The Checkdown: B.C. Lions are heading to the playoffs! (Now forget about Saturday)

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Three minutes into Saturday’s game, B.C. Place began to murmur, then roar, as the 19,323 fans reacted to the Jumbotron.

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The message displayed: The B.C. Lions had — at long last — clinched a playoff berth.

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Yes, for the first time since 2018, the Leos are heading to the post-season. With the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Ottawa Redblacks both losing this week, it clinched a playoff berth for B.C.

With the Redblacks losing 45-15 to the Toronto Argonauts in the game just before B.C. kicked off with Calgary, the Leos had qualified before their own game had even started.

NEXT GAME

Friday

Ottawa Redblacks vs B.C. Lions

7:30 p.m., B.C. Place. TV: TSN. Radio: AM 730.

But the moment of joy was fleeting, as the Calgary Stampeders leaned on the Lions like an offensive lineman on a folding chair — eventually buckling the B.C. defence and winning 25-11. The Lions’ offensive output was minuscule compared to their season averages — or even their win over Calgary the week before.

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But head coach Rick Campbell was quick to say the early game news had nothing to do with their performance.

“I don’t think so. We never even talked about it,” he said. “I didn’t even know that until we walked in afterwards. It’s amazing the stuff I miss on (the Jumbotron).”

BAFFLED AND BRUISED

First, let’s put it to bed. Vernon Adams Jr. is still the B.C. Lions’ starting quarterback.

Full stop.

“He gives us a chance to win. I don’t think it was his day or our whole football team’s day,” said Campbell. “I hope the guy is not too hard on himself. Quarterbacks are such driven guys; I don’t want to play the roller-coaster game. He’s the same guy that won us a big game last week.

“Vernon is our guy.”

And Adams was The Man last week, leading the Lions to their first win in the absence of Nathan Rourke, putting up nearly 300 yards with a 78-per-cent completion rate. He was efficient, didn’t force the ball and when the pass wasn’t there, took off and ran for another 32 yards.

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But on Saturday, it was the same opponent, but a different story. Adams completed just 12-of-24 passes for 151 yards and zero touchdowns. But he had zero interceptions, too, despite being harassed and sacked five times by the Stamps.

Post-game, Adams wasn’t sure what had happened, what was different from last week to this. The game was too fresh, the frustration too evident, to provide an answer.

“They … I don’t know, I don’t know, really,” he said. “They were playing a lot of man, but that didn’t stop us from doing what we do. I might have missed a few throws and that was it.

“We’ve got to try to stay on the field, move that ball, hit those big plays when they come. I don’t know. I don’t know man. I gotta watch the film. We gotta watch film and we’re gonna see and we’re gonna get right.”

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Adams was particularly effective in the tough mid-range pass game last week, going 6-for-6 on passes between 10-19 yards for 107 yards and getting five first downs.

On Saturday, he was 6-for-12 in that range, with neither his timing nor his accuracy on target.

Of Adams’ 12 drives, five ended in four or fewer plays. Nine were punts, one throwaway drive ended by the halftime whistle, one turnover on downs near the end of the game, and one Sean Whyte field goal from 33 yards.

The Lions made it to Calgary territory three times, and just once inside their 53.

When Antonio Pipkin came in at the end of the game for the final possession, he took the Lions 69 yards in nine plays, connecting on 4-of-6 passes for 66 yards and a 19-yard touchdown to Dominique Rhymes.

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“I wanted to give Vernon the chance,” Campbell said of sticking with Adams so long.

“He’s proven we can win games with him. We wanted to keep going. And sometimes that success that happens late is a product of the score and what’s going on in the game.

“We wanted to get Vernon out of there once we knew it was out of reach and good for Pip and good for our guys for competing all the way till the end and not giving up.”

BAD STAT OF THE DAY

J.C. Abbott’s been around football for a while. But he doesn’t remember seeing anything like this.

Lions on second down Saturday: 19 attempts, three first downs, 48 total yards.

Lions on third down Saturday: Six attempts, five first downs, 53 total yards.

That’s right. B.C. had more yards on third down than they did on second down. Their conversion percentage of 16 per cent was in the sub-basement compared to their average of 52.7, the second best mark in the CFL.

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BAD GAME, GOOD GAME

The Lions gave up 25 offensive points Saturday, which is less than two above their season average. But that’s not bad for playing defence for 34:02 of the game.

And macro view, B.C. may have surrendered 436 net yards, they only conceded one touchdown in the first 11 of the 12 drives of the game.

The Stampeders only had four field goals from Rene Parades, and a blown coverage on Jalen Philpot that set them up inside the B.C. five-yard line, before a deflated Lions team conceded a late game major to Peyton Logan. The Stamps running back blew up angles, ran through arm tackles and jersey grabs, then spun his way into the end zone for a 19-yard score with just under two minutes left.

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Calgary running back Ka’Deem Carey had 84 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries — though half of his output came on just three runs — while Logan added three carries for 25 (including his touchdown run).

“I thought we were playing well enough to win a CFL game on defence,” said Campbell. “We gave up some big plays we didn’t want to give up, and then the (bad) tackling — especially late — which was frustrating for any defensive player. And (Carey) and (Logan) for Calgary are excellent players that run hard all the time, every week, and if you don’t finish them off, they make you pay. So that part was frustrating later in the game. I know our players are frustrated over that.”

That would explain TJ Lee’s thought’s post-game.

“This is probably our worst game as a defence in terms of yards. We gave up a lot of yards on the field,” said the defensive back, who returned from a hamstring injury suffered in their Aug. 26 meeting with Saskatchewan.

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“And then angles and tackling … so when we focus on those details, we will be a better defence and give our offence better field position. We got in our own way on penalties, angles to the ball, tackling, wrapping up … so as a defence, if we want to be a great defence, we got to clean it up — especially towards the tail end of the season.”

Lee was likely not happy his third interception of the season, coming with three minutes left and the game still in doubt, was wiped out on a roughing the passer call. But for the record, three teams have put up more yards on the Leos — including Calgary, in B.C.’s 41-40 win on Aug. 13.

But for the third time this season, the Lions couldn’t get to a Stampeders quarterback, and didn’t record a sack. Nor did they record an interception, or any turnover of any sort.

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“We need to we need to find ways to generate turnovers, and flip the field for our offence. That’s that’s mainly the thing that we’re focused on,” said Lee.

MAIL BAG

Here’s what they were saying online this weekend:

The people agree!

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Coach Campbell’s post-game talk

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The national anthem sung by Lions receiver Josh Pearson was hitting all the right notes with the fans.

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Tweet of the night goes to Patrick:

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[email protected]

twitter.com/TheRealJJAdams

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