THE MOJ: B.C. Lions need to watch out for trap game against Ottawa

Published 11:58 am Tuesday, August 25, 2026

LANCASTER’S LOGIC: CFL legend Ron Lancaster had a saying – you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose and you’re never as good as you think you are when you win. It’s a smart way of looking at things – and more importantly it makes you scrutinize the entire body of work rather than just looking at the outcome. So when I analyze the Lions’ 30-16 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders at BC Place this past Sunday, I also recognize the Riders had two touchdowns taken off the board due to penalties. Either would have tied the game at 13-13 and possibly altered the result. Instead, Keon Hatcher’s touchdown after the second negated Rider score, upped the Lions lead to 20-6 and put them in the driver’s seat.

MOMMA’S BOY: Lions receiver Jevon Cottoy recorded his second career 100-yard receiving game in a span of three weeks with 110 yards on six catches against the Roughriders. He even managed to score a touchdown being on the other end of a 23-yard strike from Nathan Rourke late in the second quarter. After the catch, Cottoy made it over to the stands to hand the ball to his mom Valerie, who had flown in from St. Vincent and the Grenadines to watch her son play at BC Place for the very first time.

ROURKE NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: If you would have asked Rourke whether or not his performance against the Riders was worthy of being named a CFL Player of the Week, he might have been inclined to laugh. “I don’t think I played the way I know I’m capable of playing,” said Rourke after going 22 for 28 passing with 355 yards and two touchdowns. It’s a scary thing when your quarterback isn’t satisfied with his performance and is still is getting POW honors. Rourke also managed to pass Dave Dickenson for fifth on the Lions’ all-time passing yards list and now sits with 13,603 yards.

LIONS DEFENCE GETTING TO NEXT LEVEL: The last couple of weeks, we’ve stated that the Lions defence has been playing extremely well as of late but needed to start getting turnovers to get to an elite level. The Lions entered the Rider game with only nine turnovers on the season which ranked last in the league but managed to get four against Saskatchewan with TJ Lee and Stanley Thomas-Oliver getting interceptions and Deontai Williams forcing and recovering a fumble while another came on downs. According to Thomas-Oliver, who joined us on the post-game show, it’s a result of the defence playing with much more confidence.

WATCH OUT FOR THE TRAP: The Lions next game is in Ottawa on Sunday, Aug. 30 (4pm TSN 1040; 730 CKNW; Sher-E- Punjab Radio AM 600) against a Redblack team that has lost all 10 of its games this season. B.C. heads into Ottawa as a 6.5-point favourite and should win the game but if the Lions look ahead to their matchup with the Als and fail to focus on Ottawa, watch out. Ottawa has to win at least one game this season? The Lions will stay in Ottawa for the week before heading to Montreal to play the Alouettes on Friday, Sept. 4 (4:30pm TSN 1040; 730 CKNW; Sher-E- Punjab Radio AM 600).

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