Nathan Rourke will get the start for the BC Lions this weekend as the Lions face the Ottawa RedBlacks on Saturday. Touchdown Pacific will see the Lions host the RedBlacks in Victoria, BC which is Rourke’s city of birth.
Rourke rejoined the Lions recently as he signed with the team on August 13 after pursuing an NFL opportunity. He had a quick turnaround as he joined the team that Wednesday and started in his first game back on Sunday. The quick turnaround time to start did not prove to be a successful recipe as he completed just 8 of his 25 passes for 126 yards with 2 interceptions. This past week was much better but still had room for improvement as Rourke completed 22 of his 31 passes for 234 yards with 1 interception.
Following the most recent loss, Lions head coach Rick Campbell was noncommittal when speaking to 980 CKNW on who would start at quarterback as Vernon Adams Jr. was recovering from a knee injury. He confirmed that Rourke would start when asked at Tuesday’s practice.
“Nathan’s taking all the reps and V.A. (Vernon Adams Jr. is) not at that stage yet, but definitely coming along,” Campbell told the media.
“I think he’s going to continue to get better,” Campbell said regarding Rourke’s progress. “I think about what he pulled off in a month of going from the Giants to the Falcons to being a starting CFL quarterback. I don’t know how he does that. The two things I’m really looking forward to is Nathan is going to continue to get better and more comfortable with things and VA being healthy is only going to make our football team stronger.”
Vernon Adams Jr. also spoke to the media regarding his recovery as he rehabs a knee injury sustained in week 9’s 0-25 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I’m feeling good. I’m going to keep ramping it up each day,” Adams said. “If (Rourke) wasn’t here I’d be out here playing, but he’s here and there’s no need for me to rush my injury or anything like that. I’m going to get 100 percent and work that way.”
“We know that we didn’t win five in a row for no reason,” Adams said. “We haven’t been finishing lately. That’s what it takes in a league like this, especially with the West being so close. All these teams are good. We have to finish, we have to play our game to our standard and have fun while we’re doing it.”
The Lions have had some ups and downs this season. After losing the season opener, they went on a 5-game winning streak. Vernon Adams Jr. was on pace to have the third most passing yards in a CFL season heading into week 9 but instead was limited that day and sustained an injury late in the game. Now the Lions are on a 5-game losing streak.
With the issues in pass protection this season, whoever is the starting quarterback needs to demonstrate a strong capacity to avoid the pass rush while distributing the ball effectively whether it be Adams Jr. or Rourke.
@JonathanClink on Twitter
