B.C. Lions get back on track with 38-18 win over Alouettes Thursday night

Six days after allowing a 15-point comeback inside the last five minutes of the fourth quarter of a 44-41 overtime loss to the Calgary Stampeders, the B.C. Lions rebounded very nicely with a 38-18 victory over the Montreal Alouettes Thursday. Last week's loss was marked by some poor decision-making by quarterback Jonathan Jennings down the stretch and by the defence's inability to stop Calgary's own late drives, but both improved substantially against the Alouettes. Meanwhile, Montreal fell back to earth after last week's dominant 41-3 win over Saskatchewan. This is good news for the Lions, who have continued their surprisingly impressive start to the season and look to be in pretty solid shape going forward, and it's bad news for the Alouettes, who still have major issues.

Jennings deserves a lot of credit for the way he bounced back after last week's two pivotal late interceptions. He had a very solid game this time around, completing 27 of 32 passes (84.4 per cent) for 331 yards with one touchdown and one interception. That's remarkable efficiency, and that's the area he really needed to improve in. Jennings also did well to spread the ball around, hitting Bryan Burnham five times for 89 yards, Emmanuel Arceneaux seven times for 70 and a touchdown, and Shawn Gore six times for 58 yards. Running back Jeremiah Johnson also stepped up, picking up 74 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and adding 40 receiving yards on two catches. The Lions' offensive line did well too, allowing just two sacks in this one. The B.C. offence is really starting to develop, and if they can keep clicking this way, they'll be feared on that side of the ball as well.

It's the Lions' defence that has really carried them to this point, though, and they excelled in that area Thursday as well. They held Kevin Glenn to 18 completions on 27 attempts (66.7 per cent) for 231 yards and two touchdowns, and while they had a harder time containing the ground game (Brandon Rutley averaged eight yards per carry), they pulled far enough ahead that Montreal only gave Rutley six carries. They also recorded six sacks (with two each from Bryant Turner and Jabar Westerman and one apiece from Alex Bazzie and Andrew Hudson) and came up with a game-changing fumble, forced by Ronnie Yell and recovered by Loucheiz Purifoy for a touchdown. Ryan Phillips celebrated his 200th CFL game in style (as did Alouettes' receiver Nik Lewis, but he had less to cheer about) with some good downfield coverage, too. If the B.C. defence can keep producing and their offence maintains what it did this week, the Lions will be very tough to beat.

As for Montreal, there's a lot to worry about. The Alouettes fell to 2-4 with the loss, and their previously-vaunted defence (which had allowed a league-low 21.2 points per game heading into this) wasn't able to do much against Jennings and the Lions. Their offence also continued to sputter, especially in the passing game, and kicker Boris Bede continued to struggle, making just one of two field goal and averaging just 33.5 yards on punts. This team just doesn't look that good, and even last week's win over Saskatchewan came with the caveat of the Riders' own struggles. Unless Montreal can really improve on offence in particular, Alouettes' fans may be in for a long and disappointing season.