If the goal for the BC Lions coming into this game was not to let Michael Bishop beat them, they were arguably successful. Bishop was at best merely adequate, but good enough to keep the Lions defence looking confused and hapless as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers behind a career night from Fred Reid ran roughshod over the hosts and snapped the BC winning streak at two with a decisive 37-10 triumph.

Things started promisingly enough for BC. After the opening kickoff, the Lions held the Bombers to a two-and-out, and Jarious Jackson picked up where things left off last week, completing four of five and benefiting from a pass interference call on the fifth as the eighty-six yard drive was capped by a spectacular, one handed catch by Emmanuel Arceneaux from thirty-eight yards out for the touchdown.

Winnipeg answered quickly, though, with Fred Reid carrying five times on the nine play, seventy-five yard drive evening the score.

That name would be one the crowd at BC Place would tire of hearing long before the final gun sounded. Reid galloped for 260 yards of the nearly four hundred the Bombers would rack up on the ground against the BC defence.

By the time Javon Johnson returned a Jarious Jackson interception seventy-three yards with just over eight and a half minutes to play, it was all over but the final indignities, and BC Place was silenced and rapidly emptying out. After all, there are far better things to do in Vancouver on a late summer evening than watch the Lions struggle with futility.

Last week, Lions fans saw the other side of Jarious Jackson- coming on in relief of the injured Buck Pierce and rallying the troops for a come-from-behind victory in Toronto. Tonight, after falling behind before the end of the first quarter, Jackson seemed to be trying too hard and by the end of the third was pushing desperately and to no avail.

Then the turnovers started. Jackson was picked off twice in the fourth quarter, once by Barrin Simpson which was immediately followed by a fifty-two yard Reid run for a touchdown; the second time by Johnson.

The final stats looked better for Jackson than for Bishop- fifteen for twenty-four and a 185 yards before being injured and yielding to Travis Lulay (who ended up five for seven and eighty-nine yards), compared to Bishop’s eleven for twenty and a 131.

Tonight’s story wasn’t the quarterbacks, though. It was the Fred Reid show in Vancouver, and the complete inability of the Lions to stop the run. When it wasn’t Reid, it was Yvenson Bernard, who ran for a hundred and twelve yards of his own.

If there’s a bright spot, it’s that the Lions won’t lose next week, as they have the bye and two weeks to prepare for Montreal and the running of Avon Coburne. Ricky Foley led the orange-and-black defence with eight tackles, Arceneaux the receiving corps with nine catches for 158.

There are bound to be some tough moments in the press after tonight’s debacle, especially with the week off and home and home dates with the 7-1 Alouettes coming right on its heels. Tonight wasn’t pretty, but it’s one game out of eighteen. Unfortunately, at three and five, the number of lacklustre outings this squad can afford and still mount a credible push for the post-season is diminishing, and at very least the Lions have to roar in their remaining games, because getting man-handled just isn’t going to cut it.