B.C. Lions’ offence still hung up on Winnipeg: nine thoughts on losing the West Final

The B.C. Lions were accused of being West Coast pretty boys by the Winnipeg faithful all week in the lead-up the the Western Final, but played ugly football when it mattered most in a 24-13 loss to the Blue Bombers.

Here are my thoughts on B.C.’s second-round playoff exit.

Hung Up

When you begin a season in any sport, you hope that the soundtrack of your final game will be We Are The Champions by Queen. It seemed that the B.C. Lions had plenty of time for losers on Saturday, setting their season-ending loss to the tune of Madonna’s Hung Up instead.

A chorus of “time goes by, so slowly” played on endless repeat is the only way to adequately describe Vernon Adams Jr.’s internal clock in the West Final. A week ago against Calgary, he was decisive with his legs and quick with his reads to generate a career-best performance. In Winnipeg, he was painfully slow to make decisions and held onto the ball for eons, surrendering nine sacks while completing just 50 percent of his passes for 221 yards.

Make no mistake, this failure does not rest solely on VA’s shoulders. No matter how much better their performance was than the box score would suggest, no offensive line is guiltless in the face of that volume of sacks. B.C.’s star-studded receiving corps — the self-professed strength of this team — was not firing on all cylinders and struggled to generate any separation after losing their leader Keon Hatcher. And offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic never adapted to the spiralling situation, failing to get his quarterback outside the pocket or hand him simple reads to settle into a rhythm.

It also didn’t help that Adams was clearly hampered by his already injured knee for much of the game, tweaking it early in the first quarter. He was visibly limping between plays and appeared in discomfort post-game, though neither the play-calling nor his play style ever seemed to adapt to take pressure off the injury.

Amidst a complete and utter systemic failure, the offence netted just 189 total yards. So often, Adams needed to make a decision — any decision — but was caught buffering, allowing a clean pocket to collapse and pressure to find him. He ran aimlessly on his injured leg behind the line of scrimmage rather than decisively forward, never placing the defence in a bind as he did a week ago. His three interceptions were all accompanied by valid excuses — a tipped ball, a tripped-up receiver, and a late-game prayer — but most viewers would have happily accepted a repeat of his six-pick game if it meant actually seeing the ball leave his hands.

VA has proven this year that he is an elite CFL quarterback and can lead this team going forward. That hasn’t changed, but it won’t be lost on his critics that many of his worst performances have come when the stakes are highest. After making massive strides over the last two years in terms of his preparedness and mental toughness, there is still work to be done before he can earn the ring that players at his position are ultimately judged on.

One Drive to Rule Them All

If you had told anyone that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would be held to just 263 yards of net offence this week, they likely would have used that information to place a bet on the B.C. Lions. Instead, offensive ineptitude will leave an excellent performance from Ryan Phillips’ defence unrewarded.

While the unit fell short when it came to generating turnovers, B.C. gave themselves every opportunity for a comeback by making timely stops. Winnipeg was held to a single offensive touchdown all game, which came on their very first drive, settling for five field goal attempts. While just three of those kicks split the uprights, it proved to be all the team needed.

That initial scoring drive was the limit of Brady Oliveira’s effectiveness as well, as the workhorse Canadian running back touched the ball nine times on a 10-play drive for 70 yards and the game’s first major. The Lions had no answer for his level of physicality, as the Bombers’ employed their unique brand of bully ball to push the pile and gain big chunks of yards after contact.

That was exactly the style of play that scared Lions fans the most entering this game, but it mostly disappeared once Oliveira found the endzone. He ended the first half already over 100 yards rushing but carried just seven times for eight yards after the break — the time when the homegrown back usually generates the bulk of his yardage.

B.C.’s run blitzing was effective starting in the second quarter and you could tell that Winnipeg was audibling out of called runs, though you have to wonder if there weren’t other considerations driving the Bombers’ decision-making given how effective the run game was early on. Whether based on merit, injury, or load management, the Lions shut down the CFL’s most feared ground attack and managed not to get burned over top in the process. On almost any other occasion, that would have been a recipe for victory.

Attack of the Turf Monster

It was the IG Field turf, not the Bombers that exacted the biggest physical toll on the Lions in this game. Before the end of the first quarter, the team saw two CFL all-stars exit with non-contact injuries that altered the fabric of the game and could have dire consequences for next year.

