B.C. Lions sing rematch lullaby off-key, lose to Bombers in snoozefest (& 12 other thoughts)

The B.C. Lions looked like a dramatically different team without their star quarterback but suffered the same result in their rematch with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, boring fans to tears in a 27-14 loss.

Here are my thoughts on the game.

You snooze, we lose

It wasn’t just the fact that the Lions lost on Saturday that had fans streaming for the exits; it was that everything they were forced to witness to that point was borderline unwatchable. Unfortunately, a large part of that had to do with the play of veteran backup Jeremiah Masoli, who made the start in place of the injured Nathan Rourke.

You won’t find an easier guy to root for in the CFL than Masoli. Widely regarded as one of the highest-character players in the league, he had the prime of his career ripped away from him by one of the dirtiest plays we’ve ever witnessed. But, for all his hard work and perseverance, the glimmer of stardust that he used to play with has long since drifted away.

He was a shell of his former self in his first start for B.C., and everybody knew it. A Winnipeg defence already known for keeping things in front of them could operate with impunity, knowing a mistake was basically inevitable. He completed 25-of-44 passes for 281 yards, a garbage-time touchdown, and two interceptions, but that statline still feels flattering.

“Definitely room for improvement,” Masoli solemnly admitted at the podium. “The opportunities that we had and missed, we’ve got to be able to cash in on those versus a good team.”

The headlines will focus on the three turnovers the quarterback committed — the two picks and a lateral dropped by James Butler which Jamal Parker returned for a game-changing 57-yard touchdown. I actually give Masoli some grace on those plays for reasons we’ll discuss in a moment, but it was the more conventional misses that rankled me and drew outright animosity from the home crowd.

Beyond a promising opening drive, the 36-year-old struggled to maintain a consistent rhythm and hung his receivers out to dry on a couple of occasions. He also missed on three would-be touchdown passes — a floater to Jevon Cottoy at the start of the second quarter that was tipped away, and then overthrows of Cottoy and Justin McInnis on the same drive in the fourth. It was downright ugly, and there was never a sense that something better was coming.

Head coach Buck Pierce may have been the only person in the stadium unable to grasp that reality, saying that he never felt the game was out of reach enough to merit a quarterback change. In truth, we all knew the result by halftime, and even Pierce’s praise of his quarterback felt unconvincing.

“I thought he looked really good all week. I think he played with confidence,” he said. “First opportunity out there, you’re always going to miss some things. I thought overall he executed when he could. We’ve just got to help him out a little bit more.”

That may be true, but sadly, the only thing that could have lifted Masoli to his previous heights is a time machine.

Chase-ing your tail

Listeners of the 3DownNation Podcast will know I was ahead of the curve in my Masoli skepticism, but my concerns had less to do with the predictable results we witnessed on Saturday and everything to do with long-term team management.

Masoli is closer to the end of his career than the start and already has one eye on a coaching job. We know what he is as a player, and there is no resurgence coming — it’s all downhill from here. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t add value to the team, but there is more to consider than just who gives you the best chance to win right now.

The Lions have sunk three years of development into third-stringer Chase Brice and, at least based on the initial depth chart, he seemed to leapfrog Masoli in the preseason. I’ve never been a believer in Brice, but this was the perfect moment to prove me wrong. By taking on just slightly more risk in an early-season game you were expected to lose anyway, you could have properly assessed a 27-year-old asset who has less than 30 passes to his name. If he flamed out, Masoli was always going to be there to handle more important relief efforts in the future.

If you don’t even trust Brice enough to give him a start in a game like this, then what is he still doing on the roster? Moreover, why have you so thoroughly failed to give him competition that Rourke technically had to dress despite being unable to throw? B.C. is one of just two teams in the CFL with fewer than four quarterbacks under contract and their failure to develop future talent will come back to bite them at some point.

Lessons learned 

Even in an ugly loss, there are silver linings. On this occasion, it was the performance of the defence, which rebounded from an embarrassing showing last week with an exceptional one in the rematch. All of that came against the player who is supposed to be the better quarterback, though I harbour some doubts about the long-term viability of Zach Collaros in Winnipeg.

“When you lose a game, it sounds like it’s a cliche, but you learn. We learned,” linebacker Micah Awe said post-game. “Last week wasn’t a personnel thing, it was a fit thing. It wasn’t Coach Benevides’ defence, it was us.”

Winnipeg managed just two drives of substance against this refreshed unit. Their first opened the game and resulted in a touchdown throw to Dalton Schoen, who cleverly leaked behind Jalon Edwards-Cooper on the scramble drill. The second didn’t come until the fourth quarter, which Keric Wheatfall kicked off with a 48-yard catch up the seam — the lone big play B.C. surrendered all night.

Most heartening was the team’s performance against the run. After rookie Matthew Peterson skewered them for 130 yards in Week 2, he and American Quinton Cooley combined for just 85 on 18 carries. It wasn’t perfect, as each player burst through for a couple of first-down runs, but it was a massive improvement. The defensive line was boosted by the return of Sione Teuhema from suspension and played more gap sound, while Ben Hladik appeared to be playing much more aggressively than he had to this point in the year.

