Lions’ empire strikes back Saturday, dousing Eskimos’ hopes

Against overwhelming odds, the Edmonton Eskimos did in fact have a shot against the superior firepower of the B.C. Lions Saturday night. Some teams would have meekly given up, but the Eskimos rebelled, and they did a lot of damage; they led through the first three quarters, and it looked like they might have found the Lions' weak spot. Even after B.C. pulled ahead 16-15 five minutes into the fourth on the strength of Geroy Simon's 100th career touchdown reception, Edmonton still had a shot, and they retook the lead with just three minutes left on a Grant Shaw field goal that could have set them up for medals all around. Empires often strike back, though, and that's just what the Lions did, with a seven-play 37-yard drive that set up a clutch Paul McCallum field goal from 46 yards out and then a final defensive stand to seal the game at 19-18 and doom Edmonton's hopes…for now.

On the whole, there's a lot for the Eskimos to be happy about from Saturday's game. Sure, the loss drops them to 5-7 and may hurt their playoff chances (although they'd still take a crossover berth at the moment thanks to the struggles of 4-8 Hamilton), but they looked much better this week than they did in last week's 51-8 thumping from the aforementioned Tiger-Cats. Edmonton was particularly impressive on defence, holding the Lions to 19 points. They didn't do all that well from a raw statistical point of view, as Andrew Harris racked up 103 yards on 11 carries (9.6 yards per carry) and Travis Lulay had 260 passing yards and one touchdown with a 66.7 per cent completion rate, but they made some crucial plays at big moments, including Weldon Brown's forced fumble. Similarly, their offensive stats weren't great overall, as Steven Jyles threw for just 222 yards with a touchdown, a pick and four sacks while Hugh Charles and Cory Boyd combined for just 56 rushing yards, but the Eskimos made some massive plays, including Cary Koch's 47-yard between-the-knees grab that set up the Shaw field goal that put Edmonton back in the lead. Overall, the Eskimos hung in there against the league's best team, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.

Despite looking less than impressive for much of this contest, especially in the first half, the Lions pulled this out though, and that says a lot about the former denizens of Empire Field. Sure, this team isn't perfect, and they easily could have lost this if a break or two had gone the other way. On a night where they were far from their best, though, they still managed to pull out a victory against the Eskimos' pesky rebellion, and that's what they've frequently done this year. The parts haven't necessarily all clicked consistently or all come together at once, but there's still a lot of firepower here. Sure, it's not always precisely targeted. That's still bad news for whatever gets in the way, though. B.C. will have a lot to work on going forward, but they're in an extreme position of strength at 9-3. The trilogy may not be quite finished yet, but it's going to take a lot to bring down this empire.