VANCOUVER \u2014 It wasn\u2019t the offensive shootout that was promised to start, but the BC Lions surged to a 37-24 win over the Edmonton Elks to earn their fifth straight win and knock their West-Division counterpart out of post-season contention.<\/p>\n
The Lions were held to five punts and a fumble before they found the end zone on Friday night, but once they did, they never looked back. They improved to 10-7, holding a slight edge over the Calgary Stampeders in the race to host the Western Semi-Final.<\/p>\n
Edmonton fought to the final whistle but couldn\u2019t keep pace at Save-On-Foods Field at BC Place, falling to 7-10 and watching their playoff hopes flicker out.<\/p>\n
CFL.ca brings you three key stats that defined BC\u2019s win over Edmonton.<\/p>\n
RELATED 25 \u2014 UNANSWERED POINTS<\/p>\n BC didn\u2019t start with the offensive firepower fans have come to expect during its five-game win streak, managing no points and just five first downs in its first six possessions. The offence came alive near the end of the second quarter, generating an eight-play, 78-yard drive in just a minute. That march, capped by a James Butler<\/a> score and two-point conversion, tied the game at 10-10 and sparked the Lions in the second half.<\/p>\n After the break, BC added two more scoring drives and a defensive touchdown before the Elks could reach a first down. The 25-point swing proved insurmountable for an Edmonton squad fighting for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n 420 \u2014 NATHAN ROURKE RUSH + PASS YARDS<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nathan Rourke<\/a> continued to make his case for Most Outstanding Player, dazzling through the air for 338 yards \u2014 his 11th 300-yard game this season \u2014 and adding the longest run of his CFL career, a 70-yard touchdown sprint. The run capped the 25-point surge and forced the Elks into a more aggressive, mistake-prone approach.<\/p>\n Rourke leads all quarterbacks with 559 rushing yards \u2014 shattering his 2022 career high of 304 \u2014 and is tied for second among all qualified players with 10 rushing touchdowns. Coupled with a near 5,000-yard passing season, the Canadian pivot has firmly cemented himself in the MOP conversation.<\/p>\n 3 \u2014 BC INTERCEPTIONS<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cody Fajardo<\/a>, usually one of the league\u2019s most accurate passers, was uncharacteristically turnover-prone, throwing three interceptions on Friday night. Two came in the fourth quarter with the game already in BC\u2019s favour, but his first was returned for a touchdown by Robert Carter Jr., giving the Lions a 17-10 lead after halftime.<\/p>\n BC\u2019s secondary has shown during this win streak that they can make a quarterback pay for mistakes. Carter Jr. now has three picks in as many weeks, while fellow rookie Jackson Findlay has one in each of the last three games. Veteran defensive back T.J. Lee<\/a> also contributed, snagging an interception in addition to six tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble to help keep BC in the driver\u2019s seat and cruise to the finish line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 It wasn\u2019t the offensive shootout that was promised to start, but the BC Lions surged to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-222212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb Lions stay hot, roll past Elks for fifth straight victory<\/a>
\u00bb Edmonton, BC by the numbers<\/a>
\u00bb Depth Charts:\u00a0EDM<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0BC<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Sign up and watch CFL games on CFL+ in the U.S. and Internationally<\/a><\/p>\n