Esks survive slow start to edge Lions
Jennings’ last throw intercepted to seal victory for the home team
Almost exactly a year ago, Jonathon Jennings made his debut as the starting quarterback of the B.C. Lions.
In a perfect piece of symmetry, he was back at the same venue Friday, Commonwealth Stadium, facing the same opposition, and playing in his 18th game as a starter, completing what amounts to a full season in the Canadian Football League. He’s come a long way in relatively short period of time. But one obstacle he’s not been able to overcome is how to defeat the Edmonton Eskimos.
Jennings is now 0-3 in his career as a starter against the boys from northern Alberta, following Edmonton’s latest 27-23 victory.
“That home game (Sept. 26, 2015) was my first start,” Jennings remembered.
“It’s been kind of a whirlwind from that point. It’s a process. Hopefully, it’ll come. You can only control what you can.”
What he didn’t control well Friday, however, was a late-game throw, intended for Manny Arceneaux, that was intercepted by the Esks’ Deon Lacey and turned into a decisive turnover. The Eskimos were ahead by a single point at that juncture, 2423. But it allowed them to run down the clock, before Sean Whyte iced the game with a 32-yard field goal with 36 seconds remaining.
Jennings’ Hail Mary on the final play of the game, intercepted by the Esks’ Brandyn Thompson, cemented the win for the home side and stopped a three-game losing streak for the Esks, now 6-7. And it dropped the Lions to 8-4, as B.C. sought its fourth straight victory.
The Leos are now tied with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for second place in the West Division, a game-and-a-half behind the Calgary Stampeders. October is likely to tell the tale of the Lions’ playoff seeding. They have back-to-back games against the Blue Bombers and a third against the Eskimos on successive weekends.
In his debut against the Eskimos last year, Jennings showed none of the happy feet normally associated with a rookie starting QB. He threw the ball away when there was no other option, or absorbed a sack, when it became necessary.
The 23-year-old rookie outplayed Edmonton’s Mike Reilly in the first half, staking his team to a 15-7 lead. But the game got away from the Lions in the second half, as Reilly rallied his team for a 2723 victory. Matched once again against Reilly, Friday’s result was a reasonable facsimile, if not a carbon copy, of Jennings’ debut last September.
He and the Lions started strong, but it was Reilly and the Eskimos’ defence who finished better.
Spotting the Lions a 14-0 lead, Reilly rallied his troops with three touchdowns, connecting with Adarius Bowman on a 22-yard score to put Edmonton in front 21- 15, for the first time in the game, early in the third quarter.
Playing their fourth game in 19 days, the Eskimos looked bushed at the start, falling behind the Lions by two touchdowns in what had the early hallmarks of a blowout in the first half.
After Richie Leone was wide on a 51-yard field goal attempt, the Lions caught a break when Kendel Doe’s return of the miss to midfield was wiped out by a penalty.
Then Jennings went to work. On a five-play drive for the game’s first score, he caught a leaping Bryan Burnham for a 19-yard completion. Jennings then ran a fake inside, pulled the ball out and lofted a pass in stride to Arceneaux, who got behind the coverage of Garry Peters. Jennings laid the ball in perfectly for a 26-yard touchdown play. Jeremiah Johnson was stopped short on a two-point convert attempt and the Lions led 6-0.
On the first play of the second quarter, the Manny Show’s second act was as dazzling as the first. Executing on a post pattern downfield, Arceneaux got five yards of separation and watched Jennings lay in another throw of exquisite trajectory. With defender Kenny Ladler trailing behind him, Arceneaux completed the 68-yard play to the end zone. Johnson ran in a two-point convert on a reverse, untouched, to put the Lions ahead 14-0.
Arceneaux finished the first half with 140 yards on six catches, 40 of those yards coming after the catch.
With Reilly in charge, the Eskimos scored back-to-back touchdowns in the second quarter to turn the tide. At the end of a nineplay, 75-yard drive, the CFL’s leading rusher among quarterbacks scored on a one-yard run to halve the Lions’ lead, following a Sean Whyte convert.
With less than two minutes left in the opening half, Reilly burned the Lions on a 59-yard pass to Bowman that took the ball to the B.C. three-yard line. Shakir Bell, an ankle-breaker who gave the Lions’ defence fits all evening, knifed into the end zone for a touchdown to tie the game following Whyte’s convert.
Leone’s 74-yard punt single in the final minute of the half gave the Lions a 15-14 lead, but it was their last gasp with a lead.