Running game looks to get untracked
Forgive the hackneyed and hoary horsepower analogies, but, yes, we’re going there again.
The B.C. Lions have themselves a Lamborghini in quarterback Mike Reilly; sleek, powerful, flashy and expensive. How could offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson resist his new toy’s legs, unsurprisingly having Reilly throw 39 times in Saturday’s 33-23 season-opening loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers?
“If you’ve got a Lamborghini ... you just have to make sure it’s tuned up, but we also have a lot more cars in the garage,” said head coach DeVone Claybrooks, who, as entertaining as ever, was happy to roll with the car metaphor.
“I got a few Ferraris, and a Maserati. I have to drive those as well. You can’t just over-drive the one car.”
Sure, the Lions’ new (well, preowned) Lambo ripped it up for 324 yards and a touchdown, but B.C.’s new “hybrid Escalade” — that’s John White IV’s self-described automotive equivalent — was left idling in the garage for the home-opener.
“I feel fresh,” the 27-year-old said Tuesday.
The Leos running back barely warmed up in the game, running
the ball four times for four yards, two of them for losses. He did chip in with three catches for 18 yards, but 17 of those came on a second-quarter dump-off.
The Lions’ four total rushing yards is a far cry from White’s career 5.5-yards-per-carry average set in the first five years of his CFL career, the zenith of which came in 2014 with the Edmonton Eskimos, when he ran for 852 yards and eight touchdowns, earning an all-star nod.
“We need that W,” said White, a Torrance, Calif., native. “Once you get an L, you feel like, ‘What could I have done more?’ I didn’t have too much to play with, but (the offence) growing thing. Great teams know how to bounce back and respond to things. We’ll be good this week.”
The Lions travel to Edmonton on Thursday before Friday night’s date with the Eskimos at Commonwealth Stadium, where White will likely start against the team he spent his first four CFL seasons with.
Esks defensive co-ordinator Phillip Lolley, who coached with both Jackson and B.C. receivers coach Marcus Howell in Saskatchewan (2016-17), isn’t expecting another feeble ground game this week, even if it’s also the return of Reilly to Edmonton.
“They’re definitely going to run it against us. We’re expecting that they’re going to load the box with people,” Lolley told Postmedia News this week. “I’ve matched (Jackson and Howell) in practice. They’ve matched me in practice. They know how I think. They know me. They know my personality. They’re going to try to get the ball out quick.”
While the Lions were far short of the second-lowest Week 1 rushing-attempts total — 12, by Calgary — the number is slightly misleading. There were at least six run/ pass option plays where Reilly elected to throw instead of keeping the ball on the ground.
“We called a lot more run plays than a lot of people suspect … but we didn’t like the read and we trust our quarterback if he pulls out of those,” Claybrooks admitted. “It’s predicated on what the defence gives us in those aspects, but we do have to be more disciplined in it.
“But we want to be a team that can run the ball and take over games that way. We have a great O-line, we have two good backs … we don’t want to put the onus all on Mike. We want balance on offence, just like any team would.”