Following on the heels of five straight wins and looking like they may just be for real, the BC Lions did an about face Friday night, dropping a 27-20 contest to the Edmonton Eskimos before a lot of empty seats at BC Place Stadium. To quote the Sun’s Greg Weston, followers had good reason to be “overwhelmingly underwhelmed” with the team’s offering.

 

There was little in the way of hi-lights for home town fans to enjoy, as the Leo’s had their assess handed to them by Edmonton’s category five hurricane QB Ricky Ray, who moved the ball with ease through the BC basically benign defense on the Eskimo’s first possession, marching 93 yards virtually unchallenged for the major score.

Unfortunately the Lion’s fortunes would go downhill from that point on.

 

The Edmonton QB must have studied the game film of the Leo’s second in their two game series with the Roughriders, where Saskatchewan proved that the way to keep the Lion’ defense honest and off balance was to run quick hitters....screens, draws, outs that would often blow by the Lion’s rushing game and eventually have the two talented corners second guessing as they looked to add to their sack totals. As a result as my memory serves (and it often doesn’t serve as well as it might), Cameron Wake was only able to get to the Edmonton QB once this game.

Wake looked much like a big cat on a zebra, and his take down was his twentieth of this campaign, the first player to do so since 2000. He is now just 6 ½ sacks away from the season record set by former Lion and Eskimo, James (Quick) Parker. Wake who is in the infancy stages of a career which is undoubtedly headed for the NFL next season, and his team mates are running up the sack totals this year, so far at 56. Winnipeg holds down second place with 38.

 

Ray was “launching heat seeking missile’s” all night, as he managed to avoid the rush by completing passes several times while being knocked down with Lion’s hanging off of him. His ball control game coupled with an inept BC offense had the Lion defense on the field most of the contest and he piled up some extraordinary offensive numbers.

 

Normally sure handed, BC’s RB Stefan Logan finished the first half having fumbled twice, both times leading to an Edmonton major score.

 

Edmonton strolled off the field at half time up 24-10, looking very much in charge having unequivocally schooled our home town heros for a two full quarters.

By half time the Esks ball possession totaled 22 minutes and change vs. BC with only 8 . Edmonton enjoyed a 234-130 yard domination while first downs were 18-6 in favor of the visitors.

 

The second half would prove to be a continuation of the Lion’s nightmare, where after 4 BC turnovers and continuing futility, an ineffective Buck Pierce was pulled in favor of Jarious Jackson.

 

Q3 also ended with the Esks. owning the Lions. First downs totals to that point were 21-9 and possession minutes continued to pile up for the visiting Esks., at 32-12. The Eskimos had run 50, yes 50 offensive plays to that point. My ulcer began acting up and I began plundering the bathroom cabinet looking for the drugs. By any measure it was a callous beating in the making.

 

It would take 3 ½ quarters for Geroy to catch a pass as it was beginning to look like it would be the first time he’d be blanked in the past five seasons. Jason Clermont had just two catches for the night and was forced to leave the game in the third with what appeared to be a strained knee.

 

Coach Buono was seen rolling his eyes and biting his lip as he walked over to Esk’s coach Danny Machocha at game’s end. He could not have been happy with this night’s performance.

 

Most every team has a bad game now and than, but this was yet another in a somewhat disappointing season thus far, and perhaps the worst performance to date for the Lions.

 

These guys will hopefully regroup and show up in Edmonton a week from now with a whole different attitude. At the torrid pace being set by the CFL’s Western teams, another loss may find the Lions fighting like there’s no tomorrow just to make the playoffs.