Buono leaning towards starting Lulay to shakeup Leos

OTTAWA — The West is heating up and Wally Buono will not wait any longer before making a shakeup to his football club.

After a third straight loss, Buono is leaning towards turning to veteran QB Travis Lulay to take over his team’s inconsistent offence.

“We can’t afford anymore mulligans,” Buono told reporters following his BC Lions 31-24 loss to the Ottawa REDBLACKS Saturday afteroon.  “I will sit down with the coaches but at this point, Travis — I believe — has done enough to be our starter.”

Lulay relieved starting quarterback Jonathon Jennings at the midway point of the Leos loss and eventhough he didn’t pull out a win, he seemed to have chipped away enough at the 18-0 halftime deficit to earn the start next home game vs. the Montreal Alouettes in two weeks.  BC has a bye in Week 11.

Jennings was 10 of 17 for 137 yards and an interception before Lulay came in to complete 78.3 per cent of his passes and two touchdowns as BC closed the gap in the second half, almost completing the comeback over a REDBLACKS squad that has shown an inability to close out games at times this season.

“If your quarterback makes plays and the people around him make plays too,” Buono explained after the game.  “Manny (Arceneaux) made some plays, (Bryan) Burnham made some plays and Travis made some plays with his legs.

It’s simple, when you execute on offence it just picks up your whole team.”

After wins this week by three of the four Western teams competing in Week 10, the Lions now sit just a game above the Saskatchewan Roughriders in fourth place in the division but the Riders hold two games in hand.

“We have eight games left and the West is all discombobulated and we have put ourselves in a tough position,” Buono said.  “We need to regroup and we need to play a lot better football.”