Ultimately, Awe was frank when asked if the defence played well enough to win.

“Yeah, we did,” he said. “This game is so amazing because you can have one side of the ball, you can have two sides of the ball play amazing but we all know that main stat. The only stat that really matters in wins and losses is the turnover margin. We were minus three.”

Defensive backs Cristophe Beaulieu and Robert Carter Jr. managed to snag interceptions for the Lions, but it wasn’t enough to make up for five giveaways on offence and special teams. To be blunt, this unit deserved better from their teammates.

Runny nose

As bad as Masoli was for portions of this game, a couple of his biggest errors came courtesy of his offensive line. In particular, the interior of that unit struggled to deal with Winnipeg’s pressure.

The Bombers love to operate out of a three-man front, and that was the look they gave the Lions on Jamal Parker’s 57-yard touchdown return. Cameron Lawson was lined up as the nose tackle, but nobody blocked him as right guard Tyler Packer fanned out to his right while both centre Michael Couture and left guard Kory Woodruff stared down middle linebacker Tony Jones in anticipation of a blitz. As his three interior linemen grappled with ghost pass rushers, the real pressure forced Masoli to step up into trouble and heave a panicked lateral.

“I gotta be better seeing the defence. I gotta be better with communication. I just gotta be better in that situation,” Woodruff insisted in the locker room. “It was me. I was messing up.”

On his interception late in the second quarter, it was once again Lawson who made the decisive contact. This time, Winnipeg brought pressure from five, and Couture was caught flat-footed as the Queen’s product crossed his face to get to the QB. Packer also whiffed on his block of Willie Jefferson, but the future Hall of Famer wasn’t the one who caused the ball to flutter over Justin McInnis’s head and into Parker’s arms.

Masoli also got drilled on his wayward endzone throw that was picked off by Evan Holm. This one wasn’t particularly complicated, as Andrew Peirson was lined up one-on-one with James Vaughters after stepping in at left guard following an injury to Dejon Allen. He got beaten and allowed the hit.

It wasn’t just in the passing game where B.C. had problems in the middle. James Butler managed just six carries for 17 yards in the first half, and on one memorable second-down stop, 34-year-old Jake Thomas held up the entire pile by himself. Butler did rip off one 19-yard scamper after the break thanks to an overcommitment by Jefferson, but was essentially a non-factor otherwise. The offence failed to generate any significant displacement against a front that is theoretically light on run-stopping size.

Seven isn’t always lucky

With Jermaine Jackson taking a larger role on offence in the absence of Stanley Berryhill III, the Lions dressed fellow rookie Seven McGee for the first time as the primary returner. It wasn’t a particularly impressive debut, as he averaged just 6.3 yards per punt return and 24.3 yards per kickoff.

Overall, McGee’s performance will be remembered for one bad mistake early in the third quarter. Running under a short punt, the Albany product allowed the ball to bounce off his chest and be recovered by Winnipeg linebacker Jaylen Smith. The defence managed to bail him out, holding the Bombers to a field goal despite the prime field position, but those are the types of errors you can’t make in an audition.

Overall, the Lions’ special teams were slightly better than they have been in the past few games, with no truly egregious busts. Nevertheless, it remains a weakness that needs to be addressed.

In need of conscious uncoupling

When Masoli was able to get the offence going, it was a two-man show at BC Place. Justin McInnis was targeted a whopping 13 times and made nine catches, finishing with 94 yards. Keon Hatcher turned 10 targets into six catches for 92 yards. It took until the third quarter for another player to catch a pass for B.C., and none made a meaningful impact with all due respect to Jevon Cottoy’s meaningless late-game score.

The Lions’ all-star tandem made some impressive grabs, none greater than the 38-yard bomb Hatcher high-pointed in double coverage. However, I remain concerned by the lack of separation from this receiving corps. Pierce dismissed this post-game as a by-product of Winnipeg’s defensive scheme, but too many of the plays made came in tight and contested areas. Neither Hatcher nor McInnis are burners who really scare you down the field and that’s fine, but somebody has to be a playmaker in space.

Berryhill may end up being that guy after his two touchdowns in the opener, but there was a dimension lacking with him out due to a thigh injury suffered in practice. None of the speed we saw from Jermaine Jackson in the preseason was utilized in his first start, and his biggest accomplishment was not dying when Masoli offered him up as a red zone sacrifice. Ayden Eberhardt continues to be an afterthought in his third year, catching just three of eight targets for 22 yards. I’m consistently baffled that a better option hasn’t presented itself with all the exciting young weapons other organizations have uncovered.

Pumping in jump balls to your go-to targets will only get you so far in this league. The Lions need to find someone who doesn’t approach their relationship with a defensive back like they have to stay together for the kids and actually separates.

