New week. Clean Slate.

The hangover has lifted. We’re talking about the kind of sickness one incurs after riding a rollercoaster all day long, only to come away with a feeling of emptiness when all is said and done. For the BC Lions, Friday night’s ride in Calgary had more ups and downs than you can imagine, ending in a heartbreaking 44-41 overtime defeat. Now that the Gravol has taken full effect, the club acknowledges it has a brilliant opportunity on Thursday against the 2-3 Montreal Alouettes: A chance to come away with two victories in this stretch of three consecutive road games. Having been a part of these types of losses before, using the glass half-full approach suits Ryan Phillips just fine. “You couldn’t ask for a better situation as far as having a short week and being able to try to get a bad taste out of your mouth,” the twelve-year veteran said. “You always want to come out of this road slate on a positive note. We didn’t get the result we wanted last week, but we still have a prime opportunity ahead of us. We want to make sure we get guys back into a winning mentality.”

This game at Molson Stadium is the type where you throw the other team’s record out the window. Montreal is coming off an impressive 41-3 win over Saskatchewan, one where quarterback Kevin Glenn completed 27 of 36 passes for 299 yards and two majors. The 37-year old is a big reason the Alouettes are in a position to be .500 after six games.

“Everything starts with the quarterback,” Phillips added. “They have a veteran in Kevin who has been around longer than me. He’s a guy who knows what it takes to win and they have great personnel. They have Duran Carter who is one of the elite receivers in this league, a guy that makes big plays and a guy they have confidence in.”

Wally Buono and the coaching staff are certainly not underestimating their first August test. “The good thing is we’ve always played well in Montreal, last year if I’m not mistaken we won in Montreal and have been a good eastern team. They had a great game against the Riders and their confidence is going to be up.”

A 4-2 record before heading home for back to back weeks at the friendly confines of BC Place.  Had they been told they might have this opportunity back in training camp, Lions players and coaches would have said “where do we sign?”

Lulay To Jennings: “Keep your head up, kid.”

July 23^rd, 2010. It was Travis Lulay’s first CFL start and just the seventh appearance of his career. Leading the Toronto Argonauts 20-17 with less than three minutes to play, Lulay threw an interception to Byron Parker, one that was returned to the end zone for the eventual winning score, and another one in the final minute to seal the result. Those gaffes overshadowed a brilliant performance by the then 26-year old pivot; he finished 26 of 40 for 330 yards. You get the picture; it was not unlike Jonathon Jennings’ efforts in Calgary Friday night where a couple of costly throws and a blown lead made people forget how brilliant he played. In his role as backup/mentor, Lulay continues to stress to Jennings that these things will happen to any quarterback.

“You learn from those. When you lose a game you look at the things you could have done better and say ‘let’s try to eliminate those things’,” Lulay said. “Everybody who has played long enough has come out on the wrong side of a great game and made mistakes late in the football game. I shared with him soon afterwards my first start in Toronto ( 2010) because there was a lot of parallels. It felt very similar to what Jon did.” Another thing both quarterbacks and the entire team can take solace in, is the fact Jennings responded to the Lions’ first loss of the season in spectacular fashion. After being pulled in the 25-14 loss to Toronto in week three, he followed that up by torching Saskatchewan with a career-high 429 yards passing and three touchdowns in the 40-27 victory July 16th. Look out Montreal. He’s coming for vengeance again.

Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com