B.C. Lions come up with a 27-20 win over Winnipeg, but cut it awfully close…

The heavily-favoured B.C. Lions eventually pulled out a 27-20 win over 1-4 Winnipeg in Monday's CFL clash, but they made it much harder on themselves then they had to. The Lions picked up two free points from a foolish Winnipeg safety late in the game and then drove down the field to score a touchdown on the ensuing possession, but almost gave the win back when they elected to punt instead of trying a field goal with less than a minute left. Punter Paul McCallum shanked the punt badly, and it only travelled three yards, giving a net of negative-seven yards on the play (thanks to a 10-yard penalty for punting out of bounds between the 20-yard lines). That gave the Bombers excellent field position and another chance to tie the contest up, and they almost managed that before the B.C. defence made a stand. In the end, a great pass rush from Eric Taylor, Jabar Westerman and others saw Justin Goltz sacked on third down before he could throw a potentially game-tying Hail Mary, and the Lions came out with the win, but this isn't going to be a confidence-inspiring performance heading into a bye week.

To be fair to the Lions, this was a lot better than the 38-12 drubbing they took in Toronto last week, and they managed to come away with a victory. That improves their record to 4-2, which has them with the same number of wins as Calgary and just one back of West-leading Saskatchewan. (The Stampeders and the Riders, 4-1 and 5-0 respectively, each had a bye this week.) There were plenty of solid moments for B.C., too, particularly Travis Lulay's spectacular touchdown pass through a narrow window to a tightly-covered Courtney Taylor.

In fact, Lulay played very well on the day. He didn't break his streak of sub-300-yard regular-season performances against Winnipeg, but he did quite well against a team that's often given him fits, completing 28 of 39 passes (71.8 per cent) for 268 yards and three touchdowns without a turnover (Update: Without an interception: he did fumble in the first quarter. Thanks, Lucas!), and getting plenty of receivers involved (six different Lions caught at least three passes) along the way. The Lions' defence was impressive too, holding Goltz to 112 passing yards with a 46.4 per cent completion mark and restricting Chad Simpson to 4.4 yards per carry. They got particularly great moments from Taylor, Adam Bighill (a team-high eight tackles), Solomon Elimimian (four tackles, a forced fumble and an interception) and others.

Beyond that, though, there were a lot of B.C. flaws on display. McCallum's punt that pinned Winnipeg inside their two and led to the ill-advised safety was a great moment, but his punting blunder late almost cost the Lions the game and he made just one of three field goals. The Bombers really shut down the B.C. running game for much of this contest, as Andrew Harris picked up just 56 yards on 13 carries (a 4.3 yards per carry average), and the Lions weren't able to find a way to get it going consistently. The inability to execute in the red zone that had plagued B.C. through much of the season reared its ugly head again, too: given how little Winnipeg accomplished on offence, scoring just 27 points against them and having the game come down to the final seconds isn't exactly a resounding triumph. Still, it's a victory, one that keeps the Lions from falling too far behind in the West Division race, and it's one that should give them some good feelings going into the bye week. They're going to have to be a lot better than they were Monday to be a serious Grey Cup contender this season, though.