As I sit here awaiting the Labour Day classic between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I thought I would share a few opinions and thoughts from recent happenings in our great game. The Labour Day weekend football is the most anticipated weekend of the CFL regular season, and he’s a few thoughts on what’s unfolded thus far.

Proud of my Lions, proud of the fans

Two weeks ago, fans left BC Place stunned and deflated at what they had seen. The Lions were thoroughly beaten by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and it appeared like the teams spirit was shattered  by that loss. Friday night at BC Place the undisputed best team in the CFL came to town and failed to score a touchdown on the Lions, who turned in a gutsy performance and restored some hope amongst the fans and no doubt confidence in themselves. I’m always proud to be a Lions fan, but Friday night showed me this team has pride and that was great to see. Kudos also go to the 27,199 fans that made it very loud in the fourth quarter getting behind that Lions defense.

The touchdown that wasn’t?

The Lions may have been fortunate that a league error on the Als final drive nullified a Montreal touchdown that would have tied the game. However a couple things need to be clarified. The first is, what was the flag on the play for? Lowell Ullrich, in his video recap following the game stated the call was offside against the Lions, while Rick Ball of the TEAM 1040 stated the call was procedure against Montreal. That would explain why Wally Buono was so upset after having the call explained to him, and almost every Lion on the field was pointing towards the Als after the touchdown and seeing the flag. If the call was against the Als, they would have been facing a 3rd and a 11 and the touchdown wouldn’t have counted anyway.

Secondly, there has been a lot of finger pointing at the “homer” timekeeper in BC Place, an accusation that is getting a little stale from disgruntled opposing fans. I sat at Commonwealth stadium this year and the clock had to be reset 4 times. It happens folks and the officials and the league are responsible for making sure it is accurate before each snap. The league has admitted their error, and while unfortunate for the Als, those are the breaks, and the Lions sure needed one.

Finally, congratulation to Wally Buono, who pulled even with Don Matthews as the most successful coach in CFL history with the win. The Lions next won will see Buono become the CFL’s all-time leader in coaching wins. Go get em Wally!

Go Joystick go!

As a Lions fan, I watched Stefan Logan closely over the last couple of weeks, selfishly hoping that “Joystick” would wear a Lions uniform again. Of course we all know his 80 yard punt return for a touchdown Thursday erased any glimmer of hope that would happen. Congratulations to Stefan Logan, who chased his dream, and went down to Pittsburgh, with no contract, no signing bonus and no promises. He gave the Steelers no choice but to have him on the team. He’s an outstanding player, with a tremendous belief in himself and his abilities, and I’m sure I join all Lions fans in wishing Logan an outstanding season with the Steelers, and I’ll certainly be watching anytime the Steelers are on TV.

Tailgating goodness!

We’re halfway through the season, and I have to say our new tailgate home has been a big success. New people are showing up and finding us to enjoy the cheap parking and everyone has been great about policing ourselves and keeping the lot clean each and every game. It’s so nice to head to the game knowing we won’t be facing a surprise when we arrive. Another huge thanks goes out to the folks at Easy Park, in particular Greg Watrych, and city councillor Andrea Reimer who made a lot of Lions fans very happy. I encourage everyone to park at Easy Park lots whenever they head downtown to an event, and if Greg and Andrea are up for it, I would love to treat them to a tailgate dinner!

Enjoy the games everyone!

Time to settle down and get ready for some great Labour Day games. Winnipeg and the Riders get it on today, and Monday features a day of double header football. Enjoy the games everyone, and good luck to all our teams in the second half of the season!

ROAR YOU LIONS ROAR!

The BC Lions returned to the practice field Monday after another loss on their record, and some new faces on the field. With holiday Monday and a beautiful day to take in practice, I ventured down to the Surrey training facility to check out our lethargic Lions.

New faces in town

As was rumored Sunday by @littlemissCFL on Twitter, and posted on BCLionsden.ca, the Lions announced the signing of linebacker JoJuan Armour on Monday, as well as that of former Edmonton Eskimo running back A.J. Harris and defensive end James Edwards. All three players were at practice and it was instantly recognized that Armour was immediately taking on a starting role with the team. The physical Armour, who started his CFL career with the BC Lions, was taking all of the first team reps in Javy Glatt’s middle linebacker position, while Glatt watched from the sidelines. This move was later confirmed by Armour who told the Team 1040 that he was assuming the middle linebacker position.

