The B.C. Lions had every opportunity to silence a sold-out crowd in Regina on Saturday night and advance to their first Grey Cup since 2011. However, the league’s top offence fell short when it mattered most, and the defence collapsed in turn, falling 24-21 to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the West Final.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
Loss for words
Trevor Harris produced the quote of the week at his pre-game media availability on Friday, when he bluntly stated that he was “not here to talk about Nathan Rourke.” The Lions’ star quarterback spoke for himself with plenty of sensational plays in Saskatchewan, but when the moment was at its biggest, he couldn’t get a word out.
Twice, B.C. had the ball inside the final three minutes with a chance to cement their lead. It was a dream scenario for the team, with the game on the line and the likely M.O.P. ready to end it. Both times, it resulted in two-and-outs by the offence, despite decent production on first down both times.
The first was a pure structural failure. Rourke rolled out right on second-and-six after a rushed snap by Michael Couture and found nobody open, opting to throw it away with the defence bearing down rather than risk a late sideline toss to Ayden Eberhardt with the corner primed to trigger. It wouldn’t have mattered if he completed that pass anyway, as the Lions were called for an illegal formation that did not have enough men on the line of scrimmage. That is an inexcusable penalty to take at this stage of the year, and the Lions were called for it twice.
The deciding offensive miscue was a different type of failure. Buck Pierce elected to keep the ball in his quarterback’s hands on second-and-three and dialled up a lead draw. I love the thought process behind that decision, but big Zander Horvath failed to execute his block through the hole and was tossed aside by A.J. Allen. For maybe the first time all season, Rourke was stuffed for no gain.
I’m sure that the media will spend the next week fawning over Riders’ head coach Corey Mace for his gutsy decisions to kick a field goal at the five-yard line and punt inside of two minutes, trusting his defence when all logic said to go for it in both instances. Regardless of the results, he made the wrong calls and would have been punished for it nine times out of 10. It was B.C.’s failure to finish that let him off the hook, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
Wake me up when September ends
For as much attention as the Lions’ offence receives, B.C. was in this football game primarily because of a defensive turnaround. Before their current winning streak began, the Lions’ D was a liability, particularly in crunch time. Then, they uncovered a pass rush and figured out how to finish.
While the defence performed fairly well overall, getting a number of timely stops and holding Saskatchewan to just 24 points, Saturday’s finish turned back the clocks to early September. Harris and company needed to march 76 yards in 63 seconds to win the West Final and needed just seven plays to accomplish it.
B.C. could afford to give up some movement underneath and, as I controversially stated after their loss to Hamilton in July, a surrendered deep shot would have at least given Rourke a chance to respond. Instead, the Lions gave up fatal intermediate chunk plays that both moved the sticks and milked the clock down to 11 seconds.
Samuel Emilus got behind the linebackers for 23 on the first throw of the drive, and Dohnte Meyers picked up another 23 with no less than five defenders staring at him to make it a goal-to-go situation. Harris could have read a book and smoked a cigar undisturbed by the three-man rush on both occasions. I wasn’t a fan of the conservative play-calling by Mike Benevides, but the execution by the men on the field was far worse.
Tommy Nield made a tremendous low catch against blanket coverage from Garry Peters on the deciding touchdown, but the result was all but decided at that stage. It all felt eerily familiar, harkening back to a time when late-game collapses felt like an inevitability for this team.
Slipping through their fingers
The Lions got off to another slow offensive start in this game, but it wasn’t because the plays weren’t there. Four different passes bounced off the hands of B.C. receivers in the first half, several of which would have been for first-down yardage.
The problems started on the first play from scrimmage, where Rourke rolled out and delivered a bullet into the gut of Stanley Berryhill, who let it fall to the turf. The usually sure-handed James Butler couldn’t squeeze another throw near the sticks after a scrambling Rourke did his best impression of Neo from The Matrix. Later, Jevon Cottoy let a mid-screen drop despite being feet from his quarterback. Keon Hatcher couldn’t stab the next pass either, though that had less to do with the receiver than it did with a misplaced ball.
The issues continued in the second half, as Cottoy couldn’t secure one at the marker as Marcus Sayles nailed him from behind, killing a drive. Then came the signature drop of the day, as Hatcher deflected a pass off his chest inside the 10-yard line, which then bounced off C.J. Reavis twice and into the arms of Marcus Sayles for a critical interception. That led to a Saskatchewan field goal, effectively creating a 10-point swing.
