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You are here: Home / Archives for From The Couch

From The Couch – Lions 20, Bombers 17

August 25, 2012 By Brian Wawryshyn

Andrew Harris celebrates one of his two touchdowns against Winnipeg. (Photo: Fred Greenslade - Reuters)

With Joey Elliott referring to himself as a gunslinger a week earlier, Travis Lulay and the BC Lions rode into town from the wild west for a showdown. But it was the defence of both teams that did most of the shooting in a 20-17 BC Lions win on a last second Paul McCallum field goal. Here’s how I saw it, from the couch.

Offence

Something is wrong with the Lions offence, and they’ll need to figure it out this week before heading to Montreal. To me it seems like the offensive line is a little off at the moment. Lowell Ullrich mentioned in his video blog that Angus Reid is possibly banged up (ankle) which could partially explain the lack of production from the running game lately.

Lulay was pressured often and made some bad decisions; his two interceptions in the fourth were prime examples. Hand-offs to Andrew Harris appeared telegraphed and awkward at times.

On Twitter @CFLDaily so accurately tweeted, “The best players don’t always have the best games, but when their team needs them, they come through. See what Lulay does.”

Lulay came through with a big play downfield to Shawn Gore, with the pocket collapsing around him. It was a clutch play for sure and earlier I suggested it may be time for Lulay to take a seat. While some saw that as a lack of faith, I simply saw it as one of those games and a chance to see if Reilly could spark something. I’m glad I was wrong.

Clutch as well was Geroy Simon, who among two Bombers defenders made a key catch on the final drive.

The Lions also need to find a way to get Harris going again on the ground. Again, it could be a product of the trench battles, but it seems like the running game is getting stuffed a lot. He came through when it counted however, as he usually does.

Finally, the Lions had a tough time dealing with the noise in the stadium. There were procedure calls, and clock management issues that are indications that the team needs to work on this aspect of their offence a little more to clean things up.

Defence

The Lions defence certainly came to play again and were awesome in the first half. They struggled a bit with some sloppy tackling in to start the second and took some penalties that hurt, though a couple were just plain bad calls. I thought the Bombers offensive line did a pretty good job containing the Lions pass rush and giving Elliott time to throw, especially in the second half.

Elliott was able to find pockets in between coverage in the secondary, particularly with Chris Matthews to keep drives going. On the drive that Winnipeg tied the game at 17, I thought the defence played a little too soft before forcing the field goal.

Jabar Westerman continues to show why the Lions wanted him so badly in the draft and had another strong performance filling in for the suspended Khalif Mitchell, who returns next week.

The no touchdown streak came to an end, but it was going to sometime. Still it was a very impressive outing overall by the defence.

Special teams

It sounds like a broken record but field position was a factor in the game, especially in the second half. The Lions allowed a decent return to start the second half and it took them almost the whole half to get out of their end of the field. The return game wasn’t strong and once again blocking was poor, giving Tim Brown and Marco Iannuzzi and company little hope of getting a big return.

Officiating

There were bad calls that went both ways tonight. I did think the roughing the passer call on Stewart of the Bombers was legit. Lulay had slowed to a slow trot and was clearly headed out of bounds. Stewart just had to ride him out, not take him down and that will get called every time.

Other calls were questionable including two roughing the passer penalties for a shove on Joey Elliott by Dante Marsh and Jabar Westerman respectively. Corey Watson was flagged for objectionable conduct for spinning the ball after a catch, a move not unlike what Geroy Simon does routinely. Overall the officiating was pretty strict tonight.

Joey Elliott

The “Gunslinger” had a tough first half and was probably fortunate to not have a few more passes picked after throwing a few into the hands of Lions defenders who couldn’t haul them in. But Elliott never got rattled and had a decent second half. Perhaps the Bombers do have a new Sheriff in town.

I can hear some saying now, “We won and all you’re doing is complaining”. Sure the win is all that counts, but there is a lot of work to be done. Credit has to go the Bombers as well who played hard and made the Lions earn the win. The Lions will be facing a good Montreal team next week and will have to be on top of their game to extend their streak to five in a row.

