Preseason Archives | BC Lions Football

The BC Lions opened their preseason in Regina on Saturday night in a game that saw a delay of over an hour thanks to an outage that knocked out power to most of the city. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but the Lions showed some promising signs in a typical preseason game that saw penalties and mistakes dominate the play. The Lions came away with a 28-16 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders and we take a look at a few things that stood out for us.

Jennings Picks Up Where He Left Off

RIDERS — Keith Price tries to evade pressure.

In limited action, Jonathon Jennings picked up where he left off last season showing the ability to escape pressure and deliver laser beams to his receivers. Jennings connected with Manny Arceneaux for 46 yards before firing a dart to Shawn Gore for a touchdown. Jennings has outstanding timing on seam routes and delivers the ball where it needs to be quickly.

Travis Lulay started slowly, mainly due to some drops by receivers in bad field position. But Lulay settled in and had some good success as well. His best effort coming on a called back touchdown pass to Bryan Burnham. Even though the score didn’t count, the ball was thrown brilliantly and displayed that Lulay is feeling just fine and able to make throws he may have missed in the last couple of years.

Keith Price started the game for the Lions, and didn’t do much to separate himself from Greg McGhee who got mop up time in the fourth quarter and will likely get a chance to state his case in the home preseason game.

Leone On the Mark

Richie Leone showed the work he’s done in the off-season has paid off. His punting continues to be excellent, but Lions fans were anxious to see his place kicking. Leone showed well going 4-4 on field goals with a long of 48 yards. He also punted a 65-yard single while averaging 42.7 yards per punt.

The Running Game

Jeremiah Johnson got the bulk of the work in this one, compiling 45 yards on 7 carries. His longest play from scrimmage was 21 yards. Johnson also dropped a check down pass from Lulay that stalled a drive. He also fumbled (recovered it) but did punch the ball in on a 2-point convert attempt. In my opinion left the door open for Anthony Allen to make his case next week versus the Stampeders.

Newcomer JC Coleman only saw action late in the fourth quarter but showed explosiveness and speed with his 7 carries for 32 yards. Regardless of what the Lions do with Allen and Johnson, I hope they can find a way to keep Coleman.

Shaq Murray-Lawrence could be in tough. He only had 1 carry for -3 yards and doesn’t seem to have the same shiftiness that Coleman possesses.

The Secondary

This could be the best unit on this year’s team when all is said and done. The Lions have stockpiled some options here and the likes of Ronnie Yell (pick 6) and TJ Lee (INT) looked to be in mid-season form.

Newcomer Anthony Thompson also had a nice game with a special team’s tackle and an interception. Mike Edem had four tackles for the Lions, while Keynan Parker will wish he had done better on a late Rider touchdown where he ended up behind the receiver and the ball and allowed the score.

The Offensive Line

Once the starters came in I thought the protection was pretty good for the QB’s. They were forced to scramble at times but there were no glaring protection errors. Jovan Olafiyoe still looks like an all-star at left tackle and the young guys all had decent games. There is definite room for improvement, especially with run blocking, but there were several occasions where the line gave enough time to the QB to at least find a check down option late in the play, when nothing was open downfield.

Special Teams

Chris Rainey still looks dangerous as a returner and despite not breaking a big one, there were a couple returns where you thought he might. Coverage on punts and kickoffs was solid, with Davarus Shores picking two special teams tackles, one of the spectacular shoestring variety.

The Uniforms

Ok, everyone can take a deep breath and relax. The general consensus on social media was that people either loved or hated the Lions new look, there really was no in between. Most of the comments were about the orange helmets and the white logo, something I had concerns about when the uniforms were released back in May.

If you haven’t already read, the Lions were wearing road helmets with their home uniforms. The club stated they wanted to save the blacks for a home crowd debut, so keep that in mind when commenting in the combination they wore in Regina.

That said the helmets appear to be a different shade of orange than the home jersey, so let’s hope when they are paired with the road jersey, that isn’t the case. Still, it’s confusing to me why a team would have two different shades of orange as a primary colour, if that is indeed the case. Sometimes things look different on television than they do live.

That said, I think some fans who didn’t like the look on Saturday will be relieved when they see the proper black helmet on those home jerseys because I have seen them in person and they are outstanding.

