ah come on...
I know that was a holding but watt had already gotten by all the defenders.
What a pain.
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ah come on...
I know that was a holding but watt had already gotten by all the defenders.
What a pain.
the refs are doing their best to just give this game to BC
There were some close calls tonight. I thought that Rambo was held on the second to last offensive play and therefore should have been an illegal contact penalty but no luck with that unfortunately. I would love to see us get another shot at these guys on Nov. 25th as we are capable of beating them.
Penalties, penalties, penalties ...
The main call I was concerned with was that 2nd down interference against Ball. At least from the replay, it looked like his hand didn't do much the limit the receiver. I guess all you need to do is tap a guy on the shoulder.
Loss aside, I'm still not terribly disappointed with the team's play. A good push by the offence towards the end made it worth watching to the very end.
It was a great game. The best part for me was how the protection picked up in the 2nd half. For all those that call Ray captain check down, my point was proven in the 2nd half. Give him time, and he will go down field with great success.
Rough night for Mo Mann. Should have caught that corner route, slipped on a dig route, and got called for a total B.S. holding negating a Watt TD. It may have been a slight hold, but I see receivers doing that down field on almost every play, and it never gets called.
It was a great game.
All you want as an offense is the ball and a chance to win with two minutes to go, which we had.
The team came to life in the second half and we did take a substantial notch up towards the Grey Cup.
Now having said that, improvement is necessary with the DB's as those flagrant holding and clutching moves on coverage cost us penalties and probably the game.
I commend the effort to make a comeback, and realize that we were playing the best team in the league in their house, but moral victories mean jack-all to me right now. My frustration is simply that this team has been at or around .500 the entire season, but cannot take the step into the next tier and both times it has been BC who has prevented the Argos from taking that step.
The defensive secondary probably had their worst game of the year. While the defense played much better in the second half it was the second quarter that did the Argos in pretty much. Too many long gainers and again it seemed that whenever the Argos are getting pressure on the QB that it is just a split-second too late and the QB gets the ball off.
Mann's holding call really, really hurt. It basically forced the Argos to be going for the TD on that final drive rather than a FG. I didn't understand some of the play calling on that final drive either when Ricky went endzone twice in a row when he still had a bit of time on the clock.
I'd hope for more than that most of the time, but under the circumstances it was good to see...
Please don't double-down on your earlier "assertions" without a better argument. Which DBs "probably cost us the game"?Quote:
Now having said that, improvement is necessary with the DB's as those flagrant holding and clutching moves on coverage cost us penalties and probably the game.
Milanovich was hard on himself for not calling enough run plays on Labour Day and I suspect the he will realize that he didn't call enough run plays tonight either. A draw on first down at the B.C. 20 near the end of the game might have worked perfectly. Riggs only had five carries on the night but averaged almost eight yards per carry.
Far too many times the D allowed B.C. to convert on 2nd & long. It seemed like a given. Mo Mann had a night to forget. That penalty on Watt's TD (cut the kid he is invisible) was stupid as he did not have to impede Parkers progress.
Heartbreaking ending to a game that became interesting late. Give the team credit though, with Ray at the helm, you get the feel there is always a chance.
Mo Mann is in my dog house. What I have really noticed this year is that between the NFL and CFL not much difference except that the NFL recievers make the tough catches. If the ball gets to them the catch it. CFL recievers have a harder time finishing the pass off for the QB.
Mann had a rough game, but Rambo is more in my doghouse than he is. On 2 different occasions, including the last play, he did not know what he was supposed to do. It cost them a time count the first time, and on the last play, coming out of a timeout, there is no excuse for it. Physical errors can be overcome, but not knowing your assignment is unforgivable.
It was not a tough catch, it was a really tough catch. Come on, you didn't think I ment every pass to a reciever. I just would like to see a few more of the balls that get into recievers hands caught. I know each game Ray gets the ball in the recievers hands and and the pass is complete. Some throws are a tough catch yes, but the ball is not caught. I think that some of those tough catches should be a completion by a pro reciever. I am talking about all teams. Look at Fantuze, he should be catching some of the balls thrown his way that are "tough" completions
I don't agree with that, in the NFL they have 4 downs so they have more chances to catch the ball. We remember the catches and not the ones that slipped away. How many times do they actually use all their set of downs? ALOT.
I've seen many professionals argue that the difference between those who make it and those who don't make it to the NFL/CFL is slim. The main difference from the NFL and CFL is that in the NFL they have so many options that they pick the ones that are more physical. It's hard to find first round pick WR who is not atleast 6'2". Which is why someone like Chad Owens doesn't get his time in the NFL but manages to be a star in the CFL.
For me the clear difference between us and BC was the time the QB had in his pocket. We almost couldn't collapse their pocket at all and they killed our pocket 80% of the time. The reason why we were able to climb back into the game was because in the 2nd half our OL did a much better job. Every time the OL pushed the LBs back and Ray did a two step forward you just knew it would end up with big yards and did most of the time.
