No choice for slip-sliding B.C. Lions: ‘We can’t lose’

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On July 13, the B.C. Lions dispatched the then-undefeated Saskatchewan Roughriders 35-20 to move into sole possession of first place in the CFL’s West Division.

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Six short days later, the Riders bounced back with a 19-9 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Remarkably, neither team has won a game since then. And, equally remarkable, neither team has slid down the West ladder.

Despite not winning a game in over a month and losing four straight, the Lions (5-5) are second in the division.

The Riders (5-4-1) are back on top of the West despite a woeful 0-3-1 winless streak, their lone point coming against the Ottawa Redblacks — the Lions’ opponents on Saturday — in a 22-22 tie.

These Riders are a-bumbling and a-stumbling, and long to taste victory again.

“Hungry isn’t the word … Famished I think is a better word,” running back Frankie Hickson told the Regina Leader-Post ahead of Thursday’s game against the Toronto Argonauts.

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“I’d say more starving than anything,” added quarterback Trevor Harris.

The Lions’ win pantry is equally bare. But, they say, it’s business as usual.

“We’re the same as we’ve always been. We know what we got here. We know what we’ve got to go out and do,” said receiver Justin McInnis. “We’re not playing the best right now, but it isn’t changing anything. We’re still working our tail off and competing every day, having fun, and that’s gotta keep doing that.

“You can’t hang your head when you lose. You know you can’t get too low, your lowest lows. You can’t get too high as high. You just gotta keep working.

“You can hang your head if you want to, but the world around you isn’t going to stop. You have to keep going.”

NEXT GAME

Saturday

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Ottawa Redblacks vs. B.C. Lions

4 p.m., B.C. Place, TV: TSN, Radio: AM730

The world hasn’t stopped for B.C., but the scoring certainly has. That big-play, deep-ball defence that tore up the first third of the season has disappeared. The last touchdown pass over 10 yards came in Week 5 against Hamilton, when Vernon Adams Jr. connected with running back Will Stanback on a 45-yard score, and receiver Alex Hollins on a 69-yard strike. They’ve scored four touchdowns in four games, and are averaging just 17 points over that span.

You could point to receivers rotating in and out of the lineup, the same carousel the quarterbacks have been riding, or point out that the Winnipeg defence is really, really good — as coach Rick Campbell did Thursday, reiterating his opinion on the Bombers two wins.

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The defence has played well enough for a unit that’s been on the field the majority of the time, but have inevitably got worn down as they’ve played more minutes than any other team in the CFL. B.C.’s time of possession in the four-game slide is a woeful 24:39.

The players and coaches keep saying it’s about making plays. It’s executing the game plan. It’s simplistic, but it’s true. The problem is the answer is far more complex.

“Right now, we’re digging ourselves in a hole that … we can only blame ourselves. We have to just stop with the unnecessary penalties, and we just have to execute whenever the defence gives us the ball back. Missed opportunities,” said Stanback, who had his first 100-yard game of the season last week against Winnipeg.

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“We have to put it in the end zone, and that’s what we’ve been failing to do. We just have to get back on track with that. We’re capable of … high-scoring games, but we just have to zero in, lock into the game plan and execute at a high level.

“We don’t really have any excuses. We just have to make sure that we just tighten up. That’s all it really is. We’ve got to tighten up.”

The Lions travel Friday to Ottawa for Saturday’s game at TD Place against the Redblacks, who are 6-2-1 on the strength of a defence that gives up the second-fewest yards and third-fewest points.

B.C. is just as hungry for a win as the Riders are, but the veteran Stanback was one of the few to admit that the normal urgency to win on a week-to-week basis is a little more heightened this week.

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“We can’t lose any more games, you know what I mean?” he said. “We’re looking at it like our backs are against the wall.

“We’re still in the middle of the pack in the West and everything like that. There’s no real team who’s above or lower than anybody. We’re all right there. So it’s anybody’s game right now.

“But we’ve got to come out firing on all cylinders. We’ve got to. We have no choice. We’ve got to come out there, punch them in their face, and fight all the way to the end. Ottawa, they ain’t no slouch. They ain’t never been no slouch. Even when I was with the Als, playing against them was always tough, and they even tougher now. So we’ve got to come with it.”

jadams@postmedia.com

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