What the B.C. Lions have left to play for Friday in Hamilton

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What do you play for when there’s nothing left, actually, to play for?

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The B.C. Lions can reply that query quickly sufficient. They boarded their constitution flight and headed to Hamilton on Thursday, as they obtained set to tackle the Tiger-Cats beneath the Friday night time lights at The Donut Field.

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There’s nothing on the road for B.C.; the playoff seeding on the prime of the West Division has all however been set. The Lions (11-5) will virtually actually end second behind Winnipeg, no matter what occurs between the Calgary Stampeders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders down the road. The Leos’ hopes of ending first within the West requires B.C. to win each its video games, and hope the Blue Bombers (12-4) lose each of theirs, the probabilities of that are about non-zero.

Put it this manner: the plus-size woman is warming up her vocal cords.

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At the very least a house playoff date has been set in concrete, as they’ll host whomever emerges from the dogfight between the ‘Riders and the Stamps, who additionally meet Friday, in Calgary.

After their sport towards the Ticats, the Lions shut out their regular-season slate towards Calgary the next Friday, one other sport with no impression on the standings.

NEXT GAME

B.C. Lions vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Friday, 4 p.m. PT., Tim Hortons Stadium

TV: TSN. Radio: AM730

Certain, there might be some private targets to shoot for. Listed here are the Lions within the hunt for statistical benchmarks:

• Quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. will proceed to make his MOP case, as he at the moment leads the CFL in passing (4,357 yards) and is within the hunt to be the league’s first 5,000-yard passer since 2018.

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• Broad receiver Keon Hatcher is 88 yards behind league chief Dalton Schoen, who pipped Hatcher’s teammate Dominque Rhymes for the receiving crown final 12 months by 40 yards.

• Defensive lineman Mathieu Betts has 16 sacks, one off the report for a Canadian participant first set by B.C.’s Brent Johnson in 2005 with 17, and since equalled by Jamaal Westerman in Winnipeg 10 years later. He is also the primary Canadian to prime the league in that class since Ricky Foley did it with the Lions in 2009. Foley completed that season with 12 — tied with Betts’ present place coach, John Bowman.

• Linebacker Ben Hladik has 82 tackles in his first season as a full-time starter. One other 14 tackles, and he’ll be the primary Canadian to crack triple-digits for the Lions, and simply the fourth in CFL historical past. The UBC grad had a career-high 11 two weeks in the past towards Saskatchewan, and 27 in complete over his final 4 video games.

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But when final 12 months’s regular-season finale is any indication, private information take a distant again seat to workforce success. Being wholesome and rested for the playoffs is ever the precedence.

James Butler had an opportunity to take final 12 months’s dashing crown of their regular-season finale, needing 34 yards for the title, however was given three carries (for six yards) and sat after the primary quarter. Rhymes entered that sport 11 yards behind Schoen, and made three catches for 55 yards — whereas Schoen had two for 84.

If there may be one factor the Lions want to do Friday, it’s to scrub the style of final weekend’s bitter 34-26 time beyond regulation loss to the Bombers out of their mouths.

“Simply end. End, man,” Adams stated when requested what was being preached in follow this week.

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“We’ve obtained to let go of what occurred final week. It was a troublesome one. However we’ve obtained to maneuver ahead and deal with every sport as a playoff sport, and that’s it.”

Whereas B.C.’s first-place hopes are odds that may solely be calculated by a quantum pc, the Ticats are within the thick of the East’s post-season positioning battle. A win by Hamilton retains their hopes of a second-place end within the division alive, and internet hosting Montreal, whom they go to subsequent week.

Since beating B.C. in Week 12, the Ticats have solely misplaced twice in seven video games — each to the first-place Argos. And the workforce from the Hammer has been gritting out these wins, with their final 4 victories coming by seven factors or much less, and attending to a .500 report for the primary time because the 2021 season finale.

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“They play all people robust,” stated Lions head coach Rick Campbell. “And this time of 12 months, you’re gonna get all people’s finest shot. And that’s considered one of solely two groups we haven’t crushed on this league, so I do know our guys are excited for the problem.”

Whereas the Lions might be going through their previous operating again — once more — in Butler, they’ll even be auditioning a brand new one on offence. JaQuan Hardy obtained the first-team reps all week with Taquan Mizzell nonetheless feeling the results of a rib damage suffered towards Winnipeg, and can step into the beginning position for Friday’s sport.

The previous Dallas Cowboy and Denver Bronco stated he has no issues choosing up the wrinkles of the Canadian sport, and has been made to really feel welcome since signing to the follow squad — first in August, earlier than he left and returned in October.

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“I really feel like as a workforce, we’ve been all on one heartbeat shifting collectively,” he stated. “It appears like I’m doing my factor.”

“He’s carried out a very nice job,” added Campbell. “We wouldn’t play him except we thought he had a full understanding of what was happening. And we needed to offer him an excellent shot early within the week to see if he might do it, and he did. We’re trying ahead to him. Our personnel division is absolutely excessive on him. He can convey a sure physicality to the sport and so we’ll see the way it goes.”

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