Kadie Smith
The Lions head to Winnipeg Thursday for the first of two games this season with their Western rival Winnipeg Blue Bombers. It’s sure to be a heated matchup with both teams sitting at two wins so far this season and both coming off tough Week 5 loses.
The Bombers upped the ante Wednesday morning announcing that QB Drew Willy would get the start after leaving the Hamilton game with an injury. The Lions will need to focus on putting together a solid 60 minutes to combat a hungry and talented Bomber offence. With Willy at the helm, look for Winnipeg to come out of the gates fired up and confident.
For the Lions, they’re confident in their game plan and the talent that sits on the roster. Their focus this week has been execution, execution, execution. As coach Tedford tellus us, “the main message this week is finish; play for four quarters.”
Here are you Week 6 3 Key to the Game as the Lions look to defuse the Bombers.
Find the chemistry
Travis Lulay admits that in Week 5’s loss to the Argos, the Lions lost a lot of their momentum in the second half and the chemistry on the offence wasn’t where it needed to be. Looking ahead to the Bombers, the veteran pivot knows that execution will be their main focus: “We have to find that sense of urgency on every single drive.”With the short week of practice before heading to Winnipeg Thursday, Lulay says that his team is eager to get back on the field and erase that bad taste in their mouths.
Manny Arceneaux is the Lions’ leading receiver, ranking #16 in the league with 225 yards on 17 carries, but was kept relatively quite in Week 5 against a tough Argos defence. He says that the Lions receiving corps isn’t worried about the numbers from last week: “we know we’ve got a solid group of guys.”
For his part, Andrew Harris exploded in Week 5 with 3 first-half touchdowns with the third coming on the opening drive of the second quarter. After that, Harris saw only two touches as the Argos found a way to figure out the crashing RB who’s sitting pretty on the stats sheet with 465 yards on 71 touches, second in the league in yards from scrimmage. Harris says the loss is a learning experience for the Lions and the team is focused on correcting mistakes.
Tackle hard
The Lions defence is currently ranked eighth in the CFL in allowing 2nd-down conversions, with opponents gaining a first down 58% of the time. While the offence is converting 51% of the time – good enough for fourth in the league and well above their 43% mark from 2014 -, the defence is hungry to get back to their number-one status from last season. They’ll need to target Bombers receiver Nick Moore to improve those numbers. Moore leads the CFL in 2nd-down coversions, with 12 catches, two more than any other player.
Adam Bighill is leading the league in tackles with a staggering 36 after picking up a career-high 13 in Week 5. He’s on pace for 162, but says none of that matters if you can’t get the win. According to the Lions linebacker, there were too many plays that the defence gave up to the Argos and they can’t take the Bombers offence lightly. We want to make them earn everthing,” he says.
His Team 100 counterpart, Solomon Elimimian, says that the defence is confident in the players they have and the difference between a victory and a loss in Bomber territory will come down to how well they execute their game plan and play to the ability they know they have. “We have the guys that can counter what they [Winnipeg] want to do,” he says.
An added bonus to the defence this week will be the return of veteran DB Ryan Phillips after missing the last two games – a first in the 10-year vet’s career. As Elimimian says of the longest-serving Leo, “Ryan’s seen so many different plays; he’s somebody that can communicate. You need that.“
Protect the pass
The Lions lead the CFL with only three sacks allowed this season. in 2014, they ranked sixth in the league allowing 53 sacks and are trending to beat that mark by a long shot. The success of the O-Line can be credited to a fresh persepctive from some new additions, says veteran Dean Valli. “We knew these guys could play, but they bring a new oulook as well.”
One of those newcomers is centre Jason Foster, who’s been impressing with his speed and versatility on the field. As Jeff Tedford puts it, “these guys, more than any other position on the field, are a group.”
The solidarity of the O-Line has allowed retuning QB Travis Lulay to find his stride. The Lions pivot ranks number two in the CFL with 1.9 points per drive, 102 offensive points through four games averaging 25.5 per game. He’s sitting at fifth in the league in pass effiicieny with 97.4 – in a season where QBs are blowing up the stats sheet.
WATCH: Week 6 matchup as the Lions head to Bomber territory looking for redemption