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From the Stands – Lions 36 Ticats 29

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There was a cat fight Friday at BC Place and when the fur stopped flying, the BC Lions had ground out a hard-fought win 36-29 win over the Tiger-Cats of Hamilton. Here’s how I saw the game, From the Stands.

Kevin Glenn

glenn-ticats_740x300Friday night could have very well been Kevin Glenn’s last start for the Lions for the foreseeable future with Travis Lulay very close to returning. But Glenn made a statement in this game, throwing for over 400 yards and also using his legs more than we’ve seen him do thus far in a Lions uniform. Yes there were two more interceptions (both tipped passes) but Glenn turned in a gutsy performance and the veteran QB looks to be settling in as a Lion. Should he be needed down the stretch, the Lions look to be in good hands behind centre.

The Receivers

With just nine catches coming into the game, Shawn Gore had his best game of the season to date, with 5 catches for 117 yards, including a huge 43 yard catch in the fourth quarter that gave the Lions a little breathing room after a Paul McCallum field goal extended the lead to a touchdown.

Manny Arceneaux also had a 100 yard game that included his fourth touchdown of the season, and the Lions were able to spread the ball around, even getting Rolly Lumbala involved in the offence at key moments in the game.

Defence

The biggest problem the defence had on the night was giving up the big play. But as they old cliché goes the Lions bent but didn’t break, once again allowing just one touchdown as a unit. Newcomers Alex Bazzie and Ronnie Yell continue to impress. The latter replaced Dante Marsh at corner back after the hamstring that had bothered Marsh at practice earlier in the week sent him to the sidelines for the night. Yell seems to be all over the field and is becoming a key piece of a good Lions defence.

The rushing of Dan LeFevour and the receiving of Sam Giguere gave the Lions the most trouble, but in the end they played well enough to prevent touchdowns, something they’ve done all season long for the most part.

Special Teams

Brandon Banks had a strong game returning the football for the Ticats, including a punt return for a touchdown. He averaged over 20 yards on both kick-offs and punt returns but the Lions also benefited from the strong leg of Ricky Schmitt and the veteran field goal kicking of Paul McCallum whose reduced role this season may have contributed to a 47 yard field goal on the way to going five-for-five on the night. While chasing Banks on his TD return, Schmitt seemed to tweak something in the shoulder he injured in his scooter accident a few weeks ago, but managed to finish the game and should be ok.

Cause for Concern

The Lions trainers were a busy unit Friday, with injuries to four starters a cause for concern. The most concern revolves around the ankle of Andrew Harris, who picked up the injury on his first touch from scrimmage. Harris gutted it out long enough to give the Lions one more touchdown in the third quarter, before shutting it down for the night. With nine days between games the Lions will hope the player responsible for about a third of their offence this year will be ready to go against the Argos.

Another concern is the injury to new offensive guard Jermarcus Hardrick who had been settling on the left side and playing well. It sounds like he may be out long-term, so second year guard Kirby Fabien will regain the starting role next week. If Harris can’t go next week, the Lions would likely activate Tim Brown which they could do by starting Fabien.

Josh Johnson and the previously mentioned Dante Marsh were the other casualties on the night.

Atmosphere

As the Lions continue to fight great summer weather when to comes to putting bums in the seats this season, Friday’s crowd of 24,236, the smallest of the season, was probably the loudest so far. The fans got a lot of encouragement from the Lions sideline as well, especially when Khalif Mitchell wasn’t in the game. The passionate and colourful Mitchell ran up and down the sideline all night getting fans out of their seats to make some noise for the Lions defence.

But give some credit to the Lions as well, who have been trying to educate fans right from the start of the league to bring the Roar Factor and get loud on defence. It’s starting to hit home in the stands and that can only serve the club well down the road this season when crowds traditionally get larger and louder in the fall.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the game. Post a comment, or hit me up on Twitter @BCLionsDen. Make sure to check out BCLionsDen.ca for all of our Lions coverage and Pawdcasts as well.

