On a night meant for smashing watermelons, the B.C. Lions gave the undefeated Roughriders every opportunity to prove they belonged intact atop the West Division despite their quarterback situation.
In the end, it was the better offence that prevailed 35-20, led by a man that Saskatchewan deemed expendable two years ago.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
It takes more than that to kill a bull Moose
For all the other chaotic storylines this game presented, it really boiled down to a duel between two Canadian receivers.
Justin McInnis and Samuel Emilus were the players of the game for their respective teams, each amassing over 100 yards before halftime and combining for at least a half-dozen game-changing plays. The Riders’ top target hauled in eight catches for 161 yards, while B.C.’s six-foot-six chain mover ultimately won the battle with a remarkable 14 catches for 243 yards and a major.
“I’d trust him with my kids,” quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. said of his level of faith in McInnis.
“He’s a dude. He has been working ever since he got here and he’s got such strong hands. I’m throwing the ball a little bit behind him and he’s making great catches with DBs all over him.”
The back-and-forth brilliance from the homegrown stars was particularly fitting given the deep links between them. Each hails from the province of Quebec and they remain close friends after living together when they both played for Saskatchewan in 2022. The unspoken reality is that it was that franchise’s belief in Emilus, who they took in the first round of that year’s draft, which allowed them to cast their previous first-rounder, McInnis, aside in free agency that offseason.
McInnis claimed sticking it to the team that let him walk for nothing provided no extra motivation but couldn’t deny revelling in the performance against his former friends and teammates.
“I just like it more for after the fact, when I get to see the guys I do know and just kind of rub it in their face a little bit,” he laughed. “[Emilus] was probably the first one and I was like, ‘I told you, man.’ We had a little talk before the game, it’s all love. We always say, ‘Go ball out, just not too much.’”
It’s clear that neither player listened to the other’s caveat, though McInnis disregarded it in particular. Two things stood out about the man that we in the press box have now dubbed ‘The Moose.’ Firstly, he did not miss a single target thrown his way, hauling in all 14 passes despite often being blanketed and sometimes double-covered, as he was on his touchdown. More impressively, he continued to produce late in the game despite debilitating cramps in both calves that forced him to the sideline on multiple occasions.
Even in intense pain, McInnis was an automatic conversion thanks to his massive frame and innate understanding of space. If last week was his coming out party, this was a coronation of an all-star calibre Canuck. For now, he is the engine that makes this offence run.
Rugamba’s rough night
The Lions’ defence looked dominant for much of Saturday night, holding Saskatchewan to less than 10 yards on half of their offensive drives. That was to be expected playing against a backup quarterback in Shea Patterson who couldn’t survive on B.C.’s practice squad three years ago, but a handful of massive defensive busts allowed the Riders to hang around like a bad smell.
Unfortunately for boundary halfback Emmanuel Rugamba, he’ll be the one bearing the brunt of the criticism in film study. The 26-year-old has been great this year but all three of the Riders’ biggest passing plays came due to miscommunications on his part, a fact he owned up to in the locker room.
The first was a 51-yard romp by the aforementioned Emilus late in the first quarter, all of which came after the catch. With everyone loaded up in the box on second-and-two, Rugamba didn’t let his teammates know when he followed Jerreth Sterns across the formation on a pre-snap motion and the result was nobody covering the Canadian standout in the flats. Rookie Ajou Ajou cleared out Garry Peters with a block and nobody was left on the left side of the field, setting up an A.J. Ouellette rushing major.
It was Emilus again who exploited the Lions’ coverage in the second quarter, racing for another 50 on a corner route after an unnecessary roughness penalty from B.C. put the ball at mid-field. Rugamba shifted his zone too far inside and left nobody in the vicinity of the receiver once Peters drove to cover Ouellette in the flats. Frankly, those two plays were the only reason the Riders were in contention at the half.
Rugamba was victimized one final time at the end of the third quarter, this time allowing Kian Schaffer-Baker to easily cross his face uncontested on a post route. The embattled defender chased him down but missed the ensuing tackle attempt, allowing KSB to rumble for a full 49 yards.
The feel-good part of this story is that on the latter two busts, Rugamba’s teammates bailed him out with huge red zone stops. It was Sione Teuhema and Bo Lokombo who stonewalled Saskatchewan on back-to-back running plays in the second quarter to force a Brett Lauther field goal from the five-yard line, and a Lokombo sack on the first play of the fourth quarter led to an incredible goal-line stand after Schaffer-Baker’s big play.
“As a unit, I’ve been fortunate enough to be around guys who can pick us up and we play a lot of ‘pick-you-up’ ball. ‘I got your back ball,’ that’s what we call it,” Rugamba said. “Regardless of the mistakes that we made, you saw out there that we were just next play mentality.”
Manny did his fair share in that department as well, coming up with a fourth-quarter fumble recovery that helped to ultimately seal the game. He also finished tied for the team-high with four tackles.
