B.C. Lions wave the white flag, surrender home-field advantage in blowout loss to Riders (& nine other thoughts)

The B.C. Lions had everything to play for on Saturday in Regina but chose to roll over instead, falling 39-8 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The embarrassing blowout condemned the team to the third seed in the West Division, denying Vancouver a home playoff game.

Here are my thoughts on the game.

Oh, the humanity!

Watching the B.C. Lions stumble their way through the 2024 season has been equal parts baffling and tortuous, but perhaps the cruellest trick played on the fanbase is that they will live longer than they should. This is not a football team that deserves the dignity of a playoff spot — it deserves humane euthanasia. And yet, we will be stuck here watching it lose control of its bowels long after better teams have shuffled off this mortal coil.

If that strikes you as a particularly harsh assessment, perhaps you didn’t actually witness Saturday’s abomination. It is hard to find silver linings or espouse optimism when the chance to earn a home playoff game is met with complete disinterest by the players involved. Not only did it seem like the Lions never believed they could beat Saskatchewan, but they played as if they had no desire to do so so if they could.

Like an elderly pet beset with dementia and arthritis, all three phases wandered through their assignments bereft of any semblance of intensity. Brief flashes of lucidity or spryness were merely illusions, giving only the most dedicated fans a false sense of hope against the inevitability of death. It was a performance from those on the field far beneath what those investing off of it deserved.

I wrote last week about head coach Rick Campbell and his questionable job security, taking the side of the veteran bench boss by stating his resume demanded the benefit of the doubt. I stand by that assessment but there is no defending this game. Even if he has not lost the locker room, this locker room is lost and a coach without a playoff ticket already punched might not have remained employed past the final whistle.

Two more performances like this one and Campbell won’t be able to avoid a similar fate. Rightly or wrongly, those are the consequences when you convince an owner who didn’t hire you to reach into his own pockets to pay for top-tier players and then don’t deliver.

Wave the white flag

Eight games into this experiment, we know that Nathan Rourke is not the answer for the B.C. Lions in 2024. However, he remains their biggest question.

It was another run-of-the-mill performance for the Canadian quarterback in Regina, completing 15-of-23 passes for 200 yards and two interceptions. The first pick, which was returned for a Saskatchewan touchdown barely a minute into the game, was a complete fluke and the second could be chalked up to some late contact in the pocket while he was pressing late in the half. Still, there was another would-be turnover on the team’s second series that was overturned on review and he failed to deliver accurate throws when it mattered most, spiking the ball into the turf on one third-down gamble in the third quarter. The loss wasn’t his fault — none of them have been — but he isn’t elevating those around him.

Despite having much less momentum behind him offensively, Campbell elected not to pull Rourke at half-time like he did against Toronto. Instead, he stapled him to the bench in the fourth quarter in favour of third-stringer Chase Brice, who turned his garbage time audition into 92 yards passing.

That decision amounted to nothing more than B.C. waving the white flag in all-out surrender, as Campbell didn’t want to risk either of his highly-paid passers in a thirty-point blowout. Could those minutes have been better utilized to knock the rust off of Vernon Adams Jr. and the rest of the offence? Perhaps, but I can respect the desire to be careful with the health and confidence of a veteran who has received almost no practice reps for weeks on end.

It’s clear that Adams needs to be getting those reps going forward and should get the start in the regular-season finale, if only to figure out if better is possible. My faith in Nathan Rourke as a franchise quarterback has not been shaken and it would not shock me if he returns to form as the best in the CFL next season, but his last few starts have done more harm than good. His pristine mechanics have broken, his confidence in himself is tenuous, and his teammates still have not rallied to him in any meaningful way. Continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result is asinine.

The flaws on this team go much deeper than the quarterback position and it’s important to remember that their current skid started with Adams at the helm, before Rourke had even been signed. However, if VA can re-ignite anything in this offence, we need to find out before the postseason begins, not after. The switch has to be made against Montreal if there is any desire to save the season.

