Mike Beamish of the Vancouver Sun reported yesterday that non-import running back Andrew Harris had inked a new deal with the BC Lions, and it’s no coincidence the signing came on the heels of the departure of Martell Mallett.

“It [Mallett's leaving] was certainly a factor in getting the contract signed quickly,” Harris said from his home in Winnipeg. “It made me a little more hungry. For sure, I’m a little bit more excited about the possibility of being seen as a running back or a receiver.”

In my opinion Harris was the most impressive back at training camp last year, and only his age, inexperience, and possibly a ratio issue kept him off the roster. This kid oozes talent and has torn up the CJFL. The 5-11, 195-pound Harris averaged an impressive 14.5 yards per carry and scored 24 touchdowns. He holds Canadian Junior Football League records for all-time touchdowns and scoring.

There had been talk of coverting Harris to the saftey position, but now it seems that along with first overall pick Jamal Lee the Lions have a legitimate chance at starting an all Canadian backfield in 2010. That’s an option that could give them the luxury at starting an import in another area, perhaps the offensive line.

The club also signed two import back in recent days, Brad Lester of Auburn and Yonus Davis of San Jose State. Davis, who’s stature is comparable to Stefan Logan is seen by the Lions as a candidate for punt and kick return duties. Lester was with the Lions late last season, and will be brough back for another look. Regardless, the running back position will once again be under the spotlight at training camp in June.

For now, here’s a few highlights from Andrew Harris:

There have to be a few less NFL fans west of the Canadian Rockies of late. Once again the Lions have lost a top player to the lures of the NFL. As we posted a couple days ago, Martell Mallett was given an opportunity by Wally Buono to test the NFL waters and Tuesday the CFL rookie of the year signed a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles.

It marks the third player this off-season the Lions have lost to the NFL but make no mistake, this loss will be the toughest.

Mallett rushed for 1,280 yards and six touchdowns on 214 carries and an average of 5.8-yards per carry. He added 43 receptions for 342 yards and two touchdowns. Mallett was also named to the West Division All-Star team and also earned the 2009 CFL Most Outstanding Rookie award.

He joins Rolly Lumbala and Ryan Grice-Mullen as Lion losses  to the NFL this off-season. Of course Lions fans also felt the sting last year losing both defensive end Cameron Wake and running back Stefan Logan to the Miami Dolphins and Pittsburgh Steelers respectively.

Once again from the informative blog of Lowell Ulrich comes word that running back Martell Mallett has been working out for NFL teams. First for the Philadelphia Eagles, and now comes word that the St.Louis Rams also put the CFL Rookie of the Year through his paces.

How can this be you ask? Isn’t Mallett under contract? Why yes he is, but as Ullrich reports, Wally Buono is affording him the courtesy:

“Mallett signed a reported minimum two-year deal upon joining the Lions last spring that would not have given him option-year rights until after the upcoming season. It’s believed he has been given a chance for a look-see because of contract protocol that allowed Stefan Logan and Cam Wake their chance to test the market.

“There are a lot of ways to get a player to agree to a contract. Sometimes you have to satisfy your needs. Sometimes you have to satisfy their needs. Sometimes you have to blend both needs,” said Buono, who would not elaborate.”

Not a bad policy to have to get players to sign in BC, but it sure sucks when they have a chance to leave so quickly and fans are getting to know and enjoy watching the player, but such is the way for CFL clubs. As Ullrich reports, the window for Mallett to sign a deal is a lot smaller than that of a free agent, so Lions fans can hope it closes without an offer, but for the man himself, we of course wish him the best of luck.

The BC Lions needed a win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night to keep with the pack in the tight CFL Western Division. They got that won, but made it a lot harder on themselves than it should have been, squeaking out a 19-16 victory before over 31,000 fans at BC Place stadium.

Fresh off the opening kickoff, things looked good for the BC Lions. Nine plays, starting from the 41-yard-line, and the Lions had the ball at the Saskatchewan one. Unfortunately, the Green Riders stood tall with their backs to their own end-zone, stuffing Martell Mallett on third-and-goal. The Riders strung together a ten play drive of their own to answer, but kicked the ball back to the Lions, who started moving it again, only to have a second drive result in no points when Sean Whyte’s 31-yard attempt caught nothing but upright.

The first quarter would close with the Lion defense starting to assert itself, and opening the second, Rickey Foley tallied the first sack of the evening, bring down Darian Durant for a loss of seven, and forcing another Jason Boreham punt.