Stopping the streaker
Vernon Adams Jr. went streaking early this season, going an impressive 199 straight passes without an interception. It was throw number 200 that saw him drug back to reality and covered in a blanket, as he tossed a pair of picks against Saskatchewan.
The Riders’ formula for victory has been takeaways on defence, with a league-leading +10 turnover differential entering this game. That should come as no surprise given that their head coach, B.C. native Corey Mace, was the defensive mastermind behind Adams’ six-interception performance a year ago — a game that essentially killed his M.O.P. hopes despite being a complete anomaly.
You’d think with that knowledge that VA may have approached Saturday’s matchup with a more conservative mindset. Instead, he threw caution to the wind while at times toeing the line between fearless and reckless. Both of his interceptions were on him, each thrown behind the intended receiver and rushed in its delivery — a fact he openly admitted at the podium. There were at least two more throws that could have been picked and a few other wild decisions thrown in on what might have been his most inconsistent performance of the year.
And yet, complaints don’t feel deserved when a quarterback throws for 451 yards — and should have had more if not for a few blatant drops. Even on his worst nights, Adams is dangerous and his calls for self-improvement sounded hollow even to him.
“I don’t know what the completion percentage was but I know it wasn’t good. I’d rather — mmm, nah, I like the yards but I need the completion percentage to be a little bit better,” he smirked post-game.
For the record, Adams finished 26-of-42 passing, which amounts to 61.9 percent — roughly seven points less than his season average. He more than made up for that with late-game poise and some decisive running, as he chipped in with 39 yards and a touchdown on the ground. That major, which came courtesy of some great blocking from fullback David Mackie, proved to be the clincher.
Whyte knight
It’s rare that a kicker is able to recover his own onside, as Brett Lauther did in the fourth quarter, and he isn’t the most impressive player at his position in the game. That’s what happens when you are facing Mr. Automatic, Sean Whyte.
The White Rock, B.C. native helped to compensate for his offence’s continuing challenges scoring touchdowns, nailing all seven field goals he was asked to attempt including a 50-yarder. That extended his franchise record consecutive field goal streak to 39 in a row, tying Rene Paredes for second all-time in CFL history.
Whyte has the remarkable distinction of holding the consecutive field goal record for three of the CFL’s nine franchises, accounting for B.C. (39), Edmonton (25), and Montreal (24). Stunningly, he would require 30 more kicks made to pass Lewis Ward’s pro football record of 69 straight.
For those wondering if B.C.’s decision to call a timeout with one second remaining in the game and attempt another kick had anything to do with that history, it did not. The Riders and Lions play just twice this year and Rick Campbell wanted to pad his lead in the event of a potential tiebreaker, a fact he communicated to both the media and his adversary Mace.
“I remembered watching the Winnipeg-Calgary game last night and Winnipeg got the tiebreaker on them by one point,” he explained. “Do you think that’s gonna make a difference at the end of the year with the way these guys are? If anything tips the odds in our favour then we’re going to do it.”
Alley Oops
Alexander Hollins has fallen off the pace for the CFL’s single-season receiving record, struggling mightily on Saturday. Though he finished with a respectable five catches for 83 yards, those numbers came on 14 targets and he didn’t establish himself until a 47-yard catch in the fourth quarter.
If the league’s receiving leader simply had a quiet night, that would have been one thing. Instead, he was loud for all the wrong reasons, dropping two certain touchdown passes. The first came on a beautifully thrown deep ball from VA after he blew past former teammate Marcus Sayles down the right sideline in the second quarter, letting the ball fall harmlessly through his arm. The second was a tougher catch, low and away in the end zone in the third quarter, but it still ricocheted right off his chest.
Hollins added another drop on what would have been a first down deep in B.C.’s own end early in the fourth quarter. Adams went right back to him on the next play but threw slightly behind for an interception, though the 175-pound receiver still looked out of his weight class while being outmuscled by Deontai Williams. That play resulted in an A.J. Ouellette touchdown run.
This isn’t the first time this year that Hollins has been guilty of drops and it hurt his team badly this week. True number-one targets rarely have outings like this and when they do, they course-correct quickly the following week.
Come down to earth
B.C.’s offensive line has faded out of the spotlight since their atrocious Week 1 outing, reassuring fans and pundits with some impressive performances along the way. That hasn’t done much to improve their stock with analytics firm Pro Football Focus, who still has them ranked dead last in the league for overall grade.
Adams’ mobility compensates for a lot of mistakes but sometimes causes others, leading me to take that rating with a grain of salt. However, cracks that started to appear again last week became more visible against Saskatchewan, particularly in the first half. The Riders collected four sacks and while not all of those were on the big men up front, I thought Anthony Lanier II and Micah Johnson were noticeably disruptive.
