From the Lions' Den

Solar Max made the trip to Cowtown this past weekend to watch his beloved Lions take on the Stamps. Here's his take on the game.

The suitcases were packed, the plane awaited, as did the Calgary Stampeders. Even though the Lions had clinched First Place last week, there was still a pride factor involved, as many still vividly remember the “Slide of ‘05”.  Notably absent from the media were any references to players on the other team, and a concentration on the game at hand. That was a welcome change from the previous week. Also absent were Lions quarterback Dave Dickenson, who was recovering from a concussion suffered on September 16^th against the Alouettes. Dave stayed in BC to avoided flying, which can aggravate concussion symptoms. This once again left the reins in the hands of sophomore qb Buck Pierce, in his fifth start as a Lion, undefeated in the previous four.

The weather was cool and wet, a welcome change from our Den, where things are so stable all of the time. The first thing that impressed (besides the hospitality of the vast majority of Stampeder fans) was the inordinate amount of Orange scattered throughout the Tailgates and later inside McMahon. It was a great turnout by Lions fans, one to be proud of.

As the game began, the Leos looked solid offensively behind quarterback Buck Pierce, and marched down the field in convincing fashion, followed by a Field Goal. Then it fell apart. Calgary saw the vanilla offence that BC was running, and brought their dbs and linebackers into close coverage, all but smothering the BC passing attack. On defence, another vanilla showing was seemingly using a BC version of Rich Stubler’s “bend but don’t break” Defence. Calgary Offensive Coordinator Steve Buratto adjusted brilliantly to the BC D, running Joffrey Reynolds and throwing to Nik Lewis over the middle on crossing routes.

As per normal, Lions’ Offensive Coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine did NOT adjust at halftime, or if he did, said adjustments were ineffective. In his defence, Pierce suffered a slight re-injury to his throwing arm near the half, and Lions third stringer Jarious Jackson led the Offence from that point on, limiting what the Offence could do. The Lions did not want to show the Stampeders anything for the Western Final, and the fact that Jackson gets limited reps with the first team, practicing mostly with the Practice Roster group, made for a long second half for Lions fans.

While the Offence struggled, the Defence settled into a fairly effective place, and allowed the Stampeders to throw the ball underneath, while trying to limit the deep ball to Copeland or Rambo. An interception by Banks early, and a fumble recovery by Brebt Johnson kept Calgary in check for a time, but the faithful knew that it was only a matter of time before Henry Burris broke out of the Lion chokehold.

Of note on Sunday were the tribulations of Paul McCallum, who missed 2 key field goal attempts in the first half, and the block of a Burke Dales punt late in the fourth quarter that Ryan Thelwell picked up and ran into the end zone for a BC touchdown to make the score respectable, even though the teams were not that close. Over the day, Calgary was by far the better club. For the Lions, it may be tough to motivate themselves for 2 more meaningless games against Hamilton and Winnipeg, but on the other side of the ball, at least they can’t lose a playoff spot by coming out flat in a “must win” situation, as they have in other years.

The hit of the day belonged to Lions’ Ricky Foley, who threw a great one armed block on a streaker in the second half, knocking him 4 or 5 yards backwards onto the soggy Field Turf. It was a sight to behold.