The Checkdown: Perfect start for B.C. Lions gives way to struggles, but the W is all that matters

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Let’s talk about the start first, because that was just about perfect.

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Vernon Adams Jr. was dropping dimes. He juked and shimmied his way out of collapsing pockets immediately to get positive yards if he couldn’t find a receiver.

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Running back James Butler III was ripping off his usual hopscotch power runs, taking in his first carry of the night nine yards to paydirt.

Two minutes and 10 seconds into the game, the B.C. Lions had covered 50 yards, and taken a 7-0 lead over the Blue Bombers. The next series was a two-and-out that included a sack, portending of things to come.

They did put together a 60-yard drive on their next series, their longest of the night, but another sack put an end to that drive, and Sean Whyte booted a field goal — his first of four on the night.

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The B.C. Place crowd — announced at a sellout of 24,280 but closer to 18,000 in reality — got to see way more of the home team’s defensive unit than the offence. The Lions’ time of possession? Just 25:14. Seventy-five per cent of their possessions (9/12) were for four plays or fewer.

Vernon Adams was 13-of-22 for 138 yards and a touchdown (23 yards to Dominque Rhymes), but never got into a groove and was sacked three times. B.C. had a net offensive total of 248 yards.

So how did the Lions topple Winnipeg at the Dome for the first time since 2018?

Let us count the ways:

341

That’s the yardage compiled by kick returner Terry Williams, whom the Lions acquired in mid-season to shore up their return game. The 5-foot-7 speedster has the speed of the Flash but has to use the strength of the Hulk to get his yardage in B.C.’s return unit. Constantly outnumbered by the coverage team when he catches the ball, he broke through tackles and spun out of the Bombers clutches to make big gains, putting B.C. at midfield or better five times — including the opening kickoff, which he took back 60 yards.

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His best play of the night might not even be a return, too. Late in the fourth quarter, with Winnipeg kicking off after scoring a late touchdown to cut it the B.C. lead to eight points, Winnipeg’s Marc Liegghio sent it deep into Lions territory. It trickled towards the sidelines around the 15 yard line, and Williams — seeing the coverage net pinning him with nowhere to go — put one foot out of bounds before he picked up the ball.

The result was an illegal kickoff penalty against Winnipeg with a minute left in the game, one that gets enforced from the Lions’ 40-yard line. B.C. got the ball and wiped 30 seconds off the clock with two Butler runs, then booted the ball back to the Bombers 32.

An assist has to go to the injured Lucky Whitehead, who spotted Winnipeg’s Janarion Grant miss the opportunity to do the same thing three minutes earlier. He made sure to get in the ear of Williams to make him aware of the situation.

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“He’s a good one,” said head coach Rick Campbell. “I said, ‘you are a sharp kid,’ because he knew that rule. That’s a huge play to have the ball all the way out to the 50-yard line with the field position. Our return game’s been trending in the right direction. And it’s just nice to see him have a have a breakout game.”

“Man, Terry did his thing,” added cornerback TJ Lee. “He had about 1,000 yards today, didn’t he? He didn’t finish, but I told him ‘It’s more important when you finish later.’ Finish later, finish in the playoffs. So he did a good job of flipping the field position for us and giving us that energy we need to make plays and score touchdowns and kicks.”

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157

That’s the combined yardage on the pick-six interceptions by Lee and Marcus Sayles. That was more than the team’s passing yardage total (138).

Sayles kicked things off with a 45-yard interception of Dru Brown, making his first career CFL start, with 2:54 left in the first half.

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Lee undercut a Nic Demski route and took his interception 102 yards to the house from the B.C. eight-yard line with 2:36 left in the game to provide the winning points. It was just his second career pick for a score, and the longest return of his career.

He stumbled after getting the ball at first, but recovered in time to streak the other way.

“Up, up, up, up,” he said of what was going through his head as he began to lose his balance.