From the Stands: Lions 6 Blue Bombers 23

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One step forward two steps back. The BC Lions were anything but super on Geroy Simon Night at BC Place Stadium, and could have used an intervention from Superman to inject life into their inept offence. Here’s how I saw the game, From the Stands.

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The Bombers

Let’s talk about the Bombers first, because they were full value for the win. Mike O’Shea came in with a great game plan and I thought it was a brilliant move by O’Shea to go to the no-huddle offence. While it didn’t result in touchdowns, it kept the Lions defence guessing and took some of the crowd impact out of the game.

Defensively the Bombers owned the Lions offensive line and never really allowed the Lions running game to get on track. Statistically, the Lions and Bombers had similar numbers, but the three turnovers by the Bombers defence were the difference.

Yes the Bombers are for real in the West Division, and so is Drew Willy. His pocket presence was outstanding, and even when the pressure came he stood in there and delivered strikes to extend drives and get his team a position to put points on the board.

Unlike the Lions the Bombers were a disciplined club, and only took 5 penalties to the Lions 12.

Kevin Glenn

After two solid outings from Glenn, Saturday’s effort was not good enough. He added another two interceptions to his total for the year, and at least one of them was all on him.

Throwing deep into double coverage is just something you don’t expect from a veteran quarterback, and on that play he had other receivers wide open. His second interception looked brutal, but we’ll assign part of the blame to Emmanuel Arceneaux who appeared to make a route mistake.

Glenn was pressured much of the night as the growing pains with a young offensive line continue. After his second interception, Mike Benevides decided to see what John Beck could do and he had zero success in relief, only lasting two series. With Lowell Ullrich reporting that Glenn left the stadium with a pronounced limp, the Lions could be faced with starting John Beck in Calgary, or bringing Lulay off the six-game early.

Whatever scenario occurs, the Lions have a lot of work to do before heading into Calgary to take on a very solid Calgary defence.

Discipline

Every team in the league is dealing with the flag fest early in this CFL season, but the Lions simply have to eliminate penalties they can control. It seems like every kick return is drawing a flag and that is totally nullifying this exciting aspect of the CFL game. The way it’s going we may as well just adopt the fair-catch rule that NFL fans find so riveting.

There are too many dumb penalties; penalties after the play are simply not excusable ever and the Lions are taking at least two or three a game.

Defence

Once again the Lions defence held the Lions into the game only allowing one touchdown and holding the Bombers rushing attack with Nic Grigsby to just 19 yards. Solomon Elimimian led the way with 12 tackles.

But the Bombers were successful with the no huddle and found enough open receivers on medium routes to extend drives. Without any contributions from the offence the defence was on the field a lot, and combined with the no huddle strategy deployed by O’Shea it wouldn’t be out of line to suggest they got worn down.

Attitude

I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but by late in the third quarter the Lions were walking off the field, head down and defeated. I sit behind the player’s bench and there wasn’t a lot of emotion down there. Nobody seemed to be determined to turn the game around. When you get kicked around in your own house, that should make you angry, but it looked to me like the players threw in the towel.

Special Teams

The Lions were without Ricky Schmitt and the special teams were certainly affected by his absence. While Lirim Hajrullahu was hitting field goals from 51 yards out and driving kick-offs to the two yard line, McCallum’s shorter kicks didn’t give the cover teams the time to get downfield like Schmitt does. This was the reason Schmitt was brought in and the Lions will hope he’s not out of the lineup too long.

Tim Brown was one of the only Lions who played with fire in his belly after not dressing for the first four games, but when Schmitt returns he’ll likely find himself back on the sidelines.

Celebrating Geroy

The Lions did manage to do something right on Friday and that was the celebration of Simon. With messages from former and current teammates throughout the night the Lions also out on a classy half time show that included Geroy’s peewee football team. His mother and father were on hand for the coin toss, and Simon was visibly emotional following a video message from his son Gervon.

If anyone had any doubts about Simon means to the Lions, and vice-versa they were erased by this night. Simon addressed the team before the game and told the team “I may represent another colour, but I bleed orange.” Unfortunately, his talk did little to inspire the team, but you have to believe it’s only a matter of time before Simon is back with the Lions in some capacity.

