MONTREAL — The BC Lions will make their furthest trip of the season as they get set to open Week 14 in the CFL with a Friday Night Football matchup from Percival Molson Stadium with the Montreal Alouettes.
The Lions enter Friday’s contest after having a bye week over the Labour Day Weekend. The last time BC saw action they suffered a 23-16 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Week 12, prior to their loss to the Riders, the Lions had won five consecutive games.
Montreal suffered a 38-24 loss to the Ottawa REDBLACKS on Labour Day Weekend. However, in the weeks leading up to their game against Ottawa the Als had earned a comeback win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and were the first team to defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Despite having the week off over the September long-weekend, the Lions still made noise across the league. In the week leading up to Labour Day Weekend the Lions announced that they had acquired quarterback Vernon Adam Jr. In a trade with the Montreal Alouettes.
In the week of practice leading up to their meeting with the Alouettes, Adams was a full participant and did not receiver an injury designation after spending time on the six-game injured list earlier this season.
BC is hoping the extended break gives Adams Jr. the time he needs to familiarize himself with the playbook ahead of their contest against his former team. In a media session earlier this week Lions head coach Rick Campbell said he expects the newly acquired quarterback to see the field in some capacity on Friday.
So far this season Adams has played in five games, completing 21 passes for 294 yards and a touchdown. Much like Rourke, he has the ability to make things happen with his legs, having rushed for 978 career yards and 20 touchdowns over seven seasons.
The newest member of the Lions told team media that he is excited to be on the West Coast and looks forward to helping the team’s already talented offence.
“It’s exciting,” Adams Jr. told BCLions.com. “I’m honoured and blessed this worked out. I’m here to help out any way I can. I want to help keep this train rolling and hold it down until No.12 gets back.”
The Lions’ head coach is just as excited to bring in a veteran quarterback who knows the league and has excelled at the professional level.
“I’m excited to have a proven guy out here who knows what it takes to win in this league,” Campbell told BCLions.com. “When we can add a guy like that it’s always a good thing. We’re going to work hard on getting him up to speed and go from there. We’ll go day by day but were not going to be slow about it.”
No matter who is starting under centre for the Lions come kickoff on Friday night, they will surely find comfort in the abundance of playmaking receivers within the BC offence.
Dominique Rhymes, Lucky Whitehead and Keon Hatcher all have at least 650 receiving yards. While Rhymes leads the way with 893 receiving yards, third most in the CFL. Additionally, Rhymes’ nine receiving touchdowns tie Winnipeg’s Dalton Schoen for the league-lead.
The Alouettes will also need to be mindful of Jevon Cottoy and Bryan Burnham in the receiving game, the pair combine for seven touchdowns and 10 plays that have gone for completions of 30 yards or longer.
On the other side of the ball, the Lions boast one of the best defensive units entering Friday’s contest with the Alouettes. BC has controlled the air against opposing quarterbacks this season, surrendering a league-low 234.7 passing yards per game. The Lions have also given up the fewest number of passing touchdowns of any team.
Opposing offences haven’t fared much better when attempting to attack the Lions on the ground. The BC defence has surrendered an average of 84 yard to opposing running backs and have allowed just seven scores.
Defensive lineman Matthieu Betts headlines the aggressive pass rush of the Lions defensive unit. Betts leads the team with seven sacks this season.
The Alouettes will be led onto the field by quarterback Trevor Harris, who took over from Adams Jr. as the team’s starting quarterback earlier in the year.
Harris will try to help his team rebound from a tough 38-24 loss to the Ottawa REDBLACKS over Labour Day Weekend. In the game Harris threw for 256 yards with two touchdowns, but two interceptions. Field vision and ball security will be of utmost importance against a Lions defence that has 12 interceptions and excels at defending the pass.
In their loss to the REDBLACKS a week ago, Ottawa managed to score 14 points off Alouettes turnovers. General manager and head coach Danny Maciocia admitted it was one of the factors that contributed to their loss to Ottawa.
“It was one of the major factors of us coming up short,” Maciocia told MontrealAlouettes.com. “Collectively, physically and mentally, we have to do a better job of showing up. That performance was unacceptable. The turnovers clearly didn’t help. We have to do a better job of tackling and we have to do a better job of winning the battles at the line of scrimmage, which we clearly didn’t do.”
Rookie receiver Tyson Philpot continues to take on a larger role within the team’s offence as the season continues. He caught four passes for 71 yards, leading his team over the Labour Day Weekend.
Pass-catchers Eugene Lewis and Jake Wieneke caught the two touchdown passes thrown by Harris and will need to find ways to stretch the field and stress Lions secondary on Friday.
Defensively Montreal will rely on their secondary to contain the group of high-flying Lions receivers. The Alouettes defensive secondary has been one of the best at defending the pass, allowing 265.8 yards per game, the third lowest total in the league.
Additionally the Als have registered nine interceptions and have allowed the fourth fewest passing touchdowns. Headlined by Canadian defensive back Marc-Antoine Dequoy who leads the team with three interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown.
The Lions need a win to try and keep pace with the West Division leading Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who have showed no signs of slowing down.
A win for the Alouettes against the West Division juggernaut would be a welcomed boost of confidence as trail the East Division leading Toronto Argonauts by four points.
