Lions grind out nail-biting win over Redblacks
OTTAWA — A knockout punch? As a lightweight, by nature, Chris Rainey of the B.C. Lions doesn’t pack much of a wallop — except when he has a football in his hands.
Thursday night, the Ottawa Redblacks felt his sting, especially their general manager, Marcel Desjardins.
Rainey unintentionally sent the Redblacks GM flying when he was driven into touch on a 41-yard punt return in the second quarter, part of a 182-all-purpose-yards performance by the Rain Main in the Lions’ 29-23 come-from-behind victory.
Rainey sent Desjardins sprawling, adding injury to the insult the Lions inflicted on the Redblacks in moving their road record to 4-1 and overall record to 6-3, in the first of a twogame Eastern road swing.
“I knew something bad happened when I hit that old man,” Rainey confessed. “I felt something give in his leg. I hope he’s OK, though.”
Desjardins, an “old man” of 50, left the park with a suspected torn ACL. He was on crutches as he passed the Lions’ locker-room after the game, headed for a further medical assessment on Friday.
“I didn’t see much of the game after it happened,” Desjardins explained. “Rainey? He’s very quick, very fast. He’s a player we knew we had to try and stop. He’d be playing down south (NFL), if he wasn’t so small.” “Chris is very dangerous,” added Lions head coach Wally Buono. “Ottawa was trying to keep the ball out of his hands.” Not that successfully. In the third quarter, Rainey was on the receiving end of a 10-yard touchdown pass from Jonathon Jennings, on a play where he left four Redblacks defenders grasping for air. It was one of his 11 touches in the game, four of them on running plays.
“I’ve been trying to bend Wally’s ear to let me rush the ball more,” Rainey said. “In the beginning (of the season), he was afraid I might get hurt. With teams starting to kick the ball away from me now, I’m fresher on the sidelines. I think he’s starting to come around.”
It was a game in which to lionize the versatility of Rainey and the leadership of Jennings, who put together a winning drive late in the fourth quarter, after the Lions trailed 23-21.
On that critical, eight-play drive, Jennings connected with Manny Arceneaux (24 yards) and Bryan Burnham (34 yards) to put Travis Lulay into position for a one-yard touchdown run, the winning score.
In only his 15th regular-season career start, Jennings paid a heavy price, however. He was buffeted by a furious rush and sacked six times. Nonetheless, he managed to throw for almost 300 yards (289) without a pick and represented leadership incarnate.
“He made some big-time plays when the pressure was on him,” Buono said. “Jonathon’s growing, he’s learning, and he will continue to grow. He’s a soft-spoken kid, but he’s tough. He’s physically tough and mentally tough.”
“He’s a commander, a leader in the huddle,” added running back Anthony Allen, making his first start since July 29. “The players have a lot of faith in him.”
Allen rushed for 76 yards on 13 carries, including a jaunt of 22 yards, which is the longest by a Lions running back this season. Thoughts of last Friday’s 37-9 beatdown by the Calgary Stampeders were left in his slipstream.