Sadly just 25,000 fans came out to honour one of the best athletes to ever grace this city and that’s just another example of how summer games are a tough sell in a city where sun and outdoor activities take precedence over football. Simon deserved better.

From the Stands : Lions 41 Alouettes 5

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Emmanuel Arceneaux had a lot to smile about in a three touchdown 41-5 romp over Montreal. Photo: BCLions.com

The BC Lions must have had a vision when they printed their 2014 season tickets. The featured player on the ticket for Saturday’s game against the Montreal Alouettes was Emmanuel Arceneaux, and the The Manny Show was on full display in front of over 25,000 fans at BC Place as the Lions kept their dominance over Montreal at BC Place intact. Here’s how I saw the game From the Stands.

The Manny Show

Lions fans have been waiting for the type of performance that Emmanuel Arceneaux turned in Saturday. Finally healthy, Arceneaux had no match defensively on this day, using his size and leaping ability to torch the Als for 145 yards and three touchdowns.

There are few defensive players in the CFL that can match up to Arceneaux physically and he took full advantage of that against an Als defence that looked nothing like the one we saw on Montreal two weeks ago.

If Arceneaux can stay healthy the Lions could have a lethal weapon on their side, and it didn’t seem to matter if it was Kevin Glenn or John Beck throwing him the football, never mind Travis Lulay.

The Defence

Let’s be honest here; the Alouettes were brutal. Troy Smith looked lost out there, and as the Alouettes head into their bye week they have a major decision to make at quarterback. The Als were also without Duron Carter and SJ Green sat out the second half after making a go of it with sore ribs in the first. Chad Johnson? All he does is run routes and you have to wonder if the Alouettes are doing enough to try and get him involved.

But let’s give a whole lot of credit to the Lions defence, who have only allowed two touchdowns in the last three games. They had relentless pressure on Troy Smith most of the night, even without Khalif Mitchell, who was nursing a sore back.

Following the Lions 0-2 start it was hard to point too many fingers at the defence, and now that they are getting some offensive support, the Lions are starting to show signs that they will be a contender in the CFL west.

Khreem Smith is having a great year and combined with Eric Taylor provided one of the night’s best moments when he blocked an Alouettes kick that was picked up by Taylor who rumbled down the field only as fast as a big man like him can.

Newcomer Alex Bazzie had a strong game as well, and Brandon Jordan didn’t look out of place, despite a poor roughing the passer call that the coaches won’t be pleased with.

Thunder and Lightning, Part Two

With the original ‘Thunder and Lightning’, Sean Millington and Cory Philpot in the building to celebrate the Lions 1994 Grey Cup team, Andrew Harris and Stefan Logan showed more signs that the Lions running game is starting to get rolling. Behind an improving offensive line, the two combined for 146 yards along the ground, and the Lions had big success sweeping to the right side.

Having two backs that bring different styles is a huge tool for the Lions to have at their disposal, and it appears Khari Jones is finding ways to make both of them effective, while at the same time keeping both of them fresh.

Solid Start for Hunter

Hunter Steward made his first start at left tackle for the Lions and did not look out of place, which is great news for fans who would love to see the turnstile at that spot stop spinning. Steward is young and is going to make some mistakes but the Lions may have something here as they attempt to replace national Ben Archibald. With the game well in hand the Lions pulled several starters and newcomer Jermarcus Hardrick saw some reps at the right tackle spot of Jovan Olafiyoe and also showed well.

Overall it looks as though progress is being made both in run blocking and pass protection and that’s a great sign.

The Flow

I really love this game, but this week’s games were really tough to watch with all the orange linen being thrown around by officials.

I get the fact that early in the season the officials want to make a statement to set the tone for the rest of year. The league says that over 90% of the penalties thrown this year have been legitimate, so where does the fault lie? In the Montreal-BC game, it seemed as though you couldn’t go more than two plays without a flag and that doesn’t make for quick games and sucks the flow out of the game.