When asked about the move Glatt told the Team 1040:

“When you lose games, people lose their jobs and they picked me – I’m the guy that takes it and I’ve just got to stay positive about it and help the guys as much as I can, and if I’m here, I’m here, and if not, we’ll deal with that when we get to it.  Basically, I was told I’m not athletic enough and I’m a liability in some things. That’s what happens when you lose. A lot of things come out that are negative and you just have to deal with it.”

Glatt can hardly take all the blame for the team’s defensive woes. The defensive line has been at fault as well, and there are questions about the scheme of the defense itself. But the fact remains that something had to change, and the with the Lions giving up an average of 150 yards rushing per game,the middle linebacker position was a good place to start.

Wally Buono explained it this way:

“Well, we’re not replacing Javy, we’re just changing his responsibilities. Part of (the move) was trying to get a spark into this football team. I’m not going to go into issues. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to function and we just wanted to make sure we address a situation that wasn’t good. We didn’t stop the run in the past two weeks and for us to be better as a football club, we have to do that.”

There was no scheme change, with Armour and McKenzie being joined by Korey Banks in certain situations as the nickleback. It will remain to be seen how much the scheme itself has to do with the Lions lack of success with the run, now that Armour is in the mix.

A.J. Harris didn’t seem to have as much of a prominent role at Monday’s practice, and Martell Mallett seemed to be taking all the first team reps, with Darren Toney and Ryan Grice-Mullen returning punts.  According to Lowell Ullrich, Buono confirmed that Harris is here for the time being as insurance behind Mallett, and because Ian Smart was due to have surgery today on his banged up knee. With an average of 5.6 yards per carry last season for the Eskimos and good hands coming out of the backfield, it was not a bad insurance policy to take a chance on.

A quiet bunch

I’ve attended a few Lions practices over the last few years, and one thing was noticeable off the bat at this one, there wasn’t a lot of talking going on. Korey Banks quipped “We still have fans? Really, we still have fans?”, as he jogged out to the practice field, but the usual banter amongst players was muted at best.

Wally involved

Wally Buono took a much more hands on approach in today’s practice, particularly on special teams drills where he was fairly vocal. Buono’s style is usually to sit back and let his coaches run the practice, but obviously desperate times call for a more involved role from the boss.

Logan Watch:

For those still dreaming of the return of Stefan Logan here is an update on his quest to make the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Monday’s Practice Photo Gallery:

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Wally Buono has begun to address injuries and deficiencies arising from Friday’s loss in Saskatchewan. The club has finalized a deal with running back Tyler Ebell, who should be on the field when practice resumes on Monday.

The Lions have also signed a new offensive tackle, Daren Heerspink, out of Bellingham, Wash. The 6’6′ 315 Heerspink was recently waived by the St, Louis Rams. Heerspink also spent time on the practice roster of the Miami Dolphins. It’s unlikely he’ll see any action this week, but he does provide a backup tackle for the Lions, which they lacked heading into the season.

Lowell Ullrich has more information on both of these developments on his blog, and also sheds some light on the injury status of both Ian Smart and Emmanuel Arceneaux.

Buono is also reassessing the linebacker situation after Jamall Johnson decided Hamilton was a better fit for his career and signed with the Ticats. He met with CFL veteran Reggie Hunt in Regina, but told Mike Beamish of the Vancouver Sun it was more of a courtesy meeting at this point, and that bringing in another linebacker was not necessarily as given.

(Regina, SK) The BC Lions were in a generous mood Friday night, and handed the Saskatchewan Roughriders a 28-24 victory at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field on Friday.

Buck Pierce fumbled four times and threw two interceptions under constant pressure from a Rider defense that was seemingly having it’s way with BC’s new look offensive line, which often seemed confused with picking up the blitz giving Pierce little time to look down field allowing 9 sacks. Walter Stith showed that he is a work in progress replacing Rob Murphy, while Dean Valli also had a tough game at times. These deficiencies will need to be addressed or Buck Pierce will end up on the injured list in no time.

The Lions picked up key injuries as well, the most concerning being to running back/kick returner Ian Smart. Smart pulled up lame on a carry and looked to have popped a groin the way his body language was suggesting. Promising newcomer Emmanuel Arceneaux, who had a TD catch on the night, left the game with an apparent shoulder injury. The Lions got big scare came when Omar Morgan rolled up on the leg of Geroy Simon, bending the star receiver’s leg in a way it shouldn’t bend. Simon laid on the turf grabbing his leg but walked off under his own weight and thankfully returned to finish the game.