The bigger issues were in the running game, where B.C. couldn’t get anything going on a night where they could have won by simply controlling the clock. William Stanback got 12 carries, a reasonable sample size in the CFL, and mustered just 14 yards. There was too much penetration from the defensive line and not enough hats getting to the second level versus a well-coached defence.
Takeaways, eh?
The Lions got a pair of big takeaways in this game, both coming from Canadians they selected in the 2022 CFL Draft.
The first came on Saskatchewan’s first drive when safety Adrian Greene ripped the ball away from Kian Schaffer-Baker on what was the first interception of Shea Patterson’s CFL career. The fourth-round pick has been excellent in his first year as the starting safety and should be an early front-runner for West Division all-star.
Third-round pick Josh Archibald was responsible for the second takeaway in the fourth quarter, tracking down Sam Emilus from behind to strip the ball at a critical moment. The former McGill defensive end hustled to take down Patterson in the third as well, marking his fourth sack of the year. Believe it or not, that gives the rotational Canadian the CFL lead in that statistical category.
When you add in big plays from the likes of Patrice Rene, Ben Hladik, and Bo Lokombo, it is truly remarkable how impactful B.C.’s Canadian content continues to be on defence. It proves that loading up with Americans on that side of the ball does nothing to ensure success.
I’m a semi-aquatic mammal, dammit!
It was a humid 26 degrees for kickoff at BC Place — far from a record heatwave but enough to coat everyone in attendance in an uncomfortable film of sweat. I share my colleague John Hodge’s distaste for games in the summer heat and I’m sure many of our plus-sized readers do as well. Give me an autumn breeze any day.
There is only one thing worse than being a big man in warm conditions: being a mascot. In the lead-up to the game, I stumbled across a tragic example of that misery on my way to the press box. There was Justin Beaver, the official Grey Cup mascot, slumped over in a chair with his suit draped around his knees and his head cast to the side, savouring a glass of water as if it was the cup of salvation.
That poor individual drenched in perspiration had likely spent the last several hours under the sun, entertaining the unwashed masses at the Backyard Bash. He was probably minutes away from putting his armour back on for several more hours of in-house activities. I hope he knows my thoughts and prayers were with him.
Whale-watching
Saturday marked the CFL debut for rookie defensive tackle Jonah Tavai, who stepped in due to injuries to Josh Banks and Tibo Debaillie. The former All-American at San Diego State was one of the most intriguing signings of the offseason and not just because fans are familiar with his brother J.R., a former Lions defensive end. Tavai was prolific in college and would likely be in the NFL like his other brother Jahlani if not for the fact he is five-foot-10.
The 283-pounder delivered in his first game, notching two tackles, recording a huge fourth-quarter sack, and looking disruptive on several other occasions. However, it was on special teams where I couldn’t take my eyes off him, as Tavai stepped into the second level on kickoff return and absolutely obliterated several Riders with his massive bulk.
Guys that size usually get a pass on special teams, unless it’s the field goal unit. Tavai admitted in the locker room that he had never played on a return team before and was happy with how he seized his opportunity.
“I didn’t think about it until I got to the sideline and everybody’s giving me a little dab up,” he said of decleating the likes of A.J. Allen and Clint Ratkovich. “I’ll just do my job and good stuff happens.”
Citrullis Vulgaris
The Lions’ “Watermelon Smash” promotion was a smashing success once again, as fans from both teams united for joint pre-game festivities, contests, and free mullets inspired by the players on the field.
There is no love lost between these franchises, to be sure — the Riders even appeared to veer off course as they came out for warmups just to give B.C.’s receivers an earful — but the CFL is a league known for camaraderie. When half your stadium is going to be wearing green anyway, it’s best to steer into the skid.
There were the usual in-game activations that saw Lions fans triumph over hapless Saskatchewanians with an assist from the organizers, but the best joke of the night came on a video engagement meant to ridicule those who were on their phones during play. On one side of the jumbotron were videos of Rider fans mindlessly scrolling while the other half showed a close-up of a phone screen with what they were supposedly looking at, whether that was buying a copy of “Farming for Dummies” on Amazon or staring at pictures of Pilsner beer.
The piece de resistance came when the video flipped to footage of Riders’ GM Jeremy O’Day, presumably taken pre-game at field level. According to the Lions, he was reading an extensive Leader-Post retrospective on the tenth anniversary of the 13th Man Grey Cup loss while sitting on the team bench. A decade later, the jokes still don’t get old.
Returning king
This was an exciting game with plenty of massive plays but by far the biggest cheer of the night came when the Lions revealed that Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke was in attendance with his family. The now-New York Giant also addressed the team in the locker room post-game, proving he still holds tremendous sway in this town.
While the Lion King prepares for his second NFL training camp, B.C. has been crowned the frontrunner in the West Division. The Lions (5-1) will look to reinforce that status when they visit the Calgary Stampeders on Sunday, July 21 before taking their first bye week of the year.