Yes players have to be smarter and clean up their part, but the league really has to realize that football is a physical and emotional game. Perhaps they could start by eliminating some of these flags thrown simply for guys reacting to the adrenalin flowing through them and keep the flags for the penalties that effect the play. And yes, I am referring to call made on Harris, who spun the ball down following a run where he lowered his shoulder on an Als defender near the sideline. By the book, it was likely a penalty, and Harris knew it as soon as he saw the flag, but was it really that bad?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. Post a comment here, hit me up on Twitter, @BCLionsDen and checkout this week’s Pawdcast on BCLionsDen.ca for more reaction on this game and a look ahead to the Lions and Bombers this Friday.

From the Stands: Lions 20 Eskimos 27

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What a difference a week makes. While fans left last week’s preseason game feeling optimistic about their 2014 Leos, Saturday afternoon’s home opener showed that this team is a work in progress, and there is plenty of work to be done. Here’s how I saw things, from the stands.

Turnovers

Obviously the story of this game was turnovers, and they weren’t the type you could just consider as unlucky. Kevin Glenn had a strong training camp and preseason and had provided comfort to the masses who were worried about life without Travis Lulay. Four interceptions may have taken some of that comfort and turned it into doubt for some.

After a decent first half, Glenn and his offence were ineffective in the second. Glenn owned the loss after the game, but as anyone who understands football know, it’s never the fault of one player. Collectively the offence didn’t provide enough support.

If the interceptions were just bad luck, that would be one thing, but at least three of the four were just poor decisions by the veteran. It wasn’t a great way to start the season for Glenn but I expect he’ll bounce back in week two with a strong performance.

The trenches

The Lions’ offensive line wasn’t giving much support against a solid Edmonton defensive line, and that wasn’t helped when Andre Ramsay went down leaving Dean Valli to play the left tackle spot. With most of the guys the Lions brought in to plug that spot gone either through their own decision or the club’s, the o-line will continue to be a growing concern and a work in progress early in 2014.

On the defensive line, things were more positive. Khreem Smith had a very strong game, and the Lions were getting in the Edmonton backfield frequently. Eric Taylor and Khalif Mitchell looked good in the middle. The problem was that Mike Reilly and the Eskimos figured out they could pick up seven or eight yards with quick screen and swing passes, and they had success with that, making that pressure irrelevant and extending drives in the process.

The running game

Stefan Logan and Andrew Harris could not get on track along the ground, with just 48 yards rushing between them. The Eskimos had a solid game plan for Logan, and with the offensive line struggling at times, it didn’t leave much of a chance for the Lions’ one-two punch.

If teams are going to game-plan for Logan, the Lions need to find a way to have Harris pick up the load. Fans will hope the Lions can find a way to make both of these players more effective on the ground.

Blown coverages

On the whole the Lions defence had a decent day, but on two TD’s Edmonton receivers were wide open. Adarius Bowman got behind Cord Parks for seven, while Fred Stamps; yes Fred Stamps, was left unmarked for another, leaving this fan to wonder how that’s even possible.

In the stands

The Lions drew more fans for a preseason game than they did for their home opener. Perhaps a lot of freebies were in the house for the exhibition game, but on a day when the weather was hit or miss, the turnout for game one was somewhat disappointing. It is a long weekend of sorts, and we should be used to these smaller summer crowds by now, but I thought there would more in attendance.

The Lions themselves are doing their best to engineer more fan participation during the game. Their marketing strategy in 2014 encourages fans to “Bring the noise”. Their hashtag on Twitter is #ROAR, but once again it seems Vancouver fans are content to just cheer when something excites them, rather than do it to help the team on the field.

Each year this is the case, and each year the crowds get better as the season churns on, but it’s something I will never understand. It starts with the core fans. The season ticket holders and fans that attend all the games. They need to show the way for the casual fan and until that happens, nothing much is going to change.

Perhaps it is time the Lions draped off the upper bowl, at least in the areas where they don’t sell seats. Perception is everything for some, and empty seats don’t inspire the casual fan to think they are at a big time event.