Next game I’ll be at McGill to take in the game live. I’m not sure if I’ll have a chance to get a blog in, so if not, I’ll see you in two weeks when the Lions return home to take on the Alouettes in the second leg of a back to back.

Go Lions!

Filed Under: 2012 Game Recaps, Featured, Game Recaps Tagged With: BC Lions, CFL, From The Couch, Game Recaps, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

From The Couch – Lions 20 Riders 23

July 15, 2012 By Brian Wawryshyn

Geroy Simon catches a pass in a 23-20 loss to the Riders (Photo: CP)

Ok this wasn’t exactly from the couch it was actually from the bar, fringe benefits of being a fan rather than an unbiased journalist. Some great CFL fans were in town from Montreal, and it was great to watch the game with them and a few others. It reminds you why you love this game and the fans that follow it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve had to blog about a loss, so here it goes.

Mistakes

Mistakes were the order of the day and the Lions were their own executioners on this day. Lulay, throwing into double coverage for a key interception, the veteran McCallum missing two field goals, and of course special teams allowing big returns again. Both defences battled hard and without those Lions mistakes the score is different. The Riders offence didn’t produce a lot, but as a team they made fewer mistakes and capitalized on the ones the Lions made.

Maintaining Focus

Losing this game wasn’t the worst thing in the world. The Lions last had won 14 of their last 15 heading into Regina, so a little wakeup call might do them some good. The talk of 18-0 can be thrown out the window and we can talk about 17-1. (I kid). Seriously though, sometimes a loss can refocus the troops and I expect the Lions to be hungry next week against Edmonton.

Offensive consistency

In addition to the special teams issues the Lions offence has yet to reach peak efficiency this season. One drive they look fantastic, the next few they look ordinary or sub-par. Injuries to the offensive line have likely impacted the running game to some degree, and if you listened to the pregame show you would have heard that in addition to Jesse Newman having a setback with his knee, Dean Valli may have had similar bad luck this past week.

Kierrie Johnson’s injury no doubt hurts, and you have to feel sorry for him after it looked like he may be on his way to a breakout year. The Lions do have some options to plug in with Ernest Jackson and Nick Moore each having good training camps and on the practice roster. There wasn’t much success for either Geroy Simon or Arland Bruce on the day and the Lions must find away to get those two more involved. The Lions appear to have dodged a bullet with the early reports that Simon dislocated a finger rather than breaking one.

With a good Edmonton defence in town next week, better consistency will be needed in all areas on offence.

No hoody, no win?

Just throwing this out there; Coach Benevides wasn’t wearing his trademark grey hoody…discuss.

Any coincidence?

Is it any coincidence that Paul McCallum has missed a few field goals and shanked a few punts this year with a new long snapper and a new field goal holder?

“The Clip”

The big play of the game was of course the missed McCallum field goal that lead to the Tristan Jackson return for a touchdown. By definition of the rule the block that sprung Jackson certainly could have been called a clip, but it was close. Even so, there were still 110 yards between Jackson and the end zone. Paul McCallum summed it up best on Twitter when he retweeted and commented on this submission:

“@Glenbuchat2: @BCLions @PaulMcCallum4 it was a blatant clip that sprung Jackson free. Should never have been a TD” If so it is what it is.

Tweets of the game

@ LadyApriil: Saskatchewan rough riders have the ugliest and scariest mascot ever… I’m pretty sure Lions eat gophers! #BCLions #Win3BC

Take that Rider fans!

@CanuckClay: Holy smokes! Was that Kierrie Johnson or Ben Johnson? What a great catch and run! @bclions #win3BC

Great question, too bad we’ll have to wait another 6-8 weeks to see more.

@geroysimon: Finger is good to go! I have 9 others that work fine. Making adjustments to win next week.

Well there you go; the silver lining in every cloud makes an appearance. I feel better already.


Filed Under: 2012 Game Recaps, Featured, From The Couch, Game Recaps, Social Media Tagged With: BC Lions, CFL, From The Couch, Geroy Simon, Kierrie Johnson, Saskatchewan Roughriders, Twitter

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