The B.C. Lions erupted for three touchdown passes within 15 minutes and held on to defeat the Saskatchewan Roughriders 33-26 on Friday.
The surge of 21 consecutive points, beginning 30 seconds before halftime, came after Saskatchewan had narrowed the Lions’ lead to 12-11 at BC Place Stadium.
Lions quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. threw for 458 yards as B.C. remained tied with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, also 11-4, for first place in the CFL’s West Division.
“They were mixing it up,” Roughriders safety Jayden Dalke said of the high-powered Lions offence. “They were taking shots, but I think they were also doing a pretty good job of taking some of the underneath routes and kind of nickel-and-diming for parts of the (successful) series.
“Obviously, we’re going to have to go look at it tomorrow or the next day and try to figure out where we can get better, because that wasn’t up to our standard.”
Jake Dolegala set a new personal standard, passing for a career-high 409 yards, but that wasn’t of the slightest solace to the Saskatchewan quarterback after his sixth straight start.
“We’ve got to be able to match that (offensive production by B.C.) and do one better,” he said. “We didn’t do that tonight.
“I thought we called a really good game. There were a couple of missed throws and a couple of miscommunications.
“We’ve just got to get better. It’s frustrating when you’re that close. We know we can beat this team. We know we can hang with this team, but we can’t keep doing this too-little, too-late nonsense. It’s getting old.”
Such is the lament when a losing streak increases to four games.
“Everybody is obviously very disappointed,” Dalke said after the Roughriders’ record fell to 6-9. “Nobody goes “hooray, we lost,” right?
“The flip side of it is we were out there until the last seconds and I didn’t see a lot of quit from the guys around me, which is always positive, because if you have guys who aren’t willing to put it on the line for the guy next to them, then you have a bigger problem.
“But with that not being the problem, I think we still have a lot to go with moving forward and a lot to work with.”
The Roughriders are still third in the West and in control of their playoff destiny, although that notion wasn’t foremost on the players’ minds in the immediate aftermath of Friday’s game.
“We’re frustrated, but we’re just going to try to stick together as best we can, because if we get separated at this point, it’s not going to do anybody any good,” Dalke said after registering a team-high eight defensive tackles.
“We’re still unified. We’re just trying to figure out what we can do to flip this around.”
The Lions led 6-1 after the first quarter, during which Sean Whyte kicked field goals of 12 and 29 yards. Adam Korsak had a 67-yard punt single for Saskatchewan over the opening 15 minutes.
Whyte’s 46-yard field goal at 1:26 of the second quarter gave B.C. a 9-1 lead.
Saskatchewan countered with the first touchdown of the game — a two-yard run by short-yardage quarterback Antonio Pipkin — at 10:49 of the second frame.
Brett Lauther’s convert, which followed an eight-play, 95-yard drive, pared the Lions’ advantage to 9-8.
Whyte’s fourth field goal of the night, from 50 yards, put the Lions up 12-8 at 12:50 of the second quarter.
Lauther’s 48-yard field goal — his 200th three-pointer as a Roughrider — at 14:02 of the second frame made it 12-11, Lions.
B.C. answered with a 34-yard touchdown pass from Adams Jr. to Keon Hatcher, who crossed the goal line 12 seconds before halftime. Whyte’s convert gave the Lions a 19-11 lead.
Whyte converted a 71-yard TD bomb from Adams Jr. to Alexander Hollins midway through the third quarter as the Lions assumed a 26-11 lead.
Adams Jr.’s third TD pass of the night, a seven-yarder to Hollins late in the third quarter, lifted the Lions into a 33-11 lead.
Lauther’s single on a 32-yard field-goal attempt made it 33-12.
Rookie running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon scored his first CFL touchdown, on a two-yard run, with 1:17 left in the game. Lauther added the convert.
After a successful onside kick, the Roughriders moved 66 yards to pay dirt, the capper being another two-yard TD run by Bertrand-Hudon with 10 seconds left. Lauther followed up with another convert.
His second onside kick attempt was then recovered by the Lions with two seconds remaining.
C.J. Reavis was Saskatchewan’s defensive leader, with two sacks and a tackle for a loss. DeMarcus Christmas added a sack and a pass knockdown.
Two Saskatchewan players exceeded 100 receiving yards — Kian Schaffer-Baker (nine catches, 104 yards) and Jerreth Sterns (seven for 102).
“We didn’t score enough points to come out with a win at the end of the game, despite putting a couple of plays and drives together at the end,” Schaffer-Baker said. “That’s something we’ve got to be doing for all four quarters of football, 60 minutes long.”
That was also the refrain from Craig Dickenson.
“We’ve got to play better — and we’ve got to play better for 60 minutes,” the Roughriders’ Head Coach said. “We have our moments, but we haven’t been able to put it together for 60 minutes.
“We play well at times, but we make mistakes at critical times and allow teams to score too easily or we turn the football over on offence. Even on special teams, I thought we had a couple of plays today where it’s just uncharacteristic of us. We’re usually a better unit than that.
“But I told the men in the locker room, ‘We’re all in this together. We’ve got to win two of the next three.’ ”
Next up for the Roughriders is an Oct. 7 matchup with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Legends Night (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
At halftime, the 2013 Roughriders (team category) and Wendy Kelly (builder) will be inducted into the SaskTel Plaza of Honour.
Members of the 2013 team will be on hand to celebrate the looming 10th anniversary of the Roughriders’ first home-field Grey Cup victory.
Kelly, the first female to serve on the community-owned team’s Board of Directors, is to be inducted posthumously.
After the Hamilton game, the Roughriders oppose the host Calgary Stampeders in an Oct. 13 West showdown that has huge playoff implications.
The Roughriders then conclude their regular-season slate on Oct. 21 against the visiting Toronto Argonauts.
