Jennings has some bite in his game again for Lions
We’re just over a week away from the Vancouver Canucks’ home opener, which means we’re just over a week away from the first complaint about Loui Eriksson.
While we wait, here are the musings and meditations on the world of sports to help pass the time.
The B.C. Lions’ impossible victory over the Hamilton TigerCats on Saturday night raised about 54 talking points, but now that things have settled down, one big one remains.
What will its impact be on Jonathon Jennings for the remainder of this season and the remainder of his time with the Lions?
The Leos’ quarterback, as you’re likely aware, has struggled with consistency since his first full season as a starter in 2016. That year, he led the Lions to a 12-6 record while throwing 27 touchdown passes and recording nine 300-yard plus passing games. At 24 he had the look of a nerveless gunslinger and a future MOP. But if we’ve learned anything over the years, we’ve learned career arcs are seldom drawn in a pattern of uninterrupted ascension.
So it was with Jennings. There was an injury early last season. There was a hurried return that eventually cost him the starting job to Travis Lulay. When he took over again after a seasonending injury to Lulay, his confidence was shaken and the Lions were in disarray.
This season Jennings again lost the starting job to Lulay and, at that point, it looked like the team would be moving on from the Columbus Kid. But something happened on Saturday night, something that transcended the crazy win and Jennings’ 346-yard, three-touchdown performance and had at least one man wondering about its larger significance.
“The biggest thing is you have to have self-confidence,” said Lions head coach Wally Buono. “It’s nice for me to believe in you, but if you don’t believe in yourself, it doesn’t matter.
“(Jennings) and I have had a lot of talks about that. So has (Lions offensive co-ordinator) Jarious (Jackson). Hopefully (Jennings) has more confidence in himself, hopefully the team has more confidence in him and the city has more confidence in him. That would be the biggest thing to come out of this.”
With six games left, the Lions are half a game ahead of Winnipeg for the crossover playoff spot and half a game behind Edmonton for third in the West. Three of those final six games are at home, including consecutive starts against Calgary and Edmonton in mid- October that will likely determine their season.
The Lions have a solid defence. With Ty Long, they have a superior kicking game. They just haven’t had a dynamic, big-play quarterback.
At least they didn’t until Saturday night. Let’s see how long this new guy sticks around.
If nothing else, this pre-season should demonstrate to the Canucks’ hockey department and ownership that the faithful are fully on board the rebuild train.
The team looks overmatched. There are still massive holes in the lineup. But that’s of secondary importance to the buzz Elias Pettersson has created. Fans are excited about this kid. Don’t know if they’ll be as excited in December, but if this hockey market is as sophisticated as it believes — and I think it is — they’ll be realistic with their expectations. They’re not asking for a skinny 19-year-old to turn their team around overnight. They’re just asking for a sign that two seasons down the road Pettersson and his young colleagues are on their way to doing that.
This week’s discussion question: Is the Earl Thomas melodrama more interesting to watch than the Seattle Seahawks?
And finally, prior to his win at the Tour Championship, Tiger Woods demonstrated he could compete on the PGA Tour; that he wasn’t the force of nature he once was, but he still had plenty of game left and if the stars were aligned, he could win again.
OK, I didn’t see that win coming this quickly but, in the aftermath of East Lake, we are left to wonder if the Superman of the aughts has returned. That remains unlikely. Whatever else he is, Tiger is 42 and has had more back surgeries than wins over the last five years.
Yet on Sunday, Woods supplied one of those moments that remind us why we’re drawn to sports and its characters.
Take a moment and think of what that win represented: The return of an immortal, the reward for his single-minded determination, the culmination of a comeback that started at the nadir of his professional and personal life and brought him to redemption.
I mean, Shakespeare doesn’t take on themes this big.
Is it overblown? Maybe. But how often do we get an opportunity to celebrate moments like this? How often do we see an athlete plummet from the place Woods once occupied, pick himself up through the sheer force of his will, and come back to thrill us one more time?
For all the tournament wins, for all the magic he’s supplied over the years, this was the moment we’ll remember.
The great man returned, maybe not the giant he once was, but more human and, in the end, bigger than he’s ever been.