ROUGHER TIMES AHEAD
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Tyler Hunter had the B.C. Lions’ Marco Iannuzzi down, but the Leos were hardly out Saturday, when B.C. handily defeated the Riders 41-18 at B.C. Place Stadium. The road to the Grey Cup gets steeper for the Lions next Sunday a
Turnover, Manitoba, is not a destination. It’s an attitude — one that has enabled the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ turnaround from 5-13 a year ago to 11-7 in 2016, a vastly improved record that has earned them a playoff date for the first time in five seasons.
That game is Sunday afternoon at B.C. Place Stadium, in the West Division semifinal against the Lions, a team the Blue Bombers have defeated twice this season by ripping out the football, pouncing on mistakes and pilfering passes that lead to easy scores.
Winnipeg led the Canadian Football League with 59 forced turnovers on fumbles, interceptions and losses on downs. The Lions finished at the bottom of the circuit, in a tie with Saskatchewan, at 27 takeaways.
Indeed, the Bombers represent a personal challenge for Lions quarterback Jonathon Jennings, who has never beaten Winnipeg in three career starts, the only team he was yet to defeat.
The super sophomore became only the fourth B.C. quarterback to throw for 5,000 yards in a single season after he took apart the scrambled Saskatchewan Roughriders 41-18 Saturday at B.C. Place Stadium.
Jennings threw three touchdown passes and left the game at the start of the fourth quarter with 5,226 passing yards on his resume for the season, the third-highest total in Lions history behind only Doug Flutie (1991) and Dave Dickenson (2003).
But Saskatchewan is a team not like the others in the CFL’s competitive West. The ineffectual Riders have fattened the Lions’ 12-6 record with three defeats, by a combined 105-51 score to B.C.’s advantage. The Lions were just 2-5 against the rest of the division.
Moreover, the Lions can get away with turning the ball over three times against Saskatchewan — as they did Saturday, with an interception and two fumbles — and still blow out the Riders.
Winnipeg represents an altogether different challenge. And Jennings doesn’t have to be reminded that he threw five interceptions — one-third of his season total — into the arms of Blue Bomber defenders in back-to-back defeats in October. The Lions actually threw a sixth pick when running back Jeremiah Johnson floated one to Winnipeg safety Taylor Loffler on an option play that backfired. To
the list of calamities, add fumbles lost by Bryan Burnham and Chris Rainey in the same game.
The sobering conclusion: The Blue Bombers may not match up to the Lions on paper, but football games aren’t won on vellum.
“We’re going to relax a bit, celebrate this victory, but Winnipeg’s on our minds for sure,” Jennings said. “I’ll definitely be checking out some of that old Winnipeg film. I’ll be ready. Clearly, the difference between us and them this year is turnovers. We haven’t played a clean game against them. We gave away too many opportunities. Once we do something to change that, the rest of our game plan should be fine.”
Bear in mind that the Lions lost both games to the Blue Bombers by a total of five points, and kicker Richie Leone missed three of 10 field goal attempts, while the Bombers’ record-setting Justin Medlock was a perfect 10-for-10. Paul McCallum, activated from retirement, replaced Leone as the kicker Saturday and went four-for-four against Saskatchewan, his longest coming from 44 yards away. (McCallum said he was making attempts from 52 yards in distance during warm-up).
Emblematic of a wary and restless Lions team is Manny Arceneaux, who is catching passes and picking up touchdowns at a pellmell pace. The Manny Show had 10 receptions, 180 yards and two touchdowns against Roughriders, giving him a league-leading total of 13 scores. His 1,566 yards are the most for a Lions receiver since 2006, when Geroy Simon was named the CFL’s most outstanding player, with 1,856 yards, 15 touchdowns and 105 catches (the same number Arceneaux had this year).
A bold striver — Arceneaux set a lofty goal of 1,800 yards and 20 touchdowns this season — he is encouraged by the possibilities ahead, if the Lions can pop the clutch into fifth gear.
“We’re still trying to put together one clean game, four full quarters,” he said.
“That’s what it’s going to take against Winnipeg, minus all the ups and downs. Eliminate the turnovers, the late-game miscues. That’s what cost us both times. We still haven’t put together our best game.”
The recurring letdowns of the Lions late in games — the Mr. Hyde morphing into Dr. Jekyll syndrome — when the team is coasting concerns linebacker Solomon Elimimian. Ahead by 37 points, the Lions allowed running touchdowns by Saskatchewan’s third-string quarterback, Brandon Bridge, and tailback Greg Morris, both from the Toronto area, because of sloppy tackling and half-hearted pursuit, at a time of year when lack of focus shouldn’t be an issue.
“We were upset, I was upset,” Elimimian said. “It comes back to discipline and playing fundamentally sound. Those are plays you don’t want to give up.”
Certainly, posting a big number against Saskatchewan shouldn’t leave any Lion feeling delusional about the much sterner test ahead.
We’re still trying to put together one clean game, four full quarters. That’s what it’s going to take against Winnipeg.