Well, the mighty BC Lions are certainly the talk of the town (and by ‘the town’ I mean the talk of the entirety of the CFL universe of fans), as they dominated in their season opener against the seemingly and self-admittedly underprepared Edmonton Elks. The CFL has definitely gotten under way, friends.
It was leading up to the game though, that the Elks proved to have the absolute best of intentions, but as game day approached, occurred and passed them by, so did any chances of winning against the determined BC Lions.
Prior to the game, Elks Head Coach, Chris Jones stated that a good knowledge of the team you’re facing is key in taking a win home. Here’s some of what he said while speaking to the press earlier last week:
“In order to play fast, you have to have a good idea of who they are as a football team…You have to know their protections, you have to know their favorite plays, you have to know where they’re kicking the ball and how deep you set your returners…
There’s a lot of things that go into it, so it’s not like you can just show up and try to do, ‘Just do you.’ You have to know who you’re playing.”
via Global News
But despite his earlier statements about knowing your opponent, when it came to describing the practice the team had heading into last week’s game, he sounded a wee bit disappointed in how the team collectively performed while practicing overall. Here’s some of what he said on that front:
“We didn’t practice very well…Today wasn’t our best day, for sure — for the coaches and players. Nobody really brought the level of play that you ultimately need in order to be successful. I’m very disappointed in today’s effort.”
via Global News (link above)
In the end, the Lions won the game by a whopping 59 to 15, the Elks scoring a single touchdown, which was earned by Locksley.
As for the Lions, the two players that stood out exceptionally were: Rourke and Butler. QB, Nathan Rourke had an epic game overall, he having connected with 26 out of 29 of his passes throughout the game at a total of 282 yards and 3 total touchdowns. I’ll say that’s an epic start for a man who played his very first regular season game with the Lions…he took over the QB position from Michael Reilly, who retired just recently.
As for James Butler…the man scored a whopping 4 touchdowns and all in the first half! Enough said on that front, I feel. Now talk about an epic first game for the BC Lions who quite obviously are setting out to prove something this season….
Rourke even had some comments about teammate, Butler:
“When we’re able to do multiple things with our backs, multiple things in terms of running and throwing the ball, we’re just that more dangerous…I’m really happy for James. He’s such a great guy, he’s a hard worker and he deserves it. He deserves to have this kind of performance and hopefully he continues to have that type of game moving forward.”
via CBC
Rick Campbell, head coach for the Lions, had some comments to make after the game while speaking with the press:
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of a game like this with the score the way it was…That’s how he practices. He’s very consistent in how he is…Every night is not going to be like this. I know that. But at the same time, that’s what you’re going to see is that type of player, just the way he executes and plays the game with great energy and great passion and all those things…
Normally in pro football the scores don’t get this lopsided, but I was just proud of the way they played and I’m proud that in the second half we continued to play hard and do our thing. So credit to our players.”
via CBC (link above)
Next up for the Lions are the Toronto Argonauts. The game is set to go down on Saturday, June 25th at 10 PM EST.
