Lions drop a close one to Hamilton

BC Lions
#1

Lulay and Reilly [Eskies QB] should have a friendly wager betting on who'll still be standing by the final whistle of the last game or for that matter who will be healthy enough to play in the final game of the season. It seems that Lulay is taking just as many [if not more] hits than his good friend Mike Reilly. These guys must have nightmares of being hit by Mack trucks and locomotives. For awhile I thought I was watching Mike Reilly wearing Lulay's jersey. What is wrong with the Lions front 5 on the O-line? Either Lulay cannot release the ball and is sacked, or has to hurry his throws or he's nailed to the ground right after he releases the ball. Neither Lulay nor Reilly can continue to take that kind of punishment game in and game out.

Quite frankly I am surprised that the Lions actually made it close. I've seen too many games looking like this. I remember in the days of Paul Brothers where it was painful to watch. Today's game [and others] was like watching those games back in that era. Two and outs, two and outs, two and outs! No momentum, nothing working. There were some beautiful passes and receptions by the Lions but why in just the last quarter of the game and not throughout?

Full credit to Burris for putting on a clinic this afternoon. The entire Ti-Cats were fully deserving of the win. The Lions are currently 6-4. They had better be careful or they will be 6-8 before they know it.

The Ti-Cats have been coming on of late. Today's result was really no surprise- at least not to me- though I thought the score might have been a lot closer for most of the game.

Now the Lions meet the Als next week and we all know what happened in the last game. As far as I'm concerned if Lulay continues to get the same lousy protection the team doesn't stand a chance. The Als will eat 'em up alive.

I wanted the Lions to win big today but I'm also thrilled to see Hamilton go home with the win. 5-5 is a pretty good record at this point of the season. I think given the way Burris is playing and the kind of support he's getting Hamilton will win most of its remaining 8 games.

#2

I love your optimism Beaglehound, but this game was very close and the result was never in jeapardy.

Now the Lions are a perfect 0-4 on the road and also have not been prepared to play in any road game this season-

This to me falls on the shoulders of BENEVIDES who is clearly not head coach material- He has inherited a talented team and is slowly but surely destroying the winning culture with the LIons-

Just like Danny Macchocia did that to edmonton I predicted that BENEVIDES would do the same- What are BENEVIDES qualifications? He does not have any real credentials to be a top notch CFL HEAD COACH- With some of the good coaches in the league now, he is in the bottom half of coaches with Kavis Reed and Tim Burke--

INTERCEPTION or a BONE CRUSHING HIT by our SAFETY? Either Stubler should be fired or are safety Junior Larose is terrible, Has he even hit anyone this season? Has he made an INT? Has he even deflected a pass?

IN our secondary this is the weakest part of it- If we at least had a good import safety, we could do better as a pass defense-

MEMO TO STUBLER-- QBS are not supposed to start the games out going 19 of 23 for 250 yards and 2 tds every week- Does every opposing QB complete over 80% passes vs the Lions?

Watch CALGARY and watch how many completions and the QB's stat line- THey are not allowing qbs to go 29 of 35 attempts for 350 yards every week.

Josh Bell cannot cover anyone- He is weak-

The D line is not getting it done- They need to replace Westerman and Brandon Jordan and Eric Taylor- Neither of these guys even show up on the road--

ALso time to get rid of ANDREW HARRIS- the storyline was great, but he is not a CFL RUNNING BACK- that is obvious- He does not have the speed and is not physical enough-

The Lions need to blow this team up, and bring in a new punter also- Mcalum is washed up--

Lions are a 9-9 team- Read my season outlook, I was bang on this team, they are not that great and have perhaps one of the poorest coaching staffs in the CFL.

#3

DIsagree I think this team is still trying to find its identity.

They will start rolling more after this game I think. They're a much better team then their record states and I definitely don't think they're a 9-9 team. I think they're going to gel and take it all this year. They have moments where they're deadly and they almost came back in that game.

I haven't really noticed a problem in our defense except I'd like them a little more tight on the run, but I think that's been a problem for the Lions D going way back.

#4

The issue is really simple. For some reason the Lions D line only plays hard at home. At home they are hungry and rush hard and thus their ZONE DEFENSE scheme works.

On the road the D line and secondary takes a vacation and doesent have any interest in playing hard or earning their paycheques- The result is that the ZONE defense is obliterated by the QB-- Case in point, Hamilton, Montreal,and Calgary and Toronto all scored well over 30 points at home vs this overrated and soft BC defense.

