LCF – Football: Alouettes shoot feathers at BC Place

Vernon Adams Jr. had 283 yards against his former team and the BC Lions beat the Montreal Alouettes 35-19 Sunday night.

Adams, who had two spells with the Birds, the last between 2018 and 2022, completed 20 of his 25 attempts from the air. He threw a touchdown pass and intercepted the Lions (4-1).

It was bolstered by bringing back Shawn Shavers, who was making his Canadian Football League debut. The Shivers had 63 yards on 14 carries and caught two passes for 73 yards.

“We expected it,” Lions coach Rick Campbell said of the Cheevers’ performance. It looked like this during training. He made eyes widen due to his speed and agility. »

The Lions rallied after suffering their first setback of the season last week. The defense had six sacks, including two by CFL point guard Matthew Bates, and the special teams added a major.

“I knew we’d come back strong,” Adams said. I wanted to start the game by scoring a goal. When that happened, I was glad it was what we wanted. »

The Alouettes (2-2) defense has allowed no more than 17 points in each of its first three games of the season, but found the right game on Sunday.

“We didn’t play at our best, that’s for sure,” Alouettes coach Jason Maas said. There were some unusual errors. Penalties have to be reduced, it was a problem during this match. »

Quarterback Cody Fajardo caught 24 of 38 passes for 280 yards. He had 57 rushing yards on eight carries, including one for a touchdown.

The Montreal Forces have lost three of their last four meetings against the Lions and have won only nine of their 41 visits to BC Place.

The Alouettes will return to action on Friday hosting the Toronto Argonauts at Percival-Molson Stadium.

Some costly mistakes

Disaster was averted by the Lions early in the game. On the second offensive play, Adams saw a pass intercepted and returned to the end zone by Marc-Antoine Decoy, but an illegal contact penalty nullified the defensive touchdown.

Adams pulled himself together by orchestrating an impressive offensive drive, and former Alouettes quarterback Dominic Davis scored a groundbreaking one-yard run.

Fajardo answered his opponent by putting the Alouettes through on goal after passing a 20-yard pass to Austin Mack. The quarterback himself crossed the last yard separating him from the end zone.

The Lions regained the lead in the second quarter, when Shivers scored on a three-yard kickoff run. But the Montreal team narrowed the lead to 14-10 on their next possession, when David Kot kicked a 47-yard field goal.

Then the game was flipped because of the special teams.

The Alouettes had just blocked a kick from Stefan Flintoft and were in position to attempt a 43-yard field goal, but Woody Barron blocked the attempt and Jalon Edwards-Cooper returned the ball to the other side for a punt.

After a field goal for each team, the Lions returned to the locker room at halftime with a 24-13 lead.

The Lions dealt a blow to their opponents by scoring a touchdown on their first offensive sequence of the second half. Adams joined Jevon Kotoy on a 20-yard touchdown run. Then the defense limited the Alouettes to a 13-yard field goal in the drive zone.