Random Stuff

It was great to see Wally Buono back on the sidelines again and he looked very comfortable during the game. Even joking around with the players a bit at times. Something seems different about Buono this time around, and I think this team is going to love playing for him. This could turn out to be Buono’s biggest accomplishment of his career if he can turn this thing around.
Buono spoke of wanting to win both pre-season games to establish that culture again in the Lions room. A big part of winning is attitude, and believing you’re going to win every time you step on the field. That was a staple of Buono teams in the past, and they took a step towards that in Regina.
Buono won’t be pleased with 17 penalties on the night to the tune of 126 yards. Hopefully they got those out of their system and will be much cleaner next week against the Stampeders.
Kudos to Sask Power for getting the power restored relatively quickly last night. That situation had the potential to ruin the chances for some players who might have only gotten this chance to show what they could do. I hope they find the confetti cannon bandits that were responsible and hand them the bill for the repairs.
This week on the Pawdcast we’ll be joined by former BC Lions QB and TSN 1040 colour man Giulio Caravatta to get his thoughts on the game and where he thinks the toughest cuts will be when the dust settles on the preseason.

Our first From the Stands piece of 2013 comes after a game we could actually see, having only listened to the game last week in Calgary. We are happy to back, teaming up with Lowell Ullrich and his Fifth Quarter blog. As always we hope you take it as the view from a fan, whether in the stands or on the couch. We encourage your comments on how you saw the game unfold.

Offence

The offence showed some promise but also showed a lot of inconsistency and inefficiency. Travis Lulay looked sharp on the team’s opening drive, but had some questionable decisions haunt him throwing into double coverage for one interception (a bobbled catch by Manny Arceneaux) and underthrowing Arceneaux on another. The running game was lacking and the Lions only handed the ball off 9 times from scrimmage. It’s clear the Lions are looking to be a pass first team, but they are going to need to establish the running game more if that’s going to be successful.

Nick Moore showed the promise we saw in training camp, with a nice catch for a long gain and a touchdown in the second half. He did drop a pass over the middle that brought back memories of past miscues, where he looked to run before the catch. Elvis Akpla showed why the Lions are high on his talents but it wasn’t enough for him to survive the final cuts, or be offered a practice roster spot according to early reports.

Thomas DeMarco acquitted himself well in just a little under a half of work. He had good chemistry with Akpla, but like Lulay under threw open receivers at times. His time management skills may also have been lacking on the final drive.

Mike Reilly looked solid for the Eskimos, despite a bad interception and showed why the Eskimos were quick to move on him this off-season. That said he still has limited starts as a QB, but all signs are pointing towards him progressing quite nicely.

For the most part the offensive line, both starters and backups did a good job of protecting both QB’s, although they were hurried on several occasions by a strong Eskimos defensive line.

Defence

The Lions defence was without Adam Bighill and Anton McKenzie and despite some pretty solid play was caught on a couple of big plays. New faces in the secondary will have some things to work out when the season approaches. A long touchdown to Cary Koch never should have happened, as both JR LaRose and Josh Bell were on the receiver, but neither turned around to see the ball which ended up in Koch’s hands. Edmonton moved the ball pretty well, and the only sack of for the Lions came from Jason Arakgi.

Discipline will also need to be preached, as two roughing the passer calls on Solomon Elimimian (one iffy) hurt the Lions. The good news was the Solomon was flying around like he was in 2011, and that can only be a good thing when all three linebackers hit the field next week in Calgary, but he has to play smarter.

Special Teams

It’s interesting to note that Paul McCallum hasn’t taken a kick in the preseason. Hugh O’Neill punted for a 45 yard average on 7 punts and never got to attempt a field goal in the game. He squeaked through a convert attempt after a botched hold.

O’Neill has done enough for the Lions to opt at carrying two kickers this season, something that hasn’t happened in BC for a very long time.

The return game was average on the night. I was hoping to see a bit more of the flash that Korey Williams provides, but neither he nor Tim Brown stood out on the night.

Atmosphere

Once again we kicked off the season with a good old-fashioned tailgate party at our ‘Tailgate Empire’ lot. It was a great turnout for a preseason game and we had a few new groups sprouting up around the lot. Tailgating and football go hand in hand and it was great to be back in the lot with our CFL friends.

The crowd of over 26,000 was also a good start for a preseason game. With the roof open and the natural light beaming into the stadium it felt so good to be back in BC Place for football.

The Lions are engaging Twitter more throughout the game with fans being asked to tweet songs they’d like to hear throughout the night. Look for more social media initiatives from the club as the season progresses, including tweet ups, prizes and a new version of the club’s mobile app to be released soon.

I was shown some pictures of the Gridiron Deck being offered to fans and I have to say it looks like a cool concept. A virtual patio of stonework, water features and other items have been assembled in the concourse on level four which will provide fans with a great social atmosphere, all for $30.00, including taxes.

I didn’t see any of the enhanced stats I was hoping for on the ribbon dividing the upper and lower decks. Hopefully we will see this for the home opener on July 4th.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. Mother nature willing, I’ll be in Calgary next week for the season opener. Give me a follow on Twitter @BCLionsDen and checkout our website BCLionsDen.ca for our latest opinions, podcasts and Lions social media news.

Lights Out Performance? Not Quite, But a Good Start For the BC Lions