Lastly if you were one of the fans that left in droves with 9:00 plus to play in the fourth quarter, unless you had a valid excuse; shame on you.

What were your thoughts on game one? Seventeen more to go, and lots of work remains to be done for the Lions. With both Winnipeg and Edmonton proving the West Division is going to very tough this year, the Lions best figure out some solutions quicker than later.

From The Stands – Lions 37 Stampeders 13 (Preseason)

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Preseason or not, Friday’s game versus the Calgary Stampeders was going to be a measuring stick for the BC Lions and their fans to see what they had heading into the 2014 season. If what fans were treated to on a beautiful summer night is going to be the norm this year it could be a special season of BC Lions Football.

It was great to back in the lot at Tailgate Empire, where the attendance was just as impressive as the 26,445 who took in the Stamps and Lions. It was like a big reunion after a long season and the regulars cooked up a storm while discussing what was in store for the club in 2014. The tailgate culture has certainly taken hold here in Vancouver, and many fans have joined our initial group.

As for the game, it felt so good to be back watching football in BC Place, with the roof open on a perfect night and the football did not disappoint if you were a BC Lions fan. For the Lions it gave them some very tough decisions to make on Saturday, a result of some stellar off-season scouting by Neil McEvoy and his scouting staff.

With new coordinators on offence and defence, one thing became clear very quickly. The 2014 BC Lions are going to attack you with speed. Speed at receiver, speed at running back, speed on defence, speed on special teams.

Using a limited playbook, the Lions played simple well executed football on offence and it was effective. Those who were leery about the Kevin Glenn trade had to leave convinced it was a brilliant move by Wally Buono to acquire the 35 year old QB. Glenn played with poise and confidence while his former teammates Drew Tate and Bo Levi Mitchell sputtered badly for the Stamps, leaving John Hufnagel no closer to a decision on who is number one will be on opening day.

Stefan Logan served notice that he will be a force this year. Both on a 93-yard punt return and out of the backfield. The dual threat of Logan and Harris should ensure that the Lions running game will in no way resemble the one that stumbled along at times last year.

At receiver the Lions look to have some options. Kory Williams had a strong game as did Courtney Taylor and Ernest Jackson, with Manny Arceneaux soon to return. Stephen Adekolu is going to give the coaching staff plenty to consider as the Lions appear to have some solid depth at non-import, check that; national receiver. It’s going to very interesting to see how the roster shakes down, and whether or not a roster player from last year doesn’t survive the final cut.

The offensive line was not really noticeable, and anytime that happens it’s a good thing.

On defence, Khalif Mitchell demonstrated the problem he provides for opposing offensive lines and the defensive line has the potential to be scary good, especially considering the linebackers they have behind them.

The Lions pursuit to the ball was constant all night long from whistle to whistle. In the secondary, coverage was outstanding for the most part. After getting burned for a touchdown early, TJ Lee was very noticeable in a positive way with two picks, three tackles and two knockdowns.

As for fan experience, it was nice to have Matt Baker of the TEAM 1040 doing in game commentary. Matt is a smart sports guy and he’s a fan of the CFL. He should be a nice addition to the in game production and provide some nice insights as the game unfolds.

It was nice to see a social media component on the big screen, with a display of fan tweets and photos during the game. Fans want to feel engaged and there is no better way to do that as well as grow your brand, than effective use of social media.

Still, I would love to see a campaign that fans want to gravitate to. The 12th man in Seattle, more supporters groups, formation of a “Lions Nation” if you will. It needs to be something original, yet make fans want to be a part of something special. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl rings (In my opinion recent Grey Cup Rings are nicer), but they included the “12” logo as a tribute to the fans. The Lions have done a fantastic job with their off-season marketing but coming up with something to unite the fan community in this ways would be icing on the cake and would take the brand to new heights.

All in all it was a great night of football, which likely created a long night for those who decide the roster, but this fan left feeling pretty optimistic about what the Lions could be in 2014.

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