The ZONE only works at home because the players for some reason only show up at home- They have completely mailed in every road game- I think they might be missing some veteran leadership on this team, to tell the guys that they are so called professionals and to show up on the road- Watching them play on the road seems to me like a team that is not ready to play-

That falls on the shoulders of BENEVIDES who is by far one of the worst head coaches in the CFL- He does not adjust, he doesent make any changes at all. He has no control of the team- Benevides is a total sham at head coach- His interviews he is just doing a good PR job by faking to remain positive and pretend that there are no issues with this team-

He is not aware of how to make adjustments and is way out of his league trying to coach vs other PRO coaches- Just look at the road games? The only edge is that BC plays at home in the DOME and they have a home advantage, but when they play on the road they are basically completely useless.

Benevides has not yet made any changes to the lineup- He does not know how to bench players or demand more, he is in cruise control mode- He has not made the LIONS better, in fact since he took over the LIONS are going in a DOWNWARD SPIRAL and thats a fact-

Lions need a better head coach, one who understands the CFL game, Benevides is a CIS coach at best, he is not PRO material-
Stublers defenses are also finished- Without a dominant pass rush which the LIONS dont have anymore STUBLERS defense is about the easiest defense to move the ball up and down the field.

#5

They definately are a Jekyl & Hyde team.

I'll give Benevides more time. Other than Lapolice, Im not sure who has more experience out there that is available.

On the other hand, I have never been a Chapdelaine fan. He is far too predictable. I think he should be given the pink slip.

#6

I have good news and bad news.

First the bad. BC's road record sucks. BC lost that game in Hamilton because they had a terrible start. They couldn't score, couldn't run, couldn't pass protect, couldn't cover kicks well enough, couldn't convert on second down, couldn't stop a beachball on D for the first 30 minutes. I don't care which CFL team you spot 26 points; the odds of coming back are somewhere between slim and none, and slim just left town. The only reason they made it close was because Hamilton were laying back for most of the second half. Other than the "stealth uniforms" win against the Stamps, they've only beat Toronto once, Edmonton twice, the Bombers once and Hamilton once. They have eight games left and five are against Saskatchewan and Calgary, easily the two best teams in the League. The Lions also have a revenge game this week against the Als and one each against the Eskimos and Bombers, who'll be playing for their jobs for next season. There are no easy wins.

Clearly the most glaring deficiency of the 2013 Lions is their porous offensive line, made up of two quality veteran tackles (Ben Archibald and Jovan Olafioye, the former looking slower every week)), two journeyman second string guards (Valli and Kabongo) and an up an coming player for the future in Norman. If the airlift from the NFL doesn't materialize, these are the guys who'll be relied upon to get their collective act together and keep Lulay vertical.

Now the good news. Since Edmonton is all but eliminated from playoff contention, the Lions can stagger into the post season with 8 to 10 wins and maybe get hot at the right time. And Buono has directed their US scouts to beat the bushes for some help "along both lines" Two recent pickups might help them a bit. Buck Pierce seems to me to be a guy who knows out system, a short term solution, maybe a week or two's worth of work as a punching bag if Lulay gets dinged. A better pickup is former Lion DE Chris Wilson, a pass rusher who played the last six years in the no fun league. It appears he's been brought in to hopefully provide some much needed edge presence and as insurance if either Keron Williams or Khreem Smith go down. We'll see whether he still has the stamina for this league, and whether he has the speed to get home from the edge. Hopefully Wilson will create some spark along the defensive front.

Right now there are a lot of quality US linemen who didn't make the last NFL cut, so look for a couple of players to show up on the Pr or active roster next week. Maybe the threat of losing their jobs will force Valli, Norman and Kabongo to up their games a few notches. A home crowd won't hurt.

I'm a glass is half full kind of guy. they still have time to get it together. But if they add an American at guard, which import receiver should they take out of the offense to make the ratio work? Arcenault, Moore or Taylor? So fixing the pass protection isn't nearly as easy as some posters in this forum might think.

Pardon the digression, but much has been written about Reilly being better than Lulay, or that we should have kept him and let Lulay go. Personally I think anyone with that idea must be on crack. We have six wins and Edmonton have two, so how much of an improvement do yo think he'd really be? There's nothing noble about getting the crap beat out of you. Reilly was dealt to the Eskies for DE Julius Williams, an often-injured player who has yet to play well. Why. Because at the time Buono felt we'd probably lose him to the ... ugh... RedBlacks in the upcoming dispersal draft. Another guy who has yet to pan out is import DE Adrain Awasom, due to injury. If we can get either of those two guys going, we'll be very deep in ends and the sack tally should start to rise.

Dooger in Surrey :cowboy: