Jim Mullin
CFL.ca
The City of Vancouver and the Province of British Columbia are traditionally tough on three vocations:
Goalies, quarterbacks and coaches.
And since we’re out of the hockey season, and Roberto Luongo does not have to engage in 250 days worth of the same old questions about consistency, sprinkled with enquires about his groin, the football team is in the gun sights of the critics.
It has been asked if Wally Buono, the CFL’s all-time leader in wins by a coach is getting a free ride this year from this country’s football reporters.
I’d say to a certain degree the answer is yes.
The reason the answer is yes is because he’s earned the benefit of the doubt by turning a basket case of a team into a Grey Cup Champion in four seasons. It has been noted that the Lions are 2-8 in their last 10. An 8-10 season in 2009 is nothing to be all that pleased about either.
The die was cast for this last season.
Buono felt the need to cut and retool. He willfully chopped away veteran talent, while also choosing not to sign returning players from the NFL.
Perhaps he cut a little too deeply.
Do you think that Bob O’Billovich in Hamilton does not drop to his knees and genuflect westward thanking Buono every day for getting to rebuild his defense around linebackers Otis Floyd and Jamall Johnson?
However, the defensive problems have been taken care of this year. That is the least of the Lions worries.
They are at 1-4 at this stage of the season, identical to last year. They have improved talent wise and lost their last two games via two plays, as opposed to a combined 51 points in 2009.
Buono is not getting the worst of it in the media and in cyberspace. That distinction is being reserved for offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine. Wally’s right hand offensive man has become Vancouver’s summertime piñata.
In defence of his offence – outside of the Saskatchewan loss where Buono admitted they were outcoached – much of the finger pointing has to be directed at veteran players on the offence. All of the errors are on game deciding plays or have taken points off the board.
The list of mistakes is short, but could end up making it a long season. Jamal Robertson fumbled at the Toronto two-yard line and the Montreal 30-yard line at key stages of the second half in one-score games, both losses.
Emmanuel Arceneaux dropped a sure-fire TD reception on the first play of the second half against the Argos which would have made the score 24-10 Lions. Instead, the gaffe opened the door for a Double Blue comeback.
In Edmonton last week, centre Angus Reid snapped the ball a second and a half early with the Lions down by three at the Eskimo 38 with under a minute remaining. The result? The hot route for the receiver wasn’t set, quarterback Travis Lulay was taken by surprise, fumbled the ball on a hit and the game was over.
There’s your difference between 4-1 and 1-4.
Still, these plays have been repeated chapter and verse since day one of training camp and the brain farts keep coming.
Chapdelaine can quiet the critics on Saturday with not only a win, but with a pattern and a game plan that is less predictable.
Another problem is the gamble Buono took at quarterback.
The on-again, off-again career of Casey Printers is off again.
In all fairness to Lulay – who has shown he could be a QB of the future in this league – Buono and company have hitched their wagon to Printers, who remains hobbled with a cranky knee and vexing passing mechanics which have been off the rails since training camp.
So, this year with their stumbling start, Buono, his coaching staff and Printers have made things easy for the “nattering nabobs of negativity”.
Saturday’s game against the Stampeders isn’t a ‘must win’ game.
It’s a you-sure-to-hell-better-win game.
Or that free pass will be revoked.