Leading receiver Keon Hatcher was the first to go down, collapsing in the middle of a routine route during B.C.’s second offensive series and hobbling to the sideline unable to put pressure on his leg. Soon after, halfback T.J. Lee, the team’s longest-serving player, went down and had to be carried off the field by defensive line coach John Bowman. Head coach Rick Campbell said that both men are suspected to have suffered torn Achilles, an injury that can take up to a full calendar year to recover from.

Without the sure-handed Hatcher to serve as his safety blanket, Adams was able to convert just four of 17 second-down attempts. An aging Lucky Whitehead took his place, catching four passes for 62 yards, but couldn’t offer the down-to-down reliability that B.C. so desperately needed.

Lee’s absence in the secondary caused some serious reshuffling but the Lions escaped remarkably unscathed by his absence. Rookie Canadian cornerback Siriman Harrison Bagayogo received some package looks that he otherwise might not have and somehow managed to break up a touchdown pass to Kenny Lawler with his foot after falling in the endzone.

B.C. was not the only team bitten by the injury bug, as veteran Bombers middle linebacker Adam Bighill also exited with what appeared to be a non-contact knee injury. The 35-year-old was seen on crutches after the game and now appears unlikely to play in the Grey Cup, which makes you wonder if this is the last game the future Hall of Famer will ever play against the team that gave him his start in the CFL.

Up-Back Oopsie

On a night when one offence was lacklustre and the other incapable of sustaining drives, it wasn’t surprising that a massive play on special teams made the difference. That came five minutes into the second quarter when safety Nick Hallett came completely unblocked off the right side of the Lions’ punt team.

It was pretty clear that there was a miscommunication with B.C.’s up-backs, who failed to slide to the overload. Emmanuel Rugamba picked up the first man inside him, while Ryder Varga and David Mackie had nothing to do to his left. Mackie desperately attempted to come across the entire formation when he recognized the free rusher but couldn’t stop Hallett from barrelling into Stefan Flintoft, scooping up the loose ball, and driving a rugby maul into the endzone.

Special teams coordinator Mike Benevides attempted to make up for the blown protection by converting on a fake punt later in the quarter, with Flintoft finding Patrice Rene for a nine-yard gain through the air. It should have been an equally big play for B.C. but Adams rendered the stolen possession pointless with a bad throw and another surrendered sack. A few big returns from Terry Williams were met with similar fates and the special teams unit’s one mistake will be how it’s remembered for this game.

I Fought the Law-ler

Bombers’ quarterback Zach Collaros was mediocre at best on his way to earning a historic fourth straight Grey Cup start, throwing for just 158 yards. What big plays Winnipeg did generate in the passing game came courtesy of Kenny Lawler, whose six catches for 83 yards did not do his performance justice.

B.C. was forced to break with their usual game plan and task all-star cornerback Garry Peters with shadowing Lawler, but even he couldn’t stop the 29-year-old from making absurd grabs. It didn’t matter that the league’s best DB was in his hip pocket, Lawler elevated for one of the catches of the year on the right sideline and stayed in by just an elbow. However, his biggest play wasn’t even a catch at all, as he drew a pass interference penalty from Mike Jones late in the fourth quarter which set up the field goal that made it a two-score game.

While all the focus was on Oliveira this week, Lawler proved to be the player that made the difference. Funny how that happens in a passing league.

The Wrong Big Man

As he has so often this year, Canadian receiver Justin McInnis stepped up for the Lions when nobody else would and was the team’s only effective target on the evening, catching four passes for 110 yards. Though he appeared to trip over himself instead of fighting back to the ball on a pivotal fourth-quarter interception, he also hauled in the only touchdown as the trail man on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half, atoning for a drop on the previous play.

The player with the most disappointing outing was the one who deflected that ball down to McInnis, American Dominique Rhymes. The team’s other size mismatch was missing in action for much of this football game, catching a single pass for five yards despite being targeted six times. Even those numbers inflate his relevance, as most of the passes thrown his way came late in the fourth quarter when the game was nearly decided. Once known as the league’s best 50/50 ball specialist, he couldn’t box out the much smaller Evan Holm to keep the Lions alive.