Again, the Lions would drive. Ryan Grice-Mullen opened the possession with a twenty-four yard scamper, followed by Martell Mallett rushes for nine and thirteen yards. A Buck Pierce toss to Geroy Simon fell to the carpet along with a penalty flag as Omarr Morgan ran Simon over in the end zone, resulting in a first-and-goal for the Lions from the Saskatchewan one. But yet again, the goal line offense would sputter, settling for a nine-yard field goal from Whyte as a disappointing cap to the seven play, sixty-six yard drive. What could have been a 17-0 BC lead was only 3-0.

The defense would continue to perform solidly, holding the Riders to another two-and-out, giving the Lions the ball back in Saskatchewan territory after a no-yards penalty. A twenty-one yard completion from Pierce to Paris Jackson set the stage for another Whyte field goal, this one from 43 yards out.

Ryan Phillips would pick off a Durant pass on the Riders’ next play from scrimmage, but the ensuing drive would fizzle on a Whyte miss wide left from forty-five yards out, and Lions’ fans couldn’t help but wonder if the missed opportunities would come back to haunt them.

A pair of ineffective possessions would give Saskatchewan the ball back in the closing seconds of the half, and Luca Congi put the visitors on the scoreboard with a forty-nine yard boot, making the score 6-3. The half ended with a Pierce throw intended for Geroy Simon, rather than electing a fifty-yard attempt from Whyte to close the half, which had the potential to be yet another uncapitalized chance. Pierce at this point had been knocked down on eight attempts and hurried on seven more, knocking Buck Pierce to the turf repeatedly. Pierce would sustain an injury- losing the nail from the ring finger of his throwing hand, but pushed on past pain. Fans at BC Place had to be wondering which hit would be the one to send Pierce to the sidelines for Travis Lulay.

Pierce hung tough, though, playing for his career after recent criticism of his performance, and had the Lions on the march again to open the third quarter. But it was Travis Lulay, coming in on second-and short from the Riders’ thirty-eight who orchestrated a brilliant play-action fake, completing a pass to Paris Jackson for the touchdown to put the Lions ahead 13-3.

The Riders started to shift the field position in their favour, starting when Jamie Boreham successfully kicked to the coffin corner, rolling a punt across the sideline at the BC four. Pierce would take another hit and have the ball knocked loose by Stevie Baggs, but Damane Duckett came up with the recovery. An illegal contact flag would move the ball out to the BC fourteen, but only for two plays, as Baggs would register a sack on Pierce for an eight yard loss. The Lions elected to concede the safety, making the score 13-5.

On the ensuing drive, the Riders would get another Luca Congi field goal, this time from forty-seven yards out to bring the visitors to within five, and it would stay that way until about halfway through the fourth quarter, when the Lions started moving again, only to have Grice-Mullen lose the ball to Saskatchewan’s Donovan Alexander, who returned it twenty-five yards to give the Riders’ the ball in BC territory. Barron Miles would step up to thwart the threat on the next play, picking off Durant’s pass intended for Andy Fantuz and returning it seven yards to the Lions’ thirty-six. It looked as if the Lions would be able to run a little time off the clock, but after runs of twenty-one and five yards from Mallett and a Pierce keeper for another twenty, two incompletions forced the Lions to stretch the lead to eight on a twenty-five yard kick from Whyte to make the lead eight.

The Lion defence would show their only real vulnerability, as the Durant went three-for-four of his next attempts, culminating in a twenty-four yard throw Fantuz had to stretch to reel in for the touchdown to close the gap to two with under three minutes to play. On the two-point conversion attempt, sheer athleticism allowed Durant to elude the BC pass rush and connect with Gerran Walker to knot the score at sixteen with 2:33 remaining on the clock and the stage was set for the Riders to steal a game they really had no business being in.

But the Lions buckled down, clawing down the field. The game winning drive featured some hard running  from Mallett, and a key shoestring catch by Geroy Simon to keep the drive alive. A gutsy run by Buck Pierce got the Lions down close to set the stage for Sean Whyte to win the game with a thirty-three yard field goal with five seconds left on the clock.  The Riders attempted some trickery on the ensuing kick off, but an attempted on side punt down field was blocked and recovered by former Rider Anton McKenzie to seal the win for BC.

The win combined with Edmonton’s loss to Winnipeg earlier in the evening lifted the Lions to 6-7 and into a tie with the Eskimos for third place in the Western Conference, two points behind the Riders and Calgary. The effort was a gutsy one, particularly by Pierce, but fans have to wonder about the potential quarterback situation with Jarious Jackson still recovering from a shoulder injury and Casey Printers tucked away on the practice roster; especially should Pierce have to endure another pounding like the one he withstood tonight.

