STREAMING CFL PPV: BC Lions @ Calgary Stampeders, Sept. 18, 01:00 CET (1 am, 7 pm ET Sept. 17)
CALGARY — Entering Week 15, the Calgary Stampeders have an opportunity to take sole possession of second place in the West Division, but will need to secure a win over the BC Lions on Saturday.
The Lions and Stamps have matched up once already this season, and who could forget BC’s 41-40 win to shock McMahon Stadium. However, as they team’s prepare for their second meeting, BC will be without quarterback Nathan Rourke.
At quarterback for the Lions, the recently acquired Vernon Adams Jr. will have an opportunity to make his first start for the Orange and Black, in hopes of leading the Lions to their first win since Week 11.
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Adams was given an opportunity to see game action in his team’s Week 14 meeting with Montreal Alouettes. Against his former team, Adams saw limited snaps and completed just one pass for 17 yards.
Adams has shown his ability to impact the game over the course of his six year career, and will have an opportunity again on Saturday to show off his talents amongst the explosive offence of the Lions.
The BC pivot is looking forward to leading the offence onto the field in McMahon Stadium, but knows they face pressure from both themselves and the Stampeders.
“I’m excited, it’s a new week, a new opportunity to get out there and challenge ourselves,” Adams told BCLions.com. “This is a must win for both teams. We’re trying to get that playoff spot, a home game. It’s very exciting. They’re a hard nosed team, they stick to their scheme. They do what they do, that’s the Calgary model. We need to take what they give us and get the playmakers the ball.”
The Lions new signal-caller will have a full pride of receivers at his disposal when he hits the field Saturday night. Lucky Whitehead, Dominique Rhymes, Bryan Burnham, Keon Hatcher and Jevon Cottoy have all shown their ability to make plays downfield for the Lions passing attack this season and will be leaned on to ease the load placed on Adams as he makes his first start.
BC will be put to the test defensively against a Stampeders team that is coming off a 56 point effort in their Week 14 win over Edmonton. A game which saw Calgary quarterback Jake Maier complete 20 of his 26 passing attempts for nearly 300 yards.
Thankfully for BC, shutting down the pass game has been a specialty of theirs this year. The unit has allowed a league-low 2,510 yards through the air, 228.2 per game. The Lions have also tallied 14 interceptions this season, led by defensive back Garry Peters who has four.
The Lions run defence has been stout all season, but will need to be warry of Calgary quarterback Tommy Stevens, who has proven to be a short-yardage specialist for the Stamps. In Week 14, Stevens carried the ball 10 times in the game and scored four goal line touchdowns in the contest.
Stevens role doesn’t get a lot of spotlight, but head coach Dave Dickenson knows how important those short yardage plays are to the success of his team.
“It’s one of those situations where you might get zero snaps or 10 snaps like he did this past game,” Dickenson told Stampeders.com. “The rule change for us this year allowed us to have to have a chance to have the third quarterback. It allowed us to keep a guy and use a guy that has skills that maybe the other two don’t have. He’s a quarterback first but he’s certainly doing a good job in the short yardage.”
Maier’s ability to spread the ball around and exploit soft coverages in the opposing scheme has been on full display, as has the connection that has seemingly developed between the quarterback and receiver Malik Henry.
Over his last three games Henry has totalled 287 yards and four touchdowns while averaging nearly 16 yards per catch. Henry has also seen a bit of an uptake in target share, with an average of nearly 10 targets per game from Maier since Week 12.
Running back Ka’Deem Carey continued his ascent to the top of the rushing yards leaderboard with 118 yards on the ground against the Elks. He now leads the league with 712 yards through nine games.
Defensively, the Stampeders have shown their ability to make plays and create damaging turnovers with their secondary. Four Calgary defenders have recorded interception returns for a touchdown, with Trumaine Washington‘s interception return score in Week 14 being the latest.
The Calgary defenisve unit have also added another two scores on recovered fumbles this season, linebacker Cameron Judge and defensive back Titus Wall have each pounced on a loose ball for a score.
With BC’s Adams navigating a new offence for the first time as a starter, applying pressure and disrupting the offensive design will be crucial to the success of the Calgary defence. Defensive lineman Shawn Lemon is second in the league with 10 sacks and is tied for the league-lead in forced fumbles with four.
The Lions have been impressive on the road this season with a 4-1 record. The Stampeders, meanwhile, will look to improve on their 3-2 home record and whoever comes out on top in this Saturday showdown will take over second place in the West Division.
AFI, Visaic and the CFL
American Football International is collaborating with Visaic and the Canadian Football League to present 2022 CFL games live. This is more than a livestream. This is a stream of the topflight TSN network television broadcast.
Watch the game live here PPV. BC Lions @ Calgary Stampeders, Sept. 18, 01:00 CET (1 am, 7 pm ET Sept. 17)