Wet matches

With his team sulking through this game like teenagers in a math class, Rick Campbell tried on several occasions to elicit a spark through uncharacteristically aggressive decision-making. It’s best to tread carefully on this topic, lest I be accused of being ‘results-based’ by an angry coach, but I have far more to critique about the execution of these plays than the decisions themselves.

Fans and analysts may be split on the decision to go for it on third-and-two late in the first half instead of kicking a field goal down eight points, but the play call from offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic was universally reviled. You’ll find no greater fan of David Mackie than myself but handing it to the fullback out of shotgun is rarely a sound decision. Add in Michael Couture getting his butt whooped by Caleb Sanders and Sukh Chugh falling on his face while climbing to the second level and you have an embarrassing display from top to bottom. It may well have been the moment the game truly turned.

That failure to execute paled in comparison to what the special teams offered at the start of the second half. Campbell gave Mike Benevides the green light for a surprise onside kick, only for Stefan Flintoft to send the ball sailing out of bounds. It was a call that already reeked of desperation — although that was probably appropriate at the time — but to see it so poorly executed killed any faint hope of a resurgence.

Every other third-down attempt from B.C. was equally poorly performed, as they gave up three turnovers on downs. The final two were more or less necessities though, as Campbell’s attempts to spur his team to victory were met with a wet blanket.

Only the good get lucky

My article last week — or at least the title of it — may have rubbed some in the Lions’ locker room the wrong way, as defensive coordinator Ryan Phillips took to Twitter on Saturday with what appeared to be pointed commentary.

“It’s a shame how defenses making plays & executing game plans gets hated on. The goal and mindset is to win by any means. But I’ll be frank to hear people with lack of knowledge and little if none coaching experience talk about luck when it comes to making plays is utterly DUMB”

Questionable grammar aside, it’s always nice to hear from a reader. However, if Phillips had skimmed past the headline, he might have recognized that the discussion around “luck” was rooted in my post-game talk with defensive end Mathieu Betts, who confessed to being out of position on his game-changing 70-yard pick-six. Perhaps the Canadian star was just being modest, but I don’t think highlighting fortunate bounces undermines the quality of plays that make them possible. You have to be lucky to be good but you also have to be good to be lucky — I never suggested anything to the contrary.

For the visual learners in the audience, the Lions were given a perfect example of that principle on the opening series. Nathan Rourke wired his first pass of the game out to William Stanback in the flats, only for the running back to drop it and deflect it back into the air off his heel. The ball then bounced off of his left butt cheek, Rolan Milligan Jr., and Deontai Williams before finally landing in A.J. Allen’s arms for a pick-six. That turnover was possible because Saskatchewan had three defenders rally to the ball but you couldn’t replicate the sequence of events that preceded it if you tried a hundred times.

B.C.’s defence received no corresponding lucky bounces in this one, mostly because they didn’t deserve them. The closest the team came to a takeaway was when Garry Peters dropped a ball in the end zone that was thrown by running back A.J. Ouellette. If you can’t pick off an amateur wrestler with a bleach-blonde mullett, you probably aren’t going to faze Trevor Harris and the veteran QB completed 83.3 percent of his passes without breaking a sweat.

There was never any pass rush to speak of, as Harris was hit twice all game and sacked only once. Hung out to dry, the secondary faced the firing squad and nobody survived, with even veteran T.J. Lee getting exploited. On top of that, Ouellette managed an easy 84 yards on the ground in his return from injury but wasn’t even leaned on down the stretch.

I’ve always been a huge believer in Phillips and have at various times called him the best young defensive mind in the CFL. That hasn’t changed but his personnel has and they aren’t talented enough right now. As a fellow coach, albeit one not remotely in his stratosphere, I have sympathy for his frustrations — just tag me next time.

