The BC Lions pulled off quite the victory in last Saturday’s game against the returning Grey Cup Champions, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Now we can go on and on about head coach for the Bombers, Mike O’Shea, saving the starters, starters that included a visibly antsy Zach Collaros, for most of the game, and we can go on about flukes, as many on social media have, but the truth of the matter here is, the BC Lions found a way to win, and it might have all come down to their line of defense.
For Dru Brown, it was his first time playing officially in the CFL, and he did well, throwing 325 passing yards for his team, the Bombers. But, he was also sacked quite a number of times—3 to be exact, which perhaps brings us to my next point…
In battle, the line of defense is everything. Yeah, you need those that attack a particular target, sure, and that’s how points are scored—enter your endeavor here……… But in the end, if there’s no one there to guard the home front, so to speak, you’re going to lose the game (or the war), no matter what your attackers are doing. Same goes for any sport, as mentioned.
Maybe we’re arguing about semantics here, but the point was driven home last Saturday, and especially in that game that the stability of a good defense can in turn take home a win.
Am I being dramatic? You might say that, yeah, but I like analogies; my readers know that. I like comparing different sports and seeing in the end how they’re all similar…. The ultimate goal in mind is a win, and there are those that feel that offence gets the glory, but defense wins the game. I believe Dennis Rodman said that many times. There I go again…basketball when we’re talking football. Tisk, tisk, tisk…
Now don’t get me wrong…you don’t win a game 40 to 32 on defensive action alone; there has to be some sort of plan to move ahead and there was on Saturday night, believe me. Interestingly enough, some of those offensive moves came from an unlikely place you might think…the defensive line!
Now for NFL fans, this is where it might get confusing. In the NFL the halfback is an offensive player, whereas in the CFL, the halfback is lined up in order to cover the slotback.
Here’s Wikipedia’s definition specifically, just to make it clearer, friends:
“The halfback in Canadian Football, and most commonly the CFL, currently refers to the defensive back rather than the running back, as in American football. The defensive halfback lines up inside covering the slotback. They are usually slightly larger than the cornerback to assist the linebackers in stopping the run. They can also be seen backing off the line early, to counter the forward motion of a slotback, which is allowed before the snap in the CFL…”
Marcus Sayles, who actually played for the Blue Bombers in 2018-2019, and along with BC teammate T.J. Lee, who are both BC Lions halfbacks by the way, each affectively made interceptions that led to runs for touchdowns in Saturday’s game!
Current Lions QB, Vernon Adams Jr., was also sacked three times as his counterpart on the other team was, and he completed only 13 out of 22 attempts at throws, completing one touchdown. He’s doing his best, but as in recent games, there is something missing in that QB position…something like I don’t know, Nathan Rourke.
As we stated last time, Rourke is practicing again, but it’s unsure if he’ll be back for the playoffs or sooner, but Vernon did the best he could coming in at the point in the season that he did, which was after Rourke fell to injury. It would be hard for anyone to maintain consistent levels of playing, or for a QB, throwing, at that point in the season. He deserves his props and gets them from me.
The Lions are now the proud owners of a new piece of land…that heralded number 2 spot in the West Division of the CFL. Spot 1 would of course be nice, but hey, sometimes you can’t have your cake and eat it to, no matter how delicious it looks…but sometimes you can.
They’ll have a chance to do something memorable this year if they can do once again what they did last Saturday night, and that is to beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in their last game of the regular season, which is scheduled to go down on Friday October 28th at 8:30 PM EST, when they face the Bombers again.
If Bombers head coach, Mike O’Shea , plays his starters, I see the Lions having some problems doing that, but that all depends of course. Remember, this is a sport and anything can happen on any given day a game is played. It’s why the term fluke and even Hail Mary is thrown around so much…anything can happen.
For now though, the lions have to face the Edmonton Elks this Friday at 9:45 PM EST. One obstacle at a time, I guess.
*For all your 2022 CFL Season News: CFL News Hub
