GAME THREAD - Week 2: BC Lions @ Toronto Argonauts

[Will]

Friday, June 30, 2017 at 7:00 PM

A test for the Boatmen as Wally brings his Lions' to town. Plenty of weapons for the Lions on offence to test whether the Argos D performance against Hamilton was a one-off or an ongoing trend.

[Scooter McCray]

Short week for Argos but the saving grace it will be for BC too. One extra day but they need to travel across the country. Will be a good one. Two HOF coaches going up against each other.

[Wobbler]

Time to find out if we can stop the run this year.

[mchesher03]

Nice early season litmus test. Would be nice to equal last year’s home win total in week 2 for starters.

Curious how effective the D-Line and secondary can be against BC. Can’t wait to see Ricky and these receivers show anything like last game!

[Will]

Nice early season litmus test. Would be nice to equal last year’s home win total in week 2 for starters.

Curious how effective the D-Line and secondary can be against BC. Can’t wait to see Ricky and these receivers show anything like last game!

Saw a stat from Derek Taylor that Jennings was under pressure on 51% of pass snaps. This could be a factor on Friday.

The test of Moore, Burnham and Arceneaux will be a nice one for the secondary as will Rainey on returns.

Mike Reilly did throw for nice yardage vs BC so there is potential for Ray and the receivers there.

[OV Argo]

Saw a stat from Derek Taylor that Jennings was under pressure on 51% of pass snaps. This could be a factor on Friday.

The test of Moore, Burnham and Arceneaux will be a nice one for the secondary as will Rainey on returns.

Mike Reilly did throw for nice yardage vs BC so there is potential for Ray and the receivers there.

Should be a real good test to see how that Argo D can handle another offence. BC has a bit of run game - unlike the Ticats who have none; Jennings is a talented young QB with mobility; Burnham, Arceneaux, Rainey are dangerous offensive weapons.

I think BC's O-line should be pretty decent; first game they were up against that Esks D-line that features 4 veteran, pretty proven guys (Willis & Hunt at ends; Sewell & former Argo Euclid Cummings at tackle, plus they played an impressive new import DT (can't recall his name, but they said he was a former US college ball top D player), and game some reps to draft pick D Kwaku Baoteng at DE (I didn't see the Argo D do any subbing/rotating on the D-line the first game - maybe they are all in superb condition ?) The Esks D did a pretty good job of containing the Lions O - we'll see if the Argo D can play them even tougher.

And BC's D-line is average to mediocre IMO - not near as good as the Ticats' - Ray should have some time.

[jerrym]

Saw a stat from Derek Taylor that Jennings was under pressure on 51% of pass snaps. This could be a factor on Friday.

The loss of six-time All Star OL Jovan Olafioye and his replacement by a rookie OL David Foucault playing his first game helped contribute to the problem, although Foucault should get better with time.

[1971GreyCup]

Trestman doesn't expect the other CFL teams will fold in wake of game #1. I just like the fact that this team will come out to play each and every game. I expect them to improve on the mental mistakes made last week. CC looks to be an exciting DC. And he's been given the tools to play is game. Ricky Foley tweed that "I told you so" in response to the defensive first game.

[Wobbler]

Why would the league fold? Our attendance wasn't *that* bad.

[Scooter McCray]

Why would the league fold? Our attendance wasn't *that* bad.

13,000 (3,000 are ticat fans and another 2,000 youth giveaway and 4000 sth). That means the team sold 4,000 real tickets to Torontonians over a 7 month offseason. And it was the home opener. Last years home opener had 25,000.

Come on Wobbler, even you can't put lipstick on that pig.

(Sorry I misspelled your handle earlier - I'm still learning to type.)

[Argofan_1000]

13,000 (3,000 are ticat fans and another 2,000 youth giveaway and 4000 sth). That means the team sold 4,000 real tickets to Torontonians over a 7 month offseason. And it was the home opener. Last years home opener had 25,000.

Come on Wobbler, even you can't put lipstick on that pig.

(Sorry I misspelled your handle earlier - I'm still learning to type.)

last year - not good - but a few more games where Argos win like Sunday and we may be back to last years numbers. Paulo Senra from the CFL office tweeted that the Argos Ticats game had the most twitter traffic of all the opening day games. Anyone know what the television numbers were?

[Will]

Why would the league fold? Our attendance wasn't *that* bad.

I do not believe that Bill's post in this instance was referring to attendance.

[Argofan_1000]

Why would the league fold? Our attendance wasn't *that* bad.

Fold = stop trying not close up shop

[Will]

Argos will be tested on the ground as the Lions had one of the better running games last year. Hamilton ran the ball only 7 times last week, which does not constitute a big sample size. On the flipside, the Argos only ran for 39 rushing yards against Hamilton, which you can't really fault considering all the breakdowns in Hamilton's secondary, but might be able to get something going with Whitaker and Wilder here as BC allowed 100+ rushing yards to John White.