I still think though that if they gave us that disallowed TD we would still lose it just because we would probably make a field goal and Lulay would still have about 2 minutes left to make his own field goal for the win.
Overall i was happy with the come back.
My observations after attending the game:
With the roof open, B.C. Place is a beautiful facility, far nicer than the soulless concrete cavern used to be. The retrofit really worked well. The upper deck does not seen nearly as high as the 500 level in Skydome (altho I was in the lower bowl). It is a way nicer stadium than Rogers Centre, IMO.
The game ended up with an exciting finish but I honestly felt that if the Argos had come back to win on the final possession (which could have happened, the way they were playing at the end), the better team would not have won. B.C. looks to be far better than the rest of the league. Their receivers get open constantly, Lulay is a tremendously accurate passer and a very serious running threat, and both of their lines are dominant. I would love to meet them on Nov. 25 (and I think that is very distinct possibility as we are for sure a strong contender to come out of the east), but if we do play the Lions in the Grey Cup and there are no serious injuries between now and then, we should be heavy underdogs.
Props to Watt for proving he can both catch and run. The Mann penalty was a killer altho I haven't seen a replay to know how legit it was. Mann and Owens dropped catchable passes and I believe Riggs had one of those as well. Our o-line still needs a lot of work -- I hope Reinders is ready to play soon although the fact he hasn't even dressed yet leads me to believe he will not see much action this year.
Maybe this season it seems like CFL players are having a hard time making catches but historically I must disagree with this. CFL players make hard catches all the time. I have never seen an NFL receiver make a catch look anything like Cahoon's (he has made a lot of tough catches) or like Green's winning TD over SSK in OT 2-3 years ago. Even Owens had 3 great "tough" catches this season. Maybe because Cahoon and Owens are shorter and it forces them to make a tough catch when an NFL guy like T.O, Moss etc. are all 6 foot something and its an easy catch for them. Cahoon imo has the greatest hands of all-time in pro football.
I'm glad that they made it interesting late. B.C. does seem far better right now but I don't see much room for improvement for them. They are firing nearly on all cylinders. The Argos have plenty of areas in which they need to improve and still hung around to the end which means if the improvements can happen this season and barring an upset in the West the Argos could just take the Grey Cup game (albeit still as underdogs).
I agree with you. B.C. is a sound football team but is beatable. They also have the oldest team in the league so there is a sense of urgency for them to win this year but that also could mean that the team runs out of gas later in the season. You just never know. Back in '07 with Jarious Jackson as their starting QB for much of the season, the Lions went 14-3-1 but got knocked off by Saskatchewan in the West Final. If Calgary doesn't get knocked off in the West Semi-Final, I think that they could beat the Lions and thought that they could have last year too. If the Lions do make it to the Grey Cup, they can be beaten though they will almost certainly be the favourites.
Finally got home from the game -- whew - long trip.
I was impressed with Argos progress in many areas. That being said, I was disppointed with the Argos emotional ebb and flow during the game, sometimes from play to play. I know it's tough playing in noisy B C PLace and tough to be compared to the veteran stability of the Lions, but I had hoped for better.
Emptional letdowns during a game lead to a lack of concentration and intensity -- and the results were obvious seversl times during the game. Missed assignments, blown plays and bad penalties.
The Argos have no real emotional leadership, and so must rely more on consistency and concentration. They are on the road for a while, so I hope they do better at this next week in Montreal.
No excuses --- just play !
I meant to post earlier on this -- the crowd was indeed quite loud at times, and the Lions do a much better job of "instructing" fans on when to make noise and when to be quiet. They seem to have a lot fewer commercials on the video board (which hangs over centre field and has a dazzling hi-def display) and they had only a few on-field contests and no on-field host equivalent to Strizzy. All in all it was a very enjoyable game experience, with comfortable seats sloped properly for football, the roof open and a blue sky above.
Got home Sunday night at 8pm after three fun nights in Vancouver. I'm surprised no one else who was at the game mentioned this. Perhaps I'm old school and just want true crowd noise not all that pumped in screeming loud music every time Ricky is huddling up. Then as they break every huddle the announcer yells something like, "MAKE SOME NOISE", WALLY LOVES THE NOISE", THEY DON"T LOIKE THE NOISE"..blah...blah..blah. When did CFL football become the friggin circus? I have no idea how this is allowed. I love hearing the crowd chatter, stupid, silly, funny comments as you do at most stadiums. My last game at BC Place was about two or three years back and it wasn't like this. No doubt this gives added advantage to BC. Just let their 28,000 make the noise not the cranked music. It just wasn't natural at all. Good news is that if I was being yelled at by Lions fans I couldn't hear it. I haven't had an $8 drink at a game in years so now it amazes me on how much piss beer people toss back at those prices. We had our original seats in the endzone but got moved because we were surrounded by a section of spanish talking folks which was fine. However each man and woman had a different perfume or cologne on. Oh man it was horrible. So how is BC getting these folks to games and we're not? Good on them!!! All were having a blast. So we ended up in the section of seats where Argo players friends and family were. That was fun and Lori who flew out for the game was enjoying the $8 drinks in a big way.haha. Great to see her again and Mr Lurker. You know who you are.Show yourself on here.haha. By the way we went to the can and you guys disappeared to the bowels of the stadium. haha.