I had Rhymes atop my list of the best receivers in the CFL entering this year and while he struggled with injuries for much of the campaign, his performances were as good as ever when healthy. That has changed since the loss to Winnipeg in Week 18, where he infamously cost the team a victory by running out the clock on the final play.

In the four games since, Rhymes has managed just six catches for 58 yards and hasn’t looked like himself. B.C. desperately needed him to step up in this game and he couldn’t deliver, but hopefully a full offseason to recharge his body and mind will see him return to form.

Snow Blind

Is there anyone more certain of their chionophilic superiority than a Prairie football fan in November?

There are plenty of reasons why the B.C. Lions lost on Saturday but the lack of a hardy constitution in the face of the Manitoba cold was not one of them. You wouldn’t know that from the narrative all week, as analysts from more inhospitable climates than Vancouver fell over themselves to point out that winter is different East of the Rockies. When it came to light that the team practiced under the dome of BC Place to prepare for the matchup, the rest of Canada seemingly lost their mind.

Even setting aside the fact that it was barely below freezing for kickoff at IG Field and the move to BC Place was to help the team prepare for crowd noise, this temperature-based storyline is tired and played out. Storms and excessive snowfall can level the playing field, but a little bit of a chill does not affect professional athletes who have fought through all manner of meteorological conditions for the better part of their lives.

If you’re jealous of West Coast living, just say that. But can we please leave the low-hanging cold weather fruit on the vine the next time the Lions hit the road in the playoffs?

Lest We Forget

Due to the CFL’s decision to move playoff games to Saturday in 2023, this year’s Division Finals took place on Remembrance Day. This is far from the first time that the league has taken to the field on the solemn national holiday but it still didn’t sit right with Bombers’ head coach Mike O’Shea, who voiced his displeasure during Friday’s pre-game media conferences.

There is no doubt about the sincerity of O’Shea’s moral objection to playing on November 11 — his familial connection to the military through his World War Two veteran father and World War One veteran grandfather is well-documented. On a fundamental level, I also share some of his discomfort with playing a frivolous game on a day set aside for reflection.

However, I do think there is a compelling counterpoint. While peaceful hymns and moments of silence are universally accepted ways to show respect, they often feel disconnected from the ways in which soldiers find comfort in wartime. Young men and women get through the horrors of combat in the same way that young men and women get through life, with wisecracks, pranks, and games serving as the foundation for an unbreakable bond. Given the choice, how many 20-year-olds left in foreign fields would prefer to have their lives remembered by a football game rather than a black tie ceremony?

In the end, I don’t think there is a correct answer to this quandary. Like choosing between a funeral or a wake, it is a deeply personal choice on which veterans may disagree. So long as we choose to take the time to listen and remember them, either philosophy will have accomplished its goal.

Fool Me Twice

Here we are again. The Lions’ 2023 season has come to an end in virtually the same fashion as last year — in the same building, to the same opponent, with the same questions around whether they are ready to win in the playoffs.

Rick Campbell and Neil McEvoy, along with their staff of Ryan Rigmaiden, Rob Ralph, and Jim Jauch, have built this team from nothing into a contender. Their Canadian depth is exceptional, they have a certified franchise quarterback, and they’ve surrounded him with a dangerous cast of weapons.

But as much as I’m a fan of their specific style of roster construction, you can’t keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result. If you want to win a Grey Cup as a West Division team, you better build a roster that can beat Winnipeg in November.

While an explosive passing attack should remain the focus, that means actually fielding a team that can run the football when it’s needed. Five carries for 37 yards from Taquan Mizzell weren’t going to get it done on a night were your receivers shut down and your quarterback was hobbled. Changing that requires investing in offensive linemen through the draft and starting a runner that fits your personnel, not your aspirations.

It also means adding some bulk to the outstanding defence you’ve already assembled, ensuring that you have people to stick in the middle and plug gaps when you need to without drawing half your secondary into the box. Don’t blow up the formula, simply tweak it to get the rotational pieces you need.

Tweaks are all that’s needed to put this team over the top but they have to be taken seriously. Entering another season virtually unchanged will only generate the same result: an extremely talented football team that watches from the couch when the Grey Cup is played under their dome next November.