B.C. Lions play with Halloween fireworks, unmask Riders in West Semi-Final (& nine other thoughts)

Photo courtesy: Steven Chang/BC Lions.

On a night when people are allowed to wear whatever costume they want, the B.C. Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders chose to dress as their respective seasons in the West Semi-Final. The defending Grey Cup champions came out of the gates strong before fading into irrelevance, while the home team stumbled early before exploding for a 33-26 victory.

Here are my thoughts on the game.

Roman candles and bottle rockets

It is a time-honoured tradition for delinquents, young and old, to pull out the fireworks on Halloween and watch them go boom. If you are reading this article on Saturday night, you can probably hear the finger-risking fun happening in the background. If you saw the Lions play live, you were treated to an earlier explosive display.

Admittedly, Nathan Rourke doesn’t seem like the type of kid who ever lit up a Roman candle in the high school parking lot and ran before the cops came, but he sure can spark a football fuse. After a dismal start that saw the Lions fumble on their opening play and muster a combined 65 yards of net offence through 25 minutes, the Canadian kid broke containment from free rusher James Vaughters and dodged former teammate Josh Woods to deliver a 69-yard touchdown pass to Stanley Berryhill III.

A bust in Saskatchewan’s coverage unit left the 28-year-old receiver without any parental supervision on his trick-or-treating expedition, but don’t get it twisted. Rourke’s pass was delivered on the money and travelled at least 60 yards in the air based on the angles involved. It was an elite play and an elite throw from one of the best we’ve ever seen.

Following a halftime pep talk, the Lions continued to take advantage of explosive plays. After struggling to handle the Riders’ pressure looks in the early going, B.C. successfully punished their opponent by replacing an ill-advised blitzer with the ball in the third quarter. Jevon Cottoy was the lucky recipient, racing 70 yards to the end zone. He later credited this column — and some playful criticism levelled at him by his teammates — for inspiring the breakaway speed. Happy to be of service!

All told, the Lions finished the game with five “big plays,” according to CFL statistics. They accounted for 237 yards of net offence, a full 52.4 percent of the team’s final tally. The Riders produced just one such play.

Nobody was more explosive than Rourke himself, who completed 21-of-32 passes for 366 yards and three touchdowns, while rushing twice for 30 yards. It was an aerial display worthy of the Celebration of Lights, far greater than some illicit midnight whiz-bangs.

Night of the living dead

Zombie tends to be a pejorative term in sports, especially in football. It is often used to describe the lumbering, the uninspired, and the lifeless. I think we are selling the undead short; they are also relentless, dangerous, and nearly impossible to kill, regardless of what damage they have previously absorbed.

Sounds a lot like the B.C. Lions’ playoff defence.

Much was made about what was missing from Mike Benevides’ unit entering this game. Most Outstanding Rookie finalist Parker McKenna was forced to sit out with a head injury, replaced by 33-year-old special teamer Adam Konar. Physical cornerback Stantley Thomas-Oliver was also unavailable, replaced by 34-year-old Garry Peters, who has missed all but two games this year with persistent injuries. Five members of the defensive line rotation were unavailable, and returning gap-plugger Jonah Tavai still isn’t at full strength.

With all due respect to the replacements, that could have been a fatal combination. However, B.C. kept clawing their way out of the grave, holding Saskatchewan to six field goals. The Riders owned the time of possession battle, and it seemed like a heavy dose of A.J. Ouellette and Thomas Bertrand-Hudon was going to wear down a depleted front. Yet they never wavered, restoring gap integrity in the second half and stepping up once the offence forced Trevor Harris to take to the air. A spectacular diving interception from Robert Carter Jr. will go down as the standout play, but six different defenders provided a tackle for loss or a sack. That’s excellent football.

