JENNINGS IS NOW RUNNING ON FUMES AS LIONS QUARTERBACK
I knew if I lived long enough I’d see England one win away from a World Cup final and Germany home and cooled out. While we await the drama to unfold in Russia, here are the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
At this point in their season the B.C. Lions can’t stop the run or the pass, can’t move the ball and they lack team discipline. Though their first three games, the only thing they’ve had is a semblance of a running game with Jeremiah Johnson which, of course, they’ve had to abandon by the second quarter because their defence can’t stop a sneeze.
That was the case in Edmonton two weeks ago and the case again in Winnipeg on Saturday night. But, just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the Lions, the two key figures in the Bombers’ lopsided win were Andrew Harris and Adam Bighill, two former Lions the team let go because they didn’t want to pay them.
This isn’t what Wally Buono’s final year as a head coach was supposed to look like and now, any hope of a turnaround appears to be riding on Travis Lulay, a 34-year-old quarterback coming off major knee surgery.
In the CFL it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, which is the faint hope clause for the Lions and their supporters. But right now, this is just a bad football team coming off two embarrassing losses and facing a brutal schedule.
Maybe it will get better but here’s a cheery thought. It could get worse.
On a happier note, the Whitecaps put on a show Saturday night at B.C. Place highlighted by Alphonso Davies. If you missed Davies’ play on Kei Kamara’s game-winning goal — a mad sprint down the sidelines before he danced past two Chicago Fire defenders, then, as he was falling out of bounds, squared the ball to Kamara — do yourself a favour and check it out.
Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson was asked how many players in the world can make that play. “A few of them,” he said. “If you watch the World Cup, you’ll see lots of them.” Precisely.
That’s the territory Davies is now carving out for himself. He’s electric in space and, with Kamara and Yordy Reyna, the Whitecaps have the makings of an exciting team.
Europe is going to come calling for the teenager, but the Caps owe it to their fan base to at least explore the possibility of keeping him around a little while longer.
Still with Robinson. The Whitecaps’ head coach is a proud Welshman but his roots run deep through English soccer. He was also born in 1976, a decade after England’s last World Cup win and has known only defeat and disappointment on the international stage in his lifetime.
He was asked about England’s place in the World Cup semifinal.
“I’m happy for them,” he answered. “People are quick to jump on people, especially in England. The media are good people and they’re good at their jobs but it becomes harsh sometimes. Everyone expected England to fail. I think it’s great for the country. The interest in the tournament is brilliant. I think England will go all the way. Will they win it? You’ll never hear me say that.”
Kam Chancellor, gone. Richard Sherman, gone. Michael Bennett, gone. Cliff Avril, gone. Earl Thomas, one foot out the door.
That leaves linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright as the last men standing from the Seattle Seahawks’ championship defence. Sad, really. It hasn’t even been four years since the Seahawks coughed up a Super Bowl XLIX to the New England Patriots but it feels like an eternity.
Other NFL defences lasted longer. Others produced more championships. But, at their peak, the Seahawks’ D were as good as any of them.
Finally, we’d like to add a couple of points to the LeafsCanucks’ comparison from last week.
More than a couple of respondents stated emphatically the Leafs had a huge advantage with the number of young players in their system when Brendan Shanahan took over in 2014. We’ll concede they had an edge. But their under-25 club consisted of Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Morgan Rielly while the Canucks had one young building block in place when Trevor Linden took over the same year, Bo Horvat.
Both the Leafs and Canucks, in fact, had drafted abysmally prior to Shanahan and Linden taking over their respective teams. The Canucks’ drafting from 2007 to 2012 is just depressing. But the Leafs’ drafting through the aughts — with the exception of top-10 picks Kadri and Luke Schenn — is just as bad.
The biggest difference between the Leafs and Canucks from four years ago concerned their highest-salaried players. The Leafs had Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf who had both worn out their welcome in Toronto. Moving both players was relatively easy for Shanahan, which cleared cap space and the way for a fullon tank.
It was a different story with the Sedin twins, especially after they led the Canucks to a 101-point season in 2014-15 and both were top-10 scorers. That season created the illusion the Canucks could stay competitive while they rebuilt their core, which led to a series of moves well known to the faithful. The Linden-Jim Benning regime has made mistakes but their hands were tied when it came to the Sedins.