Much like the first pass that Hatcher couldn’t corral, this ball wasn’t put in a good spot by Rourke as he rolled out. Nevertheless, it still hit him squarely in the backside pec, and at this level, you have to catch that. As for the ones that other players let slip through their fingertips, they may well have cost B.C. the game, given that scoring early was a big key to victory.
Lightning strikes
B.C.’s questionable ability to stop the run was placed front and centre in the frigid Regina conditions, as Rourke’s college teammate, A.J. Ouellette, made his presence felt with a string of chunk plays.
The man dubbed ‘The God of Thunder’ by fans sent a lightning strike through the defence whenever he decided to swing his hammer in the first half. He gained 12 yards on the first carry of the game, gashed the Lions for another 12-yard opener a few drives later, then hurdled T.J. Lee to gain 15 yards later in the half. He mustered three more carries of over ten yards in the final 30 minutes, finishing with 113 yards on 17 carries.
While Ouellette also committed the Riders’ biggest mistake of the game, losing a third-quarter fumble to T.J. Lee, his success between the tackles was the biggest component of the Riders’ offence for most of the night. I thought the Lions’ defensive line was soundly manhandled by the Riders’ offensive line, and fell victim to a number of well-executed traps and wham blocks, penetrating too quickly inside only to be ear-holed by a puller. With the big boys failing to hold firm at the line of scrimmage, Saskatchewan was able to regularly get hats on B.C.’s linebackers, who couldn’t shed or fill effectively. The trio of Micah Awe, Josh Woods, and Ben Hladik did not have a strong game.
When the Lions pulled in front, the Riders were forced to mostly turn away from the run game, which lessened its final impact. But despite making offseason adjustments focused on improved physicality, I still don’t think this B.C. team was ever equipped to stall out a downhill runner without offensive assistance.
A chill runs through Pietermaritzburg
Critics of the Lions are certain to point to sub-zero temperatures as a reason for the loss, but I think that logic is largely overblown. At this stage, almost every player has been forced to suit up in a cold-weather game at some point in their career, and I challenge any prairie tough guys to stand out in the B.C. rain for several hours on a blustery day before claiming their superior cold-weather survival skills.
The one player who may well have been the exception to this rule is punter Carl Meyer. The second-year player out of South Africa played in only one game last year, previously suited up for an indoor football team in Florida, and grew up playing rugby south of the equator. Kicking in these conditions certainly was an anomaly for him, and I think it showed.
While his gross punting average didn’t dip much, Meyer managed just 37.6 net yards per kick, in part because he sent an early one illegally out of bounds. More concerning were his kickoffs, which averaged just 55.8 yards after going for 64.0 throughout the regular season. A frozen football comes off the boot differently, and some inexperience with that led to consistently strong field position for Saskatchewan.
Benefits of a bye
The Lions were the hottest team in the CFL entering the postseason and won seven consecutive games to reach the West Final, but there is something to be said about getting the job done earlier.
While B.C. dealt with Nathan Rourke’s injury absence and some mid-season defensive collapses, Saskatchewan was steady enough from Week 1 to clinch first place early and make the last two weeks of the regular season meaningless. That, plus the first-round bye, allowed them to rest everybody who needed it.
Eight starters came back onto the roster for the Riders this week as a result of that rest, five of whom were dealing with legitimate injuries. They also regained their kicker, the league’s best short-yardage quarterback, and two core special teamers.
Even though B.C. is relatively healthy by postseason standards, both running back James Butler and receiver Justin McInnis were playing through injuries as a result of that final game in Saskatchewan meaning something. Right tackle Dejon Allen’s absence is a result of his pre-existing bicep tear, but would he also have been better off if he hadn’t rushed back for that game? It’s possible.
The Lions didn’t run out of gas or get substantially out-physicalled as a result of their lack of rest, but Saskatchewan certainly got a boost by taking care of business when they did. There is an important lesson in that.
Buck’s burden
The Lions’ offence had an acceptable day at the office in this one, as they managed 349 net yards. Nathan Rourke generally did what he does through the air, and I felt a banged-up James Butler was solid with 58 yards on the ground. However, after being held to just a single big play for a second week in a row, it is worth looking at playcaller Buck Pierce a little more closely.
