Nathan Rourke pushes B.C. Lions’ jalopy to victory over Ticats (& 12 other thoughts)

Photo courtesy: Steven Chang/B.C. Lions

Like a beat-up old truck, the B.C. Lions offence was clunky, inefficient, and frequently stalled out on Saturday night against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. However, the smoking engine still had enough power to get the home side to their destination in a 27-24 victory, even if they had to get out and push on occasion.

Here are my thoughts on the game.

Rusty Rourke

Nathan Rourke’s return to the field was the only storyline that really mattered coming into Saturday’s game, as it had potential ramifications for not just the Lions, but the CFL as a whole. In the end, the reigning M.O.P. produced a respectable box score, but looked almost nothing like the superstar we’ve come to know.

The night started on a high note, as the Canadian quarterback’s injured left shoulder held up to the first hit of the game and he completed his first passing attempt to Justin McInnis. That kick-started a nine-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Zander Horvath. Rourke was five-for-five en route to the end zone.

That type of efficiency eluded him for much of the rest of the night. B.C. would punt on each of their next four possessions, three of them two-and-outs, before finally finding an explosive play down the field. They wouldn’t string together multiple first downs until the second series of the second half — a 12-play, 88-yard march to the end zone that ate up much of the third quarter, but did nothing more to establish future rhythm than anything that preceded it.

Everything that the offence did against Hamilton looked difficult, and while a fistful of drops by receivers contributed to that, much of the blame fell on Rourke. His timing was stilted, and his ball placement was consistently off. He overthrew open targets on multiple occasions, or hit them on the back hip to force a difficult catch. There were also moments when he put the ball in harm’s way, and multiple throws that could have been intercepted weren’t. Ticats’ defensive coordinator Brent Monson deserves credit for some of the schematic binds he put B.C. in, but it was still a borderline erratic night from the home quarterback.

Of course, we still got a glimmer of brilliance on B.C.’s final drive, as Rourke found McInnis streaking up the seam for 33 yards after they were forced into second-and-10 by a Horvath offside penalty. It was a throw the Lions had to make and was placed in the perfect spot where only McInnis could catch it without breaking stride. It might not make the end-of-season top 10 lists, but from a technical perspective, that’s one of the plays of the year thus far.

Rourke ultimately finished 22-of-39 passing (56.4 percent) for 370 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, but his demeanour at the podium was anything but jovial. He said he felt fortunate to have won the game, and he’s absolutely right, as there were far more throws that he’ll want back than there were masterpieces.

This offence’s timing will eventually return, and there is no reason to be worried about QB1 in the long run. But this was a bad night for the man riding in on the white horse, and if it had come against a better opponent, the Lions would have suffered.

Mislabeled 

I fear there has been a horrible mix-up in the Lions’ equipment room, because whatever additive they’ve been applying to their gloves to keep them tacky has clearly been switched out with a tub of Vaseline.

That’s the only way to explain the repeated drops experienced by the entire receiving unit against Hamilton. As previously mentioned, ball placement was an issue at times, but at the professional level, that only goes so far as an excuse. There were drive killers by Jermaine Jackson and Justin McInnis, and Kieran Poissant nearly coughed up an interception in contact that was erased by a Hamilton offside penalty. However, nobody had a more difficult night than Keon Hatcher Sr.

The two-time All-CFL target was nearly invisible throughout, hauling in just two of the six targets thrown his way for 28 yards. The moments where he was noticeable, he probably wishes he hadn’t been. After a fantastic escape by Rourke in the second quarter, Hatcher tried to revive a dormant offence by catching a late dart along the sidelines. He couldn’t squeeze it between his fingertips as Jordan Crook came in to break up the pass. The play will go down as a defensive knockdown, though I’m not sure Hatcher would have been able to corral it anyway.

Then, in the fourth quarter, Rourke looked Hatcher’s way on a simple hitch near the sticks. The ball came in slightly high, but was certainly catchable as the receiver got his hands up. Instead, it passed between the wickets and was picked off by Jamal Peters, setting up Hamilton’s tying touchdown. That’s an uncharacteristic effort from one of the league’s best.

Had a few more of these passes been squeezed, B.C.’s offence may have been able to find a groove. Instead, they kept misfiring and stalling out all game long.

Barely busting

Getting pushed to the brink by a backup quarterback rarely says good things about a defence, but Mike Benevides’ detractors will need to stay in hiding for another week. The Lions held Hamilton to just 258 yards of net offence and allowed seven points in a hard-fought second half, which constitutes a winning effort by any definition.