The final play of the game was emblematic of so much of what has made this group great. Mathieu Betts provided relentless pressure around the edge, forcing Harris to step up. Lorenzo Mauldin IV, a 34-year-old retiree who few teams would have looked at in the offseason, made him pull the ball down. Shaun Peterson Jr., a converted college running back who was cut by a non-playoff team earlier this year, finished with a sack. That’s what depth is all about.

Master of disguise

Four of the CFL’s top eight highest-paid receivers were on the field on Saturday night, but it was Jevon Cottoy who looked like the most dangerous weapon available.

The big-bodied Canadian target saw a game-high 12 targets thrown his way and hauled in eight of them for 131 yards. Much of that came on his 70-yard touchdown, but his ability to be an outlet for Nathan Rourke is unmatched, as is his value as an extra pass protector. That worked to B.C.’s advantage big time on Cottoy’s second touchdown catch, as he got in the Halloween spirit by donning the garb of an extra blocker, before leaking out completely uncovered. Frankly, that should have won the in-stadium costume contest.

This performance put an exclamation point on Cottoy’s ascendance over the second half of this season, and, for my money, he is currently the most important member of this offence. That could be on full display again next week, as the Edmonton Elks have yet to face the former Langley Ram this year. He was injured for both legs of the home-and-home, and has turned into the type of difference-maker you have to see live to appreciate.

Never too old to trick-or-treat

If T.J. Lee knocks on your door asking for candy, don’t give him a lecture about being too old. He doesn’t like that.

I have been a professed skeptic of the Lions’ reliance on Lee at this stage of his career, something he told me earlier this week had “come across his desk.” I’m always happy to motivate a player with my off-colour commentary, not that the 35-year-old needs an excuse to get fired up. His vocal leadership has been a driving force behind the defence’s accomplishments these past two seasons, and my concerns have primarily been related to the long-term future of the franchise and not his play in the moment.

That was once again excellent against the Riders, as he recorded a team-high 12 defensive tackles — one for each season he’s been in B.C. That included a hard-nosed run stuff against behemoth quarterback Tommy Stevens on second-and-two in the fourth quarter, which proved critical once Saskatchewan was called for illegal procedure on third down and was forced to punt.

As the longest-serving Lion and a franchise icon, Lee deserves to win a Grey Cup before his career is through. This could be the year.

Beneath the bedsheet

Ghosts are a ubiquitous Halloween costume in pop culture, but I haven’t seen very many people poke eyeholes in a bedsheet in real life. Despite the victory, some of the Lions’ biggest stars tried that outfit on for size during parts of this game.

Team-leading receiver Keon Hatcher Sr. made a couple of big catches in the second half and finished with 52 yards, but he was absolutely invisible in the first half. He failed to haul in any of the three targets thrown his way and only made himself corporeal to drop a certain touchdown pass. It was an uncharacteristic outing from one of the league’s elite weapons, and he’ll need to be better in the West Final.

Justin McInnis also had a quiet first half, not catching his first pass until the final 30 seconds before intermission. He was much better from that point on, hauling in four catches for 68 yards. Running back Zander Horvath had no such resurgence, going silent after an explosive 40-yard carry that set up B.C.’s first field goal. His six other runs resulted in eight yards combined. With James Butler also providing no juice, save for a damaging fumble, you have to wonder if B.C. will move mountains to dress Emani Bailey in the future.

Creepy crawly

Momentum swung heavily in Saskatchewan’s favour in the first half of this game thanks to several key mistakes and giveaways, but I’m not convinced that one of them should have stood.

Facing third-and-just-over-a-yard from their own 49-yard line early in the second quarter, the Lions sent out the short-yardage unit led by Zander Horvath. It was a monumental disaster, as Mike Rose blew up Riley Pickett’s attempt to set an edge and gave Jaxon Ford enough time to make the tackle for no gain. However, the turnover on downs was made possible in part because Devin Adams shot through the shins of the B.C. interior, forcing Horvath to delay and bubble his path.

