Week 13 - Lions @ ARGOS - October 30, 2021

[dmont]

Ok, I'm back and I've settled down.

The good:

First-half offensive line. When I say Trevon Tates name as a starter, I thought we were totally screwed. I didnt notice him at all today, which is great news. I dont know if this was him playing better, or they were giving him more help with bladek, tight ends, and full backs. Macbeth looked a little rushed and sacked in the second half, but it wasnt obviously tates fault.

DJ foster: I thought he looked great. They mostly used him going up the middle. Even in situations where a run was likely, he was getting some good runs.

Dion pellerin: two key receptions for the rookie, including the game winning points. I like them getting the fullbacks involved as receivers. Takes me back to 2017 grey cup with Cross being clutch.

Sam achempong: looked really good at DT. Sack, pressures, and may have even blocked a kick.

No apparent injuries: I didnt notice any of our guys seriously injured, but I'm not the most observant.

The bad:

Macbeth: overthrew three wide-open receivers. Any one of those hits, the game would've been over. I didnt mind the rest of his decisionmaking and I think this overthrow thing is correctable. He wasnt having that problem on our three game win streak. Dont breaka my heart, macbeth!!!

Second-half defense: Lousy lousy lousy. Poor tackling in the open field. Giving up bad penalties. Mccoil jumping offside twice to extend drives.

Jeff Richards: this guy ssssssuuuuuuucccckkkkssss. He had a nice interception and return in the first quarter, but was garbage the rest of the game.

BC Lions horseshoes and leprechauns: the only reason BC had any points at halftime was by complete fluke. Circus catches, tipped catches, etc. As another poster said, it did finally run out with some horrible kicking in the final few minutes.

Dinwiddies "Victory" formation: I could not believe it as I was watching it. Huge gaff that nearly cost us the game.

Playoff game clinched (yayyy!) But huge room for.improvement (booo!)

[Will]

The "victory" formation gaffe will definitely go down in the ugly portion of the fancast this week.

[ArgoZ]

What a crazy game! It’s damn unnerving how often MBT misses wide open receivers, yet he makes so many difficult throws! Hopefully he gets that straightened out, because we could have seen 50 points tonight. Undefeated at home. If we can secure that home final game, a Grey Cup appearance is very probable.

[Argo57]

I’ll take the win anytime but that was ugly.
Victory formation blunder one for the ages, hopefully a learning moment for Dinwiddie and the coaching staff.
Certainly not MBT’s finest effort, but his deliberate under thrown ball in the end zone to draw a DPI penalty was absolutely brilliant.😛
The Argonauts D simply cannot pressure the QB on a consistent basis, Reilly had way too much time to throw the ball.
Boris Bede was outstanding tonight.
Hamilton’s own Tom Valessi never disappoints with another buffoonish performance as a CFL official, I’m always amazed that the league keeps trotting this idiot out to officiate their games.

[OV Argo]

What a crazy game! It’s damn unnerving how often MBT misses wide open receivers, yet he makes so many difficult throws! Hopefully he gets that straightened out, because we could have seen 50 points tonight. Undefeated at home. If we can secure that home final game, a Grey Cup appearance is very probable.

After what we've seen recently - you'd bet on the Argos (IF you had to put up money) vs. either of the Ticats or Als even in a home play-off game ? Not me.

[OV Argo]

MBT throws for 155 yards on his 23 completions = an average gain of 6.7 yards per completion = that is horrid


On the plus side - the Argos run game tandem of Foster & White put up over 100 yards.

[Argo57]

After what we've seen recently - you'd bet on the Argos (IF you had to put up money) vs. either of the Ticats or Als even in a home play-off game ? Not me.

In truth all three teams atop the East have had their share of poor performances but your point is well taken OV.
Toronto has some work to do, the O-Line must perform much better than it has recently or they will have difficulty moving forward.
Chris Jones for all of his accolades as a DC has not been able to improve the Argos ability to consistently pressure the oppositions QB which puts undue pressure on the secondary.
The Argos are still in the hunt but I wouldn’t consider them the favourite to appear in the Grey Cup.

[Shatto]

If the intent was to keep the fans engaged right up to the final whistle, then I guess the game was a success! (said tongue-in-cheek)

The game raises some essential questions:
.What has happened to receiver Collins?
.Where did MBT's accuracy with the long pass go?
.Did Bladek presence shore up the right side of the OL that much or did Tate play that much better?
.How could the coach screw up the running out the clock situation that badly?
.What does one have to do to get an offensive pass interference call in this league?
.Where would we be without Bede?
.The ball was thrown to Anderson 6 times for 2 receptions, shouldn't it be thrown to Worthy more often, instead?

In spite of everything the team is now in 1st place. If someone had predicted the team would have been in this situation, at this point of the season, we would have been overjoyed. Let's appreciate the moment.

