Lions back in hunt after beating Argos

There's a reason why Wally Buono never panics — things can turn around quickly in the good old CFL.

Two weeks ago, the B.C. Lions were 1-7 and seemingly on their way to a historically bad season.

Now, thanks to Saturday's 37-16 victory at home against the Toronto Argonauts, the Lions have won two straight, are 3-7 in the West and solidly back in the playoff picture as the second half of the season gets underway.

Toronto, meanwhile, lost its third straight game and fell to 5-5, tied with Hamilton in the East after the Tiger-Cats fell to Montreal earlier in the day.

It was a weird and wild game at Vancouver's temporary Empire Field, one where both teams had trouble keeping the defences off their quarterbacks and a lineman produced a highlight-reel play for all the wrong reasons.

Casey Printers was 25-for-39, 302 yards and two touchdowns for the Lions, while Cleo Lemon completed 20 of 31 passes for 277 yards, two majors and an interception.

"We're starting to get our groove," Printers said. "We're starting to look pretty good on both sides of the ball. Earlier in the year, I know everybody was kind of down on us, but our team is so talented. We have expectations of doing this kind of stuff every week."

How either quarterback got anything done was surprising, given that Printers was sacked eight times and Lemon, playing behind a rebuilt offensive line due to injuries, went down on six occasions.

Geroy Simon, on his birthday, led all receivers with seven catches for 133 yards.

Flemons falls short

The game's strangest play came with lots of time left in the fourth quarter and the Argos trailing by 18.

After Printers was hammered and fumbled the ball, defensive lineman Ronald Flemons grabbed it and hustled his 270 pounds toward the Lions' goal line.

Two yards out, and without an orange sweater in sight, Flemons dropped the ball. It bounced into the end zone, where O'Neil Wilson fell on it and the last, best hope for Toronto disappeared.

"It just slipped out of my hands," Flemons said. "I was just trying to reposition it because it was in my left hand.

"I felt awful because it could have been a big momentum-changing play. It happens. You just move on."

A key injury came in the second half when CFL rushing leader Cory Boyd was knocked out after being accidentally hit in the back of the helmet by Solomon Elimimian. Boyd eventually walked off the field under his own power, but did not return.

"I don't know what happened," Boyd said. "I'm just going to get treatment and see where it goes from there."

Already up by six at halftime, the Lions scored the first 10 points of the third quarter, cued by an Andrew Harris runback to the Argos' 19 on the opening kickoff.

A penalty brought it to the nine and from there Printers hit Steven Black for six. 

Paul McCallum added three field goals, one in the third and two in the fourth, while struggling Argos rookie Grant Shaw missed both of his attempts in the game.

Big 2nd quarter

B.C. spotted Toronto an 8-0 lead on a catch by James Robinson before exploding for three touchdowns in the second quarter.

Printers rolled out to escape trouble and then found rookie running back Yonus Davis in the end zone for a four-yarder that finished a seven-play drive.

Davis, starting his first game in place of the injured Jamal Robertson, had 52 yards on 12 carries.

Lemon fumbled the ball when it simply fell out of his hands and Korey Banks ran it back to the 18. Two plays later, Jerome Messam rumbled in from a yard out and it was 14-8 Lions.

Then an impressive eight-play, 81-yard effort led by Printers ended with Messam trucking in from the four to make it 21-8.

"I still think there were some things I could have done better," Messam said. "It was my first time out there in a contributing role and I think I did a good job."

Before the Lions could run off and hide, however, Lemon struck right back, hitting Robinson for the third time in the half, this time for 39 yards as he beat Dante Marsh and Ryan Phillips on the way into the end zone for 21-15.

Those two majors were the first of the season by Robinson, who has spent much of it on the injured list.