I would choose Anthony Allen. He looked excellent against Toronto. He averaged 6.7 yards per carry for the game, rushed for over 100 yards, and added 32 yards in receptions, including a touchdown. On his touchdown reception Allen showed his ability to catch, cut, and run over defenders.
On his fumble, Allen was hit almost as soon as he received the handoff, as Lemon made a swim move around Steward, who whiffed on the play.
Allen has speed, power, and cut back ability. He weighs over 230 pounds. He's a load to bring down. I thought he looked very, very good in his first game and hope he gets to play against Chris Jones. He should be very inspired.
With ‘Riders on horizon, Allen hopes to start against former team
Mike Beamish
Published:
July 10, 2016
Unlike the barbecue and autograph session held for season ticket-holders Sunday at Surrey’s Holland Park, it was no picnic for the B.C. Lions last Thursday at B.C. Place Stadium.
The Toronto Argonauts spoiled the party with a 25-14 win over the Leos, depriving B.C. of a chance to start 3-0 for the first time since 2007. Still, scores of fans politely lined up Sunday for the chance to get a football hero’s John Henry as the Lions, in a time-honoured tradition, patiently sat under kiosks and put their scribbles to whatever keepsakes were handed to them.
“Nothing out of the normal,” said running back Anthony Allen. “I signed a cane, a baby’s back, a Joe Kapp jersey. Nothing too crazy. The feedback was positive. ‘Good game. Get ’em next time.’ You hear their opinion of who should start the next game. But (running back) Jeremiah (Johnson) was sitting next to me. We don’t know yet. We know as much as you guys.”
After running for 107 yards, adding 32 more in receptions and scoring a touchdown in his Lions regular-season debut, Allen knows there is sentiment to play him again Saturday, when the Leos are in Regina to play the Roughriders.
Johnson was excused from last Thursday’s game with a first-degree ankle sprain, giving Allen a chance to show that the Lions signed two free-agent feature backs in February, not just one.
“You’re not surprised, are you?” said Lions coach Wally Buono. “We’ve felt, all along, those are two very competent, veteran running backs who are both equally as good. Anthony showed you why we felt it was important to have two good backs.”
The effectiveness of the Lions’ running attack — B.C. leads the CFL with an average of 109.3 rushing yards after three games — alleviates, to an extent, the reliance on a work-in-progress passing game. The Lions are eighth in average passing yards (tied with Toronto) and last in completion percentage.
After spending the past two seasons with the ‘Riders, picking up 1,504 yards, scoring eight TDs and averaging close to six yards a carry, Allen would like nothing better than to play against his former team. He was one of 19 players released on the same day after new coach Chris Jones arrived in Regina and used an exceptionally wide broom to sweep away the contributors (and non-contributors) to a 3-15 team.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Allen acknowledged. “ … That’s (Saskatchewan) where I started in the CFL.”
With four days away from the practice field — the Lions had a post-game rundown last Friday, but don’t don helmets and pads again until Tuesday — Johnson has had extra time to lose the limp, however.
“Most definitely, I want to get back on the field,” he said. “We’ll have a good four days to see what happens. But I don’t know. It’s all up to the coaches. We have a bye week coming up. It’s all about seeing how comfortable I am.”
After Saskatchewan, the Lions will be idled for 13 days before they play again — July 29 in Calgary against the Stampeders. That layoff certainly would play in the decision to perhaps go with Allen again and rest Johnson for another week. The latter was on pace toward a 100-yard rushing game July 1 against Hamilton before he went down in the third quarter after rolling his ankle. Allen wasn’t among the 44 players dressed against the Tiger-Cats.
“Playing football, in any professional league, you want to preserve your guys, especially over an 18-game season,” Allen says. “I truly believe Jeremiah and I can be a 1A and 1B. We’re very similar backs, with a few little differences.
“It’s cool to have 100 yards rushing in a game. But if you don’t finish your drives and score points, like we did against Toronto, it doesn’t mean much.”
Two years ago, Allen had a league-high 224 rushing yards after his first two games as a ‘Rider, but fumbled twice in those games and lost his starting job for Game 3 — against the visiting Lions — to scatback Hugh Charles.
While Allen has put that slippery stretch in his rear-view mirror, he turned the ball over in the second quarter against the Argos last Thursday, though the fumble didn’t cost his team points. The Lions immediately went back to him on the team’s next offensive series.
“We want our identity to be a balanced football team,” said Lions quarterback Travis Lulay, who threw a 15-yard TD pass to Allen in the fourth quarter. “We have to establish a running game first to do that.”
If rushing the ball continues to be the foundation upon which the Lions’ offence is built, the question this week is, who gets to tote the rock?