[OV Argo]

The winning 2 point convert play was an old fashioned TE play; Pellerin lined-up at TE and got a clean release, totally uncovered; I'd call that play the Bingo play because in the right situation it is a free/easy play on the offensive bingo card against CFL Ds. That CFL OCs do not grasp this is mind boggling to me - a potential huge big play if it used - maybe only once a game; but if the QB gets to read man coverage, and you have a receiver with some hands lined-up at TE, it has so much potential for a key big play gain; not sure Pellerin has good down- field hands to be counted of for it, but maybe; I'd be tempted to line-up a bigger catch radius, more experienced receiver (like Nield - who CFL defences are not aware of much if he is almost never targeted), and spring that play when a big gainer is needed in a key situation. Doubt we see it in the play-offs - from any team ?

[ArgoGabe22]

Pellerin today reminded me how Trestman first used Cross. Then Cross ever getting the ball just disappeared from the playbook after Trestman’s two years.

[jerrym]

To keep this 31-29 win in perspective against a weak team, it was only possible thanks to Camacho going 0/3 in FGs. Even with poor FG kickers that doesn't happy very often. Making any one of them would have given the Lions the victory. The Argos have to play better to have a decent chance to win in the playoffs.

[Rich]

Macbeth: overthrew three wide-open receivers. Any one of those hits, the game would've been over. I didnt mind the rest of his decisionmaking and I think this overthrow thing is correctable.

They’ve been trying to correct it since 2018. Maybe he needs a couple more years to get it fixed. :-)

[paulwoods13]

No apparent injuries: I didnt notice any of our guys seriously injured, but I'm not the most observant.

I wish that were true, but Oakman sat out most of the game and was walking with a major limp. That's a gigantic loss for a d-line that has arguably been the team's weakest unit all season. He has been the only consistently good guy on the line all season.

[paulwoods13]

To keep this 31-29 win in perspective against a weak team, it was only possible thanks to Camacho going 0/3 in FGs. Even with poor FG kickers that doesn't happy very often. Making any one of them would have given the Lions the victory. The Argos have to play better to have a decent chance to win in the playoffs.

To add further perspective, the Lions were the beneficiaries of two of the luckiest plays anyone will see this season: the sideline catch that fell into the hands of a fallen receiver, and the pick-six off a tipped pass. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, neither of those plays connect the way they did. Also, our own kicker went 5-for-5 including a couple from 50ish. We should all be very thankful for the trade that brought us Bede for a disposable kicker, especially in a season where half the teams can't find consistency on FGs.

[paulwoods13]

Clearly MBT did not have his strongest game. He mostly made the right reads, but failed to hit a wide-open man on at least three occasions, any of which likely would have gone for six. Props to him, though, for one aggressive run up the middle, for racing upfield looking to throw a block for Foster, and for catching his own tipped pass and turning it into positive yards in OT.

Two of those missed throws were to Anderson, who showed some speed but might not have any chemistry yet with MBT. One of them I think would have been caught by Rogers, who is sorely missed.

The o-line looked vastly improved. Have to assume Bladek is a big part of that, lined up beside Tate. The seven-man o-line also worked quite well when we used it. The backs, especially Foster, found openings repeatedly.

It annoys the hell out of me that when Jones dialled up big pressure on the QB, it almost always worked, but we didn't do it very often. Maybe that's the secret to the strategy working, but I hate to give a guy like Reilly time to pick a defence apart.

The NATs on the inside of the d-line, Acheampong and Marion, looked solid. I have no idea how we are going to replace Oakman, though, if he is out for any time (which seems lijkely based on how gingerly he was walking). Hopefully Nevis gets back into the lineup next week. Hughes and Law seemed to play about 90% of the snaps, with Tuggle and Smith going in only occasionally. That's not a recipe that can work long-term, especially with Hughes at age 37. Law made a couple of heads-up plays.

Love McCoil, but man, the offside penalties are getting really tiresome.

Collins seemed pretty solid at CB. Whitehead really didn't do much, and neither did Burnham so overall the secondary played pretty well. The Argos seemed determined to take those two guys out of the offence, which did leave Johnson and Rhymes open at times.

Bede is simply lights out. His 50-yarders looked like they would have been good from 70.

Worthy broke a couple of nice returns, for a change.

Props to Global player Tigie Sankoh, who made at least three tackles on special teams. And to Dion Pellerin, who in addition to his two important receptions was used as a blocking back/TE during some of the successful running plays.

It's good to see Dinwiddie take ownership of his terrible clock management. He also needs to address his play calling -- one of the long bombs that didn't work came on second and six (I believe) late in the fourth quarter. All it did was stop the clock and give B.C. the ball back. Nice to take a shot and be aggressive, but you have to play the game situation at that point. It's not the first time this has happened this year.

