Advertisement

Bombers' defence comes up big in 23-13 win over Lions, who look to be slumping

Bombers' defence comes up big in 23-13 win over Lions, who look to be slumping

Both the B.C. Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers came into Thursday's game off embarrassing losses, with the Lions giving up a 21-0 lead in a 30-27 home loss to Toronto last week and the Bombers only scoring three points in a 32-3 road loss to Edmonton. The Bombers managed to turn things around this time, though, coming up with a 23-13 win over the Lions thanks largely to their defence stepping up at key moments. This is a good win for Winnipeg, although some flaws were still on display, but it's also a bad loss for a B.C. team that appears to be trending down.

The defence was the story of the game for the Bombers, coming through with some major plays at key times. They gave up some problematic numbers on the night, including 117 rushing yards to Lions' RB Andrew Harris, but made him carry the ball 24 times to get there (an average of just 4.9 yards per carry). B.C. quarterback Travis Lulay threw for 255 yards and a touchdown with an impressive 66.7 per cent completion rate, but the Winnipeg defence made some great plays on his throws at times, picking him off on three separate occasions (including a crucial Sam Hurl interception near the end zone and a late-game Johnny Adams pick inside the three-minute warning that all but sealed the victory). There were still some problems with the Bombers' defence on the night, especially with conceding sustained drives, but they held B.C. to an impressively-low 13 points and came up with big plays when they had to.

The Bombers' offence carries a few more questions, even after this win, but it had some bright spots too. Quarterback Drew Willy, who many didn't expect to play at all after the knee injury he suffered last week against Edmonton, had a pretty good game, completing 17 of 25 passes (68 per cent) for 269 yards and two touchdowns and picking up 72 more rushing yards on five carries. Receiver Darvin Adams stood out with some huge grabs, including a 56-yarder, part of his 127 receiving yards and a touchdown on four catches on the night. The ground game was still inconsistent, though, with Cameron Marshall picking up 50 yards on 10 carries (5.0 yards per carry) and Paris Cotton collecting just nine yards on five rushing attempts (1.8), and beyond Adams and Justin Veltung (who had five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown), the rest of Winnipeg's receiving corps wasn't terribly impressive. There are red-zone execution issues, too; 23 points won't be enough to win a lot of games. Still, they were enough Thursday, and that has Winnipeg going the right way.

That's a sharp contrast to the Lions, who looked to be improving after back-to-back wins over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but have now lost successive games and not looked terribly impressive in either. They had plenty of defensive mistakes on the night Thursday, particularly on the big plays to Adams, and their offence committed turnovers at the worst possible times, including the three interceptions and a failed third-and-two gamble when Lulay overthrew an open Harris. Bad penalties cost them throughout the game, which has been a significant storyline for B.C. all season long.Their special teams also gave up some substantial returns to Winnipeg's Troy Stoudemire, especially a second-half opening 41-yarder that paved the way for the 56-yard touchdown strike to Adams on the next play. The Lions are now 2-3, and they're looking extremely weak, with their only victories against the winless Roughriders. Jeff Tedford's debut season as a CFL head coach certainly isn't going as planned; we'll see if he can turn it around.