Quite a few teams are going to look for significant improvement next season. I fear there is not enough talent to go around… This means some teams will remain on the outside looking in
Yep. And I bet some team is going to pin their hopes on BLM . . . and be disappointed with the outcome.
Should be interesting to see where Masoli, Arbuckle, BLM, Fajardo, VA3, and Rourke all end up playing in 2023.
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Not sure Bo will still want to play. He may be looking for a spot on a tv panel during games… Getting his foot in the door to a sports broadcasting career?
You may well be correct. But he’s still a bit young for full retirement.
Not sure if his arm and legs are up to the task anymore. I am betting he know more about that than the press knows
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Game notes pdf:
Team Notes ‐ Gm #84 BC at Edmonton:
BC #1 in Offence & Defence:
The Lions lead the CFL in both Net Offence For (392 yards per game) and Fewest Yards Allowed (329 per game). The only other time BC has led the CFL in both in the same year was in 2012.
Edmonton QBs:
With Taylor Cornelius out with an injury this week, the Elks will decide between Tre Ford (1-1 in 2 career starts) and Kai Locksley (no starts, 8 career pass attempts). If Locksley is chosen that will make 4 different starting QBs in 2022 for the Elks for the first time since 1999.
BC Schedule Rarity:
The Lions closed out their home schedule last week leaving their last 2 games to be on the road. This has happened only 2 times before in 68 years - in 1997 and 1955. A look at where BC has played its final game of the season across 67 previous years - At Home: 60 times On the Road: 6 times
2nd Place on the Line: With a win the Lions can secure their first home playoff game since 2016 and their second since 2012. Second places finishes are RARE for BC - they have been 2nd just once in the last 34 seasons back to 1987 (in 2016).
Looking for 12 Wins:
BC's 11-5 .688 winning % is their best since a 13-5 mark in 2012 under Mike Benevides. They have secured a mark above .500 for the first time since 2016 (12-6 under Wally Buono). In 30 games under Rick Campbell they are at 16-14 .533 including an 8-6 .571 record on the road.
** Tre Ford at QB: **
Edmonton started Tre Ford at QB on Canada Day at Hamilton and he led them to a victory in his 2nd career start. Ford became the first Canadian to start at QB for Edmonton since Frank Cosentino on Oct 30/68. The last time before 2022 that a Canadian QB had led Edmonton to a win was on Aug 15/68 at BC.
Terry Williams 341 return yards:
Last week, Williams returned kicks for a total of 341 yards - the 5th-highest single-game total in CFL history and a BC Lions' record. Williams leads the CFL with 2,360 combined yards in 2022.
Total Kick Ret Yds Team Date Yards PR KOR FGM
Larry Taylor CGY Jul 7/12 428 70 222 136
Devonte Dedmon OTT Aug 2/19 382 189 187 6
Diontae Spencer OTT Oct 27/17 363 169 165 29
Bashir Levingston TOR Aug 24/05 345 151 52 142
Terry Williams BC Oct 15/22 341 34 152 155
James Butler ++:
BC's #1 running back has substantially improved his average carry and output over the last 5 games to 84 yards and 6.7 on average. He needs 87 yards to become the CFL's second 1,000-yard rusher of 2022.
CFL 2022 Atts Yards Avg TD Per G
Games #1-11 120 494 4.1 3 44.9
Games #12-16 63 419 6.7 3 83.8
Edmonton at Home:
The Elks have an unfortunate 16-game active home losing streak and are 1-19 in their last 20 games. Their current 16-game is the longest in CFL history across Post WW-II play. Their last home win was on October 12, 2019 over BC - a span of 1,105 days from then to game day Oct 21/22.
Team Gm From To PF PA Diff Streak Ended
Edmonton 16 Oct 26/19 Oct 15/22 17.8 33.4 -15.6
Ottawa 14 Jul 19/87 Oct 8/98 16.7 38.1 -21.4 Oct 22/88
Kick Return TD Gap - 0 vs 6:
Last week the Lions allowed a Winnipeg kick return score by Janarion Grant. BC and Edmonton are two of four clubs that do not have a kick return TD. BC and Edmonton opponents have a combined 6 kick return scores in 2022.
BC in 1st Quarters:
BC has given up just ONE 1st Q TD (MTL, Sep/22) and 3 points or less in 7 of their last 8 games.
Inconsistent Scoring:
BC has a very odd pattern in recent games that reflects 20+ point swings in their scoring. They have alternated posting totals of 10, 31, 11, 34, 20 & 40 points - all but one either 20 more or 20 less than the prior game.