The loss of Smart left the return game in shambles and Darren Toney looked lost filling in for the CFL’s former special teams player of the year.

On a promising note the Lions defense looked pretty decent at times. Ryan Phillips picked off two Darian Durant passes and took one back for a touchdown, and the front four got decent pressure most of the night, registering three sacks and would have had a bunch more had Durant not been so agile and thrown the ball away on other occasions. Javier Glatt had a strong game for the Lions at linebacker, and Korey Banks looks as though there will be some exciting moments coming from him at his new nickleback position.

The Riders didn’t do themselves a lot of favours trying to win the game. They added turnovers of their own, and almost gave the Lions the win in the dying moments when Ryan Grice-Mullen was wide open deep but dropped the ball. Durant went 18-32 for 313 yards, 0 TD’s and 3 interceptions. 154 of those yards were to star Weston Dressler who served notice to the league he is quickly becoming the premier receiver in the CFL.

Footnotes:

• The Lions have lost out on the Jamall Johnson sweepstakes as the former Lions linebacker signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Sad that an NFL tryout costs the Lions a good player, who may have had a bigger role here had he not left. The Lions apparently exchanged contract numbers with Reggie Hunt while in Regina, and will now explore the possibility of adding him or JoJuan Armour.
• With the injury to Ian Smart the rumored signing of RB Tyler Ebell could be finalized this week, or perhaps junior star Andrew Harris will dress. Martell Mallet had some promising carries, and looks to be a similar type of runner as Joe Smith.
• Former Lion Jason Clermont finished the night with 1 catch for 9 yards, while former Rider Anton McKenzie registered 6 tackles, 1 sack and a forced fumble.
• If Emmanuel Arceneaux can’t go Friday, we’ll likely see the other promising receiver in camp, Terence Scott get his chance to shine.
• Lowell Ullrich has more in a nice video blog he composed after the game in Regina. You can view it here.

Welcome to the new BCLionsDen.ca, or as we’ve been shamelessly flogging it in recent months, “Version 2.0″.

As you can see, I have given the site a face lift, and changed our format by entering the realm of the blog/content management system. Over the past few years the blog has become a popular and effective tool in the world of social media, a field that I am growing more interested in. For that reason, I wanted to create a fan site that was more of a magazine style and see where it will go. The new site has been a large learning curve, with headaches and challenges, but a lot of fun one as well.

We want you to feel like you’re sitting around in a room with friends, talking about the BC Lions and the CFL. This country has some great football writers, like Lowell Ullrich but they can’t express the raw views of you the fan. They can interview the players, the coaches, write reviews on games, but they have to remain somewhat neutral in their analysis and reporting, while fans have a strong attachment to their teams and have no such limitations. While we want your true opinions, we also want you to respect that players and coaches are human beings, and personal attacks of any kind won’t be tolerated on this site. The ultimate goal would be to have players see what we’re trying to create here and feel comfortable to participate on the site, interacting with you the fans.

Another goal of the site is to celebrate the players and personalities that have been involved with the BC Lions over their 50+ year history, by compiling as many alumni profiles as we can to make sure these people that have provided us with memories as fans are not forgotten. This area of the site is still in the works, and now that the main design and content is done we’ll be concentrating on adding these alumni profiles as we can find information on former players. If you’re a former player and could help us with pictures or information about your career, we would love to hear from you.

I am very pleased to have my friend Dennis Prouse writing for the site. Dennis is a transplanted BC Lions fan living in Ottawa, and has been coaching amateur/minor football for many years. Dennis has great insight on the technical aspects of the game and you can look forward to his contributions soon and throughout the season.

Our forums are still here and we’ll also have desktop wallpapers, schedules, fan profiles, tailgate information and a great resource of links. You can also follow updates to the site on Twitter.

I do apologize however. I simply ran out of time in my efforts to get all the sections filled in, so there are a few areas of the site that will come online when I finish them and add more content.

All told, I’m happy with the end product, and I hope you are too! Tell your friends and fellow Lions/CFL fans about us. Your participation is vital to our success and growth!

So welcome to BCLionsDen.ca 2.0, and ROAR YOU LIONS ROAR!

Brian (Orangeshoes99)