Lions end road woes
MONTREAL — Unlucky Travis Lulay watched most of the game from B.C.’s bench, his left shoulder wrapped in ice.
Johnny Manziel watched all of the game from the Alouettes’ bench, and was surely stinging as starting quarterback Antonio Pipkin struggled all night.
T.J. Lee and Anthony Orange had fourth-quarter interceptions for touchdowns to lift the B.C. Lions to their first road victory of the season, a 32-14 win over the Montreal Alouettes.
But the storyline was about the quarterbacks: both the ones who were on the field, and the ones who weren’t.
Lulay was knocked out of the game for the second straight week, injured on the Lions’ first drive of the night thanks to a hit from John Bowman.
“Right now the good thing is it’s his left shoulder,” said Lions coach Wally Buono. “If it’s something we can get resolved then we’ll get it resolved. The left shoulder is easier to deal with than the right.”
Lulay’s replacement Jonathon Jennings completed 19of-30 pass attempts for 180 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
“I guess I had a dress rehearsal last week because it was kind of the same thing,” Jennings said. “It’s always kind of crazy when it happens, but just got to settle yourself down, realize that you’ve got a job to do and go in there and execute.”
Pipkin, a 23-year-old rookie making his third start, was 11 for 22 for 95 yards, with four interceptions. He was sacked six times, prompting a pocket of fans behind the Alouettes’ bench to chant “We want Johnny!”
A day earlier, a healthy Manziel had wondered aloud whether the Als had lost faith in him. The Heisman-Trophy winning QB vented to reporters, saying he thought he’d be “the guy” after recovering from his concussion three games ago.
Als coach Mike Sherman stuck with Pipkin on Friday, saying afterward it was just a bad night.
“There isn’t a quarterback out there in the NFL that hasn’t had a game like this at some point or another, believe me,” Sherman said. “It was bound to happen. Was hoping it wasn’t going to happen tonight, but this is going to happen at some point. It happened tonight.”
The game was still either team’s for the taking when Lee picked off Pipkin with three minutes left and ran 37 yards for a touchdown.
“Honestly, I visualized it two plays before it happened, it was weird,” Lee said. “And when it happened I just jumped it and it felt easy, it felt like practice because we practiced hard, and took one to the end zone and I’m happy about that.”
Orange sent the Molson Percival Stadium crowd of 15,346 streaming toward the exits when he picked off the struggling Als quarterback for a 54-yard touchdown return a minute later.
“Any time the defence can do that, we’re giving ourselves a chance,” Jennings said of the two big plays. “You see Saskatchewan, they’ve been playing like that, similar ball to that. When you do that and your defence can score, a lot of times you have a big chance to win, and I thought they did a tremendous job. It was fun watching.”
Bryan Burnham scored B.C.’s other touchdown, while Trevaughn Campbell’s thrilling 87-yard run after a blocked field goal attempt was Montreal’s only major on the night.
Burnham had five receptions for 104 yards for B.C. (5-6). Eugene Lewis had one reception of 36 yards for the Als (3-9).
The night marked the final game at Molson Stadium for the retiring Buono, who grew up in Montreal and both played and coached here.