The Canadian Press
If you can’t get excited for Friday’s tilt between the BC Lions and Calgary Stampeders, check your pulse.
The first two match-ups have seen a missed field goal be the difference between a Lions win and overtime, while the second match-up ended in overtime with an incredible comeback from the Stampeders.
It’s a fight for bragging rights, a rubber match with first place on the line.
On the marquee put down the names Jonathon Jennings and Bo Levi Mitchell and take a good long look because the 24- and 26-year-olds look to be set for head to head battles for a long time to come.
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In one corner, you have the greatest young quarterback in league history. Nobody has won as much or as quickly as Bo Levi Mitchell with a Grey Cup Championship, Grey Cup MVP and a record that may never been seen again in the first 40 starts of a career.
In the other corner, it’s Jonathon Jennings. A quarterback who started his young career hot and cold, pushed into the limelight maybe before he was truly ready to take control but in year two has taken a stranglehold on the starting role.
After a let down early in the season, there were questions about Jennings. Should the team look at Travis Lulay or can Jennings take it to the next level? In the next four games he threw for 300-plus in each of those games and 10 touchdown passes.
The kid’s got game and there is no doubt but Friday night may be the first test of a big pressure environment.
While the second matchup against Calgary this season was a battle for first, this game has a lot more riding on it.
Jennings’ late game mistakes allowed the Stampeders off the mat and into the winners circle. The Lions’ pivot threw two interceptions in his final five passes of that game, the second ended it as Bo Levi Mitchell taught him a lesson in how to finish.
Jennings must have been having nightmares last week against Hamilton as the Tiger-Cats nearly pushed the game to overtime in a dramatic comeback.
The difference last week, Jennings picked up the ball after the Tiger-Cats tied the game and marched the ball 82-yards, going 4-for-4, including a 15-yard run and finished it with a 30-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Arceneaux. A much better way to finish for the young quarterback.
The Lions’ defence will have the task of stopping Bo Levi Mitchell and co. when the Stamps visit BC Place this week (The Canadian Press)
And this is the maturation of a young up and coming quarterback who has now solidified his spot as the BC Lions’ number one quarterback and the next one in a chain of Wally Buono quarterbacks but also he’s trying to move into the top quarterback conversation in the CFL.
Jennings has to stare down Bo Levi Mitchell and try to dictate the game early like he and the Lions did three weeks ago. If the shoe is on the other foot, it’s Jonathon Jennings who will have to answer what the Stampeders’ offence is producing.
It’s the sign of great quarterbacks — those who don’t ride waves of momentum but create and sustain the momentum. Quarterbacks who get the ball after a kickoff return by the other team or punt return or missed field goal return and march the ball right back down the field.
That is exactly what Jennings did last week.
Now, if he can bring the BC Lions onto the field Friday and lead them to a win, he’ll be the quarterback who handed Bo Levi Mitchell his seventh and eighth loss of his career.
He will also deserve much more fanfare.
Bo Levi Mitchell, however, will likely be ready to show the young man another lesson on what it takes to win big games, although it won’t be the last between these two stars.
The next one will likely come in November.
