Rourke, Lions looking to reset against Redblacks after ugly loss to Blue Bombers
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Nathan Rourke's season debut for the BC Lions didn't exactly go to plan.
However, the former Most Outstanding Canadian has a chance to correct course against the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday.
Rourke, who spent the last season-and-a-half attempting to carve out a career in the NFL, made his return to the Lions lineup on Sunday - the 26-year-old completed 8 of 25 passes for 126 yards and two interceptions in a 20-11 loss.
"Last week I was thrust back into the role of being the guy, and that's certainly a role I was looking for and looking forward to getting back to doing, but that is quite an adjustment mentally to wrap my head around," Rourke told TSN's Claire Hanna on Friday.
In 2022, Rourke dominated the league to the tune of 3,349 yards and 25 touchdowns in 10 games. He left the CFL after that season and made stops with the Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots and New York Giants in the NFL.
His last stop came with the Atlanta Falcons at the beginning of August this year, but after the Falcons cut him, Rourke returned to the CFL.
"There is some weight to all my actions [in the CFL], and all the preparation means something, rather than in the NFL where I was preparing like I was going to be play but it's different when you actually have to go do it," said Rourke.
"That was the first four quarters in a while, but hopefully all that newness has kind of worn off and I'm ready to go this week."
Rourke signed with BC midway through last week, and he thought that the lack of preparation may have had a hand in his struggles against the Blue Bombers' defence, which has allowed a league-best 19.7 points per game this year.
He's hoping the extra time provided by a full week of practice and film study will help this week against Ottawa.
"We were able to digest what happened on Sunday against Winnipeg and quickly kind of turn around and switch our sights on Ottawa, that was really valuable to have a moment to breathe, a moment to recoup," said Rourke.
"I had a couple sessions with Rob Williams, my throwing coach, to be able to go over some of the throws I missed."
The biggest improvement Rourke is looking to make is in his chemistry with the wide receivers in the offence - something he's gotten a boost by given the fact he played with three key targets in the offence in 2022.
"Sometimes you have a good feel for how [the receivers] interpret space, and I think the biggest thing is just being on the same page as the offence, seeing what we get in pictures throughout the week of [route package] installs, and seeing how they're going to interpret that, how they're going to run that, what that's going to look like, what the timing is, how it's going to sync up with my feet," said Rourke.
"All those things are really important and I think it's been helpful that there's three guys I've played with in that system before."
Keon Hatcher caught 70 passes for 1,043 yards with Rourke at the helm in 2022, and the QB singled out Hatcher as a key target in the offence because of their familiarity. Alexander Hollins and Jevon Cottoy have also both played with Rourke in the past. Hatcher caught one pass for 18 yards in the loss to the Blue Bombers last week.
The Lions enter the game on Saturday against Ottawa looking to stop a prolonged slide - they're stuck in a four-game losing streak that has dropped them out of the lead in the West Division.
Their opponent enters action in Week 12 with the second-best record in the CFL at 6-2-1.
"[Ottawa is] a really good team, well coached, they're playing really hard and fast. We're looking forward to turning the page - as a team we've been in a slump, especially on offence, but we're looking forward to turning the page and hitting our stride. Hopefully we can do that against a very good team on Saturday," said Rourke.