Lions come up short — again
B.C. offence a calamity of errors in costly home loss to the Roughriders
This is how the B.C. Lions started their biggest game of the year.
On their first possession, Kevin Elliott dropped a pass when the closest person to him was a druid warlord at the Dota2 championship.
On their second possession, the Lions moved the ball into the red zone before Chris Rainey dropped a sure touchdown pass on the same play the Lions went offside.
On their third possession, they took a holding penalty after a 74-yard Rainey kickoff return put the ball on the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ 26-yard line.
Does anyone see a pattern here?
We’d add the fourth possession, ended with a Lulay fumble on second-and-two with the ball at midfield and the fifth featured a holding penalty killing another promising drive. As for the sixth possession, the Lions didn’t get a play from scrimmage because Rainey fumbled the ball away on a punt return.
Given this sequence of events, the wonder isn’t the Lions dropped a 24-21 decision to the Roughriders before a season-high crowd of 22,873. The wonder is they managed to make the final outcome close, but, for all their effort, there is a grim reality to their place in the standings.
At 3-6, the Lions are now two games back of the Roughriders and fourth place in the West. It’s likely the Leos will have to go 6-3 over the second half of their season to have any shot at the playoffs, and right now they seem incapable of going on that kind of run.
If you were wondering why, look at the offence.
Against a Roughriders’ defence that’s mid-table in most statistical categories, Lulay and Co. produced one touchdown — a Lulay-toBryan Burnham hookup in the second quarter — and five Ty Long field goals, but couldn’t sustain any momentum in the second half when the game was on the line.
Lulay finished the night 21 of 36 for 240 yards and the major to Burnham. But the Lions quarterback also went two and out on his first three possession of the third quarter and went two and out again late in the fourth quarter when an Anthony Orange interception gave the Lions the ball at midfield.
The Lions last drive, fittingly, ended when they failed to convert a third and one at midfield. Cody Fajardo’s quarterback sneak came up half a yard short, much like most of this Lions’ season.
“The guys fought hard especially on special teams and defence. I don’t believe our offence gave us an opportunity,” said Lions head coach Wally Buono. “That’s the them. Nothing changed. It’s very disappointing.
“We’re all frustrated.”
OK, it didn’t help that Manny Arceneaux left the game with an injury in the first half but the larger point was the Lions’ defence held up their end of the bargain. After surrendering the early lead, they held Zach Collaros and company to four points in the second half. Remarkably, they still outscored the Lions 4-3 over the final 30 minutes
Collaros did what was required, throwing for 215 yards and serving up the one interception to Orange. He also converted a key second-and-14 from his own 10-yard line with just over three minutes left which allowed the ‘Riders to eat up two minutes off the clock.
Jeremiah Johnson finished the night with 86 yards from the line of scrimmage, including 58 in the passing game. After Arceneaux went down, he and Burnham were the Lions only effective receivers.
The Leos now enter their bye week. Their next game is at home against Ottawa on Sept. 7.