“And then knees up, and then cut across the field to make sure nobody could catch me. My teammates did a good job blocking. I was hoping somebody said pitch because I wasn’t ready to go that far. But you know what? I put one foot in front of the other, gave my daughter that flip into the end zone.

“We came together as a D and as a team. We made more big plays than they did. And as defensive backs, we harped on the details and making more plays than them. And that’s what it equaled — two pick-sixes. I took Marcus’s energy and turned into my own pick six.”

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Post-game, he said the ball was dedicated to his wife’s grandma, Gigi, and would be going up on the trophy wall.

“The big plays,” Campbell said, pointing to the defensive scores and special teams returns.

“I think those big plays, those explosive plays, are a huge part of being able to win in the CFL. And I’m proud that we kept with it. It got down to six points (in the fourth quarter). But our guys, we didn’t start pointing fingers or people weren’t hanging their heads, and that’s the biggest thing for me. It’s easy when things are going well. It’s when things aren’t going well and how you respond to it. And I think we were able to stick with it tonight and grind out a win.”

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SWEET 16

The B.C. Lions’ magic number to clinch second in the West Division is down to one.

The Calgary Stampeders lost to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday, and the Leos made sure to take full advantage. They have two games remaining in the regular season — both on the road.

But the first one, next week in Edmonton, provides the best chance to do it. But it could also be the biggest banana peel game in history.

The Elks are on a historically bad 16-game losing streak at Commonwealth Stadium. They haven’t won at home since 2019, a span of 1,100 days after their loss to the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.

But their last home victory came against … the B.C. Lions.

Edmonton played the Argos tough, with the Boatmen taking the lead for the first time with just 27 seconds left in the game.

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Asked about the dangers of this game after Saturday’s win, Campbell joked: “You’re doing this to me again! I’m supposed to be able to enjoy a win for at least 20 minutes.

“Now, it’ll be a tough game. As you know, with Edmonton, you don’t always know what you’re gonna get. And they’ve shown that they can beat anybody in this league and it’s obviously a big game for us.

“It’s weird. We were talking, and since I’ve been here, we’ve never played in Edmonton. We had a pandemic and then we never played there last year because of the way the schedule fell, and then we obviously still haven’t played there yet this year. So it’s been a long time since we’ve been to Commonwealth Stadium. So it’ll be a big game.”

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MISSING IN INACTION

The Bombers, trying to stay healthy and prepare for the West Final they host in November, sat several players for Saturday’s game — including starting quarterback Zach Collaros — and leading some to dub the team fielded a ‘B’ team.

But the same could be said of the Lions, who were without Lucky Whitehead, Bryan Burnham and Nathan Rourke due to injury.

And they nearly lost their leading receiver on Saturday, too.

After catching a first down pass midway through the fourth quarter, Dominque Rhymes was side-suplexed into the ground by Winnipeg defender Brandon Alexander — the same player who broke Whitehead’s hand last season. Rhymes stayed down, motionless, for several minutes while being attended to by the training staff.

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He went to the sidelines, and did not return the game. The play was contentious, as it appeared to come after the official had blown it dead. Rhymes reportedly made his way to the Bombers locker-room across the tunnel from B.C.’s after the game looking for Alexander.

None of the Lions wanted to delve too deeply into the play in the post-game availability.

“That’s a tough spot,” Adams told JC Abbott of 3DownNation after the game.

“I thought the refs blew the whistle and you want to take care of the players; you don’t want to get anyone hurt off of some extra stuff. The ref thought it was clean, so we’ve just got to kind of live with that. But it’s tough seeing that happen to one of your guys.”

“I think he’s OK,” Campbell said of Rhymes. “I sit on the rules committee and we talk all the time about player safety. And I just hope that is paramount. I need to see the play. I don’t have much of a comment other than I really hope we put our money where our mouth is and say that player safety is paramount and we’ll err on the side of protecting players.”

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