EDMONTON- It wasn’t a night to remember for the slumping BC Lions who failed to capitalize on some early momentum and then let a few costly miscues get in the way of any comeback attempts in a 33-16 loss to a determined Edmonton Elks squad on Sunday. The third straight defeat drops BC to 5-4 and one point behind Saskatchewan for the Western Division lead while Edmonton improves to 2-7 and just four points back of a playoff spot. Now for some game takes.
Jake Dolegala and the offence came out swinging with a good game plan, relying heavily on William Stanback and the ground game with an eight-play, 67-yard drive to start it off. The scoring drive ended with David Mackie’s second touchdown of the season and a 7-0 lead while chewing up nearly five minutes of the game clock.
Unfortunately, they would not find the end zone again, and the defence struggled to contain both Tre Ford and McLeod Bethel-Thompson while Javon Leake was a force out of the backfield. Ford left the game with an apparent rib injury just before halftime after a clean tackle from Sione Tehuema. Ford was 6/6 for 96 yards at the time of his exit.
Back to the Lions offence where two key second down drops potentially killed any momentum: the first was an Alexander Hollins miscue with the visitors leading 7-1 late in the first quarter and driving deep in Edmonton territory. Sean Whyte’s field goal put them ahead 10-1 after the opening 15 minutes. Another drop by Stanley Berryhill early in the fourth quarter stalled another drive when the score was 22-16. Dolegala didn’t sugarcoat anything after this one.
“It was sloppy. We didn’t execute the way we needed to,” he said.
“We’ve got to stay on the field, help our defence out and they just can’t be out there all the time. We’ve got to convert second downs and when we’re down there we’ve got to put the ball in the end zone, simple as that. Three points are great but seven means a lot more than three.”
Dolegala finished 14/23 for 146 yards while completing at least one pass to eight targets. Stanback helped lighten the load with 87 yards on 13 carries.
“It’s not about me. Team loss,” Dolegala said.
The ensuing Elks possession following Berryhill’s drop served up the biggest backbreaker of them all as a contacting the kicker penalty on Juliano Faliniko gave the home side a fresh set of downs that enabled Bethel-Thompson to find Justin Rankin for an insurance major. Game, set and match that point.
“Back breaking like I said,” Manny Rugamba explained.
“Those 50/50 calls, those 50/50 balls we’ve got to make. We’ve got to play clean. The first thing we’ve got to do is, everybody’s got to look in the mirror. Everybody’s a tight-knit group, so we all understand there’s a place to get better. Nobody did perfect. We all know that we’ve got to stay close, got to keep it a family and all things possible we’ve got to make more plays.”
In many ways, it became a carbon copy of last week in Winnipeg where the defence eventually wore down from being out on the field too much. The main focus now will be getting back to the complimentary football that made this team click for their 5-1 start.
“We’re not making plays that we need to make in order to win games,” Rick Campbell explained after the loss.
“Whether that’s staying on the field on offence, we had a couple of critical drops. There are times on second and long where we need to win that down. Yeah, that’s a disadvantage offence where we’ve got to get off the field. We’re not doing those critical plays right now. I’ve seen us do it before so I’m very hopeful that we’ll get back to it.”
Key Numbers58.3 (per cent)– the Elks were 15/24 on second down conversions in this one, a few of those second and long situations.
134– yards from scrimmage from Leake out of Edmonton’s backfield: an all too familiar site for the Lions defensive front.
35:39- time of possession was in the Elks’ favour thanks to the extension of those key drives.
200– the Elks rushing yard total.
62– receiving yard total for Keon Hatcher Sr. who led all Lions in his second outing of the 2024 campaign.
8- the Lions’ winning streak against Edmonton was snapped. This marks the first Elks victory over BC since week three of the 2021 campaign. It is the Lions’ first loss in the Alberta capital since October 12, 2019.
Next UpAfter four weeks away from Save-On-Foods Field at BC Place, the Lions host the 3-6 Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday, August 18. Kickoff is 4:00 pm for our FamFest game with kids tickets for only $15 while adults can secure their seats for $25.
Matt Baker: [email protected]