[jerrym]

Argos will be tested on the ground as the Lions had one of the better running games last year.

I agree. Former Argo Jeremiah Johnson looked very good against Edmonton, breaking tackles and gaining 92 yards on 14 carries. Wally has decided to make him their primary RB, rather splitting time as he did last year with Anthony Allen.

[argosfan]

I hope more fans show up this time, but I am not holding my breath either

----
Anyways rant:

Personally, I think the reason why I think the Argos are struggling is because a) BMO Field is not their stadium, its so restricted b) not enough marketing! c) there target market is not attracting a younger audience (millennials) d) their "losing

This is what I suggest:

1) Team up with the Toronto Wolfpack and build a new stadium for rugby/football that seats about 20-25k. Money will be the biggest obstacle, and location as well! In this case there can be more games on better days/times
2) I read that the marketing budget was cut heavily. I do not see ANY promotion at all on my social media feeds (except for random ads). Posting about players, their stories on Twitter and Facebook will market the game/team to tech savvy millennials.
3) If the team continues to do well, the audience will be back.

[Rich]

I hope more fans show up this time, but I am not holding my breath either

----
Anyways rant:

Personally, I think the reason why I think the Argos are struggling is because a) BMO Field is not their stadium, its so restricted b) not enough marketing! c) there target market is not attracting a younger audience (millennials) d) their "losing

This is what I suggest:

1) Team up with the Toronto Wolfpack and build a new stadium for rugby/football that seats about 20-25k. Money will be the biggest obstacle, and location as well! In this case there can be more games on better days/times
2) I read that the marketing budget was cut heavily. I do not see ANY promotion at all on my social media feeds (except for random ads). Posting about players, their stories on Twitter and Facebook will market the game/team to tech savvy millennials.
3) If the team continues to do well, the audience will be back.

While we can appreciate the attempts at diplomacy, only a TFC troll would suggest the Argos move out of BMO Field because it is "not their stadium". Let me tell you something, my friend, the Argonauts have been playing at Exhibition Place for many more years than TFC has. BMO Field is an excellent football field, it is where the Argonauts belong, it is their home and it will be for many years to come. There's nothing restricting about it, other than maybe being too small to meet the future demand for Argonauts tickets after a couple of seasons of football excellence.

[Neely2005]

While we can appreciate the attempts at diplomacy, only a TFC troll would suggest the Argos move out of BMO Field because it is "not their stadium". Let me tell you something, my friend, the Argonauts have been playing at Exhibition Place for many more years than TFC has. BMO Field is an excellent football field, it is where the Argonauts belong, it is their home and it will be for many years to come. There's nothing restricting about it, other than maybe being too small to meet the future demand for Argonauts tickets after a couple of seasons of football excellence.

Plus BMO Field is owned by the City of Toronto and was built with public money.

[Gill The Thrill]

I hope more fans show up this time, but I am not holding my breath either

----
Anyways rant:

Personally, I think the reason why I think the Argos are struggling is because a) BMO Field is not their stadium, its so restricted b) not enough marketing! c) there target market is not attracting a younger audience (millennials) d) their "losing

This is what I suggest:

1) Team up with the Toronto Wolfpack and build a new stadium for rugby/football that seats about 20-25k. Money will be the biggest obstacle, and location as well! In this case there can be more games on better days/times
2) I read that the marketing budget was cut heavily. I do not see ANY promotion at all on my social media feeds (except for random ads). Posting about players, their stories on Twitter and Facebook will market the game/team to tech savvy millennials.
3) If the team continues to do well, the audience will be back.

Team up with the Toronto Wolfpack...Who the heck are they?...a 3rd division British Rugby team or an MLS soccer team. What's the difference? Look at the place with the Argos there (BMO Field), it's great. Simply put ...ticket prices are too expensive in between the 20 yard lines for the Toronto market. What casual fan who doesn't follow the sport is going to pay $85 to watch any sport, not just the CFL in Toronto? You have to market to kids and teens, and teach them the sport of "Canadian Football", making it their favourite sport. What point is it to market to soccer associations when the kids who favour soccer can choose 1 of 20 games that TFC plays in Toronto on an annual basis...it makes no sense. Forget micro marketing to 20 and 30 somethings who have established favourite sports and have their viewing habits. They are not going to change. They may come to a big game, but they won't be getting season tickets and the season ticket base now proves.

So the Argos should not offend the fans they have now, and pray to keep every one of them...pumping louder music over the loudspeakers is not going to change that... promoting to families is a good idea, but they need to promote to teens and pre-teens and get them to follow the league...that'll help TV ratings, radio ratings, and live attendance...it may be a slow increase, but at least it'll be an increase.

[Will]

The Argos have veterans at two spots on the D-line in Lemon and Laing. Butler had 2 sacks in his debut so he'll be one to watch on Friday too. The Argos didn't rotate a whole lot, but that might start with Cash returns to the lineup.