Now that’s what you call a statement win.
The B.C. Lions went into Montreal and beat the CFL’s best team 37-23 on Friday night as running back William Stanback returned with a vengeance, rushing for 128 yards and a 38-yard touchdown run, while quarterback Nathan Rourke passed for 304 yards despite three interceptions.
Whatever ailed the Lions during their five-game losing skid, it seems the four-day trip to Victoria for Touchdown Pacific was the cure. The team has since racked up consecutive wins against the two best teams in the CFL’s Eastern Division (Ottawa and Montreal) by a combined score of 75-35.
The win in Montreal didn’t come easy though.
The Lions committed four turnovers in total and then had to battle injuries and the CFL Command Centre to improve their record to 7-6 while the Als dropped to 10-2.
“It was a really big win. We had to overcome some stuff and turnovers but a sign of a good team is that when something goes wrong or momentum goes against you, you find a way to fight back. We always had an answer tonight. I’m super proud of our team. Long road trip, short week — all of those things — it didn’t matter our guys showed up,” Campbell told us on the 980 CKNW post-game show.
The four turnovers can be somewhat excused. Rourke saw two deflected passes fall into the hands of Alouette defenders while a third was just a bad decision.
What can’t be excused is the CFL Command Centre playing yet another major role in a CFL game but the Lions somehow managed to overcome two very questionable calls to still come out on top.
The first occurred when Stanback appeared to be down while fumbling the football at the Montreal 22-yard-line with just over two minutes remaining in the half with the Lions leading 17-6.
The call on the field was that he was down yet the Command Centre overturned the decision despite replays supporting the original call. Despite the CFL directive announced a few weeks ago “to recalibrate Command Centre operations in the second half of the season to improve performance and to ensure the Clear and Obvious principle is more consistently applied in its decision-making process” that “clear and obvious principle” wasn’t the case with Stanback’s fumble.
Instead of the Lions going up by three — or possibly seven points — to increase their lead 20-6 or 24-6, the Als got the ball back and marched 94 yards with quarterback Cody Fajardo hitting receiver Cole Spieker with a one-yard touchdown pass with one second remaining in the half to pull within 17-13.
The other call that was very questionable was the onside kick attempt by Montreal’s Jose Matos after a Dominique Davis one-yard quarterback sneak had pulled the Alouettes to within five at 27-22.
Montreal’s Marc Antoine Dequoy recovered the onside kick to give the home team possession but an offside penalty against the Alouettes appeared to have negated the recovery.
Then the Command Centre got involved again, deeming the Alouettes were not offside and that the recovery stood.
The Command Centre’s involvement in these two plays was yet another example of it turning a situation into a fiasco, which has been the case way too many times this season in a majority of games – and not just the ones the Lions are involved in.
Despite the adversity, the Lions defence held the Alouettes and forced them to punt after the recovery.
On the very next possession, B.C. drove 70 yards in six plays and capped the drive when Rourke ripped off an 18-yard touchdown run on a third-and-one sneak attempt. Rourke went over the left side of the offensive line but then bounced outside and got a tremendous block by wide receiver Keon Hatcher to spring him for the major.
That gave the Lions some breathing room at 34-23, and when Lions linebacker T.J. Lee picked off Fajardo on the next series, the Lions could finally exhale.
Although the post-game focus was on the performance of the Lions offense in racking up 472 yards, the Lions defence played a key role in the win as well. Despite the four turnovers, the defence limited the damage on those miscues to 13 points on two field goals and the Spieker touchdown.
“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves but that’s the best team in the league right there. Tough environment, their home field and we still won by 14 points. There is a lot to learn from this and there were a lot of mistakes that we need to clean up but I’m incredibly proud of the guys. We didn’t point fingers. We bounced back when we made mistakes. Defence played their butts off. We put them in some tough spots but they did a great job,” Rourke told us afterwards.
Throw in the fact that the Lions lost both cornerbacks due to injury at one point – Garry Peters and Ciante Evans – and offensive tackle Kent Perkins, the Lions showed some resiliency in coming out with a win.
“No one made excuses. It was good that they showed up, played hard and got a win here,” said Campbell.
Overall, it was an impressive performance by a team that seems to have turned the corner.
Thank you Victoria.
OVERTIME:
* Peters (ankle) and Perkins (ankle) eventually returned while Evans (arm) did not.
* Receiver Alexander Hollins, who had been struggling the last few weeks, led the Lions in receptions with six caches on seven targets for 78 yards – including four second-down conversions.
* Lee’s interception was the 28th of his career – passing both Andre Francis (27) and Korey Banks (27) for seventh on the Lions all-time list. Larry Crawford is the Lions all-time interception leader with 51.
* Next up for the Lions (7-6) is a visit from the Toronto Argonauts (6-6) on Friday night (7 p.m., CKNW 980, TSN) at BC Place Stadium. The two teams met in Toronto on June 9 in the season-opener for both clubs with the Argos prevailing 35-27. Toronto is coming off a 41-27 loss on Ottawa on Saturday.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media.
READ MORE: Stanback steps up in Montreal return as B.C. Lions beat Alouettes 37-23
READ MORE: THE MOJ: B.C.’s Lokombo wants nothing more than a Grey Cup win at home
