LIONS LOOK FOR SPARKS
The defence is great, but the Leos can’t win without offence.
HAMILTON — People have referred to him as a “flake,” which really doesn’t encapsulate the essence of Manny Arceneaux, since he’s anything but dry and boring like the toasted corn cereal from Battle Creek, Mich.
Chroniclers who marshal post-game quotes from a losing locker-room are always on the lookout for people like him, ones who tend toward unorthodoxy in situations where others resort to rote answers and clichés.
Not unduly plagued by the fact the B.C. Lions had lost their third straight game, 19-17 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and with his team firmly ensconced in fourth place in the Canadian Football League’s West Division, Arceneaux buckled a questioner with the radiating joy of this observation:
“We’re going to get it together. It’s going to come, man,” Arceneaux declared. “As long as we execute, and play B.C. Lions football, there’s not a team in the East or the West that can stop us. When we execute, we’re still the best team.”
When asked to respond to a question about his team’s execution, the late John McKay, coaching a dreadful Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL team, once said, “I’m all in favour of it.”
The 7-7 Lions are under the gun in respect to their underperforming offence, and the team is facing friendly fire from Lions fans who question the quarterbacking, the play selection and the ability of head coach Mike Benevides to come up with some answers.
For now, and perhaps for the immediate future, the Lions are a team with a split personality — dominant on defence, messed up on offence.
On Saturday, they allowed the Tiger-Cats to dominate between the 20-yard lines but never enter the end zone. Despite 429 yards in total offence — the bulk of it coming from the arm of quarterback Zach Collaros, who threw for 367 yards — Hamilton needed five field goals from Justin Medlock and two safeties to pull out the win.
It came after Medlock booted an eight-yard field goal with 2:20 left, after Collaros was stopped cold on a quarterback keeper from the one-yard line by linebacker Solomon Elimimian.
“It (the defensive stand) shows you the heart and character of this football team,” Benevides said. “They played hard to the very end. That exhibits how much they care. We’ll get that (winning) play when we need it.”
The offensively challenged Lions seemed to have figured out one part of the equation: how to protect quarterback Kevin Glenn. Behind the same five offensive linemen who played the previous game against Calgary, Glenn was not under siege and had opportunities to make throws. He just didn’t make enough accurate ones, however, finishing the game with 19 completions for only 188 yards.
As a team, the Lions rushed for just 34 yards (15 attempts) against the league’s best defence against the run. But that was still half of what the Ticats normally allow, an average of 82.7 yards through their first 12 games.
Glenn threw a 34-yard pass to Ernest Jackson on a sixplay drive to set up the Lions’ first score, a 27-yard field goal by Paul McCallum, in the first quarter. And the quarterback combined again with Jackson on a 41-yard strike in the third quarter that led to the Lions’ only offensive touchdown. Other than those rare examples of synchronicity, the Lions’ passing attack was mostly a function of dink-and-dunk.
It was left to Arceneaux, a slotback, to produce the signature and singular play on offence, when he took a handoff from Glenn, then launched a 17-yard scoring pass to Shawn Gore. It was the first touchdown pass tossed by a Lions receiver since 2003, when Geroy Simon, who fancied himself a pretty fair chucker, initiated a 53-yard scoring play.
“You know what it’s called — sandlot,” Arceneaux explained. “It’s called a make-something-happen play. Back in high school, I played quarterback. It was the perfect call. Perfect timing. And we executed. In practice, I didn’t make the throw. But the coach had enough faith in me to dial it up in a game. We made it work.”
It gave the Lions a 17-12 lead, but they couldn’t hold it, despite the defence pitching a shutout (except for field goals) for the second straight week. The Lions also denied the Stampeders a touchdown in their previous game, Sept. 27 at McMahon Stadium, but four field goals from Rene Paredes were enough to defeat B.C. 14-7.
While Lions Nation was responding to this latest calamity with torches and stakes for the quarterback and offensive co-ordinator, Arceneaux was singing an unrecognizable song and pounding his chest with his fist above the heart in the locker-room. The message is, apparently, that the Lions still have heart, just let the doubters wait and see.
“I don’t think that’s bravado,” Benevides said. “It’s a man stating his opinion, a veteran leader trying to instil some faith in the guys around him. I think it shows how much of a belief he has in this team.”
“Manny is saying, ‘We do believe,’ ” added linebacker Adam Bighill. “He knows what we’re capable of. But we’ve still got to show it. Until we do, everything else is useless.”