Quick Hits:

• The club honoured Wally Buono before the game with a video tribute, a game ball and a portrait to mark his CFL coaching record.
• Rider fans pushed attendance to over 31,000 for the game.
• Paris Jackson left the game with what was reported to be a knee injury and did not return.
• Jackson and Geroy Simon both went over 100 yards receiving, netting 114 and 134 respectively.

Well, anyone who thinks the Lions get special favours from the officials in the league can look at Friday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders to see that just isn’t the case.

As is so often the case in sports, you get breaks and you have them go against you as well. On Friday night a critical 3rd quarter play that went against the Lions changed the course of the game, and set the Stampeders up for a 27-18 victory at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.

With the score tied at 17-17 the Stamps had the ball and quarterback Henry Burris launched a pass that was “caught” by Nik Lewis. The ball popped out when Lewis made contact with ground. CFL rules say the receiver must survive contact with the ground for a pass to be complete. The ball popped out on contact with the ground and was snatched out of the air by Barron Miles and the ruling on the field was an interception. The Stamps challenged the play and the league officials ruled Lewis made the catch and was down by contact. The Stamps scored the go ahead touchdown on the following play and the Lions never recovered.

Bad penalties, missed receivers, and continually finding themselves in 2nd and long did the Lions in in the second half, wasting what was looking to be their best effort of the season.

Both Martell Mallett and Joffrey Reynolds had big nights on the ground, but it was the Stamps defense that buckled down in the second half. A 4th quarter Buck Pierce interception pretty much sealed the deal.

Reynolds finished the night with 157 yards rushing, once again exposing the Lions weak run stopping defense, which has been an issue all season. The Lions special teams also failed them once again. After opening the scoring on an impressive drive early in the second quarter on a Martell Mallett 25 yard touchdown run the Lions surrendered a 75 yard return on the kickoff, transferring whatever momentum they had built up back to the Stamps, who would score four plays later on a seven yard Henry Burris run.

“Demetris Summers’ kickoff return gave us some momentum,” Stampeders coach John Hufnagel said. “We scored some points on that. Then when B.C. scored we were able to answer. Every time they scored, we answered.”

Buck Pierce had a decent night for the Lions, but the crucial interception in the fourth sealed the Lions fate. Then with the Lions driving and needing four yards to keep the drive alive late in the game, Pierce through a ball in the dirt to Martell Mallett with Paris Jackson wide open on a deeper route.

The loss dropped the Lions to 5-7 on the season, and any hopes of challenging for the division are starting to fade. They’ll need help from other teams for that to happen, and they’ll have to help themselves starting next week when the Saskatchewan Roughriders pay a visit to BC Place. The Lions are looking more and more like they’ll be slotting into a cross over spot in the east if they hope to get to Calgary in November.

Quick hits:

• Martell Mallett: 15 carries, 136 yards and 1 TD
• Buck Pierce: 17 for 27 236 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT.
• The Stampeders honoured Wally Buono before the game.
• Nose Tackle Steve Williams made his Lions debut and was quickly dubbed “Little T” by those of us watching the game, because of his last name and his resemblance of former Lions great Tyrone Williams.

The BC Lions returned to the practice field Monday after another loss on their record, and some new faces on the field. With holiday Monday and a beautiful day to take in practice, I ventured down to the Surrey training facility to check out our lethargic Lions.

New faces in town

As was rumored Sunday by @littlemissCFL on Twitter, and posted on BCLionsden.ca, the Lions announced the signing of linebacker JoJuan Armour on Monday, as well as that of former Edmonton Eskimo running back A.J. Harris and defensive end James Edwards. All three players were at practice and it was instantly recognized that Armour was immediately taking on a starting role with the team. The physical Armour, who started his CFL career with the BC Lions, was taking all of the first team reps in Javy Glatt’s middle linebacker position, while Glatt watched from the sidelines. This move was later confirmed by Armour who told the Team 1040 that he was assuming the middle linebacker position.

When asked about the move Glatt told the Team 1040:

“When you lose games, people lose their jobs and they picked me – I’m the guy that takes it and I’ve just got to stay positive about it and help the guys as much as I can, and if I’m here, I’m here, and if not, we’ll deal with that when we get to it.  Basically, I was told I’m not athletic enough and I’m a liability in some things. That’s what happens when you lose. A lot of things come out that are negative and you just have to deal with it.”