The return of the invisible man 

The Lions got a boatload of impact players back in the lineup this week, making the result on the field especially disappointing. Chief among the returnees was receiver Alexander Hollins, who was supposed to bring a viable deep threat back to the offence after missing the last two games with a shoulder injury.

That simply didn’t happen, as Hollins continues to be a shadow of the player he was at the start of the year. The CFL’s leader in drops was targeted five times in this game and managed just two catches for 17 yards. Both of those receptions came on B.C.’s lone touchdown drive — a testament to just how important Hollins is — but he went quiet for nearly three full quarters. The Lions’ woes won’t be solved until they get all-star-level play from their all-star receiver again.

The return of the invisible man pt. 2

Contrary to Hollins, Canadian receiver Justin McInnis was much more noticeable than he has been over the last few weeks. Against his former team, he managed six catches for 119 yards — his first time over the century mark since he put up 243 yards versus this same Saskatchewan defence in Week 6.

As nice as that was to see, it wasn’t nearly the dominant outing we hoped to witness regularly after his early season breakout and was undermined by a second-quarter fumble, which came after a massive shot from Abbotsford native Nelson Lokombo. I still see McInnis getting Most Outstanding Canadian buzz — and even some Most Outstanding Player love — from select analysts and I just don’t buy it.

For those still drinking the cool-aid, let’s put his numbers in context. Through the first six weeks of the season, culminating in that career day against the Riders, McInnis had 45 receptions for 725 yards and five touchdowns. In the 11 games since, of which Saturday’s was by far the best, he has made 40 catches for 638 yards and two touchdowns. For two-thirds of the year, he has been about as impactful as Riders’ rookie KeeSean Johnson — a good starter no doubt, but not an award winner.

I’m sure McInnis will get some team hardware and a default All-CFL nod by virtue of leading the league in receiving, but that’s all he deserves. Let’s stop the crazy talk.

Did ya miss me?

With the massive holes in the Lions’ secondary, wouldn’t it have been nice to keep Marcus Sayles around?

B.C.’s former halfback, who was released following training camp due to cap reasons, has been having a very solid season at field corner for the Riders. In his second meeting with his old team, he led Saskatchewan with five tackles and two pass breakups.

I’ll be the first to admit that I thought Sayles was fading and expendable at 30 years old. Corey Mace’s scheme has proven otherwise and I expect he’ll receive a few West Division All-CFL votes in the coming weeks. Ciante Evans certainly will not and neither will Ronald Kent Jr. or Emmanuel Rugamba, proving sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

You ain’t seen our best

You can bet that when it comes time to cast my ballot for the Lions’ team award nominees, I’ll be selecting running back William Stanback as their Most Outstanding Player. Despite frequently being dubbed a “running back hater” on the 3DownNation podcast, I simply can’t argue with his combination of production and consistency. It’s a pity the league’s Divisional all-star format still exists and he won’t be recognized behind Brady Oliveira.

That’s what makes it extra frustrating when Stanback is underutilized, as he was in this game. Jordan Maksymic gave his best player just eight carries and went away from him long before he should have. Sure, the 30-year-old’s average of 4.4 yards wasn’t spectacular, but this game was within a score until late in the second quarter. That time could have been used to establish Stanback’s presence, quiet the Mosaic Stadium crowd, and take the pressure off Nathan Rourke.

Be my Valentine

Just like the least popular kid in elementary school, it doesn’t matter that the Lions are ugly, irritating, and hard to look at — they are still getting a Valentine’s Day card. In their case, it’s an undeserved playoff spot but as someone who ate his share of candy off of mandatory classroom niceties, that can’t be taken for granted.

B.C. has an opportunity to try something different in next week’s meaningless game against Montreal, then utilize a bye week to concoct a postseason miracle. It’s an improbable formula and the road will now be especially tough, taking them through Mosaic and Princess Auto Stadium. The question is: does anyone in that locker room actually believe it’s possible?