Tiger-Cats 32, Lions 29: Second-half swoon a gut punch for B.C.

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For 59 minutes, it was Joe Kapp vs. Angelo Mosca all over again.

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No, not that infamous and heated Grey Cup meeting at Empire Field in 1963 between the B.C. Lions and Hamilton Tiger-Cats legends that kickstarted a historic rivalry. Friday night’s game at B.C. Place more resembled the cane-swinging slap-fight between the two old and creaky septuagenarians at the 2011 Grey Cup alumni luncheon.

It took until the final 61 seconds for the two teams to wake up from their naps, face-down in their strained peas. First, Bo Levi Mitchell hit Brendan O’Leary-Orange for a 10-yard go-ahead touchdown and 26-23 lead, before Nathan Rourke took the Lions 58 yards in 55 seconds for Sean Whyte to tie the game with an 11-yard field goal.

In overtime, after the Lions could only manage a field goal, a gutting command centre ruling on a challenge for pass interference on Ronald Kent Jr., had Hamilton walking out of the dome their fourth-straight win, 32-29.

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The Tiger-Cats; victory came after a nightmare first half with just three first downs, 37 net yards and zero points, trailing 16-0 at the break. Mitchell looked ready for the retirement home in the first half, with just 36 yards passing and an ill-advised throw that was picked off by Kent to show for it.

But he engineered three second-half touchdown drives, including back-to-back 81-yard marches in the fourth quarter, and finished with 315 yards on 34-of-40 passing, including a streak of 11 straight to close out the game.

“I hope so. In a way hope it does,” Lions coach Rick Campbell said when asked if this manner of loss hurts more than others.

“I’d be really worried if it didn’t.

“We don’t respond well when things don’t go our way. We’re good when things are humming along … but when something goes wrong, the other team makes a play or we think of call’s bad … we don’t respond quickly enough. We need to be better at that and not be fazed by a game where it gets tough at the end.”

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Rourke and the Lions (7-8) didn’t look much better than Hamilton in the first half. The Lions QB had plenty of his own misfire moments, with a pedestrian 135 yards passing in the first half.

“In this league, your offence goes as much as your quarterback allows you do,” said Rourke, who didn’t throw a touchdown pass, but did score twice on the ground.

“There were times when I was playing well and moved the ball, and there were times when we weren’t moving the ball, and that was because I wasn’t making the throws or making the reads. We couldn’t finish any drives, and then at the end we didn’t make enough plays. I missed too many throws. … (you) can’t expect to win like that.

“I’m confident in this group that when we are able to execute, I don’t think there’s anyone who can stand in our way. I think we stand in our own way more than anything.”

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Rourke ended the night with 264 yards through the air on 22-of-36 passing, and 30 yards on the ground.

To start the overtime period, Rourke had one completion on four attempts, getting the Lions down to the Hamilton 17-yard line, where Whyte connected on his fifth field goal of the game to put B.C. up 29-26.

Hamilton drove down field and looked like they’d stalled on the five-yard line, but a challenge by Scott Milanovich came back with devastating results. Kent was judged to have interfered with O’Leary-Orange, giving the Ticats the ball at the one yard line.

Ante Litre went around the left side of the line and in for the winning points, and put B.C. back into the chaos of the West Division.

Campbell was asked about two third-down decisions where he elected to kick field goals. The first was a first-quarter third-and-five from the Ticats’ 18, with a chance to go up 14-0 if they could punch it in. The second was just before overtime, when Rourke had them on the doorstep, at third-and-two from the four-yard line.

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Campbell clearly didn’t like the line of questioning post-game from 3DownNation’s JC Abbott, giving him the frosty reply: “I always look at it the next day to make sure I’m doing what’s right, but I also am trying to do positive things for our football team to help them win. So that’s what I’m doing,” he said. “(The second third down call was) tough. Fourteen seconds with a running clock. You’d be after my arse if I didn’t get it on third and two, so you’re kind of in the results-oriented thing.

“So if it works, you think I’m smart, and if it doesn’t work, you’d think I’m a dumbass. That’s kind of how you roll, but that’s fine.”

Well, the Lions are now rolling down the standings in the West after the loss.

Instead of keeping pace with Winnipeg, who were 55-27 winners over Edmonton earlier in the night to clinch a playoff berth, the Lions could see themselves drop behind the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who play Ottawa on Saturday.

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The road to the Grey Cup in Vancouver looks like it will once again run through Princess Auto Stadium, as the Blue Bombers (9-6) — who finish with three games against Eastern teams — have a comfortable lead and tiebreakers over their pursuers.

B.C. plays two of their final three games at home, and will likely need them all if they want to host a playoff game this year.

The loss overshadowed another strong game from Lions running back Will Stanback, who had 103 yards on 15 carries to give him 1,062 on the season. He trails league leader Brady Oliveira (1,107) by 45 yards. Take out the 22-yard game against Toronto last week, when B.C. was playing catchup the entire game, and he’s averaging 105 yards in his last five games.

B.C. gave up 18 points in the final quarter to Hamilton, and more than 300 yards off offence in the second half. The Lions had a respectable 382 yards in offence, but just two could only get two QB rushing touchdowns in five red zone trips, compared to Hammy’s 4/4 mark.

The Leos are back in action next week when they host the last-place Calgary Stampeders (4-9-1) on Friday.

jadams@postmedia.com

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