The BC Lions started fast, but could not finish in Edmonton. Deon Lacy’s 4th quarter interception helped seal a 27-23 Eskimos win at Commonwealth Stadium. The result drops BC to 8-4, while the Eskimos improve to 6-7. Manny Arceneaux hauled in two touchdown passes from Jonathon Jennings to give the visitors a 14-0 lead before Edmonton stormed back.

“Those were just two big plays, so maybe the good start was a little misleading,” said Wally Buono after the loss.  “The game’s a long game. As for the game changing turnover, Buono wasn’t ready to lay all the blame on his quarterback. “The defensive player made a great play. They had good pressure most of the night. We’re not going to measure our season by one game.”

The Eskimos got rolling in the second quarter with touchdown runs from Mike Reilly and Shakir Bell to make the score 15-14 Lions at the break. Edmonton came out swinging in the third quarter when Reilly engineered a nine-play, 77-yard scoring drive, capped off by an end zone toss to Adarius Bowman to give the defending Grey Cup champs their first lead of the game.

“They put up 400 yards of total offence on us, so we feel we need to play better,” said Lions cornerback Brandon Stewart. “We left a lot of plays on the field. We just gotta come out and play fast and way more physical.”

Defensively, Adam Bighill led the way with 12 tackles and a sack. The takedown of Reilly on his own one-yard line forced Edmonton to concede a safety that cut their lead to 21-17. Richie Leone added a pair of second half field goals, while his counterpart, former Lion Shawn Whyte booted a pair of his own in the 4th quarter.

Jennings and company got the ball back with 32 seconds left, but their fate was sealed when Brandyn Thompson came up with an end zone interception on a Hail Mary attempt. The result snapped a three-game losing streak for the Eskimos and moved them into a crossover playoff position after Toronto fell to Ottawa earlier in the night.

Quotable:

“I honestly don’t even remember that part. Too many negative plays and we never got back on track. My personal accomplishments are pretty much irrelevant at this point. I don’t want to speak out about individual success. It wasn’t about what Edmonton did tonight, it’s about what the BC Lions didn’t do.”- Arceneaux putting the team first when asked about his explosive first half.

Bake’s Takes:

Like we said in our game preview: despite the Eskimos’ sub-500 record, they are still the defending Grey Cup champions and have that winning pedigree. That’s why they didn’t fold despite falling behind 14-0 and only having 41 total yards to the Lions 199 early in the second quarter, they battled back and took this one.

Hat tip to Anthony Gaitor: his first career interception was a timely one as it came with the Lions leading 14-7 and the Eskimos threatening to score for a second consecutive series. They were moving the ball with ease after starting the drive on their own 24 and Gaitor’s takeaway snuffed out a lot of the momentum they got back after falling behind.

Believe us when we say Jennings will once again do everything in his power to correct what went wrong late. The second-year pivot sat in his locker room stall for quite a lengthy period of time before heading to the showers. You could tell this was eating at him and he’s already relishing the chance to turn this around next week. And by the way, his record as a starter is still fairly decent at 11-7. Not a bad feather in his cap for a full season sample size.

Next up:

The Leos return home to BC Place for a clash with Trevor Harris and the Ottawa REDBLACKS on Saturday, October 1^st. It will be a 7:00 kickoff.