Aug
Lions restore pride with home win
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
This Is Our League, says the CFL. And This Is Our House, declared the B.C. Lions Friday night.
For a while, we were beginning to wonder.
After stumbling at home against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, of all people, and looking positively dreadful against the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders, the Lions stripped off their sad rags and looked like an uptown team with a 35-20 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Not only did the Lions avoid the first 1-5 start by a Wally Buono team in his 20 years of CFL coaching, they brought some needed credibility with their fans and, just as importantly, with themselves. The victory also reeled in the first-place Roughriders, who dropped to 3-3 in a West Division race where mediocrity rules.
A 2-4 record isn’t cause for dancing in Vancouver just yet. With the Toronto Argonauts on the horizon next Friday at Rogers Centre, however, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to follow at BC Place, the Lions could escape the month of August as a .500 team. Imagine that.
Following the Winnipeg game, B.C. has a scheduled bye week before playing the Montreal Alouettes here on Sept. 4.
Despite three turnovers in the first quarter, giving the appearance of a repeat of July 3, when the Lions played givewaway seven times in a 28-24 loss to the ‘Riders, they refused to shoot off more body parts after their rocky start.
And, for a change, the ball could finally be starting to bounce their way.
Indeed, in the final minute of the first half, down 14-12, the Lions pulled off one of the craziest touchdown plays of the CFL season. And it was B.C.’s much-maligned special teams unit that authored it.
Sean Whyte, from his 17-yard line, had his punt nearly blocked by Weston Dressler, but got it away to start the bizarre sequence of plays which led to B.C.’s go-ahead touchdown. The low drive punt was fumbled by Saskatchewan returner Gerran Walker, Jerome Dennis tapped the bouncing ball to James Yurichuk, whose soccer-style kick sent the ball skittering downfield. Jason Arakgi tried to scoop it up but missed before O’Neil Wilson did, on the hop, and outraced his pursuers to the end zone. Five Lions, counting Whyte, had a hand in the 83-yard play which put the Lions ahead 19-14. It was a game-turner. Will it be the play which turns their season around? Who knows?
But the positive developments were many.
? Whyte converted field goal attempts of 44, 43, 18 and 32 yards, boomed his kickoffs deep and had punts soaring with enormous hang time.
? The Lions offensive line, which gave up nine sacks July 3 and had QB Buck Pierce running for his life, allowed just one in the rematch, and that was only after Pierce was tracked down after escaping the pocket.
? Rookie running back Martell Mallett had 10 touches in the first quarter alone and finished the game with 99 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns, the first on a three-yard pass and the second on a 13-yard run in the final minute.
? Ryan Grice-Mullen, he of the slippery fingers and slipping confidence, was a threat waiting to explode upfield on every punt and kickoff return.
? At quarterback, Pierce was sound and in control, completing 11 of his first 13 passes and 26 of 34 altogether for 215 yards and a touchdown.
? The Lions defence, soft and exploitable in a 30-18 loss to the Tiger-Cats last Friday, had three interceptions and held firm in the last six minutes of the game when the Lions turned the ball over at their 20-yard line on yet another botched short yardage play.
? After the ‘Riders made it interesting on a one-yard touchdown plunge by Chris Szarka with 0:58 left, Barron Miles found a gap and blocked Luca Congi’s convert attempt. It was the 13th block of Miles’s sterling CFL career — a league record — separating the 37-year-old Lion from Gerald Vaughn, with whom he was tied.
Still, it was result that could have been partly in the bag after the first half had the Lions not self-imploded with three turnovers and three costly penalties by the special teams units. They also couldn’t contain wide receiver Rob Bagg, who burned the Lions secondary with two long touchdown receptions of 47 and 33 yards to put the ‘Riders ahead 14-7. On the first, rookie cornerback Trestin George was scorched. On the second, a total breakdown allowed Bagg to trot into the end zone untouched
The Lions still haven’t managed to straighten out their short-yardage problems at the goal line, however. And Friday’s method of fouling up one of football’s most conventional plays was unconventional to say the least. After Pierce took the offence 67 yards on the Lions’ first offensive series, Jarious Jackson tried an end zone pass — intended for rookie offensive lineman Justin Sorensen — but it went straight into the arms of Saskatchewan defender Kye Stewart.
When they got the ball back again, the Lions made another advance to the Saskatchewan 30-yard line where Mallett fumbled away yet another scoring drive.
And after going seven-for-seven to start the game, Pierce’s eighth pass attempt was picked off by Sean Lucas and the crowd apprehensively settled in to see what other novel methods the Lions would conjure up to lose again.
But nickelback Korey Banks went airborne like Spiderman, intercepting Darian Durant’s pass at the six-yard line and Pierce found Mallett in the flat on a three-yard touchdown pass two plays later.
For the first time this season, the Lions were beginning to feel at home at home.