Broadcast angles can be deceptive at times, particularly in cases like this where the ball was spotted between yard lines. However, it sure looked like Adams, who was half a body length ahead of his teammates, lined up with his head in the one-yard neutral zone. I’ll let you be the judge, but if he wasn’t over the line, he was breathing on it.

Missed call or not, the stop proved to be impactful. Saskatchewan answered with a couple of big gains, and Tommy Stevens soon followed a lead block from Thomas Bertrand-Hudon into the end zone. Samuel Emilus added a two-point conversion to take a 17-3 lead, though it wouldn’t last long.

Jump scare

If the Lions aren’t able to complete this Grey Cup push, chances are that the proverbial call will come from inside the house. In particular, it will come from the special teams unit, which continues to put the team at a substantial disadvantage.

With Seven McGee back on the injured list after an ill-fated return last week, the Lions were once again uninspired in the return game. Even worse, they had their worst outing in kick coverage in a while. Though a couple of Saskatchewan penalties pushed down his yardage totals, Matthew Sexton looked dangerous almost every time he touched the ball and forced missed tackles galore, including on a 47-yard run that the Riders failed to capitalize on. It was one of four drives where the defending Grey Cup champs started in plus territory; B.C. had just one such opportunity.

For all the tension that Sexton’s touches provided, I thought the Lions’ special teams saved two of their best plays for last. Ironically, one of those came on a missed 49-yard field goal by Sean Whyte that could have iced the game, but Maxime Rouyer successfully got downfield to limit the damage on the return. A bigger field flip, and the Riders might have completed their comeback.

A few plays prior, it was Jackson Findlay who fell on top of a dribbling onside kick attempt from Brett Lauther. I’m not sure that the ball would have gotten the required 10 yards, and I could hardly contain the coach in me from yelling “Poison” in the press box, but Findlay held his nerve and only dropped on the ball at the last possible second when he felt it was about to become recoverable.

I’m dumbfounded that Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace elected to spike the ball on second down and kick a field goal to set up that play, but I’ll leave that to Joel Gasson and Justin Dunk to critique.

Pumpkin patch

When the schedule was unveiled months ago, there were concerns about the divisional semi-finals falling on Halloween. The CFL tried to mitigate those issues by pushing kickoff times into the early afternoon, but on a night when houses traditionally get egged, the league got some on their face.

There were 23,283 fans in attendance at BC Place on Saturday; a solid crowd but a far cry from the 30,833 that showed up for a meaningless regular-season finale played by backups last week. The Lions’ sales and marketing team did their best to limit the holiday fallout, bringing back the popular pre-game tailgate, providing mock trick-or-treating options for kids, and generally leaning into the costumed celebration. It wasn’t enough to stop the bleeding, even with the expected transfusion of Riders fans — one of whom made his way onto the team’s bench.

To be entirely frank, if you are willing to skip a CFL playoff game because you are concerned about how it might affect your children’s ability to take free candy from strangers, I question your parenting principles. If you are willing to skip because you’d rather watch the Canucks play the Maple Leafs across the street, I question your taste and sanity. Either way, this was a problem that you could see coming from a mile away.

Just wait a decade. With possible expansion and an earlier season start date, we may be dealing with the dilemma of a Halloween Grey Cup soon enough.

Storming the castle

For the fourth time in the past five years, the Lions will head on the road for the West Final, though the venue and opponent will be a little different this time around. The first-place Edmonton Elks are set to host at Commonwealth Stadium for the first time since 2015, and the so-called Concrete Castle of the North will be rocking.

B.C. and Edmonton haven’t seen each other since July 17, when they split a two-game series. The Lions would have owned the tiebreaker based on points, but the Green and Gold successfully took care of business down the stretch. The storyline for the deciding matchup could not be more intriguing: one franchise desperately needing to get over the hump and another hoping to complete a historic resurgence. You won’t want to miss a minute.

Kickoff is slated for Saturday, November 7, at 4:30 p.m. PT. A trip to the Grey Cup is on the line.