would offer strong run support and not much else. They've delivered even less than I expected

B.C. ranks 7th in QB sacks with 11 and 6th in rushing yards allowed, 100.6 per game. The Lions have also given up a league-high 23 rushing plays of 10 or more yards through 6 games.

Obum Gwacham, whose play in training camp led to the release of free agent DE Chris Casher, has been the best of the bunch, with 15 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble. Fellow DE J.R. Tavai has added 13 tackles, 2 sacks and a forced fumble. Ufomba Kamalu has 11 tackles in 5 games and Tim Bonner shows promise with 8 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble in 5 games.

Marcus Sayles at SAM is a liability against the run, and Rick Campbell's blitz packages have been largely ineffective. I lost count of how many times Sayles blitzed off the edge last night while William Stanback ran for big yardage inside.

[SammyGreene]

I think you nailed it, David.

I might add a category for biggest disappointment, the Lions' defensive line. I didn't have high hopes for this no-name group but I thought free agents would give the Lions decent pressure off the edge and that inexperienced interior linemen would offer strong run support and not much else. They've delivered even less than I expected

B.C. ranks 7th in QB sacks with 11 and 6th in rushing yards allowed, 100.6 per game. The Lions have also given up a league-high 23 rushing plays of 10 or more yards through 6 games.

Obum Gwacham, whose play in training camp led to the release of free agent DE Chris Casher, has been the best of the bunch, with 15 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble. Fellow DE J.R. Tavai has added 13 tackles, 2 sacks and a forced fumble. Ufomba Kamalu has 11 tackles in 5 games and Tim Bonner shows promise with 8 tackles, 3 sacks and a forced fumble in 5 games.

Marcus Sayles at SAM is a liability against the run, and Rick Campbell's blitz packages have been largely ineffective. I lost count of how many times Sayles blitzed off the edge last night while William Stanback ran for big yardage inside.

Great post David and those are some revealing stats BC FAN.

We never did learn why the Lions backed away from Micah Johnson after signing him to the 1-year deal in 2020. It sure seems to me we aren’t close to the revised salary cap and went very cheap on the d-line. Are we getting exactly what we paid for?

I never thought of Campbell as a defensive guru when he was with Edmonton all those years. I do think he is an excellent head coach and brings some of the intangibles and demeanour his father brought to the position. Was the ideal replacement after a rookie HC.
Maybe he will relinquish the DC title next season with new ownership in place. He must be burning long hours these days with the co-GM title too.

[Reg18]

On the D side dont forge that our D has been focussed on taking away big nplays and give them more running room patience will set in and offensive mistakes will happen especially against mk treal who live by the big play and they couldnt do it so had to take what we gave them and if they can't score easy TDs let them use the clock up with short running plays. That strategy is based non us scoring tds and it was a c!ose call but we did what we bad to do and it worked. But now we can work on stopping the run game cause teams will try to exploit that cause they know its going to be tough to score passing tds on us.

[Reg18]

There have been so many posiitives with our Lions so far and all indicators areb pointing to even better times abead. The really big event was getting a dynamic owner who !oves btge Lions. We ckuldnt ask for a better owner. Reilly still hasd the skillset and is oroviding leasdership. With so much bench strength on this feam. Its a good situation for hgears to come strong down the middle owner, HC and Qb. A winning combination!

[OV - 54:40]

Cioffi is an aggressive D player who could be a force at OLB; Sayles is neither an OLB or a CFL safety IMO; he could be used as an extra DB in packages; they could think of going to some 3 true LB look - with Konar (or big Hladik) alongside Lokombo & Williams, to help shore up the run D.

Rhymes made some big plays as an oft targeted receiver in Ottawa - he also had drops and other poor receiver form issues; Cottoy is a big, sure-handed target (and didn't overly impress me as a CFL rookie) but who might progress very well with more work. A receiving corps of Burnham, Whitehead, Durant, Johnson & Cottoy could be about league best IMO.

[TheLionKing]

Kent Perkins has been a pleasant surprise at right tackle filling in for the injured Matthew Ryker.

[David]

Agree that the run defense needs to be shored up. We have another stiff test on Friday with William Powell. I know Stanback is a beast, but allowing nearly 8 yards per carry (average) on 18 attempts is embarrassing.

