From the files of dooger in surrey :
It’s been a tough year for Jave Glatt, losing his starting linebacker job after showing great promise in previous years. I wouldn’t characterize him as a ‘floater’ but he does seem too easy to run against, which is, after all, his primary responsibility of a linebacker. He gets caught up in the wash , or otherwise out of position, way too often and loses run containment. I have yet to see evidence of improvment by him this year. I guess we have to be patient until the young guns (Yurichuck and Araki) get their opportunities to start. To be fair to him, he was a force on the kick cover teams all game.
Yesterday the Lions won despite being unready to play in the first quarter. We gave up too many big plays on defence and we just can’t give up an easy score like that on the first play from scrimmage. But our team depth (Lulay, Harris, Yurichuck, Iraki, Arceneault, Gibbs), opportunistic defence ( Miles, Marsh, Armour, Foley…) strong special teams play (McCallum, Araki, Yurichuck, Lombala, McCullough…) and our ability to run the ball all game long won it for us.
Michael Bishop often seems to cough up easy picks when he is pressured.
Grice Mullen seemed overly hyper early on. It looked like he quit a bit on a pass pattern over the middle that cost us a pick, but he got better as the game went on and was solid on returns. O Neil Wilson tried to shorthand a pass that was a bit behind him and tipped the ball to a defender instead. These are the type of mistakes we’ve been making for most of the year and must correct if we are to go anywhere in the playoffs.
Neither Pierce nor Lulay were able to get the ball to Geroy or Paris. I don’t understand multiple draw plays on second and long. How about a few screen passes to mix it up a bit? (Overly conservative/predictable play calling has ben an issue all year long.) The Pierce fumble was probably unpreventable, since he couldn’t see the defender near him on his right as he drew the ball back to throw. Steve Williams was again really solid inside but needs to appreciate the value of getting revenge within the rules. I don’t know if Ibrahim Kahn was cutting or chopping him, or what? Williams hasn’t lost his cool like that before.
Paul McCallum and the kick cover teams looked pretty solid all day. Lulay surprised everyone with his mobility and ability to extend plays. A. J. Harris was great! With at least 200 all-purpose yards he deserves to be the CFL player-of-the-week. I’d love to see him and Mallet in the same backfield when it gets cold next month. The offensive line was solid and didn’t hurt themselves too much with dumb penalties, like offsides, procedure or holding. While we didn’t get very many sacks our defensive line provided solid, consistent 4-man pressure and forced Michael Bishop into making key mistakes. Great individual efforts by Baron Miles and Dante Marsh were huge keys to victory and Korey Banks definitely looks more comfortable back at halfback.
The referees seemed to let a lot of the ‘clutch-and-grab’ stuff go; maybe that’s why the game seemed so entertaining. Are you listening, Tom Higgins?
Kudos to the Lions coaches and players for a comeback win on the road, keeping us within reach of the Stamps and the Riders. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re four wins and just one loss in the last five games.
I love winning![/color]
:cowboy:[/color][/color]