Over the past few weeks, B.C. has boasted one of the CFL’s most consistent defences and the busts that plagued them early have all but disappeared. Against the Ticats, there was just one such play, a 47-yard strike by Harrison Frost to Myron Mitchell that set up a game-tying touchdown. Though it wasn’t completely clear on replay who was at fault, it seemed as if the Lions were showing Cover 2 and that Deontai Williams allowed Mitchell to run past him because he expected help over the top. Instead, Ronald Kent Jr. vacated the deep half, and there was no one home.

Beyond that play, there isn’t much to criticize. Jackson Findlay did get beat by Kurleigh Gittens Jr. on an early touchdown in the red zone, but that was an individual mistake in press coverage rather than a schematic failure. More often than not, defenders won their one-on-one matchups.

Williams secured the team’s only interception in the fourth quarter after dropping an early chance, but he probably owes Darnell Sankey a juicy steak for allowing the ball to slip through his hands first.

On second thought…

I was quite perplexed by head coach Buck Pierce’s decision to decline an illegal procedure penalty on the penultimate play of the game, which allowed Hamilton to trot out Marc Liegghio for a 57-yard potential game-tying field goal. The kick went wide left, rendering the decision moot, but by accepting the penalty, the Tiger-Cats would have been pushed out of range.

Pierce revealed post-game that he declined the penalty in order to keep the clock running. With just six seconds remaining, that left Hamilton with one play to change the outcome. A stopped clock might have allowed them two opportunities. Reading between the lines, I think the Lions felt a 57-yarder was out of Liegghio’s range anyway, and were genuinely surprised to see him take the field.

Either to his credit or his detriment, depending on your perspective, Pierce was surprisingly forthright in admitting that he wasn’t sure he made the right call, and said he wants to re-evaluate the decision while self-scouting this week. Few coaches would cop to that uncertainty, but I was impressed by the transparency. It means that Pierce is holding himself accountable and willing to do the work to get better, which is admirable.

Missing tonnage

The bigger you are, the larger the hole you leave when you fall out of the starting lineup. The Lions proved that on both sides of the ball on Saturday, as they were buoyed by the return of a size mismatch on offence and hurt by the loss of one on defence.

Back on the field for the first time since the season-opener, Jevon Cottoy was easily B.C.’s best player on the night and seemingly the only receiver immune from drops. He reeled in all seven targets tossed in his direction, accounting for 109 yards. When the team was at its best, it was Cottoy moving the chains, including on a ballsy screen pass on second-and-10 which set up the game-winning field goal.

Beyond his impact as a pass catcher, the six-foot-five, 230-pound Canadian is a versatile chess piece that Pierce has become especially adept at utilizing. He can play from virtually any alignment, including as an in-line tight end or an H-back in the backfield, contributes as a pass protector, and creates extra gap in the run game. His absence was felt keenly in those areas, and his return opened new doors.

On defence, I don’t think enough attention has been paid to the loss of defensive tackle Jonah Tavai, who was placed on the six-game injured list this week. He’s an elite run stuffer at five-foot-11 and 283 pounds, but his ability to push the pocket as a pass rusher is just as good and twice as rare. The dropoff to rookie David Gusta was noticeable.

When Harrison Frost was able to move the ball in the second quarter, it was because he had a clean pocket and B.C. couldn’t get home with their front four. That could have been a different story with Tavai in the game, especially against a rookie Canadian guard making his first career start in Jonathan Denis. The heat eventually melted Frost when Sankey, Williams, and Parker McKenna started to blitz regularly, but it took a schematic change to make it happen.

Snapper envy

There has been a lot of drama in the CFL this week about how much protection long snappers are afforded on special teams, and the Lions clearly got confused. To clarify: only the snapper can’t be touched when his head is down. The people around him still have to block.

Andrew Peirson didn’t get that memo when he allowed Mario Kendricks to burst through for a blocked field goal in the third quarter. The veteran offensive lineman committed the unforgivable sin of leaving his inside gap open, failing to step towards Anu Una. Apparently, special teams coordinator Dennis McKnight laid down the law swiftly, and hauled Peirson off the field before B.C.’s next kick.

Sadly, that was far from B.C.’s only error on special teams. Isaiah Wooden nearly broke a couple of returns for the Tabbies, most notably a 42-yarder that Zander Horvath hauled down from behind. The cover teams even struggled to make a stop on an intentionally squibbed opening kickoff, with defensive lineman Owen Hubert running 21 yards to put the ball at midfield. The usually dependable Carl Meyer also had an off-night with a couple of mishit punts — his wife, Carolyn, sang the national anthem pre-game, which made him the second-best performer in his household on Saturday.

Special teams continue to be an adventure for the Lions every week, and while McKnight has been a breath of fresh air, the coaching change a few weeks back can only fix so much. The problems in this department are structural, and they will continue to impact the results.

