After a tight Week 1 victory against the Montreal Alouettes the BC Lions are heading to Edmonton for a much taller task. The Lions have not won in Edmonton since Reilly’s first year on the Eskimos where his QB rating was just 86.9. There are some major keys that the Lions will need to cover if they want to stand any chance at handing the two-time Grey Cup Champion and reigning CFL Most Outstanding Player his second consecutive loss at Commonwealth Stadium.
Slow Down the Offence
After two weeks of action Mike Reilly is leading the CFL in passing yards with 694 yards through the air. The top two leaders in receiving yards? Reilly’s two favourite targets, Derel Walker and D’haquille Williams. Considering the fact that the Lions are missing some key defensive pieces from last season, this is going to be no easy task.
However, Edmonton absolutely dominated their opponents in total yards the first two weeks and could very easily be 0-2. If the Lions defence can even slow them down a little bit that will go a long way for Jennings and the offense.
Go Deep
Two weeks ago Jonathan Jennings came out and threw two touchdowns, only four incompletions and did not throw a single interception. It was great. Despite Jennings fairly flawless stat line there was one thing he did not do last week that he is going to need to do this week to have a chance at winning and that is throwing the ball deep. His longest pass last week was only 35 yards and his yards/attempt was just 7.6.
Last season in Jennings’ two meetings with the Eskimos he only threw one touchdown in 65 pass attempts. He did manage to throw zero interceptions but BC still lost both those games. If the Lions want to win this week Jennings will have to use his two prime deep ball threats, Bryan Burnham and Shaq Johnson. Playing it safe won’t be what wins BC this game.
Win the Special Teams Battle
This is going to be a critical key to winning especially with the importance of special teams in the CFL but this week in particular it’s important for a few reasons. The first is that last week Edmonton put returner Jamill Smith on the six-game injured reserve. Jordan Robinson is Smith’s replacement and although he had a good first week of returning duties I expect that to come to a halt in a hurry.
Stefon Logan, one of the most dangerous returners the CFL has seen in the last 10 years, was held to just 6.3 YPR on punts in week one. BC has always prided themselves on having outstanding special teams and their kick return units will have to be no less than spectacular this week to win the field position battle.
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