Six members of the BC Lions were Honored as a member of the All-CFL West Division team. on Wednesday, but one glaring omission stunned the organization.
Calgary's Jaylon Hutchings and Saskatchewan's Micah Johnson were selected as the two defensive options, leaving John Tavai on the sidelines watching. The sophomore out of San Diego State has been quietly named by the Lions as their defensive catalyst this season, but he has yet to become a household name.
Defensive coordinator Mike Benevides had a brief message for voters who decided not to put his stalwart interior gap-plugper on their ballot.
“Go talk to the rank and file and find out what the hell they think, because that’s what he should be,” he said.
“If you look at the tape and look at all of his plays, he plays so much on the run and he can disrupt the pass. He's an interior player who has a ton of sacks. He's destructive in the pass. Until last week, you were looking at the number one defense in the league in the passing game – and that's because of those (defensive linemen) too.”
Few would argue against Hutchings' inclusion on the list, as he was considered the best defensive player in the CFL this season and led all pass rushers with eight sacks. However, the choice of Johnson over Tavai is justifiably controversial.
Tavai recorded 26 tackles on defense, including a position-best five tackles and five sacks this season. Johnson, who earned his eighth career All-Star nod, finished the game with 20 defensive tackles, only two of which resulted in losses, and six sacks.
Pro Football Focus, which grades the play of CFL players on a snap-by-play basis, ranked Tavai third among all interior defensive linemen this season, behind only Hutchings and Saskatchewan's Caleb Sanders, who was used in a rotational role and primarily listed as a backup. Tavai and Hutchings are the only two defensive linemen, edge or interior, with a pass-rush grade above 80.0 and a defensive grade above 75.0.
Johnson was ninth on PFF's defensive tackle list and third on his team, with Mike Rose also ahead of him. Two All-CFL East Division players, Montreal's Sean Oakman and Hamilton's Casey Sales, finished seventh and 20th, respectively.
Where Johnson does have an advantage is in matches played, as Tavai has only played 13 matches due to injury. However, he played more snaps in that limited time period than his counterpart did in 17 contests.
“So consistent. He's the heart of a lot of the things we do on defense and he's a leader. He's really stepped into his role,” head coach Buck Pierce said of Tavai. “A guy who may not get credit for a lot of success, but he's a guy who does a lot of things. He definitely deserves a lot of credit.”
While individual accolades are good, playoff wins are even better. After missing the regular-season finale with a hip injury, Tavai was placed on the limited-player list in practice this week. The team is cautiously optimistic that he will be ready for the West semifinals on Saturday, which would be a huge boost given his importance to their defense.
“Impressive game after game after game. He's underrated,” Benevides said. “He's not a loud mouth; he's a good soldier. He absolutely should be a star player, as dynamic as he was.”
The BC Lions (11-7) will host the Calgary Stampeders (11-7) in the Western Semi-Finals at BC Place Stadium on Saturday, November 1, with kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET. The Stampeders won their final three games of the regular season, including a 20-10 victory over the Edmonton Elks, while the Lions knocked off the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week to move into second place in the West Division standings.
The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada and on CFL+ worldwide. Radio listeners can tune in to 770 CHQR in Calgary and 730 CKNW in Vancouver.