Locate your AED

In case of emergency, you should always know where your nearest defibrillator is stored. For Nathan Rourke, that appears to be wherever Justin McInnis is running to on the field.

The long-limbed Canadian pass catcher has been awfully quiet the past several weeks, but he provided some life-saving shocks against Hamilton, finishing with five catches for 159 yards. That included an incredible 82-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter, which woke B.C. up from the dead.

The play was a designed flea-flicker, but Jamal Peters didn’t bite on the run and instead stuck with McInnis down the field. His coverage was so tight that he was actually called for pass interference, and I suspect Rourke was merely trying to draw the flag when he launched the ball deep. Not only did McInnis fight through the contact successfully to make the grab, but he was also able to outrun everybody to the end zone. In so doing, the entire narrative of the ball game was changed.

McInnis was targeted 11 times, so less than half of the passes thrown his way were caught and a couple dropped outright. His touchdown and the catch on the final series overshadowed that entirely.

Same combo, different flavour

We’ve seen James Butler and Zander Horvath perform as a double act before, but Week 10 felt different. Though Butler was still listed as the starter, it was clear that Horvath was the feature back after his 191-yard explosion last week, and he was dramatically more effective. The hulking ball carrier turned 16 carries into 62 yards and a touchdown plunge, while also catching a seven-yard major. His veteran counterpart managed 15 yards on four carries, while catching two passes for 17 yards.

Though the combination is the same, I think the order in which the two running backs are deployed changes the dynamic significantly. If Butler is your number one guy, there are still plenty of ways to justify Horvath’s place on the roster. He’s your short-yardage guy, a meaningful special teams player, an effective lead blocker, and a change-of-pace finisher. By contrast, Butler coming in as a secondary option seemed only to deflate the offence, and he provides no additional value in other phases.

Maybe you can change things up and eventually go with the hot hand every week, but I’m not sure that does either player justice. It might be time to allow Horvath to fly solo, and use that valuable American roster spot somewhere else.

300 club

It was nice to see the Lions pay tribute to vice-president of football operations Neil McEvoy on the videoboard during this game. Now in his 30th season with the organization, the native of Surrey, B.C., enjoyed his 300th CFL victory last week.

Those types of statistics are typically only tracked for quarterbacks and head coaches, but it takes much more than that to make a football team succeed. McEvoy has worn many hats throughout his career, getting his start in ticket sales back in 1995 and rising through the ranks organically. During his tenure as co-general manager, he once described his contractual status with the organization as “institutionalized.” There have been rumours of outside opportunities at various points in his career, but he’s always remained loyal to his hometown team and has become a lynchpin piece of its identity.

Like any football decision-maker, McEvoy isn’t without sin. He’s made plenty of mistakes along the way and deserves his fair share of criticism when B.C. struggles, though it should be noted that he has never had final say on the game-day roster. However, his remarkable longevity and career average of more than 10 wins per season make him more than deserving of this brief moment in the spotlight.

Tykes to the rescue

The Week 10 crowd was everything that I feared the Lions’ BC Place homecoming would be a few weeks ago, with just 19,387 fans turning out on a gorgeous night in Vancouver. This is just the third time in the past three years that B.C. has failed to draw over 20,000, and the atmosphere was dreadful as the offence routinely sputtered.

The saving grace was that the FamFest theme drew in a noticeably younger group of fans, specifically those still struggling to grasp the mysteries of the potty. Tiny tots were everywhere in the stands, gaining valuable exposure to what might become a lifelong passion. I particularly love the annual initiative to let all the kids onto the field after the game. That’s what this league should be about.

Courage under fire

The BC Place press box is rather sparse these days, as sports media continues to be bled dry and sold for parts across the country. However, it was filled to the brim on Saturday, though not with people covering the game.

In an unconventional move, the Lions relegated their injured players and practice squad to the media area for this one. I don’t know the reasoning behind this move, and frankly I have no issue with it, but it did make for an interesting dynamic. It’s a little awkward to criticize a player in print or discuss a blown assignment with a colleague when his 300-pound buddy is literally looking over your shoulder — as delightful as those big men might be.

I will never know what it’s like to stand in the pocket and take a shot from a blitzing linebacker, but the Lions are at least ensuring I know how it feels to perform under pressure.

Back in the running

This was an ugly victory, but they all count the same. Now, the Lions face a short week before what could be the biggest game of the season in Calgary on Thursday.

After dropping a stinker to Toronto, the Stampeders are just one game up on B.C. and could be overtaken in the standings with a victory, depending on the point differential. If Winnipeg drops its game to Ottawa the next day, the Lions could finish the week in third place and leapfrog into a playoff spot. What a statement that would be after their dreadful start!

Kickoff from McMahon Stadium is slated for 9:00 p.m. EDT on August 13.

J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.