The Lions will be without Dominique Rhymes who will be missing the game due to a knee injury. It is his 2nd game missed due to injury with the 1st one being a foot injury that held him out in week 2. Justin McInnis is elevated to being a starter after being a 2nd string receiver last week. McInnis had some strong games earlier in the season as a starter at different times when BC was dealing with injuries to key receivers.
Rhymes is the league leader in touchdowns with 5.
Keon Hatcher and Lucky Whitehead who both had 1,000 yards last year and Alexander Hollins who is the current leader in receiving yards will likely be the primary targets for Dane Evans. Jevon Cottoy is also starting at receiver who has had many instances in which he catches a short pass and turns on the bulldozer mode running through defenders for plenty of YAC.
Daniel Pe
termann is reentering the lineup in a 2nd string-receiving role.Defense
The defense deserves a lot of credit as to why the BC Lions are 5-1. Over the 5 wins, BC has only allowed 2 offensive touchdowns. In the first 3 games of the season, the Lions held every opposing quarterback they faced to under 200 passing yards including Jake Maier, Taylor Cornelius, and Zach Collaros. Last week 4 of the 12 defensive CFL players named to the Pro Fooball Focus Team of the Week were of the BC Lions including Woody Baron, Bo Lokombo, Ben Hladik, and Quincy Mauger.
The last time BC played Edmonton was in week 2 and the Lions held them to 0 points. Edmonton was only able to muster 103 passing yards and 54 rushing yards in that game. The circumstances are different with Vernon Adams Jr. being injured and BC being on the road, but lately being a visiting team in Edmonton is more like a neutral site game due to limited attendance numbers. They had over 32 thousand for their home opener but in the last 2 games, they had around 21 thousand which feels very empty in a stadium with a capacity of 56 thousand.
Last week the defensive line was amazing and completely negated Saskatchewan’s run game as Jamal Morrow only had 0.9 yards per carry on 12 rushes. Sione Teuhema, Woody Baron, Jalon, Edwards-Cooper, and Emmanuel Rugamba all contributed a tackle for a loss.
Among linebackers in week 7 Ben Hladik had the top Pro Football Focus Run defense score of 80.8 and Bo Lokombo was right behind him at 2nd with 78.5.
Matthieu Betts added another sack last week and also generated 4 QB pressures. Betts has 10 sacks and is closing in on Brent Johnson’s Canadian sack record of 17. Woody Baron contributed 2 sacks and had the 4th highest PFF pass rush grade while Betts had the 2nd highest grade in week 7.
The defensive secondary also played very well last week as Mason Fine was contained to 6.9 yards per pass attempt and had 2 interceptions. Quincy Mauger and Jalon Edwards-Cooper were both in the top 10 defensive backs for the PFF coverage grade. Jalon Edwards-Coopers and Garry Peters both had an interception. Peters also had another knockdown in the endzone preventing a late-game touchdown.
Depth Chart Changes From Last Week:
Dominique Rhymes will miss the game due to a knee injury. Justin McInnis will start at receiver after being a 2nd string last week. Daniel Petermann is entering the lineup in a 2nd string capacity.
Taquan Mizzell is back at running back after missing 2 games due to a knee injury. Shaun Shivers and Kienan Lafrance are both on the 1-game injured list this week after being the runningbacks last week.
Brooks Pa
rker is elevated from the practice roster to add depth at linebacker.Depth Charts:
Score Prediction:
We have the team with the best-performing defense in the BC Lions playing the team with the lowest-performing offense in the Edmonton Elks. I predict BC to win this game by a score of 28-10.
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