TOUGH STRETCH: The Lions lose their third straight game, falling 31-24 in Ottawa
Another poor performance by Jennings forces Buono’s hand heading into bye week
OTTAWA — Following an afternoon when his CFL team looked confused and distracted from its purpose, Wally Buono provided some much-needed clarity to the B.C. Lions’ most pressing issue.
“The answer should be I’ll take the (upcoming bye) week to mull it over, but you have to look at what happened today,” the head coach said after the Lions dropped a 31-24 decision to the Ottawa Redblacks at TD Place.
“We can’t afford any more mulligans. I’ll sit down with the coaches but, at this point, I think Travis (Lulay) did enough to be our starter.”
The next question is: Can Lulay do enough to drag this team into the playoffs over the final eight games?
Saturday in the nation’s capital, Jonathon Jennings authored his third straight substandard performance which, not coincidentally, resulted in the Lions’ third consecutive loss and brought the team to the point of a crisis.
Jennings, who had the look of the Lions’ franchise quarterback through his first 18 months as a starter, was yanked after a first half in which the Lions failed to score a point and fell behind 18-0.
Lulay then came in and directed a 21-point rally in the fourth quarter that had the Lions in Ottawa territory and trailing by seven with just over a minute left when Redblacks’ DB Sherrod Baltimore jumped a route and deflected the ball into the waiting hands of teammate Jonathan Newsome.
Lulay, still nursing tender ribs, went 18-for-23, 202 yards and two touchdowns in his half of work.
Jennings was 10-for-17 for 137 yards and threw his ninth interception of the season.
The Lions now have a 5-5 record in the West with Saskatchewan sitting at 4-4 and coming off two straight wins.
“It’s tough,” Jennings said. “I haven’t experienced this yet and, obviously, this is something you don’t want to experience. I just feel for my teammates. I hate letting them down and that’s the biggest thing. I don’t care about any outside noise, the media. I want to win for these guys.” And these guys could use a win. “It’s a small positive,” Lulay said of the second-half comeback. “This is what I’ll say: Our guys are disappointed because they care. If guys were OK with losing three in a row and our effort today, then I’d be more concerned.”
During their losing streak, the Lions have made a disconcerting habit of falling behind early. They held form Saturday, digging a hole from which they could not extricate themselves.
With Ottawa quarterback Trevor Harris throwing for 191 yards and generating 244 yards in net offence, the Redblacks buried the Lions in the first two quarters.
“It puts a lot of pressure on the defence when they’re on the field the whole first half,” Buono said.
In his five starts this year, Jennings has failed to produce more than eight points in any first half. Against Ottawa, he threw an end-zone interception on their only meaningful drive of the first quarter.
Late in the second, he also moved the ball deep into Redblacks’ territory where Ty Long promptly missed a 34-yard field goal which Diontae Spencer returned 91 yards, setting up a Brent Maher field goal on the final play of the half.
“I just didn’t do enough, didn’t make any plays,” Jennings said. “I just didn’t put any points on the board in the first half and that killed us. I take that responsibility on myself.”
But with Lulay at the helm, the Lions produced 264 yards of offence in the second half, including touchdown passes to Jeremiah Johnson and Bryan Burnham and another Johnson touchdown run.
Lulay’s touchdown pass to Burnham came after a Ronnie Yell interception gave the Lions the ball on the Ottawa three with just under two minutes left.
“Not much was said,” Lulay said of the mood in the Lions’ locker-room at halftime. “We knew. We’re down three scores on the road. We’ve just got to chip away at the lead. We did a good job of sticking to the offence and believing.”
Buono said: “When you execute on offence it picks up your whole team.”
The Lions now have a week to marinate in their three-game losing streak before they host Montreal on Sept. 8. By then, they could be in last place in the West and out of a playoff spot.
If that reality doesn’t fix their attention, nothing will.
“We thought we were better than this but obviously we’ve proven we’re not,” defensive end Craig Roh said.
“Any time you get slapped in the face, you have to re-evaluate and make changes.”
One big change in this case.