From the Lark's Nest

Five straight losses and counting..............not good.

I suspect that, as the losses mounted to four, most of us began to look at the offensive line as being a major part of the problem.  Long a mainstay of our offence, maybe it was time for some changes.

Looks like the Als' braintrust agreed, and they did make changes along the line.  Kudos for that; identify a problem and then seek to resolve it.  Problem last night was of course that the changes didn't work.  TWELVE sacks on AC?  No way you are going to win giving up that many sacks.

Now, give credit where credit is due; BC has a very impressive front seven on defence (mind you, what team in the CFL doesn't?...even Hamilton is strong in its front seven....when Joe Montford can't find a job, that's a testament to the fact that every team in the CFL is strong in this department).

But that alone cannot explain 12 sacks......back to the drawing board gang, more work needs doing here.  I cannot express an informed opinion as to whether our problem last night was the personnel along the line or the blocking schemes; whatever it was, they'd better correct it but quick.

So the Als get credit for correctly identifying a problem area, but no laurels for their attempt to correct it, because it only got worse.  Also a minor kudo for inserting Marcus Brady into the game instead of that Ted White clone Nealon Greene.  At least Brady didn't throw an interception.

The first half was an impressive display by both teams.  I think in terms of intensity on both sides it was the most impressive half of football this year.  Kerry Watkins came to play, Calvillo came to play, so did the defence and special teams.  But the Lions, lets face it, are like Calgary....they are just better than we are at this point in the season.  So we wilted in the second half.

We clearly have our work cut out for us moving forward; here's what I see needing urgent attention:

1.  Offensive line; either bring in new talent or start changing schemes; 12 sacks allowed is brutal, and Edwards getting 30 yards on six carries is not sufficient for a team that has Grey Cup ambitions;

2. Defensive line/LBs; coming in to this game, we sat 7th out of 8 teams in sacks; again, not good enough for a team that has Grey Cup ambitions.  True, we got five sacks in this game (which pales next to BC's 12), but this was against an immobile QB on a bad ankle).

If we can fix these two I think we'll be contenders.  The play calling especially in the first half was imaginative and kept the Lions a bit off balance.  We need more of that, a better running game, protection for AC, and we need to get to the opposing QBs better and faster; if we do, we'll be a force to be reckoned with.  If we don't, we won't be.