BC at Sask!!

I was probably most impressed by Cobb and then Herbert of all the players. I thought they both looked very good. Walters and Reaves did nothing to say they should be ahead of these two. Hebert looks like he has great speed and could break a few. Cobb seemed to run with good authority and didn't shy away from hits. I would be looking at keeping these two and perhaps Walters as a fill in.

Yes the defense was night an day better then last year but then that isn't shocking either as Cory's plan for defense was.. oh hell I don't know what his plan was for defense and obviously neither did he or the players. In the two preseason games last year there were warning lights and bells going off that this isn't going to be pretty as in both games the Riders offense had them in the lead going into the 4th only to see it be peed away by a joke of a defense. That carried on into the regular season as we should have been at least 5-1 or even 6-1 if not for the phantom D.

I knew Jones would improve on that but it would be almost impossible to not be better then last year. If they weren't then everyone would be screaming for Jones to be sacked today and they would be right to do so. Heck Jones probably would fired himself if they weren't better then last year.

I think we will have a much better D, but now I wonder if the O can put points on the board!! it sure could last year

Yes the offense certainly wasn't the issue last year and I think Glenn was the reason for that. Sure he made a couple of bad reads and throws that cost us a couple of games but make no mistake he did far more good then he did bad and if we had even a resemblance of a decent defense we probably would have been in the playoffs. That is water under the bridge though and the reality is that Glenn is not the future qb for the team so it made sense to trade him. This team needs to get a legitimate contender for the starter position in case Durant goes down or for the day that is not too far off of him hanging them up. As of now neither Smith or Coleman really did anything to say they are "the one" no I'm not writing either of them off completely but they better pull up their jock straps and show something really promising real quick, or we need to be looking at other options real fast.

In fairness it could last year with a vet QB. After that it went from first to worst…literally.

I have said before that I thought this was a downgrade in OCs, but I think he is still alright and really McAdoo is still growing as an OC in only his third season in the role.

I still really want to see Sims get some legit action and things also look a lot better once you practice with a dozen less bodies to practice with. This team is very young…there are still question marks obviously, but in a full rebuild season I like the direction it is going. As NI depth grows, if this continues it could be great.

BC’s OL to me was dominated…even with 3 man rush. That bodes well for this D. When one team is player their top dogs and you are rotating to guys getting cut and still winning the battle more often than no (when BC picked up a lot of their yardage…against backups)…I like what I see.

Jones was pissed about the penalties after the game…but in a first preseason game it wasn’t horrific…I think BC should be concerned if anything as they had more…including some timecounts with their vets out there

Yea heard afterward some idiot shot a confetti canon at a transformer or something :-/ Thought maybe bad weather rolled in

J'admets n'avoir regardé que le plus gros de la première demie seulement, mais je vous partage mes impressions générales.

Je n'ai pas été très impressionné par la prestation des quarts-arrières et des receveurs. Il y a eu quelques éclats intéressants, mais en général, les performances ont été assez inégales. Pour comparer des comparables, les jeunes quarts-arrières des Bombers m'ont fait une meilleure impression que Smith et Coleman. Pour avoir vu Smith à l'œuvre l'an dernier, je m'attendais à une meilleure prestation de sa part. Cela dit, c'est pour lui une nouvelle attaque avec de nouveaux entraîneurs, et ce n'est que le premier match préparatoire. Il n'y a donc pas lieu de sauter aux conclusions.

La pression sur le quart exercée par les Roughriders a été assez bonne et on peut y voir l'empreinte de Jones. Ce dernier vient de l'école de Don Matthews (tout comme Noel Thorpe) et la marque de ce dernier est toujours visible dans les concepts de Jones. En général, la combinaison pression-couverture a été assez efficace et la relativement faible production de l'attaque aérienne des Lions est là pour en témoigner.

Matt Walter n'a pas été très efficace, mais Cobb a montré de belles dispositions. Je crois qu'il représente plus un joueur d'avenir à cette position que Walter. Je crois qu'il va quand même falloir faire pas mal de travail pour que cette ligne offensive gagne sa cohésion. Ceci a pu nuire au travail des demis offensifs, quoique Cobb n'a pas semblé en souffrir autant.

Ceci pour conclure que les succès de cette équipe vont encore une fois passablement reposer sur l'état de santé de Darian Durant (j'ai hâte de le revoir sur le terrain!), mais je pense que le renouveau apporté par Jones et ses entraîneurs va permettre d'envisager des jours meilleurs que la saison dernière.

Bonne saison à tous!

Sorry to disappoint you all but I'm back.

One must take into account that the Rider D was playing with live ammo. We saw all kinds of looks and formations and all kinds of stunts and odd d-line drops and blitzes from all over the field. BCs offense was vanilla and their o-line is suspect to begin with. Apart from Olafiyoe they are very young and trying out 2 starters in new positions (2 natural tackles at C and G - living in Vancouver I listen to a lot of Lions' pregame and midweek radio stuff). Yes I liked that the d line dominated even with mostly backup players, but when the real bullets fly against teams that have good o-lines we will see what happens.

Offensively well, the QBing was ... sheit. So Coleman is a dud so far, ok that happens league wide every year, but Smith? Better hope that was just rust because he looked like he regressed. NOT impressed with him AT ALL. He should have eaten up a vanilla D with only half the starters on it. Riders are showing the WORST QB depth in the league so far. Liked the o-line. That strong run game was ALL o-line (and scheme). Odd timing on some of the handoffs really bought some space. Again, aggressive/creative playcalling against vanilla pre-season D flatters the results. We will see how good it looks in a game that counts, but overall was pleased that the hogs pushed their weight around fairly easily. Cobb ... per reasons just stated, not reading anything into his numbers but did like one play in particular where after a little momentum into the 2nd level he was able to push the pile for an extra 4ish yards after contact. Always like to see that. Run game was very creative scheme-wise, but passing game? Did they even attempt a pass of more than 20 yards? And if not, was that due to McAdoo's calls or just the QBs too inept to find deeper targets? Not sure, broadcast TV never shows the downfield coverage.

Special teams ... return game doesn't have a pulse. Someone please give it mouth to mouth. And that Collins dude carries the ball like a loaf of bread. Fundamental epic fail. You hold the ball loose in one hand like that on my team, I send you right back to east bumhole state pronto.

How the hell do you dominate both sides of the LoS and lose by 2 scores?? And remember folks, BC even with all their starters just might be the worst team in the league this year. Certainly much closer to the bottom than the top.