Glatt can hardly take all the blame for the team’s defensive woes. The defensive line has been at fault as well, and there are questions about the scheme of the defense itself. But the fact remains that something had to change, and the with the Lions giving up an average of 150 yards rushing per game,the middle linebacker position was a good place to start.

Wally Buono explained it this way:

“Well, we’re not replacing Javy, we’re just changing his responsibilities. Part of (the move) was trying to get a spark into this football team. I’m not going to go into issues. At the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to function and we just wanted to make sure we address a situation that wasn’t good. We didn’t stop the run in the past two weeks and for us to be better as a football club, we have to do that.”

There was no scheme change, with Armour and McKenzie being joined by Korey Banks in certain situations as the nickleback. It will remain to be seen how much the scheme itself has to do with the Lions lack of success with the run, now that Armour is in the mix.

A.J. Harris didn’t seem to have as much of a prominent role at Monday’s practice, and Martell Mallett seemed to be taking all the first team reps, with Darren Toney and Ryan Grice-Mullen returning punts.  According to Lowell Ullrich, Buono confirmed that Harris is here for the time being as insurance behind Mallett, and because Ian Smart was due to have surgery today on his banged up knee. With an average of 5.6 yards per carry last season for the Eskimos and good hands coming out of the backfield, it was not a bad insurance policy to take a chance on.

A quiet bunch

I’ve attended a few Lions practices over the last few years, and one thing was noticeable off the bat at this one, there wasn’t a lot of talking going on. Korey Banks quipped “We still have fans? Really, we still have fans?”, as he jogged out to the practice field, but the usual banter amongst players was muted at best.

Wally involved

Wally Buono took a much more hands on approach in today’s practice, particularly on special teams drills where he was fairly vocal. Buono’s style is usually to sit back and let his coaches run the practice, but obviously desperate times call for a more involved role from the boss.

Logan Watch:

For those still dreaming of the return of Stefan Logan here is an update on his quest to make the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Monday’s Practice Photo Gallery:

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1-3.

Not a pretty start, nor the one most BC Lions fans were hoping to see, but not quite time to panic yet. After all, the Lions are only two points out of first place in the West, and have less of a spread between points scored and yielded than both the Edmonton Eskimos and the Saskatchewan Rough Riders, both at 2-2.

The Lions know they have been inconsistent and can do better. Both slotback Geroy Simon and cornerback Dante Marsh have spoken out about the rough start and their determination to do better in the remaining fourteen regular season games.

“Last night may have been the most embarrassing game I have ever been a part of…. We have to play better as a team not different units,” Marsh commented. “We have to have a sense of urgency and play more consistently on offense, defense, and special teams. Period. There are no excuses we have to win and win now. We are not rebuilding it doesn’t matter who isn’t here we are going to win with who we have on our roster. We will get this thing turned around and headed in the right direction.”

Simon echoes the same sentiments after Friday’s loss at home to the Calgary Stampeders, “Last night was pitiful. If we want to be relevant this year, we must play better and never put on a horrible performance like that again. Don’t feel sorry for us though, we will get it turned around.”

They’ll have the chance to do just that this Friday as they travel to Ivor Wynne Stadium to take on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

There are bright spots for the Lions statistically, showing that it may just be taking time to jell as a team which has taken a toll on the win-loss record. The team tops the CFL in passing touchdowns with eight, is tied with the Montreal Alouettes for second most touchdowns overall (12), one back of the Stampeders.

Martell Mallett leads the team in all-purpose yardage and yards from scrimmage, good for sixth and third in the league respectively and slotbacks Paris Jackson and Geroy Simon hold the sixth and seventh spots in receiving yardage..

On the defensive side of the ball, things are a little less auspicious, but there are some bright points. Ryan Phillips has had a pair of interceptions, one of which was returned sixty yards for a major; Ricky Foley has three sacks; and Jason Arakgi is tied for the league lead with eight tackles on special teams.

The defence, though, in particular seems to have yet to come together as a unit. The team ranks last in net and average yards against rushing and in pass completion percentage against. They’re not alone in futility, unfortunately. The offensive line has been at best suspect, yielding a league-leading sixteen sacks, which may be why Buck Pierce and company have tossed a league-worst seven interceptions through four weeks.

This week, though, the offensive line may catch a bit of a break, as they go up against a Ti-Cats D-line which has not had much success rushing the quarterback, bringing up the rear in both sacks and passing touchdowns against allowed. If Heerspink, Valli, Reid, Haji-Rasouli and Jiminez can give Pierce time to throw the ball downfield and can keep opening holes for Mallett, the unit may have time to come together a bit before the team returns home to look to avenge the Week 1 loss against the Riders.