Sep
Lions eager to turn things around
Courtesy Vancouver Province:
The beatdown was enormous and so thorough JoJuan Armour took forever to get up from the chair at his locker, and that was only a matter of relative moments after the Lions’ last game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Once a week had passed and he had gone home to visit family in Toledo, Ohio, it was clear the manner in which the Lions were physically pounded was starting to effect Armour’s focus for his next game against the Montreal Alouettes at B.C. Place Stadium (7:30 p.m., TSN-HD/Team 1040).
There was enough blame to be spread throughout the defensive front seven after an alleged confrontation in which they gave up 393 yards on the ground. Surely few defenders can say they played in many CFL games where they gave up two 100-yard rushing performances, which included 16 runs of 10 or more yards.
Sooner or later though, Armour had to stop beating himself up, even if he is the focus point of the Lions run defence. And with a little help from a former linebacker, he did.
“[Coach] Wally [Buono] had to tell me the other day to let it go, and being that he played linebacker [for Montreal], I kind of related,” Armour said. “You can keep [the loss] for the next game, but it’s not productive.”
The defeat not only reflected poorly on the defensive front
seven, but the chronic inability to create any sort of momentum after the first offensive series against Winnipeg got to Paris Jackson as well.
The receiver made an unscheduled trip for four days last week to visit college friends in Arizona, to try to just forget about the game.
“I decided to try and get back to the mindset of happier days of my life. I didn’t want to hear all the negative vibes. I had to get out of town. Since we were 3-5, it’s been miserable around here,” said Jackson.
They are just two snapshots on a team full of tales, but it becomes pretty clear from their defensive leader and top receiver that the
37-10 loss to the Winnipeg wasn’t just your garden-variety setback.
What remains to be seen from what arguably was the third humiliating loss in their first eight games is whether the Lions are capable of rebounding at all or have resigned themselves to their worst season under Buono since he arrived seven seasons ago.
Despite what would rank as a substantial upset against the 7-1 Als, there are still players who believe recovery is possible.
Armour, for one, was practically begging Montreal to run at the Lions as means to attempt redemption, much the same way as fellow linebacker Korey Banks did immediately after the Winnipeg loss when he called on the Als to turn tailback Avon Cobourne loose.
“We had a talk and that was the thinking. We want them to try and do what another team just did to us especially after going through that,” said Armour.
Get beat, then give a beating.
“The best thing to make you forget about a butt-whipping is giving one,” Armour said. “Hopefully that’s what we accomplish.”
And if they are successful?
“I think this could be the turning point for us,” said Jackson.
It certainly would eliminate the burden felt by some players the past two weeks.