It's as though Campbell has ripped a page out of Stubler's defensive playbook with the "bend but don't break approach" but we've been owned at the line of scrimmage in most games, only winning due to a) an exceptional quarterback who knows where to go with the ball, b) outstanding receiving depth. On the defensive side, we've been held in games due to a lights-out secondary. The fact that we had 13 knockdowns speaks to a below-average pass rush that allowed Adams so much time to throw.

DH

[DanoT]

Having an American as kicker and another as a punter has really impacted roster flexibility.

A lack of a strong running game is a liability that will really be evident once the cold rainy snowy winter weather arrives.

[David]

Kent Perkins has been a pleasant surprise at right tackle filling in for the injured Matthew Ryker.

Yes, good call. I am wondering what we're going to do when Mathews comes back off the 6-game (after the Rider and Bomber games). Is Perkins going to sit?

I would love to see how our Nationals (Steward, Godber, and Chungh) are grading out. When I watch the Bombers, their O-line seems to be able to open gaping holes for Harris to run through. Our running backs, whether it be Butler, Cooper, and even Rainey, seem to continually get stuffed at the line of scrimmage.


DH

[CrazyCanuck89]

Cottoy: Maybe his NFL tryout gave him some confidence. It's nice seeing him an Kalinic bringing the big bodied tighend types, back to the game.

Canadian LBs: Lokombo and Willams have looked great staring. When Konar and Hladik have gotten in there, they've looked good too. I think the Lions have much better Canadian linebacker depth than the Argo's.

Rourke: Basically all his action came in the first game. He got better as the game went on.

Secondary: Had a rough first game, seems to have improved from it.

[Hambone]

Secondary: Had a rough first game, seems to have improved from it.

Just looking back at that game. I think what happened was the Riders caught BC expecting a bit more depth in Rider pass routes. Instead they two-bitted them in classic Ricky Ray dink and dunk fashion. More than 3/4 of his passes were targeted to a receiver less than 10 yards down field. Of the 4 passes that went farther than 12 yards down field 2 were incomplete and 1 was intercepted.

1st half completions. To give a sense of where the ball was caught I deducted the YAC: 4, 5, 0, 11, 2 , 11, 4, 6, 8, 4, 12 (TD), 4, 8, 8, 2(TD), 17, 5, 10, 0
1st half incompletions: 14 (but illegal contact flag), 22, 44, 4
2nd half completions. To give a sense of where the ball was caught I deducted the YAC: 0, 8, 5, 0, -4, 7, 2
2nd half incompletions: 28 (intercepted) 5, 7, 5, 7, 0

One would think that sitting on the big half time lead their game plan changed a bit but I'm not sure of that. They still started the first 6 2nd half possessions throwing the ball. With that I think we can say the secondary had a rough 1st half then made adjustments.

[Gridiron Ernie]

You're asking for surprises... Well, one big pleasant surprise for me: the kicking game. One might criticize using two Americans to fill the bill, but you can't criticize the results so far: Jimmy Comacho hasn't missed a FG, and Flintoft has one of the league's leading punt and kickoff averages. If I'm not mistaken he in fact leads in punt average yards, although perhaps not on net yards, as the Lions have allowed some significant yards on returns. I'd have to look that up. But either way, our kicking tandem has been solid. I didn't see that coming.

[Reg18]

Wow, so many critical comments, and we are winning! Lighten up folks its good and its going to get even better. Coach Campbell is using the D to conyrol the opposition by giving them high risk low teward plays by taking away the quick strike plays. He sasidbtyhat teams are going bto have to score TDs to beat us thgen he givesbtyhem short running plays that eat up their clock and its working

[Reg18]

Snd JR Tavai was a vthirn in the mongreal offense all game. Hemay not have got sacks but he got lots bof pressures and wrecked a lot of their plays i, too would like a Jefferson qualiyu DE and I exoect we might see a couple nfl cuts brought in to enhgance our D line.. Then we will punish our opponents not just beat them until then its going to be important to have tyhe offrnse continue to rxcel to give our some respite. If we have tobe on the field for long stretches becausebnof bour Offenses 2 and outs then thats a recipe for failure.