Most Defensive Plays - Canadians:
Three teams have Canadians as their leader with the Most Total Defensive Plays. Two of them are in this game - Jordan Williams for BC with 96 and Scott Hutter for the Elks with 70. No Canadian has led Edmonton Total Defensive Plays since the CFL compiled Tackles starting in 1987.
Sergio Castillo:
Has missed only one FG attempt in his last 6 games making 14 of 15 attempts. For his career he is now at a success rate of 85.5% on 124-of-145 in 58 games. Among kickers with 100+ attempts, that ranks #5 all-time
Sean Whyte:
Has a current FG made stretch of 21 made in his last 22 attempts. He has just one FG miss in his last 10 games and ranks #2 at 90.9% this year. All-time Whyte ranks #3 at 86.8%, just behind Rene Paredes at 87.3%.
Manny Arceneaux 615 / 124 in a row:
Has now passed Tony Gabriel (614) and ranks #24 all-time with 615 career receptions. He is 100 yards short of 9,00 for his career. His active reception streak sits officially at 124 consecutive games.
Vernon Adams Jr. 20-14:
Has started the last 5 games for BC compiling a 3-2 record and an average of 229 yards per game. He has 5 TD passes and is yet to throw an interception in 135 pass attempts. Overall, his career mark is 20-14 in 34 starts including 2-1 vs Edmonton.
103 Edmonton players:
With the addition of four more players to their roster last week, the Elks are now up to 103 that have been either dressed or on their Injured List. They have used 96 different players in their active game rosters in 2022. A total of 68 players have made at least one start for the Elks.
Kevin Brown:
Has 466 rushing yards in 6 starts - that is a pace that across a full year would get him to 1,398 in total.
26 Different Targets:
The Elks have targeted a total of 26 players with pass attempts this year. BC has targeted just 12 including Nathan Rourke who caught his own deflected pass.
Anybody know the reason for the 6:45pm kick-off times we're seeing?
My gut feeling is that if TSN really wants BLM and gives him everything he wants he may opt for retirement, but because he's been with only one pro team and never having moved, he may see it as a bit of an adventure and something new going to a new team. You know, sometimes a change is as good as a vacation or break. He may want to give it a go with another team. Generally players want to play until they can't. I think he still can. But I guess we'll see. Maybe he himself is still undecided?
Because 6:30 was Waaay too early Aaand 7:00 is Waaay too late.
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So the Lions are averaging just shy of 500 yards of offense vs the Elks this year.
But that was with Rourke at the helm. And, I think, Edmonton has improved somewhat since then. But still, that's a lot of yards.
If I know anything about BLM, he will still feel he has something to prove. I can see him signing with another team and coming back to haunt the team that benched him. Shades of Henry Burris.
I could see him wanting to do that. But I’m not sure if he is able to at this point.
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i can’t decide if i should get beer for this game for sunday’s NFL action. i drank for last night so i guess i should probably wait til sunday 
not surprised Rourke isn’t dressed for this game. he needs a full week of painless first team reps before they think about any game action.
i wonder what happens if Tre Ford plays lights out. Corny has the big contract and all the physical tools, but hasn’t put it all together with any consistency. quarterback controversies are always fun.
i hope the Lions do a lot of running the ball. having Butler and a running game going bodes well for post-season action.
Rourke expects to play in next weeks season finale
“Definitely progress,” head coach Rick Campbell told the media this week when asked about what he’s seen from his young quarterback’s limited reps at practice. “The word I keep hearing from our medical sat staff is ‘ramp up,’ is to not go zero to 100. So, everything’s going good so far. You definitely can see this week from last week, he’s doing much more and moving around way better.”
“We’re not going to play him this week, we’re going to give him another week to do that, but it’s not a setback. It’s a part of the plan of being smart and he’s going to continue to do more at practice, even this week, but we’re going to pull him out from dressing for the game this week. We’ll see what the situation is and what happens the following week, but there’s a very good chance he could be dressing and playing the next week.”
Just TSN again messing with the fans who want to watch all the games.
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because the earlier game is never over. here we are at almost 6:50 and the cats-rb game isn’t over yet with 3 minutes to go. it’s tied now and may go to OT. booo.
TSN should be going to the other game on another channel.
looks cold in edmonton.
wtf kind of kick off was that? brutal
i did not know that Ford was a hec crighton winner. thats cool. i knew he played for waterloo. that was a horrible horse collar call.
i need beer for this.