The BC Lions (8-9-0) look to end their 70th regular season on a positive note when they entertain the Montreal Alouettes (12-3-1) this Saturday at Save-On-Foods Field at BC Place. Ryder Varga and company had their Grey Cup Playoffs position locked in when they fell to the Saskatchewan Roughriders one week ago.
Following a bye next week, the third-place squad will head back to Regina or Winnipeg for the November 2 Western Semi-Final. Despite the fact there is nothing to play for in the standings, this proud bunch knows there is plenty to work on before prep. for the second season begins.
“It’s a big ‘look in the mirror week,’” said Varga on this week’s episode of BC Lions On Tap.
“I think we’ve got to figure out stuff within ourselves. Montreal is obviously a great team, one of the best in the East, they’re going to provide a big challenge. But I think if we can just lock into what we need to do better and what things we’re failing at, I think that’ll be the biggest thing this week is just looking in the mirror, fixing ourselves first and heading into the playoffs.”
Every chance to strap on the pads is meaningful. And that’s been evident when breaking down the mood in Lions land throughout the week at practice where the top story throughout has been the return to starter status for Vernon Adams Jr. The veteran pivot starts for the first time since August 1 in Winnipeg where his knee injury derailed what was shaping up to be a possible record-breaking season.
Always a glass-half-full type of guy, Adams has no regrets and remains committed to helping this team reach its ultimate goal, whether that is behind centre or on the sidelines. How he and the team perform this week will no doubt determine whether it’s him or Nathan Rourke getting the nod two weeks from now. This week’s starter indicated he felt better and better as the practice week progressed.
“That first day, I felt a lot of rust, like I said, my feet were bad. It felt like in that Toronto game,” said Adams when comparing his first practice this week to his relief appearance on September 13.
“Today (Thursday), that was one of my biggest emphases in practice was footwork and anticipation throws. I felt my footwork was much better today, I might have missed a few, but I was going to the right places. Hopefully, we connect on those in the game and make big plays.”
The Alouettes have had the league’s best record pretty much from wire to wire and have had the top spot in the East Division locked up for over two weeks yet they haven’t looked like a team with nothing to play for. These Alouettes held Ottawa out of the end zone and forced two fourth-quarter turnovers in a 19-12 victory on Thanksgiving Monday. The home team knows it has to bring the same mindset to this contest, even without anything in the standings at stake. If there was ever an opportunity to remind the league what this Lion team is capable of, here is their opportunity.
“Man, it’s super important. We want to go into the playoffs feeling good about ourselves,” stated Adams.
“We don’t want to be under .500. We have a chance to be at least .500 and just go into the playoffs feeling good about ourselves, have a bye week to get our bodies right, get other key players back for the playoffs and do our thing there. So, it’s very important, man. Montreal, they’re coming to play. They’re not coming just to bring up a crew full of practice roster guys, you know what I’m saying? They’re bringing their guys and they’re coming to play. So, we’ve just got to bring our A-game.”
Anything less than that will translate to an early exit in two weeks.
The Quarterbacks
# 3 Vernon Adams Jr.– has the keys to the offence once again as the squad looks to enter the playoffs on a winning note before their week 21 bye. Adams Jr. has won both previous starts against his old team, helping sweep aside the Alouettes in 2023. In those two meetings, he completed 42 of 59 pass attempts for 597 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
# 7 Cody Fajardo- is listed as the Alouettes’ starter after Davis Alexander played in the Turkey Day win over Ottawa. Injuries have limited the starter to 12 games this season yet Fajardo has still put up solid numbers: 2,874 passing yards and 15 touchdown strikes which exceeds his 2023 total by one when he played in all 18 regular season games. Fajardo is 0-3 against the Lions since joining Montreal.
3 Lions To Watch
WR # 18 Justin McInnis- enters the final regular season game as the CFL’s leader with 1,363 receiving yards, a 122-yard cushion on Ottawa’s Justin Hardy who has two more games to play. McInnis has also passed Jim Young for the second-highest season total by a Canadian Lion. With just 29 more yards, McInnis will move into the top ten all-time for Canadians in one season, passing Jeff Fairholm in 1991. Matt Clark holds the Lions’ Canadian record with 1,530 receiving yards in the 1991 campaign.
RB # 31 William Stanback– enjoyed a triumphant outing against his old squad the last time out with 156 total yards and a major. The Lions will need to establish a run game once they head outdoors next month so it won’t hurt to start that this week. With 1,147 rushing yards, Stanback is just 29 shy of his career-high of 1,176 set in 2021 with the Alouettes.
LB # 46 Ben Hladik- has transitioned nicely back into the starting lineup since dealing with hamstring problems. The UBC product led all Lions with seven tackles to go with one sack last week in Saskatchewan.
Extra Yards
Viewers can watch this game on TSN in Canada, while those south of the border and internationally can stream the action on CFL+. Bob Marjanovich and Giulio Caravatta call the play on 980 CKNW and province-wide on the Lions Audio Network, beginning with the pre-game show at 3:00 p.m. Harp Pandher and Taqdeer Thindal have the call on Sher-E-Punjab Radio AM 600, with pre-game coverage beginning at 3:30 p.m.
The only other lineup change of note is defensive back Patrice Rene coming back onto the roster in a reserve/special teams role. Dylan St. Pierre heads back to the practice roster.
More on Adams Jr.: before his injury, he led the CFL in passing yards following all but week two over the first eight of the season. He holds an overall record of 20-10 as a starter with the Lions.
Despite missing three games due to his shoulder injury, Alexander Hollins is 102 receiving yards shy of hitting 1,000 for the second straight season.
The Lions’ opponent for the Western Semi-Final won’t be known until next week as both the Blue Bombers and Roughriders are on a bye and back in action one week from Saturday. The Bombers would lock up first place and a bye to the Division Final with a win or tie against the Alouettes (NOON PT, CTV). With a Bomber loss, Saskatchewan would claim first place by defeating Calgary (4:00 pm, TSN) and setting up a Lions’ visit to Manitoba on November 2.
The Lions look to continue their home dominance against Montreal as they have prevailed in the last four meetings at BC Place dating back to 2016. The Als’ last win in Vancouver came in August 2015 before they would ironically fire head coach Tom Higgins the next day. Montreal did not visit the west coast in 2020 (cancelled season), or 2021 and 2022 when the league had an unbalanced schedule. Overall, the Lions have won five of their last six against Montreal dating back to the 2021 campaign.
The 2024 Alouettes have kept their hold on first place thanks in large part to a 6-1-1 record away from home. November 9 will be their first Eastern Final at home since 2012.