After the game I met Pinball's neighbour who chatted with us because he say my jersey. Great guy who's just started a business with Mike. Then upon walking back up Robson we heard thanks for coming out guys from behind. It was Waters and Chris Van Zyel walking back to the hotel or to find a case of beer as Chris was trying to do. Great talking to them and the team was down and all felt this was their game. We talked with a few guys including Owens, Ball and Huntley at the Sutton Place as they filtered back. My wife said see you in Nov to Owens and he paused and said, "Yah You'll See Us in Nov". It was great. I told them that BC swept us in 04 but we got them in the cup. The guys just believe and want it, you can tell. As I started talking about being a very long time fan Huntley stopped and I mentioned how proud I was thay they fougt to the bitter end. They are always up against it at BC Place and now with the foolish music cranking it's even harder. I bet guys had trouble hearing Ricky in the huddle. They could have gotten killed but played BC really tough twice now. We can beat this team. I told the players what I thought about some of those iffy calls. Someone mentioned after that calls that should have been made against the Lions were never replayed on the screen. It's such a homers field. I didn't enjoy the fan experience.
It was great to spend Part of Thursday and Friday night at the Sutton Place Lounge with Hogie, Annunziatta (Hope I spelled that right) Lori Bursey and a few others. Met Rudge and the mother and daughter combo from The Real Housewives Of Vancouver which was very funny. I was joking with my wife about to old ladies all dressed up and sitting at the bar. I was saying look at the two broken down old housewives of Vancouver. Then about 20-30 minutes after in walk the mother and daughter from the show. I got up and my wife took a picture of me with them. Talk about full of themselves but they were very sweet about it. I've caught five or so minutes here and there of the show but there ladies stand out like a cirque performer with the way they dress. All in all great times and I miss going to the games and all that comes along with it. Much easier pill to swallow when your at the game and not on the couch.
I have a good feeling about this team.
It didn't seem like pumped-in noise to me. Sure the fans followed instructions, but good on them for doing so. Every team does versions of "Make some noise!" but the Lions do it a lot better than the Argos do it. And they especially do a good job of reminding/advising fans to be quiet when their own team has the ball.
I took my youngest son to the game (he's 11). After watching his second live game, he is starting to like CFL football. With regards to the game:
(1) the most striking impression, more easily seen than in a tv game, is that the offensive line simply is not up to scratch as BC was on top of Ray on most plays even when they were not blitzing;
(2) the dbs were inconsistent in their coverage doing a good job on some plays but missing or holding receivers on others - certainly not their best game;
(3) our receivers did beat BC's dbs a fair number of time but more often than is normal for professionals dropped the ball, although part of this was rushed passes by Ray due to the pressure he faced;
(4) while Argo dbs got away with some holds early in the game, the final BC TD was partly a function of 3 penalties in a row, 2 of them borderline at best in my opinion;
(5) Riggs looked good on his few running plays, usually making the first tackler miss and scratching for every yard - however giving him only 5 carries and only 1 in the second half was a big mistake because BC was quite willing to let him gain 10 yards because of his skills and focus instead on every play on getting to Ray - Milanovich needs to give the ball more to his RBs to help take the pressure off Ray, especially when he has a far from stellar offensive line protecting Ray;
(6) despite all these weaknesses the Argos made this game close at the end, so improvement in the offensive line, more consistent db play and more running plays means they could still capture Montreal and even beat BC on a very good day;
(7) the crowd noise is a 13th player like no other in the CFL - I remember when the league in the 1990s clamped down on Calgary's announcer urging the crowd to make noise and yet nothing is done now when not only the announcer but the electronic signs that surround the entire stadium from every angle encourage this, along with music blaring between every Argo play.
My wife remembers the stadium announcer in Calgary losing his job over that. It was over the top loud and obnoxious to me. If that is allowed by the league than Toronto must close the dome for every game and pick out some high volume music or grading music when the visiting teams are huddling up. Why not crank the Wiggles or who ever the kids group was that had the Argos have to move a game. I mean where does this stop. Do you give everyone in the stands blowhorns and lazers. It's not football.
IMO the BC game tells me that, if the Argos can improve in their weakest areas, they could be in the Grey Cup and maybe even win it. Afterall, BC started last year with a 0-5 record and didn't suddenly look like world beaters after a few wins, but rather like a team steadily improving and eliminating its problems, in part, with the addition of only a couple of players.