VANCOUVER — The B.C. Lions didn’t have the smoothest start to the 2025 CFL season.
The team lost three of its first four games. Star quarterback Nathan Rourke was sidelined by injury. The defence looked disconnected.
“We definitely had adversity. I think our record was (3-5) at the start of the year. Not where we wanted to be,” defensive lineman Mathieu Betts said Monday.
The Lions overcame that adversity en route to an 11-7 record and won six straight games to close out the regular season.
The team knows its job is far from done as B.C. prepares to host the Calgary Stampeders in Saturday’s West Division semifinal, Betts said.
“Adversity will strike again in these playoff games,” he said. “For us, it’s to keep moving on, keep focusing on the next play, on what’s ahead, and to really play 60 minutes of football starting play No. 1 on special teams.”
Weathering rough patches has helped meld the Lions into a better team, Rourke said, noting that even in recent games the group has had periods where they haven’t played their best.
And those lessons will serve B.C. well through playoffs.
“I think you want to see your character when you’re tested and when things aren’t going your way,” the quarterback said. “I think that those are all things that we can look back at earlier in the year when we didn’t come out on the winning side of those things, you can kind of say ‘Hey, those moments built some character and built some toughness.’ So that’s been good.”
Rourke’s standout performances have been key for the Lions.
The 27-year-old Canadian finished the regular season with career highs in both passing yards (5,290) and touchdown passes (31) despite missing two games with an oblique injury.
He sits second in the league in both categories, just shy the numbers veteran QB Bo Levi Mitchell posted for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Rourke has grown a lot this year, said Lions head coach Buck Pierce.
“I worry about him sometimes working too hard. And that’s the type of guy that he is,” said Pierce, himself a former CFL quarterback.
“But I think you’ve seen him come into his own in terms of comfort level with his teammates, his trust of the coaching staff. Just overall, he’s done a great job of just making sure that everybody’s on the same page. He’s a fantastic leader. … And when he speaks, people listen.”
B.C.’s front office also tinkered with its roster in season to get more out of the defence.
The Lions added American defensive lineman Levi Bell at the end of August, then brought in defensive end Bradlee Anae and veteran defensive back T.J. Lee in September.
Betts finished the regular season with a CFL-high 15 sacks and linebacker Micah Awe registered 117 tackles, the most in the league.
After going unsigned to start the season, Lee has 31 defensive tackles, one interception and one sack over five games.
He likes a lot of what he’s seen from the group in recent weeks.
“A lot of flair, a lot of excitement, a lot of energy, and just a lot of positivity,” Lee said, adding that positivity can go a long way.
“I tell them, from my journey, I didn’t get to this point in my life by being negative or hating on anyone. So we can get to where we’ve got to go simply just focusing on the good and correcting the bad.”
Lee and the Lions are all too familiar with facing the Stampeders in the playoffs. Saturday will mark the third time in four years the two sides have faced off in playoff games.
“They don’t go away, you know? It’s a rivalry, and it’s a good team, and they’ve got a great system,” Lee said. “So their system continuously gets them back in a position to play in the playoffs, and we keep putting ourselves in a position to play them, and our goal is to win and make it to the next round.”
The Lions bested the Stamps twice in regular-season play this year, walloping Calgary 52-23 on Step. 19 and taking a 38-24 win on Oct. 4.
Both games are part of the six-game win streak B.C. carries into its playoff run.
Each of those games was in preparation for what comes next, Pierce said.
“The reality of it is, the last half of the season, we’ve been playing playoff football, right?” the coach said.
“We’ve been trying to get to a point where we could put ourselves in a position to compete and reach our end goal. So this week we’re going to stick to our process, stick to our plan, show up and work, correct the details, make sure we’re focused and ready.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 27, 2025.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
