Lions lead offensive resurgence
Veteran, defensive-minded coach at helm of highest-scoring team
Nobody has asked Wally Buono lately about his tastes in classic television viewing. A good guess might be That ’70s Show.
The 66-year-old sideline saviour of the B.C. Lions remains a throwback in an era of young, headset-wearing coaching heroes, yet he practically revels in his antiquity.
“Wally has nice hair. Why mess it up?” quips Dave Dickenson, the headset-wearing first-year head coach of the Calgary Stampeders.
An analog guy in a digital era, the one consistent knock against him is that Buono, a defensive-minded coach in keeping with his linebacking background, has never had the faith or the daring to be an innovator.
And yet, here he is, “managing” the 5-2 Lions — the highest scoring team in the Canadian Football League, averaging 32.3 points per game — with a chance to take over first place in the West Division tonight with a win over the 5-1-1 Calgary Stampeders.
“We play a very fast, very aggressive, very exciting brand of football,” Buono said Thursday.
The Lions, who have scored 40, 41, 38 and 45 points in their past four starts, are at the vanguard of an offensive explosion in the CFL — even if, as Buono says, he “might be the only coach in the world who doesn’t wear a headset.
“There are too many distractions,” he explains. “If I put a headset on, it’s almost as if I go into a vacuum. I’m not feeling the game, I’m not feeling the bench, I’m not feeling anything. I don’t believe I’d have the same effect on the game as I’d need to.”
After four years of adhering to front-office duties, Buono’s return to the sidelines has seen him adapt by resisting the urge to micro-manage too much. He has placed more power in the hands of his assistants, using a skeleton key to unlock their talents, while remaining the ringmaster.
“I move to where I need to to get information,” he said. “Whose job is it to call the plays? It’s the offensive co-ordinator or the defensive co-ordinator. With a headset, I feel I can’t manage the game.”
However, the classic game manager, in a quarterbacking sense, who performs just well enough to win while riding the coattails of the defence, is a dinosaur these days.
Two years removed from the CFL’s dead-ball era, the Lions and other teams are taking advantage of rule changes, and the growth of
inexperienced quarterbacks into formidable throwers, and putting on an offensive show most nights.
Borderline unwatchable, the CFL brand of 2014 featured a touchdown-free, 7-5 Lions’ victory over Ottawa that was the league’s lowest scoring game in 35 years.
According to CFL statistician Steve Daniel, 18 players are on pace for 1,000 yards receiving this season. In 2014, there were three.
Completions are averaging 51.3 per game — a 15 per cent increase over 2015 — and 300-yard passing games have become the new standard. The Lions’ second-year quarterback, Jonathon Jennings, has thrown for at least 300 yards four games in a row. Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell has done it five times in seven games.
“You’ve got a lot of young QBs in the league now, who can move around and make plays,” says Mitchell, who is only 26 but in his fifth CFL season. “You’ve got a lot of great receivers in the league, and guys (QBs) are staying healthy. What I see in Jon (Jennings) is a great athlete. When given the opportunity to go out and make plays, he has.”
Caretakers? Not these playmakers. Dickenson said there are traits of Brett Favre — the ultimate riskreward quarterback, a gambler who could drive coaches crazy — in both Mitchell and Jennings.
“Favre basically trusted his arm. He thought he could make every throw, no matter what the coverage,” Dickenson said. “Bo has a little bit of that in him. But he’s managing the pocket better this year and he keeps winning.”
Lions fans were left puzzled by a rash, late-game throw by Jennings in his last outing against the Stampeders — a ball that was intercepted by Ciante Evans and allowed Calgary to go on to a 4441 overtime victory. Conservative game-managing? No way.
“He’s (Jennings) also willing to take chances,” Dickenson said. “The coaches must have faith in him. If you’re not sure you’re going to stay in there or not, sometimes it will back a young quarterback off. Seems like B.C.’s settled on Jonathon as their guy.”
The coaching world is very conservative, and Buono could have gone with the more experienced, conservative choice. But being a genius in the football business is having a great quarterback or one trending in that direction. That bedrock belief has sustained oldschool or adaptable Wally Buono for decades — and still does.
If I put a headset on, it’s almost as if I go into a vacuum. I’m not feeling the game, I’m not feeling the bench, I’m not feeling anything. I don’t believe I’d have the same effect on the game as I’d need to. Wally Buono, B.C. Lions head coach