Since assuming the mantle of offensive coordinator with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2021, Pierce has commanded a top-three CFL offence four times and twice topped the league with outputs of over 400 net yards per game, including this season. However, that success has not necessarily translated to the postseason, despite his teams becoming a regular fixture in the Grey Cup.
Last week’s quiet West Semi-Final outing was the fourth time in 10 playoff appearances that Pierce’s offence has generated less than 300 net yards. If the 2021 Grey Cup had not gone to overtime, that number would be five. He has surpassed his regular-season yardage average just twice in November, doing so in West Final wins in 2021 and 2024. But even with an explosive 482-yard performance last year, his offences still average 51 yards less in elimination games, and his teams score marginally fewer points overall.
When compared to Pierce’s vast regular-season resume, this small sample size hardly suggests that he is a bad playcaller, and there are plenty of outside factors that make this time of year cumbersome for offences. However, it is a troubling trend that indicates that the creativity of his game plans tends to retract, rather than blossom, in big moments.
The Lions went deep a couple of times early in this game, failed to hit it, then seemed to avoid those plays entirely. They went two-and-out a whopping nine times. Pierce needs to reflect on whether the Saskatchewan defence is just that good, or if he could have done more to get B.C. over the hump.
Never take greatness for granted
It is damn hard to savour the good things when you come that close to making a Grey Cup game, but Lions fans still need to recognize just how special some of the plays that Nathan Rourke made in this game were.
His nine-play, 103-yard scoring drive in the second quarter was a work of art, complete with a pump fake on his touchdown run that might result in charges for aggravated assault against Antoine Brooks. His throw to Justin McInnis to get inside the red zone after the Ouellette fumble was sublime. Several of his Houdini escapes in the face of relentless pressure from the Saskatchewan interior were mind-blowing, including an underhanded shovel to James Butler which kept a touchdown drive alive.
Rourke was, is, and continues to be a magician, and I don’t think we’ve seen his best tricks yet. It is a shame that we’ll have to wait at least another year to see that on the biggest stage in Canadian football.
Hero to zero
Life comes at you fast in pro football. Kicker Sean Whyte went from being carried off the field on his teammate’s shoulders last week to drilling his only field goal attempt off the right upright in this one.
Nobody is going to blame this loss on the 40-year-old and his 43-yard shank, nor should they. However, those missed points loom large when you lose by three. Add in the bouncing red zone interception, and you paint the picture of a game that the Lions should have won by multiple scores, but lost due to unforced errors.
Glad tidings
The Lions will now head home for a final time before, well, heading home. Garbage bag day is set for Sunday, giving the team one last moment to say goodbye and address the media ahead of the offseason.
This loss was an undeniable disappointment, and there will be serious questions to address in the coming months, not the least of which being how the team plans to get leading receiver Keon Hatcher re-signed, considering what they are already paying Rourke, Betts, and McInnis. However, the 2025 season as a whole has to be considered a step in the right direction.
In their first season in charge, Buck Pierce was everything the team hoped for as a head coach, and general manager Ryan Rigmaiden proved his ability to bring in difference-making talent on the fly. Along the way, they improved on last season’s record, won a home playoff game, and, most importantly, got their franchise quarterback his mojo back. There is no way to categorize that as anything other than a success.
I didn’t think this team would get here — almost nobody did. They’ll need to make some changes to get back here again, not the least of which is addressing their paper-thin depth. With that said, Rourke makes anything possible.
Not going anywhere
This will be my final Lions column of the year, but I won’t be going anywhere. A stop at the locker room on Sunday will be followed by a flight to Winnipeg on Monday to cover every aspect of Grey Cup week. Then will come free agency and the draft, all of which you can expect exhaustive coverage of on 3DownNation. Stay tuned.
Even so, I would like to thank you all for another year of indulging my self-important musings and ill-advised proclamations in this space. I have heard from countless readers and podcast listeners this season, and your kind words never fail to humble my sizeable ego. I even signed an autograph this week — though I fear that bit of ink tanked the value of the fan’s entire collection.
I look forward to hearing from you all again next year, and if you spot me at the parties next week in the Manitoba capital, don’t be a stranger. Only my words are biting, I promise.