[Will]

It was tough sledding for both QB's in the 2nd half. The weather worsened, the wind shifted, the temperature dropped and that annoying drizzle started up again. Nonetheless, 23/37 for 155 yards from MBT isn't great, and the overthrows were extremely frustrating. Fact of the matter is we are now into November and the weather is now going to be a factor in these games, although the weather for Ottawa on Saturday looks decent. I would like to see Dres Anderson get another opportunity at receiver as he was the victim of a few of those overthrows to see if he and MBT can form chemistry.

Let us not also lose sight of the fact that one of the reasons we are talking about a W today is because of the incompetence of BC's kicker. I am grateful that Boris Bede was brought in (5/5 on FGs) by the Argos!

[Golden Fleece]

This was our first live game of the year. Enjoyed the atmosphere. Entertaining game despite the mistakes and sloppiness mentioned above. Don't mean to belabour the three missed long throws, but you rarely see more than one wideout that open in a game, let alone three. When you can see that much separation live you wonder how a QB can overthrow so consistently. Then there was the one chance he hits a well covered receiver (sorry don't know the name--still rewatching recording) it goes off his fingertips. Eminently catchable, just didn't seem to track the ball.

Taking the premature knee--I guess we can be thankful it wasn't a playoff game.

Crowd seemed a bit larger than the announced 9000, but I couldn't see the second level from my seats. One of the noisiest crowds when BC was on O. Very impressed by how loud it was compared to much larger pre-pandemic home games. Only thing was the noise seemed to affect our D more with the offside plays than BC. Was hoping we'd trigger at least one illegal procedure.

Bottom line, our O and D played better in crunch time to get the win. I'll take it.

[AngeloV]

It's good to see Dinwiddie take ownership of his terrible clock management. He also needs to address his play calling -- one of the long bombs that didn't work came on second and six (I believe) late in the fourth quarter. All it did was stop the clock and give B.C. the ball back. Nice to take a shot and be aggressive, but you have to play the game situation at that point. It's not the first time this has happened this year.

I really didn't have a problem with the long ball on 2nd and 6. It was wide open and should have been hit. If that's where the QB's read takes you, then that's the throw to make. You can't just go into a play and say we need 6, I'm looking for a 6 yard play. It was the right read, just a bad throw. My bigger issue with the play calling was on 1st and goal from the 3. They run a drag route to the short side flat to Collins which is stopped for a 2 yard loss. I don't get that call. Short side where there is traffic. Not a good call. That situation was begging for a Pipken package. You need to run the ball there. Then on 2nd and goal from the 5, nobody open and a sack. That was a terrible series of play calling. And nothing more needs to be said about the kneel downs at the end. I think Dinwiddie is taking the heat for one of his assistants there. Every team has an assistant designated to keep track of time outs. A head coach that is also offensive play caller does not do that. Someone blew their responsibility there.

[AngeloV]

Overall, this game was a heart attach waiting to happen for us that live and die with the team. MBT did not play well, but as usual takes way more of the blame than he deserves. Michael Reilly also missed a lot of open receivers and if not for a couple of drops by out DB's would have thrown 3 picks yesterday. Rain and a wet ball will do that.
O-line was better, but to me the biggest reason was the success running the ball, and they stuck to it. When we had sure passing downs, the line broke down a couple of times.
The fluke completion by Shaq Johnson to me was the biggest play of the game. If that doesn't just land on his chest while he was on the ground, I really think this game would have been a blow out. Huge momentum changer.
Defence, same song and dance. Need to bring more pressure. That o-line is even worse than ours. You need to bring pressure and make Reilly throw before he wants to. I'm not going to challenge Chris Jones, he's had way too much success over the years, but to me, the biggest loss the Argos have had this year is the unfortunate loss of Glenn Young. Tough to change a system mid way through a season.

In the end, a win is a win. 7-4. No complaints here.

[paulwoods13]

I really didn't have a problem with the long ball on 2nd and 6. It was wide open and should have been hit. If that's where the QB's read takes you, then that's the throw to make. You can't just go into a play and say we need 6, I'm looking for a 6 yard play. It was the right read, just a bad throw. My bigger issue with the play calling was on 1st and goal from the 3. They run a drag route to the short side flat to Collins which is stopped for a 2 yard loss. I don't get that call. Short side where there is traffic. Not a good call. That situation was begging for a Pipken package. You need to run the ball there. Then on 2nd and goal from the 5, nobody open and a sack. That was a terrible series of play calling. And nothing more needs to be said about the kneel downs at the end. I think Dinwiddie is taking the heat for one of his assistants there. Every team has an assistant designated to keep track of time outs. A head coach that is also offensive play caller does not do that. Someone blew their responsibility there.

You make excellent points, AV, but I still disagree on the second-and-six. They say three things can happen on a pass, and two of them (incompletion or interception) are bad. In that situation, it's three out of four because stopping the clock is also bad. There is no justification not to run and at least burn another 20 seconds even if you fail to get a first down. IMO we need to have more packages for Pipkin (like Hamilton used to use Masoli at times, when Collaros was still their starter) so he could be inserted in such a situation and add the threat of a QB run to what was an already impressive running attack.