Beautiful place, right time

Canadian safety Cristophe Beaulieu has looked like a future all-star from the moment he stepped into training camp as a rookie. His performance on Saturday may have finally informed the rest of the league.

The second-year man out of Laval made two great plays to take away potential deep touchdown passes from Zach Collaros. On the first, he perfectly bracketed Jerreth Sterns when helping Ronald Kent Jr. and managed a pass breakup at the goal line to force a field goal. On the second, he went stride for stride with four-time all-star Nic Demski in man coverage and was in position to record his first career interception.

Micah Awe said after the game that he believes if Beaulieu had been born in Texas instead of Quebec, he would have been a college star for the Longhorns. It’s hard to argue with that given his natural range and instincts.

The Lions have an extremely loaded depth chart at safety with veteran Patrice Rene and rookie Jackson Findlay, who left this game with a tweaked hamstring. Impressively, the man who was released to make that trio possible, Charlie Ringland, is now starting in Ottawa and also recorded his first interception on Saturday.

Salt in the wound

For all their exceptional work against Winnipeg, the Lions’ defence is going to end up on SportsCentre for the rest of the year — and perhaps longer — after allowing a big man touchdown.

There was so much talk this week about handling the Bombers’ six offensive linemen set in the running game that the passing game rules must have gotten a little fuzzy. Asotui Eli lined up in that spot in the red zone in the fourth quarter and successfully leaked out for the touchdown catch. It looked like nickel Deontai Williams bit on Collaros as a running threat and got caught in no-man’s land, while Beaulieu wasn’t able to break up the connection with a late dive.

There isn’t much to take away from his play other than a wonderful memory for Eli, who was born in Richmond before being raised in Hawaii.

He said, Willie J said

An ugly game had an ugly end, as this contest was capped with a couple of ejections. Willie Jefferson and Kory Woodruff got into it after the Lions’ late touchdown,n and both got tossed with 1:36 remaining.

Jefferson was automatically disqualified due to his second misconduct foul, while Woodruff was dinged for abuse of an official. That’s a far more serious charge, though the left guard believes he will be vindicated in time.

“(Jefferson) did something dirty to one of my teammates, and I’m not just gonna let that slide, so we got into a little altercation,” he told me. “They claim I hit the ref, I didn’t hit the ref. It’ll be sent to the Review Center, and we’ll go from there.”

I only saw one replay, but it looked like Woodruff caught James Vaughters’ arm while shoving in the pile and drove the extraneous limb into the referee’s head. Given that the contact was accidental and not even with his own body, I would expect a hefty fine but no suspension.

As for Jefferson, Woodruff refused to elaborate on his claims, but I suspect he’ll be investigated as well.

I’ll try anything once

That late-game chaos prompted an unexpected moment as the Lions didn’t have enough offensive linemen left healthy to take to the field for the ensuing two-point attempt. As the refs deliberated, 270-pound defensive lineman Nathan Cherry performed the fastest wardrobe change of his life and entered the game wearing 55 for one offensive snap.

Cherry told me that he only gets 15 minutes per week to practice this scenario, and it looked ugly. However, he still managed to help James Butler get in for the score.

“It’s probably a once-in-the-season type of occurrence but it’s good to know that if that situation does arise, I can go in there and do it,” he laughed.

My only question is, why did the Lions pick an undersized tweener like Cherry to perform this task instead of a big guy like Christian Covington? I guess an NFL resume comes with certain perks.

One team

I was touched to see B.C. Lions’ general manager Ryan Rigmaiden and other members of the team’s staff wearing custom “Team Ted” t-shirts for this game. The slogan honoured Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ general manager Ted Goveia, who recently announced that he’d been diagnosed with a serious form of cancer.

From the outside, the CFL might look like nine rival teams with bad blood between them, but in reality, it is one big family. Colleagues may become combatants, but the brotherhood never fades. Ted is one of the patriarchs of that family, having invested more than 30 years of his life into Canadian football. He was a head coach at UBC during some of that program’s darkest years and has given freely of his time as one of Football Canada’s board of directors. He also served as one of the architects of the Bombers’ current dynastic run, where he briefly overlapped with Rigmaiden.

Everyone in this league who has interacted with Goveia has been richer for the experience, including me. We are all standing behind him as he undertakes this monumental battle.

Stuck in limbo

Buck Pierce told the media post-game that it is too early to tell if Nathan Rourke will be healthy enough to play next week, which means more restless nights for fans. For what it’s worth, the Canadian star initially trotted out in full uniform to throw with the other QBs in warmup, before quickly being ordered to the back of the endzone where he took off his shoulder pads and did vigorous rehab with the trainers.

I’m not sure I love the idea of a guy who can’t throw a football yet suiting up against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in seven days. Mosaic Stadium also hasn’t been the kindest place for Rourke, as it was there that he suffered his Lisfranc sprain. Nevertheless, the Lions may not have a shot without him.

Coming off two straight losses and facing a three-game road trip, it will be interesting to see just how protective Pierce will be with his mealticket.