LIONS GIVEN ROUGH RIDE
QB Jennings struggles in return
In his secret self, coach Wally Buono might have seen this one coming.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders, after all, had been embarrassed the week before by the B.C. Lions and now they were home in front of their nutty fans. Lions quarterback Jonathon Jennings was also returning to the lineup after missing a month with a shoulder injury and there was bound to be rust.
But it’s one thing to suspect your team might be flat and/ or ill-prepared. It’s another to watch their systematic and violent destruction over three horrific hours. Sunday evening, the Riders pummelled the Lions 41-8 in one of the most embarrassing performances of the Buono era.
But as graphic as the final accounting was, it still only told part of the story. On top of everything else, the Lions wake up this morning with a bona fide quarterback thing; questions about Jennings, who had his worst outing as a Lion, and massive concerns about their offensive line.
On the other hand, the Riders’ new stadium is really cool, so there was one positive to come out of the weekend.
“We knew we were coming into a hostile place,” Buono said after the carnage. “We knew (the Riders) were going to be a lot more motivated than they were last week. Unfortunately our guys didn’t get the message. When they started the game they couldn’t match Saskatchewan’s intensity. We were no match for them tonight.”
Which is the one thing the Lions might have got right the whole night.
In the first quarter, Jennings went 1-for-3 for three yards
while serving up two room-service interceptions to Ed Gainey, the second resulting in a 49-yard pick six. He was also sacked twice as the Riders, under the terminally mediocre Kevin Glenn, opened a 15-0 lead that turned into 22-0 early in the second quarter and 29-buzz by the end of the first half.
By then, Travis Lulay had replaced Jennings, but the Saginaw Valley State QB came back and finished the game. His final line was 14-of-30 for 195 yards and a whopping four interceptions.
Jennings and Lulay were also sacked four times and pressured another 14 times behind a porous O -line.
Add that one to Buono’s fix-it list.
“I’m not going to hold my head down,” Jennings said. “I’m going to learn from this. A lot of good players go through stuff like this. It’s the first time it’s happened to me, but I’m going to learn from this and get better.”
The Lions now have four measly days to prepare for Friday’s encounter with the powerful Calgary Stampeders. Buono was asked if the loss to the Riders changed his thoughts on the quarterback position.
“I don’t think it does,” he said. “We put Travis in — and maybe we shouldn’t have — but I think it was important to take Jonathon out and give him a breather. There’s a lot of football left. We’re not going to give up on the quarterbacks because they have a bad outing.”
Fair enough. But, when Jennings was out for four games, the Lions’ offence was more dynamic and productive with Lulay at the controls.
“You saw a guy who hasn’t played in (four) weeks,” Buono said of Jennings. “At times he didn’t trust himself. At times he hurt himself. Hopefully that’s out of his system.”
“We know this isn’t who we are, but we played like it tonight,” said Jennings. “We’ve got to own this, then get back to the drawing board.”
Glenn finished the night 19-of-25 for 320 yards and three touchdowns as the Riders ran up 420 yards in offence. That man Gainey also contributed four interceptions. The Lions sole TD came on a meaningless Jenningsto-Chris Williams strike in the fourth quarter.
“We have to believe this is an aberration, but we have to understand we can’t just show up,” said Solomon Elimimian. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. If we just show up like that we’re going to lose 100 per cent of the time. This is on us.”
Not that there was anyone else to blame.
“I’m going to try to stay positive,” said receiver Marco Iannuzzi. “We’ve got a short week here and the worst thing you can do is let a cancer leak into your locker-room because it can spread really quick. Positivity is our friend right now.”
It certainly wasn’t the Riders on Sunday night.